Direction

Posted on March 31, 2010 by Elaine

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

- from Alice in Wonderland

I was looking at a complicated and long list of To-Do items for the next several months and trying to break them down, fit them into my schedule and mark out what resources (material, people, location) were needed for them.

It was a little overwhelming and I had one of those moments of Where Do I Begin? Which put me in mind of the above quote from Alice in Wonderland. Where am I going? What is the goal? And what are the priorities along the way.

Once I did the little bit of introspection I was able to pick a spot to start at. Where are YOU all going?

More Show Fun

Posted on March 29, 2010 by Elaine

Last week was a bit of a rush! I was slammed with orders (thank you universe!) and had a two day show this weekend. The show went very well (thank you universe again!) and I survived.

I sold the pink flower dangly bracelet I was so proud of to a nice lady from out of town. This one and a matching necklace and earrings replaced it in short order. The orange lilies are Saskatchewan’s provincial flower and I mixed it with some bronze pearls, white slice bead flowers, leaf slices, amber faceted glass and the brass wire I’m having a ball with.

The show I did this weekend was the 35th annual Swift Current Gun & Hobby Spring Show. To say that I don’t do guns might be the understatement of the year so I was a little concerned about doing the show. It turns out that half the exhibition hall is setup like a flea market and there are all sorts of crafts, vintage and antique dealers and general collectibles selling going on. On top of that there is fair food. All in all, not a bad way to spend the weekend.

These are Granny Oakley and Greybeard of the Cowboy Action Shooters. They were at the show in period costume to highlight the nearby historical village. They had fabulous costumers with so much attention to detail and graciously let me be all tourist and shoot a picture of them.

Now that Monday has arrived it’s back to the regular schedule and building up stock for my 3 large shows in late May and June!

Cindy’s Giving Away Stuff!

Posted on March 22, 2010 by Elaine

To make her opening an ArtFire shop into a real party, Cindy – a wire-crocheting bud – is sponsoring a giveaway on NatureManipulated’s blog at: http://naturemanipulated.blogspot.com/2010/03/weekly-feature-and-giveaway-cindys.html

She’ll be giving away either a set of her crocheted jewelry or a popcan tab wallet so check it out!

Life in a Small Town

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Elaine

My friends who live in smaller places are going to laugh at me but after a million people Swift Current, Saskatchewan is tiny. Even if it is 16,000+ people. And yesterday I had a craft show in a smaller, neighbouring community called Herbert. The show was perfectly organized, well advertised and unfortunately poorly attended. Still had some fun there meeting up with people.

One of my latest pieces, another dangly bracelet – I made a few of those in 2008 I think – is this one with little pink flowers, pearls and antiqued brass wire.

And finally, to catch you all up, I had my demonstration today at the gallery. It was great, lots of interest in classes about polymer clay, oohs and aahs about my beads and good chit chat. I completely forgot to get a picture of me doing my thing! So, here is a picture of my friend Cindy doing HER thing last weekend. You just have to picture me in approximately the same spot with spread out messes of clay.

The Shop: On the way

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Elaine

Maybe Spring is in the air. I know that it influenced my cane making choice the last couple of weeks – pansy canes and now pansy beads. But I’m wondering if the cat has gone nuts.

Sam the Siamese is 16 or 17 years old. He spends most of his days like this:

Yesterday morning around 6 am he was skittering and darting around the house and even jumping a little. For long enough that I got up early to check what he was up to, wondering if we had a mouse or something. Because he was hell-bent on catching SOMETHING.