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.