Silent Auction Donation

The other day I was poking around on Facebook and happened to notice a post of someone looking for donations for an upcoming silent auction. With a little digging I came to realize that it was for an organization a cousin of mine, who is an interpreter for the deaf, is involved with. It is an annual event called Souper Sunday sponsored by TSHA (Total Source for Hearing-loss and Access) in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I was soon compelled to donate a piece to further the cause but wasn't sure where to start. Lo and behold, the typically elusive Muse stopped by for a visit to assist! Isn't it amazing how you can have coils of wire and a stash of beads and never hear any of them speak to you till the Muse pops by?! Well, it wasn't long till I there were whispers then shouts from my wire and bead corner. Before too long I was surrounded by tools, some chunky turquoise colored magnesite, big link copper chain and a couple of spools of copper wire and copper findings and was well on my way of working on a new adventure!

Magnesite & Copper chic rustic big link necklace and matching earrings.

Magnesite beads from Thunderbird Supply
Copper chain, wire and findings from Magpie Gemstones

Here it is, all boxed up with a Sunshine Polishing Cloth and Copper Jewelry Care Card, ready to ship!

My only regret is that I won't be able to be there to watch the bidding and hug the winner's neck!

Event Schedule Ramp Up!

A quick post:
I've been updating the event schedule and it looks like we are going to be hopping pretty soon!
Feel free to check out the Event Schedule on our website. We have some exciting venues on deck!

Hope everyone is doing well with the new year. Take care and stay safe! Spring will be here before ya know it!

First Juried Event Application!

I am sooooo excited! We submitted an application to our first juried two day event! It will be March 27th and 28th in Lake Park, FL.

The application process was nice -- submitted through a site called ZAPPlication (thanks to Jim Mackintosh for posting about it in his blog!). It is an awesome site for fellow Artisians' looking to apply to events. You fill out your profile and can upload up to 40 photos of your work and a booth photo. When you find an event you wish to participate in, you simply apply (it uses your profile information) and select the designated number of photos and a booth photo, pay via PayPal and you're done! No more filling out individual applications and sending expensive slides (I sound like their marketing director don't I? LOL).

At any rate, we are excited about the possibility of being able to participate. We are really enjoying doing events. Look out world -- I think we've got the bug!

Weather and outdoor events...

Well, it was a little ironic that today's event that was canceled due to bad weather could have gone on after all. Mother Nature pitched her fit last night and it turned out to be a beautiful day today! A little chilly due to the cool front moving through, but nothing a hoodie and long pants couldn't handle.

The weather man is saying we are in for a weekend washout but we haven't heard anything about the 7th Annual Holiday in the Park two day event we are scheduled to participate in Friday and Saturday being called off. I guess we will get to live on the edge -- ride it out and see what happens! You just never really know about the weather sometimes. It can be spot on one day and miss ya completely the next. We will just have to "hide and watch" as my mother would say.

So, unless we are told otherwise, WE WILL be out there with tables adorned enjoying the festivities and conversation! We really do enjoy doing the events. We get to meet so many great folks and hang out in the fresh air for the day!

If you happen to be in the St. Petersburg/Pinellas Park, FL area Friday or Saturday, please feel free to stop by and check things out. There will be LOTS of things for children and adults alike!

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. Maybe we'll even see a few of you stopping by our tables.

See you then!
Kat

Event Cancellation

EVENT CANCELLATION NOTICE

We just got the call that tomorrow's Harvest Marketplace Event has been canceled due to nasty weather in the forecast.

We will be there next week, though (weather permitting)! See you then! :)

This week's events!

We are sooooo excited about the upcoming events we will be participating in!

This Thursday we return to our weekly event of the season --

Harvest Marketplace in Largo, FL.

Thanksgiving is over and the rush for Christmas shopping has begun! It should be an exciting week with cooler temperatures, live music, folks of all ages socializing and bustling about the booths!

Free Parking
- Street side parking along West Bay Dr and 1st Ave SW.
- Lot at the corner of 1st Ave SW and 2nd St SW (entrance on 1st).
- Lots on the south side of West Bay Dr (one-way entrances on 4th, 5th, and other side streets).
- Lots on the northeast and northwest corners of 4th St NW and 1st Ave NW.

Date:	Thursday, December 3, 2009
Time:	9:00am - 2:00pm
Location:	Ulmer Park
Street:	301 West Bay Drive
City/Town:	Largo, FL

Friday evening and Saturday we will be at the

7th Annual Holiday in the Park in Pinellas Park, FL

Celebrate the spirit of the holidays as the Pinellas Park Citizen's Police Academy Alumni Association presents "Holiday in the Park".

This community-wide family event with a holiday theme will feature children's games, entertainment, live music, pony rides, SPCA pet adoption, crafts, photos with Santa, hay rides, children's train and much more!

Join us for the festivities and fresh air! We will have many new items plus items from our website. We look forward to seeing you there! Feel free to tell us you saw us on Facebook!

Friday, 6 - 10 p.m.
Saturday, Noon - 10 p.m.

Admission is free.

Start Time:	Friday, December 4, 2009 at 6:00pm
End Time:	Saturday, December 5, 2009 at 10:00pm
Location:	England Brothers Band Shell
Street:	5121 80th Terrace North
City/Town:	Pinellas Park, FL

Dave's adventures in wire...

The adventures in wire wrapping continues to the next level of wire SCULPTURE!

David has been having a blast with his tools, wire and beads! His continual quest for learning new techniques and coming up with different ways to use them.

