Posts Tagged ‘DIY’

This is the aftermath of a wallet making session in the studio at Viva Paso. Lots of thin strips of vinyl, art prints, and magazine clippings. There’s an art project in there somewhere in that pile of colorful debris, but I haven’t figured out what that is yet. Alternative to packing peanuts, maybe? Not really an “art project” per se, but it’s something.

This is the stage just before sewing. There are 6 layers to these wallets and I hold them all together with paper clips so they don’t slip and slide all over the place when I start sewing them.

They look so much cleaner after sewing, but the big messy stack is probably cooler to see. After this stage is when I trim all the edges off, giving each wallet a clean smooth edge.

Big news over here. I hope you’re ready for it. The classic red Hunter S. Thompson wallet that I’ve been making for years is finally available in two more colors. I don’t know why it’s taken so long, but a few months ago a customer requested/suggested making orange or yellow. He had already purchased 2 (maybe 3) red ones and he loves the graphic (obviously) but didn’t want another red one. So, I took his suggestion and made both colors. Check em out!

If you’d like one they are both available on my site now. They are $16 each.
To order click one of the above photos or just click one of these:
– Orange
– Yellow
And, of course, the Red is still available too.

And if that’s enough, I also added two new Card Cases to the selection.

This one is called “Fluffle”, which is great word you don’t hear too often. A fluffle is a group of bunnies and who doesn’t love a group of bunnies? Nobody, that’s who! Crazy talk, I tell ya.

This one is called “Let’s Kick It.” The card cases are $13 each.
If you’d like to order one just click one of the photos above or use these links:
– Fluffle
– Let’s Kick It

As of right now I only have these 2 designs for card cases, but I have over 30 wallet designs. Here’s just a few of them from the batch I made the other night.

You can see all of the designs right here. Also, I almost don’t like to admit it, but January was sadly the worst month Viva Paso has ever experienced, so if you order a wallet it would be very much appreciated.

And before I forget, I would really love to get these wallets into some other shops. I’ve done wholesale with these in the past and would really like to get more involved in that world. So, if you own a shop or work at a shop or know any store that might be interested in selling these please let me know or send them my way.

Email or send me a DM on Instagram: @jeffclaassen

Thank you so much for your support!
– Jeff

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Wow…you aren’t bored out of your eyeballs yet? That’s fantastic because check this out. You can now follow me on TikTok. I’ve been uploading a lot of quick time lapse painting videos on there. At the longest they are only 60 seconds, which is a bit easier to swallow than some of the YouTube videos I upload. Happy watching!

Yesterday, I uploaded a video to my YouTube Channel. Not a big deal when you consider the fact that 60 hours worth of video are uploaded to YouTube every single minute. That’s a pretty staggering number when you think about it. With that much video to choose from it seems virtually IMPOSSIBLE to get anybody outside of your direct circle of friends and family to watch anything you put on YouTube. In fact, it’s even hard to get those people to watch a video. Anyway…that’s a whole other post that I will probably never write.

So, this video I posted took me forever to finish. It’s the editing and my inner struggle with overthinking, which I guess is not really “inner” since I’m talking about it. I bet there is a lot of people out there that struggle with overthinking, but that’s such a broad term. To really get down to the heart of the matter I’d say the real issue is choice paralysis. You might be familiar with that term already, but if not here is what Wikipedia says about it: “Choice paralysis is the state of over-analyzing (or over-thinking) a situation so that a decision or action is never taken, in effect paralyzing the outcome. A decision can be treated as over-complicated, with too many detailed options, so that a choice is never made.”

I take pride in my spontaneity and often think of myself as the type of person that jumps off a cliff and builds his wings on the way down. Despite that philosophy, there are some things that creep in under the radar and wreck me. Editing this video was one of those things. Allow me to take you on a journey inside of my head. This will be a glimpse of the inner dialogue I have with myself. Of course, I have it with myself. It’s not like you can have “inner dialogue” with others, but you know what I mean and since I already typed that I don’t feel like crafting a new, more appropriate sentence. Also, the last three sentences were just a way to prepare you for what’s coming ahead. Ok, here we go. The inner conversation I had (with myself) about this damn video.

