Ornaments

At the gallery demo last weekend I took an order for some tree ornaments, and I kicked myself for not thinking of that before, duh!  They were to be red wire and star like. I did a couple trials before I settled on one, and the test ones make great holiday pendants! The first one looks like a poinsetta flower:

The second one is half the size and makes a nice little star pendant for those less into chunky jewelry:

But I finally came up with adjusting another pattern to come up with this 6 pointed star pattern:

She wanted a set of 6, so I was busy making them this week, and because I have orders to fill this is when I started baby sitting a teething 1 yr old. LOL never a dull moment around here I tell ya!

I think they turned out rather well myself. And I found another ideas for holly leaves with red bead berries. But before I tackle ornaments I need to play with the lovely sterling silver wire I got from The Ring Lord:  http://theringlord.com/  They are based in Saskatoon, and have loads of different wire. I'll still need to order my coloured stuff from the States tho, sigh.

Anyway I need to make something really amazing with the silver and see if I can get it into the winter amateur display at the art gallery next month.  I think I have done what I'd like shown with my can tabs, so just need to go nuts with nice wire and semiprecious beads. Wish me luck!

Art Gallery demo/new display colours

 

Sun Oct 3 I did a wire crochet demo at the art gallery. And got to test the new colour scheme for my display. In mini display form. I like the way that the colour turned out, everything stands out better than the black.

There weren't many people who came to look, but I sold earrings and a ring. and a well known local artist was interested in one of my older sets that I have always wondered why hadn't sold. However she didn't have her wallet along, sigh.

 At the time I was demoing there was a stained glass class happening, and the instructor ordered a set of tree ornaments based on a pendant I had crocheted. which lead to Laurie (education director) to suggest I join a few other artists in Nov to teach various ornament making. 5 people who came indicated that I should teach wire crochet. So, I am going to try to teach a class in 2011 sometime. EEK!! So much new stuff to try and do, and all of it at the same time, why can't new happen slowly? I don't like too much change... Taurus I suppose. Anyway it was a rather interesting day.

Studio Tour

Over the weekend I took the afternoon to to a semi-local studio tour of 9 artists.

Luckily the weather co-operated and it was a nice day out. (Sitting in the tour van and getting up and out all the time was torture, for me though. I managed to injure my tailbone slipping on the step and bouncing on my tail down to the concrete pad.)

The first stop was a charming pottery/painting studio. The artist uses her painting skills to decorate her pottery work. lovely fruit and floral themes on all amnner of pottery creations.

The next artist raises alpaca and uses their wool to create luxuriously soft knits, and amazingly soft stuffed animals. Here is an alpaca mom and her baby.

Some of the alpaca items, hats, scarves, mitts, sweaters, stuffies ect..

Elaine was part of the tour as well with her polymer clay work, but alas, there were too many admirers at her display to get a good photo.

Here we have a fibre artist, she mostly does various dye and dye techniques, but she also does amazing quilting work, which wasn't displayed. as well as photography of local wildlife which she uses in her cards and prints.

Another artist has her studio on her farm in a nice sized building, huge windows and wall to wall paintings and artworks. She does acryllic and water color painting, felting, all sorts of different needle works, everything really.

The same artist as above. I had to show this dragon, all needleworked in gold thread, beads and sequins, the details are amazing. It took her 2 weeks of 10-12 hr days to stitch this gorgeous and priceless work. I drool, seriously.

This pottery artist is very different from the first one, the patterns in her work are more textural, though there were a few painted pieces. She also does amusing little faces, and "mosquitoe house" garden decorations.

The last 2 artists are a husband and wife team who have thier studios in the basement of an old old schoolhouse they have renovated. The live in the upper floor.

She does plaster casting impressions of nature scenes, animal tracks, feathers, different plantlife ect.

This one is a huge casting of a busy gopher area, full of rodent tracks.

Her husband does black and white classic photography using a bellows style camera, which my photo didn't turn out of, sadly. lots of nature scenes, and he does images in a totally darkroom, slowexposure where he runs a flashlite around the subject and ends up with a wild light outlining the photo subject.

It was a really fun and busy day seeing all the different local artisans, and their equally different studio areas. So much talent, and so much inspiration. I hope they do a tour next year too!

makin' stuff

I am still trying to create a little free-er, and more art inspired. This bracelet uses several fillet crocheted triangles in different sizes and metal colour, copper, gold, silver. Originally they were layered together as a pendant and earrings. I decided to attach them all together for this asymertical but geometric designed bracelet, after ripping apart a few older pieces that have been in my stock for a few years unsold. I kinda like this new design it's fun and funky and I hope this new direction will sell, time will tell right?

This is what the triangles  pendant and earrings looked like before. yeah my photography has improved a lot in that time too LOL!!

some of my new work is still similar but showing more of the crochet work, less simple chaining.

I am rather liking the lacy disks behind the beads look right now.

Currently I am working on a pull tab bowl using hand spun and dyed wool I got at a farmers market. I'll be sure to show that one off when I am done!

craft sales

On the 20th Elaine and I did a craft sale in the small community of Herbert, half an hours drive from Swift Current. It was a very well planned and advertised event, however there were too many things going on, and VERY few people showed up for it:(
I booked 2 tables and didn't make enough to cover even one table fee, which was cheap.


Then this past weekend (27th and 28th) we did the local Gun and Hobby show.Yeah it doesn't sound too good a place for crafters, but it's usually a really good show for me, lots of hunters wives and lady gun enthusiasts go. Day one was busier than i have ever seen this show! Tons of people. Didn't do the best I ever have but did well enough. Elizabeth from my Tuesday crafters group also had a table with her bags and antiques. actually all but 1 person from the group came to look about. A lot of the people I know came at some point. Day 2 not so much, still a lot of people came after the worlds womens curling closed ceremony, but not many shoppers. But I did hand out a lot of cards and there was one interested in hosting a home show. And funny enough even though I do this show and the fall one every year and have for the last 4 years there were peoiple who had never seen crocheted wire. Elaine had a wonderful show and got several people interested in taking her polymer clay class in April at the art gallery.



No other shows on the radar this spring, so I can chill and fill purse orders. I like doing shows/sales, but it's nice when they are over too. It does go by faster with a friend in the next booth though!

Featured!

This is my week to be featured on NatureManipulateds blog:
http://naturemanipulated.blogspot.com/
You could win a cutom made wallet in your choice of colours


or this earring and bracelet set:


Details on how are in her blog feature!
I am pretty excited by this. I wonder who will win, where are they from, how did they know about the contest/give away?
Well I will find out at weeks end I guess. Meanwhile I am learning a lot from the comments :)

Stuff I have made with Elaines beads lately

As promised earlier in the week I have photos of the jewelry I made with Tooaquarius' beads at the craft show in Calgary.

I think I could work with her beads exclusively for a long time and still be inspired and happy with them. With all the texture, colours and shapes she does in her beads, making jewelry with them is a breeze, they need very, very simple accompanying beads. I am amazed that there's no paint involved. 12 years of skill and practice really show through.

I might be keeping the ice blossom set seen below. and am considering keeping the Coffee Break set to the left if it doesn't sell before Christmas.

My new addiction. Somehow, I don't even feel guilty :)