Curtain Up, Light the Lights

rockin' light switch covers

The song finishes with everything's coming up roses and being the optimist that I am, I hope it's true.  Although's  it's been difficult to post the last few days, I'm working steadily on getting ready for the fall season's shows.  We've had 'weather', civic elections, work, and all those other things that are part of life and the time has just flown by, with Halloween here in a few days. I haven't even had time to plan my costume...or Molly's for that matter, and she does come first, lol. 

I've tried to fit in some clay work in the in-between times, but it hasn't been easy.  For some reason, this show season's just kind of HAPPENED, and I am not prepared! My inventory seems to be smaller than usual this year.  I even had to turn down a big show because I didn't have enough stuff to fill the booth.  That being said, I am gradually increasing production of things that have been moving well, mainly the light switch plates and other 'affordable' items.  I've taken to buying boxes of the plates as that way they are a little less pricy and if I get in the mood, I can make a dozen or more.  These neutral-colored rock ones are quite popular, and even though I enjoy making them, I find them a bit tedious. So every once in a while I shift the color palette to much brighter things, like these tropical ones.

colorful palette 'subtropical' plates

With the horrible weather we've been experiencing the last couple of days, our climate is anything but tropical but  maybe that's why I made them.  Actually, part of my inspiration for those was at my last book club meeting about a week ago.  The hostess of that get together lives in a building that has an enclosed atrium that reaches all the way up to the top floor, probably sixteen or more levels.  Although not at the very top, she lives above the full grown trees  and her outer balcony, which actually is enclosed, looks out on the lush foliage below.  Her balcony space is decorated in a very south-sea fashion, like a lanai, and it's all so warm feeling.  She even has the natural 'music' playing to complete the setting.  The bamboo curtaining sets off her one side from the neighbour's and she is on a corner, so the privacy is complete.  I'm thinking the first or third of this triad would go well there.

It's funny how the opening of this fall's show season is so much like preparing for an actual stage production.  I've purchased a few new 'props' to help display my stuff and hope they'll work.  Some of the shows I'll be in are new for me and the spaces allocated are not quite boxy regular shapes, so I'm thinking that having 'portable' racks that can be moved will do the trick.  I bought a clothes rack on wheels that I'll used to showcase my longer hanging things, and am going to use my 'womanakin' that I purchased at Winner's a couple of years ago.  Standing about three feet tall, she has no head and arms, but she wears a sequiny-beaded dress that's very flashy.  I've come up with a way to insert some 'arms' that are just right for hanging ornaments and other pendants.  I still have to come up with a way to position her at eye level so the objects can be viewed more easily. 

All this staging is starting to make me hummmm, would that tune be Bali H'ai, or Shangri-la...

Signs and tags and cards

In an effort to be somewhat original, practical and yet not so ordinary, I decided to print my own cards.  This was just a prototype and cut it very hastily so it is a little 'off' in the corner.  On the final copy, I'll do it a tad neater.

I have probably 8 or 9 full boxes of fabric, some for quilting, others of various sorts, that I inherited after my mom's passing, and over the years, have attempted to utilize it in my work.  I don't sew much and do not have the time to make quilts, yet I don't want to just give it all away.  Today, at the top of the stash I found this gorgeous batik fabric and thought it would make a nice backing for a business card.  That way instead of using cardstock I could just run off my card on regular paper and then attach it to the fabric to create a durable card.  At first I thought of collaging it to the fabric using some fusible webbing, then I remembered another technique that's fun...sewing over the thing in every direction.  Started with an entire sheet of labels and cards, then stitched willy-nilly all over the thing and then when they got cut out, this is what happened. 

I think they'll be good for button cards and business cards as well.  Maybe I'll come up with a different layout for some tags for objects where I like to add a bit of a hand-written description.  But, that's a while off.  I've been very busy teaching lately, and sister and I are going on a Thelma and Louise getaway (minus the crimes) so won't be able to test the final product completely for a week or so.  During the relaxing moments of our little trip I'm going to try to get a pedicure (my former excellent esthetician moved to Florida); finish the third Steig Larsen novel, ...The Hornet's Nest, and catch up on some shopping which I rarely do.  I still have 500 pages to go (ahem....) in the novel, so methinks the shopping might end in a café where I can just read for a couple hours.  Our book club meets next Wednesday, so I've got some readin' to do and then some splainin' Lucy.  (Lucy is in our book club too). 

Hoping this beautiful fall day finds everyone brimming with creative juices.

Lady Buttons are gone

No pictures today...too busy making turkey well...um range hen... and getting caught up on things polymer clay wise.  The buttons of the lady faces went first thing last weekend.  A lady from Iowa snaffled them up within five minutes of the show opening.  Maybe I didn't price them high enough...or maybe she REALLY liked them.  She was a button collector and was going to give them as gifts to her fellow collectors.

I've been really busy and no time to take pictures...Will try to post tomorrow with new items.  Nobody really wants to READ what I have to say anyway.  LOL... Well, I know a few of you do, but most of the lookers out there are more interested in seeing, and quite frankly I have to admit that when I visit blogs, I am usually taken by the pictures. 

I have been working on more art journals and book-stuff.  I am contemplating putting together a little 'how to' now that I've made a dvd of my work.  Actually I didn't make the dvd, just burned a copy of one that was made last year. I actually watched the whole thing and was tempted to try to load a part of it on here, but for the life of me, do not know how to just use part of a home made dvd on this thing.  So for those of you who are really tech-savvy and can give me a quick e-how, I'd love to attach a little bit of it here.  Of course it's rather a simple technique, but still gives a little bit of a glimpse into what it is that I do.  (I loved hearing my friend Gilles saying that in English...what is it that you do?) 

Anyway, gotta go give little Molly, the delightfully diabetic dog her needle cuz she just ate ... again.

I am thankful...really that she is with us.  And that we're healthy.  And that we've had GORGEOUS weather for the last ten days.  And for lots of other stuff.