Just make a video about spray painting the floor. Plain and simple. No, there’s an opportunity here to make a “how to” video and “how to” videos can get lots of views. What am I going to title the video so it gets the most views? Should I talk in the video or keep it strictly just a video of me painting the floor with stencils? Maybe this could be about Instagram. Am I supposed to include a slideshow of what used to be painted on the floor? I should probably not talk. I sound like a total douche nozzle when I talk to the camera. Why am I so awkward in front of a camera? Ok, no talking. Just turn this video into something that is 60 seconds long so I can put it on Instagram. Or toss it into some sort of compilation video like I did at Christmas. Who is this video for anyway? If it’s only painting the floor then maybe only fans of my artwork will want to watch. And if it’s more of a how to video then fans of my artwork will probably have no interest in watching, but it might get some views from people that are totally outside of my circle. Shit, man…I really have no idea what to do with this thing. It’s not like I can upload 4 different versions of the same footage just so I can attempt to please every possible person that might click the play button. That would be stupid. Why can’t I just decide?!?! ARGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

So, that is what was going on in my head every single time I sat down to edit this thing and it reminds me of this painting I made back in 2001.

(This dude’s head is about to explode with all that stuff going on in there.)

I’ve been attempting to edit this video since February. Despite how long it’s taken me you would expect a masterpiece, which it is clearly not. If I could just manage to harness the spontaneity I have with painting and apply that towards video editing, then this would have been uploaded months ago. In the end, it worked out fine and that delay in editing gave me the opportunity to collect photos on Instagram that people tagged Viva Paso on. Because of all of those IG tags and shout outs something really cool ended up happening and that became the deciding factor on what direction to take this video. Well, if I haven’t bored you to tears yet here is what this blog post is all about…sharing this video with you. Enjoy!

If the video doesn’t play for you then try this link.

This is the part where I ask for a little favor. If you know anybody that might find this video interesting or helpful in someway, please share it with them. You can copy and paste the following link into a text message, email or even paste the link onto their Facebook page.

https://youtu.be/y-dQ8ZrAr0w

Any of those things will help spread the word.
Thanks for watching! And reading.

– Jeff

As you might have noticed, I’ve been exploring and experimenting with YouTube the past month. It’s been challenging because I’m not a fan of being in front of a camera and it feels really awkward for me to talk to a camera. You could say I am overcoming my fear and connecting with you in a new way. Also, if you’re not willing to embarrass yourself from time to time how can you ever grow as a person? At least that’s what I keep telling myself. Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed the videos so far. Like I said, I’m experimenting…trying out different ideas for videos and checking my statistics to find out what gets the best response. With that said, I recently made my first tutorial. The white background behind the character in this painting is called a starburst.

(This piece is available as a limited edition print.)

I’ve been using this effect since 2004 and it’s so cool and fun to do that I have to limit myself to how often I use it because I don’t want to overplay it like a new favorite song on repeat.

This video doubles as part tutorial and part “making a painting time lapse”. Enjoy!

If you like the video please give it a thumbs up or leave a comment. Making these videos take a long time for me and any interaction will give me a good idea of what types of videos I should focus on. If you have any ideas for future videos or questions you’d like to ask let me know. It just might be the inspiration for a new video.

Thanks for watching!
– Jeff

I’ve still got a BUNCH of wallets with our old name on them that I need to get rid of before I print a slew of new ones with the new name/logo. So…

This weekend only: BUY TWO GET ONE FREE!
Simply add 2 wallets to your cart then leave a note for me during the checkout process with the name of the third wallet you want. It’s that easy.

Place your order at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/jeffclaassen?section_id=11163868

To sweeten the pot…
If you share THIS POST on FB your name will be put in a drawing to win a FREE wallet. What are you waiting for?

