We’re so excited to announce our newest artist collaboration with Tasha Chapman! Tasha, a.k.a. Jewelwing, is a full-time artist and illustrator and a lover of the sea. Living and creating near the beach, Tasha is drawn to animals, nature, and anything alluding to the ocean. When Tasha’s not making art, she’s likely surfing on, diving into, or gazing at the water. She’s always been fascinated by the shapes and textures of the natural world and the creatures inhabiting it.



Favorite mediums include pen and ink and watercolor; although, Tasha also produces a lot of digital work. Personality and a handmade feel shine through in all her projects. Her designs have been sold at Urban Outfitters, Threadless, shirt.woot, Society6, and Goodjoe, among others. The Atlantic Ocean is Tasha’s new Etsy store for all things sea-inspired. The best way to learn about her and her work is to explore her website, jewelwing.com.



Tasha’s beautiful “Feathers” is featured on our bamboo iPhone case and leather back. We’re offering the “Feathers” bamboo iPhone case at $20 off this week!

Written by Mary Yajko. She is a Grove customer support rep and crazed blogger originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.

Among the myriad of ways to enjoy a leisurely summer day in Portland, from Edgefield outdoor concerts to wandering around an air conditioned OMSI or Evergreen Aviation Museum exhibit (then jumping into their pool and water slide!), or even taking advantage of $2 Tuesdays at the Oregon Zoo, we've gathered Grove’s top 5 favorites!  



5) For those of us in the rainy Northwest, we try to prolong our time outdoors as much as possible when the weather is nice and sunny, so what better way to do that than camping!  Mike embraces all sorts of camping, including car camping, beach camping, and the more intense “hiking into a forest and setting up camp” camping.  Regardless of the approach, he finds beer is a camping necessity! More on that later...

4) Tommy enjoys his summers with some old school pizzazz a la Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer - he floats down rivers!  All you need is a large rubber tire, a rope (to tie onto your partner’s tire or to trail a 6-pack of brewskies - seeing a trend here?), some sunglasses, and don’t forget your SPF!  Tommy’s favorite is actually a bit South of here - the McKenzie River, it runs through Eugene, Oregon - home of his alma mater, University of Oregon. A river float anywhere around these parts are peaceful and beautiful in the warming PDX Spring and Summer.

3) Joe looks forward to summer bicycling tours with his lady friend. Ooh la la! This year they are taking a few close friends with them up to the San Juan Islands and perhaps even up to Victoria B.C. They’ll take the train up and then ride around the islands and explore all the natural beauty and serene of the upper Pacific Northwest.

2) Oregon’s Brewers Festival or, as it’s more commonly known, “Brewfest!” (There were more than a few resounding cheers of agreement to this suggestion from our Grove team.) 20 styles of handcrafted Beer, sun, fun, and free admission! A souvenir mug is required to taste the beers for $6, and beer is purchased with wooden tokens ($1 = one token). Coming to you the last full weekend of July! 

1) And our number one favorite thing to do in Portland on a summer day is just simply being out and about in the sun (unless you’re Yuji, in which case you’ll be indoors playing video games all day, like Diablo III). It’s one of life’s simple pleasures that we never take for granted! Whether you, like Mary, can’t wait to bike without your rain gear and fenders to avoid splashing water and mud on your back; or, like Kim, will be living at a nearby park (Laurelhurst or Colonel Summers) reading, picnic-ing, bbq-ing, or walking and running; or, like Ken, will be seeking out new secret swimming holes (he wouldn’t reveal his secrets!) to jump off of cliffs in, there are plenty of things to do in the beautiful city we call home!  

Sylvia Choi is a member of the Customer Service triumvirate with a penchant for correcting spelling errors. She wishes she had superhero powers to fight against modern day slavery. For now, she aims to be a voice for the voiceless.

This month we are celebrating our love of walking and riding bikes. Many of us Grovers enjoy a daily commute alternative to driving a car so that we can arrive fresh and ready to make more handmade goodies for you!

