Little Umbrella

I made this little guy a couple of weeks ago whilst working the French Market in New Orleans. It was pouring and I found an umbrella made of paper to be hilarious.

Super Modern Quilling?

Alright.  Enough is enough and it is time to start updating this blog on a more frequent basis.  A lot is happening in my world of quilling.  Tons of new and exciting business.  I want to share it with you.  I want to find my paper peeps.  I know you must be out there.  I can not be the only contemporary quiller around.  I want us to rise up.  Revolt and unite against the ones who believe this craft is only for those ladies who are fond of mom jeans and have 13 cats.  Let's put down the fringers and show the world that there is more to this art than goofy little thank you cards with cute bugs and flowers on them.  I want to be inspired!  I want to inspire!

Okay, I am stepping down of the box now...  So, here is what's going on with all my goods:
- I am still periodically working on my large quilled mosaics but have added an exciting new venture of paper earrings.  I began making them for myself, but people kind of went bonkers over them and I decided to share the love.  I have many a pair up on my Etsy site and I will also be posting them on here.  I have sold out of many styles, but want to put up a gallery for anyone who'd like to see some different versions than what I have on Etsy.
- I have also secured a deal with my Employer and will begin selling my items at the lovely salon I work for as well.  That will begin in less than two weeks time.
-I have been also making and selling of another kind of quilled jewelry with meaning behind it called Intention jewelry.  I have great plans for it but will go on more about that later.  There are a few items on my Etsy site if you cannot wait for the details.
- I have been asked to compete in a contest and perhaps be featured in an upcoming book.
- I am in the process of creating a few pdf patterns of some of my more popular jewelry pieces.  They should be for sale soon.
-I would also like to begin selling quilling supplies on my site
-Thinking about writing a book and perhaps bringing this beautiful craft back from the dead?

More to come!  Happy New Year!

Small Works sale...

Come on out to the Small Works exhibit and sale at the Dennos museum in beautiful Traverse City, Michigan this week.  The show opens Thursday May 19th at 6:00 pm with a small reception and continues on into the weekend.  The museum is also featuring the Human Body exhibit which is amazing.  Two birds, one stone.  I have contributed six small works to this fun little show - four that are featured on my site and two others.  All at lesser cost than normal... Say whah?  All works at the show must be priced at $50 or less - get them while they last as it is all first come first served.  The fam and I are going to be there opening night in hopes of snagging a few new goodies myself!

Back from the sunshine state.

Ohthankgodwereback.  Nine days away in the land of Disney has proven too much for this soured soul to bear.  All the cheer, all the happiness... all the over tired and shrieking children.  What I'm sayin' is I am glad to be home.  I am also glad because I have a few more days off before I have to head back to work.  I plan on spending a bit of time quilling in the evenings if I can manage to be at least semi productive during the days.  Today I need to clean my mosh pit of a house.  We left it in terrible shape.  I cannot work creatively if my surroundings are horrid.  We also have no food in the house, so I guess I need to do that too.  Then there is also the matter of attending to the kids since they are still on spring break... I'll get to quilling though - no really, I will.

I have some exciting stuff coming up and I cannot wait to report how it all goes.  I have a couple of casual meetings with some local galleries and couple of local art shows that I am pondering - so we shall see how that all unfolds over the next few weeks.

I will update more later when I have had more than 3 hours of sleep..............

A few updates and new beginnings.

The above is a very small picture of the girl and myself that I just completed for a competition that is being held in Canada.  It needs to be sent out this week.  I am still undecided if I want to send another work as well.  I probably should since you are allowed 2 entries for one registration price.  The picture measures just 3X4.  I have never done a competition before and must say I am super scared.  At least I do not need to be present, so if my work does not cut it, I do not have to hear it...  They reserve the right to sell the works as well and that would be nice.  It was interesting doing such a small piece.  I based this painting off another painting of larger size that I have done of Marnie and I but have not yet began to quill.  Way more challenging in the smaller size I assume.  I have been procrastinating sending it off because I need to include a portfolio and I have none.  I have never done anything nor sold anything, so I am unsure of what to include.  I guess I will have to figure it out however since it has to be sent out by the end of the month.  Due to our vacation in Disney that begins next week - I will need to have it sent out by next Wednesday.

Since I have made the decision to attempt to make a little money off my work and prove to myself and my family that all the time I spend rolling paper is worth it - I have been reading article after article about how to make money off art.  The general idea is that you need to sell prints.  This sounds great to me since often time a picture can take me 100 hours or more to complete.  It would be nice to have something to sell while I create new works.  It is pretty pricey to get prints made, so for my first time out I have decided to appeal more to my local demographic.  Traverse City is known as the Cherry Capitiol of the world and we get thousands of tourists each year for various events.  I painted this silly little thing as my base and will see what comes from it.  I always get a bit frustrated when I first paint something since I am really quite bad at it.  I do not know why it bothers me so much since I am just going to cover it up anyhow and my finished work will barely even resemble what is underneath.  It still ticks me off though.  Probably because I have to look at it for so long before it is complete.  Blah.

Here is another base I have painted and just begun to quill.  It may be a bit too much detail for the size paper I chose to quill to.  It will have to do though because I am running super low on materials.

I cannot tell you how excited I am to have an Etsy shop now.  It is nice to have my stuff out there in any capacity.  Unfortunately until I have some prints made, most of my stuff is is a little up there in price.  I want to be able to have a few less expensive items available at all times as well so I can reach more people.  I made up the little wind chime below and put it up on the site -   http://www.etsy.com/listing/69985545/quilled-paper-mobile-wind-chime?ref=pr_shop   There are quite a few more pictures there.  I am hoping it will do well.  I am going to make a few more in different color combos as well.  I have a few ideas for a few jewelry items I would like to sell as well.  I have too many ideas in my head to get everything out there.  

I need to get more organized and finish the few items that have deadlines first before finishing some of my pet projects.  We shall see how it all goes and I will keep you updated...

thinking, thinking, thinking.

I am overwhelmed with thoughts of where I want to be in a year's time.  I am positively at some kind of crossroad and wandering aimlessly around it.  I feel like there a lot of passions in my life and I need to narrow them down a bit.  I do many things but is any of it done as well as it should be?  No.  I am a mother, a wife, take care of a home, and artist and a worker.  I am also a person who likes to leave the house once in awhile  - this I almost never do with the exception of going to work.  So much to do and I feel as if I never get anything done.  Big plans are brewing and it is exciting to see where I will go.  There is much I cannot control, but I can be proactive.

My Etsy shop is set up and also linked to this site.  I think I linked it up to my facebook as well, but I am not quite sure about that.  Putting up any of my art of facebook makes me quite vomitus.  It is hard to show my stuff to strangers but way harder to show it to people I actually know.  I have never been one for criticism.  Little steps I suppose.

Work in progress...

16" X 20"

Some finished business.

9" X 17"

16" X 20"

8" X 10"

5" X 7"

5" X 7"

6" X 8"

4" X 6"

3" X 5"

3" X 5"

3" X 5"