Delinquent Bird

I realized how long it has been since I posted to this blog, it is darn near a crime. To update folks on progress I am planning my 2011 holiday show season, which will be my busiest to date. The confirmed shows that I have all the information for are as follows:


Peacock Road Tree Farm Craft Show and Special Olympics Walk-A-Thon Fundraiser
Saturday, October 1 and Sunday, October 2
http://www.peacockroadtreefarm.com/fall_fun_on_the_farm.htm
(The website says 2nd and 3rd, but I have confirmed that it is indeed Saturday, October 1 and Sunday, October 2 this year)


Peace Education Center's Alternative Holiday Sale
Saturday, November 12th, 9am-4pm
UU Church 885 Grove St, East Lansing, MI 48823

I have several other shows in the works, but the details need to be firmed up before I post them.  More information soon to follow.

Thank you for bearing with me.

It's Show Time! (a.k.a The Agents of Serendipity)

Sometimes things just happen.  With the suddenness of a lightning strike plans that simmer on the back burner burst into life.  Agents of Serendipity are those people who act as a catalyst for positive events in life, they introduce you to the right people, have you come to an event where you will be re-inspired by your passion, and generally set the status quo on its ear in the most delightful ways.


Tuesday I went to a gallery show hosted by my mentor, former boss, and Agent of Serendipity Kali of Trillium Gallery. There she introduced me around to the other vendors and asked me to set up a display for Wednesday.  Rushing back to the my studio I followed in the footsteps of artists everywhere and spent the better part of the night madly preparing my stock.


To my delight the show was a success.  It also introduced me to some fabulous people and I was invited to two more shows.


First is tomorrow, November 20th at the Peace Education Center in East Lansing for their annual  Alternative Holiday Sale, located at 855 Grove St East Lansing, MI 48823 from 9-5.


The next show is on Sunday, December 5th at The Old Town Underground Local Artist Market Holiday Show.  You will be able to find me in the lower levels of the Old Cedar Street School across for Preuss Pets in Lansing's Old Town.  


I will probably wax eloquent at a later date about this project but in the mean time please go check out this inspired 501 (c)3 dedicated to creating a community and meeting space for artists.  The mastermind behind this project is one Kat Lusch of Freyja's Fire, a kindred spirit and likewise Agent of Serendipity, she is leading me in a merry dance back to rejoicing in my creativity, in addition to supplying ample inspiration for it.


I will be preparing the last dye batches before Christmas the week after Thanksgiving; therefore if you have a custom order for the holidays please get my attention before November 29th so I can make your special gifts happen.


I am off to prepare for the Alternative Holiday sale, hope to see you there.

The Bird is Back

Get the business online for real: Take 2

Since last posting I stayed in Florida for a while running a booth at the Florida Renaissance Faire, then working for a couture tailor who specializes in period clothing, during that time I was also working in the costume shop of the Florida Grand Opera for several months on their production of Carmen.  From there it was madness from May until September; working in 5 states over 4 months, moving 1,500 miles back to Michigan, new room mates, the works.


I have gone from Florida to Michigan, to Chicago, to Michigan, to Florida, to Michigan, to Chicago, to Michigan, to New York, to Michigan, to Florida and back to Michigan, this time with a moving van, since last posting, Ugh.

But I am home with the majority of Family and Friends (many of which fall in the Family category, aka my "Framly"). I have a brand new, awesome studio space in a basement bedroom, it even gets daylight! A studio with natural light, central air and heat, that I can actually use. It's a first and I am thrilled with it.  


Last week I set up a small space for shooting photos in my studio, it consists of a low table for displaying items, three lights, a neutral backdrop pinned to the walls, a tripod and a few props.  It is simple and all I had to buy for it was the camera tripod, the rest was scavenged from around the house.  The hope is that I have fewer excuses not to photograph my work if I had a semi-permanent photography studio.  I have been using it constantly since I set it up, so that idea appears to be working.

