Looking Forward, Craft Fair recap

It's been an action packed couple of months. 9 shows in 2 months and I made it. There were some good and some great shows but the one common denominator was great people. Being surrounded by people following their creative paths can't help but inspire and bolster your resolve. I was lucky this year, this was my first holiday season where I was dedicated 100% to the job and I have to say it really paid off. The application process starts so early for some of the shows that come November it's usually too late. I made up a calendar and wrote all the application dates and show dates, (and space size) this helped me focus on exactly how much inventory I needed, what set up to take and make deadlines. I did one set up on my kitchen table, took photos and this helped save time with show set-up because I knew where everything was going to go.

For the most part I had displays and signage I was happy with, sometimes the hoarding of props pays off and having access to a laser cutter made a huge difference. I took a woodshop class and it was worth the money just to be able to use the table saw. I had grand plans for a mobile set up but had to abandon them when I realized it was going to take a lot longer than I had initially thought.

My favorite 3 shows were: Maker's Arcade, Renegade and Artists and Fleas. These are all curated shows so until you get the acceptance email usually just a couple of weeks before the show you have to plan blind. So before we get to 2015, here's some pics !

Rained out at Patchwork, Santa Ana

Don't wear white shoes in Rain :(

One of my faves Maker's Arcade, San Diego Photo by @jasfitz  www.letsfrolictogether.com

 This was the furthest I had driven for a show and despite being caught in an accident and racing to get set up on time, it was well worth it.

Photo by @jasfitz www.letsfrolictogether.com from Maker's Arcade

Prior to making the circular bauble sign at ENC

Sunny Day at Renegade.

I had a lot of dog visitors at Renegade.

Last Set Up of the Season

 The set ups were switched up based on space available but I think I saved the best for last at Artists and Fleas.

Handy to have a board listing your products.

It finally feels like Winter

Happy Halloween

The last week has been blissful in terms of temperature, I've even been wearing long sleeves which has been exciting. In a complete roundabout I've returned to sewing, its been months and the last thing I sewed was probably a hem. It's a good thing to have had a break as I have a renewed enthusiasm and I'm excited to make new things. Here's a couple I've been working on, although if you follow my instagram you'll have seen some of these behind the scenes shots. I'll be taking part in a few show in November including Patchwork Show on Nov 2nd in Long Beach and Nov 30th in Santa Ana as well as Maker's Arcade in San Diego on Nov 22.

Sample fox new design

I made this guy in a flurry of enthusiasm, literally drew onto the fabric and cut it out, not really thinking about how I would make it again without a pattern. I don't really want to unpick it apart so we'll have to see if the pattern I made is close enough.

Look at all the owls, I have banned myself from buying any fabric till I get through the mountains of wool that I have collected. I have mini wool mountains of felted sweaters and dismantled clothing everywhere, it looks bad but it always does when I'm busy.

Here's a felted sweater purse with appliqued bear.

Fox and Bear

Mr & Mrs Nighty Night Owls

The one with all the Cats

It's no surprise to some that when you practice something you get better at it, so as a result of drawing everyday I have definitely noted an improvement (and I was surprised). I am used to painting and drawing from life or photographs so imagining what a little chubby bird might look like holding an umbrella and being blown by the wind is an entirely different proposition. As I sit and doodle away, while The West Wing plays in the background (such a good series) I feel very lucky to have this time to enjoy the process of creating. My problem has always been focusing on one thing, no sooner do I decide to focus on paper goods and I'm designing a whole laser engraved line which then opens the possibilities to umpteen other products. I'm taking a break from ceramics to take a wood shop class. I've already made a dog bed but my big project is a retail cart for craft shows.....
 
Recent projects include a cat line of keyc hains and potentially gift wrap if I can find a way to do it that is affordable. While I only have dogs, I can appreciate there are a lot of cat loving people out there and they are fun to paint. There will be a corresponding dog line too. Holidays are around the corner and I feel like I've been in Christmas mode for a while now. I saw my first full on Holiday display in Hobby Lobby the other day, weird.

Lately I've been waking up in the middle of the night, usually due to being bitten by mosquitoes, they Looooove me, and I wake up immediately grab the tea tree oil and an icepack and try and go back to sleep. There have been times when there have not been enough icepacks and I have to resort to the frozen veg. On one such interrupted night though, my mind was racing with puns for cards and I had to write them down, fortunately there's always a sketchbook somewhere. There were some good ones so stay tuned and you will see the results shortly.

