Craft show schedule for May, take 2

The craft shows I'm doing this month have been changed some, so I figured I should give an update. I'm no longer doing the Interboro High School one (it got rescheduled again to a day I couldn't make it), but I am doing three other ones. So if you're near Delaware County or Chester County, PA, stop by and see me! ;)

Here's the schedule as it looks so far. I'll let you guys know if it changes again!

May Craft Shows:

Delaware County Community College
Media, PA
Sunday May 1st, 9am-4pm


Caln Historical Society
Coatesville, PA
Saturday May 14th, 9am-3pm


Granite Run Mall
Media, PA
Sunday May 15st, 9am-4pm

If you need more info, just ask. :)

Art Update - Time for summer! (What? It's only April?)

I seem to be on a sun and fire kick lately, so I guess the warmer weather has me more than happy to put winter behind me. We completely skipped spring here, though- we went from the 50s to the 80s with nothing in between (seriously, I was wearing a heavy coat, gloves and a hat Friday and by Sunday was in shorts...). You guys getting wonky weather, too?

Anyway, on with the art!
Here's a fire-colored stretchy chainmaille bracelet in red and orange:

It's here on Etsy and here on Artfire.

My friends have been saying it looks pink and gold, so I must have edited the picture too bright; it looks fine on my monitor, but said monitor is pretty old. I'll have to check on another one later.

And here's a fiery cartilage ear cuff in red and orange-red:

This is on Etsy and Artfire
One of my plurk friends gave me the "Curly Q" name and that was just too cute to pass up on. Whenever I look at this, though, I just think of my wizard D&D character throwing a fireball. Yeah, I'm a geek.

And here's a sun to fit the heat theme:

"Eclipse of the Sun" - Etsy and Artfire
I know black is a weird color to use with a sun charm, but for some reason this charm didn't say warm colors to me. Guess I already used up my red quota for the week?

I've been working on lots of other random art, so look for another art update soon!

Tomorrow's craft show is postponed

Just a quick post in case anyone was curious. The craft show/flea marked at Interboro High School in Prospect Park, PA has been postponed due to bad weather until the rain date of Sunday May 1st. It'll still be the same time: 9am-3pm.

I'll still be there selling my art, so if you're near Delaware County on the 1st, stop by!

Presenting Pretties - Crysallis Creations

This week the Artfire Stalker's Guild is stalking one of our own. ... Yes, that sounds odd, but it's really quite harmless. We just spread word about artists and their Artfire shops, but do it in a fun, ninja-like way. ;) You can find the guild blog here.

This week we're featuring a talented jewelry artist who has been one of my online friends for years now- Deb of Crysallis Creations.

Want to see some of her pretties? Of course you do! ;) These are some of my favorites:


Aquatic Bloom Necklace



Magpies Nest 14kt Rose GF wirewrapped ring



La Dolce Vita - Artisan vessel Necklace


You can find her main Artfire jewelry shop here and she also has a gem and bead shop on Artfire here.

Trove Thursday - Into the Land of the Fae

'Into the Land of the Fae' by merigreenleaf

Here are just a few of the lovely items in the current FAEteam (Fantasy Artists of Etsy) Exhibition "Fairies, Elves & Pixies, Oh My!" You can find the exhibition here and you can find more items by this talented team by searching for faeteam on Etsy.

Cloth Art Doll Nari... fairiesnest $150.00	Swallowtail Yellow ... NightLilyDesig... $85.00	Magical Elfin Woodl... SEStudio $75.00	Eärendil Evening S... mermaidencreat... $20.00
Fairy silhouette ar... LizasWhimsical... $20.20	OOAK Fairy Art Doll... JordanRou $125.00	Wood Elf, leather m... faerywhere $79.00	Sleeping Fairie Min... PhenomeGNOME $24.99
Ember - fairy fanta... deannabachart $12.00	Little Leather Faer... beadmask $54.00	As Green As Absinth... FaerieKat $15.00	Faerie Cakes - Herb... MoonlitHerbals $8.50
Peacock Fairy Doll ... fairymermaid $225.00	Elven Mischief Pend... rainwaterstudi... $28.00	Fairy Lariat Neckla... AthenasArmoury $175.00	Gold wing big eye F... juliafinucane $12.99

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

This treasury features items in the current FAEteam exhibition "Fairies, Elves & Pixies, Oh My!".

