Back with a Book, Baby!

I'm back! Do you even remember me?  Ha-ha, I hope so - I know it's been SO long, and I really am sorry about that gap, but I hope that my announcement excuses me just a teency bit.. So, some exciting news, it looks like.... I wrote a book?!?!  Just about a year ago, just as I was hanging up my hammer for the season, I was approached by Interweave (an awesome craft media company) with their idea of me writing a how-to book on string art.  I was so flattered, honored... and REALLY intimidated! I'd never written a book, but they reassured me they'd walk me through it, so I said yes...  And here she is, the finished product, over a years worth of many peoples hard work;  DIY String Art by Jesse Dresbach:

What do you think? It really didn't feel real until I was editing the preview of the book... and then it really hit home when I had the physical copy in my hands.  I'm really proud, I learned a TON, and I couldn't have done it without the help of so many people at Interweave, especially my fantastic editor Stefanie... she was in charge of taking my giant pile of directions & patterns and transforming them into a beautiful book that actually makes sense.  And man, she nailed it.. (pun intended, ha!)  So before I get into a few preview shots of what's been my last year, here's an amazon link to the book for those who have been asking about it:

It's also available on the Interweave website, as well as many booksellers & other fun retailers out there.  Keep an eye out! I appreciate everyone's support (and major patience!) on this journey.

So there are 24 designs in the book, and I did almost all brand new ones. I had to keep a few of the classics that people have asked about how to do (Retro Sea Snail and Retro Crescent Moon have been  MAJOR pattern requests!).  Take a look at a few faves:

The geometric fox was a new one, and instantly a favorite.. so fun to make!  This book project totally reinvigorated my string art love, allowing me to get really creative and branch out.   In the book you get all the patterns of course, and tons ( I mean TONS) of directions & support.  All nicely laid out into sections:

Here's a peak of the table of contents listing the projects:

And for wonderful book eye-candy time, here are few of my favorites from the book:

You can see some of the harder to explain-with-words projects get a little step-by-step picture action like our friend Ginkgo up here.  But once you get the hang of it, I'm confident you can tackle all these projects... and you'll be a pro in no time! :)

Well that's what's been going on in my life, hope you all have been busy with fun projects & gearing up for summer! I'm happy to get a lot of my free-time back, and I definitely look forward to posting again.  As I've mentioned before it might not be as regularly (see my gripe-fest at the end of this post) - but it will definitely be more than every 18 months! Whoah, time really flew there...

For the in-between snippets you can find my social media links below, & a huge HUGE thank you, for hanging in there with me.

xoxo,

Jesse

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String Update! September 2014...

Wow, a rainy day? This is great! We are in the middle of one of our worst droughts out here in California, so I'm not going to complain about rain at ALL. It's so refreshing, and it's forcing me to work inside for once. Yay, computer time! (I'm an addict).

So in string-land, here's what I've been up to lately.  When we were gearing up for our first show ever (Santa Cruz Mountains Makers Market!)and I was stringing as much as I could. I wanted something new, and just coming back from Hawaii Ralph suggested Aloha....how appropriate:

I think I can pretty much say it's my new favorite! It was reserved for sale by a friend literally minutes after I posted it on Facebook, so these are now made to order. Which means you can swap out the colors! Click here to hop over to Etsy.

A bit before all that I made this neat two tone one for the giveaway on Better After:

I guess it's technically 3 color, since the stripe in the middle is natural. Oops, three tone.  Also for sale here.

Here's one I made for myself, because it seems like lately I'm obsessed with all things faceted.  I don't know where these obsessions come from, but I'm rolling with it...

I'm keeping that one, but you can order them in the shop....clicky here!

Speaking of faceted, I'm continuing down the rabbit hole & found a great way to make my letters in this style too... Click here for a direct link to Etsy. 

And naturally, diamonds... 

One last link here for Diamond.  Lots more going on here, Marilyn Monroe sold so I'm going to be creating something big & new to fill her shoes soon, which I'm super happy about because my idea list is longer than my time allows.

Thanks for browsing my newbies!

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New Strings n' Things + DIY kits!

It's been a busy past few months for the string art sector of my life, there have been some new ideas along the way too. Just a quick showcase of the latest gear for your walls, starting with my favorite font on the planet:

Shop this style on Etsy

I've done quite a few of these sets, but never in these colors, so pretty:

Circular Geometric String Art Pattern

Four Letter Modern String Art Name Tablet

And KITS! Yes! I'm finally doing kits! Now you can get any of my patterns sent to you in a complete kit. I thought of this because I looked at how many people wanted to make these themselves (which I totally get!) - but when you think about it, the amount of supplies you have to buy not only racks up, but your left with a lot of leftover materials. If you live in an apartment (or anywhere short on space) these kits are perfect:

Shop around for them here: DIY String Art Kit

My aunt asked for this one for my cousin, totally new take on old Otis here:

I added a few sakura flowers, couldn't resist:

And just a few more miscellaneous ones:

Shop 

Shop Link

Shop for Jace

Shop this style

Anyway, just a little show & tell - might show why I've been kinda M.I.A. lately! What's new in your house?

