glittergoods

a little spring cleaning

I love the Northwest, really.  I'm one of those people who doesn't mind the drizzle, someone who thinks that our endless gray days are a fair tradeoff for our other beautiful seasons, etc.  But, MAN, my mood is approximately one thousand times better the past couple days than it has been for weeks, & I'm pretty sure it's just because I've seen a little bit of sun for two days in a row (never mind that as I was leaving dinner with friends last night, we were debating whether it was rain or snow we were seeing.  Rain, I say, rain!).

Since I'm feeling like an actual person who makes actual stuff again, I thought maybe I'd poke around & see what's hanging around the studio that would be better off hanging around other people's houses, to wit:

The last two pillows from my "fall collection,"

& a whole bunch of rings.  The pillows are already up on etsy, the rings will be following a few at a time once I sort out some good photo light for them.

Of course, I have to offset the moving out of things with the moving in of other things, though I am trying hard to make sure they are smallish, & nice to look at.

Like this:

I am obligated to love this because my son made it (in "art club," no less), but I would love it anyway.  See that flying saucer up in the corner, there?  This is tissue + other paper decoupaged onto a scrap piece of wood, & guess whether this idea is going in my boring-days-of-summer toolkit?

I am not obligated to love this, but I do, so much.  It's from theantibride at etsy:  the chair is screened onto muslin, surrounded by lovely meticulous hand-stitching.

It will fit right in.

Queen Anne trunk show tomorrow (alternate title: up to my elbows in glitter)

Saturday's show has come together in a way that I'm really excited about.  The postcards say 20+ artists, but in the end I think we're at 30+, with a really great mix of goods.  Fairy skirts, amazing local clothes & jewelry from Petaline's designers, cool bags, my favorite local  soap, amazing cut paper work, so much other stuff.   Also:  word has it that the bake sale is going to be very brownie-heavy, which is, in my opinion, fantastic.  I love a good homemade brownie.

I've been experimenting with the wire inlay in my belt buckles, just to see if I could, not because I am obsessive about that loop pattern or anything, no way.  (Last night I went to a little free-motion quilting class at The Quilting Loft with my friend Kirsten, & the very first thing we did was loops, ha.  Well, only thing, the class sort of descended into a vortex of horrifying stitch tension & nobody with the right presser feet, so the whole thing got rescheduled.  But that makes the loops even more important, being the only thing.)

Since we're on the subject of loops, I'll mention that I'm bringing the whole batch of pillows with me to the show, along with a bunch of belts, a few rings, some dot necklaces, & of course a whole big whack of kid tees, crowns, & bracelets.

Oh, & these pouches.  Remember pouch-mania, way back before pillow madness?  They'll be there too.

Leftovers will go up on etsy, but wouldn't it be so much more fun to come to the show in person?  See you tomorrow!

weekend

I really should be sorting these out into their three-packs, but I do love how they look all piled up together.  (This is only about half the batch I'm making for show season.)

Ink & glitter swatches for a new client.

Yesterday we had an impromptu date (both kids at playdates, at other people's houses, at the same time) & though the search for a decent vegetarian sandwich in a Fremont restaurant was a big disappointing bust (I swear, if I were ever to open a restaurant it would be a vegetarian luncheonette), I was soothed by the discovery of these super excellent sticky notes at Burnt Sugar.  (I may have to go back & get the labels, too.)  I love these, though I feel like I should practice my penmanship before using them.

Today I put the red pillow together.  It started out as a design challenge to myself, but has ended up being one of my favorites thus far.  And not just because I put glitter snaps on the back.

That's right, glitter snaps.

One day, I'm going to figure out how to put glitter on EVERYTHING.  Watch out.

play on!

First of all, any scoop on Simple Contemporary Quilts?  I've seen it mentioned here & there, but nothing juicy.  Because, you know, I need more contemporary quilting books.  Mm-hm. 