If that link doesn’t work, you might have to first “like” my FB page.

I have A LOT more of designs available. To see them all and to order please visit:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/jeffclaassen?section_id=11163868

Thanks for looking!

Years ago I created a line of wallets called DAYLER.

It started as a side project to do something creative other than painting. In fact, it was also intended to be an escape from my artwork. The original designs were all photos I had taken and manipulated in photoshop or were graphic designs I came up with using images I found.

I purposely left my “art” out of it. I sold them online and in my retail shop. It didn’t take too long before I started getting some wholesale accounts, which was very exciting for me. I’ve sent my wallets to Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco, Florida, Ogden and Moab Utah, Amesbury Massachusetts, Australia and quite proudly the Honolulu Museum Of Art. One of the buyers from one of these shops that picked up my wallets was also a fan of my art and requested some wallets with my artwork. I guess it was inevitable that my art would end up being used on the wallets so I just rolled with it. I added card cases to the line for awhile, but eventually stopped because they wreaked havoc on the paper cutter I used to trim the edges of the cases. The vinyl was pretty thick on those things.

I also made a few checkbook covers, but never really focused on them too much and mostly made them by request.

I’ve always thought the wallets could grow into something bigger, but I’ve never fully dedicated myself to them because it’s hard to juggle while being a full time painter. About a week ago Coral and I were talking about my inability to focus on one thing. Am I painter, a wallet creater or a candlestick maker? Then she started throwing design ideas at me and insisted I make a women’s wallet, which is something I’ve never made. She’s mentioned it before and I always resisted because girls have purchased my wallets. It’s just that Coral isn’t the type to carry a little square wallet. Let’s face it, she’s got a lot of shit to carry in her wallet and the ones I make simply don’t cut it. Something about what she was saying finally inspired me to try it out. I’ll have to admit, she has some super fantastic ideas. Also, she was very excited about contributing design ideas and giving my wallet line a complete overhaul. I pulled out a roll of vinyl, started cutting and sewing. I made about six different versions, making adjustments and adding improvements with each one. We finally arrived at a version that we’re both happy with. Now we’re working on some graphics and will do an official launch once we get a dozen or so designs under our belt.

That brings us to the topic of what to do with our remaining inventory.
The answer: SALE!

Yes, all Dayler products are on sale for the remainder of January. Don’t forget to enter the sale code during the checkout process. The code is DAYLER30 and orders can by placed in my etsy shop

As for the makeover, we are very excited to show it to all of you. Please be on the lookout. There are a couple of teaser pics on our new Instagram account. If you have yet to get addicted to Instagram like we have then check out our Tumblr, which is basically a feed of what we post on Instagram.

Yeah, there’s a Facebook Page too. You might even be the first to like it!

Thanks for reading!
– Jeff

100 buttons with your logo/desgin, 1″diameter
$30, plus shipping
To order please visit: https://www.etsy.com/listing/107569585/custom-100-expert-quality-buttons-with

50 buttons with your logo/desgin, 1″diameter
$15, plus shipping
To order please visit: https://www.etsy.com/listing/107600865/custom-50-expert-quality-buttons-with

Hello All!

The Claassen Gallery is now offering custom buttons! We’ve been using them for years and love them. Now we want to share all the button goodness with you. Buttons are a terrific way to promote your business. Here are just a few ideas of things you can promote using buttons.
– bands
– artwork
– photography
– retail boutique
– your etsy shop
– restaurant
– clothing line
– tattoo shop
– skateboard company
– yoga studio
– funny phrases and inside jokes
– politics
– religion
– you name it, the list goes on and on.

I’ve used buttons as price tags on clothing in my retail shop and I’ve seen friends of mine use buttons to indicate sizes on their screen printed tees. People use them as party favors, teachers use them as prizes in the classroom and a plethora of other things.

Ready to get your custom buttons?
Here’s how it works, in three easy steps.

