the above photo has nothing to do with this post or the weather today. I just thought it was pretty :)

I know, I know, time to move on! But stay with me, I need to do these reviews to think about where I want to go this new year. I’m just a little bit late.

2013 has been pretty awesome over here in my public art life. There have been a few blips (some kind of major) in the private life, but in general it has been a surprisingly good year. Here are my top 10 of 2013!

#1 is Teaching. I decided that 2013 was going to be the year I pushed myself out of the house and did more teaching. I threw myself into the fire at Gather Here where I was the January artist-in-residence. I taught 4 classes on 6 consecutive days. By the end of that week I felt like I’d run a marathon, exhausted but so proud of myself. I taught there again in April, then in San Francisco, at ArtRetreat in New Hampshire, and twice at the New England Quilt Museum. So far this year I am scheduled to teach the Tiny Worlds at Gather Here next weekend, The Makerie/Sweet Paul Retreat in March, and ArtRetreat in August again. I’m so excited!

#2 is Dolls. Wow- 144 dolls– The most ever! And my new line of friends at Land Of Nod. Yes, those are my cover dogs!

#3 is all the Selling. I did 3 in-person Markets in 2013- Renegade San Francisco, Renegade Chicago, and Crafty Bastards Washington, DC. My online sales are mostly through Etsy but this year I did a flash sale on One Kings Lane. Amazing- sold out in under 2 hours!

#4 is direct sales. Because I sell directly to customers, I get a lot of wonderful emails with stories and compliments. Among the best of this year- A tattooed man is hanging in the office of someone who works at the fabric manufacturer of the toile, a tiny world was part of a marriage proposal, one of the man dolls accompanied someone to their chemo treatments. I get to know that I am a special part of a lot of peoples’ gift-giving- even when they are buying that gift for themselves! Makes me happy.

#5 is Instagram. I love it. It has made me much more active about posting process photos and also posting on Facebook. Follow me if you want- I’m mimikirchner.

#6 is Patterns. I only got one new one out this year (hey- I got kinda busy!) but they continue to sell and give me a passive income which help me do this crazy doll thing that I love.

#7 is the Eyes of the Internet. I’m referring to this. The bad, sad, angry-making, frustrating thing. I strongly believe that by putting my work out for the world to see, I am safer than if I kept it under wraps and private. I will always hear from you all if someone is copying my artwork. I am so grateful. And sometimes the bad times can have a happy ending.

#8 is Putting Myself Out There. I was in Sweet Paul Magazine (here), Make Art That Sells, and Crescendoh.com where I wrote an essay for the Art Saves column. I had 2 pieces in a show of tattoo art in France. I also joined the fun with my friend Liz and was interviewed on her show, Makers in Business.

#9 is Doing the Hard Things. I leaped right out of my comfort zone and said yes to doing the Holiday window at Gather Here (still there if you are local to Cambridge, MA). I made 15 Tiny Worlds for it including some that pushed the boundaries of anything I’ve tried before. I took a weekend intensive class in Illustrator. Hopefully something sunk in and it will show up in a pattern or 2 this year. I said yes to some things this year and no to other things. Both/either can be scary.

#10 is Friends. That is you, all my blog readers. And my Crafty Biz meet-up buds who I see (at least) once a month and we talk about all the biz stuff. And Lilla, my so generous, meet for coffee and talk about the important design stuff, friend. And all the people I’ve “known” online and met in person this year- Betz, Mati, Lisa. The those that I’ve known online and in-real-life and got to see again this year- Susan, Sonya. And the friends on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Yes, a very good year. I stretched myself in good directions and feel stronger for it. Bring on 2014- I am ready!!!

I am working with West Elm, designing a line of ornaments for 2014!!! Sometimes great things happen as a result of bad. Remember all of this mess with Cody Foster and the copying and all? West Elm contacted me as a result and I am now busy working on some very fun and exciting designs. I can’t show anything at this point but I am thrilled to bits!

This has been an amazing year and I am planning an overview, but I didn’t want this news to get lost in a big long list. And these ornaments in the photos have nothing to do with the West Elm job, though the one below is something I made a million or 20 years ago.

I think she looks very strong!

I was honored to be asked to be part of the Legacy book tour for Kathreen Ricketson‘s book Brave New Quilts: 12 Projects Inspired by 20th-Century Art From Art Nouveau to Punk & Pop. I am not a quilter so I can’t really give a serious professional review of the book from that prospective, but Kath was part of my online life for so many years and this review is more about her. It makes me happy that through this book, her spirit lives on.

The online craft world was shocked by Kath’s sudden death last spring. She was probably best known for the website Whip-Up. I’d “met” her before her Whip-Up days. I just tracked down her first comment on my blog- April 2005 on this post. She had a blog called RedCurrant and I thought of her as a photographer, doing a year of self-portraits. She was someone who came to the crafty mom world from a background in Art- something I can appreciate and relate to. When she started Whip-Up, she gave generously to the online community. She posted about so many interesting artists and projects, was not afraid to talk about some controversial subjects (I’m thinking about graffiti as art for one), and introduced new people into the limelight. I appreciated her support early on- the work I do was not often appreciated by the in-real-life world and my online community was my lifeline of encouragement and enthusiasm. Kath was a person I think of as a connector- she brought all kinds of passionate people together and made all our lives better.

Now onto the book. When I received my package and pulled the book out, I was delighted by the beautiful cover. And flipping through, so many beautiful photos and again COLOR! There are more book photos over here if you’d like to see. As I said, I am not much of a quilter but if at some point I decide to try get more serious, the book has lots of good technical info. The description of how to do paper piecing sucked me in- I’d never understood what exactly it was. The book is organized by Art Movements- Art Deco, Midcentury Modern, Dada, and more. It was fun to see her interpretations. These were my favorites-

The Seedpod-

And Clear Cut- which she labels as Bauhaus, which I understand, referring to Josef Albers but also has a very strong reference to Amish quilts. Love it.

That is a design I could see myself trying.

Thank you Stash Books for asking me to be part of this tour. Kathreen will live on through this book, through Whip-Up and through her generosity that touched so many of us in this online craft community. We miss you.

If you’d like to read other, more quilt-specific reviews, check out some of the other stops on the book tour.