On the eve of bankruptcy and upon sincere reflection as I exit the wallet business, I can’t help but be filled with mixed thoughts of joy, angst, humility, enlightenment, cynicism and a wide variety of auxiliary stark emotions that all have been brewing in me for quite some time. I’ve had a lot weighing on my brain. Now that said, today I’d like to write about my emotion of sadness (but tomorrow I will no longer discuss it as it is time to now move forward). You see, db clay taught me about a lot more than just wallets. db clay also taught me about people and their inherent nature - their bright side and their dark side and the latter stirs an odd sadness in me that to this day I’m still struggling to accept. I had always hoped for better out of people! I am not sad that db clay is gone; I am sad that people around me have gone dark and that the world truly does revolve around the currency my wallets were designed to hold. It, money that is, truly rules all and that to me, is sad.
To paint it personally, the sad and ironic realization I’ve come to is that the majority of people only want you around when you are on the up and up… when you pose potential benefit to them. But when you’re on the way down, you are toxic and no one wants be near you. No one cares to take interest because you know longer represent success for them. Everyone’s worth is sadly measured in dollars and cents. To site a specific example: I use to get friendly calls all the time but when db clay was shutting down, the only people (save a few) that called me for months and months and months were creditors. Very few friendly calls came in.
When I started db clay I was just a kid and I didn’t know any better. Initially it wasn’t about duct tape or business and it certainly wasn’t about money. Now all of this pitiful self ranting aside, I would like to admit that for me, it did become about money and perhaps I am guilty too. I wanted db clay to be huge! And when it was taken from me I was mortified. I was broken. Yes, the money part of it mattered, but all I wanted, more than anything, was for someone to call me and offer a helping hand. Very few did and I’d like to call those people in particular, elevens. People who called me with genuine intentions. People that didn’t care that I was broke. People that offered to give rather than to take. True friends.
I have a lot of people in my life who are ten out of ten. But I can count on one hand those that are eleven out of ten and to them I say, thank you for caring about me and not just about how full my wallet is/was. You are true friends and to those of you who fall in this elite class, again, thank you for supporting me even when it meant being around someone whose ship was sinking.
I am a sloppy, confused, anxiety-ridden mess when it comes to approaching design. I am impatient, uneducated and scatter-brained. But that said, I feel I creatively operate best on ignorance, haste, and pursuing the non-traditional. I lack technical know-how, I don’t care, and more or less, consider myself an amateur. On that note: our current Ms Frey Marble collection looks and feels as if all these self-deprecating notions were true - have a look! Crusty raw paint, smears, misalignment, etc. On the other hand, Ms Frey Pacific and Ms Frey Metals were printed by professional db clay print makers - notice how all 3 colors line up? - I couldn’t do that even if I tried!
Press has always been good to db clay and we appreciate it dearly. That said, since our new 1,000 wallet website launched less than a month ago, we have experienced some good coverage both online (i.e. Blogs) and in traditional form (i.e. newspapers) - fashion, style, design, tech, gift, consumer product, etc. Below is quick rundown of some press received this month, with a special thanks mention to Uncrate.com for driving some serious traffic to our site - thanks as well to everyone linked-to below:
Hello everyone,
db clay could use a big favor right now - can you help us drive organic traffic to our new wallet website? Tell your friends? We are looking to get the word out! dbclay.com
Perhaps pick up a wallet yourself, get a couple as gifts, or maybe post about us on your Blog? Maybe give your mom a call and tell her you would love to have Puzzle Wallet #315 tucked in your stocking? Maybe get her one too? dbclay.com
Thank you 787 Billion times over - I am trying to keep the business alive - enjoying the ride - cheers to 2009 - I will be forever grateful! dbclay.com
WATCH VIDEO BELOW FOR DETAILED EXPLANATION
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THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING AND GETTING YOUR HOLIDAY GIFTS EARLY!!! dbclay.com Twitter Facebook YouTube
Childhood Memories mean the world to me - they provide the foundation for which db clay’s design direction is built upon - my past is a big creative cesspool that I often drink from. For example, I pulled some patches from the childhood drawing pictured below and we printed a few one of a kind wallets (pictured above and below) using said patches as a layering element/texture. They look a little like bugs too. They look a little like microchips. VIEW ALL WALLETS VIEW ALL WALLETS VIEW ALL WALLETS
The wallet website screen-shots pictured below provide a bit of a look into our newest batch of one of a kind wallets - this particular batch is titled Ms Frey Marble - these were all printed in Portland - each wallet shown is one of a kind and is available for HOLIDAY GIFT PREORDERS VIEW ALL VIEW ALL VIEW ALL VIEW ALL VIEW ALL
——————————————————————————————————————————————————- Each season we hand print small batches of Ms Frey wallets in various colorways (as shown) with acrylic paint. The unique silk screening technique we used in the production of this particular batch is what we call “Marbling.” It involves about 20 different colors of paint being mixed together in freestyle form while being printed; producing odd streaked color formations. Each Ms Frey Marble wallet is unlike the rest so expect the one you get to be a one of a kind.
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A few years back I printed an old door with some leftover tee shirt screenprinting paint we had sitting on the shelf in the shop. The printing process used in the video below is very similar to the “marbling” technique used on our Ms Frey Marble wallets - “producing odd streaked color formations”
BUY 114
Have always had a thing for drawing mazes; I am crazy for mazes. The wallet pictured below was hand screen printed with texture from an old maze I drew during childhood: BUY 114
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Recently db clay released a limited edition run of hand printed wallets - this collection is titled Ms Frey Marble - I had a great time printing these little beauties (and hope they now find a good home in your pocket) - the video below shows a bit as to how these were printed:
On a separate but somewhat related note, I printed the one of a kind shirt below for my Grandma. I was visiting her in early July and she told me how much she liked the look of this marbling technique - she liked the colors all running into each other - I told her I would print her one. She ran to her closet and pulled out a blank white tee shirt of hers that she hasn’t worn in years. I packed it in my dufflebag, drove back from Wyoming, printed it up for her and just mailed it back to her yesterday. It should arrive in a few days - hope she likes it!
I used the same technique to print her shirt as I did our Ms Frey Marble Wallets.
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Wings are sophisticated little machines but they don’t always guarantee freedom. Quick story on that note: years ago, the big bug pictured below was trapped in our warehouse and died beating its wings against our closed windows. It couldn’t get out - it was too high up - we couldn’t help it either. Eventually it wore out and fell out of the sky… I scanned it in as I do most things:
A couple of years later we magnified the wing, vectorized its outline, burned a screen, and printed the one of a kind wallet below using macrowing likeness:
