Consolidating

I cannot run two shops, I have decided.  Recently I read a great article and took from it how important the act of editing your product line is.  This is almost a relief, because as wide ranging and plentiful my ideas and prototypes are, it's unrealistic to include everything in my stores.  As a result I realized that I need to streamline my online selling experience, edit my stock, and make some changes to my storefront.  Part of this includes choosing one store to represent my artistic efforts, not two or three to accomodate the multiple tangents my work seems to follow.

So I've started the process of closing my two existing shops and opening a new one.  This act ties into a whole slew of other personal growth and identity recognition activities I have engaged in recently.  My house has been reorganized, stripped of all the junk that clutters my self expression in my living space.  It feels... fantastic!

The new shop should be announced in early October.  October is the best month, it's my birthday month.

So big!

This is the cutest thing I ever made.  Got some great pics outside in the yard yesterday!

Yum, grass!  Nom Nom!  I guess we've been spending too much time with the horse.  Had a great time hanging out at the barn watching the farrier put shoes on the horse today.

Doorknob Allure

I am experiencing a growing obsession with antique doorknobs.  It's really difficult justifying wanting to collect them, especially since I splurged on nice ones when we moved into our house 4 years ago.  The real underlying and undeniable problem is that our actual doors are hideous and cheap.  I've spent the last few weeks while Mark has been out of town reflecting on what in this house is representative of me and what is just crap I've accumulated.  Turns out I have a lot of crap.  The doors are definitely NOT representative of me.

Now the questions is... do I paint the doors and throw some awesome antique doorknobs on them, paint them and leave the nice expensive doorknobs on them, or leave them crappy with nice doorknobs?  Here are a few that I found browsing on Etsy:

nikkimyers1127

VintageNewHampshire

TexasSkye

kizzyrayan123

Tiny Tuesday Promo

As many of you know the Plush Team has a Tiny Tuesday special every week.  A handful of artists post items for under $10 in the team shop.  How cool is that?  This is my day and I made these bitty bunnies.

And They're Off

Adieu my sweet little plushes!  Four fantastic beasties are currently all the way across the country at the Stuffed magazine offices in CA.  After putting the finishing touches on them and the requisite photo shoot off they went, crammed in a cardboard box and destined for greatness.  Hopefully my positive thinking and sending good thoughts to the Stampington staff will ensure their acceptance.  Here is a little peekaloo:

These guys will be available at Zefuzz as soon as I can get everything together to open the shop.  I knitted the scarf myself too!

On the downside I caught one of those stupid summer colds.  Bah.

Yay!

Lookie what came in the mail!  My earrings from tekaandzoe... they are just as awesome in person and they arrived in this charming little box with a grass bow.  I love getting pretty stuff in the mail.

Plush Team Virtual Book Tour

Rusty and Playboy are best friends. They spend oodles of time playing outside together and getting into mischief, as foxes do. On this particular day, however, it began to rain… and rain… and rain. The two little foxes high tailed it inside to look for something else to get into.

Maybe something tasty in the pantry… nope.

A conversation with Wilbur the crab… senseless, he’s all shell.

O won’t it stop raining outside.

“Hey Playboy, c’mere!” shouted Rusty from the living room “I found something totally awesome!”

They stuck their noses into the Plush Team Annual, their newly found prize that sat right out on the coffee table, and began perusing the plush. Totally enamored they ooh’d at all of the tentacled, tusked, antlered, and fanged plushies. They aah’d at the squishy soft, furry, and huggable softies. And they drooled a little at all of the plush food. Dinnertime came and the book got a little spaghetti sauce on it.

That night as they snuggled into their beds the two little foxes clutched the Plush Team Annual in their paws and dreamed of the happiest rainy day they ever had.

My process starts with lots of doodling, sketching, messing up (lots of messing up, it’s great!), and seeing future stuffed creatures in everyday shapes. As I assemble and sew I imagine who this little creature I am making is. What does it like? Is it nice, shy, grumpy, vicious? By imagining life and personality in these little guys I feel that I can capture some emotion in their eyes, their expressions, and their body positions. This makes them more than just the sum of their parts. Then I make up little stories about them like the one you just read. Sometimes even just a word or a curve spawns a whole new creation.

I joined the Plush Team just a little too late to have my own plush featured in the Annual. You will find Rusty and Playboy in ‘The People’ section though with my shop info. What a treat to get the book in my hot little hands and be able to read about such a fantastic and diverse group of plush artists! I highly recommend visiting the Plush Team Shop on Etsy and picking up a copy. While you’re there check out the Tiny Tuesday and holiday themed plush made by Plush Team members. There’s so much cool stuff in the shop and in the book, it’s kind of like a plush-gasm!

Tune in on Saturday for the next stop on the Plush Team Book Tour, Moon’s Creations!