Back in the saddle

I am opening a Shopify store on Facebook. I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of making art and running a store. I'm not a good business person, but I enjoy the process of sharing what I love to do.

New on my horizon is watercolor painting. I hope to eventually offer some for sale in my shop. I'm also putting up some of my digital drawings at a RedBubble store, as stickers, and thinking about putting together a few digital books.

Journaling!

My beloved husband got me a lovely Mother's Day gift... three books that I'm dying to delve into.

Music Listography: Your Life in (Play)Lists

Listography: Your Life in Lists

The Secret Me: A Questionnaire Journal


This adds to my other secret obsession... doodling journals. I just bought a fabulous one of those that I'll share later. I have a lot to work on while I'm at my Mom's this summer!

Weaving

I have had a years-long unrequited love affair with weaving. From the time I first used a potholder loom as a little kid I've thought weaving was really cool. I own a beautiful Beka rigid heddle loom that I've rarely used due to space restraints, I also own a "belt loom" that will weave long and fairly narrow pieces of thread. Then there are all the knitting looms I have, but those are fodder for another post. ;-)

Since I don't yet have the space for my Beka (I'm working on it! I plan to put hooks on the wall so I can hang it when I'm not using it), I thought I might satisfy myself with a little pin weaving. I've looked at several tutorials, and instead of making an actual pin loom (that is suitable for embroidery thread and pearl cotton and such), I'm going to make myself a loom more suitable for my great love of Lily Sugar & Creme yarn. I have a lot that I need to use up, so I thought that making a bunch of squares with it might be really cool for scarves or shawls. I haven't decided what kind of warp I will use, but it needs to be something quite a bit finer and a neutral color. I'm sure I have plenty of something!

If it works, I'll provide a tutorial. Now, to find a piece of wood and some nails...

Finish it Friday!

I am hereby declaring Friday to be "Finish it!" day. Every week I'm going to try to dedicate any studio time I get to finishing something I've already started. I have a stack of "could be/would be" projects, and they need to get knocked off. Henceforth, Fridays are days I cannot start anything new, unless I have no "cb/wb" things laying around.

Why do crafters and artists seem to have such a bad habit of procrastinating finishing things? There seem to be two kinds, too: those that procrastinate starting, and those that procrastinate finishing. I, sadly, am both. I hate to start, because I fear that I'll find something (a fabric, yarn, whatever) that I like better for the project, or I'm scared of how complex it is, or... there are a million reasons I won't start a project. The biggest, however, is probably the fear of messing it up and losing those supplies, and not having anything to show for my work. It's also part of having been so poor for so many years, I'm afraid of using up and running out of supplies, and not having any money to buy more. It's something I'm working on, though! My  poor husband always tells me he doesn't really care what I spend on my work, but he'd really love to see some finished projects coming out of the studio instead of supplies just going in and staying!

So, do you procrastinate? If you do, what kind are you? How does it manifest? Tell me. Also, if you are one of those amazing "start and finish in a timely fashion people", brag a little and let the rest of us in on your secrets.

The Eye of the Needle... and squinting to see it.

It is official. I am old. I had to use a needle threader for that new #11 sewing machine needle. *sigh*

I used to be the one who could thread any needle with no problem. Now I squint and fret and say words I probably shouldn't (there's a reason the door of my studio has a profanity warning sign...).

So, how many of you have a problem threading these days? And, another question. How long do you sew on a needle before you pitch it? Do you wait for there to be signs, or do you just automatically pitch at the end of a garment, or a specific period of time?

Sewing and helpful tools

I have been spending a lot of time thinking about sewing. Not a lot of time actually sewing, but that's the way it goes in my life most of the time. Right now I'm sewing bags for Tarot decks, and then I'll get started on making some print cotton lanyards. Not sure what will happen from there, but I have a lot of projects stacked up to get to.

