old and new

saturday is the angel show here in huntsville. this year it coincides with the huntsville christmas show on the square. they didn't do that last year..i fear we have competition! hopefully people will see the fliers and postcards about town and come visit because we will have lots of home made goodies as well as handmade works of art.

i have a secret new item coming up which i need to finish, test out and hope to unveil at market on saturday. it is an obvious choice that i doubt will surprise anyone when they see it.  in fact, i am sure if you put any thought to it you would be able to guess what it is.  any guesses?

having an online store and being the one in charge of when you need to change product is a little different than having art in a gallery.  in a gallery they let you know time is up and what else do you have.  they tell you no more of that and when do you have new? they decide what they want. not you.  i started my etsy store because the galleries liked/sold my mixed media work but the clocks weren't really 'gallery' materials so i sold the clocks in retail shops. once i moved to texas that all stopped.  i sell my clocks on etsy (a resurgence of them in the last month or two, go check out my new photos of them) and as you know...a butt load of vases.  in july i had only 26 sales in my etsy shop.  now i have 131!  i have even sold more vases than that because some orders were for more than one vase and some vases sold privately.  seems like a lot but it still is $20 here $30 there.  i still need to keep pushing myself to come up with new product to keep things fresh and interesting.  i suspect the vases will do well another month or two and perhaps again in the spring.  it's time to look ahead and figure out what else i can work on en masse.  i still want to do flowers but that is a one at a time thing and very time consuming.  i  know i will attempt pendants too as jewelry is very popular even if i am intimidated because it is something already done to death and i know i can't reinvent the wheel.  it's a challenge and i will accept it.  an etsy friend sent me some waxed cord samples so i can play around with knots and ways to hang pendants, soon as i finish this first test batch of pipe things and clear my work area up i will see what i can come up with.

i'm not done with pipes.  not by a long shot.  i have new 'container' ideas that will indeed require that non abrasive saw.  making thin slices of pipes and stacking them, i'm working on the prototype but i know i can't do it with the tool i have since it burns off most of the paint and melts the pipe so much it is impossible to really clean it up.  the thin strips of pipe have so much melted debris on both ends it isn't possible to grind it properly.  that could be my kickstarter project.  of course i would still love to just sell a few mixed media pieces and have the cash NOW.  i've yet to sell such a piece online.  i have reduced my prices now that my works aren't in galleries.  you are basically paying half of what you would were they in galleries.  perhaps that isn't enticing enough, i can only hope.  at any rate...i am busy and content. 

more vases comin at cha

Found Object Vase, 2010

Found Object Vase, 2010

Found Object Candle Holder, 2010

gotta say, been having a good time taking pictures of my remaining vases of the year.  i plan on making just a handful more (some are christmasy in character and keep selling out so i will replenish that stock as well as some special order vases)

snuck in a new candle holder see photo above.  i am in love with that piece.  i love that i have no clue or desire really to know what it once was.  all i know is it is now a candle holder, bone like in shape, feel....something i would love on my table if i had a table.  but you know me, i like making things but dont really want much right now.

will keep loading new vases on etsy as i still have 80 or so ready to go. for anyone interested, i do have more white birches , more blue vases, more texas praries, more blue speckled sparrow eggs, more big reds, and on and on.  its all about the vases obviously.  least for right now :)

Friday New Art Finds: dolinje

Grebe - JUNK FLEET - Wall Sculpture Signed Original by dolinje

  Swordfisher - JUNK FLEET - Wall Sculpture Signed Original

Tiny - JUNK FLEET - Wall Sculpture Signed Original

 The First One - JUNK FLEET - Wall Sculpture Signed Original

A few months ago I found an artist online from Croatia.  He makes 'junk fleet ships' which I personally find irresistible.  It's a case of, if i had the money if I had the home to decorate, his ships would be on my walls.  They are brilliant, complicated, simple and exude a playfulness that keeps them from dipping into pretension. 

I decided to post his work on my Friday New Art Finds as a way to jump start myself back into sharing artists I love each Friday.  Please visit his shop and check out his work, it is not often I see an artist on Etsy who is 'pure'.  Below I have copied one of his item descriptions which gives you an idea about his work:

I created these ships using pieces spitted from the sea which I collected on the island Iž in North Dalmatia. In that way I react ecologically: cleaning the beach and the sea where my kids swim and produce something at least interesting.

Picking up those pieces I just can imagine who throw it away and also in which situations.Playing with and observing that things between my fingers I have realized that it is a clean garbage. It was hardly washed in a sea tumbled numerous times. On the land it has been burned under the sun for days, months or years. Those processes change their origin shapes and colors. Disassembled and ruined now they got a new look. Mounted in forms of ships with a new purpose they begin to live a new life.But it is still about garbage, waste and pollution.