-Jesse

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DIY Winter Evergreen String Art Pattern

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays! Winter is about 3 days away, I think - and my favorite part about the first day of winter, is that it's also the winter solstice - meaning it's the shortest day of the year. Meaning, each day afterward gets slightly longer! Nothing against winter, I do love the different seasons... but I really love longer days, you can get so much done.  I've been swamped with Christmas String orders (thanks everyone! So exciting), but I had a goal to get a wintertime pattern in the shop.  Take a look at my Winter Evergreen:

I love how it came out! I hand drew it, then scanned it into the computer & edited it to get it ready for the pattern life. Then I printed it out, and tested it, to make sure there were no mistakes.  I think it's pretty cute! You can buy the pattern from my etsy shop, and it's actually a set of two.  One is the pattern you see here, and the other is just the silhouette. I think they'd look great together to create a sort of grove. 

If you're worried about whether you can do it or not, let me just say  you can totally do it.  The patterns come with a detailed instruction sheet, full of tips & tricks.  There are two main ways to start. To make your pattern re-usable; you can lay your pattern out, mark your nail holes with a thumb-tack, then remove the pattern & add your nails to the marks.
-OR-
Some people prefer to lay the pattern out, use the thumbtack on the dots (makes a sort of pilot hole), and nail right through the pattern.  Since I give you the pdf's you can easily print this puppy over & over! The only drawback with method two, is you DO have to tear the paper remnants off after.

It's actually a pretty good size tree:

There's still plenty of time & warm nights by the fire to get this pattern up in your home! Hop over to my  etsy shop to snag this pattern, plus browse all my other patterns that are available. Like Otis the Owl!

Yep - it's an instant download, so once payment is complete Etsy gives you the files.  No waiting for me to get back to you!  And as always, if you have ANY questions, always feel free to email me: 9redinfo@gmail.com

I also have it for sale as an actual tablet, if you're not in the DIY mood... don't fret. And on that note, I have a long line of orders waiting to be completed, but I HAD to take a breather to share this pattern, before winter completely passed me by!

Happy Holidays everyone!  Thanks for reading, I love hearing from you all & seeing what you're up to.

     -Jesse

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Even More String Art

Hello & I hope you all had a wonderfully long & relaxing Thanksgiving weekend! Ours was fun, I made the stuffing muffins recipe I talked about last week, and whoah - they aren't as easy as they look! My first batch completely fell apart, but my second batch came out perfect.  When Rachel Ray says "Moist, but not wet" in her stuffins recipe, she means wet enough for the bread to stick together. I was just too cautious! Oops... Still, whether muffin shape or not, they were delicious.  Can't go wrong with soggy bread that's been re-baked. As weird as that sounds...

Hard to go back to work today, am I right? Please, allow me to distract you with some bits of string art eye candy. I mean, why not?  I've been super busy with orders lately, and a large portion of my orders have been custom requests for new designs, so I thought I'd take a minute to share. Collaborating one on one with people to achieve exactly what they have in mind is one of my favorite parts of this gig.  First up, I'm mega impressed with the size of this one! This is a company logo, and our main issue was how we would ship something so big:

They originally wanted it one solid piece, but shipping a piece of wood that is 3 feet tall by 6 feet wide proved to be extremely expensive!  The workaround was to do 4 separate panels that would make shipping much, much smaller. Where there's a will there's a way, right?

Up Next, a 3 piece peacock measuring in at 30" wide by 30" tall once it's hung up.  Again, going with separate panels to make this ship-able! 

Forgive my photos, I wanted to snap a few shots in the light I had so I could get this piece to it's new home ASAP. I love it though!

And then there's been a lot of new color combos to enjoy, people are really into this Market font - which is my favorite. Glad we agree!  If your looking for any of these combos, details are in the shop links under the photos.

Shop Link

Shop Link

Shop Link

Shop Link

A bright and colorful take on the Showcard Font:

Showcard Link

And a few Old English Monograms! I love the black and white with the copper here. Which, you may have noticed from our downstairs bathroom redo that I'm mega into that color scheme lately... heh

Shop Monograms

Old English Monograms

Here's the first time I've gotten to use this multi-colored string, I really like this stuff.... but it's so hard to find! 

Multicolored Sea Snail

And last but not least, a new color combo for our old deer friend, who I jokingly call Debby in our  home.  I know, he has antlers, making Debby a boy... but long story short - Debby the destroyer is a deer that visits our house daily and eats all the plants I buy. It's a sick relationship we have.  Anyway....

When I have a free minute I may make us one of these, yellow is a big theme in our downstairs bathroom & I need some new art in there.

Well hopefully I've distracted you from work today, being the first day back.. hope you're off soon! And if you have today off... you. are. so. lucky....!

-Jesse

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