On that note: I have recently completed several commissions, one of which was an exquisite set of wedding jewelry for a college friend of mine: the earrings are white gold with crystals and pearls, while the necklace is sterling silver with more pearls and crystals.  This project allowed me to design with materials I rarely use, including A+ grade freshwater pearls, with beautiful, smooth, high gloss surfaces that glow. For information general information on pearls click here. For information on pearl grading click here. For more detailed information look on both subjects see the Pearl-Guide.com section for freshwater pearls.

The necklace and earrings in their display box.

The necklace modeled by Janea Schimmel.

The hand made heart clasp came from Rockis Supplies on Etsy.  The uppermost pearl dangle is hooked into the spot where the hook goes for the brides preferred length adjustment, hopefully this will save having to fumble with placement on her special day.

The World On The Moon

I love finding other people who blatantly combine arts and science (Let's hear it for having a BFA in Theatre Costume Design, with cognates in Art History, Anthropology AND Biology!).  Those of you who read my blog saw my post on using NASA photos as an inspiration for my dyed silk.  I really think that by combining art and science (and history and sociology and...well you get the idea) we are broadening the audience for both; by creating a larger audience we create a more fertile ground for all of the work we do.

While listening to NPR Science Friday today I heard about the Gotham Chamber Opera producing Haydn's Il Mondo Della Luna/The World On The Moon (written in 1777) in the Hayden Planetarium in New York City.

One word...AWESOME!  They cobbled together space footage and years worth of planetarium shows into a video backdrop for this Opera.  Since they could not use traditional lighting without washing the projections into oblivion they used some truly creative solutions, light up costumes, low-wattage lights at short range, book lights sew onto the costumes (nope, not kidding) and actors performing on ladders.

From what I can see it is just amazing.  The bad news is that it is in NYC, more than a thousand miles from me, and totally sold out.  The good news is that they are talking about it becoming a touring show! 

Here is the Science Friday Article:

http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201001292

The YouTube Video from the American Museum of Natural History:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbm89W0VKyY

The NY1 News piece on the production:

http://www.ny1.com/7-brooklyn-news-content/ny1_living/112480/hayden-planetarium-hosts-haydn-opera

Happy New Year!

Now that I have officially survived the holiday season and the start of the new year I am going to be focusing on my projects with a renewed vigor.  My resolutions have been two fold, first is to work on my health, eating, exercising, taking time to generally make my body and mind a priority.  The second part of the resolution is to build my business.  I have started by getting in touch with several agencies that will help me start all of the legalese required to have a business. (Here I was hoping that seven years of college would be enough, shows that you can always learn something new.)

The holiday season was good to me, I was able to see my Aunt and Cousin from Denmark, all of my friends in Michigan, some from Chicago and a slew of my Michigan-based family.  Greetings to all of you from down here in Sunny (but unseasonably "cold," O.K. so we have had frost 3 times this week, when you have palm trees that counts as cold) Florida.

In addition to the joys of seeing everyone and visiting home there were other benefits to Michigan including snow and having my work put into Trillium Art Gallery in East Lansing, MI.  Stop by and talk to Kali, the owner, if you are in the area.  She specializes in local artists and Fair Trade, since I have worked with her for going on ten years she counts me as a local still.

This past week marked my first Florida retail venue, a big mile stone to check off on my business plan, I now have a small selection of scarves at Catai Trading at Wilburn's Inc. in Dania Beach, Florida.  In Caryn, on of the owners, I found a kindred taste, her shop is a lovely combination of international fabrics, vintage costume jewelry, sculpture and assorted antiques.  My heart was won over by the comfy couch, piled with Indian silk pillows draped in fabric situated in a window over-looking the street.

Yet more good news for the budding business; I was able to make enough sales over the holiday season to order more supplies, they just came in today!  I am thrilled with the quality, gorgeous stuff, heavy silk charmeuse that feels like butter, luxurious mat-finished crepe de chein, gauzy silk chiffon and more acid etched beauties in both satin and velvet. My mind brims with ideas for turning these into finished pieces.  So keep your eyes open for some very exciting new material in my Etsy shop in short order here.

