Craft Shows are a big time-sink, and they aren’t always a monetary windfall. But they have other pluses, not the least of which is that often someone asks me for something I would have never considered making. Now to be fair, the majority of these ideas are either not up my alley, or are implausible. But sometimes they’re good enough to try a little experiment.

In this case, someone asked me for a purse. I don’t actually use purses, so my initial response was disinterest. Also the sheer density of chainmail that would be required to make a purse that wouldn’t drop hairpins through the sides was depressing. Then however, I remembered this:

A little leather necklace of mine. Cute, and a little punky.  The basic weave of it is a 4-in-1, with a little strip of leather hopscotched through. And if it were possible to make several of them, and link them side to side…

First step:  I needed lots of little ‘necklaces.’  I had a large leather rectangle on hand, and no particular plans for it, so I cut it into narrow strips of slightly less than the width of the links.

I made a nice swatch of 4-in-1, and wove the little strips through it. By this point, I knew this was gonna work, and I was pretty sure it as gonna be awesome.

I wove until I ran out of leather, and wound up with a sizable piece of… fabric? This side is the verso.

And this is the recto. That means ‘the front side of the piece of leather’, by the way. I swear.

From that point, I connected the sides, made a simple strap from the last strip of leather, attached that, and was done.

Well. That was a successful little experiment.

This purse is too tiny to be of much use, unfortunately.  It’s barely big enough to hold a credit card, which is a function of using leather I just had on hand. Next time I’ll actually buy some leather on purpose, and so the resulting purse will be big enough for at least a wallet.

Well, I’m back.  My next two weekends are still dedicated to the Virginia Renaissance Faire, but since I’ve done almost all of the necessary work for it I can start doing other things like, oh, drawing again.

Things I’ve learned so far about Renaissance Faires:

-It’s easier to not stuff yourself on Scotch Eggs if you just don’t eat that first one.

-Talk to the organizers (on the phone or in person, so tonal subtleties come through) early in the planning stages. It may be that you’re being way more dedicated to editing out modern stuff than you need to be.

-Apparently, lots of people go to Ren Faires in order to soak up the ambiance. And not to buy anything. Crap.

Photodump! (As always, all pictures courtesy of my dear technologically inclined fiance.  Further photos of his over at his flicker.)

P.S- Best overheard Ren Faire quotation, delivered with full pirate accent: ‘Aye, I’m the Scottish Pirate. You can call me Arrgyle.’

Sorry for the radio silence, but I’ve had a load of bricks drop on my head. It’s name is The Virginia Renaissance Faire.

My first reaction upon learning I was accepted into the Faire was to start giggling hysterically.

Y’see, the Faire is not one day. Or a whole weekend. Oh no. I’m signed up for all the weekends in May. That’s six days, 9am-5pm. This means I need to make more inventory, pronto. But oh wait, this is a Renaissance Faire, which means my fancy-pants new Easy-Up tent isn’t going to cut it. It needs to be covered in fabric, top, inside, and legs. Plus it would be good if that covering didn’t look like shit.

So I’m basically sewing a tent. Did I mention I can’t really sew?

Further updates as events warrant.

People in the D.C. area are starting to get a little twitchy. Evidence: the sudden emergence of a popular parlor game called Name That Storm!

Snowpacolypse, Flurricane, Snowgeddon, Snoverkill, Snoverload, Snow boy, and snOMG are current favorites.

But I’ve been making good use of my trapped-in-the-house time. I’ve been taking a lot of pictures of pretty jewelry, and have added a gracious mort to my Etsy page!

But before you go there- c’mere.  I like your style. Special pictures, just for you.

These pictures will go up on my Etsy page in a few days, but for now, I give you first dibs.

(Edit: I might have a craft show this Saturday from 9am-2pm at the Lyon Park Community Center in Arlington VA, depending on snow. )

This last Friday, some toys I’d ordered from the internet arrived.

To clarify, this post is safe for work.

I’m talking about chainmail toys. I’d been searching high and low find beads that were even somewhat similar to beads I’d used before, which are no longer carried by the store I purchased them from, and found toys instead.

For the curious: the beads I’m looking for are shiny grey disks in the shape of an equiconvex lens. I need the beads to be in two sizes, the larger significantly larger than a quarter, the other slightly smaller than a quarter. Ideally, they should match bright aluminum in color. They also need to have one relatively large hole near the edge at a perpendicular angle to the ‘plane’ of the disk. That can’t be too hard to find, right? Right…

But I was talking about toys. I got some tiny rubber rings, (which shall make an appearance later) and a new style of earring mount, but I spent most of my time playing with scales. They are strange, and seem to be mostly intended for making sheets, (like for a mail shirt) but they are funky and I like them.  First Piece: feather necklace.

And! And! When I hunch my shoulders, my hackles raise! *giggles*

I know, it’s a Saturday, so it can’t technically be a snow day. However, there’s a foot on the ground outside, and it’s still coming down. That’s snow day enough for me.

