The Handmade Arts Show

I'll be there - along with 30 other local Seattle artisans selling our wares. Oh, on Sunday 10/12 from 10-4 that is!

If yo uare in the Seattle area, it is worth checking out. The 1st 50 people through the door get swag bags from the vendors. There will be a backe sale benifiting VSA of WA. And of course shopping, lots of shopping.

For a sneak peak at the vendors who will be there, click here

St. Edwards State Park is in Kenmore, WA (aka Juanita / Kirkland). It is a great state park, in the Seattle metropolitan area (yea, you don't even have to drive 60 miles looking at nothing but trees to get there). We will be in the historical Seminary Building which was just renovated. For directions and/or more details about the park click here. AND, when you are done shopping, you can go for a hike on one of the trails in the park, or play on the awesome playground!

Oh, and just as a disclaimer - Norm will be there but only as greeting cards. Heidi will also be selling reclaimed cashmere scarves & hats.

IF: Enough

A girl can never have enough ... retail therapy!

IF: Fog

This is from a new series that I am working on for a solo show coming up in January 2009 at Muse Coffee on Queen Anne in Seattle. The whole series (as I see it right now) is going to be shades of grey with just a bit of red.

The series reminds me a lot of FOG - you never know what's really out there, it could be good, it could be bad, and it could be great. The point is it's out there, no matter what it is.

Norm at the Mill Creek Festival and Street Fair

this post will stay at the top until July 11th - all new posts appear below.

Talk about leaps...

So I finally did it - I took the leap and hired a rep to help me with wholesale and other sales. Bonnie at Lady Nin seemed to be a great fit. It was a lot like finding a nanny for my baby. I was a little skeptical about letting just anyone spend time with Norm, but Bonnie is great. She bonded with Norm right away. She understood his personality and was able to deal with all of his "quirks" right off tht bat.

Bonnie sells artwork from many Northwest artists - you should check out her website. I am honored to be in such company.

click here to go to Lady Nin's Art Festival

Swimmy, Etsy, and a lot of orange fish

So, Etsy's founder, Rob read the story of Swimmy by Leo Leoni to describe what Etsy is all about. It's actually a wonderful children's story about how 1 little (black) fish with a "vision" helped all the other little (orange) fish band together to scare off the big bully fish (i.e. black fish = etsy, orange fish = small entrepeneurs, big fish = corporations). Anyway, EtsyRain, the Seattle Team of Etsy sellers is banding together and creating a bunch of orange fish to send to Rob for a diorama. This is my contribution.

$10 and Top Ten Toys in Greenwood...

So here's what happens when you give a girl a $10 and send her into a toy store. I came home with Sea Monkeys (the last one passed away last September, so it's time to hatch some new ones - but more on that later) and Shrinky Dinks! Who woulda thought that these could be so fun. You draw your design on the plastic (these started off 4" tall), pop it in the oven, and out it comes in under 2 min. at half the size (they ended up 2" tall). Can you say promo material?

Norm Nesting Dolls?

So it seemed a natural fit, once I looked at the silhouette of Norm and the silhouette of the nesting dolls. I found out it's really difficult translating something I see as 2D into a 3D object. For example, in my mind, Norm has a front and a back - but I have no idea what his sides look like... not to mention, I had to follow someone else's template for a shape (I think his shoes are a little skimpy, I would prefer my boy to wear sensible shoes).

All in all I am happy with the way the first "Team Norm" turned out. I learned a lot on the prototype - like sealing the wood 1st makes more work (go figure) and tube acrylics are more transparent than those little plastic bottles. So, the next Team will go much faster, with fewer problems, and hopefully turn-out exactly as I originally visualized (one can always dream)! There are more photos on my FlickR page

buddies in Rhode Island

so we (as in EtsyRain, the Seattle group of Etsy sellers) teamed up with Rhode Island Arts Street team to help promote each other. Funny that we are at the far reaches of the continent - you don't get much further east or west - and yet we are all very similar in our talent for creating new and wonderful treasures! Here are a few artists that caught my eye (it's kinda making me want to go to RI to one of their craft fairs...)

electronrings makes wonrderful felted goodies including rings, lariats, and this bellydancing belt!

spiderbite makes that rockin' cool journals -

julibcreative painted these wonderful "lollipop" trees - I LOVE lollipop trees. My art teacher in the 3rd grade was so impressed by my ability to draw trees with the V branches that she told me only little kids drew lollipop trees. Well here's to all the little kids at heart! (you'll note that I've reverted back to my little kidness too!)

and lastly, but definitely not leastly, a woman who takes skelton keys (another thing near and dear to my heart) and creates beautiful glass beads right onto the key! How cool is that? Oh her shop name is The Venerable Bead

Moo Mini Cards part deux!

