Miss Minnie

Fabric sale!

 

Oh MY!  I went to a fabric and clothing sale at Megan Salmon,  a local fashion designer and retailer.  These pics don't do it justice, indulge me here while I share with you what I bought.. Firstly that sparkly sequin number is silk, yes silk, with the most subtle sequinning I have ever seen, there is 6 metres of it and I paid $AU20, yes that is right! oh my.  Then there is 25 metres of fine black jersey for $AU20.  7 metres of metalic finish fine cotton, 2 metres of that gorgeous print jersey and then there are the rolls! Oh My! the rolls, they were all marked at like $5 and $10 for the whole roll! the one in the middle is a full roll which they said is 36 metres.. for $AU5.. I know I know I don't need 36 metres of white with small navy flowers! after I have finished making everything I can think of I will be bundeling it up and sending it off to all my lovely local bloggers!  The pink is to tissy up the tent at the market and the blue chambrey is for bag linnings.  PLUS, did I mention that an old work mate of mine was on the till so I didn't even pay the full price for any of it?  arggggggg   I probably paid the same as one metre of the silk at full price!!!!!  I am so excited, as soon as the market is over I will be sewing up a storm.  I have a wedding to go to in Dec and "Mama needs herself a new dress!"
  Oh resin? you want to know how that is going?  Well :-) the first mold/mould failed but the second was a goer so I am casting multiple molds tomorrow, it is looking good.  I finished the first Cuckoo clock the other day and she is going to live with Miss Gilda in New York, they are both excited!

So great Saturday here, I was up at 4.3Oam this morning, I couldn't sleep, maybe that is the secret.  Who knows what Sunday will bring? be well all.

Sunday week, come and see me here...

I don't normally do this, what with wierdo stalker types but...

You can come and see my work here http://www.eastfremantle.wa.gov.au/frame-news.html  Please come and say hello if you are a craft blogger that I have yet to meet.  If I am sitting on the ground at the back of the tent throwing up in a bag, give me half an hour then come and say hi.

This should be the final public market for the year.  This was an invitation only one like PICA and Distracted so I am expecting it to be much much better than Subi!

I am working like a mad thing to get some new work ready for those of you who have seen me at the last three markets.  I am very very excited which is amazing considering I had a vertigo attack at the last one and was a complete anxiety ridden WRECK at the first.  Miss Ali J says she won't let me be a recluse, and I believe her!  We are sharing a stall and that makes such a difference when you have good people around you :-)

Have a great weekend everyone!  and Happy Thanksgiving to my US visitors.

EDIT oh, the exciting news from yesterday? well the mold failed.. yes, that was the yelling you could hear.  I recast today so 24 hours I will try again.

BEYOND excited!

As I type there is a new prototype setting... fingers crossed.  I know I know, now is not the time to be experimenting but hey, I am an Artist, that is what we do!  I think I may have FINALLY cracked it.  I am too excited and I just wanted to call each one of you up and say "hey, guess what I am up to?"  As you know I am working on a collaboration with Miss Ali J setting her work into my resin with my secret technique :-) WELL.. I wanted to make them super special so I was searching for a new way, a new style, a new element, something I haven't done before, something IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to copy :-) .... so wish me luck, to be revealed late tomorrow.

This is part of my teacup project (name pending final approval)  more details later.

why I dislike spring..

See? who can make a decision when the weather is 21' one day and 36' the next? 

I was just checking my stats and my goodness what happened Monday?  I had 92 visits! if anyone knows how to check referals coming to your blog using Typepad let me know because I am VERY curious :-)

I sold another piece by mail today to a customer who saw me at Subi Fair but didn't have the cash, yay! very exciting when that happens. 

Today I cast another 11 girls and only 2 had major bubbles, yay.  I have also cast a different style master from which to make a new mould/mold.  I know, it is no time to be experimenting but you know me.. never happy.

Goodness, I can blog a whole load a crap some times.  I went with the purple scuffs in case you were wondering.  Enough said?

working out...

demolded.  too many bubbles.  feel like throwing up again.  later people.

Working...

Cracking out the photoshop skills.  Limited as they are.  I am working on a series of Cuckoo clocks on wallpaper.  They will have real chains hanging from the rectangular resin and will be on a long old gold chain.

This work will be available at the Christmas Show (details to be announced) of "The Cupcake Collective". 

I am waiting on the delivery of a 32mm round punch for my new work with Ali J.  We will be working together using her Art and my resin techniques on some fantastic pendants.  I am casting molds at the moment but I think these maybe a little too domed?  Casting a lower one now, fingers crossed.
hey locals! can you believe the weather today?  why couldn't we have had this LAST weekend? this time last Sunday it was 36' and we were all melting under our tents at the craft fair.  Go figure.

Have a great week everyone, I plan LOTS of casting so lets hope the weather holds.  Be well all and warm fuzzies going out to D (you know who you are).

It's a dogs life...

It's the weekend, not that it really makes any  difference when you work from home... Have a good one everybody.

Nobody even looked at these..

Market No. 3 - a recap of events.
In the search to bring something different to my market stall I made 4 bags to sell.  They all have an internal phone pocket, magnetic closure, are fully lined, have their own bag charm or leather tassel.  They are a tried and true pattern that I developed myself and I priced them at $65 Aus which I thought was really reasonable.  NOBODY EVEN LOOKED AT THEM.  My sister kept moving them around the table, hanging, folded, on a rack, nothing she did helped, they sat there, mocking me.   Same with my bag charms, I had about 100 of them, I sold 4.. (Picture courtesy of Jayde!)  Maybe the display was wrong, I think people didn't "get" them, they didn't understand what they are for.. I will work on the display before I give up on them because I get heaps of comments when I have one on my bag.
I improved the way I display prices on my resins which helped, helped to stop people from buying that is.  When I sold my seconds at $AU65 they ran out the door but selling was slow on the firsts at $AU85.  I didn't have any seconds for sale at this market and I think that was a mistake.  So all in all, it was another good learning experience.  I have one more market for the year and then, in the new year I am going to look into consignment into a number of stores interested in sellling my work.  Oh and yeah, I have to update my Etsy store :-)

Craft fair number 3!