I asked a small panel of informed Grovers why they choose to walk or ride a bike to work, and received some great answers. Overall, we do it because we love to be outdoors.  It’s good for our health and great for Momma Gaia. It can be faster than driving a car, and is economically savvy. As we collect our thoughts and ride through beautiful neighborhoods, we get excersize to boot. It helps us appreciate our surroundings. Best of all, riding a bike can help a person feel free, independent, and self sufficient.




Here are our favorite quotes from the inquiry:

“There are street treasures to be found...”
“I bike because I only live a couple miles from work.”
“My steed’s name is Olde Blue.”
“I feel like I am alive when I bike.” 

-Anonymous Grovers

Out of the 11 Grove employees who commute daily to work by biking or walking this is how far we travel (in miles). (Note: This is a conservative estimate assuming we go straight from home to work and back, five days a week.)

Collectively we travel:
46.5 miles a day
232.5 miles a week
12,090 miles a year

That’s 12,090 miles of travel every year without pollutants or use of fossil fuels!  Wow!

Sean summed it up by saying, “I like the feeling of getting somewhere by your own means, using your own power. Like the feeling of the wind on your face. Like an eagle.”  Indeed. goGrove!

Written by Mike Schultz. He is an oil painter from Ithaca, New York. When he is not working for Grove, he’s painting and drawing to his heart’s content. You can see his work on his blog and his website.

Ever wake up and feel like you’ve had a bit too much to dream? Cailan Burns is an illustrator and musician hailing from Adelaide, Australia, and he feels this way often. Luckily, he’s able to channel that energy into painting, drawing, and the digital arts. His works are crafted through a range of mediums, including wood, ink, canvas, acrylics, watercolor, digital collage, paper collage, and Flash, Photoshop, and Illustrator composition. Cailan’s inspirations include children’s books, 1960s psychedelic poster art, Russian and Czech animation, folk tales, cultural masks and costumes, and Japanese anime and Yōkai (ghost stories).

“Mothface” by Cailan Burns

We highly recommend exploring Cailan’s work on TooMuchToDream.com; in his words, it’s “a bit like astral travelling with Dr.Suess.” His art conjures a psychedelic world of fuzz, flowers, colour, and organic shapes and forms. His designs “Drum Garden”, “Middle Dream”, and “Follow That Sound” are now a part of our Artist Series for our iPhone bamboo case, iPad bamboo case, and bamboo wall art.

We’re so proud to work with Cailan and excited to add these pieces to our series! The “Drum Garden” bamboo iPhone case and the “Middle Dream” bamboo iPad case will be $20 off this week only!

Written by Mary Yajko. She is a Grove customer support rep and crazed blogger originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.

Quick to laugh and eager to work, Scott spends his days sanding through small mountains of our handmade wood watches and iPhone cases. He’s a push-up enthusiast, a cabbage eating king, and Grove’s very own Master of Compost!

One word that sums up his life pursuit is “modding”. Scott likes to have fun and make everything unique by adapting whatever it is to fit his needs. He’s a true embodiment of the D.I.Y. spirit who modifies everything from electronics to his crazy bike, Jankosaurus Rex. He even customized a Grove case for a phone that’s not an iPhone! Check out his handiwork below - he made a similar case for his mom for Mother's Day too (sorry folks, these aren't for sale).  

Currently, Scott works as a production assistant, but his proactive nature had also led to his involvement in other interesting projects around the shop. For example, he built a compost bin out of old wooden palettes. “My interest in composting stems from minimizing the waste stream that I create.” He added that he first learned about composting and worms from his mom when she was a Girl Scout leader for his older sister’s troop. 

Scott and Ken spent a Sunday planting moso bamboo outside the woodshop window, which is the same type of bamboo we used for our iPhone and iPad cases. In its native habitat, this type of timber bamboo can grow over 70 feet tall!

