Hawthorne Hill Art Farm: Vintage Market, September 2014

I just did my first market at Hawthorne Hill Farm last weekend and I loved it! I'll be back for the October market (Harvest and Halloween) and November market (Decorate!), as well.

 The booth!

The view from my cash stand into Jenny's booth (she has some great vintage game items!)

Some of my vintage brooches and two 1950s pearl collars from Japan

 

One of my new pendant designs

My new buddy, Bertha Veenis (acquired from one of the other vendors) is checking out my hair clips to tame her tresses.

WisCon 2014

I can't believe that I didn't post this earlier! My Battleground sculpture that I had made for WisCon this year won an award at the con!

Pretty spiffy! Unfortunately, I wasn't there when the awards were announced, so I only found out about it when I came to pick up my work when art show was closing on Monday. It would have been nice to have been there.

Bay View Gallery Night, June 6th.

Despite it being  *cough* a few years since I’ve hung out in skater circles, I decided to take Brian from Bigfoot Bike and Skate up on his challenge for this year’s Bay View Gallery Night.  He had some brand new retro 80s style maple skate decks made for the event and asked local artists to decorate them (to be sold to be used as functional boards) in their best 80’s graphic style. Since it wasn’t initially specified that he meant NINETEEN 80’s style…Brian agreed that sure…he’d also accept EIGHTEEN 80’s style, thus opening up the possibility for steampunkery and the like.

  As for me, I couldn’t decide whether to create a homage to late 19^th century imagery or late 20^th century, so I made a bit of a mashup of both esthetics…

 Back in the day, every skatepunk I knew covered their deck with dozens of stickers (of bands…gear and wear…ads…random graphics…beer labels…hazard signs peeled off of other things…et al), often topped off or layered with stenciled spray paint. Considering my fascination with Victorian mourning practices, I decided to apply this concept to the morbid trends of the 1880s. Hence…we have images of funeral cards, mortuary logos, ads for mourning wear, sheet music for popular funeral tunes, and the like, cleaned up digitally before being hand aged and collaged onto the board.  As a further nod to 1980’s skate culture, I cut a skull image to stencil over the clippings. 

Dropped off the board this afternoon and it seemed to go over well. Again, having been out of skate culture for quite a while, I let Brian at Bigfoot set the price for me ($125). It'll be on display at the shop for BVGN this coming Friday. 

In addition to the event at Bigfoot, there are also DOZENS of more exhibitions and other happenings in the Bay View area next Friday for BVGN... a jazz fest, artists' market, even a bike tour of the various sites. Definitely worth checking out...

Battleground

Going off to Wiscon's art show this weekend: Battleground, a female form created from 1200+  individually fused plastic soldiers. She's life sized (and approximately a US size 16) and is able to be wall mounted or free standing.

 

This is a much more political work than my usual fare. She was inspired by the battles of body that we experience as women...from the exploitation of women's bodies as spoils of war to the battles we wage amongst/within ourselves about what it means to be woman-bodied.

Finding Home

  

I created this piece (“Finding Home”) for the annual Milwaukee Habitat For Humanity/ReStore  Recycled Art contest. This year’s theme was “COMMUNITY” and required artists to utilize primarily reclaimed/recycled materials found at the ReStore in their work. The piece features hand-wrought links from scrap steel wire, a chandelier crystal, various hardware components, ephemera (map, snapshot of a family gathering, etc) and other recycled materials, displayed in a salvaged maple drawer repurposed as a shadow box.

 Details of the event, as well as the chance to vote on challenge entries, may be found at  http://milwaukeehabitat.org/shop/recycled-art-contest/.  If you're so inclined, I'd appreciate a vote for #15E. The top 5 artists receive gift certificates for the ReStore and one would go a long way toward adding to my tool bin and scrap supply stash.

As a side note, this piece is also available for purchase via Milwaukee Habitat For Humanity/ReStore and inquiries may be made at the above website. I have it priced at $60 and will be donating the full amount of the sale to Habitat For Humanity.

Bony Rabbit

My take on the RAM's 5th Annual International PEEPs Exhibition . Acrylic on 11x14 canvas, with vintage wood frame. Phosphorescent paint was used on the bones to emit a soft glow in low light and glass bead suspension medium was used as a glaze to mimic a sugar crust, as well as pearlescent medium.

I don't usually do painted canvases, but I decided to step out of my comfort zone since my original idea was vexing me (next. year.). I tried to keep the calaca cute, befitting a marshmallow, but this is probably going to be the darkest entry of the challenge. This is what happens when a diabetic with spooky tastes starts thinking about Easter candy...

The Avatrix

I was reviewing some shots of older (and long since sold) pieces in preparation for a juried application and came across The Avatrix

This was done for a steampunk event in 2009 or so. Cast bronze finish focal, with beveled-corner Czech glass cube beads, bronze spacers, glass and freshwater pearls, and a repurposed cloak clasp. I *know" I have another focal like this somewhere in my supply stash and this inspires me to go looking for it.

The Art of AdORNAMENTS at the RAM, December 6-29th 2013

I had nearly forgotten about Racine Art Museum's call for artists for their The Art of AdORNAMENTS exhibition this month until last night...at 6 p.m...the night before submissions were due. Still wanting to participate, even if I couldn't whip up something stellar on short notice, I did manage to get an ornament together and deliver it to the museum on my lunch hour.

All components are from my scrap stash. The butterfly wings are plastic that I painted with iron paint (love that stuff!) and rusted with my salt and vinegar mix. The rhinestones are a vintage buckle and a brass skeleton key is attached with a coil of salvaged copper wire. Vintage glass beads and pearls are attached with more repurposed wire bits. Not an epic and ornate work by any means, but I rather like it.

 

The exhibition opens at 6 p.m on Friday, December 6th during Racine's monthly First Friday festivities, which is always a fun evening. In addition to the AdORNAMENTS show opening, the museum is featuring a exhibition of blown glass ornaments from the Mathis Collection and a number of downtown galleries and studio spaces are open late for the First Friday event.

Upcycled earring display

During the summer, I’d found a chrome laundry hamper frame and decided to salvage it to use as a display piece at shows.  Since it was too new- looking to fit with the rest of my fixtures, I gave it a couple of coats of iron paint followed by a wash of salted vinegar to rust it. I hung it on a chain from one of the beams under the hayloft at the Holy Hill Art Farm Market in October, and used clothespins to attach earring cards to create sort of an “earring chandelier” for my booth. Using a swivel clip at the end of the chain also allowed it to be turned by the customer to show all sides.

 (forgive the grainy camera phone shot, this is my only photo of the piece in action in this incarnation)

While it worked wonderfully as a hanging piece, I knew I wouldn’t usually have a ceiling to hang it from at most shows and it would take up a lot of space as a tabletop piece. I needed to figure out a way of making it freestanding.

I found this coat rack at Goodwill for $4.99 and hit upon an idea. The rack comes apart in sections, each with an upright screw post to attach it to the next. This would make it easy to break down for transporting to and from shows.

I removed the top portion with the coat pegs and added a scrap craft plaque (thrifted) that I'd stained to match the coat rack, screwed into the top post. Between this plaque and another, I added a lazy susan mechanism (salvaged) which would allow the display to rotate. The hamper then rests on top, with four upright screws between the cross supports of the hamper. These upright screws fit into holes in another plaque on top of the stack and are secured using easy-to-remove wing nuts.

 This top plaque not only holds the hamper to the coat rack base, but also allows it to be removed for events where I can use it in “chandelier” form. The wing nuts also provide a socket to hold signage for the rack. 

Here we have the new rounder "in action" at the Holiday Craftacular in Madison last weekend. 

Unfortunately, I managed to crack one of the legs when a tote fell against it in my car, so I had to McGuyver a packing tape solution on-site. A bit of wood glue, a screw, and a clamp to hold it until the glue sets and it'll be back in the game for the next event!

