Four Reasons Plywerk Makes the Best Father’s Day Gift

Plywerk is the perfect gift for Father’s Day. Why, you ask? Besides being 20% off through May 30th, here are 4 reasons:

1) Your pictures can be special again.

Back when cameras needed film that required money and had to be developed, all the photos that actually came out looking right were valuable enough to be framed, or at least filed away neatly in albums. These days, pictures shared only by computer are so ubiquitous that they have lost some of their sense of importance. Your dad appreciates all those updates in email attachments and on Facebook/Instagram, but your cherished moments deserve to stand out from the constant stream of documentation that we now provide for our entire lives. The truly meaningful pictures – the ones that capture the personalities and accomplishments of the people in them in addition to their new haircuts – are worth displaying in person. You’re probably getting a bit old for those gold-spray-painted macaroni-lined frames, so this Father’s Day let Plywerk help you raise the pictures Dad will love up out of the noise of everyday life and into the realm of treasured memories.

bamboo art panel

2) Plywerk makes high quality photo displays.

Plywerk photo mounts are classy. Artists use this stuff in galleries. Nothing says, ‘yes, my kid adores me and also has taste’ quite like hand-made bamboo or maple Plywerk hanging on the wall of Dad’s home or office. The absence of a framed border makes the pictures feel open and unconstrained, and the photographs are undistorted by glass or its accompanying glare. While Plywerk do an admirable job of keeping the focus of the viewer on the picture, the panels themselves are finely crafted from lovely material, so Dad will know you gave him only the best.

bamboo artwork beach

3) Plywerk is eco-conscious.

Did your dad constantly tell you to turn off the lights when you weren’t in the room and to finish all your food? Show him you learned not to be wasteful by giving him a gift created from sustainable materials using environmentally responsible practices. That, or laugh together about getting a bunch of organic-food-munching bike-riding Portlanders to do some real work!

4) Plywerk are on sale!

bamboo fathers day gift

Demonstrate how savvy you are with your money by saving 20% off the standard Plywerk prices. Okay, it would be weird to tell him the amount you spent on the gift. Isn’t that unspoken understanding the way of dads, though? You don’t have to talk about specific instances where the life lessons he’s taught you have come to your aid; he just sees you living your life well and he knows. You show him your appreciation for his encouragement and support with your competence, and he lets you know he understands with a slight smile and an approving nod that you should continue. Or… or is that just the dynamic my dad and I have? Anyway, remember to save 20% with our Father’s Day sale!

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How Plywerk Inspired One Employee to Build a Stunning Work of Art

It took less than a week of working at Plywerk for me to come up with my dinosaur project. I hadn’t realized before how sturdy and beautiful plywood can be. As I worked, I kept thinking about ways I could use that material to create some sort of sculpture. When I remembered the models of dinosaur skeletons that I used to buy in science museum gift shops, I immediately moved on to brainstorming which dinosaur to build. I wanted a quadruped for stability, one that was impressively large but not overwhelmingly enormous, and an unusual dinosaur instead of the same few that are constantly referenced. I ended up choosing styracosaurus because the frill looks awesome and works really well with the medium of 2D pieces in a 3D configuration.

bamboo art

bamboo art

Building a life-sized version of a toy takes some planning. I clearly couldn’t use the same design as the two foot long model, which takes advantage of its near-weightless pieces by having some of them upside down – held together with nothing more than friction. I also did my best to make the skeleton accurate with the help of pictures from natural history museums. Once finished, I scaled up my graph-paper blueprints onto plywood. While the high quality plywood we use for photo mounts is perfect for a picture-sized piece that is going to be viewed up close for decades, it was a bit excessive for a project that required nine full 4′ x 8′ sheets and that I have every intention of burning in a few months. The birch plywood I ended up using has an aesthetically pleasing wood grain veneer, but the material is warped, prone to splintering apart, and generally not up to Plywerk standards.

bamboo art

I certainly got to know my neighbors better during my time spent in front of my garage using a jig saw. I spent more than one hundred hours on the project, finishing just in time to set up the dinosaur for a celebration at Reed College. I wanted to give back to the community after having enjoyed the art projects that materialized on campus when I was a student. The wind was a bit unkind to my poor dinosaur, but it still looked great lying on the ground like a newly discovered fossil. I will fix up some weak points and attach the legs to the ground with rebar when I take the project to Burning Man this summer. I can’t tell you how excited I am to see it go up in flames, a powerful reminder that we need to appreciate beauty and accomplishment in the moment.