They just arrived, the 1st re-order... gotta love these little business cards!

NorM?

I think this is too funny. Being both a huge Agatha Christie fan and being "Norm" - a friend picked this up for me at a garage sale. I can see a whole "Norm" collection starting...

Ok, and one confession - this isn't the exact cover that I received. The story takes place in WWII Europe and revolves around Tommy & Tuppence chasing a couple of German spies. Let's just say I like this cover better. There's a different cover pictured in my FLICKR account.

Linoleum Block Prints

So, I've been tossing around the idea of doing lino block prints of Norm. This is one of the 1st that I've done. I'm enojoying the process and the freshness of the outcome. Granted, I still have a lot to learn.

And learn I shall. I am embarking on a project to do an ABC book in lino block prints done by Kindergarteners. They will draw the designs - 1 block for each letter. A team of 4 parents will cut the blocks, then the kids will help us print the accordion style book. It should be fun, but I never imagined how much planning goes into something like this. For example, how to do you explain positive/negative to a 5 year old? Or try to get a "scribbler" to draw big enough shapes that an adult can interpret into an easy to carve block - granted you can do fine detail on lino blocks, but when there are 26 to cut...

Fingers crossed, all will go smoothly with the book and I will pick up a few tips & tricks. Then I can embark on my own book adventure.

IF: Tales and Legends

So what if Little Red Riding Hood & the Wolf were one in the same?

IF: Backwards

Shouldn't I be looking at you, instead of you looking at me? It all seems a bit backwards...

IF: somewhere in the world...

as the sun is just coming up from the horizon, there is a very small egg ready to hatch - and a little boy named Norm is born...

I'm in the Holiday Sampler

Woo - hoo! If you love grab bag ideas as much as I do, you'll love this! The Sampler is a sampling of samples and materials sent in each month by independent crafters, artists, shops, zines and record labels who run web-based businesses. You get a sneak peak of what might be in the "box" by checking out their website: The Sampler.

I contributed 100 signed & numbered limited edition ACEO's (these are a limited run of 100 and I contributed the whole set to The Sampler - so if you want one, you gotta buy a Sampler). Woo-hoo - it's tons of fun. I'm going to contribute to the next Sampler also as a group with other EtsyRain artists.

Norm and the Grinch

I will be at All For Kids Books at 2900 NE Blakely St. (1 block behind University Village) in Seattle on Sunday, Nov. 18th from noon-5.

There will be an art sale as well as a celebration for the Grinch's 50th Birthday! Imagine that, Norm gets to meet the Grinch. How cool is that?

Have you ever sat and wondered

If the world was just created to give you something to look at? Sit on a park bench and just obseve. Why is it all there? Why is everything else happening? If you stop, but the world keeps turning - is it for a reason, or just to keep your attention. What if you stopped looking - would the world stop turning? Compare & contrast - and get back to me later....

Trunkt $500 Shopping Spree

When I was little, my brother and I would make up Christmas Lists every Dec. and put them in our stockings for St. Nick to deliver to Santa Claus (being German, St. Nick filled our stockings on Dec. 6th and Santa delivered presents on Dec. 24th - 2 separate guys). The "funnest" way to do this, was to get out the Sears Wishbook [aka catalog] and cut the pictures of the toys we wanted out. I put the handcrank snow cone maker on every year, but didn't get one until I was 25 when my brother took pity on me.

Trunkt.org - The Buyer's Guide to Independent Art + Design is running a $500 Shopping Spree Sweepstakes - how fun would that be, to have $500 to spend on really cool art, clothing, housewares,... stuff that you won't find at your average dept. store!

Anyway, all you have to do is sign-up for a "Wishlist" and add 21 products to it. It's totally free and fun to do (all you have to do is cruise around and look at different artist's portfolios, then click on the "add to wishlist" link under the picture of the item you like) - it's like getting out the Sears catalog (only 100 times better).

And - as an added bonus - ArtByNorm has a portfolio on Trunkt that you can pick from too!

Here is the link to the Wishlist Shopping Spree

BLOG Action Day

What would happen if every blog published posts discussing the same issue, on the same day? One issue. One day. Thousands of voices. Today, Oct. 15th is Blog Action Day. Here's the link...

The issue is upcycling and/or recycling. Kind of hard to apply this to original painting, but here goes my [almost] funny story:

A friend [who is a painter] used a scrap of gessoed canvas from one of his finished paintings to wrap a Birthday present for another friend [also a painter].

She in turned saved the scrap thinking one day it may be useful. The day came when I said I wanted to experiment with different types of canvas for my paintings.

And thus, meet Norm in "Desert" - you can still see the folds from the "gift wrap" days - I didn't bother to iron 'em out because I thought it added character.