All of these efforts are part of a larger push to transform the urban decay around our building, as people typically treat clean spaces with more respect. Two years ago, the area to the side of our loading dock was one enormous blackberry bush which had collected decades of garbage. Today, Scott has put the finishing touches on what is now a much more pleasant space.

Scott hails from central PA, and has a bachelor degree in entrepreneurship from Shippensburg University. “My favorite part about working for Grove is the malleability of both the position and the company.” Adaptation is how we roll!  goGrove!

Written by Mike Schultz. He is an oil painter from Ithaca, New York.  When he is not working for Grove, he’s painting and drawing to his heart’s content.  You can see his work on his blog and his website.

We were super excited to begin our four-week Grove Giveaway this past Monday! To enter, simply visit our Giveaway page and get all social with us by signing up for our newsletter through our special contest page, or sharing the contest via Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. We’re offering a different prize at the end of each week-long phase, so get your Tweetin’, Facebookin’, Pinterestin’ shoes on!



This week’s prize is our beloved “Tree” Bamboo iPhone Case, which definitely has a special place in our hearts. We’re keeping the next three prizes a mystery (for now), because we know you just love the suspense. We might even throw a new product in the mix!

Oh boy! We can’t wait to pick the lucky winners!  

Written by Mary Yajko. She is a Grove customer support rep and crazed blogger originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.

Designer, illustrator, and screen printer, Graham Erwin offers up our newest addition to our Artist Series. Calling Columbus, Ohio home, Graham works for a custom t-shirt shop by day as pre-production manager and designer. At night, he explores his own brand of detail obsessive illustration. His work is heavily influenced by the screen printing process, and features flat shaping, fine vector lines, and loads of personal iconography. Time spent in front of video games as a child inspired Graham's illustrations to have a quirky geometric quality - instantly recognizable as his own.

Graham’s work has caught the attention of MondoTees in Austin and Gallery1988 in Los Angeles, where he is currently exhibiting several officially licensed posters paying tribute to a range of pop culture characters. His work can be explored through his website. Graham’s blog is also updated often, and some of his pieces can be purchased through his Etsy shop. 

Grove is incredibly proud to present “Lucky Cat” by Graham Erwin on the iPhone bamboo case and leather back. “Lucky Cat” bamboo iPhone case will be $20 off this week!

Written by Mary Yajko. She is a Grove customer support rep and crazed blogger originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.

Last week the Compound Gallery in downtown Portland opened a group show called Lazerz! -- artwork made by and about the laser. Of course, that’s right up our alley!  

We here at Grove were happy to exhibit several laser cut pieces from our wall art series by some of the awesome artists who design images for our hand made iPhone and Apple accessories. Grove artists featured at the show include Cole Gerst, Christopher Bettig, Jonny Wan, Ryan Bubnis, Jonathan Calugi, and Amy Ruppel.

Enthusiastic art lovers showed up in droves for the opening night of the exhibition during the monthly First Thursday art openings. Amy Ruppel made quite a splash with this beautiful custom piece made with wenge wood and white wax:

Also among Grove’s favorites was “Tupac Jesus”, made especially for Berto to which he added a 14k gold foil halo!



All of Grove’s limited edition wall art is laser cut and engraved from 1/4” thick bamboo plywood. Check it out here!

Written by Mike Schultz. He is an oil painter from Ithaca, New York.  When he is not working for Grove, he’s painting and drawing to his heart’s content.  You can see his work on his blog and his website.

The art of Andrea innocent tells quirky and bizarre stories through detailed illustrations.  Melbourne, Australia is Andrea’s home base, where she has served as a committee member of Illustrators Australia since 2009. Andrea’s character-driven work often explores various aspects of Asian culture through imagination and playfulness. Color, texture, and pattern are emphasized in her pieces, which can be explored on her blog and website, otoshimono.org.