Why ships? It is man's first connection with the sea. Only by a boat or a ship the man is able to explore, to feel and know the sea. Pieces were not particularly designed or treated in any way. I was using used materials like nails, wire, strings and cords for assembling. The ships are named in old fashioned way which is very common in Dalmatia - there are descriptive adjectives for special shape, color, manner, etc. A hook and an old part of a wood are examples of exposing. 

You can also find some inexpensive 'functional' art on his site, brilliant as well...key chains made from ski's and snowboards.  Each one is unique, one of a kind.  I always respect an artist who can create a wonderful, functional design, these key chains do just that.

Snow-lover original keychain TE

rebar flowers

so last weekend i finished making a batch of rebar flowers for the flower show.  i didn't get a chance to take 'good' photos...but here is what i did manage before whisking them off.  i  had so much fun making these, i can't even tell you!  of course i feel like i need more 'fun' baubles...more color, more cool shapes.  not sure where i will find such things but now when i go to the scrap yard i pretty much ignore the 20 ft high stack of pipes and gaze at the minutiae, the crumbs if you will, that are left at the other blob of trash that is what i call the home and garden section. ie: broken toys, broken yard machinery and household crap.  not much to pick from but i'm there stooping, digging through more nastiness just to find a little round wheel....something tiny and unusual.

i sure do get excited when i find auto stuff on the roadside.  i really like gas caps.  and i like the round black rubber auto parts that inexplicably just fall off of vehicles and find themselves 2 feet off the side of the highway.  i like electrical parts too.  they make great 'flower bulbs'.  it is kind of endless.  i feel like i can't get enough rebar either. its a perfect marriage of metal rubble.

i might not be opposed to doing some garage sale time if it means i get to find little things for spare change.  i know i spent some money on these bobbin things at an antique store. (well actually she traded me vases for them as they were $4.95 a piece and they aren't called bobbins but thats what i call them cuz i can't remember what they are called).  so if its cool enough it's probably worth springing some silver over.

i have this blue vase up on etsy....flowers not included. now that i know the kickstarter thing needs to be a 'new' project i am ready to sell these.  i've already sold seven to one of my vase collectors so there are 16 of these left plus two other darker shiny blue vases. my plan is to start loading all i can on etsy since it is that time of  year.  here is the link to the vase section. go check it out if you haven't seen my newest, more getting added today too :)

recap

So Saturday was the Falling Flowers event at the Wynne Home Arts Center here in Huntsville.  I had my vases there with flowers that both myself and Tod have made.  There was a great crowd and I didn't recognize anyone!  My vases were on the dining tables and honestly, I didn't even notice them so I dont know if anyone else did.  I'm cool with that.  I wasn't the highlight of the evening, it was Lorrie, the volunteer at Wynne home who had her now deceased friends poems translated and published as well as Kristie's Chinese Dinner that took center stage.  And musicians and poetry reading.  I snuck in the next day and removed half of the vases to then gallop off  yesterday to a master gardener event in Conroe.  (post below).

That too was not really 'my thing'.  I wasn't a master gardener and I know by now that my 'art' is not really something that is going to fit into most homes and thus far, in texas, that number is minimized even more.  I get it and I'm happy to be invited to show my vases regardless of if they sell like hotcakes.  What DID sell like hotcakes were these odd 'totems' made from glass.  She goes to garage sales or wherever and buys old vases and plates and bowls and then glues/stacks them.  Some are functional (cupcake holders?), some were lanterns and some were totems, which to me just looked like glass stacked upsidedown on top of each other with no use whatsoever.  ugh.  I'm sorry but I didn't get it. (bet she thought THE SAME THING about me ha ha ha)  I will be nice and not say too much about it other than it was ironic that she was next to my table and I got to sit there and watch people buy buy buy something that was incomprehensible to me.  I sold a few vases and people did seem to like my work, but lets face it, it was an older crowd of people who probably live with a decor that 'see through glass' looks better in than scary old pipes.

Tod and I went walking for a few hours during the master gardener meeting and flower arranging instruction by a guest speaker.  (again...you had to be there to believe it).  We walked on the nearby highways and got two big bags of scrap.  Long day but hey, its nice to be out of the loft and take a break sometimes.

I have just a few weeks left before I do the last of this year's 'show's.  Again, happy to be there but not having high expectations.  All I can say is thank god my stuff sells online to people all over the country.  If I had to depend on the local market to keep me afloat I would surely sink.