Here is an example one of the previous batch of crepe de chein scarves to tide you over until I have new pictures to post:

Analytics and Nebulae

I am working hard to get more stock for Etsy ready, if the weather cooperates today I will take pictures of more scarves to post.

I am still so excited about making the Etsy front page.  I have a neat tool called Google Analytics that allows me to view various statistics about my site; how many hits each page gets, how long people stayed, where their IP address is located, what browser they used. I had over 200 visits on Sunday! Previously I had only had 33 at the very most, so that is quite a jump.

My next goal for my site is to see 500 visits, I am currently at 442, so the goal is in sight!  Another fun thing I found is that my pages have been viewed in ten countries, on four continents.  Talk about world wide exposure. 

I am trying to build up a business, I sure did not expect this while I was in school or I would have taken some classes on business building and management (insert a wry smile that seven years of college was still not enough...) 

I have been working on posting a line of scarves to Etsy that I am really fond of.  As soon as the first of these babies came out of the dye process in my early experiments they captivated me.  I looked at them and saw the night sky, images from the Hubble Space telescope of distant nebulae and galaxies.  Ever since first seeing these pictures shown on a huge screen in my Astronomy class I loved them, the swirling colors, the endless possibility of creation.

When Marcus saw the scarves and said they reminded him of space, without me telling him my thoughts, I knew it was meant to be.  Thus many of my recent listings on Etsy have been inspired by the sky and science. Here are some of the scarves and the images that inspired them.  (Yes I am a HUGE geek, I know, but I find inspiration in darn near everything, it's just what I do.)

This scarf was inspired by a collection of images from the Orion Nebula, located in the belt of the constellation of Orion. (Click here to see listing)

NASA,ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

NASA, ESA, T. Megeath (University of Toledo) and M. Robberto (STScI)

This next one was inspired by the top portion of the Eagle Nebula. (Click here to see listing)

   

NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

This next scarf was inspired by an awesome X-ray and Visable light combination image of the Crab Nebula. (Click here to see listing)

Credits for X-ray Image: NASA/CXC/ASU/J. Hester et al.

Credits for Optical Image: NASA/HST/ASU/J. Hester et al.

To see more of the glorious images from the Hubble Space Telescope please visit their site: http://hubblesite.org

In other news:  Christmas mayhem is in full swing, I am working on projects left and right for family, friends and family of friends.  Marcus is laughing at me because I have wipeboard full of to-dos and have a lot (don't ask how many, I honestly don't know) of projects in various phases of completion.  And this is all before I am back in Michigan...

My first Holiday build up down here in Florida is bizarre!  It is 80 out side and I am looking at lights, Christmas trees and menorahs.  Don't even get me started on the Santa's in shorts and Hawaiian shirts.  I am still don't really believe that it is already December, my poor northern body calendar is all confused; why is it dark at 6pm if it is 80? 

Squirrel and Bluejays

I was hunting for a title to this post and looking out the window when the title happened.  There was a blue jay sitting in the bush next to my patio when suddenly from the left a squirrel charges in chattering away and takes a running dive at the jay.  The jay takes off squawking and shrieking while the squirrel sits down and chomps a nut from the overhanging palm.  Odd, a little surreal, amusing and unexpected.

Kind of like this morning.  First a sale on Etsy, someone in New Jersey will be getting a lovely batch of costume jewelry shortly.  Sales are still rare enough to be exciting.  As an added bonus now I can pay my December bills in full!  That is a huge relief.

Next I see a note from Etsy, I made the front page!!!!  The Bronze Leaf velvet scarf was there, sadly I did not see the event, but another shop keeper (thank you CheapBoutique!) did and took a screen cap for me, and indeed there it is at the center of the bottom row.

O.K. so the screen capture is not exactly a stunning picture, but it proves I was there. I did it, finally.  I am slowly making progress in my Etsy goals, this might work after all.  One small step for Hanna, one giant leap for The Golden Raven!  It is really the little things that make me smile.