Bohemian Mermaid Palace

Operation Clean Studio *Before* Tour: The Craft Room of Shame   My Craft Room of Shame - Studio Tour It can no longer be avoided. It’s time. Sigh. Time to clean up my studio room. Ugh. Right now it is the Craft Room of Shaaaame. It's so bad that I have just enough room to walk in a little ways, turn in a small circle, and walk back out of the room. Because it's just over the top messy and a little bit overwhelming to contemplate.  Video:  Operation Clean Studio *Before* Tour | The Craft Room of Shame Now it's out there for the world to see. I’m showing you this because well firstly we’re basically best friends at this point so I have nothing to hide. Heh. But mostly this is my plan to shame myself into getting this room sorted out.  Once I post this and like 100 ppl see it (ie the entire world), I will be embarrassed and publicly humiliated until I post the updates showing how great and organized it looks. I hate cleaning BUT... I am excited to know exact...

First Day!! Things I Learned Having My Own Studio Storefront   What fun! I think every creative maker has a dream of opening their own storefront. A little place where you can work on your craft, while welcoming customers to shop. 3 1/2 years ago I did just that and it was so exciting! This month, I am closing it. I've been sharing a lot with people recently about my time there, what I loved about it and what I learned. Retail vs Festival I think the biggest thing I learned was that the Retail Life is completely different from the Festival Life. Not only for me, but for my customers. Most obviou sly, the high energy festival booth vibe is comp letely opposite the sit in a store and wait vibe. I love the rhythm of doing festivals. I work really hard, engage thousands of people, make a lot of sales, all in a few days. Then I retreat the rest of the week either into the woods if I'm traveling, or into my studio to make more clothes. I don't really enjoy havin...

I was reading an article the other night about selling crafts wholesale. It assumed you would have plenty of orders, and asked basically 'Are you ready to do your craft constantly day in and day out to fill orders?' The production end of things can be tedious and possibly ware on a person over time... makes sense. For many crafts, the creative art part is a small percentage of time compared to the crafting of the item itself. You choose media and materials, sketch, design, maybe draw or paint elements of the final piece... the rest is molding, firing, sewing, beading, dyeing, (insert your craft here) and then finishing, packaging and the like. So I started thinking about the past week, up to my elbows in dye every day for hours. I'm doing 10 batches which is about 100 pieces. Oh it's repetitive alright... but not only don't I get bored, I actively enjoy it. I find the routine soothing, almost meditative. I listen to music, often dancing and singing. Or I listen...

   I've been having fun playing with some new print designs. In the past, I've had some color issues with printing on the Moss colored fabric. These prints I think look perfect on this background. I'm also combining these with my other designs for different effects...  I'll take more pics after I do some printing next week.  Currently, I'm preparing to head up to Gold Beach, OR for the Art, Wine & Music Festival next weekend. This will be my third year and I am really looking forward to it. Beach camping, nice people, high quality crafts... and I'll get to see my friends at Moose Creek Bath & Body , who have been carrying my clothing for the past year.  Super nice ladies! My man is considering joining me on his new motorcycle. Huh. If I knew it'd make him want to travel with me more, I'd have been on board long ago. Ha. For now, back to the dye tubs.

Oh I've been busy alright. You know it... First off, my studio is now clean and organized. Somehow it had devolved into a barely workable pile of junk. Then a completely unworkable pile. NOW a beauuuutiful and functional work space.Oh it makes me feel so good to be in there! During the cleanup, I came across these old test fabrics and teaching projects. My man put me on artistic orders one day, and it was weirdly just the push I needed. I so often forget to play and just enjoy art... it was great. I goofed around with some printing ideas. A granny square and a plastic doily.      Then I worked on making these little silk scarves I sell (or don't sell, very often) into pretty rose pins.  For my next trick, I'm going to play with this poor man's silk screening method... if you hit youtube, you'll find lots of tutorials. Woohoo! Ready to play!!