Better luck next time

So I participated in Kentucky's 400 mile sale which was Wednesday through Sunday. But the first two days it rained (Thursday was freezing!) so there wasn't that much traffic until Friday. And there was apparently at least two other big events going on in town that prevented the sale from attracting as much people as it usually does also. This is supposed to be fixed next year so maybe I'll have better luck then. Also the economy doesn't help at all. And the fact that I had never even heard of the 400 mile sale until this year and even though it's labeled as mainly 'antiques and collectibles', it's mostly yard sale type of stuff. I was about the only art/craft type booth there. I only made back half of my booth fee. :( But at least I thought my little table was nice looking, and I got a lot of compliments on my things. Several people took down my Etsy address also. Here's what my table looked like the first two or three days. eventually I had some batiked silk scarves hanging all around and I also strung some pendants of mine up on a branch I found down the street that I suspended from the top inside of the tent. It was very pretty. :D

Clcik these for a better look. I painted my own sign. It looks kinda messed up here because it's before I had it hung on the bars of the tent instead of stretched. also when the weather improved I rolled up the two front corners of the tent to make more room for people to view my goods.




Who is that cutie in the chair? :D haha That vase is made by me and I had planned on selling it, but I need to fix the places where some of those feathery parts have gotten chipped off first.


I've started putting these in my shop. although they will be $12, not $10. I always make things a little bit cheaper at shows like this because I get afraid that people around here will think I charge too much (even though I'm usually undercharging) because they usually don't understand the work that goes into these things.
Painted my own cork board and cut the backs these are pinned to from scrapbook paper.


I made that bracelet holder from the Styrofoam you get by the fake flowers, dowel rod, and some fabric.




Hopefully I'll start having some luck at these sort of things soon! At least I got some funnel cake! haha

Because I realize not everyone wants a funky pod necklace around their neck

I made some happy spring time pendants for my Etsy shop. :) This first one is my favorite!

Spring Leaves hand sculpted polymer pendant




Smile hand sculpted polymer pendant

Spring Leaf hand sculpted polymer pendant

Dreamin small hand sculpted polymer pendant

Hard at work!

Sort of. :9
This is part of the necklace I've been working on. Not a great photo of it, and doesn't do it justice, but it's a good peek at a work in progress. I've decided I need to order some large silk cord for it.



But in the mean time, since I love the beads I've been making for it, I made some to sell in my shop.


I really like making them, and am going to make more in different colors. :) You can find those here!

Oh bloggy blog, how I've neglected thee!

I keep procrastinating a new post because I think "Ok, I will finish this necklace I'm working on, and then I can post about that, yeah! And it will motivate me to finish my project, yeah!" But instead I get distracted and still haven't finished the necklace. Sad day. But I am proud of it so far and can't wait to post it.
Until then, here's a new photo I've recently uploaded to The Understory.

Passing Rain

Mosaic Monday

Some of my favorite things on Etsy. Click image to see full view.


Shops from left to right/top to bottom:

beadkeepers

midnightcoiler

kkennedydesigns

KarenGilbertDesigns

RitualBath

kateblack

LittleHouses

Perishables

BeatriceMcClelland

hierapparel

MarianeS

ChopstixWaits

heatherhaymart

JamCube

jennifermorrisbeads

sproutmama

new crocheted hats

It took me a while to get these posted. I hope you can forgive me, haha.

New hats, new puppy!

I've made some new super colorful crocheted hats! It's really fun to make these and use so many different yarns and textures in each one, not to mention picking the colors to put together. :)


I think I will make one or two more tomorrow. Maybe a scarf too, who knows? I'm craaaayzeee! haha


Also, we have a puppy! He is half pug and seems to be half chihuahua possibly. The boy named him Zazz. :9




He is about five months old. The woman that had him was gone to work all day long and knew that was not good for him, so she gave him to us. She was going to take him to the pound otherwise. I crocheted him a sweater, but it was way too big. I have to make it over. :p

Polymer clay is handy for other things too!

...Such as keeping your beads where you want them while you plan out a necklace.

I like using it instead of those beading trays because it can hold oddly shaped beads how you need them, keeping the holes horizontal and such. I just roll out a coil and flatten it to the table to the length I want and it works out really well. I can push my beads into it and it doesn't get all stuck in/on them or anything.

