Now Showing Studio

More Press, New Bracelets, and Holiday Giveaway!

2009-12-13T20:24:00.000-08:00

Exciting news! Now Showing has been recently reviewed on two sites! Asian Buzz, a blog highlighting crafts made about or inspired by Asian culture, showed some of our Anime pendants. Also, Jen over at Products of the Day did a review of a set of jewelry that she recently received from us. She wrote a really great review that helped me get motivated to list some of the new rubber bracelets that we just finished.

The new pieces are made from rubber jelly bracelets, a fun style of bracelet that is seeing new light nowadays from their heyday in the 1980's. The bracelet sets are made up of three rubber rings (one size fits most wrists), each one with its own double sided charm made of dvd backer cards. I think they have a really fun and hip look to them, and they can be worn in multiple or individually.

Finally, we are having a special giveaway over at Now Showing Studio! From now until December 18th, when you buy any item in the Now Showing Etsy shop, we will give you a free pair of earrings (our choice, in colors that co-ordinate with the item you choose!) That's an $18 value! We hope you will stop by this week and pick up a gift or two... there is still time for shipping before the holidays!

Now Showing at Rare Bird Finds

2009-11-25T07:44:00.000-08:00

I am thrilled to announce that Now Showing made an appearance on Rare Bird Finds, a great blog full of the coolest finds and fun stuff! We were written up for Jennifer's "Strange but Hip" section of the blog! Thanks to Jennifer and Rare Bird!

I recently listed another group of pendants in the Etsy shop, many of which are cartoon themed pieces, using recycled My Little Pony and Invader Zim backer cards. These particular pendants are very colorful and fun, in pastel colors with lots of purple and pinks!

Now Showing: Upcycled Dracula Pendants

2009-11-19T19:17:00.000-08:00

In celebration of the very popular New Moon movie release today, I thought I would post some more classic vampire themed pieces that we made. We created several Dracula Pendants from a backer card we found of the film Bram Stoker's Dracula. The cover art sort of resembled this, but with a different layout for the text:

I have never seen this film, but its a high priority now! Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, Gary Oldman, and Anthony Hopkins are all in it, and it was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and it won 3 Oscars, which makes me think it is quite good. Alex told me that his family has it on DVD, so perhaps we will have a vampire week next week, when we see New Moon, and maybe Twilight again. Here is a trailer from the Dracula film:

Now Showing at Naka

2009-11-17T13:47:00.000-08:00

We are pleased to announce that Now Showing Jewelry can now be found at the fabulous Naka, an indie boutique in Ferndale, Michigan. Naka is one of my favorite stores, and it is local! They are carrying a small selection of pendants and earrings from Now Showing! I hope they sell well there this holiday season.

In order to have a wide selection for the store to choose from, we made a bunch of pendants and earrings! Now it is time to photograph them and get them listed up on Etsy, so that will be the task at hand for the next few days.

If you know of a store that might like to carry Now Showing jewelry, please contact us at nowshowingstudio at gmail dot com! We have a wholesale program for stores, and if your referral brings us a new account, we will be sure to reward you with fun freebies!

We've Been Seen at Art Bead Scene!

2009-11-14T08:19:00.001-08:00

Just a quick update to let you know we have a special giveaway going on at the Art Bead Scene blog! You can win the three pendants shown above if you click on over and tell me about your favorite movie snacks in the comments! Next Saturday, one random winner will be chosen from the comments there, so go enter for your chance!

While we haven't listed too many items in the Now Showing etsy shop lately, we have been keeping busy. We bought a hundred or so more cards in the last few days, have a pile of pendants and earrings in various stages of completion, have an appointment with a retail store next week, and created this business card shown below. Keeping busy, indeed! I hope to have a full shop and a special deal for the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend, so keep checking back. We also have a pile of actual dvds and netflix movies to watch this weekend while we work, so I think progress will happen soon!

Now Showing: Upcycled Dragon Ball Z Jewelry

2009-11-03T10:38:00.000-08:00

Now Showing! Upcycled Dragon Ball Z Jewelry

The very first dvd backer card that inspired the Now Showing line of jewelry is the Dragon Ball Z movie shown below. I made the first piece with it, and I knew that this would be a fun line of jewelry. The colors, textures, and bold lines of the card were perfect for making into jewelry. And that is what started this whole thing!