So Sunday, the Subiaco Craft fair was the setting for my 3rd market of the year and I thought, my last until I got an invite to the East Fremantle one on 2 December.  Ali J wants to share a stall which is a great idea because we are working on a collaboration of her images and my techniques.  Details to follow.
Miss Feli was the first to make a sale and Miss Ali J followed soon after and they just didn't stop until the weather melted all the customers away.  I wish I had taken a pic, there were all these people sitting on the ground under any shade they could find.  The day was so hot.  I had chosen us a stall facing West from the few that were left but somehow we were switched and we ended up facing north east and the toilets! but in reality facing the toilets wasn't such a bad thing because everyone has to go sometime and with Miss Ali J's girl prints hanging across the top  of the tent the people flocked across to us as they came out.  Typically again, I forgot to get a pic taken of me standing with my stall! arggggggg :-)  I haven't dared to check my pieces yet to see if they have suffered from the sun.  They don't like being in direct sun very long and unfortunately they were from 12 until 4 when my sister finally packed up.  Fingers crossed.
I made it from 9am until 2pm when I had one of my vertigo episode which really really sucked.  I hadn't had one in months, but there you go, a lovely lady from the stall opposite gave me a plastic bag which I **filled** in the car on the way home :-).  Luckily with our lousy location not too many people saw me doing my stagger/crawl to the car.
It was great sharing a stall with the girls! they were great stall buddies and it was wonderful getting to spend time with them both.  I scouted us a great location for next year when we are joining up with other WA Etsy sellers and setting up a mega booth together which should be fantastic.  We will definitely have a paddling pool filled with ice if the weather is the same!  I think the girls will agree that each market is a fantastic learning experience, watching how people respond to your product is worth so much.  Seeing what moves and what is ignored, pricing issues.  You never really learn that just selling online.  We all had our cards taken so hopefully there will be more sales following the fair.  Those girls were great stall buddies and even with the vertigo it was a great day.

Headspin wierdness...

THAT was a long drive home... I headed off to the local op shop to grab a children's denim jacket I spotted that other day to add to my display of "Reworked" clothing for the Sunday market..2 minutes from the shop I experienced the hot swishy feeling that normally precedes a vertigo attack, while sitting at the lights waiting to do a right across on coming traffic on a busy road.. brilliant.  It didn't eventuate into a full spin and vomit exercise thank goodness but it made me flee home without jacket or lunch.  I think Miss Minnie can tell when I am having an attack.  Apparently she just sits next to me when it happens and watches me throw up and her eyes never leave me, she was the same in the car, maybe she can smell the change in adrenalin? and she has learned to associate it with me throwing up and crying?  who knows, but it is a comfort to have her there.  Things are still spacy now, hopefully I can keep sewing after a short nap, better go.

Art show openings... lesson number 1

Tonight I went to the opening of a show by the extremely talented Artist and Illustrator, Ali J at Behind the Monkey.  Oh my, her work is even more wonderful in real life.  I fell in love with this piece on the right and this piece here with Miss Feli and I and another.  So the lesson is, when you see a piece that you love love love, go straight to the counter and buy it otherwise your love will spread to those around you and somebody else (Sandy) might buy it! :-) Enjoy it, it is a beautiful painting.

Sandy and Pam were the first people who have recognised me from my work and my blog! the minute I walked in with my sister wearing my work they spotted me! it was very exciting.  15 seconds of fame.  It was too loud to have a great chat with everyone but it was great to catch up with friends old and new.  There were lots of red spots going up during the night, congratulations Ali!

Sewing Circle Meeting No. 1

Can you call it a circle if there are two of you?  Oh, it was a great day! Miss Feli came over to  my place for a sewing day, we acted like good Australians and stopped working to watch the Melbourne Cup, the race that stops a nation because Aussies will do anything for an excuse to have a drink and we picked the winner and the runner up in our selections!
We had our sewing machines running flat out at the kitchen bench while watching Project Runway Canada, it was great.  Then we took Feli to Doggy Play group to meet all of Miss Minnie's friends, I think she was in heaven :-)

On the work front I finished this reworked jacket and a bag, yes people an ENTIRE bag in one day! :-)  well half a day, my goodness I am slow.. but my excuse was that the Chiro had beaten the &^%$ out of me in the morning so I was sore.  Sorry for the crap pic, it was late..
Stand by today for more bags and another reworked jacket.  Thanks Feli, I had a great time!

Good titles are impossible to come up with...

 

The weather was here, wish you was beautiful ;-)  Even after HEAPS of requests for LOTS OF PHOTOS TO BE TAKEN OF ME this weekend away, there were none taken, so I had to resort to the timer and running!  That is why the camera is on a wierd angle, it was perched on my shoes on a rock.  This is bobtail lizard or a blue tongue, I don't know the difference.  This waterfall is a secret to the Margaret River locals, there is no sign pointing it out and it isn't mentioned anywhere on the tourist info, it was a beautiful spot.  Great trip and the only Emu was in the chorizo we bought at the venison farm.. in bulk.  Have a great week everyone! and good luck on the Melbourne Cup if you are betting.