Working on the bags today got me to thinking about what the most useful tool is for me in sewing. There are so many that I use and love it's hard to pick a favorite, but most of the time the thing I spend with in my hands most is this little guy here:

It doesn't look like much, but when I need to make a precise sized channel for a ribbon, or elastic, or just a nice, neat hem? It's the best thing in the world. No idea what it's called, but that's okay, it's my friend. That little red bit slides to and stays on whatever measurement I need, all I have to do is slide it up, fold the fabric over, and pin. Wonderful!!

So, what is your favorite tool for sewing?

Weekend work

Last night I finished up a pillowcase I'd started for my son (skulls, of course!) and a dice bag for him. I bought him his first set of gaming dice for Christmas, and he needed a decent-sized bag.

Today I've spent mostly cleaning house, but tomorrow my goal is to get some sewing done. I want to make a stack of tarot deck bags, if I can find something good to line them with. I need some for my decks, and I want some to sell in April. I'm not exactly sure what pattern I'm going to use, but I have some ideas in my head.

I have so much to do in my art studio, but at least I can sew at the moment. What needs to happen is 30-60 minutes a day in there, sorting and re-arranging until I have more space, and more of my supplies unpacked. At some point I will have to trade, sell or give away a lot of things I just simply don't need or use anymore. That will be a horrible project, but it has to get done!

I hope you are all having a great weekend!

New projects

After a lovely weekend away with my family at a convention where there was a LOT of wonderful art and craft for sale, I find myself reacquainted with the concept of the ear cuff. Trying to figure out in my head how I could make ear cuffs myself got me thinking about wire work, and wire work got me thinking about a tool I had years ago. I discovered that the tool still exists, and exists in a variety of brand new and wonderful ways. Naturally I ordered one almost immediately and I've already spent some time fiddling with it, and excavating other gadgets and supplies from my not-quite-in-useful-order art studio.

The tool I'm talking about is a WigJig, a nifty wire-working tool that allows for all sorts of wire exploration. I ordered a Centaur, which is (obviously) an amalgam of two different types of jigs, that will offer me a lot of possibilities. I've been researching wire options and other things, and I hope to have a few items to put out for sale at a convention in Ontario in a few months.

I'm also working on plans for table space at a few different conventions we go to, where I can put out jewelry and other things I make as well as do tarot readings. I may be joined by a few other artists and a rune reader. Exciting plans afoot!

Meanwhile, this evening I finished up work on a brooch with a polymer clay cabochon.

I still have to finish the back with leather and add a pinback with a bail, so it can be a pendant as well as a brooch.

Meet Vadoma!

A while ago I treated myself to something, a sculpture from a fellow polymer clay artist, Angelina Star Edwards. I am not a sculptor, and I am in awe of anyone who can sculpt. This particular artist has captured my heart with her amazing snails, and she made me my very own pen & ink artist Lady Snail! I'm delighted with little Tess, and she moves around from place to place in my studio so I can see her and she can approve of my work. ;-)

Recently Star announced a snail giveaway, and I am bound and determined to win this beauty to share the studio with me and little Tess. She's Vadoma, the fortune teller snail and she's gorgeous!

 Please visit the blog and check out Star's wonderful work.

I'm here!

So much has been going on at my house. I've finally (with the help of the wonderful Crystal!) gotten headway in my studio, so I can now sew. A little bit of work every day or so will get the collected junk sorted through - look for destashing and new projects soon.

I've decided to dump my Etsy shop. I don't list there, I hate listing, I hate the whole process. I'm going to start selling mostly through my wonderful friend at Third Blessing (who sells from her store, at festivals and sales, as well as on Etsy! Check her blog for info) as well as the occasional art/craft sale. Eventually I want to set up my own website and possibly do a bit of e-commerce there, but for now I think I'm out of the game. My destashing will be done at Yardsellr, or a similar site... news on that later.

I want to tell everyone about a fabulous new site I've found. It's smallish, but it's growing, and I'd love to see you all hook up with me there, if you sew. It's called My Sewing Circle and it's a lot like Ravelry for sewing types. My handle over there is teresadkg, please feel free to add me! (Over at Ravelry I'm born2me, add me there, too!)

You can look at my sewing projects there, I've got one finished one up and two in the planning stages. I've also started a group for stay at home Moms who sew.