Click the pictures to go to the listings for the items. :) You can visit this treasury on Etsy by clicking the title above the blurb or click here.

Here's a list of who's who since the tiny font is hard to read. I featured:
fairiesnest, NightLilyDesign, SEStudio, mermaidencreations, LizasWhimsicalArt, JordanRou, faerywhere, PhenomeGNOME, deannabachart, beadmask, FaerieKat, MoonlitHerbals, fairymermaid, rainwaterstudios, AthenasArmoury and juliafinucane

Talented Tuesday - Jannelle of Something Else Studio

Time for another interview! This time I'm featuring Jannelle of Something Else Studio; she's a very very talented fantasy artist and one of my guildmates in the Artfire Fantasy Guild. I love her pouches/pockets so much and check out her crowns, too!



What's your name?
Jannelle Olmstead ~ Something Else Studio

Where can you be found on the internet? (Website, Twitter, Plurk, shops, blog, etc)
http://www.artfire.com/users/SomethingElseStudio
http://www.somethingelsestudio.com
http://SEStudio.etsy.com
http://www.facebook.com/SEStudio

Describe yourself in five words.
Creative .. Optimistic .. Focused .. Family .. Dreamer

If you were a color, what would you be?
I would vibrate somewhere between sky blue turquoise and deep earthy teal green :)

If you were a "Dungeons and Dragons"/fantasy character or creature, what would you be?
I enjoyed my elven thief character back in the day when I ha time to play. I liked to move stealthily in the shadows where I have the freedom to move unseen and go where I wanted to go and disappear when trouble showed up :)

If you could live anywhere (or anywhen), where/when would it be?
A beautiful little English cottage surrounded by flower gardens with cozy shady places to rest with a cup of tea and read.

What is your greatest dream or goal?
To have my own business and be a full time artisan. I'm grateful that I'm living my dreams right now which includes hard work, long hours and more bookkeeping and organizational skills then I ever imaged would go along with it!

What was your very first piece of art? How long have you been an artist?
I spent my childhood drawing, painting, sewing and crafting. My mother had boxes of cards, drawing and other childhood treasures I gifted to her until they had to downsize to just memories. I made a lot of my own paper dolls as a child. In Middle School and High School I took all the Art & Independent sewing classes I could. When my two sons were in High School I went back to college and got a BFA in Fine Art, one of my greatest accomplishments.

If you sell your art, how did you get started?
I decided to just jump in! I started with renaissance style headpieces and that lead into designing custom renaissance wedding gowns and that lead into renaissance festival accessories. I decided not to wait for a "perfect" product idea but jump in and be willing to evolve and see what worked.



What is the strangest thing you've ever made?
I don't know if it's strange but I was included with a group of artists invited to adorn the walls of The Springs Of Clifton. It's an alternative healing center located within a traditional hospital in Clifton Springs, NY. Each artist got a room to decorate and I was lucky enough to get the waiting room! I painted a large sprawling tree mural encircling several walls including a real branch near the ceiling where I hung 4 sparkling seasonal garlands.

Pick your favorite project/artwork- what is it and what inspired you on it?
When my oldest son decided to have a renaissance themed wedding I made them matching outfits and headpieces. I made the brides bouquet, bridesmaid garland and special family headpieces. I had so much fun that after the wedding I decided to launch a business doing custom renaissance wedding gowns and headpieces. I designed sample wedding gown for my runway models in bridal shows. It was a fun way to start! But after several years I decided I would rather design and sell accessories for renaissance festivals. So here I am today as an artisan doing renaissance, Faerie and Celtic festivals!

