Big News!

The shiny new store is live on http://www.coolgiraffe.shop

With over 1,000 listings and a ridiculous amount of inventory awaiting it's day before the camera, it was time to find somewhere with more elbow room and a lot less visual clutter.

The last 10 years with a store on Etsy have been good to me. It paid for a graduate degree. It helped pay the bills during the pandemic.  I enjoy owning a small business (except for the taxes). My shop has morphed over the years from handmade jewelry to vintage and hard-to-find supplies for both jewelry artisans and mixed media mavens.

Happy Crafting!

-A.

Are You an Illinois Artist?

Or perhaps Indiana or Wisconsin?  If you're within driving distance of Chicagoland, Brookfield Farmers Market​ is hosting an Artisan Showcase on July 11. Follow the link below for the application. Get ready to meet 1,000 potential customers at the peak of the season!

http://goo.gl/forms/iHqG8qk74H

Brookfield is my home town and I'll be there. Will you?

March of the Mokume

This week's goal was to make a few ring bowls for Saturday's craft show. I selected two possible color schemes for a mokume gane stack, but decided to use bold shades of marsala, peacock, gold and white. In theory, making little jewelry dishes is a great idea IF you can find the right form.  This is today's "factory second".

Pretty contrasting colors, interesting fluting around the edge.  You can't see from the photo, but it has a nice shine to it. What's the problem, you ask?  Look very closely at the center of the dish and you can probably guess what I used as a form. After hunting around my house for over a week for a perfectly sized round, smooth object on which to bake a round of clay, I gave up and used a spare light bulb.  Alas, I neglected to run my finger over the logo to make sure it was perfectly smooth.  It was not, and all the micro mesh in the world can't fix it. 

Today was not a total wash, however. There was enough of the sheet to make some lovely (and smaller) domed pieces on my hollow bead form. Come to Handmade Market on Saturday to see the finished pieces!

If you're looking for a mokume gane tutorial, there are several at Sculpey.

Pretty Sparkly Things

At the tail end of  January, I added a few supplies to my shop to help empty out my bead containers and fill out my listings until I could get new styles photographed. It was supposed to be a quiet little experiment. Although I knew there was a market for supplies on Etsy, I was delighted when most of my little packets of old glass beads sold in less than a month!  So delighted, in fact, that vintage supply will now be a permanent feature in my shop, fitting right in with my quest to design lovely things with a mix of polymer clay and ecofriendly materials.

Why choose vintage supply?  For one thing, it's ready and waiting.  Whether they're resting in  a warehouse, your craft drawer or (in my case) the half of a rear addition not occupied by a music studio, those little pretty things deserve their day in the sun!  No one's tunneling through mountains or counting carbon emissions because it's already been done years ago. Keep those sparklies out of the landfill and use them for what they were intended.  Better late than never!

Artist Challenge Day 5

I was challenged to post 3 pictures a day for 5 days and nominate another artist to do the same. 

I was supposed to nominate 5th artist to participate, but some rules were meant to be broken.  If YOU do artsy things, then consider yourself nominated!  Post a link to your page in the comments and challenge yourself to show the world what you can do!

Day 5: Minty fresh

Artist Challenge Day 4

I was challenged to post 3 pictures a day for 5 days and nominate another artist to do the same. 

I nominate Ivory Carolina of Verse One https://www.facebook.com/Verse1.One/ to participate. Pass it on :-)

Day 4: Spring florals