Woolnimals

I have to resist the urge to rub my hands together and cackle "THEY WILL BE MINE - OOH HA HA HA HA," but I have reserved a post-craft-fair present for myself in one of my favorite Etsy shops - Song and Branch Studio ( http://www.songandbranch.etsy.com/ ). Karen is an amazing artist and I have a collection of animals from her that's well on its way to becoming a menagerie. I would have more if I could, but I've held back and have to be quite selective about what I buy. She makes amazing bowls, but with four (bad) cats, I have watched almost every piece of porcelain I've purchased get broken at one point or another - and I just can't do that to her work. When I was a little girl, my father would set out several peanut butter sandwiches on the garbage barrels on the back deck. We'd watch from the windows as a HUGE mama skunk and her babies came up and ate them. They got fat pretty quickly that year and grew up to be playful, plump critters. Mollifying them wi...

Well. After taking off Thursday and Friday of last week and needle felting the entire four days of my four-day weekend, my eyes are bugging out and my fingers hurt. I don't have a huge amount to show for it and realized that my expectations of having 200 pieces by the craft fair are pretty...um...unrealistic. Needle felting takes an incredible amount of time. I think I spent four hours putting curly manes on 8 lions. That's just the manes! The faces will take another few hours. I'm not complaining, just a little worried that I may not have enough inventory by May 8th to fill a table. Which is okay. It's all okay. No, really. This evening I'm going to focus on getting three creatures made. If I can make a Walrus, a Bunny, and a Giraffe, I'm good. Currently, I'm most excited about my Giraffes. I made the first one a couple of weeks ago, and I'm sending it to Michelle Palmer (see links), who has a daughter who is just smitten with all things cute. Making th...

I watched five movies in a row on Saturday, which was, by the way, one of the most beautiful days of the year so far, and needle felted. I am almost done with the ten lions I started last week. I'm adding the eyes and noses to ten mini koalas today and will start up a batch of rainbow acorns for the craft fair! My inventory list for the craft fair includes about 200 plumpies and mini plumpies. It's an unreasonable amount of work, but until it starts to feel like a burden, I'm keeping that amount as my target. The good thing about having that many plumpies is that if I don't sell them all, I'll have a good inventory for my Etsy shop in May. I can then start focusing on my more artistic sculptures and ventures into the wool world. I keep thinking that I should be photo-documenting this process, just for kicks, but I'm so busy I forget to take out the camera. I cleaned my studio yesterday and it looks very pretty, so now is my chance. :) Keep smiling!

I have a video that I watch on repeat of harbor seals at the Boston aquarium. I took it at the end of the day, after they spent hours swimming around and around and smiling and eating fish. They had hauled out onto the warm rocks and were stretching and relaxing. In the video you can hear me saying "he's just sleeeeepy." Today, I'm just sleeeeepy. I'm stretchy and want to cuddle back into my warm blankets. It doesn't help that it's pouring buckets and dreary outside, but I did sleep more this weekend than should be humanly possible and I'm STILL tired. I decided to put my etsy shop on hold until after the craft fair on May 8th. I'm going to keep the shop open and list custom items that I'm still (STILL) working on, but I won't be listing any new inventory. I had to choose between Etsy and the craft fair, but I can't manage the inventory for both. While I don't need as much for my Etsy shop, each listing does require photographs and ...

I'm so happy I could squeak! I've been accepted as a vendor to the Queen City Craft Bazaar on May 8th! It's at Union Station in Burlington and I will be selling an entire line of plumpies and mini plumpies! I have an unbelievable amount of work to do between now and then. Since it's a day before Mother's Day, I'm going to make a bunch of mom/baby sculptures. I'm also going to focus on some less expensive items because I know I tend to want a little something from everyone at craft fairs. I want to make my art accessible. I'm so excited! I could dance and sing!