Picture Perfect Display

I really lucked out this summer when I was walking by a house one day that was having a yard sale.  There was a shelf unit standing there that caught my eye and I had an idea what to do with it instantly.  It happened to be a great price and I was so excited with my find I didn't even mind carrying it all the way home.  The holes are spaces for photos and the shelves slide in between some slots which help to keep the unit together and standing straight.  I love how it comes apart so easily and can be packed down flat for storing or transporting in the car.

    

We spray painted the unit in a nice matt black and cut peg board to fit into the spaces.

We covered the shelves with some pieces of black ultrasuede fabric and attached a clip desk lamp to the center part of the top shelf.

We raised the unit up by standing it on a box which is also used for transporting and storing display pieces.  Turn the unit around and we have a wonderful free-standing display unit with attached lighting and all.

We made special tags to hang our pendant-style necklaces on the pegs with our studio info written on the back.

Solving a Cable Problem

I love the nylon coated steel cables for hanging pendants as they are very practical and show off the clay pieces instead of drawing attention to the cord.  They are available with a barrel screw type or magnetic clasp.  The magnetic are easier to use but there is a great risk in losing your piece and so that is why we prefer to use the screw type one.  We cover the clasp with clay in a matching color and of course add a slice of our signature cane.

Our first Christmas show is just around the corner (this Sunday) and the problem with these cable type necklaces is they are difficult to display.  After trying various ways we finally found a solution to our problem.

We bought this revolving rack sometime ago to hang our carded earrings and brooches.

We weren't really happy with that set up and in the meantime I was using it in our studio to organize some of stock.  We then came up with a plan to hide the ugly chrome bar in the middle and dress it up a bit more and voila!  A new revolving jewelry display that shows off the cable necklaces beautifully.

We created the center backdrop by covering a large tube (several stacked and duct-taped juice cans) with quilt batting and then some beautiful black faux suede fabric.  It easily slipped over the chrome bar and fits perfectly in between the surrounding four bars with clips.

I will show you more of our new displays we created throughout the week as we get ready for our show this Sunday.

Salmon Festival is Now Over

The Salmon Festival is now over and it was a extremely successful this year.  They had a count of more than 160,000 visitors over the three week period which is a lot of people for a town of a population of only 3000.

I want to thank Lynn Erin for the wonderful job she did of running the gift shop set up in the log cabin.  She was there every day, rain or shine, and worked tirelessly with always a cheerful smile.  Lynn has the Fireweed Art Studio in the area and this is an example of one of her gorgeous paintings:

Salmon Festival is Almost Over

These last three weeks seem to have been a blur and now this Sunday will be the final day to the end of the Salmon Festival.  We went out again this morning to add a few more salmon pieces to our display and hopefully there will be enough to last the weekend but if they sell out, that will be all right too!

I thought I would show you some more photos of the area since it wasn't too crowded with people this time.

One of the main focuses of the Salmon Festival is education and so every student from every school in the whole surrounding area comes to this event.  The other day we counted 11 school buses lined up and there were more arriving on a steady basis.

Another main attraction there was all the food.  There was everything from salmon burgers to salmon chowder with other types of goodies.  This booth shown here was extremely popular with their traditional native cuisine including delicious home made bannock.

The salmon society partners with First Nations People and this authentic TeePee was one of their displays.

Today was much quieter than other days but I know it will be busy again over the weekend.

New and Fun Textured Pieces

Remember the supplies I showed you the other day that I recently purchased?  One of them was a texture plate from Helen Breil Designs called the Conga Line.  I finally got around to trying it out and fell in love with it instantly!

Here are some new buttons I created using this new texture design.

  

  

Ever since I made my first custom order shawl pin, I've been wanting to make more but never seemed to find the time.  I finally created 2 new designs using this same wonderful texture plate.

  

I have more designs I'm working on but these are a start.

And of course I had to create some switch plate covers using the same color scheme.

More Salmon for the Festival

We left a nicely filled display in the gift shop at the Salmon Festival last week hoping there would be enough stock to last over the weekend.  But with over 100,000 people so far, we weren't surprised when we got a call Sunday morning to come out and refill our display again.  So I'm back to making up another batch of red and green salmon in pins, magnets, earrings, pendants, pens and switchplate covers.

This event has been so overwhelming, yet successful - but I really am ready to turn in my fishing license after it is over!  lol!

One thing this event has taught me is how to speed up my production time. Instead of creating individual clay pieces one at a time, I found myself working in batches of a dozen or so at a time.

This is a new salmon design I created by carving out a template from my own drawing and then stamping it into clay.  The pieces are then colored with gold mica powders and alcohol inks.

I also apply these fish pieces to other items like pens and switchplate covers.

Designer Pieces for Myself

I'm taking a break away from the salmon for a bit and hoping we put enough stock out the other day to last until the 24th of October.  If it doesn't, then I guess I will be back to making more which I don't mind at all.

One of the greatest perks of being a clay-jewelry artist is that I get to go shopping for new clothes and then make as many jewelry and accessory pieces for myself as I want that match so I can show them off!  I'm really into the matchy thing and so when I create a piece for myself I have to make a whole set that coordinates which usually includes a pendant or beaded necklace, earrings, watch bracelet and hair barrette.  I might even make matching buttons for a blouse or sweater.  I'm working on some new belt designs as well which I will show you later when they are finished.

Here are two sets I've completed over the last couple of months.   The pendant and earrings in this set were from my first attempt with using Helen Breil's Radiating Lines Tutorial.  When I created the texture sheet for this one I used a finding for the centre impression and then did the remaining part free-hand with my sculpting tool.  I had some rivioli crystals I purchased for these new designs and of course had to use a green one since it is my favorite color!

I have a rich velour jacket in a deep teal that sets everything off perfectly.  The beads on the watch bracelet are the double-sided textured in the Funky Swirl design combined with my own pearl rondelles in teal.

I used the Bezel part of the CaBezel moulds for the pendant and bracelet links in this set and then filled the centers with textured pieces accented with mica powders and Swarovski crystals.

As you can see,  I love working with all kinds of textures and mica powders and so both sets were made using these.  I usually use the new prototype designs I make for myself as a springboard for our pieces to sell and so I'm now working on some new sets for our Christmas shows that will be starting soon.  Will hopefully manage to have some pieces listed in our ArtFire studio as well.