Avant-Garde Art & Craft Show

If you find yourself in the Akron, OH area today (Sunday, December 2nd), please come to The Tangier, 532 W Market St, Akron, for the 1st Summit County Avant-Garde Art & Craft Show. There will be over 130 vendors (including me!) who will have a myriad of items for you to enjoy and purchase!

Latest Creations and Other Stuff

I cannot wait to get my "studio" set up so I can have my light box all set for photos. These were taken outside, but I just didn't have the control to capture the colors! The triple wrap bracelets really look nice worn as necklaces! Thanks   to Bonnie for showing me how pretty they could be!

Golden Lace triple wrap bracelet or necklace

Sweet Golden Rose bracelet with vintage shell button

Midnight Moonlight triple wrap bracelet or necklace

Red Creek Jasper on light topaz diamonds cuff

Rhyolite triple wrap bracelet or necklace

Cosmos with Silver Stars triple wrap bracelet or necklace

Verdite on golden sea diamonds with vintage button

And some other photos...

Superstorm Sandy raised our creek to almost overflowing

Our ol' Sadie! Sweetest dog ever!

Beautiful Fall Leaf for inspiration

Please Stay Safe

If you are in the danger zone for Hurricane Sandy/Frankenstorm/Monster Storm (whatever you want to call it), please, please, please stay safe! This storm is nothing to mess with and if you are anywhere in the path, stay home and hunker down! 

Special Order

Here is my latest piece...I just finished it. It is a special order piece for a customer on Etsy! Now that it's complete, it's time to dig into making some more gemstone bracelets for the December 2nd art show!

Listings

I've finally gotten around to listing many of the pieces I created for the Art in the Park show. I still have about 10 more to list, but the majority are up in the shop now! http://arosebyname.etsy.com

I've had great response from my latest pieces and have had some lovely email conversations with people I met at the show. I now have a lot of new ideas and I'm excited to get moving on them! If only there were more hours in a day!

It's likely I will be a part of a show on December 2nd and possibly a future show at the art museum. We'll just have to see how things pan out. I really feel like I have grown a lot in my art over the past year or so and I'm actually finding it easier to refer to myself as an artist. Believe me, this has been difficult! I have amazing support from my family and that makes it even better!

This weekend Baby Girl is moving out, so that will rearrange the upstairs and I may just have my "studio" finally! I'm very excited about that, but I'm not heartless, she is just as excited to have her own place, too!

Best get back to work on my latest order...

1st Art Show was a Success!

On the 8th and 9th of September, I participated in Kent's Art in the Park and it was an amazing first art show for me! I was extremely nervous about it beforehand and didn't sleep much at all the night before, but it turned out to be a wonderful experience, even with the rain and chilly temperatures! I had a lot of interest in my pieces and sold quite a few. I made enough to cover all my costs (including the tent!) and still made some money...you can't ask for more than that!

I would like to thank my family for all their support. To my sweet husband; thank you for all your patience and putting up with my beads and jewelry covering every surface in the house, for setting up and taking down my booth and for supporting me each and every day as I create, and especially for telling me, "Don't worry, if it doesn't work out at this show, there's always another one." To my beautiful girls; thank you for your love and support and giving me new and fresh ideas all the time. Amy, thank you so much for being there and helping me both days...all day, I couldn't have done the show without you! To my brother-in-law, Todd (of http://toddalanstudios.com/); thank you so much for the display ideas and prodding me to charge more for my art.

I would also like to thank a very special couple, Pete and Lois; I know it was my art that got me in the show, but they wouldn't have looked if you hadn't shown them! I cannot thank you enough for that! And I hope to be a part of Art in the Park every year from now on.

I'll post pictures of my booth set up as soon as I get them from my dearest!

Pretty, pretty!

Lapis Deco Cuff
(using grade B 4mm Lapis Lazuli beads)

Red Creek Cuff
(using 4mm Red Creek Jasper beads and a vintage metal button)

Tourmaline Bracelet
(using grade B 3mm natural tourmaline beads and a vintage button)

Rubies and Pearls Cuff
(using 6mm Swarovski garnet crystals and 6mm Swarovski cream pearls)

Sunrise in Central Washington
(based on a photograph my dad sent me)

Newest Corsetted Pretties

Bridal Bling

Champagne and Pearls

Coral Shimmer

Pink Conch

Jumbled Gemstones
(mix of jasper and agate gemstones)

Platinum Pearls

Rock N Roll

Summer Shimmer

Oh, SO HOT!