Next:  I thought that I would be so productive when school started, but, well, fantasies keep hope alive, don't they?  I am going to blame part of it on that stack of pouches I was working on,

& some more of it on soccer practice,

but really it's mostly the pouches.

One side has a loop of loopy screenprinted twill tape, the other has a glitter zipper pull.  These are the perfect little amount of patchwork for me lately, though I have to say that seeing this version of the beloved Japanese Log Cabin Quilt [Machine Made Patchworks ISBN457911020X, oh yeah] over at Mason-Dixon Knitting -- combined with the very satisfying feeling of using, rather than warehousing, stash that pouchmania has brought me -- has me daydreaming again about building one of those quilts in a lazy, long-term way.

Anyway, the pouches are coming to shows with me this fall/winter, which is my cunning way of bringing my blog life along to my regular glamscience life.  Even though I've got a mellower show schedule this year than the last couple (after last year's entirely traumatic LA trip, we agreed to stay put this season), it's still coming faster than I'd like (especially because Halloween costume requests were submitted this morning.  It shocks me that it's not too early!).  Also, I am myself involved in organizing a show happening in November, so I have a whole new stressed-out perspective on the entire experience.

I've been strapping on the respirator & getting back to the resin, with -- so far -- only one completely failed batch to show how long I've been away.  I have some ambitious belt buckle plans that I'd like to try out, resin willing.

Except, oh look, it's soccer again.

Two games in, & my kid is over the moon about it & my husband, soccer-player of yore, is not far behind.  I'm having a great time hauling my big camera (Nikon D70) + big lens (Nikkor 70-300mm G) out to the games & trying to learn how to take some decent shots. My setup is more "outdated" than "top of the line" (yes, I have been reading about digital photography on the internet lately), but I'm perfectly willing to chalk up a little graininess (this has to do with ISO, as long-suffering husband patiently explained to me last night) to gritty U7 soccer realism & happily blunder on.  Kind of like the kids.

Our season is 8 weeks long, which means that I will just be starting to have a real handle on taking soccer pictures (grainy, gritty soccer pictures) before everything abruptly stops.  Maybe I'll start taking blog photos from very, very, far away.

springtime sun: resin 1, children 0

I think it's pretty daring of me to take on -- in my Seattle basement studio -- a medium that does not dry properly with moisture in the air, but happily I hit a weather sweet spot over the last two days & my latest batch of resin is gorgeous & will be coming to the Maker Faire with me this weekend.  Of course, today, with early school dismissal + big bubble-blowing, popsicle-eating park extravaganza planned, it's chilly, cloudy, maybe rainy.  I think:  phew!  better today than yesterday!  when I should be thinking:  oh, my poor disappointed children! 

I am particularly happy with the new belt buckles, since I like the shape of these blanks much better than the first one I tried.  (As gratified as I am that the weather held off, just a little sun for pictures today would have been nice.)

I've also got new rings, pendants, & bobby pins, plus a few crowns & a bunch of t-shirts will be going with me too.  (Whatever I can cram onto beautifully & stylishly display on my little 8-foot table, really.)  Since glamscience.com is still down for the count, resin leftovers will be showing up in my etsy shop sometime next week.

(Fun as this all is, what I really want to be doing is making big plans with the new books I got from superbuzzy the other day.  Soon, my lovely little japanese sewing patterns, soon.) 

Friday WIP, also this mothering thing finally starts to pay off

I need to make a whole post about the excellent princess party we had last weekend, with special mention of the fantastic strawberry frosting I made, but I am still resting up from all that PINK.

Today I received my first ever ugly-beautiful glazed coil pot at my son's kindergarten mother's day "tea" (I put it in quotes because my daughter is incensed that we call it "tea" without actually serving actual tea.  She now refers to her tea as "the fake tea party we're having at my school for mother's day."), & even though yesterday I was rolling my eyes to my husband about it, oh good, here we go, today I could not love it more.

I especially love the tiny white bowl he made for me.

