Blog
Pop! Goes the Easel
We’re very excited to announce that Josh will have two original paintings on display as part of the Pop goes the Easel show at North Suburban Center for the Arts.
The show opening is Thursday, January 25th from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM and runs until March 17th, 2024. It was curated by Desiree Forget of Owl & Lark, one of Katie’s favorite Jewelry Artists.
The North Suburban Center for the Arts is a great space in a former fire house with a cute little shop and a community space for making art. A fantastic resource for the Fridley area. We hope you will check out the show and see what the North Suburban Center for the Arts has to offer!
Print at Home Zine
Available now - a print at home sketch Zine by Josh Wittenberg!
Excerpt from the Zine
Fun and Easy way to get a little art for your home for free!
Secret Basement Lab: Print-At-Home Zine (secretbasementlaboratory.blogspot.com)
Bow Ties are Cool…
I taught myself the basics of crochet 10+ years ago because I wanted to make hats for my nephews and assorted babies that kept being born in my periphery. I didn’t really know what I was doing but thanks to youtube I learned a couple stitches and got the basics of a hat pattern. My nephews got stegosaurus and fox ear hats for Christmas one year and got my first and second toys. To be honest, I still don’t know at all what I’m doing with crochet and cannot read a pattern, but I can picture what I want to do and eventually make it happen, as long as it uses the stitches I figured out!
For a while I was making mostly toys and hats and scarfs, eventually I had so many hats around I gave them out to friends that were at my house one day - I tried selling them but I am SLOW at crochet and my meger sales and inventory weren’t worth the effort when there are a lot of much more talented apparel makers in Minnesota who deserve such sales.
Toys are a ton of fun to make and I still do it every once in a while, but it’s more of a labor of love than a business venture because these little sculptures are all unique and soooooo many hours of work that to put a price tag on it feels silly. If you or your child received something that wasn’t a bow tie made by me in crochet just know that’s me saying I love you.
So I was looking for a way to make things using crochet that were somewhat efficient but also worth making and I found inspiration for what that product would be from my very best cat friend and first fur-child, Shatner.
Shatner in a red Bow Tie
Shatner always wears a collar, as a younger cat especially he had a penchant for escape and wanted nothing more than to be a wild cat (the new house seems to have tamped that instinct down finally). So he is always tagged, always. Shatner had this cute little white collar with a bow that he got I think for Christmas. He wore it until the bow fell off and then I sewed up another bow. But that got me thinking and one day I crocheted a little bow tie for him so he would have another option. My solution solved another issue we kept running into - his tag would fall into his wet foot and get coated, the bow helped hold it back while eating. Yes his bow gets dirty but thankfully these are washable.
I’ve also found that the bow can really help with noise reduction for dog tags, something I didn’t realize was an issue until Benny came into our lives and had three metal tags jingling on his collar (ID, vaccination, and city license). So I made a cardboard model of Benny and about 100 bows and added them to my product line.
Our Benny with his bow taking a cuddle snooze.
Our little Moss with his pop of color Bow Tie in Orange.
The bow ties are probably my highest volume item, they are also the cheapest, I charge $8 regardless of size. So if you really want value you can get the biggest bow tie you’ve ever seen but typically sizing to suit the dog or cat is the way a lot of people go. Sometimes that means sizing to the dog’s personality though, as my friend Mulberry demonstrates.
Mulberry with her extra large bow
I originally wrote this post in May but it was shelved because sadly we lost Benny that week and I couldn’t bring myself to deal with it for a while. We’ve recently added a new Fur Baby to the pack though so things are feeling more normal again. So I’ve added some pictures of Doug modeling his many bow ties.
You can find bows in all sizes and colors at DARE Minneapolis - make an appointment to shop by texting 612-454-5456 or shop on their open days noted in the Find Us Here section of this site.
Gods & Monsters
Spooky Season has arrived!
We’re super excited to say that Josh’s art work will be displayed as part of the Otherworldly Arts Collective’s “Gods and Monsters” show this October!
Helped along by some custom frames provided by his friendly in-house furniture maker, two original Secret Basement Lab paintings will grace the walls of Jackson Flats.
Tombyard Troubadour by Josh Wittenberg
We’re dropping the goods off next weekend and hope to see you at the opening - Show starts Friday October 14th, but we’re probably going to be at the Saturday October 15th party wearing our plague gear as usual. Should be a great show, Hope to see you there!
Zombie Surf Punk by Josh Wittenberg
Inspiration
Some of my favorite pieces were made from a thin strip of wood that still had its natural bark edge attached; there’s something so lovely about seeing a reflection of the natural artistry of a tree like that in a piece of wood.
What I really love about product designers who work in the handmade space is that we all have unique and varied stories to tell about our work and any time I can see the mark of the maker (those little imperfections that confirms this was hand made) on the product I get chills.
When making jewelry it's often the material itself that inspires the form that a piece might take. For example a scrap of wood that is thin might lend itself well to a fun dangly earring while a thicker piece with natural shape might be perfect to showcase in the form of a necklace.
Exotic hardwood scraps repurposed as necklaces. The ebony piece shown features a natural knot.
Then I use the wood grain to guide my cuts, taking care to avoid checks and splits in the wood - or to play up those natural break points by using them as the final edge. Sometimes I get to work with exotic scraps that have dramatic grain color which can yield some delightful personality when creating a pair.
Zebrawood scraps left over from the top of a table remade into earrings.
Some of my favorite pieces were made from a thin strip of wood that still had its natural bark edge attached; there’s something so lovely about seeing a reflection of the natural artistry of a tree like that in a piece of wood.
Walnut with live edge necklaces.
I gravitate toward simple modern geometric shapes, in part because I need to be able to cut these by hand, but also because I know folks who are making lovely complex shapes with lasers and I’m not interested in competing in that space. I’m inspired by the negative space between shadows made by tree branches, the shapes of found stones, mid century modern patterns, sculpture, and architectural details spotted as I walk through the downtowns of small cities. And I’m inspired by leftovers - either the original piece of reclaimed material or the piece that’s left after I cut the first shape I was excited about.
-Katie
Site Launch
In honor of Earth Day let’s talk materials - specifically the materials Katie uses for her jewelry. Each piece is hand cut out of a material that was free, whether a scrap of wood from local furniture makers, or a scrap of Formica from a jobsite Katie worked on in 2009, or a found bit of steel found on a walk around her former office, or a piece of plastic from some packaging that can’t be recycled.
Hi Friends! Happy Earth Day 2022! We’re finally updating the Secret Basement Lab website, how exciting!
Rough cut shards of a red exit sign lens cut using a band saw.
In honor of Earth Day let’s talk materials - specifically the materials Katie uses for her jewelry. Each piece is hand cut out of a material that was free, whether a scrap of wood from local furniture makers, or a scrap of Formica from a jobsite Katie worked on in 2009, or a found bit of steel found on a walk around her former office, or a piece of plastic from some packaging that can’t be recycled. This helps divert materials from the waste stream (yay) AND keep prices low so we can get more of these pieces out into the public for everyone to enjoy.
Sanded exit sign lens pieces.
Katie’s favorite material story is that way back in 2003 she was a sculpture student at St. Cloud State University and while walking back to her dorm room one day she spotted a broken exit sign lens resting on a pretty full garbage can. That scrap was carried around until 2015 and then finally found new life as some fun red earrings! See, hoarding can be a beautiful thing.
Finished red exit sign lens earrings.