Category Archives: blogging

20 years

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Today is my 20th year of blogging. This past year has been sporadic because of the great upheaval of moving and (hopefully soon) resettling. Hurray- we have a move-in date!

This was the first photo that I posted back in 2004-

The first post is a mess- repeated 4 times and the photo is very NOT right… ah, the olden days.

Blogging has been a joy. I always thought I’d do it whether anyone read it or not. It is my “filing cabinet” documenting every doll I’ve made since then. And, all the steps that took me to where I am now. It is a true online diary. I met so many interesting people, made friends, was inspired, and had so many opportunities because of this blog.

Thank you to anyone and everyone who has been any part of this journey. I love and appreciate you all!

Bright and Beautiful Flower Lady

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I just LOVE her! I don’t use purple very much in my artwork, but a few years ago I got a BIG bag of fabric scraps from someone who makes beautiful cashmere coats. There were beautiful rich jewel tones that I probably wouldn’t buy but once I had them in my hands, I got inspired.

She has little yellow slippers.

The weather has been nice enough that we brought the chairs out onto the porch. Let Spring begin!

Where to find me these days

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I am going to do one sale this Autumn- Art Providence, November 8 – 10. That is less than 1 month away so that is what I am currently working toward.

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There is a Friday evening event and then Saturday and Sunday. I will have 4 free admission tickets available so email me if you are interested (mimik@pobox.com). I also have a code for discount tickets if the free tickets get claimed. Here is the deal-

Get $2 off per ticket to the Art Providence Show when you pre-purchase on-line!  Go to https://bit.ly/2pRJJDQ.  After clicking “Select A Date” and preferred “Tickets” button, click Enter Promo Code at the top of the screen.  Enter the code ARTIST19.  Click Apply.  Tickets will change to $8 apiece.  Choose quantity and check out.  Receive e-mail confirmation of tickets ordered and present this at the Box Office for admission into the Art Providence Show.

The other place to see my work in person will be at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, in a show called Child’s Play. The show will run from November 21 (Opening Reception 6pm to 9pm) to January 18, 2020.

Pause here for photos of dolls :-)

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I mostly hanging out online if you want to keep up with what I am doing. Obviously you know I have this blog (mimikirchner.com) but did you know that you can get all the posts delivered right to your email box by clicking on the subscribe button in the top right-hand corner of my homepage?

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I am most active on my Instagram account and most of those posts go directly to my Facebook business page. I have a twitter account but I rarely post.

I sell my work through my Etsy shop but I also sell quite a few pieces directly from the blog or Instagram. If you see something you like, email me or message me and I can send you details. It doesn’t commit you to anything, it just gives you first refusal for when the piece is finished.

Is there anything else you’d like to know? I always love hearing from you!

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checking in

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I have been working. I’m doing that part of the job where I am getting all the parts sorted out (matching dyed “tattooed” body piece to plain flesh color pieces and then cutting parts out), stuffing groups of already sewed animals (kitties and foxes) and giving them faces,

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and moving forward with dressing some of the them. I had a fox girl that I had promised to make so those are moving forward first.

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Soon I will have some finished pieces to show. But, the thing is, that really isn’t why I’ve been so quiet.

*** trigger warning for liberal politics- stop here if you can’t stand anymore***

I have just been so overwhelmed and distracted by what is happening here in the US. I have had a hard time focusing on my work. I get sucked into checking the news multiple times a day. My social media feeds (twitter, facebook) are filled with all the terrible news. I find myself thinking, I will just go peek and see what horrifying thing this new administration has done since the last time I looked. I know this is bad for me. I have to limit my exposure but I vacillate between feeling like I need to be informed and wanting to put my head under the covers and block everything out. I am a person who has struggled with depression my entire life but focusing on my work is what has kept me stable and functional for years now. I have to find my way back to my focus, and I know I will, but it is mental exercise and that is hard work.

This blog has never been a place for politics. Someone once told me that my blog was their little oasis from the real world. I am not planning on changing the focus of the blog. I will give a trigger warning if I feel like I need to vent again. But, I can’t remain completely silent. Someone in my life recently said to me, it doesn’t matter who won the election, they were both the same. Honestly, it ruined my day to think that anyone believes that and I consider it to be deliberate ignorance. We are at the beginning of a very scary time. I will be participating in some art projects as one of the ways I will express my resistance and that will be showing up here.

This is what I worked on all of Inauguration Day. It is for a community art project for the window at Gather Here.

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And this is what I posted on Saturday in solidarity with all the Women marching.

1-26-resist - 1 (1)Now that I’ve finally written this post, I am hoping I can get things back to normal around here, posting and all. I was feeling completely blocked so phew.

 

Sew Mama Sew toy drive

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Back in March I was over on Sew Mama Sew as part of their 6 weeks of softies. The 6 weeks are over and people made some amazing pieces which you can check out here. They are also doing a toy drive and are looking for more donations.

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This is what Kristin + Beth sent me-

I have a favor to ask. We are accepting donations to the Soft Toy Drive through the end of the month. So far I have a couple dozen contributions, but I’d love to be able to send at least 200 toys to the National Foster Parent Association conference in June. I heard from so many people involved in foster parenting who all agree that foster children often show up at a new home with hardly any personal belongings. Having a toy that is all their own to love and keep would mean so much. If you could help us spread the word to your readers, I would really appreciate it. All the information is in this post.

