This is Artbeast, Arthur, and…. one of my great passions is Chinese Tea, specifically gung fu tea, tea served with great care.  This is not at all like the more formal and lengthy Japanese Tea Ceremony.  Gung Fu tea is informal and centering and with a group quite social.  I practice it daily.  Anyway… this being one of my passions, I am working on a new venture, finding local potters to develop with me a unique line of handcrafted teaware to bridge the Chinese and American/European tea cultures.  I am calling this new company Tea Hardware.  One of the potters I am working with is Ray Morales.  He sent me 19 sample cups the other day and I have been sitting with them, drinking tea in the dawn hours in my tea room.  I thot I would share a picture of what he sent me and see what other people’s life passions are.  This pic is taken on the table in my tea room.

So….. What are some of your great passions in life… those things you love to do by yourself or with a group? Another one of mine is playing the Shakuhachi flute… maybe a future post on that one.

Ray also has a Facebook Fan page HERE
As does Renaissance Art HERE
As does Artbeast HERE

If you haven’t heard yet, it’s February. V-Day. You either love it or hate it and whether you celebrate pro or anti-Valentine’s Day, Renaissance Art has got a gift for you (and it’s not a box o’ chocolates). We’ve got new Limited Edition 2010 His-n-Hers Valentine’s Day Journals.

Both are lined in black leather with Cranberry covering Hers and Flight Jacket covering His. A snap closure keeps all the Frankfurt Creme pages (our premium paper) safe, and a three-letter personalization comes free with the purchase of the book. Also printed within each book are four love poems. See the first of the four below:

Dream Girl

by Carl Sandburg

You will come one day in a waver of love,
Tender as dew, impetuous as rain,
The tan of the sun will be on your skin,
The purr of the breeze in your murmuring speech,
You will pose with a hill-flower grace.

You will come, with your slim, expressive arms,
A poise of the head no sculptor has caught
And nuances spoken with shoulder and neck,
Your face in a pass-and-repass of moods
As many as skies in delicate change
Of cloud and blue and flimmering sun.

Yet,
You may not come, O girl of a dream,
We may but pass as the world goes by
And take from a look of eyes into eyes,
A film of hope and a memoried day.

So, what’s in it for the Valentine’s Hater? A Horrible Love Poem Contest*.

The world is filled with love poems. We want the cheesiest, stinkiest, most horrible love poem you can think to write. Send it in the body of an email with the subject line “Horrible Love Poems” to service@renaissance-art.com by February 14. Winner will receive their choice of a His or Hers Valentine Journal with his or her poem printed on the front page.

*Yes, I know that we have not yet announced the results of the Jingle Bag Rock Contest yet (you guys sent us a ton of GOOD CDs. Needless to say, we’re still fist-fighting over the winner).

For those of you who think that Santa Fe never sees snow:

Santa Fe is actually located about 2,000 feet ABOVE Denver. And we are over 1,000 feet higher in the city than in the Pojoaque Valley where the Renaissance Art studio is. So the three artisans that live in Santa Fe proper and carpool the 25-minute commute to work together have a delay!

While we enjoy our fair share of Pandora radio here in the studio (send us an email for a link to our station!), we’re itching for some new tunes. So we thought we would call on YOU to help us out.

Send a CD with your favorite playlist saved on it (and a catchy title that hints at the contents) to our studio during the month of December. Our panel of five judges (aka, the artisans making your stuff) will listen to them all and pick our favorite mix. The winner will receive a FREE LARGE RECESSION BAG.

Seriously.

There are some rules, tips, and tricks.
Your CD must be postmarked by December 24, 2009. Please send it to:

Renaissance Art
Jingle Bag Rock Contest
16A Bouquet Lane
Santa Fe, NM 87506

And just because it is the season, every song need not remind us (and easy on the classical music, too).

Happy mixing and good luck!

Number 91, Mitchell, won Giveaway #31, our Giant Small. Please send us your address so we may send your gift!

This giveaway is for all you DIYers: a Classic Size Modular Cover. The DIY catch–we’re supplying the cover, you supply the strap. Fitting one-inch discs, this cover comes with a pen-loop and flap (for protection, place-keeping, etc.). Read more about the cover and our other Modular Systems HERE.

You know the drill: click HERE to read the rules of this Free Giveaway BUT do not comment on that link to enter. You enter by commenting on THIS post. Tell us your planned DIY strap material: use leather, twine, guitar strings, your imagination…

Remember that the winners need to contact us with their address and phone number in order to get their gift.

We are introducing our Renaissance Art Recession Refillable line with a 20% weekend discount

What Jen writes in the category description about sums it up except to say that these are less expensive than the hand stitched covers of our original refillable journal line and the larger 9X12 has 1/3 more pages.  All of the Recession Refillable Journals are less expensive than their original line counterparts.

If nothing else, the economic downturn has taught us to live by necessity instead of desire. And there are many of us that outward expression—writing, sketching, watercolors—is as necessary as breathing, eating and sleeping.

For those with which this resonates, we’ve designed a modestly-priced line from our high-caliber leather and same superlative craftsmanship in order to allow you to save without sacrificing your necessities.
Machine-sewn. Available in our rustic brown and black leathers with W&T/Flap w/ Snap/Single Strap/Double Strap (9×12, 8.5×11) closures.

