New Item!

55.00 USD, by OakMyth via Etsy http://ift.tt/1Jz6Moj

Oregon Country Fair was a BLAST!

We nearly sold out of everything on day one. The two of us made 51 masks, and came home with 10. I am completely thrilled with the outcome of OCF!

Profits were high, people were amazing, the music was magical, the costumes were phenomenal, and so much love was shared!

We definitely have to plan to bring more masks next time :) 

4 WEEKS TO OCF

This is probably the first time we aren't rushing like crazy to finish up masks; our current count is 40, and we're aiming for 50. I think we can do it! 

Eve is working on the bigger, bolder masks like the peacock [and I think a firebird will be after that], while I'm churning out a bunch of the smaller masks that require minimal tooling. I feel so much more efficient and in love with our work when the time stress isn't weighing heavily on our shoulders. It's resulting in some very adventurous adaptations on our usual works! Such as eyeball dragon:

And this complex cluster of detail:

It's so much fun!

Oregon Country Fair will undoubtably be our biggest festival to date, with an attendance that has reached over 50,000 in the last few years. The cost of attending is already significantly lower than FaerieWorlds ever was, with the added bonus of low competition, strictly handmade only, and none of the panic inducing things that plague us at FW. Oh and we won't have to haul up most of our equipment either- no pop up tent, no, table, no tapestries, no booth decorations... just the masks, stands, a mirror, and our transaction supplies. The switch seemed obvious, really. 

I feel so blessed that the skilled & talented Maeve Callahan offered to share her sacred booth space with us. Our masks will be displayed on the walls, surrounded by her fantastically creative dolls and puppets. They will definitely compliment each other; I'll post pictures after the festival is over! 

As always, thank you to the thousands of people who support us on Facebook, etsy, Pinterest, YouTube, and offline too. You folk are truly what makes this career so enjoyable. 

Oregon Country Fair!

Huzzah! Our first attempt at applying for this festival was a success! Http://www.oregoncountryfair.org

We are on the hunt for booth space so if you have a booth and are interested in sharing, please email us at OakMyth@gmail.com :) we'll happily help cover the booth fees. 

Been a while!

I figured an update was in order, being as we've been mostly silent for several months now. Apologies!

Production has slowed significantly, mostly due to a lack of reliable transportation. Many of you have probably noticed that our etsy shop is minimally stocked with only what we have available, instead of our usual handful of in-stock items and the rest of the designs up as made-to-order. This is because we can work, if we are lucky, once a month! And it would be unfair to promise items within our usual time frame.

Custom design orders are closed indefinitely as well. A good number of people were under the impression that Eve and I functioned much like a large scale corporation (to the extent that many people assumed that rude behavior would yield better results in their design, or expect us to read their minds). Plus, again, it's impossible for us to make an accurate time estimate with our inability o get to the shop. :(

On the bright side, as soon as possible, we will be working remotely. I'll take home as many designs as possible that are ready to paint, while Eve will be tooling and cleaning edges from her home.

April 20th and 21st we'll be at the Sebastopol Apple Blossom Festival! It's only $10 to get in, and a wonderful event with local foods and drinks, tons of artisans, and plenty of activities. Saturday morning there will also be a parade! Eve and I both attended this fest during our childhood and its an event very close to our hearts. We hope to see you there!

And the last little update: I (Ashley) will be going to the Academy of Art University next fall, and possibly interning at Pixar this summer. YAY! But this also means production probably won't pick up for a long while :( Still, we'll do our best.

Thank you for your endless support!
<3

FaerieWorlds 2012

What a crazy wild weekend that was! I'm still in the process of sobering up from the high that is FaerieWorlds.

For starters, I've uploaded a n00b video montage of my experience there:



I can't even really properly word all of everything that happened. So, I'll keep this fairly short.

It was absolutely incredible to see so many hordes of people, characters, musicians, and others all wearing Oak Myth Masks. Very quickly, I had lost count of every sighting of past and new creations that were wandering around out there, in the wild. Old customers would even wander in from time to time to tell us stories of all the adventures they had gone on with their masks and crowns. I think that's probably what I love the most... the stories and journeys that people embark upon with these wearable art pieces Eve and I create.