Imagining what a cat looks like

Cat ink drawing

Cat heads

Lil heads pattern

 

Potential grumpy cat Holiday card

Carpe Diem Seize the AC Unit & Biz card design

This is my very first year of being full time on the make and design front, which has coincided with probably some of the hottest weather ever, which I toughed out with one fairly innocuous fan which merely gave the appearance of a small breeze. Why didn't you get an air conditioning unit I hear you ask ? Well, frankly I didn't know you could buy them off the shelf, I thought stupidly that you had to install a fancy system running through your house ( a bit like plumbing) and I blame the husband on this one (he's American after all!) its not like Air Conditioning was ever an issue in London. Ask me about alternative heating solutions and I'm your man.  Upon realizing that I didn't need to take 3 cold showers a day to bring my core temperature down, we headed to Home Depot. I should preface this by adding it was probably a humid 93 degrees at this point,  I am not an impulse shopper nor do I know anything about Air Conditioning units, so we are standing in Home Depot looking at these two rather sad looking boxes and my husband says something like "we should get this one", to which I reply with some questions  like "are you sure this is a good one" or something along those lines. In the midst of this discussion, two separate sets of people take each of the boxes and we are left looking at the floor. Naturally I assumed there were more stacked away, this is America there's always more, right ? but much to my husband's fury that was it, SOLD out, the only two in the whole store. We walked away from our sad empty cart in silence  and went to another home depot to find that they had none either. So here we are very hot and bothered with no AC unit, (had I not known they existed I would have been hot, but not that bothered, can't miss what you didn't know existed in the first place.) We head back home where I make calls to several stores and the soonest we can get one is 5-7 business days. It was not a good time to be me !!

My husband at this point is lying on the couch unable to answer even the simplest question and I'm left to pull the trigger, Amazon Prime will get one to us in 2 days which sounds a lot better than 5 -7. It's a powerful, window mounted thing which seems to have all the bells and whistles. It arrived and took at least several hours to install. So now we have this white box sitting in our window, its reassuring red light says "I'm here if you need me". It's been fired up a couple of times and works like a charm.

In other craft related news, here's what I've been up to. New business card design. I ended up re drawing the design about 3 times but was happy with the final finished result. Customers are always happy to receive them so taking the extra effort to make something unique seems worth it.

initial design

Second Draft

red and black

final card

The One with all the Ceramics

Thrown Dog Bowl

So, in my spare time I have been going to a ceramics class and just making whatever I want, which in my case has been oh, we need a butter dish I'll make one. It's been out with the mass produced stuff in our house and in with the handmade. I dabbled with throwing and had a success or three but when it comes to making the ceramics I want, I know I can hand build it quicker than it would take me on the wheel. If you follow me on Instagram you'll have seen some of these pics as I'm one of these impulsive need to show the world NOW kind of people.

The evergrowing blue stripe army.

Plate and handlefree mugs

Spoons, butter dish, sugar bowl, love bowl.

Sugar bowl and lid

A lot of the stuff I made was just another surface to paint on and there was a lot of blue stripes and pattern going on which I was really drawn to. I figured out that I was probably subliminally inspired by Galician pottery Company Sargadelos. We always went to the store in La Coruna in Spain, when we were on holidays and at home we had a tea set and ornaments scattered around the house.

In the final weeks, I experimented with bare porcelain and black glaze contrasting the shiny and the rough. I made a handleless mug which I have been using everyday and its my favorite piece. I signed up for woodshop this term so we will see what that produces.

Unique LA Summer Show Booth Build

Let's face it, I'm playing catch up with the whole blog I just finished Unique USA Summer Edition so there's a whole lot of pics to post. I must resolve to download my iphone pics on a more regular basis and not when it says I'm out of memory as it's taken me at least an hour to sort 1,000 photos into some semblance of order but it means lots more blogs for the immediate future.

 I began this project with three sorry looking canvas frames that had about 1000 staples that had to be removed. I went to Home Depot and had them cut 3 boards to fit the stretchers, hammered those on. Bought a gallon of paint and painted them with a roller before adding the laser cut shelves which had to be glued together, then painted. (Gorilla Glue is AMAZING!)

 This is me in 80 degree heat trying out configurations in a 5ft x 3ft space with furniture I own. Conclusion not enough room so it didn't make it into the booth.

There were 6 shelves added to these two panels.

Love a bit of teal

Cocktails are essential when gluing en masse.

 I had painted these planks of wood grey and used them to create a table top with the wooden boxes as the base which worked out quite well.

Almost forgot my sign.

The Unique LA Booth Build (Spring Edition)

This is slightly late but in the interests of documenting this arduous process for posterity, here goes. The space allotted to us was a 10 x 10 acrylic wall corner booth with only two walls. Here is how it went from drab to fab IMHO. Enjoy !!

Lumber shopping

Walls minus paint.

Tada painted, one sore arm later.

These never made it into the booth.

These shelves also never made it, you win some you change your mind some.

Visual merching anthro style.

Yeah, you need a truck for this kind of shenanigans.

Almost there.

Really, this the best picture you got ? Sorry .....

Look at all the people !!

Close up of shelves and goods.

and there you have it !!