After debating whether to show some pictures from yesterday I realize they are hideous photos.  As usual I brought my shit camera and it took....well, shit pictures.  Suffice to say, Tod and I felt like it was thus far the best table presentation of my meager table showing history. I have to say, I prefer online first and galleries second.  It is a lot of work lugging crate after crate of heavy pipe vases and worrying about my found object flowers getting crushed.  It's hard to sit behind a table and have people walk by and make pithy little remarks (like I do when I walk by THEIR tables).  It's just all a bit awkward and not my preferred way to sell art. I get it, some art sells better than others on a table.  Having said that, I'm glad I was asked to be there, glad I did it and happy to be home to ready myself for the next thing.

falling flowers, master gardener and angel show

Well I think I am almost done making vases for the year.  I have about 28 vases on my etsy shelf.  I keep them separate so I dont confuse myself.. To the left is my shelf of yet to be listed/photographed vases, as well as the bunches in the other photos below (and some others i just didn't bother snapping a picture of today)

I've started making more rebar flowers, but that is slow going as it is obviously a more creative endeavor than cutting pipes and readying them as vases.  This weekend is a 'falling flowers' event at the local art center. I deposited 12 vases with my puzzle flowers/buds and some of tod's bottle cap flowers.  Then on Sunday I will remove some of them and lug about 30 vases to a master gardener gathering in Conroe, Texas that my friend Cynthia has invited me to.  I gather they have talks for the Master Gardeners and this year they decided to set up some tables and offer handmade items for sale.  It's a few hours to show and sell some vases and is inexpensive to partake in.  After that I will start listing these on etsy.  My only other 'event' is the Huntsville "Angel Show' which I participated in last year. (thanks to cynthia once again!)  This year she got some nice postcards made up and we are hoping for an even better turn out than last year!

 So, I'm sure the next 7 weeks will fly by. I'm already planning to make new works for 2011.  I think the vases will take a small rest.  I'd like to do more with pipes and that hinges upon that cold cut tool.  I'm sure Santa wont be able to stuff that into my stocking but we will see.....

focus

still kicking around the kickstarter. now that i gave myself permission to not do it i can sit back and think about it.  the timing was just awful.  should have done it in september or october at the latest. november and december are months to sell what you have made, not divert funds to something you haven't made.  and in hindsight i'm glad i didn't because i get that i need a project that is 'new'.  to want that cold cut tool to keep making vases is good but it isn't exciting or as interesting as a 'new thing'.  to most people the pipe vases are going to look and act NO differently.   i will be the only one to notice that i didn't work hours more cleaning up the melted ends of the pipe.

so.  i have a little experiment going which i'm going to keep mums about.  i tried it this weekend and suffice to say i like it and i do in fact need that tool to pull it off.  with the abrasive saw it just melts the metal too much to successfully create my new idea. this is good.  i can take my time and work on this and meanwhile sell vases and other artwork over the holidays and maybe buy my own grinder and not need quite as much for the kickstarter project.  hell if i sell enough i wont need kickstarter. 

it feels good to be itching to start new things.  i keep saying i'm done with the vases and going to make flowers but so far that has not happened.  i keep finding 'ready mades' and just a few more christmas colored pipes that will be perfect for vases.  i keep thinking i gotta do all i can now while its still semi warm and sunny out.  now that its dark at a ridiculous time (thank you daylight screwup time) i have less outdoor work time as i like it when all the work people leave at 5 and i can use the extra parking space for my table/tool set up.
 
i am way behind on taking pictures of new vases.  way behind on everything.  even though we dont get lots of snow here in texas like we did in vermont, it is still winter.  its still gloomy feeling and hard to get the arse out of first gear.  last week kind of threw me off too.  time to jump back on track and stop wasting time. 

ps. i know my blog is still challenging to look at.  i keep messing with little things like link color etc. and have to admit right now the blurry rainy background feels better than just a boring white background.  hopefully you aren't grossly distracted. 

point of no return

i finally hit the 'new template' design thing.
no going back now.
i hate this look but i am dizzy already after an hour of messing with color/background etc.
better i mess with the blog than something important....

now what. how about nothing!

have you felt like i'm ignoring my blog? well i have. aside from the usual suspects of other online social outlets, i was spending most of my online time working with and for the etsy team i had joined last spring.  sometimes i think something just must be in the air because this week has been the week i quit.  i quit my cleaning job.  i quit the team.  i think i quit something else but i dont remember. (oh, yeah i quit my kickstarter thing.)  it has taken me DAYS to go through my computer and get rid of everything that i was subscribing to and working on for the etsy team . 

i think i miss having all that stuff that i did for the team (voluntarily with great joy most times) but i can see how i was giving a lot of time away that perhaps will now be used for whatever it is that is next.  as with all things, rarely is it just one thing that makes you quit, rather a culmination of things form and then one day you realize it is just one too many and you are done. several of us felt that way and now we are free.

i suppose i could be seen as a quitter.  or an opportunist.  i dont see that as negative.  you go where you are led to.  you do what you are interested in and when things aren't working anymore you see if you or it can adapt or adjust and if not you move on.  oddly enough, most times i move on.  i've stopped trying to hold on to things.  to people.  to art.  it's all like an exotic butterfly, this stuff, these experiences.  let things flutter into your circle and enjoy it.  but let things move on too.  let yourself move on.  thats how i see it.  sometimes you can revisit things and sometimes you cannot.  i keep searching and i keep finding.  i 'm a little worn out right now to tell the truth.  i feel like i've just jumped off of some crazy carnival ride and i just want to stop moving.  stop doing.  get my balance and move on.

thats life here in my little world