Carmen, our dearest and beloved model, came with us again for this ride (and drove the car most of the way... god, I love that woman). She performed magically! It's thanks to her that Oak Myth Masks will be appearing in a documentary.
Yeah.
She attracted the attention of a film crew, who invited her (wearing the white wolf mask) to be in their documentary titled: "A Journey Through Transformation Festivals." Later, they came into our booth to film and photograph lots of our creations. We're going to be in the credits!
You can watch the trailer here:



And visit their website / Facebook page!

So, I suppose to wrap this post up, I'll leave you all with some wonderful photographs I've collected from the festival:

Oh The Festival Madness

We have three festivals scheduled for the next three months, and for past festivals we have  been averaging about 45 masks per festival. Hah... haha... this should be great.

I had a tech shop membership for a month to try out the laser cutter, and it was completely amazing. Turns out, a day pass is only $25, and we can cut out at least 15 masks in an hour. So with the next batch of leather I think we should be able to match our 45 item minimum. Here's a video of my experiences using the laser cutter:

The Berkeley Pagan festival is in 2 weeks and one day, so we have a LOT to do. Then the Walnut Creek Art and Wine festival is exactly 3 weeks after that (oh god why), and after that we have roughly 7 weeks to stock of for FaerieWorlds 2012.

Eve just got her car repaired which cost more than she had anticipated. I'll likely be buying the next round of leather so that we can scramble and make as much as we possibly can for the Art and Wine festival... that is a HUGE event in the bay area which averages 90,000 people attending. This is our first festival of that size. To put things in perspective, FaerieWorlds has around 15,000+ attendance. Thankfully the Art and Wine festival is walking distance from my new home!

Right now we have about 40 items for the Berkeley Pagan Festival, though only a handful are actually ready for sale. I'm painting my ass off, to say the least :)



If you'd like to visit us at any of the above mentioned festivals here's some information:

Berkeley Pagan Festival
FREE EVENT
Saturday May 12, 2010
10:00 AM to 5:30 PM
Civic Center Park, Berkeley, California
Martin Luther King Jr. Way (between Center and Allston)
2151 Martin Luther King Jr. Way ,  Berkeley CA 94704
Walking distance from Downtown Berkeley BART station


Walnut Creek Art and Wine Festival
FREE EVENT
Saturday June 2 and Sunday June 3, 2012
Saturday: 11:00AM to 7:00PM
Sunday: 11:00AM to 6:00PM
Heather Farms Park, Walnut Creek, California
310 N. San Carlos Dr. (left turn off of Ygnacio)

FaerieWorlds Summer Celebration
NOT FREE EVENT - Ticket information here
(we usually receive a handful of free passes for Friday & Sunday as well as 20% off passes for Saturday that we can give out if you are interested)
Friday July 27, Saturday July 28, and Sunday July 29, 2012
Friday: 2:00PM - ?
Saturday: 12:30PM - ?
Sunday: 12:30PM - ?
(closing times usually around midnight but the party usually goes on well after)
 Directions here

Making the business official!

As the title states, Eve and I are finally taking the necessary steps in order to make our business all official and such. The Berkeley Pagan Festival is coming up, and in order to participate we need a resale license (which means we're going to have to start charging tax for all purchases made in CA).

In order to get a resale license, we have to register our business name AND register our partnership. The resale license is free, but the latter two are pricey. It needs to be done, though. And, while we're at it, we might as well get our business name trademarked.

We're looking into getting a membership to TechShop in San Francisco as well, which is hugely exciting! They have a lot of machinery at their disposal, which would be very handy, considering we're still working out of a small bedroom. In particular, we're looking at utilizing their laser cutters, which would be used to cut out all the detail crazy masks and most of the 8oz works. It would spare our hands the long term pain, and make production a lot quicker. I'm pretty excited about that.

Cheers
-Ashley