1. Once payment is received for your order I will email you a design template. Sending a simple round image isn’t good enough because some of the image wraps under in the pressing process. The template will show you the “LIVE AREA” where your design needs to be. You will receive further instructions in the email with the template.

2. You design your button using the template and email it back to me at 300dpi in jpeg or pdf format.

3. Once your design is received your buttons will be put into production. Most orders ship within 3 days of receiving your final design.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask.

Here are a couple examples of buttons done for past clients:

Sink Or Swim Tattoo Shop

Dead Dollies

If you are ready to get some buttons made please order through our etsy shop.
– place an order for 100 custom buttons.
– place an order for 50 custom buttons.

Hope to hear from you soon!
Button makers are standing by!

As always, thanks for looking!

I’ve been making wallets for awhile now and from time to time people have asked for custom ones with their own graphics. I’ve done a few, but it’s never been something I’ve advertised…until now!

I am offering three different options.

If you only need one wallet for yourself or to give as a gift then this is the best option. Some gift ideas are a favorite photo (pet, family, band), drawing, painting, funny slogan, etc. Have fun with it.
$24 each, plus shipping.
For more info or to order please visit:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/107084295/one-custom-wallet-with-your-own-design

The Six Wallet Package: This is also a great option if you want a couple of wallets for yourself or to give as gifts. If you are interested in reselling your wallets this is good option to get your feet wet. I sell my own wallets for $16 each. This package won’t give you the best markup, but if you just want to experiment with reselling before investing in the bigger package it’s a good place to start.

$10 each, plus shipping.
1 design, 6 wallets.
For more info or to order please visit:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/107084704/six-custom-wallets-with-your-own-design

The Twelve Wallet Package: This is the best option available if you plan to resell your wallets. I’ve had no problem selling my own at $16 each. If you have something to promote like your business, band, artwork, photography this is great way to get your name out there. Give them away to select clients as a useful promotional gift (as opposed to something they throw in a drawer for six months and then toss in the garbage), resell them at events or online, or simply give them out as presents to friends and family.

$8 each, plus shipping.
1 design, 12 wallets.
For more info or to order please visit:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/107084863/twelve-custom-wallets-with-your-own

Here are a few samples of custom wallets I’ve made.

Here are examples of my own designs to show you some different ideas of what you can do with a wallet.

Artwork:

Photography:

Graphic Design, which could be better described as me just messing around with Photoshop:

If you would like some wallets made with your designs let me know. And if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask. Please use the Contact Form or leave a comment on this post.

Thanks much!

I decided to experiment on Saturday. The experiment was promoting an “item of the day”, which was a print marked down 50% for one day only. I posted a link to it on my FB Fan Page. As you can see from the screenshot, only 403 people saw the post out of a potential 2,300 people that have liked my page. (This was four hours after posting. It’s Monday now and only an additional 103 have seen the post. Obviously, the first couple of hours will be the time your post gets the most views.)

In the next screenshot, which is from my Etsy stats, out of the 403 people that saw the post on FB only 18 people clicked the link to see my “item of the day”.

Out of the 18 people that looked at the actual item in my etsy shop none of them took advantage of the 50% off deal. You win some, you lose some.

Naturally, there are an enormous amount of factors to consider:
– Posting on a Saturday might not be the best day because more people are away from their computers than on a weekday.
– Time of day that I posted was possibly a time where less people are online.
– Perhaps the item I chose to promote isn’t a popular one. Then again, maybe it is, but it might be more popular in a different format like a limited edition print on wood with resin coating as opposed to the open edition that I was promoting.
– It’s the end of the month too, which could mean people aren’t spending money on artwork because they have rent due in a few days.
– With the amount of people on FB it’s highly likely that my post simply got buried on people’s home page within a minute or two.
– I only posted the link once. It would have gotten more views if I posted the link every few hours.
– And the list goes on and on.

My main point though is the number of click throughs. I have 2,300 “likes” on FB, which I think is a lot. I know it’s nowhere near the high profile “rockstar” artists, but it’s certainly more than a lot of other fan pages on Facebook. The thing is though, out of 2,300 people I only managed to get 18 of them to click on the link and to look at the item I was promoting. How many people would have had to see the item before a purchase was made…19…20…300? We may never know.