As for work in progress, I am finally coming to grips with the fact that I've got a show next weekend (Baz Biz at Maker Faire!), & so I've got quite a bit going on,

like a zillion bracelets to sew together. 

Oh, also, I finally decided to start up an etsy shop.  The idea (at the moment) is that it will be a place to put things that don't quite belong on my official website, plus I am increasingly impressed with the quality of work I'm finding on etsy, so I wanted to join in the fun!  It's pretty bare right now, but I did list a few crowns

& some bobby pin sets.

I am grateful that spring is here for many reasons, not least of which is that I can finally get some decent picture of my glitter again.

it's the little things [that take up so much time]

*

I guess I knew that even the [ok, my] most earnest fresh-start enthusiasm takes at least a little bit of a dive when it runs up against the daily grind, but I didn't expect it to happen quite so early in the year.  I blame the unexpectedly potent combination of La Femme Nikita seasons 4 + 5 on dvd & the "chore" of flipping through a stack of old magazines (old magazines, I unearthed a pile of Met Homes from 1997) & tearing out anything interesting before sending them off to the overburdened recycling bin. (I hope the recycling truck guys share some of the organization store people's fresh-start wryness, our bin is a little ridiculous right now.)

**

Anyway, overwrought spy tv (I do love it, though am reminded why I stopped watching partway through season 4, ha) plus endlessly flipping through spreads of pristine modernist homes turns out to suck all the creative energy out of the room, as well as -- since I will not be using any of the 37 million shades of white out there -- not giving me any useful paint color ideas for my kitchen (ostensibly why I'm doing all the mag flipping), so I may possibly be running a creativity deficit at this point.

*Don't remember if I've actually posted about these before, they're the small glitter dot necklaces I'm doing (replacing the ones that appear on but are currently unavailable from the website).  Imagine me balancing a white plate full of necklaces in front of every window in my house, trying to capture the best version of gloomy Seattle afternoon light.

**Of course, an hour after I took the necklace picture & sent it off to the client that needed it, the sun actually made an appearance.  I'm playing around with an idea for a multicolored gocco invite, although frankly I am not quite sure what I was thinking when I picked out the darkish grey cards.

in which I am a minor contortionist

We actually had some sun today, which sent me scrambling to grab the camera & try to take a picture of my prototype glitter & resin belt buckle, which I happened to be wearing at the time.

Holding the camera out at arm's length while trying to angle your belt buckle into the precious square foot of unbroken sunlight falling into the many-shadowed front room & then also taking a reasonably focused picture of the buckle:  not so easy, but apparently quite funny.  Just ask my kid.

Taking this picture reminded me that I've got quite a few rings & necklaces that I need to photograph & get on the site, if the weather will cooperate.  I have a reasonably decent white-background setup that I use down in my studio for some items, but nothing beats the sun for getting sparkle on the glitter dot stuff.  I don't actually want it to be spring yet, there's this soup party I want to host & I'm thinking of maybe making some fancy valentines this year & I need to read the seed catalogs & I would also like some quality time with the sewing machine before I start getting antsy to do things outside, but I could stand a few hours of sunlight, at my convenience, pref. when the kids are both at school & I don't have anything else pressing going on.

This is the basket of cards that went out in the mail today.  I don't usually stop & photograph my orders because they are not interestingly one of a kind or etc, but yesterday I was irritatedly thinking to myself that despite all of my plans I have yet to make anything this year.  This counts, though, I made these.  I also have made:  two school lunches, a section of kitchen countertop (well, made it useful with sanding + oiling), a pan of chocolate cupcakes (not as perfect as the maple ones, so maybe my new oven is not in fact magical), another vet appointment for the six million dollar kitty, & serviceable knots in the wooden bead necklace & bracelet that my daughter strung all by herself.  I have sketches & swatches, plus a couple of plans to have coffee with friends, & also what I think is a really good idea for the next pincushion challenge.  Ok!

