Find a friend!

I was recently in Chicago (more on that later!) to meet up with some awesome like-minded folks that I met over in the Phat Quarter on Flickr. Shannon and I were the only non-locals who showed up, except Mr X Stitch himself who winged it all the way from the UK! While we were there, everyone kept asking "why don't we do this more often?" and it made me think about the stitchers in my area, mainly the fact that I don't know who or where they are!

SO! I have created a Google Map that anyone can contribute to. If you'd be interested in finding some local folks, check the map! Now you've got a one-click resource for local recommendations, meet-ups and more!

Update: I previously forgot to mention that in order to add yourself, you need to log into Google, using your Gmail address. If you don't have one/don't want one, I am happy to add you. Just tell me who and where you are!


View Stitchers! in a larger map

This is Handmade

Penny Nickels had an idea. Let's show people what goes into the crafts that we make. Not as a tutorial or how-to, in fact let's show what it's REALLY like. Which is to say: boring.

As Penny says:

Have you ever spent 40 hours on a project, only to be offered 20 dollars for all of your hard work?

I think it's because most buyers don't understand how long it takes to make stuff. I think it's because buyers think what we do is "fun", so somehow, we haven't earned a fair hourly wage.

She created a new blog, This is Handmade, where various artisans are sharing 5 minute videos of the work as it is created. This week, I filmed myself and submitted the video. The point is to show the work. It's not fun, necessarily. It's tedious. It's slow work. I don't expect that ANYONE will ever watch the video start to finish, and why should they? There's no big reveal at the end. It may come as a surprise, but I can't complete a project in 5 minutes. I doubt anyone can. And if you base art on a standard wage - say $10 an hour - it can be a little discouraging when a project takes 4 or 5 or 10 or 100 hours and someone only wants to pay you $20.

To be fair, I price my own craft work to sell. My etsy listings reflect what I think is fair for the particular item. And, honestly, it's all underpriced. Regardless of your opinion of my talent or abilities, everything takes time. And materials. And there is a real output of cost on my end that I don't compensate myself for, which is my own choice. However, I still wanted to make a video - to demonstrate why I can't discount the items that I sell. Why I decline requests for custom work at a discounted rate. And why everyone should appreciate - just a little - the technical abilities, skill, talent, and creativity that goes into handmade art.

-gg

Block Party craft fair

Last weekend was the Block Party craft fair hosted by the Handmade Brigade of Orange County. It was a fun show - lots of vendors and oodles of neat-o stuff! It was a fun crowd and I sent a lot of my crafties home with other people, which is always satisfying. It was busy enough that I totally forgot to take pictures! Luckily, Kate took some!


I am apparently doing a jig!

I do have to mention that Kate and Miss Bliss (and Ryan too) are owed a deep debt of gratitude for coming out and keeping me company. As per usual, I stayed up all night the evening before so I was operating on about 3 hours of sleep so I was pretty loopy! When I'm tired, I vascillate between ridiculous amounts of giddiness and staring into space. I am a very lucky girlie that my friends came out to keep me entertained (and awake!) plus, we got to eat from the Kogi truck!

THANK YOU to everyone who came out to the show and supported all the handmade vendors!

I'll be listing more goodies in my shop soon - if there's anything you're looking for that isn't listed yet, feel free to email me!

Block Party July 10th

p.s. I super love this image
On Saturday, July 10th I'll be exhibiting at the Handmade Brigade of Orange County's BLOCK PARTY indie craft show. I hope you'll be there too!

What's in it for you:

• NO admission fee!
• more than 70 vendors for your shopping pleasure!
• Kogi BBQ truck! You know you've been wanting to try it - no need to track it on Twitter, they'll be there!
• the mobile cupcakery Oh, For Sweet's Sake will be there!
• lots of freebies!
• I will be there! Heck yeah! You can come see me in my very own little booth!!

wedding cake toppers

I was recently asked if I made wedding cake toppers out of my peg people. I haven't yet, so I wanted to test out painting a bridal party - just to make sure I've got the Right Stuff. What do you think? Be honest!

I used my sister's recent wedding as the jumping-off point for the attire. Her dress had tone-on-tone embroidery that had small crystal beads stitched into the design, which I replicated by doing a tone-on-tone painted detail and then touched up with irridescent glitter paint for sparkle. Her veil was shoulder-length and was dotted with rhinestone jewels, which I have also included on my tiny bride's veil.























The bridesmaids wore pink sashes that also had an embroidery and crystal detail on them, along with rhinestone barrettes -- I used the same glitter paint on the barrette.










. : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : .Interested in owning a piece like this? Check out my Etsy shopor email me for a custom order!. : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : . _ . : * ~ * : .

Phoenix Comicon!

Last week was bonkers. I spent the first half of the week traveling for business and was in Minnesota and didn't have a chance to get home before the Phoenix Comicon, which meant the burden of not forgetting anything and also getting to the show on time was laid heavy on the shoulders of Ryan and Adam. Ahem.

I flew to Phoenix and arrived with only my dirty laundry and worried that the guys wouldn't show up or get hopelessly lost in the desert. Eventually, the boys DID arrive with all of my stuff (and by "arrive" I mean they roared up in a Volvo c70 convertible, sunburned all to heck) and we set up quick. I snapped a couple of pictures and then totally forgot that I'd dragged a camera all over the place and only took 2 more pictures the whole weekend. C'est la vie!

I decided to only display one example of the peg people on the table -- all the duplicates were under the table. To me, it looks kind of sparse, but there's still quite a lot going on here.

New Star Wars inspired peg people


And Ghostbusters!



Plus, the staff of Sterling Cooper


Santa and his cohorts


Plus the usual arsenal of heroes and villians.


The second story of the house was for animated/cartoony folks...


Including the Futurama set, which was my first attempt at painting these characters and they proved quite popular. Everyone loves Dr. Zoidberg! Hooray!

Thanks to the good citizens of the Phoenix area, a LOT of these peg people went home with someone else. Which is always my goal, obviously, but it made me feel REALLY good to see how some of these goofy little goodies made someone smile.

I have a new theory that there is a single detail on each one that "sells" people on it. I could watch people look them over and smile and think "that's funny" or whatever and then their eyes would go big and they'd squee over a detail -- the Jawa's yellow eyes or the Ghostbusters' ghost traps or the vampire's little teeth -- and that would be when they'd get a giant smile on their face. I love that look! That look is enough to make me want to paint forever and ever...

Special thanks to the little boy with the missing front tooth who had that magical Disneyland look on his face. YOU MADE MY YEAR.

p.s. my etsy shop has re-opened!

Thank you to the good people of Phoenix!

The Phoenix Comic Con was extra super fun and I had a wonderful time! And all because of YOU! Such fun people, such fun costumes! And thank you to everyone who gave one of my silly little peg people a new home!