To be loved by you… Remember that old James Taylor song? Well, it’s true. While I’m wallowing in my misery of a summer cold and photo editing hades I received the sweetest note through my Etsy Shop from a former customer –
Hey Carrie
I was just going through my messages and came across yours. You’ll be happy to know the notebook cover you made for me is still going strong. I always receive a ton of compliments on it whenever I take it out. Thought you might like to know.
Thanks
A
Now mind you, she bought this FOUR year ago!!! I was so happy that she still loves it and still uses it! That was awesome music to this artist’s heart. So if you have ever thought about sending someone a note thanking them for something they made that you enjoy whether it is a few days or a few years later, please do so. A little piece of us goes into everything we make and we love to know it’s being enjoyed.
Category: Art
Remains of the Day…
Just a couple of my pendants from the show this past weekend. Sorry there weren’t more updates but between getting ready for the show, my husband getting sick, me fighting that off and being in the grips of a migraine last night this morning my computer time has been at an all time low.
Had a pretty good showing and I’m encouraged with the response to my work from the show this past Sat. I’ve signed up for a couple of shows this Fall in Sept. and Oct. I’m looking forward to those once the temperatures have cooled off a bit and it’s not so brutal outside.
On Monday I managed to get several more boxes packed up. I am having trouble making heads or tails of things in my studio so I started moving boxes out of the studio into a spare room. I also need to pick up some colored duck tape and start color coding things. A strip of red on any boxes that fragile and then pick a color for each room. I’m far behind on going through things. sigh
Anyway, I’m also working on adding my jewelry to my Etsy shop so keep an eye out there if you are interested in buying any!
Playing around…
I had an idea this week that took a couple of days to accomplish. I did a layered pour and this is one of the pieces that came out of that experiment. I poured a layer in some molds with a glitter resin and let it set and cure for a day. Before removing it from the mold I finished filling the mold with resin colored with mica pigment. This one came out rather nice! Some of the other pieces turned out okay I just didn’t like them as well either because of the way I oriented the slant with the pour or I’m not thrilled with the color choices I made.
But the mica pigments had just arrived and I didn’t know the exact look I would get with some of these so lesson learned. I’ve also learned that a good deal of these colors change their look according to what the background color is. When I start hitting markets around here I believe I might do a display with say 6 of the same piece, same color and put them all on different colors of background so folks can see just how a piece can and does change according to what it’s laying on and then they can make choices from there.
Now I need to concentrate on getting everything I’ve poured the past week or two with jump rings, onto ribbons and chains and listed in my Etsy shop. That is a huge job with trying to get photographs to properly show this resin! No small task there. So I continue to play and pour when the weather allows and work on all sorts of fun stuff!
Here Comes the Rain Again…
Falling on my head like a memory – admit it, you just sang that in your head! LOL At least any self respecting Eurythmics fan did. Last weekend was wet, we dried up enough to be able to pour resin during the week and we are raining again this weekend. The week was so crazy I lost a day somewhere and thought Thursday was Wednesday! But my allergies did not help.
This year pollen here in MD is killer. Folks who don’t normally have problems are having problems and those of us who do have trouble are just miserable. I’m trying to keep from going in for a breathing treatment, but may be fighting a losing battle here.
Anyway – yay! I had the time and the weather to get some resin poured this past week! I need to get jump rings in a lot of them still, and I need to start taking photos and start listing them on Etsy and look at possible hitting Maker’s Market at Annemarie Gardens. This is a few examples of how I spent my time this week…
It is difficult to get good photos of the confetti/glitter, but I love how the mouse came out! That one is awesome. The micro glitter in the sakura blossom is terrific along with the matte color of the elephant and giraffe in the wooden pendants. It’s difficult to see but the metal bezel has star confetti in it. I have a lot more I poured, this is just a “taste”. I’ll try to get more photos up soon.
Rain, rain go away…
It’s been humid and rainy the past few days. I’ve been wanting to play with the resin and can’t due to the weather. In the meantime I have been trying to match a certain color blue yarn and I do believe I came pretty darn close. Once the weather is nice and I have the time I’ll be trying it in some resin for a shawl pin to match the yarn.
So, or sew, in the meantime I’m working on some sewing projects and trying to figure out the logistics of working small again with all of that. I used to only have the dining room table to work with and projects had to be put away each night for dinner, then when we moved here I got – whoa – an entire bedroom!!!! And trust me that was amazing – but I quickly outgrew it. LOL When our son moved out I got the room over the garage which equated to roughly 325-350 sq. ft. of space which has served me well for many years – until the floor loom showed up. LOL You see how things have just invaded and taken over more and more of the house here! Luckily my husband indulges me.
It is time though to streamline and focus instead of the “shotgun” approach. But with my ADD/Oh Shiny/Hey that looks neat, I wanna try that nature this is difficult. Not to mention the stable of er, um roughly 20-ish sewing machines to pare down. (me, now sheepishly looking around and wondering if I have more possibly and have forgotten any) gulp Plus, I need to find friendly art that is smaller to travel well with me in the RV.
Anyway, it’s tough to get back into the routine of cutting fabrics and keeping things in a small area when you’ve had larger! LOL I did get about a dozen of my little snap bags made for the shop and will deliver those soon. I had a few cut out and waiting but some needed linings cut, I cut some new ones, and all needed interfacings cut. I’m also working on some new baseball bracelets to freshen up the display in the shop as well. (New View Fiber Works in downtown Leonardtown, MD – stop by if you have the chance!)
These are the little snap bags that will be showing up in the shop and the bracelets below are somewhat ready. I’ve decided to rework some of them and “jazz up” the beading on them. More pictures to come on those. But you get the idea and I do have several that are headed to the shop as well.
Still working away even though the rain has dampened the resin bug, but not down and out – too many other things to get done!
Mad scientist, playing, artist?
When I start into a new arena of art I call it going down a rabbit hole. I’ve started down a new rabbit hole and it’s called resin… Boy do I have a learning curve on this one! But when I “play” with the resin right now trying to figure out my mixtures with the colorants I don’t know yet whether I’m an artist or mad scientist. LOL I think there may be a bit of both in there! I do tend to be one of those “Hey, let’s see what happens if I throw this in there, or I wonder how this would look” kinda artists. I come up with some interesting looks and some stupendous flubs! hahaha
These were done by pouring different colored resins into the center one after the other and as you can see each side has a totally different look to it. Really interesting to me. Not really sure which side I would say is the “front” so it may get used in some sort of sun catcher type thing. But I did it just to see how it would come out and what it would do – they were all colored with acrylic paints by the way.
These are hair sticks, shawl sticks, whatever sticks… I played with mica powder in the purple and red ones on the ends, the others are acrylic paints. None of my alcohol ink sticks came out. Either they were so light in color they looked clear, they had color but it was so much alcohol ink that they didn’t cure and stayed pliable, or they came out “sticky” and never cured. Alcohol inks are my nemesis at the moment and I’m not sure how much is the inks (80-90% most likely) and how much is weather related.
It has been cooler and high humidity to some rain on one day that I poured resin. Stupid me thinking I could get away with it because I had the AC on in the house to pull out the humidity in the air. Most of them did well, just not the alcohol ink ones. Learning curve.
Once I have these figured out I really want to start pouring and curing them for sale. I’ve got some neat ideas up my sleeve and can’t wait to start working on them!
Small and Simple 