Holiday Show Season

It's kind of insane how quickly crafters plunge into thinking about and preparing for the holiday show season. We've usually got our schedules set for September through December before the beach sand is out of our shoes back in July. Or at least we are already crossing our fingers, hoping to be accepted into the big juried shows we applied to.

My 2009 holiday show season is starting take shape as my acceptance emails roll in. I knew the Worcester Center for Crafts was having trouble and I wasn't sure if they would be having their traditional holiday show the weekend after Thanksgiving. But I got the good news that they are indeed hosting it and I will be participating for the second year in a row!

I will be in my studio for the December First Saturday Open Studios at Western Avenue Studios. I have applied to Bazaar Bizarre, a fantastic indie craft show held at the Cyclorama in Boston this year. It's for one day on Sunday, December 6th. UPDATE: I was accepted!

I have been accepted for the SOWA Holiday Show for the second year and I could not be more pleased! That show is held in the South End of Boston on December 12th and 13th.

Meanwhile September continues to be very busy. I am participating in stART on the Street in Worcester for my third year. That fun block party will be held on Sunday, September 20th and I will again be sharing a tent with Candace of The Intuitive Garden which makes it twice as fun!

The weekend after that, September 26th and 27th, I will be in my studio again as Lowell hosts a city wide Open Studios with lots of special events planned! Then it's right back to First Saturday Open Studios on October 3rd from 12-5.

This year is different from last year in that I am now in three fine crafts galleries! You can see my work in Newburyport, MA at Sisters We Three, in West Concord and Groton, MA at NOA Gallery, and in Putnam, CT Silver Circle Studio.

I also applied to participate in the seasonal Craftland holiday retail shop in Providence, RI. I love all the Rhodie crafters I've met IRL and on the interwebs, it would be a lot of fun to show at this venue. UPDATE: They accepted my felted goods!

So of course I am currently constantly making things for all these venues, and for my studio and my online shops! Did I mention I have three online shops? The one at Etsy you probably know about, but I am also establishing a presence at 1000 Markets and on Artfire.

I'm certainly having fun, but I do feel a bit in over my head and of course this would be the moment when my muse starts to pester me with new product ideas which I just have to write down and set aside for now to work on pure production! I think the mantra in the handmade world right now is: I can sleep in January.

Handmade Portrait - Mimi Kirchner

I have been seeing Mimi around at various Boston area craft shows for over a year now, but didn't really take a closer look until I started reading her completely delightful Tweets! It's funny what will finally bring someone fabulous to your attention even if they've been right in front of you all along. Now she is featured in a sweet video series on Etsy and I wanted to share it with you!

Custom Orders: I take 'em*

Lately I have been working on a lot of special orders. I love it when people ask if I can make something and the answer is YES!

*Now, I can't always do it. Maybe the barrier is simple like I don't have the color of wool needed or maybe it's more complicated like the requested item is such a leap from my existing product line that it isn't something I am interested in making. For example, I might have a go at trying to make a felted ornament shaped like a bon bon instead of a cupcake but I have no interest in felting your cat hair into anything. (True story)

A little while ago I made a felted beads necklace in custom colors for someone:

And for someone else a custom cupcake in all vanilla:

Most recently I made a felt beads necklace in all red:

I am currently making more felt beads in blues and greens for another custom necklace.

At the same time I am working to complete a wholesale order for my polymer clay egg ornaments.

Here are the canes I made to adorn the eggshells:

Here are the eggs baked and waiting to be sanded, varnished and have loops attached:

So let me know if you are interested in something custom made. These projects keep my workload interesting and fun, and I love making people happy with my whimsical handiworks!

Vending at Art in the Courtyard, Lowell Folk Festival 2009

Thanks to handsome Roberto of Junk Culture for taking this nice snap of me.

The Lowell Folk Festival takes over downtown Lowell, Massachusetts the last weekend in July every year. It's like our Mardi Gras but instead of parades, drinking and plastic beads, we have music, drinking and crafts. (Oh, and meat on a stick.) I was lucky enough to be juried into the Art in the Courtyard show again this year. We live right around the corner so it's old home week for me when I do it. The show sets up on Friday afternoon to vend for 3 hours. Then we break down, set it all up again Saturday and Sunday. The set-up-break-down times three is hard, but the crowds on Saturday make it worth it. If the weather holds. And we started out nice and sunny after several days of rain:


I shared with Amanda of Brick Mill Studio again, and we even had the same location as last year! There she is on the left:


Here is Amanda's table hopping with interested customers)


Tarja, a fiber artist at Western Avenue Studios, sat in the booth to my left, she was able to get some work done for her upcoming show at the Loading Dock Gallery.


