My DIY plywood market booth build

In the past year I’ve divested from the influencer game and started making art again, and a part of that process involved rethinking my business model. Since I’m not riding that corporate sponsorship money gravy train anymore (lol… TBH I never really was in the first place), I wanted to really slowly and intentionally think about how to make money in this late stage capitalist hellscape that felt aligned with my values, and also didn’t lead to burnout. As I started selling my prints, I knew I wanted to do markets and pop up shops, but I also didn’t want to dive in headfirst, guns a-blazin’ like I usually do. So I’ve been moving slower, thinking about what markets I’d want to do, and how frequently I think I could manage doing a market booth— as well as sussing out which markets/events felt like they’d give me the most bang for my buck. Setting up a booth and manning it for several hours can be exhausting, especially as an introvert.

All of that thinking and planning is finally coming to fruition this month as I’ve got my first pop-up shop on July 20th at Hive Co., then another on August 2nd at the Mom’s Night Out market. I’m super excited. Hive is actually in the same space where I held my DIY Awards Bash in 2023, so I’m super familiar with the space, love the owner Michele, and there are going to be a bunch of other really cool vendors there as well. The Mom’s Night Out market is at another favorite local business— The CoLab, which is actually where one of my first murals lives on the exterior of their cute building.

So! That means I have to actually build out the booth I’ve been planning! “But Liz, can’t you just throw a table cloth on a folding table and be good?” LOL do you know me? I do have to do everything at an 11. I’m unable to turn off this part of me, so we’re gonna dive in and build something that feels really cool, but also hopefully pretty manageable as far as set up/tear down goes.

This image is my main inspiration. I absolutely adore the look of plywood and it’s super straightforward to create two panels of hinged plywood so it covers the front and top of the folding table.

Here she is! So far I’ve done two mini markets with this set up and I’d love to figure out a streamlined way to package all the wood elements up and roll them. Everything, including the angled print holder, folds flat, so they all store neatly and in a small area, but it does take at least three trips to the car and back to bring them all in, so it’d be cool to figure out some way to package them together so I can roll them or something. More noodling for that. I added acrylic shelf things to the front of one panel, and I’ll probably add one or two more layers of that, but for now I just don’t have enough stock to justify more shelving. The acrylic shelves slide off so those aren’t in danger of breaking while I’m transporting the wood pieces.

My next addition will be fabric to cover the sides of the table. I designed this set up so I can make it 6 ft (to perfectly cover my 6ft folding table) or 8ft (with one foot of the wood over hanging each side of the folding table). The 6 ft set up uses both the 4ft and 2ft wood table covers— this is the set up I’m using in the above photos. The 8 ft set up uses two 4ft wood table covers, and if I want, I could do a 6 ft table and then utilize the extra unused 4ft cover on another table to make an L table format. Maybe that all makes sense, maybe not. Hopefully it does! Ultimately, the takeaway is that this design is pretty flexible for different set ups and booth options.

Salty Bitch block prints

I made some pickles for you.

I don’t know where the idea came from but I have a series of prints floating around in my head of foods branded with derogatory terms for women that we’ve reclaimed. What am I working on now that these pickles are printed? Hot Slut hot sauce. So if you’re not a pickle girly, maybe you’re a little more firey, hot sauce is comin’ your way soon!

This is a three-layer, three color print, which means that each color was printed separately, and each color has it’s own hand-carved linoleum block. This is my first multi-color print since college, so part of making this print was just relearning the process of registering each layer so that it aligns with the others.

In a way the current prints I’ve been making are just an exercise in having fun, making art in a way that is rooted in play, and getting my body moving in an art-making way again. Kind of like a warm-up, if you will. I would like to be making more deep and meaningful and impactful work at some point, but right now as I re-enter my artmaking space, making things that feel silly and lighthearted has been where I’m following my curiosity. So you get some silly pickles.

sold out

Salty Bitch relief print

$35.00

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Retaining Wall Mural Process | Tacoma Mural Artist

I’ve got this terrible mural client. She doesn’t know what she wants, she keeps jumping from idea to idea and giving me inspiration photos that have nothing to do with each other… it’s exhausting. Did I mention the client is me? Lol. Le sigh.

This is the problem of designing for yourself. With anything, really. As artists we’re our own worst clients sometimes. All that to say, I’ve been playing with mural ideas for my front retaining wall for months. MONTHS. But I think I finally have something pinned down that I really love.