[If you haven't seen the kim family auction in action on ebay, please check it out.  It's full of beautiful work; I am deeply & particularly in love with these Sara Paloma bottles.]

here comes the weekend

Here's where I'll be all weekend:

[I don't think Beth Ditto is actually emceeing anymore, since they've got someone else listed on the site now.]

If you're local, come by & check it out -- there's going to be lots of great crafty talent at the show.  I'll be there with glitter dot jewelry & penguin (plus others) shirts (even a few in grown-up sizes), glittery letters & cards, & (lord willing & the creek don't rise, assuming the resin cures in time) a whole bunch of sparkly bobby pins.

Even with the scheduling craziness of this week (I am so glad the snow is gone), I managed to get a big batch of rings + a few new pendants made:

I think my two favorites in this batch are the lilac/fuchsia (R row, 2nd back) & the olive/sushi* (L row, 2nd back).  In the middle of working on these I had what might be a great idea for a new little resin thingy (isn't that always the way, you get a great new idea that you're dying to try out right when you're in the middle of a pressing deadline?), but I managed to forge ahead & get the job done.

Today on my way home from buying a bigger table for this weekend, I stopped at Kmart because it was right next to the office supply store I'd been to & because I honestly did need a little mirror to take to the show, but believe you me there was a spring in my step because that meant I had legit excuses to see the Martha holiday deco, & I was not disappointed.  I know Tord has been all the rage on the blogs, & those paper cutouts + their general aesthetic are lovely indeed (& it's not like I don't flip over photos of Amy's garland + red deer or Stephanie's little red button wreath, don't get me wrong), but this year Martha gets me where I live.  Oh, the glitter!  I just love how sparkly everything is this time of year. 

*it's the greeny black nori color I mixed for my sushi card design.

skirt obsession

I am feeling mildly obsessed with corduroy this year, which is handy because my quest for the apples & pears fabric turned out to be too brief (successful, but brief) to keep me occupied for long, but there plenty of options when it comes to corduroy.  Sometimes the quest is the thing (although that fabric is the thing, too.  I hope I still love it when it gets here.).  So I get the quest, & my kid gets to indulge in her funny new passion for SOFT; I was happy to finish the latest skirt not just because of 1. corduroy & 2. adding an inch to my favorite little skirt pattern made it just the right length for fall, but because I am hoping that putting something velvety on her own self will make her a little less inclined to follow me around endlessly rubbing my velour homepants.  (You know the kind, not really sweats, you probably wouldn't go out in them but you could get away with it if you needed to, but also not pajamas although sleeping in them is pretty comfortable?  Homepants.)

I think she overheard me telling my husband that I don't think that three is too young for some tall black boots to go with her kicky new skirt, because she decided to give us a very stompy modeling show featuring my own black boots, which are just the right height for my own new corduroy skirt.

Consider this a parenthetical picture, I know it's terrible.  But despite the blur & the bad lighting, you can still sort of get the idea:  I used that book I was so excited about & sewed myself a skirt, & even though it's maybe a little big & the zipper is a total hackjob (not like, I say "oh!  this is terrible!" & then you say "but no!  your stitches are dainty, even, & mysteriously slimming!"  It's complete hackery, but that's what you get when you're putting in your first zipper ever at 1:30 in the morning & you can't find the good seam ripper.), the pattern I made actually worked pretty well & it's the exact right length below my knee (being very tall, this is like the holy grail of skirt lengths).  I am satisfied!  Plus, I ended up really liking the book.  If you are experienced in the ways of skirts, it is not for you, but for my level of experience (competent with machine, reasonable understanding of the whole concept of how to sew things together, but zero experience making clothes for anyone over the age of three) + desire for very basic skirts, it's fantastic.  I've got some olive green denim that I'm dying to cut into, but I think that I'm going to try to refine my whole zipper experience first.

And, in non-corduroy news, the second batch of rings is up on the site now.  (The aqua/red is my favorite this time, I think, although moss/avocado is a close second.  Oh, sparkly!)