The Shop: Autumn and On

Posted on October 7, 2010 by Elaine

This week in the shop there’s a few new additions – a few seasonal canes and beads – and today is the last day of Free Worldwide Shipping in my two Etsy shops and my ArtFire shop. Have a peek:

Next weekend – October 15 & 16th – I will be participating in the Christmas Show at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon, SK. The museum is a nifty place to visit even without the show and with the show it will be packed full of holiday goodies and early shopping ops. If you’re going to be in the city that day, stop by and visit!

Classes Galore!

Posted on July 31, 2010 by Elaine

Historically, my summers are my slowest periods for work, both computer and art. This year I prepared for that by booking extra shows leading up to the summer and a week of classes in each of July and August! Phew. Plus the 20% off sale in my Etsy bead, Etsy cane and ArtFire shops. That ends today.

Here are some of the excerpts from my week of class. I had returning students and all new ones:

One of my regulars is a die-hard football fan (the local team is the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the team colour is pretty much Premo’s sea green):

One of the adult classes we covered small bottles to make wish bottles. Combinations of embellishment, canes and imagination were on the docket. One of my first time students whipped up something awesome right to order of course!

A rerun of a popular kids project class for a local day camp were the Turtle Rocks. We had neon turtles, winged turtles, fanged turtles… and lots of fun:

Of course, after all that over-planning and over-preparing for a “slow summer” it hasn’t gone slow yet. Go figure. How’s YOUR summer going?

Show on the Lake

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Elaine

Within weeks of my moving to Saskatchewan last summer there was this little craft show at Lac Pelletier, a small resort town near here. It was a sweet show and a nice day even though I had the last of a flu for it. This year I’m happy to say it was STILL a sweet show and I was completely healthy.

The area is beautiful with a big lake nestled in the hills – for a flat province, Saskatchewan has a freakish amount of hills – and the show is in the community hall.

I was a dope and forgot a whole box of my stock which ended up not being a big deal. I had plenty of my bread and butter small show pieces and those went over well. Of course, I spent a big chunk of my proceeds on local baking and farm food but we’ll eat well for days yet.

My friend Cindy was at the show with me since doing them with friends is much more fun.

Now back to the regular week! My Christmas in July sale on Etsy and ArtFire runs until the end of the month. If you’re looking for beads or canes to use in your fall designs give it a peek!

Lilac Festival 2010

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Elaine

I headed to Calgary – my hometown until last year – for the Lilac Festival. The show was well attended, I did well, the booth was spiffy (I can’t recommend a pop up tent enough) and I saw tons of old customers and Etsy team members.

The only downside? It was cold! We had a few snowflakes fall, a few raindrops, lots of cloud, a little wind and temperatures under 10 degrees Celsius the whole day. Le sigh.

A local TV crew wanted to interview me but I made my mom do it since I have a speech issue. I can’t find the video online but there’s a little text blurb too. Mom’s semi-famous.

Speaking of Mom, here’s a shot of us for posterity’s sake:

And there’s a few more pictures of the show in my Flickr album.

Making Schedules

Posted on May 14, 2010 by Elaine

I am a firm believer that putting things in writing gives them a much better chance of coming true, being successful. Putting them in writing out where people can see them even more so. So with that in mind here’s what’s up in the next few months:

The Lilac Festival, May 30th in Calgary. I’m at the NW corner of 14th Ave. and 4th St. Visit me please! And pray that the weather is lovely
In June I teach classes at the Art Gallery in Swift Current. For the grownups we have Millefiori in Colour and for the smaller folk we have Turtle Rocks. You can sign up with Laurie!
Of course, EVERY Tuesday we have Tuesdays with Laurie at the Art Gallery. It’s a drop in sort of thing for creative folks. Everyone is welcome. I’ve been semi-chronicling our activities over here
The Bead Oasis Show, June 18, 19 and 20th in Calgary! If you love beads and you’re in Alberta this is the place to be. Let me know you saw my post or my blog and you can have a free pair of beads! I’m booth 110 which is just down the row from the entry way, on the left.
Frontier Days – I’m thinking I’ll take a booth at the Stockade. Give it a shot. That’s June 30 to July 3rd.
Summer Salon at the Art Gallery from July 10 to August 8. There’s a wine and cheese on July 17th which you should definitely come to. More than 20 local artists will have work in the show, including me if I get stuff done!
Then there’s the Highway 1 Studio Tour at the end of September. I’ve been invited to play along and I’ll be stationed at the historic CPR station in Herbert.
And the weekend after the Studio Tour is the Fall into Christmas which I am toying with. If I can get in I will do it! I’ve heard nothing but awesome about it and it’s local which is a total plus.

The last few are not all fleshed out yet so I’ll save the links and details until a little later. Feel free to ask me as the summer goes on how it’s all going or how it all went!

* the introductory picture has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the post. He’s just cute.