(Solar flare photo courtesy of NASA/courtesy of nasaimages.org)

It is definitely hot around here. You don't want to leave your house at all! We're having temperatures in the 90s with heat indexes around 100! The heat and humidity is literally killer. So, if you're in NE Ohio or in the Northeast at all, please be careful and stay in the shade, drink lots of water and don't over exert! There are excessive heat warnings all over the area and heat exhaustion/heat stroke are serious, so stay safe and cool! 

And PLEASE, please pray for the firefighters and families out west battling the wildfires.

More Reasons Why I've Been Absent Online

My potential set up for Art in the Park

Triangle bead earrings and cuffs

Sparkle and shimmer corset-style cuffs

Photo inspired cuffs

New diamond cuffs

This Is Why I Haven't Been Online

Cherry Blossoms Cuff
peyote stitch, single-drop, 25 colors

 

Lightning Strikes Again
peyote stitch, single-drop, 20 colors

Little Orange Mums Cuff
peyote stitch, single drop, 18 colors

Aqua Cuff

Right Angle Weave cuffs in Lilac and Aqua

Right Angle Weave Cuffs in Topaz and
Flame Red

And there are four others I have yet to take photos of! I'm working on a fifth! So, busy, now I have to get photos taken and submit my application for the Kent Art in the Park before the 1st of July or all this crazy hard work will be for nought!

Time Most Definitely Flies

Oh my goodness! I can't believe it's been two months since I last posted. Well, OK, I can believe it because I have absolutely no idea where time has gone this year! I don't remember April at all and here we are almost at the end of May. What is happening? Please tell me I'm not the only one who turns around and a week or a month has gone by in a blink!

I have been working and beading and though I have several new cuffs, I haven't taken any photos as of yet. I have another lightning cuff and I'm finishing up one that is off cherry blossoms. There are 25 different colors of Delicas in this one, which ended up giving it an abstract sort of look. I'm going to try a variation with fewer colors to see if that makes the blossoms more distinct.

After five months, the oldest daughter is coming home for the long weekend and I have many things to do before she gets here tonight. So, I will be off, but I will try to be better about blogging...no guarantees, though! :)

New Corset Cuffs

Jacqueline's Cuff

Deep Plum Wine Cuff

The Sea

Splash

Seashells by the seashore

Rising tide

Now Showing

I've now listed all the completed cuffs in my shop (http://arosebyname.etsy.com) I love how they've turned out and truly hope they spark some interest (and buyers!). I am incredibly nervous about Kent's Art in the Park Show next year, but excited, too. 

I am currently working on a piece with an "ocean view" based on this photo from one of our trips to Florida. This one is from 1999!

Listed

I decided to list my newest cuffs. I would like to stockpile them, but the money from them could buy more beads. I'm always needing more beads!

I have also decided to make more of these corset style cuffs in different colors for the show. I think these will go over well with the college and twenty-somethings from the university.

My biggest problem right now is having too many patterns I want to bead. That's what I get for playing with my photos for days on end! Now I want to create the patterns all over again because I've gotten more bead colors and I think they could be even more detailed.
Such a wonderful dilemma...

Finally An Update

Galaxy Cuff
24 beads across, 14 colors, single-drop

Goose Creek Cuff

24 beads across, 15 colors, single-drop

Lightning Strikes Cuff
26 beads across, 20 colors, single-drop

Paua Shell Cuff
28 beads across, 20 colors, single-drop

Rosette Torregrosa Cuff
22 beads across, 18 colors, single-drop

I'm thinking about how I will set up my shop and the display at Art in the Park next year. I think I will have sections...Deep Space...Of the Earth...In the Garden...At the Museum. I have obviously done pieces for the Deep Space and Of the Earth sections, but I've yet to get going on the floral patterns and patterns based on pieces found in museums. I think, too, I will list my finished pieces, even though I was trying to stockpile for the show next year.