Craftacular Madison 2013

 

 I'm super excited to be vending at Craftacular this year! This is an awesome annual market of alternative crafters in the vein of Chicago's Renegade and Milwaukee's Art vs. Craft markets.

Join us Saturday November 23rd for Madison's Original Independent Craft Show! We will once again be returning to the gorgeous Masonic Center located in the heart of downtown Madison and will be showcasing over 70 artists & crafters.

Some awesome findings from past shows:

Paper collage skulls

Admittedly, not the best shot of my paper collage skulls. I brought a dozen to the Holy Hill Art Farm last weekend and only managed to get this shot with my camera phone before they completely sold out! I had them on the tables and filled the doll cradle at the opening to my booth with them, the latter of which was the key, I think. Everyone heading up the stairs to the loft saw them, so they quickly found new homes.

More paper collage may happen soon and, if I have time, a tutorial.

Nightmare on Chicago Street 10/26/2013

I just received confirmation yesterday that I'll be vending in the "Safe Zone" at Nightmare on Chicago Street in Elgin, Illinois on Saturday the 26th. It'll be my first time even attending this event and I hear that it's HUGE... over 6,000 attendees last year (their 2nd year) and projections of over 8,000 this year. It sounds like incredible fun with live bands, roving street entertainment, and such.More info on the event may be found at http://www.nightmareonchicagostreet.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/nightmareonchicagostreet

September Market at Holy Hill Art Farm

 

So very excited! It's almost time for the September market weekend at the Holy Hill Art Farm. I love-love-love this show! Art...antiques...great food...live music...all at a 160 year old Wisconsin farmstead. This is an awesome autumn event. Come check it out September 21st and 22nd, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

 

I'll be in the main barn, under the hayloft, so come by and say hello!

On the road and talking (temporary) shop

One of the big challenges for any artisan/crafter who sells their work in a live marketplace is how to display their work. What's going to draw a shopper's eye to your booth? What sort of impression are you making to keep a shopper's attention? What's going to protect your work from damage, especially at outdoor events? What's going to be easy to set up/take down? Most importantly, how are you going to fit 3 folding tables, your work, and any fixtures into a 2007 Toyota Corolla and still have room for your significant other?

While there are tons of ready-made fixtures designed for crafting display purposes, I went in a slightly different direction when I started showing my work at events a few years ago. While partially for practical reasons (read: I didn't want to sink a chunk of change into buying fixtures just in case this  whole-selling-my-stuff-face-to-face was a raging flop), I also felt that using repurposed objects to display my jewelry was a better fit for my overall flavor.

 Mid-setup at my favorite market Holy Hill Art Farm Market, October 2012

The vast majority of my fixtures have been scrounged from tag sales or made by me from found objects. Among these are:

• Thrift store wall frames with the art/glass removed and replaced with fabric covered foam board. These make excellent pinboards for jewelry.
• Smaller thrifted frames with pricing and credit card information.
• Plant stands used to create multiple display levels within a small footprint.
• Wooden wire spools used to create necklace rounders with the addition of tack "pegs" at the top and salvaged lazy susan bottoms.
• Wine crates upended, with slide-in panels added to create shelves for small items.
• Thrift store cut glass bowls to hold little bobs.
• Wire photo displays (great for carded items or business cards)
• Printer's trays 
• Small wooden drawers
• Old bakeware (cookie sheets, tart pans, etc)
• Vintage servingware, including a revolving brass and glass relish tray and tiered dessert tray.
• Thrifted linens and fabric remnants as table covers.
• "Shelves" created with boards (scrap lumber found at my local ReStore) and decopaged buckets.
• A vanity mirror with a drawer. Found for $2.99 at Goodwill, I painted and weathered the finish, then lined the drawer with copies of beauty product ads from the 1910-20's before filling it with carded handmade hairpins.