I've got a Tumblr now. It posts my Instagram pics, and I'm also putting pictures up of my studio and the progress I'm making there.

So many projects!

I'm working on bits and pieces these days. Did a little clay here and there, lots of doodling, some beading recently. It's too hot to crochet, or do much in general right now. I'm looking forward to fall, to getting my studio back into shape, getting the sewing machine out.

I have a domain name now, and soon I hope to start using it. Eventually I'd love to have an art shop there, as well as do my Reiki teaching on the site as well.

I've added a few more things to Third Blessing in West Plains, MO, but nothing new at Etsy. I hope to get back to adding items there pretty soon, though. Is there anything that you'd like to see me working on to sell?

Teaching

I love to teach, and teaching polymer clay classes are a great treat. I got to teach a two hour session at a women's drumming retreat last weekend and it was fabulous! I had created some Goddess figures and djembe blanks in advance for everyone to decorate. We also made beads. It was great, and I had such a talented bunch of women.

I'm hoping to teach a class this summer at a small store in my hometown, it should be great fun, too!

Crochet excitement

Although I have never offered any of my crocheted items for sale, many of you already know that I love to crochet. I've been on a quest the last year or so to learn "real crochet", rather than the self-taught one or two stitches I worked with for years. I'm actually almost reading patterns now, and have branched out into amigurumi (love it!!) and lots of beautiful cotton hats, dishcloths and towels. Recently I ran across a pattern for a pair of fingerless mitts, and being a sucker for fingerless mitts, decided to give it a try. I have made my first pair ever this weekend, followed the pattern, re-worked the pattern a bit, and am ready to start on a second pair!

A dear friend of mine passed away a few years ago, and I begged the administrator of her estate to let me have some yarn or fabric from her stash. Quite a bit of her massive collection had been ruined by a collapsed roof, but I ended up with several boxes full of fabric and yarn, and some finished and partially finished pieces. A lot of them were granny squares of all different sizes and types, and I hope someday to put them together with squares of my own into a wild crazy lap quilt.

Sunday I decided to rummage in her stuff to see if I could find some new yarn for a second pair of mitts. I came across something I don't remember seeing before - a bag with several skeins and partial balls of a really pretty acrylic pink sparkly yarn. When I say pink I mean a BRIGHT DEEP WILD PINK! The photo doesn't do it justice, the sparkle is muted and it feels so soft to the touch. It's gorgeous and just my style. In the bag was also a mostly finished cloche hat. I decided it was a gift from Stu, and probably sign of her approval at all I'm doing with yarn these days. I fiddled around and think I know what size hook she was using, and (although I seem to crochet much tighter than she did) I'm blending in fairly well with what she was doing. It's almost finished, then I'll start a pair of mitts. I found a couple finished granny squares in this bag, too, so I'll use whatever is left to make more to match and form the center of my crazy lap quilt.

I'm getting ready to bring all my yarn up from the tubs in the basement, sort it, and put it into space bags. I bought some cubes, the kind that you use a vacuum to suck the air out. I intend to use up my stash of mostly acrylic yarn as quickly as I can, I have plans to make some dog/cat beds to donate to shelters. I also have a lot of cotton yarn that I'm using to make hats to donate to a couple different cancer centers. They are light and comfortable, and perfect for wearing in the summer. That's the same yarn that I make my dishcloths and such out of - Lily's Sugar 'n Cream, and some Peaches & Creme. In fact, I'm working on some washcloths and towels for my kitchen right now.

I have more projects that I have time for, especially given the new jewelry I'm working on to add to my Etsy store. Always fun!

I am enjoying myself lately doing "zoodles" (zen doodles, similar to Zentangles, but not copyrighted) and pondering ways to incorporate them into my art.  Here are couple of the first I tried:

They've also added a lot of dimension to my ATC's (artist trading cards). Here's a partially finished one:

One thing I'm working on right now is making glass slide pendants with my own handmade copper bails. I've made a few double-sided pendants that are musical in nature, and I'll soon have some out that are doodles.

Getting with the program!