Here are a few of his most recent creations.

Lapis Lazuli in Sterling Silver Cuff

Leopard Skin Jasper Sterling Bangle Bracelet

Carnelian Sculptured Sterling Silver Bangle Bracelet
with Invisible Clasp

First Event

WHEW!!!!!

Well, all the preparation for the first event was worth the experience and hard work. I must say that it was a fun journey which the fruits of my labor will be useful for a good long while to come.

The event was a whole other new experience -- a good one. It was one that those who do events are quite familiar with -- wake before the sun to load up and make it to the event location, find your assigned spot and get things set up...It was a BEAUTIFUL day! A long day...An overall, actually quite enjoyable, day! Watching my darling husband work the crowds was a real treat! If they don't remember anything else about us, they will remember that we were not afraid to smile and engage in pleasant dialogue with them! Having the opportunity to interact with folks was awesome. And the two buying customers (friends) made the whole process worthwhile!

Our location was not exactly ideal, but we have been assured that next week we will have a prime location -- this week was a very effective trial run. Learned a few lessons (VELCRO is our FRIEND! LOLOL) that we will use to make the NEXT event better. I was SO glad I went ahead and purchased the wall kit for the canopy because it came in handy right off the bat...The "breeze" was quite GUSTY which of course does not play nice with necklace boards/displays (refer back to VELCRO comment above). LOL

Our setup itself was attractive. There were more jewelry vendors there than I was told would be allowed. And apparently the supposed handmade only requirement -- turned out to not exactly be the case. There was lots of "re-sell" items on the other tables. I can say, with pretty confident certainty, that, we and one other couple, had real gemstones, sterling silver items and were actually hand made (the other couple went a step further than us and hand cut and polished their own stones. In fact, two of our wrapped pendants were stones we bought from them at the same market last year.). We had many, many compliments from those that did make it to the back side of the property and visited our tables. And we passed out a TON of cards. Several ladies have custom pieces they are going to be contacting us with and one lady is bringing in a stone to have us re-wrap for her that she had previously purchased from someone else!

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, even with the given *minor* hurdles associated with participating in an outdoor event. All of the vendors that we met were quite pleasant and ALL of the folks that stopped by were awesome to have had the opportunity to meet! Major kudos to the event coordinator -- she did a fine job! And we were SO GRATEFUL for the lunch and endless supply of fresh cold bottled water!

We are looking forward to next Thursday!

Preparation -- busy busy!

Here I go again -- seemingly silent on the blogosphere. But, don't you worry! I've been busy, busy, busy over here!

Not only is our day job business picking up (slowly but I think I can, I think I can assuredly!) but I have been scurrying about preparing for the upcoming events! All the research and purchases along the way in preparation of doing events seems to be coming together quite nicely. I had purchased the banner, canopy and door/walls back in the summer (made sure and got the commercial vented top canopy I REALLY wanted rather than what was at the local hardware store); we made the canopy leg weights from PVC pipe caps and rope; found some nice black, vinyl top, fold in half, folding tables at Walgreens (via a lady in the table aisle in Sam's no less LOL); made the table skirting and found some lace for table runners; AND scored some glass blocks and folding chairs from freecycle (http://freecycle.org to find your local branch); then got a black shelf for it; signed up for a merchant account so I can accept credit card payments...LOTS OF PREPARATION! Not to mention working on inventory to fill the tables! LOL! I had ordered an old fashion type knuckle buster credit card imprinter (nice one that even takes a 5 line name plate) so that I could give the customer a receipt and have record of their information and signature to prevent back-charges but there was a little hiccup that occurred which had to be remedied (ordered online and the company failed to catch that I had ordered long slips with a short slip machine -- lovely), but that is in the process of being resolved. AND the credit card swipe machine has been shipped and will be here in plenty of time for the first show! Now, if I can get wireless internet with the laptop we will be in business - literally!

Of course there are always the last minute things to take care of, but I think this is probably the first time in my life that I have prepared enough in advance that if there ARE any other hiccups they should be minor (KNOCK ON WOOD!!!!!!!! LOL).

Here is a pic of the practice setup of the booth...


I have already made some adjustments to it: I took a VERY nice suggestion from a fellow local wire wrap jewelry artisan for adding more interest and functionality to the display by adding a shelf supported by glass blocks -- turned out fabulous! And I finished the lace table runners to go across both tables and the new shelf. I am VERY pleased with how it is coming together! I will update this post with a new pic when we do the first event and have everything set up. :)

So, as you can see, things have been quite busy over here - in stark contrast to the crickets and silence. LOL

Be sure to keep up to date on scheduled events by regularly checking the Event Calendar on our website. We have several weeks of events scheduled and would love to have you pop over to say hey and maybe even find something you just can't live without!

Dragonfly Lapel Pin work in progress

I thought it would be neat to share the journey in progress in photo format of how the Dragonfly Lapel Pin came to be.
I hope you enjoy seeing the progress!

The pieces for the body and wings were measured and cut of sterling wire.

The wire ends of the body at the head were balled which will later become antenna...wings were soldered on.

Now that everything is assembled, pickled, finished out and polished, time to begin weaving!

The first wing took FORRRRRRRRREVERRRRRRRR...

First wing finished and moving on to the body...Antenna formed into shape.
The second wing went MUCH quicker...WHEW!
You probably wouldn't believe how much wire was actually used in this little guy!

Perched upon a shell rose...A lovely place to rest after all that work!