Since so many of my items are small and not able to be seen from across a room, I rely on creating an overall environment to attract attention and bring shoppers to my booth. Once there, I have various sections for folks to explore which holds their interest. Not shown in the photo is the vintage wooden doll cradle filled with seasonally-appropriate items (Life-size Dia De Los Muertos skulls and more tissue flowers like those shown on the table) that I placed at the entrance to my booth. While not my primary medium, the skulls and flowers did fit with my esthetic and got passers-by to pause long enough to pique their interest in my jewelry.

Midwinter Gathering fundraiser at the Kemper Center, January 2013

You'll also notice in this much smaller booth at another event that I have a few fixtures that are a bit more mass-market and intended for this purpose. Sometimes reinventing the wheel isn't mandatory, but paying a lot for traditional displays isn't either. Second hand fixtures are just as good as the brand spanking new displays that are on the market, often for a fraction of the price. The velveteen necks are a salvage from a mall jewelry store that went out of business (I bought an assortment of sizes for $.50 to $2.00 each). As for the black racks at the rear, those were found at a surplus shop for a dollar each and repainted.

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Looking to make the leap to vending at a craft show or thinking about adding to your existing display? Here are some ideas for doing it on the cheap:

• Look up: Odds are that you'll have limited horizontal booth space, so you'll want to create some of you own with tiered displays (think shelving) or a mechanism to hang work at various levels (stanchions with wire drawn between them allow you to hang carded items or prints from clips). Risers for shelving can be created with a multitude of objects like books or bricks. Also consider hollow items like boxes or canisters that can be used to transport and store your stock.
• Check out your local thrifts and rummage sales for objects that will compliment your work. Do you make awesome fabric accessories? Garage sale suitcases (relined and freshened up as appropriate) would make great bins. Mug trees and cup racks make great multi-peg displays
• Consider building your own fixtures. As previously mentioned, the ReStore is a great source for all sorts of building materials. My local stores often seem to have a plethora of cabinet doors and hardware. Hinge a few together to form a folding "screen" and use knobs and hooks to create rack space.
• Is mismatched and hodge-podge not your thing? Not to worry. A simple coat of the same color paint on all paintable surfaces and a remnant of fabric to cover soft surfaces can create a unified feel to your display space. Also, don't despair if a fixture isn't the right color/pattern. Inexpensive paint and Modge Podge can do wonders.
• As regular readers know, I'm a clearance rack scrounger. I'm always looking at the deeply discounted out-of-season and scratch-and-dent treasures. Just because something was DESIGNED to hold Christmas cards or Easter eggs, doesn't limit it to that purpose alone. If you pried off the Santa head or painted over the dancing bunnies, would it work for your needs? Same thing for baby items. There are so many cool storage options for kid-related flotsam. A savings of 75-90% off can justify a bit of DIY modding. 
• Don't rule out fixtures-designed-to-be-fixtures either. Craigslist and Ebay are great resources for finding secondhand retail fixtures and storage. Rolling racks, mannequins, and wire grid are all expensive items that depreciate rapidly and are easily found via salvage.

Elkhorn Antiques Market 6/30/13

Now that it is summer again, I'm making the rounds of the antique markets and recording some of the more interesting and odd bits along the way:

Nifty radio innards. This vendor had a ton of radios, phonographs, and obsolete media (Edison cylinders, anyone?)

That same vendor had this portable (hand crank) phonograph

Wouldn't this solid oak card catalogue (salvaged from a Wisconsin library) make great storage for an altered art workspace?

 

 I was really tempted by these cast iron clawfoot tripod legs, but I couldn't justify $20 each for something that I didn't have an immediate project for. (Exhibiting restraint. Good grrrl.) Only later did I start thinking about how they would make great bases for a couple of the the DIY mannequin projects that I have pinned on Pinterest. Gah!

It was a bumper crop day for vintage anatomy toys/models,

Would this keep chatty co-workers at bay if I posted this at the entrance to my cube?

 

Alas, Bucky was not destined to grow up to be a “real cowboy” since his saddlebags could not carry the volume of sunscreen that would be sufficient  for his daily needs.

Narnia remains elusive, but my partner (as shown in mirror) makes a lovely Mr. Tumnus stand-in.

