New Designs!

For those of you who missed "the big reveal" at my latest craft show, without further ado, here are three of the earring styles I recently added to my Metal Shop collection on Etsy:


These might seem like kind of a departure for me, but if I really think about it, this is probably a lot closer to my own aesthetic. I mean, I would (& often do!) personally wear all of my designs, but I feel like if I walked into a store and spotted these, I would covet them. My embroidered pieces are always the show-stoppers, but these little guys sure gave them a run for their money at my last craft show event! I wonder what would happen if I expanded this line...

Another Craft Show's a-Comin'!

Ready, set, go!

Here I am, already gearing up for another craft show this coming Saturday:

4th Street Art & Music Fest
371 4th Street, Jersey City
Saturday, October 1st, 2011
12pm - 8pm
(Part of JC Artists' Studio Tour)

My last craft show was a success! And by "success," I mean I not only made my table fee back, but I actually pulled a profit, which is always a bonus for me.

Truth be told, I never really do very well at these things, so after having done enough of them, my expectations are pretty realistic (i.e. low.)

Although it's been a while since I've had a "zero sales" show, you just never know. I can really only hope that those days are behind me. Consider it experience gained if you're able to, but I've been known to go home crying after a show on more than one occasion... Craft shows are just really exhausting - physically and mentally. They're definitely not for the faint of heart! But if you can manage to enjoy yourself while doing them, that's really the key. That's something I have yet to truly master, but I think I'm getting closer...

Fingers crossed for nice weather!!!

Craft Show News!

Hey guys! Guess what?! I'll be in a craft show in Downtown Jersey City this Saturday! It's my first in a while, but I'll have a few new things with me so I'm really excited to see how people respond to them!

Here's all the info:



Hope to see some of you there!

♥
Johanna

I Dedicate this Post to Unicorns

Sept 5th, 2011, 6:30 pm

I’m currently sitting in the laundromat. It’s Labor Day, but I’m not feeling very festive. The majority of the day was spent cleaning out the basement with my husband, thanks to Hurricane Irene. We both lost quite a few of the items we had in storage down there, but all-in-all, the losses were mostly minor and their primary value was nostalgic. We won’t find out for another week or so if our washing machine was lost, though -- thus my less-than-nostalgic trip to the laundromat; it’s currently “on the fritz” from all of the flooding, but hopefully we can fix it.

I think this photo of my husband Brad taken in the midst of the clean-up just about says it all:



But Brad always puts on a brave face:



Fortunately these gems miraculously survived the floods, special thanks to Brad's encouraging me to try to rescue and salvage what I could from my flooded sticker books. I guess I'd forgotten how much I really loved unicorns...


This one wasn't so lucky, though; it came pouring out of the bucket into our utility sink, all dented and adhesive-less, along with all of that lovely brown basement floor clean-up water...


Rest in peace sweet, little unicorn sticker, and know that your duties serving this formerly 8 year old girl were well-fulfilled with flying (iridescent) colors.

♥
Johanna

Neat, sweet... petite.

I recently sketched out a series of earrings that incorporated tiny mixed metal geo shapes that would be hand-cut and patinated.

The shapes were more challenging to cut out than I'd anticipated -- only because of their size; once you have the tiny piece separated from the full sheet, that last side to trim is a doozy because you have almost nothing left to grip while you cut.


I'm really excited to see how these turn out because the last mixed metal earrings I listed in my Etsy shop have the highest hearts-per-views ratio in my entire shop! Who knew?...

In other news, our neighbors' daughter gave us a kitten... or rather, threatened to leave it outside if we didn't take it because her parents wouldn't let her bring it in:


Yes, she is ridiculously adorable... I know. We just couldn't keep her, though. With our two indoor cats + dog + 3 outdoor feral cats, it's too much. And she's just so tiny, she's not even fully weaned yet. Our dog walker Lara from Dog Day Afternoon was on her way to bring her in to the Humane Society for us, but fell in love with the kitten and decided to foster her instead. What a saint! Lara named the kitten "Joey" -- how cute is that?!