And this is that necklace finished:



I am extremely pleased with how it turned out. Besides the gemstone beads used, the rest are all handmade by me, either ceramic or polymer, including the copper clasp.

Your melon will thank you

Because this hat is soooo snuggly! :) And I am soooo relieved to finally have it listed.



How relieved? This relieved!

Weeeee!
And today I awoke at 6:30 in the morning completely on my own! Imagine that! I thought getting up at 7 was going to be hard so I was pleasantly surprised.

The other day I started painting the envelopes I have to make them a little more interesting and fun to get in the mail. I made this bean stamp from my sculpey and was pleased that it worked.



Here are the ones I've finished so far.



The colors in those photos are not perfect matches to what they really are, but you get the idea.
Fun fun! :)

Newness!

I finally finished my new Etsy/blogger banner. You like? Also changed my blog colors. And i finished a hat just now, but here is a new necklace I recently posted.



The bean beads are polymer, the rest are ceramic. All made by me.

Well, I meant to post on the 1st

..but technically it's the 2nd now. Meh. And one of my goals for 2009 is to stop procrastinating, go figure.
Also I had a couple of pictures to post but can't find my camera cord, so I guess there's my motivation to finish unpacking my stuff tomorrow. :9
But anyways! I finally graduated college with a BFA in ceramics. Yay! Now the plan is to save up money so that I can afford to move to wherever grad school may be. I still have to narrow down where I want to apply, and i won't be applying until Fall 2010. Right now my biggest goal is to get my Etsy going enough to be able to sell my items full time. And if I can just get a small kiln, that would help sooo much. But until then I have to make do with what I have. So I guess now this will sort of be a journal of that goal. Scary! haha. But thanks to having an awesome boyfriend that can allow me to try this Etsy thing head on for a while, I'll have all the time in the world to work on my Etsy and this journal and some other things. :) So wish me luck! Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a more substantial post to type up, haha.

What's Tab Making??

It's about time I showed some of what I have been working on in my final ceramics class before I graduate this December. Before I do that though, I want to show a couple of finished things from my metals class. Earlier in the semester we learned granulation (a process used by goldsmiths or silversmiths to decorate precious metals with small spheres fused to a base piece.) We also learned to make a chain with fine silver (fine silver is what we were also using to granulate). We had to do a practice piece first, which I ended up using as the focal point to this bracelet. It also uses the chain I made (which is kind of a pain in the ass since you have to fuse every jumpring by hand before linking together)







I'm really happy with it, and wear it most days. :) It's not supposed to have a face, it just ended up looking that way. But I like it.

Once I got the hang of granulation with my practice piece, I made the main project. These are a pair of 8 gauge earrings. The granulated part is of course *fine silver, and the hook and rivet is sterling silver. These were not meant to look like purses, but they just ended up that way. *shrug* That's ok with me though, I am really happy with them. I wear them almost daily.






*As far as I understand from my class, you must granulate with pure metals, not alloys. Only pure metals will fuse together when heated. This is why you can not granulate with sterling silver. Sterling is 7.5% copper, which is added for strength (silver is pretty soft). Fine silver is something like 99.999% silver, nothing added whatsoever.



Ok, back to ceramics. These pieces are all unfinished, either still being sculpted, or still in need of being glazed, etc... They are for my BFA senior exhibition that will be December 7th. So close! So stressful! Haha.

This is a sort of terrarium, so to speak. Tiny plant life (muchly made up from my brain) in what could be a split nut shell, or maybe some driftwood, who knows. :) It is dry, but still needs to be bisque fired. It will be really tricky to glaze!









A work in progress which is now finished, waiting to be bisque fired.



Bottom of this still waiting to be carved, and the top waiting to be put on.






Here it is with the top finished. The bottom still needed to be carved, but it has since been finished and is also waiting to be bisque fired.





Here are some bisque fired pieces on my shelf, ready to be glazed. :)







One of several small 'studies' of mine. They'll make good glaze testers. :)





This is my work space in the advanced studio. I have since cleaned and organized it so it looks much better now. :9





And that's all for now! I can't wait to have the finished pieces to show. :D