Discover Top Posts Tagged with #michael's

Busty horsies at Michael's taking inspiration from Camille Clifford

#michael's #lol #home decor #s-shaped corsets #gibson girl

We went on a quest for art supplies today and felt the powerful dissonance between a corporate store and an independently-owned one. To save some time driving into the big city, we stopped at a smaller town's Michael's. I used to work near it and was there often but haven't worked nearby since 2018. Let me tell you--that place has really gone to shit. No more than 2 employees staffed that I saw, shelves messy, prices insanely high for trash products. Incorrect prices, if priced at all. The locked cabinets were only bendable plexiglass. They don't even have clerks behind the counter anymore--it's touch-screens and self-checkout only, with one nervous, underpaid young employee rehearsing customer service phrases over your shoulder. I left Michael's feeling like I'd aged a month in half an hour.

So, since we still had stuff on our list, we decided to zip over to the city anyway and hit up Artist & Craftsman. If you haven't heard of this business, it's an employee-owned chain that has very decent prices and a great array of high-quality art supplies. They host lessons, demos, and gatherings, the company makes a point to buy historic buildings and refurbish them instead of maintaining a unified look across stores, and the staff wear name tags but not uniforms. When you walk into the brightly-painted store, there are handmade signs and little drawings by the staff on every surface.

I crouched by their Posca display, working down my list, and one of the she/theys behind the counter said, "We really like your newest piece!" (Most of the staff there knows who I am and follow me online.) "Oh," I replied, "the ferret on the resin?" "Yeah yeah, that was awesome, what a great idea. And you can do so much with resin." "Absolutely!" And I went on to talk about the collaboration aspects and materials. They mentioned some local places like a secondhand craft store that would be a great place to source objects. Echo and I grabbed most of our list and a new addition: crackle paste. The cashier and I had a great conversation exchanging ideas on how to use it in our respective projects (for me, mixed media paintings, and in their case, dioramas). I left the store feeling at ease and excited about our new supplies.

On the drive home, I tried to imagine a life in which I only shopped at Michael's and never A&C. The accumulation of repeated psychic damage from suffering that store would wear me down. I would feel disgusted to drop $200 on Posca pens at Michael's. But I was thrilled to give A&C the same amount for the same product. Because of the material conditions of each store, my consciousness shifted, and that shift dictated my willingness to shop there. It's that easy.

#michael's #artist & craftsman #art #art supplies #capitalism #shopping #dialectical materialism

Okay, who at Michael's hired the gen z girl who's favorite Monster High character is Draculaura?

#via rambles #code orange #halloween #michael's #monster high

Why the fuck are we buying stuff to DIY with from shein???

Like yeah, technically still DIY, dosent change the fact that you BOUGHT IT FROM FUCKING SHEIN -

Genuinely, go to a Michael's- go to any craft store-

"Oh Michael's is to expensive for me!!" They genuinely are selling pony beads, pretty much all other bead types, yarn (knitting and crochet types) string, fabric, synthetic fur, ribbons of like 10 different sizes, hot glue guns, Styrofoam peices, and more,

"Oh i need a shirt to customize or jeans or a bag -" have you ever heard of a thrift store???

Like i would say sorry to be rude except im fucking not because why are we buying shit from SHEIN???