#designbylizk
Today is the day we usually celebrate Pi Day, but honestly it feels infinitely* silly with so much happening around our pale blue dot. So instead of celebrating an irrational number, we thought we’d share slices* of some small but rational* steps for uplifting one another in difficult times.
As many of you know, we are in the process of setting up our own small (women-owned!) business, and as we work through that process we appreciate even more how much time and energy the artists & vendors we share here have put into their own craft. For many of them, maintaining their livelihoods is especially challenging right now, but luckily, we can help!
Instead of hoarding toilet paper, why not start your winter-holiday gift shopping veryearly!Orstock up on birthday presents, or gifts for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, graduations (with or without in-person ceremonies), Just Because Day! If you’re not sure what someone special (even yourself) might like, purchase a gift card from your favorite artist. Want a custom creation? Message an artist on social media for a commission so they don’t have to pay fees to sites like Etsy. :)
Here are just some** of our favorite small businesses (women, family, and/or minority owned) who could use your support:
Amy Rae Hill (whose commissions like this teapot are out of this world!)
Cepheid Studio (check out her new shinies, like this Hubble pin badge!)
Chrissy Sparks Art (we adore her hand-painted cosmic wooden ornaments)
Cosmic Funnies (whimsicalweb comics, illustrations, stickers and more featuring all your favorite celestial objects)
Lost in Space Jewelry (custom Planetary Position Plaques make lovely gifts!)
Science Socks (watch this space for more designs!)
Sofie Shen (illustrator extraordinaire who can make your space art dreams come true)
Two Photon Art (they have some great freebies to download, too!)
Yugen Tribe (our long-time favorites with stunning new designs, like these Solar System beauties)
We’ll continue to share work by these artists and more via this thread over on Twitter!
Socially-distant hugs from across the Universe,
–Emily & Summer
(image credits: FreakingNews.com, user: vicspa)
*We made be sad and stressed, but puns will always prevail.
**woefully incomplete
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We are so embarrassed that we haven’t shared the wonderful work of Liz Kruesi on the blog yet even though we’ve been carrying her designs at the #BOOTHtique for almost two years now!! Liz is a freelance science writer and jewelry maker on the side. We fell in love with her pieces back in 2017 at the Women in Astronomy IV meeting where she was sporting her solar system necklace.
Since then, she has created quite possibly one of the loveliest planetary collections. Her pieces feature beads reminiscent of each planet (and its moons) and each item comes with a cheat sheet describing the stones that represent each object. We started with her Jupiter and Saturn designs and they were so popular at the Division of Planetary Sciences Conference in 2018, that people were soon swapping them with each other so they could sport one of each planet. The fad soon took over the Neptune and Uranus designs as well. Now we just assume this will be the case and order both matching and mis-matching pairs from her. ;)
New to the BOOTHtique at AAS235* are her Earth+Moon, Earth/Mars mismatched, and Pluto+Charon earrings!
For those of you not at AAS235, check out Liz’s Etsy store and be sure to follow her on Twitter,Instagram.
- Summer & Emily
*We are dividing and conquering our annual American Astronomical Society winter meeting this year with Emily in situ in Honolulu and Summer holding down the social media fort in New Mexico.
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