I think that playing with the Dragon Ball Z imagery triggered some good childhood memories for Alex, who has enjoyed the show and the movies. With Halloween around the corner, he decided to indulge one of his other passions... costume design. Here is a picture of Alex in his Goku costume, modelled from the more recent live action movie. He even made the "Dragon Ball" out of resin!

I was not as familiar with Dragon Ball Z, so I looked up the trailer for the movie for the dvd card that we used, and I wanted to share it with you:

Now Showing: Upcycled Seed of Chucky Jewelry

2009-10-31T11:45:00.000-07:00

Just a quick blog post to say Happy Halloween! To celebrate the holiday, I have been watching some really bad horror movies, along with a few good ones. While watching, I made more Now Showing jewelry! Some of my favorites came from the Seed of Chucky dvd backer card!

I will be honest, I have never seen this movie. I saw the original Chucky movie, and that was plenty. Here is a trailer for Seed of Chucky. It looks terrible and frightening!

Now Showing: Upcycled Creepshow Jewelry

2009-10-27T08:36:00.000-07:00

Now showing! Creepshow Jewelry in the Etsy shop

The Creepshow backer card was one that I was very excited to start working on. There is a lot going on in this card! I was able to cut out many different pendants and at least one pair of earrings. There are all sorts of spooky things hiding in the artwork, like the little spider in the web and the rat in the skeleton's pocket. The textures are great and the colors are rich. I cut the skull in half, which I think makes each piece even more scary!Do you remember this movie? It was one of my favorites, in the 80's. I loved the quick short stories, and the Stephen King and George A. Romero pairing was great. I think this movie spawned more films and a series, didn't it? Here is the trailer for it, featuring the scene that Stephen King himself performed in!

Behind the Scenes

2009-10-26T22:43:00.000-07:00

So far, we have shown the materials of our craft and the story of how we discovered them. Here are the tools we are using to craft these DVD backer cards into jewelry. They are fairly simple tools: scissors, files, hole punchers, eyelet setters and hammers. I think that is one of the things that appeals to us about this new line of jewelry. My ceramic work for my main business, Earthenwood Studio, is very equipment and time intensive. Alex also requires some pretty hefty equipment to do the metalwork that he loves to do. For Now Showing, we can sit down in an afternoon, and have a fun time making several pieces... it's almost instant gratification!

We are working hard to get more pieces done, photographed, and listed in the Etsy shop. We have started by listing just a few pieces, for a little sneak peek. Click on over to Now Showing Studio on Etsy, and get a preview of what we will have to offer! We hope you will keep checking back on this blog for more of our coming attractions and behind the scenes info.

The Plot Thickens!

2009-10-26T08:43:00.003-07:00

Now Showing Studio started one autumn afternoon when Alex Drummer and Melanie Brooks were window shopping at a nearby video store that was going out of business. Instead of browsing the isles of discounted videos or games, they set their sights on the large display of plastic and cardboard backer boards from the rental displays. They knew immediately that they hit a crafty motherlode! A couple of days of dreaming and brainstorming later, they had a new idea for a jewelry line made from recycling the backer boards in fun and innovative ways! Now Showing Studio was born!

The jewelry that we will be offering soon is hand crafted by Alex and Melanie, with the occasional help of studio and shipping assistants. They pay great attention to craftsmanship and detail, and design with an eye towards color and pattern. They love using the backer boards for their bright colors and detail, and enjoy the lightweight nature of the jewelry. They also love being able to recycle (or "upcycle") materials that may have been destined for a landfill. The pieces are created in a fun atmosphere, during long afternoon chats about creativity, art, and film.

We are working hard behind the scenes on this new jewelry line, and we hope to have some pieces to offer very soon in the Now Showing Studio etsy shop.

Coming Soon!

2009-10-22T09:45:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the Now Showing Studio blog! We hope you will stay tuned to this space for a behind the scenes look at our new line of film-related, upcycled jewelry! We are working hard to get ready for the world premiere of the opening of the Now Showing Studio Etsy Shop

We hope to entertain you with some of our thoughts on our favorite films, including movie clips, memories of fun times at the cinema, specials and sneak peeks, and of course lots of pictures of our jewelry and the process behind it.

Let's begin the countdown to showtime, shall we?