When we bought this house we’d intended to fix it up and sell it, but plans changed and we’ve been living here for five years now. So some of the early decisions I made, design-wise, were more tame than my current style. But now, I’m really wanting to lean into a creative, artistic, and bold vibe for the house as a whole, and while most of the interior reflects that, I’m working on bringing that outside to the exterior.

This was the house when we bought it. So painfully underwhelming and neglected.

And this is where it’s at right now. I’m actually starting the process of painting the white trim black to match the body of the house (mocked up on the right), which I’m really excited about, but…if you take a look at that before photo, you can see the cinder block retaining wall along the sidewalk. That hasn’t changed. Dull, boring, meh. But it’s the perfect spot for a splash of color and visual interest!

Top is where we’re at currently, bottom is the idea I think I’ve settled on! I really wanted a way to incorporate some quotes about community, liberation, mutual aid, and the like. I have an Angela Davis quote planned for the left side section, but I’m still working out what quotes I want to put in the squiggles on the right side.

My next step is to pressure wash the cinder blocks so they don’t have moss growing out of them, then do some research into the best primer and paint to use. I’m super excited. I’ll most likely pull the mural into the gap where the stairs go, too, maybe add something cool on the riser sections?

I’ve really been working towards doing more murals and getting involved in the public art scene here in Tacoma, so I figured a great way to build my mural/public art portfolio would be utilizing my own house as a blank canvas. I’m also trying to work on playing around more stylistically. I did a lot of color blocking shapes murals in the past, which I do love, but I also want to keep playing and finding my own style and approach to mural design.

Anyway! I’ll share more as I progress on the actual install of this mural! Hopefully the weather will cool down a bit, and I’ve got a bunch of work to get done creating a booth set up for some pop up shop/markets I have coming up this summer! I have a really fun design schemed up, and I’m planning on doing the build out for that in the coming week so I’ll share more as I build!

Need a mural to take your home or commercial space to the next level? Let’s chat!

Tacoma Wayzgoose Printmaking and Book Art Fair 2024

As a printmaker, I’ve always had Tacoma’s annual Wayzgoose festival on my radar. My first time attending, just a few years out of my college printmaking program, was back in 2014. But life started happening, I fell away from my art practice, I got busy, had a kid, and never made it back to another Wayzgoose event. Then, at the end of 2023 I started slowly returning to my art making practice and made a promise to myself to fully give myself over to my art making, and to actually apply for art opportunities— especially local ones.

The first thing I did was apply for Wayzgoose, to be one of the steamroller print artists. When I got the email that they accepted me, I had to read the email like 10 times to make sure I read it right. I was so excited prior to even getting that email that I made a mini version of my steamroller print as a proof of concept.

Wayzgoose is such a perfect event that represents so much about what I love about Tacoma. It’s interactive by design and as a printmaker, I love that it gives a community hands-on introduction to printmaking as an art form. I was only introduced to printmaking in college and once I discovered it, I fell wholly in love and ended up focusing my BA in Art on Printmaking. So for other folks to have this event to potentially discover the magic of printmaking without having to go to a whole 4 year art program, is really incredible.

And beyond that, there’s such a beautiful, thriving community of letterpress and printmaking artists here in Tacoma. I love that this longstanding event celebrates that community every year. And I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll get to be a part of it again next year!

If you’re interested in purchasing one of my Wayzgoose prints, you can shop the full size limited edition steamroller relief print, the giclée reproduction, and the mini relief print below!

sold out

Home Sweet Tacoma Wayzgoose 2024 Steamroller Print

from $275.00

Home Sweet Tacoma giclée print reproduction

from $80.00

sold out

Home Sweet Tacoma Relief Print- Small Version

$40.00

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How to cut and fold a mini zine

This mini style zine is super easy to make. All you need is a sheet of regular printer paper and a pair of scissors. Follow along with the video below and if you need written directions, you can find those below!

1/ Start by folding your paper the long way (hotdog style).

2/ Now fold this in half so it’s half as long, then do this fold again once more.

3/ Unfold your sheet of paper, then re-fold it the short way (hamburger style.

4/ Grab your scissors and cut along the center fold, but make sure to only cut halfway, to the center, where the fold lines intersect.

5/ Now unfold again, then fold it hotdog style once more. You’ll see a diamond shape form where you cut the paper.

6/ hold the ends of the paper and push your hands towards each other to flatten that diamond, then fold everything along the crease lines you created in step two, and you’ve got your zine!

If you’ve printed off a zine and folded it, your zine is made! If you’re making a zine yourself from scratch, you’re now ready to start filling in your pages with all the info and/or creativity you’re ready to share with the world.

If you want to grab my little creativity zine, click here to download it!