What kind of advice would you give to other artists?
Don't be afraid to fail. Try something... see work works. If it doesn't catch on move to the next grand idea as you improve and expand your artwork. You will be surprised at how many life skills will come into play to support your growing business. Whatever your dream you just have to BELIEVE in it and keep moving forward.



What is your favorite:
Color? I adore all the jewel tone colors but a red burgundy somehow finds its way into most of my attire! I use it everywhere so it is one of my all time favorite colors.
Quote? I have had this poster for 20 years and it's still hanging up on my office wall: "How high I aim, how much I see, how far I reach, depends on me"
Book? I'm a bookaholic. I have a rooms full of books so it's hard to love just one! I enjoy my gardening books in the summer, cook books in the winter and a good mystery novel anytime, anywhere.
TV show and/or movie? Lord Of The Rings trilogy movies
Season? Autumn in all it's fabulous golden glory!!
Animal? I'm an allergic Cataholic :( I would still have my beautiful cats if breathing was only optional. But it's not so now I live with my adorable little Cairn Terrier named Goblin :)
Art medium and/or supply? I LOVE to paint on wood, walls and fabric. I adore all the great textures and colors of fibers and I love to weave art and fabric together to create magical items of wearable art.

Art Update - When earrings and candy go together

I'll get to the candy in a minute. First I want to share this cartilage chain earring I made for an awesome customer; she contacted me about getting an earring made custom (which I love doing, by the way- if anyone ever wants me to make them something special, I'm your humble servant), and wanted it to be in red and blue and have a specific winged shield charm. This is based on an anime called "Brave Police J Decker" which I haven't seen, but luckily she sent along a picture and a sketch for me to work off of. She wasn't sure how I'd make the shield, but I told her I could probably do something at least close in polymer clay.

The chain and the top loop were the easy part. That charm part? Definitely difficult. After quite a few unsuccessful and rather frustrating tries, I handed this task over to my fiancé who is better with small fiddly clay things than I am (to give you an idea, I usually get him to sculpt the tiny clay weapons for my dolls), or possibly he just has better patience.

After a tag team effort, this was the final result:




Here's what we were working off of for the shield:


The charm still ended up larger that I'd wanted (it's 2" wide and 1" tall) but I think it came out pretty darn close. So yay! And luckily since it's polymer clay, it's really lightweight, so even though it's large, it isn't heavy. It's painted in acrylics and sealed with varnish- the silver loop above the charm is epoxied to the back.

How it is on the mannequin isn't actually how it's going to be worn, at least in terms of the top earring post; it's actually going on that hoop earring like on the non-mannequin photo. The silver loopy thing I have attached to that is large enough that she can wear it on a different earring if she likes, just by sliding it off.

So even though this took a long time to finish, I think it came out well, so I'm happy. :)

And want to know what makes me even happier? That awesome customer is also a baker/confectioner (that's the word for someone who makes sweet yummy food, right?) and she sent me homemade candy! Not a good picture, but here you can see it- which is good, because I've since eaten it all. ;)


That had me so honored that she made me something- especially because I have weird dietary restrictions and she even made sure to get me something I could eat. When you can't eat a lot of things, trust me, that means a lot to you! It's the yummiest peanut butter and white chocolate thing I've ever tasted, too!

So I'm hoping she ends up loving the earring as much as I loved the candy. ;)

Art Update- Here be dragons. Err... not that I don't usually have dragons here, of course.

Time for some fantasy things! Alas, these dragons haven't been able to scare the headache goblins away. Maybe next week- here's hoping! What other use is having all these large monsters around, hmm? ;)

Here's that green dragon I blogged about last week. He's done now, but I still have to frame him. I'll do that when I have another one or two embroideries finished.


She's not a dragon, but this is the one I'm currently working on in between headaches:

Yup, another fairy. :) This one is colored in using that melted crayon wax method. I'm well in touch with my inner-six year old and she loves all this crayon business.