Nobody seems to appreciate quality smut.

Ok...maybe they do.

I was assured that this was a never-used display model

...and speaking of display, this is what it could be displayed ON...

...or there's always smaller vintage funeral home swag to be had.

Some well-aged scabies cream

...and pennyroyal pills.

While this industrial sewing machine wouldn't do any fancy stitches, it would be a sturdy workhorse. Check out the size of the motor under the table!

My partner was tempted by the Ghostbusters PKE meter (from the cartoon, not the movie. The movie version was a different device entirely. )

Because sometimes I have the brain of an 8 year old boy and I have to laugh at inadvertent poop references.

 

 Chalkboard easel with a paper roll (note the crank on the right side) with reference drawings of WWI era military airships/aircraft

Sort-of-scary-looking dentist's chair

Portable and convenient, for the mortician on-the-go

Oddly unsettling war bonds propaganda poster

Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. I was unaware that the RNC had decided that merchandising was a viable revenue stream. Flattering pic, though.

What would a trip to the market be without one violet ray device picture? This one is a deluxe set in very good condition with multiple attachments.

A marvel of the early 20th century office, the Ediphone.

 Must have been a rough trip through the looking glass.

 (For the benefit of my friend, Myra) Bakelite Bonanza!

 1980's Dr. Who Role Playing Game by FASA (pre-geeksexy Doctors)

Circa 1977 "computer" kit from Radio Shack. (Check out the video on YouTube)

Awesome-awesome 1958 rocket ship pedal car from Murray. It was in pristine condition. I think my 3 year old niece (and eventually her 1 year old brother) needs this.

Of course, she would need appropriate protective gear. See what a responsible aunt I am?

Because everyone needs a suitcase worthy of a Memphis bluesman.

 

Remember that card catalogue that I had posted above? This is what needs to go next to it. (It sold for $1600). Circa 1890s, it was salvaged from an Iowa hardware store.

 A child-sized Victorian era mourning parasol

 1920's children's art kit

Mmmmm... Are they made with real parrot? No pigeon fillers?

1954 Robert the Robot (check out the commercial:"Robert's Story")

One sibling grew up to be an FBI agent...the other an identity thief. It was all set into motion that fateful Christmas morning...

Not as exciting as the box suggests, but still sort of nifty.

1961 Mr. Machine board game

The vendor was quick to point out that none of the players were broken off, a common fate for most of these games.

This is one of those awesome toys that were pulled off of the market just before my time (*grumble* Product/child safety standards. Perhaps if I'd gotten the mayhem out of my system as a kid, I wouldn't be playing with heat guns/blowtorches/et al as an adult).

Another wonderfully bizarre toy of the 1960s that has quite the cult following online.

Essentially a lightbox for tracing, but still rather cool.. If this piques your interest, Millie Motts has uploaded all of the set images on Flickr.

I had this doll as a kid. Sindy wasn't quite the same proportions as perfect Barbie (*cough* kind of pudgy in contrast), so she never looked quite right in Barbie's clothes, so she could only wear her own (read: not as cool) clothes. This...right here...this was a learning toy for a young girl, though not really the lessons that you really want to have your daughter learn.

 

Speaking of messages of self-image and playthings....

The costume of Not-So-Arch-Villain-But-Still-Hella-Annoying-And-Creepy-Dude, Senor Unwelcome Touch.

There’s a point at which a relief portrait goes from looking like a cameo to looking like a horribly misogynist hunting trophy. This would be that point.

 For those times when you feel that the world needs to be warned that there's chaos in your pants.

Not at all erotica, but there's a whole lot of subtext in that cover.

Those are some classic wheels!

Plastic ham.

Mr. Stickley tries to comfort his bear friend who has apparently misplaced his body.

Leo was distressingly enthusiastic at times.

Lady Liberty is looking a bit rough here.

 

Nothing is quite so uniquely unsettling as seeing a shirtless clown doll hanging from the rafters of a barn.

 

My lamp is problematic.