good-bye Sage!

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Yesterday was the last day that Sage, my intern, worked with me. Since June, we got loads of work done, went on field trips, I made her take home bags full of supplies that I didn’t want, we listened to podcasts and discussed, and generally yakkity-yakked the summer away. Have a great senior year Sage!

And about the owls. Could I have made a MORE ambiguous survey? Obviously I should have lined them up in the number order for the photo. Also, I should have mentioned which owls were #1 and #2. I mean I did on Flickr but not on my blog. Thank you husband Ben for pointing out that little problem. Anyway, I will be sending one off today (not tellin’) and will let you know when there is more info about the show. I appreciate all your input!

owl 3 and owl 4

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Here they are- all 4.

Owl #3-

and owl #4-

and here is the story. You know I am going to be in Chicago for the Renegade Market in September, right? I was thrilled to be invited to take part in a show/contest to do my interpretation of the Renegade owl logo. The show will be going on in their Spotlight Gallery from 9/4 through 10/3 which overlaps the Market. There will be an opening, voting involved and a prize. Now for the hard part. I’ve got to pick one of these cuties to send! Ahhhh- decisions! I am definitely open to opinions…

oh, and btw, someone asked about a pattern. I think this would be a really fun pattern. I will get to work on it when I am back from Chicago, so hopefully we’d be looking at mid-October.

buntings, or garlands or whatever they are called

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I’ve started a carry-around-project bag to stick in my purse. I seem to have a number of appointments lined up on the calendar and I like to have something to work on as I sit in the waiting room. I am cutting out circles.

This is a garland that I made in the first batch, before I went to Renegade Brooklyn. You can see it hanging in my tent, here.

I am trying out some single hue strings- pinks

blues-

reds-

Which do you like better?

They have 100 dots per strand. That is about 12 feet.

My studio is once again a complete disaster. I’ve got way too many things going on right now. I am cutting and sewing a range of dolls (with the help of Sage) and will then finish them over the course of the Autumn. The result is stuff everywhere, every surface covered, entering the room is a challenge…  but hey! I am getting lots done. I’ll clean it up another day.

meetup and snowy tiny worlds

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We had another great meetup yesterday. Topics that I can remember going by- how to get artwork to markets, holiday shows and application deadlines, edgy shows vs traditional shows, Facebook vs Twitter, thinking about licensing, 1000 Markets, all the good things that are happening at Etsy, where to get business and stickers printed and what it costs… if this is what you are interested in and everyone around you is either clueless or bored by it all, our meetup is the place for you!

I finished these on Tuesday-

Some of them are available and will go into my Etsy shop, probably this weekend.

and the winner is…

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drumroll please… random number generator picks #53-

Liz Noonan!

Thanks to everyone who joined in to wish me a Happy Birthday! It was wonderful!

Coming next from the studio-

There are 15 men dolls, cut out and stitched together, hanging from my rack. That is what Sage (intern) and I did last week. Next comes clipping, trimming, turning and stuffing. I am hoping to have about 4 done for Chicago. I am thinking ahead for the fall already- stocking up. Before I continue with them though, I need to get a few Tiny Worlds finished. I promised someone when it seemed like loads of time and now I have a deadline looming.

And the Fresh Fish class I mentioned in the last post? Here! It looks like a fantastic weekend of fun!

august updates

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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!

it’s my birthday

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and I’m celebrating with a giveaway!

It is a celebratory bunting- at least 10 ft… maybe closer to 12. Not sure.  All wool scrap circles.  Anyway, what better giveaway for a birthday then a party decoration? Just leave a happy birthday greeting in the comments on THIS post. The giveaway will close at midnight edt on Friday, Aug. 6. I will pick one winner on Saturday by random number generator. I am happy to send it out anywhere so don’t hold back if you are international. Jump in and help me have a wonderful birthday!

victorian girl

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sort of pseudo Victorian…

Here is an over-exposed photo that shows the embroidered belt and the antique buttons.

She has multiple layers of ruffles- inspired by some Amy Earles drawings, like this one. All the layers of skirts are cashmere.

Hook and eye closure at the waist-

And here she is with sailor girl, who I think of as being in a similar design vein. These 2 girls are made from the exact same pattern. Yes, the new girl stuffed up rather chubby!

Liberty girl

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Liberty of London, that is. I used some of the Liberty fabric that I bought in Paris.

She is a girl with “stuff”.

She has a heathery purple cashmere sweater/jacket that buttons up the front-

Wool felt trim and pocket.

And an olive green bag that matches her collar-

and here she is, all put together.

The back, because I always want to see the back.

Collar detail-

and in the garden-

It is the end of July. Time to move on. Next week brings (a) my birthday and so the Mimi’s birthday giveaway! Check back here on Monday. And (b) away with the wool and pull out the toile so that I have some tattooed men for RenegadeCraft Chicago– which is in 6 weeks!

Wow- I just realized that this is #50 doll of 2010!