I am going to send in some pieces that were made as samples for books or prototypes for toys. I never knew what to do with them and this seems perfect. Maybe you have something to contribute?

 

Anniversaries, medals and patterns

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Well, that is an odd collection of things! This is how they are all related-

Hurray! Today is my blog birthday- it has been 11 years! I have been working on felt you-deserve-a-medal prototypes (more on that later) so I made myself one. Don’t I look mighty proud?

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My medal says blogger- it has a gold star for 10 years plus a white star for 1 year.

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These are the rest of the medal prototypes I’ve been making, inspired by many things including this fellow, Lord Kitchener.

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And the reason for the prototypes? This is a class I will be teaching (a project I will be leading?) at the ARC, the Art Stream Art Retreat Camp. There is a story about where the idea started. Last year, at one of the markets I was doing, someone came into my booth, looked around and asked, “Why are these so expensive?” I hate that question. It immediately puts me on the defensive and I get all huffy. Later I was thinking that one of the reasons I charge what I do is that I’ve done the work, I’ve been validated as an artist, I have a seal of approval. And wouldn’t it be great to have an actual seal of approval that I could pull out! And medals for all the “battles” I’ve fought along the way. Really, we all have fought the battles, have the scars, and deserve the medal so lets make our own.

Lastly, the patterns. Back here I talked about why I pulled my patterns from Etsy. Well, it looks like they’ve got things figured out so I will be putting them all back up. To celebrate, I have lowered the price of all the patterns to $8 for all of February. Here is a shop link.

And guess what? More snow on the way!

 

a bit late- 2014 in review

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Yes, I’m late. 2014 was a very busy year, maybe a bit too busy. And 2015 is starting out the same. I am just getting to this now because I have been hard at work doing exactly what I was doing last year at this time– designing a new line of ornaments for West Elm for the 2015 Holidays! This week I went to Brooklyn to deliver them in person and meet my contacts there.

totally random photo-

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This list will be of the a lot good and a little bit bad variety.

Teaching– I taught at Gather Here in January (Tiny World pin cushion) and again in February (owls). Then in March, I headed down to New York to teach at the Sweet Paul Makerie event which was beyond amazing. I reached out to see if anyone was interested in classes while I was in San Francisco in July but got no interest. After that, nothing.

This year? I am teaching again this month at Gather Here. And I am going to the Sweet Paul Makerie in Philadelphia, but this year I am going to play instead of teach. I can’t wait! Hopefully there will be more teaching gigs- I will keep you informed.

Shows– I did 3 shows again this year- San Francisco Renegade, Chicago Renegade, and Crafty Bastards in Washington, DC. None of them was fantastic and it is making me rethink doing the shows. The shows are expensive and stressful but I get to see show-goers interact with my artwork and always meet amazing people. Unfortunately, my work is expensive compared to most of the vendors at the shows I do and I see so many disappointed faces which is very disheartening. The people that come to the shows are the ones who like my work, might be potential future customers, but are not ready to spend $$$ the first time they see my work. It is not as easy as switching to higher end shows since I am not sure my buyers would be there. My best “show” of the year was the pop-up shop at the Sweet Paul Makerie so I will be trying to think more creatively about this. Currently I am planning to take a year off from craft shows.

Licensing– The ornaments for West Elm were a big hit! I hear that the moose was the most popular and I love that! I still have some toy designs available at Land Of Nod too.

Gallery Shows– I did 2 this year. Don’t Play With Me in Pawtucket, RI and Good Mail Day in Dover, NH.

Dolls– of course! It was a banner year for making dolls!

Media– Little Thing magazine is amazing and I was delighted when I saw my profile, although I have no idea what it says! And I was in the New York Magazine 2014 Holiday Gift guide- that was pretty cool too.

Patterns– No new patterns in 2014 and I am really sorry about that. To make things worse, the EU has implemented a very complicated tax system on all digital products (as of Jan. 2015) that is impossible for a micro business person like me to deal with. Etsy did nothing to help it’s sellers deal with this problem, such as making it possible to sell only in the non-EU countries. As a result, I have pulled all my patterns from Etsy for the time being. I am sure something will get figured out eventually and I will let you know when they are available through Etsy again. That doesn’t give me any incentive to make any new patterns right now since I can’t sell them. Sigh.

Other stuff– I made a quilt for my daughter and flew out to Chicago to deliver it and have a fun, cold, weekend.

Gather Here made a sweet little video on their 3rd birthday called Why We Make. I’m in there for a sec.

Yes, a very busy year. Let’s see what 2015 brings me!

all the dolls- 2014!

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Happy New Year!

2014 = 156 dolls! Wow- that is my most ever in one year!

I made 17 girl foxes and 15 boy foxes.

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I made 25 dogs including the pugs.

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6 swaddled babies and 12 owls-

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18 fish-

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16 tattooed ladies-

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and 47 (!!!!) assorted tattooed men!

1:1:men 11:1:men 2I also made a line of ornaments for West Elm. I didn’t make one single tiny world pin cushion.  I’ll have to get to that in 2015!

This is my picture of the year with the most views on flickr (almost 40,000!), most likes on Facebook and on Instagram. It is always interesting and I can never predict what will catch peoples’ fancy!

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