Armed with this information what is a DIY professional to do? First and foremost, it’s good practice to not let stuff like this get you down. It’s completely irrational to get upset because people don’t buy your creations. And when 18 out of a possible 2,300 click on your link you need to keep in mind that 18 is better than zero. You must forge ahead and keep at it.

Naturally, you might be asking yourself, “is it worth it?” In the big picture I would have to say yes. Simply because there are too many factors to say this particular promotion was a failure. I could try the same promotion with a different item and have totally different results. Possibly better results or maybe worse results. I could even do the same exact promotion with the same exact item and end with different results by posting on a Monday as opposed to a Saturday.

In conclusion, I think it’s best to continually experiment with promoting. Who’s to say that one of those 18 people won’t come back and make a purchase later?

Any thoughts, comments, ideas, past experience with your own FB promoting…I’d love to hear them.

The Facebook app is pretty easy to navigate for personal use. For those of us that created a Facebook Page for our business you might have had trouble with a few things. If you’re like me there’s a good chance you asked yourself, “How can I add a photo to my Facebook Page?” It seemed like the only thing possible was to add a photo to your personal page and hope that members of your business page also followed your personal page. Ahh, but what then would be the point of having a business page. One loophole I found was that you could upload a photo to Flickr using the Flickr app and then post a link to it on the wall of your business page. The problem there is that it doesn’t show up in any of your Facebook photo albums and the picture will get buried with each new wall post.

Well, I finally clicked around enough to find out how to add photos to my business page. It’s pretty easy and I’m surprised it took me this long to figure it out.

First, open the Facebook app.

Tap in the “search” bar and click on the “pages” tab.

Type the name of your page. In my case it’s “The Claassen Gallery“. Choose your page when you see it show up in the drop down menu.

Now you should be on your business page. Tap the “Share Photo” option on the left side. This is the part I can’t believe I missed before.

Pick your option. I went with “Choose From Library” because I tend to take photos of stuff before I open the app.

Choose your album.

Choose the photo you’d like on your Facebook Page.

Tap the “write a caption” option.

I highly suggest leaving a caption for all photos you put online.

Now check the spelling on your caption and tap that fancy “upload” button.

And there you go! The photo will post on the wall of your business/fan page and will also be added to the “Wall Photos” album of your page.

When you’re back on a your regular computer or on the desktop version of Facebook you can edit your photo album and move your recent “wall photo” to a more appropriate album. In my case, when I get a chance I’ll have to move this photo over to the “Art Supplies” album, but for now at least it’s on my page.

Hope this helps!
Jeff

The first step taken to move your gallery into a new space is finding that space. That part we’ve done. The second step is to get that space ready for the public. This second step involves more sub-steps than you care to imagine. For us, the first of the many sub-steps was to get rid of the ghastly carpet. I mean, look at this…

Does that look like the floor of an art gallery to you? Me neither. Although, as a sidenote, I should mention that carpeted floor is what I had when I first opened my shop in 2004. Hey, I didn’t know any better! Now I’m older and wiser and we all get to benefit from the knowledge I’ve gained with each passing year.

Now, I’d like to share my carpet removal experience with you all. If you have never ripped out a carpet before you’re in for a treat. And if you have, then you can share in the dread I’ve gone through over the past weekend.

First, I cut a big chunk out. At this point, my lovely sidekick who’s been confined to bed rest, filled me in on a little something she found in an online tutorial. She’s on bed rest, people. She’s got plenty of time to read “how to get rid of that gross carpet” tutorial’s.
“Cut the carpet into strips for easy removal and disposal,” she said from the comforts of our ridiculously soft bed while I sat on my knees slicing away at carpet with my bright green utility knife.

