Last Big Holiday sale at SF Renegade!

Hello!
This is Jean here! I'll be at this weekend's San Francisco Renegade Craft Fair! This will be our last sale of the awesome 2009 year! We're very excited for this show since I'll be doing some X'mas shopping myself!

But we'll have some great selection of....well...EVERYTHING!! plus sale items! Woo Hoo!

And also I'll have a special friend accompanying me at the show...Our great track jacket model! Dylan!

Yes, this handsome dude in this photo will be appearing at the show with me. and this is a rare chance to see him in person modeling our track jackets. What a treat! These jackets will also be marked down at the show. So better get them soon!

But hands off, he's mine!

Unless you pay me....then he's all yours. :D

See you there!

Chikabird + Piano Nobile Line Debut this Weekend at UCU!

If anyone is around this weekend in Seattle, please come by and say hello and check out our exciting new line of notebooks and cardcases with Piano Nobile at the BIG holiday Urban Craft Uprising show!

December 5th & 6th, 2009
11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. both days
Seattle Center Exhibition Hall
Admission: FREE!

Isabelle and Nickolas of Piano Nobile runs a multi-faceted design studio where they could be described as professional designers and colalborators. Isabelle has a painting and printing background with a great sense of material, color, and texture. Nickolas on the other hand has an architecture background with mad building skills in all realms whether it be funiture, design build or a large scale printing table. I'm pretty sure he can build a pyramid.... I remember reading that in his resume somewhere....

Not only do they have the perfect print studio with their self-designed and welded textile printing set up, they're also just a short bike ride away from our studio in Ballard! It's almost too good to be true!
(and yes, convenience does matter...)

Did I mention that they have a dog named Bauhaus, and also owns a sweet vintage Vanagon and Volvo?
Can you stand it?!....I can barely keep my composure thinking about all their awesomeness.

So here it is! Our collaboration line with PN! Okay, so come to UCU to see all the goods in person! You can also go to our shop to check out the entire PN collaboration line.

LiT's Holiday Bazaar TODAY!

Isabelle of Piano Nobile will be doing a Holiday Bazaar at LiT Shades, Today Thursday November 19th, starting at 5pm with refreshments.

As you know, Chika & I have started a wonderful collaboration with Isabelle in creating some new printed notebooks and card cases since this summer. They will be available at the LiT shopl!
We're also currently working on some even more exciting stuff.....which we'll have to wait to share the full detail in a later post...so, stay tuned! I know....the anticipation...

1906 E Prospect St - Capitol Hill

Save 30% on gifts for the home byKaarskoker, La Rousse, LiT Shades and Piano Nobile

Store hours 10am - 8pm

Summer Urban Craft Uprising!

This weekend we'll be at the first Summer Urban Craft Uprising (UCU) indie craft show!

When: Aug 1st-2nd, Sat/Sun 11am-5pm

Where: Seattle Center Exhibition Hall (map)

What: Seattle's biggest indie craft show with a wide array of handmade goods, workshops, book signing, and more!

Why: Do you really need to ask? My answer to you is....why the hell not? it's gonna be 100+ degrees in Seattle this weekend (miserable!!), and why not come hang out inside at UCU to cool off and check out awesome stuff? You can do some shopping, meet some people, and then go back out to the giant dome fountain at the Seattle Center to have more fun! I think I might even do that during my lunch break. :D

We will have some new items like these wooden plant labels for your garden or plants! Every plant needs a friend just like all of us!
Another new exciting items we're gonna have are these notebooks we're debuting at UCU! These are made with LOVELY hand printed fabric by Isabelle of Piano Nobile. We recently befriended Isabelle and Nicholas and they're wonderful enough to print these fabric in time for us to sell at the show! I'm drooling over them myself....don't worry, I'll wipe off my drool.

We'll also have tons of other items marked down, too! I mean, who doesn't like to brag about how good of a deal they got, right?AND our dear and super talented friend, Ingrid will be selling her awesome bags at our booth as well! I'm totally excited to see what she'll be bringing!

So lot of exciting things...so come by to check out our stuff and say hello!!..... and while your at it bring us some ice cone or treat, too! :D

Hope to see you there!

Bleach Fun!

New Chikabird bleached hoodies and track jackets! We got inspired by our friend, Dave, who used this process. We just love how every print is different with subtle variations.
We'll be selling them at the LA & SF Renegade show!

The process is pretty simple, but the result looks more than ordinary. The possibility to play with layers makes it super fun. It's easy to do and the materials needed it is so minimal that you can literally do it in couple hours. Here's a step-by-step instruction, so you can try it, too!
Step 1: Make a stencil with waterproof sheet. We used a medium weight Mylar here.
Step 2: Mix 50/50 bleach & water in a spray bottle.
Step 3: Spray back of Mylar with light adhesive spray to keep stencil secure.
Step 4: Use a the mist setting on spray bottle and try to spray evenly over the areas you want to cover. Dab any extra residue on the surface with a rag.
Step 5: Wait and watch the magic happen! You can see the color change immediately. It's so much fun to watch.
Step 6: Peel off stencil when you've achieved the result you want. The time can vary since you can play with something really subtle with less time, or let it sit longer with more contrast.
Step 7: Wash it in the washing machine right after to set the bleach so it doesn't continue the bleaching process. Ta-da, you're done!!

The best part about this process is that you can really play around with the bleaching time, layering, and even different texture. I like to overlap the stencil so it just adds another layer of visual interest.

Oh and look!! It's Hammer pants! Get it?.....it's a Hammer...with pants??
That was a little funny accident where the fold was....
Have fun!

The randL Wallet Lives On....

An "old school" Square Root from the first 1000 batch of wallets that Chika made (about 5 years ago!?). I believe the color was originally baby blue and red. It doesn't look anything like that now, but still looks pretty awesome nonetheless, especially with all that wear!

Used Banners + Totes = BOTE

Chika and I just recently made a batch of reusable shopping totes using salvaged banners. We're calling them BOTES!...get it? banner totes!
We have a good amount of these banners and you can get them on our etsy for $30 each. We make each of them so that every single one possesses the unique graphics and distress marks from its previous life. Which makes them all that more appealing!

Most importantly, we like to support the reusable bag philosphy in order to lower the usage and production of plastic & paper bags. I do feel amazingly good when I whip out my own bags versus using 10 plastic bags that just rips apart right away. I hate that.

So here's to reusable shopping bags! It feels good to be good!