The last few days I’ve had two people ask after my remaining earrings. As I’ve learned that there is apparently no good and cheap and fast way to transport an earrings display, (I say this will full awareness of the pyramid. I’d settle for good and cheap.)I thought I’d post pictures of what I have remaining after a busy holiday craft-show season.

EDIT: As always, thanks to my lovely tech-savvy boyfriend for help with camera-wrangling. If you see a decent photo on this blog, chances are he had something to do with it.

First up, aluminum earrings. Please note that aluminum is a very light metal, and very non-reactive. Therefore it’s good for people with sensitive ears, and those that have a personal body chemistry that quickly tarnishes silver or turns green with copper.

Next, sterling silver earrings. Sterling silver is a composite of silver and nickle copper, so is not suitable for those that are allergic to either metal.

Finally, copper earrings. Copper and gold are the best options for people who are allergic to nickle. The posts are coated copper, so will not react with the skin of your ear.

Okay all you Christmas present procrastinators: All of the above are for sale, and none cost more than $15. If you want closeups or the details of any particular earring, let me know.

Now I’m going sledding. See ya!

I have two shows yet scheduled this season, so I thought I’d ask if you guys wanted to come.

The first show will be at Fox Mill School, on December 5th (this Saturday! Aaaaah!) from 9am-3pm. The address is 2601 Viking Drive, Herndon, VA.

The second is The Long and Foster Holiday Bazaar, which will be on the 12th from 10am- 2pm, at 43490 Yukon Dr. #105, Ashburn, VA. This one is a Toys for Tots benefit, plus my good friend Annie will be there. She makes “wool ornaments and oddities to brighten your tree, desk and day”,  as well as these awesome little button flower things.

And then I’ll start applying for spring and summer shows! I’m willing to travel a bit, so if anyone has any suggestions of a great venue, I’d be interested.

So two interesting ideas came up during the show on Saturday, and for one of them I’m going to ask for some crowdsourcing help.

I’ve been getting into doing japanese weave earrings lately. They are tons of fun, in part because they are inherently sculptural, so I can make some crazy shapes. These crazy shapes are made up of different size links, connected by either one or two tiny links. Which means they kinda sorta look like molecules. Middle school text-book two-dimensional 80’s style molecules, but nonetheless.

I do not have an encyclopedic knowledge of simple molecules so I’m asking you, my dear readers, for suggestions. If your suggestion works (and if you want it) I’ll send you a pair of the super-dorky earrings you designed. Classy!

So here are the variables: shape, connection, link size and material.

Shape: I can make ‘molecules’ in three basic shapes. 1. is a rosette, 2. is a diamond, and 3. is a triangle. Please note that rosettes do not have to have the outside ring be finished. They work just fine as a central circle with a half-circle of links around it too.  (edit: These shapes are of course combine-able, to a limited degree.)

Connection: In the rosette, I used a single connector link to hold the outside links to the inside links, and used a double connector to hold the outside links to each other. In this case, due to the diameter of the wire, I needed to to it that way. This is the main reason for the ‘if it works’ caveat above. Depending on the shape, I can’t always do covalent bonds where they need to be. Another thing to note: The bonds don’t have to be the same color. In #2, the central bond is half one metal and half another.

Link Size: Knowing close to nothing about chemistry, I thought that maybe link size could be used to imply the nature of the atoms… like atomic weight maybe? In #3, you can easily see that it’s not hard to work in noticably larger atoms. In order to make a good earring, I think it would be best to restrain yourselves to three atom sizes or less.

Material: I can work in aluminum, silver, and copper. 1. is made entirely of the aluminum, although the lower double-bond and big link on #3 are also aluminum. #2 is made of silver and copper.

Please guys, help me out here. I’m going for the ‘dungeons and dragons/WoW chemistry dork who presents an appearance of normality in public and sends sneaky social signals looking for others of their tribe’ niche market.

You don’t have plans for Saturday yet, right? Because just like me, you are awesomely behind on planning the activities for the next four or five weekends. Allow me to encourage you in your procrastination. Instead of planning when you’re going to do your holiday shopping, clean your house, find that perfect turkey recipe and negotiate sleeping arrangements for your extended family, come to a Craft Fair!

Hell, it may even help with the holiday shopping part.

I’ll be there with bells on (well, not me personally, but I do still have a pair of jingle bell earrings) and jewelry for sale.

I think all artists do this, but I’m honestly not sure.

I go through periods of ‘la la la, everything’s fine ‘,  followed immediately by ‘Shit! Shit! Everything’s on fire! And not in the good way!’

Well, we’re in the latter sort of time now. Since my show in July, I’ve been coasting on my laurels.  Last week, I realized just how tardy I am in applying for holiday craft fairs and shows. Ooops.

So I’m whipping my jewelry stuff back into shape. (And applying for spring shows.) As part of that, my Etsy page is active again and full of fresh stuff. I’ll be adding more over the next few days, so keep checking back!