I set my table up thusly:


I looked at pictures of last year's setup and though the look is very similar, I can see that a year of tweaking helped me get a nice cohesive look to my displays this time around. Also, it's so interesting to see how many new products I have developed!


I know I had talked about making goods for this show in my last post, and I'm glad to report I have never felt more prepared for a show. And as predicted, I sold a few of everything making a nice sales total for the weekend.

A huge fun part of doing shows is people watching and there were tons of people to watch. Everyone, guys especially, got a huge kick out of my felted rocks and everyone wanted to pick them up. When they realized they were wool covered rocks with some real heft they all said "Whoa!"


The scene from my booth:


Western Avenue Studios was well represented. The other Western Ave group was situated further up the Courtyard on the right:



Liz of Lush Beads and Peter Zimmerman Art Glass, (Peter shows a potential future Open Studios attendee how to get to WAS)


Heather Wang Jewelry:


and Vicki Green of Art by Verde:


Overall a wonderful if hot and exhausting weekend. The only trouble spot was the last ten minutes on Sunday when a sudden, violent thunderstorm blew in throwing lightening bolts at us and sheets of wind driven rain. Yeah, that was terrifying and made me really mad. Because the same thing happened last year! ??? Luckily I was able to pack up quickly without losing product, just a little bit of my sanity.

Now that I am recovered from the weekend, I have been working on special orders and getting ready for Open Studios this weekend. If you missed us at the Folk Festival, or if you just can't get enough of Western Avenue Art, come by and see us Saturday August first, from 12-5.

Making Goods For A Show

It's so hard to know what to make! I have such a varied and extensive product line, and I seem to sell a little of everything at every show. There are usually a few standouts that change for each venue. At one location people can't get enough of my egg ornaments, at another I can't keep my cupcake pincushions in stock. So figuring out what to devote my time to before an event is a guessing game fraught with not a little bit of anxiety.

The crafter's biggest fear? Not having enough of the thing that is a hot item. Best to have too much of something, you can always sell it at the next show or online. But I don't have enough time to make too much, I barely have enough time to make enough!

So here I am charretting for Art in the Courtyard coming up at the Lowell Folk Festival this weekend. All my work is incredibly labor intensive so I make a giant wish list of what I would like to complete on time, and then as the days tick by the list becomes more realistic and some items have to drop off.


Today I am trying to fill a 12 hook ornament hanger with little cupcake ornaments, I think I am on track to finish this task. I also want to make some more sleepy sheep, to have at least a half dozen If you have a good number of any one thing, you have a better chance of selling some.

Trust me, this is a anxiety filled task I relish :) This is my dream job for sure and this is the kind of problem I hope I always have!

I love meeting an Etsy seller!

Today I got to do something extraordinary: I got to attend a craft show! None of us vendors are ever afforded this luxury, we are always working the craft shows we would attend. Or we are too busy making stuff for the next show to have time to leisurely stroll the aisles of handmade goodies. Or even have any money to buy the truckloads of carefully crafted pretties we covet.

But today my sweet husband loaded me into the car and took me straight to ArtBeat in Davis Square, Somerville, MA. The clouds had dissipated and left us with a perfect hot, muggy summer's day, I was thrilled!


I had seen on Twitter that a long-time Flickr friend and fellow Etsy seller, heatherjeany, would be there so we scanned all the booths until we found her! I was trying to take her picture all stealth-like when she made me and a big smile broke over her face :)


I got a sweet hug and we got to chat for just a minute. I didn't want to block her booth, though Dell was shopping the whole while and we picked up some sweet swag.


I had seen the bookmarks recently on her Flickr page so I knew I needed some of those, and a few cards for sure.

Dell and I got street vendor food (I cannot resist meat on a stick and he likewise cannot pass by a fresh grilled hot dog) and then we wandered a little more watching the eclectic crowd.

Now it is cocktail hour, my very first mojitos are prepared and the red beans and rice is heating on the stove...happy summer!

Virtual Studio Tour

Videos of my overstuffed studio taken at the most recent Open Studios on July 4th at Western Avenue Studios, Lowell, MA. We have Open Studios the first Saturday of every month!