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Three Reasons to Mount Your Memories on Plywerk

There are some moments in the life of a family that are meant to be preserved – Sally’s high school graduation, Grandpa’s 90th, baby’s first multi-tiered snot bubble. You pick the best of the best to receive the permanent treatment, and Plywerk’s bamboo art panels are the perfect home for your best photos. Pass a Plywerk around to your friends and family to hear, “Ooh, ahh!” The super-smooth sanded finish is quality you can touch, and the eco-conscious materials make for a designer home decor product you can feel great about!

bamboo photo mounting

The Perfect Frame Alternative

In the same way that your great-aunt Gertrude’s from-scratch noodles are better than store-bought, your handmade in Portland, Oregon Plywerk is the perfect alternative to a store-bought frame. By employing edge-to-edge photo mounting, we ensure your photo looks good anywhere in your home or office. Is your style sleek and modern? Classic and timeless? Bizarre and unpalatable? No problem! Photos mounted on Plywerk look sexy in any habitat. With a wide range of sizes and your choice of bamboo or maple, there are dozens of unique Plywerk products available to you. Finally, the perfect way to fill that 5×15, ¾ inch deep space between the macaroni painting and the wedding portraits.

Plywerk is Perfect For Art

At Plywerk, we know you consider your memories to be works of art, and that’s how we treat them. Plywerk is even a great fit for your actual works of art! With no glass to glint and glare, there’s nothing standing between your inkwash illustrations or digital paintings and the eye of the beholder.

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Plywerk is Convenient

Time is a limited resource, and yet picture frames can’t seem to grasp this concept. Getting photos printed, traveling to the store, finding the right fit, and putting it all together make framing cumbersome. The keyholed, easy-to-hang panels are a great option for gallery spaces of all shapes and sizes, professional or converted spare room or otherwise. Check out our art hub to see the work of artists who agree that art mounted on bamboo is a match made in heaven!

wood photo panel

You seem convinced! Why not take that first step to get started?

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Patricia Blem @ Art & the Art of Healing

Patricia-Blem-Plywerk-NL

Sunnyside Holistic Group will be hosting their annual art event on May 17th from 5-8pm. This year’s show, entitled Art & the Art of Healing, will include some wonderful photography by Patricia Blem. After working as an actor and director for nearly 30 years, Patricia’s long sabbatical morphed into semi, and eventually permanent, retirement where photography became her creative outlet. Patricia’s striking nature photography is mounted on 3/4” bamboo Plywerk and will be on display throughout the Art & the Art of Healing exhibition.

Patricia Blem Photography
Sunnyside Holistic Group
2450 SE Belmont St
Portland, OR 97214

 

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Tom Denning @ Dulwich Festival

Tom-Denning-Plywerk-NL (1)

Tom Denning will be showcasing his beautiful urban and natural landscape photography at the South London Artists’ Open House. The Open House is part of Dulwich Festival that runs the weekend of May 11-12th and May 18-19th. Dulwich and its surrounding areas come alive during the festival, and this year there are over 200 artists throwing open their doors during the two weekends of Open House. Tom’s photography for Open House is lovingly mounted on our 3/4” bamboo Plywerk panels and looks simply splendid. Sorry to toss ‘simply splendid’ at you, I just got caught up with thoughts of London and British English bubbled out.

Tom Denning Photography
Dulwich Festival 2013
209 Friern Road
London, UK SE22 0BD

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