Craft Fair - USM Gorham campus

My new favorite pendants to make, currently I
only have 4 of these, but I will be making more!

This Saturday I will be doing a craft fair from 10am to 4pm at the Costellos Sports Complex in Gorham on the USM campus.  Going back to my alma mater!  It'll be interesting to see if I run into any of my old professors.

I'm excited to be starting off this years craft fair season at USM.  My good friend Norma will be joining be, which is fantastic.  I've never had company for a whole show before and since this is a show with over 90 vendors, I think I may need the help!

I have new birdbaths, hanging and not, wind chimes, tons of new pendants, brooches and beads.  A couple plaques and new vases along with many of the items I have on Etsy right now.  I'll be putting my Etsy site on Vacation Mode sometime Friday night through Saturday.  I'll try to take it off vacation mode Saturday night, if I'm not too wiped out.

Simple glaze pendants - $10 each

New carved butterfly pendants - $15 each

New vessel pendants! - I must have about 15 new ones, the ones that don't sell will be listed on Etsy next week!
 $25 each

It's a little nerve wracking to be doing the first show of the season.  I'm hoping it starts out on the right foot.  I've been working really hard to create some new items that I can continue to create without getting bored or burnt out.  (Birdbaths, wind chimes, plaques and pendants)  I feel more prepared for this show than ever before.  A neighbor of mine made me a fantastic stand to hang my birdbaths and plaques from and I now have matching table cloths and a beautiful display piece for my jewelry, thanks to my Dad! (It's an old wine box)  Wish me luck!

Found a great artist I wanted to share

You'll have to check out this artist, Andrea Doss, she does some fantastic work for decorating children's rooms.  From wooden whimsical owls to fantasy images of cats and people.  Worth a look!  and she's doing a giveaway on her blog right now!  Go check it out for ways to enter to get one of her owls!  Click the button below to go to her blog!


 

Mothers Day plaques for the garden, kitchen or office in the works

I'm working on some great plaques for Mother's day.  And having a ton of fun with them.  The listing is already up to order your own personalized plaque for your Mother, Wife or girlfriend!  I would like to work with people to create the perfect sign for their love.  Go to this listing to read more details.  Here are some images of new things to come within the next two weeks.

Mother's Garden - I can't wait to add some beads and wire to when it's finished

This one's for my garden, but I wanted to show how I can make them personal

detail of above

My new sign to bring to shows!  Also shows the large font I have for stamping

I was so excited when I thought of this idea.  I think it'll be the perfect idea for a small child to get his/her mom for Mother's Day. 

This one I love!  with the butterfly addition.  It's stacked on some others in my kiln, so disregard the image below the butterfly cut out.

These are my stoneware glazes that I currently have, and all the combinations that I can use.  I can use other low fire glazes on these markers and underglazes, which would be like I hand painted them, giving the feeling of watercolors or acrylics, but shiny as glaze.

I hope that some of you will take me up on this, but I will have the generic ones up for sale as soon as they are ready.  I also have some windchimes coming.  

lizard wind chimes!

butterfly wind chimes are coming!

 

one more plaque!

Why can't shipping be easy?

I have changed my shipping costs and ideas so many times in the past three weeks, it's driving me crazy!  I think I finally have it covered, so I thought I'd share on here.  I am going to be adding the following to each of my listings in the next few days..


In order to cover the cost of shipping materials and the careful packaging of your purchase, I include a $1 handling fee in the shipping charge. Any amount in excess of the actual postage cost of your package (shipping) + $1 (handling) will be refunded to you through Paypal as soon as I have shipped your order.*

All orders weighing under 13oz. will be shipped using USPS First Class, which I charge between 1.50 and 3.50 depending on weight.  

All listings with items weighing over 13oz. have been calculated using Flat Rate Shipping Costs for Priority Mail.  In many of the larger and heavier items, this will be the cheapest and safest way to mail them to you.  I will check Parcel Post cost at checkout and if there is a big difference, I will choose Parcel Post and refund you the difference in cost of shipping + my $1.00 handling charge.  If you have any questions or would like me to figure out the cost before you order, please send me a convo and we'll figure it out.  

I hope that my customers will understand.  I really want to make sure that shipping costs are affordable, but the post office does not make it all that easy to understand.  I think I need to go down and have like an hour chat with the ladies to figure it out!  And International shipping is a whole other ballgame.  Shipping to Canada is pretty similar in price to the US, maybe 1 to 2 dollars more depending on the weight.  But overseas.. Oh man.. I don't even know what to put up on my site.  

I am absolutely wiling to refund the difference though, so maybe that will help.  Hopefully I don't confuse anyone while I'm changing all my listings. I have 88 listings, so it may take me a while to add this text.  I should be able to adjust some shipping rates this afternoon.  

New ceramic pendants on Etsy

Fresh out of the kiln and out of my studio are these fantastic unique ceramic pendants.  I have been working on several ideas to make small affordable clay items.  In the past I've made buttons, which are doing well on my Etsy site.  You can find those here.  As beautiful as they are, they are not all that much fun to make!  If you get to know me, you'll quickly see that I am not all about monotony.  I need change!  I also love mixing materials, and since I have an abundance of art materials in my studio, I have started a new mission to use them all up and create some mixed media pieces.  So, these little beauties were born out of my love for jewelry and clay.

Calla Lily of the Valley  16.00

Rough to be Blue  12.00

Full of Green   15.00

Princess Hippie 15.00

If you like what I've done, please show them some love.  Share with your friends.  If you'd like to purchase one of these pendants, you may use the code BLOG10 for 10% off your entire purchase on Etsy.  This will only be available throughout the month of April 2010.  Happy shopping!

Getting Started

I've finally entered into the world of blogging!  A few weeks ago, I began a blog on my own website that I made using iweb.   But that didn't really seem to do much of anything.  Not many people have even found my site, as far as I know.  So then, I began my real journey on Etsy.  I say real, because I've been signed up on it for a long time, but never really done much on it until this past month of March.  I have met some fantastic people on Etsy, one of which decided to feature me on her blog, KottageKreations.  She did an interview with me, which you can read here.  After reading her blog, I realized that I need my own.  If not for any reason than to give my facebook friends a break in my ravings about my art and how wonderful etsy is.

So, stay tuned for I plan on blogging often and putting down in this virtual world, all of my artistic thought processes.  Artists need an outlit for our rants, and this is it my friends.  So, subscribe to my blog, visit my website, or etsy site or follow me on facebook.  Thanks for joining me.  I hope you enjoy the ride.