I need a (e)mailing list

In this crazy year of all cancelled in-person shows, I have been exploring new options. There are some really great online shows going on! I hope they continue after the pandemic because wow- Awesome! Some of these shows require a mailing list which, since the days of me doing pottery, I have never maintained. I am hoping to get things figured out with Mailchimp and have links you can click to sign up, but I am a bit overwhelmed with that part of the process right now. Hopefully I will get there soon. So, I will do it the old-fashioned way. Would you like to be on my mailing list? Leave a comment with your email address or send me an email at mimik@pobox.com. In my dreams I would send out a newsy email once a month but I know that won’t happen. More likely it will just be announcements of when I am doing shows. If you already get my blog posts via email, unfortunately it is not the same thing. You still have to give me permission.

And now, here are some of the things I am doing. This coming weekend I will be part of Doll and Teddy Bear Artist Online Show.

Also, Paradise City , which is doing ongoing virtual events. Lots of good stuff there. I bought a beautiful birdbath last month from one of the local artists.

And for now, lastly, Art Party Central. I am scheduled to do one of their shows at the end of June.

It has been such a strange year but thank you so much to all who have supported me and stayed with me! I feel very lucky.

February News

I haven’t had any finished pieces in a while but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working. I have spent so much time cutting and more cutting. I have cut out girls, lady pillow dolls, kitties, dogs, owls, and I can’t remember what else! Finally I am moving forward to sewing and finishing. First up, lady pillow dolls.

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And then I’m excited to make some dogs in removable clothing.

2-5-wip - 2 The main event that I am planning and working for is the Smithsonian Craft Show, April 24 – 28. I am so excited to be going back to Washington DC! I had such an amazing time last year.

I don’t have any other shows on the schedule as of now, but I’ve applied to several so hopefully I will have some in the Fall.

I have no teaching scheduled but if you’d like to organize something, let me know. My schedule is mostly open. I am happy to teach to small groups (4 minimum) at my house in the Boston area.

That’s all the news for now and hopefully I’ll be back soon with finished ladies!

September newsy post

I am trying hard to get back into the doll sewing groove after spending August working on other things. My garden is looking MUCH better after hours of weeding. Of course that job is never finished. The main thing I focused on during my doll break was this-

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Yes, I made (most of a) quilt! The way I ended up doing this is so classic me- I was doing some attic cleaning on one of the cool days (the weather in August was all over the place!). I came across a small plastic bin of wool triangles that I cut out when? Maybe early 80’s? I brought them downstairs to deal with- decide if I would move them along or what? I started playing with them and then… they caught me! I had been planning on working on the quilt I started last summer but, oops.

Here is the bin-

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Now that I’m done, I think I still have enough triangles to make another full size quilt! I didn’t use any of the darker greens and very few of the bright plaids. My entire plan was alternate rows of cool and warm colors, light and dark triangles. Pretty simple and it came together very smoothly. Here are my strips, laid out on the ironing board.

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Then laid out on the bed, sewing the strips together.

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I had to move down to the dining room table because I was causing destruction in my studio. My work space is not set up for large projects!

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And, the top, all sewed together with border.

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I sewed together a backing and sandwiched it with a wool batting. It is now all basted together and rolled up in my studio, ready for me to decide how I will quilt it. I am very happy with how it looks, and it was fun to work on something that was just about color. Kind of funny that what I did on my break was a different kind of sewing- a busman’s holiday, right?

Other things that happened- a day at the beach, a trip to Sturbridge, MA for the Vintage Fashion and Antique Textile Show where I found lots of great little buttons for my creations, freezing peaches, and not enough attic cleaning but really, who wants to do that anyway.

I am trying to get back to work. I’ve been fussing with a few designs- a mermaid that I had to put aside when I was so so busy. I made the mistake of not making a test design when I cut out pieces to dye. When i sewed up the first one, I was not at all happy with it so put all the pieces aside for later rework. Now is the time. Also, I have been thinking about a new way of making the lumberjacks so I wanted to test one before I start cutting out a pile. So far, so good! When I am prepping for a show it can be difficult to slow down and backup and figure out what is wrong. I am in a good head space for that right now.

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And 2 more things. My Etsy shop is chock full of all kinds of goodies so if you’ve been thinking you’d like a man or a fox or an owl, there are lots to choose from. Secondly, I am thinking about teaching 2 classes at my house this fall- tiny worlds and owls. I will post more in a separate post this week. Stay tuned :-)

November news

I’m not very good at starting a newsletter but this monthly news post is working for me. Things are very busy around here!

I have been wanting to announce my latest ornaments for West Elm but didn’t want to do it before Halloween- that just seemed wrong. This year’s ornaments are a sweet Owl family! I can’t seem to find a way to link to the whole family but here is a link to the mama owl and you can go from there. And here is the baby-

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If you happen to be in the Boston area, there are several places that you will be able to see my work in the next few months. Today I dropped off a few pieces at Room 83 Spring in Watertown, MA.

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Then, on November 26, I will be part of a pop-up shop at GreyMist Shop and Studio in Cambridge, MA. I will be there with my friend Jen of ZooGuu, from 10- 4pm.

Lastly, I will be at CraftBoston Holiday, Dec 1, 2, and 3-

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It will be a very exciting next 2 months! Now, back to work for me.

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misty bird baby and October news

I love this dusty purple color- it always makes me think of an early morning mist.

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Well, what can I say about the Nashville show. It was not my best show ever. As a result, I have LOTS of great work in my Etsy shop! So, good news, bad news ;) Also, I brought 2 of these babies to work on/demonstrate and I got them both almost finished. Hurray for that!