I strategically moved furniture around while cutting strips of carpet out and this was the last remaining chunk. At first the carpet cutting was cathartic and enjoyable in the way that it’s fun to be destructive. By this point in the process any joy I felt had diminished and transformed into feelings of disgust and hatred for the evildoer that installed the carpet. Here’s why. If I was a tattoo artist I would adhere to a very strict rule of never tattooing names on people and to never tattoo on people’s faces. I just wouldn’t. I would expect a professional carpet installer to take a similar vow and to never lay carpet over a beautiful wood floor.

Who could have the heart to staple foam padding to this floor? Do you see the little tufts of foam on the floor? Each one of those is held in place by a staple. I kept whispering to myself how heartbreaking it was that this floor was covered up. On the other hand, I was proud to be the hero that rescued it from its prison.

Once I pulled the padding up I was left with rows of staples. As you can see, the padding clung tight and did not want to give up its home. I used a straight screwdriver to pry up these tormenting little staples one by one.

She was right! It was much easier disposing of carpet strips as opposed to the large squares I had first started with. If this pile has you thinking my job was done you are poorly mistaken, just as I was. Little did I know, up until this point my carpet removing was a Sunday walk in the park compared to the next grueling task.

Carpet is held in place around the edges of a room by these strips of wood. Each strip has dozens of small nails poking through the surface facing up. The strip is nailed to the floor. The beautiful wood floor. The carpet, I’m assuming, is then pounded around the edges to adhere to the small nails sticking out of the wooden strip. Removing these is a real bitch. The wood used for these strips isn’t very strong so when I would pry it up with my trusty screwdriver the wood would splinter and break every six inches where a nail was used to secure it to the beautiful wood floor. My guess is that if the wood strips were a little bit stronger I would be able to pry up one edge and the strength of the wood could be capable of prying up the nails as I lifted more. That would have been nice. And much faster. Oh, I almost forgot. After removing the strips of splintered wood I was left with nails in the beautiful wood floor every six inches. The nails used on this job must of been manufactured by the same company that makes those trick candles. You know, the ones that light up three seconds after you blow them out. The nails did not light up at all, but they were certainly prank nails. The head of almost every other nail either popped off or bent when I tried to pull it out of the floor with my hammer, which meant I had to muscle them out using a pair of pliers.

With staples hiding in foam, strips of wood with dozens of nails sticking through them and headless nails protruding out of the floor, I’m guessing I would have been doing something wrong if my hand didn’t look like this at the end of the day.

Also, you would not believe the amount of dirt and dust you’d find right underneath your carpet. I tried to take a picture of it, but my camera threw up on me. It refused to capture something so disgusting. If you ever have the good fortune to rip out a carpet you will see for yourself and you will probably make a vow to never have carpet again.

I still have one wall lined with those hideous wooden strips that I have to remove, but here is our resurrected wood floor.

I’m happy to announce that The Claassen Gallery now has stencils for sale! People ask all the time if we sell pre-cut stencils and we can finally answer, “Yes, we do!”

I think stencils are one of best and easiest way for people to get into making art, so this book is perfect for anybody that wants to try their hand at getting artsy. Of course, I encourage you to start making your own stencils at some point, but this book is a highly recommended place to start.

Stencil 101 by Ed Roth

Come by the shop and check it out!

The Claassen Gallery
785 Marsh St
San Luis Obispo CA 93401
days of operation: Tue-Sat 12-6pm

A few years ago I made some Valentine’s Day buttons and they turned out to be pretty popular so I decided to make some new ones this year. Just a little upgrade, if you will. My personal favorite is “Love me! Or I’ll bite your face off!” Did I mention that wearing one of these will almost certainly get you some action this Valentine’s Day. I mean, seriously, who in their right mind can pass up an offer like, “If you take off your shirt I’ll take off mine.”?

Each pack includes 5 buttons total, one of each design.
$5 per pack, plus shipping.

If you’d like to order a pack simply click on the above photo or visit my etsy shop. They are also available in my shop/gallery in downtown SLO.

Thanks for looking and enjoy!
– Jeff