I just got set up with a lovely display at Third Blessing, which is an amazing little shop in my hometown of West Plains, Missouri. I'm so excited about having my work in a brick & mortar store. I'm also taking a few things to FKO (Filk Ontario, a music convention in Toronto), since I've been offered a bit of table space! It feels good to be getting my work and name out there. I also have a bit of work at my Etsy shop, and I'll be putting more things up there as I go along. In May I have the fantastic opportunity to join some dear friends at Spring Fling, which is a WomenDrum event. I'll be doing a polymer clay class where we'll be decorating a large Goddess bead, fit for a drum dangle or a necklace/brooch. I'll also get to relax and drum while the guys have a bachelor weekend at the house.

In the process of rebranding to Lovely Mayhem (which is a part of gundowerks), I'm moving all my old blog posts from the gundowerks blog to here, and changing my gundowerks Facebook page over to a Lovely Mayhem page. My systems administrator (such a hottie!) is going to purchase a domain for me soon, so I should be able to get things started running through there at some point. It's all new, and much fun! I hope you'll join me in my new adventures.

Tutorials!

I am constantly experimenting with new techniques, new products, new tutorials. I love piddling around with supplies, trying new things. As I settle into my newly-reclaimed art studio I want to start doing more of my own tutorials and product reviews - to that end, I have started my own Squidoo site. I'll still blog about it here as well as provide my Squidoo links. I'm hoping each will drive traffic to the other - at least that's the plan.

Currently under the microscope - surface techniques for polymer clay. Stay tuned here for more!

Shifting Gears

After a lot of thought I've decided to close both of my online shops, at Etsy (Lovely Mayhem) and Artfire (gundowerks). It probably won't end up a permanent change, but I've come to realize that I'm just not interested in doing what it takes to sell online at this time. I'm going to concentrate on new styles and ideas, and finding some consignment venues in local stores.

I am still going to be here, and online in general. I'm working on a Lovely Mayhem FB page, and will hopefully secure a URL and have my own website eventually. I'm going to continue to share wonderful art and ideas from my friends, and insights that I find in my own work as I go.

Still available for all kinds of custom work, especially buttons (for any kind of fiber worked garments) and prayer beads. I'd love to help you out, just email at gundowerks at gundo dot com.

Tools from the trash

While we're talking about tools, what is something you use regularly and would probably just trash/recycle when done with that you save and use in your polyclay work? I have many, but in sorting through my stuff as I clean & redo my studio, I came across a bag of something that inspired me to post this.

Pop bottle caps.

I realized a long time ago that they are perfect for mixing liquid clay with small amounts of powders for colored TLS, or mixing powders together to make different shades, or doing just about anything that needs to be contained in a small space and can just be tossed or rinsed out when you are done.

I try to grab lids of all sorts, but mostly plastic caps from pop bottles, since they are deep and recyclable.

Here is one with some gold TLS in it. I actually make this and black TLS up in larger bottles, but I just squeezed a bit out in here to dip my brush in.

So, your turn. What's something you'd normally dispose of that you use regularly with your clay?

Super Sculpey to the rescue.

So, my amazingly talented friend ColtPixy blogged about her favorite new tool. I have used it before, but not recently, so naturally I had to grab a 40% off coupon and trot over to Michael's to get some more, because results like that I NEED!

I already sliced off a hunk and started using it in my pasta machine(s). I say machine plural because I have three out and able to use (although only room to clamp one down at the moment), and I'm pretty sure I have a fourth somewhere. The real test is going to be using it after red, which tends to be so heavily saturated that it bleeds onto and -stays- on everything.

Super Sculpey is wonderful stuff. I wouldn't personally use it to make anything to sell, but I've used it for years to make tools, stamps, and molds when I don't have access to the really good two-part stuff. I recommend always having on hand a box of it, and the plain old Sculpey Oven Bake Clay (white, but not pure white like the small packages). I use that to make armatures and many other things. I will eventually blog about using clay to create useful items for the clay table, so stay tuned!

Come join us at Lovely Mayhem's brand new Etsy store!