Girl with a Mirror by Andrea Innocent (Part of a series of illustrations inspired by Japanese folktales)

Andrea has worked with an extensive client list to design advertising and packaging. Editorially, her work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Nylon Magazine, and Creative Magazine, among others. Recent exhibitions of her work include Amalgamation at Compound Gallery, Illustrated Type at Gallery Nucleus, and The Hideout at C3 Contemporary art space. 

Grove is thrilled to feature “Cloud Girl” by Andrea Innocent on our iPhone case and leather back. Make all your daydreams come true with the “Cloud Girl” bamboo iPhone case, which is $20 off this week only!

Written by Mary Yajko. She is a Grove customer support rep and crazed blogger originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.

“I believe, I see, I shoot, I draw, I love...things...simple things.”

Chris Leskovsek, founder of NadaMeansNothing, is the newest artist collaborating with Grove! A full-time art director, graphic designer, and photographer, Chris is a native of Santiago, Chile, living and working in Auckland, New Zealand. 

Here in Portland, his work has been featured at Gigantic Gallery in the shows “Two Thumbs Up: Movie Posters” and “El Dia De Los Muertos”, but Chris’ reach as an artist is recognized internationally. A 2011 Cannes Finalist and collaborator with Ogilvy, EMI, Hurley International, Warner Music, Euro RSCG, and many others, Chris has also been shown in the Kentucky Museum of Arts & Crafts and the Mira Que Lindas album cover exhibition, among other international projects. His abstract illustrations, often employing a singular eye, hand, or human silhouette as a focal point, evoke both a vintage feel and that of peeking into an otherworldly dimension.

Chris’ ethereal illustration “See Through” is now available as a Grove iPhone Case. Take advantage of the Design of the Week promotional discount of $20 off, this week only! 

Written by Sylvia Choi. She is a member of the Customer Service triumvirate with a penchant for correcting spelling errors. She wishes she had superhero powers to fight against modern day slavery. For now, she aims to be a voice for the voiceless.

We wanted to share one of our fun traditions here at Grove! Once a month, we have a barbeque for lunch, prepared and cooked by a member (or two) of our team. It’s a great way to feast, relax, bond, and nourish ourselves for the rest of the workday. That’s us in the photo below, chowing down on the loading dock right outside our woodshop.

Despite the raging appetites of some of our growing boys in the shop, there’s always plenty to go around and mouthwatering options for our team-members with dietary restrictions. We cook outside on the grill on our loading dock, rain or shine, but are definitely not limited to the typical burgers and hotdogs. Last month, Ariella made lamb meatballs and falafel complete with pitas, homemade hummus, all the fixins, and even a chocolate wafer cake for dessert. The previous month, Schultzy and Sean prepared tacos with soft corn tortilla shells made from scratch. At our next BBQ, Wendy, Ellie, and San are going to prepare a Korean BBQ extravaganza that will go down in history.



Our BBQ tradition started with our beloved Charlie, our former Production Assistant by day and talented chef by night (check his grill skills out in the photo below!). Charlie has since moved on to sunny SoCal, while we’re stuck here trying to top his legendary Grove BBQs of days past. 

We rotate “chefs” each month for shopping, prep, and outdoor cooking, and the whole team helps out by lining up all civil-like and chanting things like “meat, meat, where’s the meat!?!”. We all like to do our part; it often takes the whole crew to prevent Barrett, our CNC machine master and unofficial competitive eater, from eating himself into an afternoon food coma.

All kidding aside, it’s really amazing to work with a tight-knit group and a company that cares for its employees. Go Grove! 

Written by Mary Yajko. She is a Grove customer support rep and crazed blogger originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.

Team Grove is growing! Meet our new Production Assistant and photographer, Lauren. She’s already been busy working with the shipping crew and rubbing oil into your iPhone cases. At the moment, she’s focused on product photography, like the Leather Folio and Wood Watch, for our website.

