She may not be pretty but her output is impressive. A smooth 40 ounces a day of Thundermuck black gold or maybe the Ethiopian-Tanzanian blend flow mellifluously from her nozzles. And who needs some form fitting carafe when an improvised Pyrex measure-master is involved?

Then there’s the back-up crew and party favorite Procter Silex, a percolator from the 60’s… just like chicken and just as tasty!  The twin towers of Thermos keep the heat on when demand is high or maybe overflow used as an offering to the coffee gods themselves.

And then there’s the mug trio: Sista Surfer, Strap-on, and Bud – a weathered well traveled band of bad-ass plastic integrity spanning the length of the chicken itself from it’s auspicious start in 1995 to the present day. Is it healthy to still be using 15 year old mugs even when cleaned daily? Whatever!

Strap-on was ideal for bike riding when the chicken was more mobile and the riding got rough. Now it is resigned to dog park detail drawing attention and danger to itself with it’s own wagging tail.

But all would be naught without the beans, beautiful bold shiny beans, blended and jarred, grinder ready, oh shoot, I forgot the grinder. The beans can not possibly grind themselves and even Protor Silex with his futuristic knowledge and intergalactic space travel could not squeeze coffee from an unbroken bean. Be right back!

Order has been restored. The beans are ground and the dripping has begun.

Coffee for life!

]]> http://phantomchicken.com/blog/archives/197/feed 0 http://phantomchicken.com/blog/archives/181 http://phantomchicken.com/blog/archives/181#comments Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:06:25 +0000 Gregg http://phantomchicken.com/blog/?p=181

PADA on press... again

Shock and Awe repeat a winning season this fall with a tight championship victory defending their Spring 2009 Portland Area Dart Association league AA division  championship! Way to conclude the Fall 2009 season team!

Plaque for the Horsebrass

The chicken is doubly pleased in that in addition to wearing the captain’s hat of said championship team a printer’s cap is also in order for the PADA. Championship shirts for Shock and Awe, the A, B and, C divisions along with some Board member shirts with indie names was a nice way to start the new year. Screen printing joy.

So after a very quiet season at the dog park, an interesting occurrence did happen. A young bold squirrel was following… actually chasing a woman walking her Aussie pup. As she was pulling the dog away, the relentless squirrel pursued so I stepped in. The docile little creature was extremely curious and allowed me to not only crouch down beside and pet it but even crawled into my outreached hands. After several attempts to leave him in various wooded areas away from the dogs, his insistent almost imploring need to be with me led me to bring it home. He now sleeps in my canvas bag on the front porch hopefully regaining strength for the return tomorrow providing he sticks around through the night. What a cutie, hope he survives.

BSF Booth 08

We have a few new shirts, and a lot of old favorites… all t-shirts will be $15… there will even be a pile of sample shirts available for only $5 each ~ we really need to clear some space in the studio!

Plus, if we have room… I’ll have some handmade pillows available as well.

This year we worked with a Portland Illustrator, Jake D. Hollomon, to create the street fair poster.  It turned out to be a great collaboration… I love playing with color!

The fair will be going all day from 10 am to 5pm and there will be booths and things to do all along Belmont street from 20th to 48th!  They even have a free Trolley that takes you from one end all the way to the other.  Hundreds of vendors including some of our personal friends and clients like the Mt. Tabor Veterinary Clinic, The Pie Spot, and Puddletown Cakes, Birthingway College of Midwifery, Friends of Trees, and possibly ceramic artist: Sian Alexander.

The weather is supposed to be sunny and in the 90’s… so no excuse ~come on down, say hello… and maybe grab a t-shirt or two

Business cards are a crucial tool when spreading your gospel. A first impression may be the difference between memory reward recollection or possible limbo, not passing go quickly being forgotten. In other words dazzle them with a card that stands out and nail that work.

The Chicken loves to print and takes full advantage of this self serving medium by screening 6-color cards on a thick chipboard stock. All colors pulled by hand in sequence create a keepsake worthy of any fridge or wallet insert. A white underbase highlights the psychedelic design where the logo type traps using full color absorption of the the 4/color overprint. The chicken stands alone.

But the point of this entry is to show off Gail’s incredible ability to get the job done. After a quick rip of the screens squeegees singing and ink a’flingin’  these 10-up puppies need to be cut into desirable little rectangles of joy. So by hand and guillotine my little chickadee meticulously measures and slices Pangaea into little continents  for individual dispersion.

Nothing like self serve in a society that is service based creating our own chicken reality one chop at a time. Watch those fingers though!

And while I’m at it and looking forward to the local Belmont Street Fair next weekend a little shameless self promotion may be in order as in pre-order. Check it out:  Street Fair Designs

Recently we were asked to design and print a poster for a tour in Northern Ireland for our friend James Clarke and his label 5MA Records.   This was a fun print.  We used a heavy chipboard stock and flat black ink.

Printing went pretty quick since it was a short run of 50 posters.  Of course it helps that Gregg is very good at what he does… made this poster scream!! At this point, I think 50-100 posters is a good amount for limited edition screen prints.  It makes it more fun for us too.  We even had time to play with a few extra prints and a fun ink technique.

We even printed the tour tickets too!  This was a very fun job for me…  of course, I always like it when my clients like their design!

First was a wine label for Tyler Winery in California, a sweet 3-color flat stock label for their newest vintages. Dogs o’plenty with shirts for the Jabber Walkies of Laurelhurst Park and the Greater Portland Dachshund Club. The St. Johns gathering of the Bizarre festival which happened as I partied in New York and another bacon fly by – Enjoy Bacon!

A very cool project found its way to the subterannean studio for Insanity Amplification. Mr. Wolfe of said company designs and builds custom amplifiers. The chicken was requested to print on the powder-coated aluminum chassis in white epoxy ink. No problem, this chicken delivers! I know there was more but these were some highlights to secure some decompression time – and it worked!!

From the get go there is a basic size discrepancy. Through deceptive wrapping an initial coverup is evident once pulled from the box.

When folded over the pop is out of the tart. Just look at the height difference. Madness. And don’t fret for the width is not left out of the equation. When fully unwrapped the entire scam unravels as clearly evident when placed on the box front panel. Though an attempt to rectify this has been made with the addition of two additional tarts to the previous 6-pack count, only a net 3 ounces of weight has been added to the total package of 8. This package could handle the contents of the 12 pack”double-wide” which if truly was doubled would be a 16-count box. Grrrr.