But look! Dragons have taken over my ear cuffs. Er.. again.
This first one was a custom order that I liked so much that I immediately made a second one. Yay, inspirational customers!

"Fireball of the Dragon" Cartilage Chain Ear Cuff - Etsy and Artfire

And this one is just a regularly inspired earring, in this case I tried to use beads that looked like a dragon's eye, or possibly dragon fire. I made a pun off of those with the name "Ire". (Except that since I'm a huge Discworld fan, every time I say "pun" I want to add "A pune or a play on words".)

"Draconic Ire" Red and Silver Ear Cuff - Etsy and Artfire


And while it's not actually a dragon, Dungeons and Dragons fits this theme, right? In that case, look, a thing with a D12:

This is here on Artfire and here on Etsy
As a girl gamer, had to make something pretty with this purple and blue die, so turned it into a keychain. Had some trouble photographing it, though; the colors are actually a bit darker.

I'm still amused by the fact that my D&D group is mainly female... actually, all three of my D&D groups are mainly female, now that I think about it; there's a total of about three males combined. Girl gamers are more prevalent than one might think.

And speaking of dice, my fiancé just got a new hand drill, so hopefully I'll be able to make more of these soon. Alas, I haven't been to the gaming store in months for new dice! Woe!

My inspiration tends to give me goblins...

I know this is a subject I've blogged about before so sorry if you've heard this before or get at all offended about me gushing about said subject. The current blogfire theme is "Who in your family inspires you?"

That's an easy one for me: my fiancé. He's into fantasy and he's an artist, too. His Dungeons and Dragons game was what got me back into creative writing and his (usually goofy) D&D plots and encounters have spawned their fair share of art from me- anything in my shop called "Underwater Wyvern" for one thing. And because he's such an awesome Dungeon Master, I've become his apprentice; I'm now taking the reins as "Dojo Mistress" (as one of my friends calls it) in my own campaign.

And his art... well, lets just say that I have a wee bit of an obsession with making dolls of his characters. He draws a comic called Goblins Like These- he hasn't had a chance to work on it, but he's still doodling those characters frequently. And whenever he draws a character, I immediately want to turn it into a plushie. (Someday this may be marketable, should he become a famous cartoonist. Or so I can dream, lol!)

Here are some examples. Look, goblins!




And a kobold, too:


And the best inspirational thing? He's utterly and completely supportive of the fact that I'm an artist. He's always there to lend a hand with my art (he drills the geeky dice for me, sculpts me tiny clay weapons, epoxies everything that needs to be glued...) and he's my official salesman at craft shows (usually with the line "Hey, you look like a guy who could use a pair of horns"). He's my best friend, my love and my knight in... well, maybe not shiny armor, but awesomely handmade armor since I'm sure he could throw together something like that. ;)

In short, my Joshy is my inspiration. And he's cute, too! ;)

Headaches are utterly evil. :(

I think I jinxed myself last week saying I'd make more blog posts. Thursday I got hit with a nasty migraine (my first ever- should I consider that an honor? A "Yay, Meri is growing up" kind of thing?) and I've been fighting headaches ever since. Obviously my eyes haven't adjusted to the new glasses. Hmph. Getting new (er... newer?) lenses put in them now and am back to my old glasses until they're in. Unfortunately, now my eyes are no longer used to them, either. Eyes, anytime you want to function at 100%, that would be great! Got things to do here, ya know. I'm out of it and feeling crummy enough on a regular basis as it is.

In other news, my grandmother is still in the hospital. She had a bad fall last week, but she's healing up (although still very bruised), so I'm hoping she feels better so she can come home soon! Today she isn't having a good day, though, and wasn't able to get to physical therapy. Poor Mommom. :(

Never a dull moment, huh? One of these years I'll catch up to all the online stuff I fell behind with... And I know I missed Talented Tuesday this week, so I'll post the next interview next week. Working on an art post, so that'll probably go up tomorrow. Just wanted to make a quick post letting whoever reads this blog know what's up. :)