Recent evolving artwork

My head is always filled with a million ideas that I want to try out and they are generally quite diverse! And so my artwork evolves at quite a rapid pace! Here are some recent works! Anyone interested in acquiring a unique piece for themselves or as a gift for someone special!

Creative workshops 1 and 2.

So I have been quite busy this year and the reason is that I have decided to step out of my comfort zone and engage a bit more with the outside world. I have been meaning to do so since a while but have just been procrastinating! But I am glad that I finally took some steps to change the status quo! In a span of few weeks, I have conducted four creative workshops! In fact two of them on the same day! Each one took a lot of preparation but in the end I am satisfied that they all went off quite well!

The first two were on a Saturday. In the morning I had my daughters birthday party. She had invited 12 girl friends. We had a puppy dog theme as my daughter loves all animals but dogs are her favourite! So besides the puppy dog cake and doggy hot dogs, we also had a dog themed craft! The girls had to collect pebbles from a nearby beach and create dogs on canvas boards. I was really amazed at how creative the children were and how well they did within an hour! Here are some (not all) of their creations!

And here is the birthday cake :)

Birthday Cake number two for the school!

We also had one girl for a sleepover on Friday and two girls for a sleepover on Saturday after the party but that worked out quite well in the end as they kept themselves busy leaving me time to prepare for other things!

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In the evening I conducted a crafts workshop for the ladies at our church. I had been preparing since weeks for this workshop. We had advertised a maximum of 40 places and I prepared 60 MDF pieces with picture hangers, collected driftwood and pebbles and bought all the material (paint, glue, brushes, glass jars etc.). 

The idea was for the ladies to come and to enjoy a lovely fun-filled evening with canapés, wine and crafts! Initially I was a bit nervous as I have never conducted a workshop of this size but in the end everyone enjoyed themselves thoroughly and so I was pleased that my hard work was worth it! The ladies were no different to the children when it came to making the crafts. Some of them created some seriously good pieces of art!

Here are a couple of photos from the workshop:

I will write about creative workshop 3 and 4 in the next blog post. Till then good bye!

UpMarket Markets event!

I must begin with a word of apology as this post is long overdue since the UMM event took place in March and now it is June but I will start off at where I left my last post for the sake of continuity!

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A bit more on the preparations for the UMM in case anyone is wondering about the previous blog post in which I was still wondering about how to transport my art work.

I made a couple of display easels, one large and a smaller one for table top display. I also made a display board,  an MDF board with nails for hanging my artwork. The display turned out to be a life saver in the end because at the venue I found myself without a backing wall (which I had requested in my application) to hang my artwork!

I also converted a couple of  rectangular cardboard boxes into a carry cases. I sectioned them in a way that my artwork could be vertically stacked. This was important because of the limited boot space and this solution worked like a charm!

Large Display Easel

Cardboard box for vertical stacking

Finally a couple of pictures of my table at the UMM. This was the first time I took part in a proper market and it was great fun to meet fellow artists and make new friendships. I got a good response and sold reasonably well! I did loose out some sales due to the lack of a credit card acceptance machine which was sad but overall it was a great experience!

Preparing to sell in an artisanal market event!

Since the past few weeks I have been busy creating items for an artisanal market event - Up Market Markets due to take place on March 19 and 20 at Divonne. Have a look at the bottom of this post for photos of my creations if you are in a hurry!

This is the first time I will be participating in a 'proper' crafter's market and I am not quite sure what to expect! In preparation I have been reading blogs and viewing videos of other seasoned crafters to get some tips! Here is what I am doing differently to what I normally do:

1. Making smaller home decor pieces.
Usually my wall art pieces are quite large and so they take more time and effort. This drives up the price for a potential buyer. Also from a customer's point of view, smaller pieces are easier to transport and display if one has limited wall space.

2. Making pieces with uniform sizes and background.
Most of my newer pieces are 23 cm square and have a black or white back ground. Of course the artwork on each is different. In case your are wondering why 23cm? Its the smallest size Jumbo would cut for me :). The black or white background is just my personal choice at the moment!

