project report

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My studio needs a major clean up and so does my house so it will be a few days before I will be showing any new work. Fortunately (?) I am way behind in posting about some other totally cool stuff. So, without further ado…

I participated in a round robin called the Paperbag Swag book project. (Here is a link to all the posts) It came to an end  and I got my book back at the beginning of June.  I made these mosaics using the photos that we posted in our flickr group. The first mosaic (click for flickr linkage) is of the pages that the other 5 participants made for my book-

We each had a theme for our book which we incorporated into the cover design. Mine was identity. I was thinking about it in terms of- where do I fit into the art world, the internet world, how do I view myself, how do others view me, how does my artwork help define who I am… It was so interesting to see how the other artists used the prompt.

Below are the pages that I made for the other books. (flickr links)

I loved this project. It gave me a reason and a place to experiment. I was very excited with some of the work I did, outside of my usual format. It most definitely sparked ideas that showed all over in my work.

I’m going to post more details another day- time to get back to all that other stuff- real life!

market report

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The marketplace yesterday was wonderful! Here is the booth-

Things were very busy at the beginning. Loads of great energy. Lots of friends showed up. There were some quiet times but mostly busy and fun. And it got colder. But no rain- hurray!

I got to meet Melissa of Yummygoods– we’ve been hoping to meet up for a while now and it finally happened. Here is a photo of the both of us. And one where she is, um, checking out the merchandise… o-la-la!

More photos of the Market here.

When I was getting all my stuff ready, I printed up these stickers to close the flap on the card sleeves. I liked how the whole sheet looked-

Here is my new product- magnet sets. I tried them out at the market yesterday and people seemed to like them a lot. They will be in my Etsy shop soon.

And, now that the Marketplace is over… Etsy Update! I made this mosaic of what I will be listing on Etsy this week- Tuesday, July 1 at noon. (and the magnets above). Well, except for the sepia pirate, on the left, 3rd row down. He has gone off to live in Belgium.

b&w pirate

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The Marketplace was great yeasterday, but I will do another post about that. This b&w pirate is the last doll I finished before the event.

oops- Ignore all that fuzz on the black hat- it’s gone now…

A back view of his head- can you see the earring? Just one of course.

I was very inspired by this drawing by Mariana Massarani.

trip report 2

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We left Ithaca and we drove to Chicago for another event. 675 miles- 12 plus hours in the car… what a day. But, once I was there, I had a chance to meet up with Jan of Be*mused who has just recently landed in town. What fun that was! We planned to meet at the Bean and so I had my husband come with me to take a photo- I knew we’d one.

He asked me how long I would be with Jan and I said- I’m not sure but I have a feeling we have a LOT in common. We went and saw a show at the Chicago Cultural Center of the work of Tony Fitzpatrick. Amazing work- so inspiring. I could see applications for quilting, embroidery, collage, so much. I had never seen his work before… it has stuck in my brain.

Then we went off to have lunch… Wow- did we talk! For almost 3 hours! And, I can honestly say we hardly scratched the surface. I know I will be back to Chicago. Now I can’t wait. Hopefully Jan will find the perfect new house soon. I am looking forward to a studio visit.

Well, nothing else on the trip really lived up to that visit. I kept thinking (and talking) about all we’d discussed for days afterwards. I think my husband might have been getting a bit tired of my enthusiasm?

Anyway- some other photos.

trip report 1

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I am back home and at work getting ready for the Boston Handmade Marketplace- and keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn’t rain on Saturday.

My trip report in several parts-

We drove down to Allentown, PA for a family event. I convinced my husband that adding a few more miles (hours) to the trip and 20 pounds of wool stuffing into the car would be a wonderful side trip…

So, actually, the first stop was the West Earl Woolen Mill in Ephrata, PA. This lovely woman told us that since last fall, the wool is Australian. It is “processed” (I think that means cleaned?) there and shipped to her for carding. At least I think that is what she was saying.

In Allentown I was very excited to see this green roof at a nature reserve we visited. It is beautiful!

Next, we drove up the Susquehanna River toward Ithaca, NY.

Along the way, I saw this- a bait vending machine. New to me!

In Ithaca, we relaxed, saw our daughter, walked along some waterfalls (here are photos from last year), and we ate at the Moosewood Restaurant.

I will post about rest of the trip tomorrow.

On other topics- I’ve been thrilled by some recent amazing internet community love- I discovered that I’d been mentioned in Small Magazine, but only when someone left me a comment and mentioned it! Isn’t this collage fantastic? I had a wonderful meet-up with Jan of Be*mused- I’ll write about that tomorrow. And, Claire’s note at the bottom of this post has me purring like a kitten. She was the first craft blogger that I found and she inspired me start my own blog… which opened up this whole amazing world to me!

Okay, back to work now.

the rest of the pin cushions

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for now at least… I am away from the studio. In Ithaca, NY actually. I will be back home next week, frantically getting ready for the Boston Handmade Marketplace.

Another tiki-

view from the top-

And a streetscape-

I thought this angle was interesting-

And a tiny pond-

These pieces will be coming to the Boston Handmade Marketplace with me. If they don’t sell, they will be on Etsy sometime in the week after that.

tiny worlds

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well, I have been getting some things done… small projects that are taking much longer then they should because of all that other stuff. I am trying to make some smaller things to fill out my booth at the Marketplace.

Pin cushion worlds! This is the first time I’ve made any with the idea of selling them. Here are the first ones-

house 1-

house 2-

and Rapunzel’s tower-

Here is the back view- since that is what I always want to see-

I wanted to use the extremely flowery decoration on these tea cups as inspiration. I thought about houses with gardens. There are more in the works.

a very busy June

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This month is very full and unfortunately that will probably mean not too many posts and not much finished projects.

I got my Paperbag Swag out last week and have received mine back- that will give me some wonderful things to blog about.

After I mailed out the goodies, I was down in Connecticut for a quick family visit. This is a photo at Elizabeth Park in Hartford, CT.

Then the focus shifted to my youngest-

Prom on Friday night-

graduation on Sunday, lots to do around that. When you look at this picture, imagine 95 degrees, no shade- roasted everybody.

Next weekend I will be heading down to Allentown, PA. Then Ithaca, NY and westward to Chicago. Yep, driving. About 10 days or so. Anybody want to see if we can connect?

The last thing planned for June is the Boston Handmade Marketplace. I hope I will have some work to show!

More on everything soon!

paperbag swag- the last page

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Remember the paperbag swag project? I finished a page way back in July of last year (2007) and then… nothing. The project went on a long vacation. Hopefully we are all back on track now. I am so happy to be finishing and I can’t wait to get my book back with all the artwork from everyone else! This is due in the mail on June 4. I spent the last month thinking about a design and the weekend actually putting it together.

My last page is for Kristin. I have enjoyed working on this page because I’ve met Kristin in person and so there feels like a real connection. Her theme is Journey.

Getting the color right in the photographs is a challenge. In the picture below, the blue is right and the green is wrong.

I am so impressed by people who embroider words- ack-hard! I did a mix of machine embroidery, hand embroidery and ribbon embroidery.

I did some little drawings that I was planning to incorporate into the piece but in the end, didn’t use them. I made a bookmark out of them. They are suppose to show home, family, art.

Here is a gluing it into the book photo. I always get nervous at this part- what if I totally mess it up!

And, the swag!

Some other links connected to this project-

Theresa most recent post about it. Kristen. Cathy. Amy. Ellia.