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.

Just to be clear – I’m not this calm, cool and collected. I also don’t glow.

Balancing work time with everything else time is something all artists have to hammer out for themselves. Well, other than perhaps the independently wealthy artists with no family obligations and a particular gift for benign self-absorption, but I digress.

My balance is a work in progress. I have two part time jobs that are not art related, and one that is. None of this includes ‘just for fun’ projects, i.e. stuff that is not directly related to making money. Like, say, this blog. There’s also life, of course: Car payments and Thanksgiving dinner with the inlaws and watching the Perseids.

I do alright at leaving the work I do at a remote location where it belongs, but I run into trouble with work I do at home. Chainmail and some drawings are ‘work’, but they are also fun, which complicates matters. Sometimes, I want to make chainmail, as it is genuinely relaxing. And sometimes I have a show coming up, so I feel like I have to make as much chainmail as possible before the deadline, then I work myself into a slightly tarnished and blistered bag of twitch.

My problem is saying no in a rational way that also allows me to get done what I need to get done. If chainmail is fun, I shouldn’t balk at doing it a lot, right? But then I’m ‘working’ in my relaxation time. And if I only ‘work’ when it’s fun, then I’m not treating it like a job, which is the level of dedication that it deserves, and that my taxes sort of imply I should devote.

…

Oh, I’m sorry, did you want a conclusion? As I said, it’s a work in progress.

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.

Last week my buddy Mike called in a artistic favor I owed him to get something pretty for the top of his soon-to-be-live blog. He didn’t really have any firm ideas, other than he wanted it to be something that would be appropriate for both his musical and computational pursuits.

It doesn’t always happen, but it did this time: I had a brilliant idea. Punchcards. Musical score. Both covered in dots. BAM.

I think I still have a few tweaks to make though. I like the partial transparency on the punchcard and musical staff details, and I think the dots come off a bit too ‘hard’ in contrast. Also I’m not sure about the background. It’s copied from an aged piece of paper, but it doesn’t actually look much like an aged piece of paper.  I may have to do something about that.

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. )

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.

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.

So I had my big show last weekend, and it was awesome.

I flew/drove up to the frozen north, slept, and then got to work with all the last minute things that needed doing. I enlisted (er…perhaps pressganged would be more accurate) the family to help sort and price my inventory, and also set up my rented tent. That evening we had an inservice + question and answer for all the people that were going to be helping sit my booth, and lots of nummy Thai food. (Yes, we do have cuisine other than pasties in the U.P.)

Up at 7:30am, begin setup at 8:15am, and shoppers started arriving at nine. The early wave was the for serious shoppers: these people made a full circuit of all 153 booths in half an hour or less, and then went back and bought up what they wanted before the official open-time at 10:00am.

It looked something like this:

I was quite happy with my booth. For one thing, I lucked out on location: I was basically on a corner, and I was on the edge where people tended to enter the show. Also, I was conveniently placed as to wind/rain, which we had a bit of. (Note the blocks at the base of my jewelry racks, which are keeping them from taking flight in an unexpected gust.) As to things I had control over, things went the way I’d thought they would, which means there were no major disasters and I mostly got things looking the way I wanted them to.

My booth:

Apparently, a major selling point was my ability to make alterations ‘while you wait’. This is something of a misnomer, as I did end up taking two pieces home for more extensive alterations, but I mostly got things fitted (when necessary) on-scene, and the client went home happy. I did the alterations for free, reasoning that selling a piece and making a positive impression was worth $10 worth of work.

What I wasn’t expecting were the two people who wanted me to make alterations to jewelry that, um, wasn’t mine. Uh… no.

Expect tasty leftovers to start showing up on my Etsy page shortly. I moved about half of my earrings, (one pair literally three minutes after I’d finished them!) and perhaps a quarter of my necklaces and bracelets. If I could do one show this good a month, then I could quit one of my two day jobs. Incidentally, that’s been my stated eventual goal for the last few months: To be making half of my income from what I technically term ‘art stuff.’

And now I am going to become re-acquainted with my teakettle and my couch, because during all that gladhanding something decided it wanted to try to colonize me. ‘Night.