3. Planning to create a simple stand to display wall art during the event.
All exhibitors will be provided tables 200 cm x 70 cm and a chair which is not a lot for an exhibitor like me. My pieces have to be displayed side by side and can't be stacked over each other like for an exhibitor selling clothes. They are relatively large in comparison to others too. Also they show well when displayed vertically. So I have decided to build a simple stand and board with a white background to display my artwork. The challenge will be to make it no bigger than the car boot and it would have to be foldable. I have something like an easel with horizontal bars running across in mind.

4. Transporting my pieces to the venue and back.
This one is challenging me no end! I have still to come up with a solution! How do I transport my pieces without them touching each other as the artwork can be quite delicate! I have to think up a solution of somehow transporting them without stacking them one over the other. Making more than one trip is not an option either as the venue is an hour's drive away from where I live.

5. The challenge of selling.
Since the event is in Divonne, France I would need to carry Euros and Swiss Francs for cash paying customers. However I will loose sales if the customer would like to pay using credit cards as I dont't have that option. So keeping my fingers crossed!

I am sure I am still missing a lot here and will think of other things I need to prepare such as packing material etc. Hopefully I would have thought through the important things BEFORE the event!

Here are some of the items I have created specifically for the market. What do you think?

Hazel

Pebble and Pearl earrings!

I am very excited with the Pebble and Fresh Water pearl earrings that I have created this morning! I wanted to create something very simple and after a few tries I have been able to create a pair which is elegant and made with a single wire.

Without further ado, here is the process:

Material:

- 2 Top drilled pebbles
- 2 Fresh water pearls
- 2 Eye pins

Tools:

- Round nose pliers (did not need the flat nose pliers pictured below)
- Ruler
- Sharpie
- A chopstick or round pencil

Instructions:

1. Thread the wire through the back of the pebble (eye should be at the back and horizontal).

2. With your thumb press the wire at 90 deg from the front of the pebble and then further following the curve till the top. Take care not to go over the top!

3. String the pearl through the wire. It should now sit right on top of the pebble.

4. Measure and mark the wire at 2 cm from the top of the pearl with the sharpie.

5. Place the round nose pliers just below the 2 cm mark (closer to the pearl) and bend it at 45 deg behind the earring. Then place the chopstick in the bend and further bend it into the shape of an earring finding. The earring can now be locked with the eye loop.

 6. Make the other earrings following instructions 1 to 5:

And voila here are the final earrings, ready to wear!

First exhibition!

Today was the last day of the exhibition of works by local artists in my village in which I took part! There were 23 artists, each one showing a maximum of 4 pieces. This was my first experience of showing my work in a gallery setting and I totally enjoyed it! I even managed to sell one of them, the Couple Shadow Box!

Here are some photos taken at the gallery.

Flyer of the exhibition.

Me, outside the gallery.

I choose to show the following four items:

1. Driftwood Mirror 60 x 60 cm

2. Table Lamp using Ikea Hemma Lamp Base

3. Driftwood and Pebbles - Couple in Ikea Shadow Box 23 x 23 cm

4. Blue Beach Pottery Heart on 30 x 30 cm canvas

All the participating artists. I am 4th from right!

Now with one exhibition under my belt, I feel ready to conquer the world :)

Hazel

DIY Driftwood Floor Lamp

One of the first posts that inspired me to make anything driftwood was from Maya of Completely Coastal. She made a beautiful floor lamp and also a tutorial here. After many months of procrastination I have finally made my own version!

I used three driftwood sticks for my floor lamp. I drilled holes and then gently hammered the nails to make a tripod. Whilst the tripod was steady on its own, I did trim the legs off a bit.

Then I did the electrical bit after drilling a hole near the top of one of the sticks and then passing the wire through it, similar to Maya's lamp. The only difference is that I have different sockets and parts for the wiring as that is what is used in Switzerland.

I bought a 45 cm dia. Beige Jara shade from Ikea.

I used a transparent wire to make it less obvious.

Here are some photos of the lamp!

Another tick on my 'to do' list of projects! Very pleased with the floor lamp :).

Hazel