A native of sunny, southern California, Lauren moved to Portland last August. She graduated from Kenyon College with a degree in English and Art, and a concentration in photography. In her past life, she worked at a “nerd camp” in Los Angeles, teaching physics and math to highly gifted youngsters from around the world.

Here are some fun facts about Lauren:

• She currently lives in a co-op with seven people, six chickens, five rabbits, and two spiders named Stephanie and Onion, the guardian of the onion basket.  
• Running, writing, and photography are some of her favorite hobbies, and she also plays the piano and loves to travel.  
• Her favorite destinations thus far are China, Vietnam, Slovenia, and Ghana. 
• Lauren recently crocheted her first hat with orange and white yarn, and just painted her whole house, left handed, even though she’s a righty.  

Go Grove!

Written by Mike Schultz. He is an oil painter from Ithaca, New York.  When he is not working for Grove, he’s painting and drawing to his heart’s content.  You can see his work on his blog and his website.

The new About page is our co-founder Ken’s baby; he spearheaded the concept, and wrote the Story and bios with Schultzy. Yuji built the page in Django, and Max designed it to match the new, more organic look we’re striving towards with our whole website redesign. We wanted the About page to be easy to update and super fun to read and look at. The Grove Story is also an important feature of the page, because we are passionate about our company and take pride in what we do.

C’mon, everyone loves to look at pretty pictures and mouthwatering illustrations, and you know you want to read through each and every one of those truly informative bios... maybe even click on some of our team members’ personal websites. Grove bios are the new Pinterest. Eeeeeeeee!

Written by Mary Yajko. She is a Grove customer support rep and crazed blogger originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.

Here at Grove, we like to keep a positive and creative atmosphere in our Workshop. Hard work is often balanced with birthday celebrations, tasty employee-cooked meals, and good conversation. One such innovator is Arty Johnstone, an iPhone bezel-sanding champion who also happens to be a prolific artist. Currently, he’s working on a series of life drawings in our wood shop.

A recent Reed College graduate, Arty fills sketchbooks with images of people and their environments. Here at the Grove Workshop, that often translates into beautiful line drawings of our team sanding iPhone cases or one of our CNC machines precisely carving out Wood Speakers - all rendered in ink or colored pencil.  

 

Arty finds time to draw during lunch and midday breaks, sketching during the quiet times of the day.  “I like to catch people unaware, when they’re settled and their guard is down,” he says. “No facade. That way, I can capture the personality of my subject.”

Research shows the majority of new iPad (third generation) owners are satisfied with their purchase and have few complaints. A survey by ChangeWave Research found that 98% of the professional and early-adopter crowd were “very satisfied” (82%) or “somewhat satisfied” (16%) with the new iPad. This compares with a 95% general satisfaction rate for the iPad 2 last year.



Problems with the new iPad are few and far between, with price being cited as the biggest issue by 26% of ChangeWave survey respondents.  The infamous “heat issue” was only recognized by 11% of respondents, with the majority of users never encountering the problem. Wireless data costs and storage capacity were among other minor complaints.



Consumer Reports, which placed the new iPad at the top of its tablet ratings, described its performance as “superb” and its retina display as “excellent,” applauding its impressive battery life to boot. They wrote the following about the heat issue:

“We also carried out further tests that confirmed the new iPad is warmer in its hottest spots than the iPad 2. But we didn't find those temperatures to be cause for concern (see our post, The new iPad can get very warm, further tests show, but is still safe).”

It makes sense that 51% of U.S. households now own an Apple product! This is a result of CNBC’s All-America Economic Survey.We were super excited to open our iPad 3 the day it arrived at Grove, and it’s been performing as smooth as Christopher Walken ever since!

CNN loves Grove!  Yes, they do!

Recently, Grove fans, you may have noticed that we were featured on CNN Money. Jose Pagliery posted a step-by-step series of ten photographs and captions to help illustrate Grove’s elaborate and old-fashioned design and production process for the new iPad case. He was intrigued by our small local company of “youngsters” who really are working from the ground up - from sketching out designs to piecing together our cases with lots of personal attention and finishing touches.  