Here is a picture of the different styles available.

Click HERE to see the new line.
Discount Code:  RARRINTRO10022009

The discount applies to the base price of the journal only and not the options.  The journal includes one refill with Arches Text Wove paper, a fine art, paper.

Next week we plan to introduce a new line of Refillable Journals.  Our current line is all hand-stitched around the cover, some with inside pockets, making them more expensive.  Our Recession line of things is targeted at being every bit as functional and durable but with a basic and less expensive design.  In this line we machine stitch the covers which reduces the time it takes to make them and will reduce your cost by about 1/3.

Here is our 9X12 version with a double strap closure.  Other closure options will be a traditional style, wrap and tie, a single strap and a flap with a snap closure instead of the tie.  This 9X12 size will have 128 pages vs the 96 in our current 9X12 refillable and will be about 2/3 the cost although pricing at this point is not set.  Our US size refillable journals will be compatible with most mainstream brand refills of the same size in case you would rather use their less expensive refills.

The available sizes will be 4X6, 5.5X8.5, A5, 8.5X11 and 9X12.  I have considered making an A6 and A4 size for our European customers and those who prefer the European sizes.

Let us know what you think.  If you are planning on getting one, watch for the intro discount we have on most of our new products.  They are typically introduced on a Thursday or Friday with a 20% discount available thru the weekend.

Everyone seems to really like our new 3X5 card binders so… we are going to offer them on Special thru this weekend.  We will probably not be doing this again so get them at 20% off while you can.

Go HERE to see them all.
Coupon code: NP3X5BINDER

If any of you have ever wondered what our paper is like to write or draw on or our leather looks like up front and close, you an now order samples of each.

We include our 4 different papers and 14 different leathers.  Cost is $5 and $10 respectively.  This cost is credited to your account for any future purchases.  Shipping for the samples is free.

You can order them HERE.

This week we have 2 new items, one of which will be discounted 20%, the other is already a really low price.

FIRST… our Leather lined Custom Book Pouches.  These are either rustic or elegant in style and come with a snap or wrap up lace closure.  You can see them all HERE.  Oh, and… if you don’t have a book but want the pouch, just pretend you have a book and give us that size.  Here are a few pics, one each of the two styles and another of the more rustic style.
Go HERE to see them on our website.
Coupon Code: BP09112009

The next item is also on our current giveaway.  It is our Giant Small.  Consider this… our Small journal with 96 pages and a 4X4 size costs $24.  We are pricing this one at $18 as an introductory special.  Not sure when we will take it off.  You can read more about it HERE.  Below is a pic to entice you.

Hey everyone… Sorry this took so long.  We are working on so much new stuff that the giveaway got overlooked.  Hope you all like this one.

Number 71, Romina, won Giveaway #30. Please send us your address so we may send your gift!

This Giveaway is one of those new items… an oldie in a new size.  We call it our Giant Small.  It is 6X6 and has 108 pages and… well, you can read about the larger size, more pages and lower price (than the small) on one of the newer posts.  Here is a pic.  We hope you all like it.  You can read more about it HERE.

As usual, click HERE to read the rules of this Free Giveaway BUT do not comment on that link to enter. You enter by commenting on THIS post.

Remember that the winners need to contact us with their address and phone number in order to get their gift.

My good friend Karen and I fly fish together.  She also likes to watercolor stuff… like the flies we use.  Today she leaves on a one month trip to Egypt and Turkey where she will be fly fishing and painting.  So I made her a case to fit her watercolor kit, brushes and papers which she can take in and out.  To do this I used a discbound system.  Basically, everything revolves around a set of rings.  It is the best of both worlds…

1. Convenience of a binder - You can take in and out and rearrange your papers.  Kinda nice cuz then you can put in whatever paper you like, wherever you like and if you make a mistake then just remove it or put it in a different place in the book.
2. Opens and closes like a book with no binder rings to open and close.

So here is a big pic of the front with some thumbnails you can click on for a larger pic.

FRONT - has a gusseted pocket for the w/c kit and a tapered pocket to hold brushes
REAR - has 2 fat elastic bands to hold other brushes and stuff
CLOSURE - We made a thick elastic closure which clips into the rings.  You can move it up or down or not even use it if you do not want to.
INSIDE - no inside pic but it has in it 2 different kinds of watercolor paper and a few dividers.  The only thing we forgot was an inside pen loop…. DOH!

outside rear cover

overview of outside front and rear cover

Your book will be sure to get comments when it is covered with our new Custom leather quarter-bound book covers.  It will transform an everyday looking book into a piece of art.

Leather bound books from the 1800’s and before were quarter-bound.  That is basically an additional piece of leather wrapped around the spine of the book and covering an additional 1/4 of the front and rear covers.  We took that old traditional design and applied it to our new line of book covers.

This line is available in 12 different leather colors and when you figure you can choose one color for the cover and one for the spine… that is 144 different unique designs.  The one below is with our Molasses leather quarter-binding over the Sunflower leather cover.

Our introductory discount for these covers will be 20% thru the weekend.
Go HERE to see the covers.
Enter this discount code in the Shopping cart: QBINTRO

Discounts apply to the cost of the basic item and not to the options.