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After I got back last week, there’s the giant pile of catching up. The regular life ones- laundry, groceries, sleeping, and then the biz ones- putting the show stuff away for now, shipping, emails, listing all those things onto etsy! Then another day trip away for a memorial service. But now I am ready to get back to work.

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I feel like this is a year for me to try new things (example- different shows) and I now have pieces in 2 galleries- The Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston and also True Lily, a shop that my doll-making friend, Nancy Wiley, is opening in Canandaigua, New York. Of course, the thing is, it is always the year to try new things. You never get it all figured out, right?!

November news

I really should start a newsletter. It’s on my list for someday when I have time! Here is some news and some fun things I’ve been enjoying.

I will be in Rollinsford, New Hampshire this weekend at the Open Studios for artstream studio. This is their brand new space and I can’t wait to see it! Susan Schwake, artstream’s owner, invited me to come up and enjoy some time in the new space. 11-19-weekend - 1

I will have lots of goodies and hope some of you can make it. It is Saturday and Sunday, 10 to 5, 20 Front St, Rollinsford, NH.

Speaking of Susan, have I mentioned her new book Art Camp: 52 Art Projects for Kids to Explore (Kids Art)!!

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Yeah, it’s actually a bit of bragging since I am one of the profiled artists <3 What I love about this book is that it is for kids. Not kids and their parents or teachers. It is projects they can do on their own. I had a book like that when I was a kid- it was called the Make-It Book. Actually, I still have it, totally falling apart but oh how I loved that book.

I have a mini-feature in the Holiday issue of Sweet Paul magazine. I designed 2 ornaments for them and they will put the directions up on their website but I don’t think they are there yet. I will keep you posted. But, in the meantime, here is a link for free access to the online version of the Holiday issue. Enjoy!

Here are some things I’ve been enjoying lately-

I know I mentioned Miss Fisher. Such glorious eye-candy! I have finished Season 1 and 2 but before I started Season 3, I got distracted by The Great British Baking Show (or Bake-Off as it is known everywhere else except the US). So, so good. And I am not normally a reality, contest show kind of watcher.

I’ve just discovered the Dear Sugar podcast. You might not know this about me but I love advice columns. The problems of life in a few paragraphs, get their answers. Or something. Anyway, I read/listened to Cheryl Strayed’s book Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar a few years ago and loved her voice, how she thought and talked about hard questions. I am thrilled that I now have a whole years’ worth of episodes to listen to!

Okay, one more photo of some things that will be coming to NH with me. Hope some of you can make it!

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goings on

There is lots going on around here. This morning, I packed up two orders, walked to the post office, then the bank, then the library and back home. And somehow, since I haven’t done any sewing, I feel like I haven’t gotten anything done! So, now I am writing a blog post. Last week I took a super-fast, overnight trip to Brooklyn to see the year-end show at the NYU Game Center where one son is getting his MFA. Next week, I will probably go back again for Mister Finch‘s show. Busy, busy!

I’ve got a table full of foxes waiting for me.

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But, I’ve gotten distracted by ornaments.

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When I was asked to design some ornaments for West Elm, I needed to come up with a lot of ideas and then they picked what they wanted. The thing is, I liked all of them! It has been tickling the back of my conscious brain ever since that I should move forward with these others and make patterns. I even got started a few times but ended up getting flooded with ideas and then feeling overwhelmed. This time, I said I would teach a class to make ornaments. That is the way I finish things- commit to someone else. So, moving forward! So far I have a fish, a whale, robot, and a long list, drawings, and first try prototypes of lots of other things. I will keep you informed as they move forward.

What else? I am taking a class to make the Cooper bag. I know, busman’s holiday, but I knew I wouldn’t get to it if I didn’t schedule a time. Hopefully it will be done on Wednesday evening and then I can show you.

I am going to Portland, Oregon in July (8- 13). So excited!

I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but a reminder since I’m making a list here- I am not planning on doing any shows this year. It doesn’t look like that will slow down my traveling though!

 

august updates

It has been a crazy busy week. All kinds of things going on.

Today is the last day to enter the birthday giveaway. If you want to join in the fun, add your comment to the birthday post.

5 weeks until Renegade Chicago- Yikes! I am feeling the push. It is actually less then 5 weeks because I have to send out the work beforehand. This is my first travel-by-plane show. It will be interesting to see how it all goes. I am thinking a lot about the booth and how to set it up with the minimum of props.

I am going to be teaching in October. I will be doing a Tiny World class at my house on Saturday, Oct. 30. More info here. Email me if you’d like to join the fun. It looks like I will also be teaching a Fresh Fish class- more details on that coming soon.

And now a technical question- I KNOW that Bloglines is lame and all the cool kids are over on Google Reader, but, I started on Bloglines and moving everything seems like a big chore. I subscribe to several feeds for my own blog so that I can see how they look and when the new posts get published. About a month ago, one of my Doll feeds showed up with an exclamation point next to it. That one feed has stopped working- and of course, that is the feed with the most subscribers. Arg! I figured it would fix itself, but not so far. I checked out several other blogs in my list that also had the exclamation point- Yikes! Some of them hadn’t been working for many months! Does anybody know haw to fix this? It is making me sad.

Now, back to regularly scheduled programming… it turns out that mid-summer is a great time for thrifting after all. Well, this year it is anyway. I went to my favorite places on two Wednesdays in a row. I now have enough gorgeous wooliness to get me through the fall and beyond. I shouldn’t go back until January at the soonest. Right, shouldn’t, shouldn’t, shouldn’t.

And lastly, I am actually going to be participating in a few shows * in galleries*  this fall. WooHoo! More news on that soon, once I have some links for you.

The months ahead are beginning to look very busy. Full steam ahead!