Even though the article centers on how we create and make our cases, this is the first major article that focuses on Grove as a company rather than putting the spotlight on our wonderful products.  We hope it gives you all, patient customers and fans, a little glimpse into our emphasis on hand craftsmanship, and perhaps a bit more understanding behind our lead times (which we’re always improving, of course)!

Grove on!

Written by Sylvia Choi. She is a member of the Customer Service triumvirate with a penchant for correcting spelling errors. She wishes she had superhero powers to fight against modern day slavery. For now, she aims to be a voice for the voiceless.

It’s April in Portland, which means the cherry blossoms are in bloom and excitement is in the air for the warm, sunny days to come! Portland’s Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park, home to one hundred ornamental cherry trees, separates downtown from the west bank of the Willamette River. The trees’ pink bloomage gives Portland the perfect pick-me-up during the last stretch of overcast winter.

Portland’s tie to its sister city Sapporo Japan is especially potent this time of year. This connection is celebrated with The Friendship Circle memorial at the north end of the Park (the memorial includes two 20-foot stainless steel towers that generate electronic tones!). The Japanese American Historical Plaza is located south of the cherry trees and is dedicated to Japanese immigrants and US-born citizens of Japanese descent who were deported to inland internment camps during World War II.

Ken Tomita, one of Grove’s co-founders, and Yuji, his brother and Grove’s web engineer, are both Japanese-American. They were raised here in Portland by their mother, Machiko Tomita, who helped them maintain a strong connection with their Japanese culture and language. (Machiko is also a part of Grove, hand-oiling cases with care!) Ken makes sure the Grove team makes it down to “hanami” at Waterfront Park each spring, which is the important tradition of picnicking, singing songs, and drinking sake under the blossoms.

In Japan, cherry blossoms can symbolize the ephemeral nature of life - extreme beauty, transience, and mortality. These are interesting ideas to think about during Spring’s new beginnings and sunny adventures.

Written by Mary Yajko. She is a Grove customer support rep and crazed blogger originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.

We’d like to introduce an integral member of our team, Ginger! She’s the iPad Master, the Queen of the Bamboo Backs, and we’re lucky to have her with us.

Ginger aka Danger Pennsylvania aka “Gingembre”, hails from central PA. She’s a dedicated sun worshipper and devoted motivator (some might say mastermind) of all outdoor activities. Her closet is brimming over with Springtime games like badminton, a glow-in-the-dark frisbee, and the ever-dangerous lawn darts!

Last month marked her one-year anniversary at Grove which she celebrated by playing kickball with mascot Sam 2 in the street.

Important facts about Ginger: She’s a cyclist who eats cheese like it’s candy, rocks Swayze Crazy Patrick Swayze Night with her buddy Aaron, and knows the real deal about Paul Newman. Also, her beau has a dashing golden mane, and above all she loves summer evenings and grilling on the porch.

In the shop, she keep things smart and upbeat with talkies, like Radiolab and Stuff You Should Know. She also rocks out to Loretta Lynn, Bob Dylan, and local Portland bands like Run On Sentence and Sean Flynn and the Royal We.

The backstory: Back in the olden times, Ginger was the barista who made Grove founders Ken and Joe the coffee that fueled their iPhone case dreams. This was back in the day when Ken’s woodshop was still in a humble dungeon below a coffee shop, and Joe was engraving out of his bedroom.

Way back when, she worked for the infamously well dressed woodworker, George, and slowly began to help Ken and Joe out in their shop when Grove was just a baby company. The rest is history!

Currently, she is scheming to construct a piñata of an enormous wiener dog. Good luck with your endeavor, Ginger!

Written by Mike Schultz. He is an oil painter from Ithaca, New York. When he is not working for Grove, he’s painting and drawing to his heart’s content. You can see his work on his blog and his website.