cyber sale goin' on at Whimsy and The Word

Just a quick note to let you all know that on my art blog at Whimsy and The Word you can buy any of my arts and crafts that are listed in the most recent posts. This can be a great deal as the discounts go up with each item you buy! So, if you're looking for some gifts for giving you might check it out to see if I have something you'd be interested in.

Below I've shown just a small sampling of what you'll find over there. I hope it wets your whistle!

"Bit of Charm" style... Drama Queen

$25

Domino Necklace...Friendship

$10

"For to such belongs the kingdom of God"

14x18 assemblage/collage wall art

$65

Glossy Black

bracelet...$45

earrings...$20

Pierce My Heart earrings

$15

Primary Swirls

beaded antique bottle

$10

Now, don't you want to go shopping?

thanks!
Kim

Sweet Success

Dear Friends and Readers, Today's sale was a huge success. I so appreciate all who came by, even just to say "hi". I felt loved and supported. Dear and WeeOne were in to visit, helped to haul out to the car, and generally happy encouragers. Yesterday, set-up day, MMH and WeeOne helped as Dear had to work. They didn't even complain when I left ALL my tablecloths at home and we had to go back before we could even begin to start unloading. Then, after all their help the girls went grocery shopping and I even received a 45 minute foot massage from WeeOne. I'm telling you, I just feel loved and spoiled.

The new location was AMAZING, with much room, ample parking and a happy atmosphere. We had 35 artists, and boy were they talented! Without sharing numbers I'll just happily say that my sales this year almost quadrupled from last year. Thank you to all my customers. It was encouraging to speak with some of the people who stopped by and commented on the "Christian slant" of my art, along with a number of other artists. I'm glad that people saw testimony of God's truth in some of my pieces.

The big hits of the day are pictured below.

A Bit of Charm necklaces

Amazingly, this year people preferred the more expensive versions.
Go figure.

Domino necklaces

I happily sold half of all I had made of these to one customer.

I hope the recipients of these enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.

This was a good batch of domino necklaces!

I was able to sell this set as a gift.

I hope the recipient knows how much love and thought went into this purchase.

A sweet sweet story.

All in all it was a fun and fulfilling day. Comments on the display were gracious and generous. Comments on the wall art warmed my heart. While the wall art didn't sell this year, my bottles began to sell and those didnt' move last year. We'll see what comes next.

Be watching...

Blessings,

Kim

Now don't go falling down in a faint. I'm actually here and posting. I'm so sorry about the long silence, but life just gets busy sometimes and one has to live it rather than write about it. So, that's what I've been doing. I've journeyed spiritually through questions about my creating, and in the end, I'm back to creating and very happy about it.

Next Saturday I'll be hosting my booth at the second annual Art & Soul Holiday Craft Fair. And the above are just a sampling of what you'll see. My prices are reasonable... Christmas tags/ornaments as low as $1.00 and wall art no higher than $65.00. There's something for everyone, and if you don't see it there I'll do my best to create it for you... yes, even in time for Christmas, Lord willing!



So, visit Art & Soul Holiday Craft Fair online on Facebook and invite your friends to come and wander and enjoy the many booths you'll find there. Hope to see you there!

Art & Soul 2009 ~ The Pictures

For those who've wondered, the show went, and it's over. I didn't become a millionaire overnight, but I did sell things. The best part? My husband told me he was proud of me. That's worth WAY more than a million dollars. My booth was right by a world map, and while lots of people enjoyed looking at the map it certainly made my booth feel more jumbled to have all that DETAIL hanging behind me. Or maybe my booth was a bit jumbled. How does one display the work of an entire year when there are SO MANY different types of things to work on?!

You can see the banner, sort of, on the front of the table. That might be the other reason it didn't sell... hard to see when you're short on space and something is hanging OFF the table... It's all a learning curve.


I make these cabinet card greeting cards and also note cards and just plunked them in this basket. The problem is the cabinet cards are a "presentation gift" and so both outside AND inside are covered... how to display them??? I have no idea.


Jewelry hung from this old mug holder. It was okay... but the necklaces really started selling when I laid them out on the table. Still working on display ideas for next year.

The trees were pretty, but perhaps hard to get to? Sold a few of the ornaments, but not enough to count it a success. Not sure if I'll do those again or not. That's the hard thing... was it the first show lack of finesse in display, was it pricing, was it not to people's taste? Again... learning curve.

You can see a few of my memory boxes here and a few of my bottles. One box sold to a family in town. The rest are on sale right now at Lola Rue. So, if you're interested run over there and pick one up. They're mighty cute! Lola Rue is on College Ave. on the West side of the street just before you get downtown... I think maybe 8Th Street or thereabouts is the nearest crossroad.

And here you see the other end of the table... just hard to display things like this...

I'm already working on next year. Items I plan to sell:

• button necklaces
• copper charm necklaces
• pillows (using an idea I made years and years ago... )
• knit scarves
• memory boxes again?
• encaustic (I'm determined to teach this town about the beauty of encaustic.)

My bottles were admired by every single person who stopped at my booth. They all picked them up and oohed and ahhed, but no buyers. Next plan is to bring them to a nearby arts and crafts town where many Victorian style things sell well. I'll let you all know what happens.

So, success? Between the show and two special orders I am in the black. Any supplies already here are covered income-wise by the show and the orders. We'll see what happens next year.

Hope you ALL can join us. Please come, it was a great show with MANY talented artists. Two of my friends are now filling orders for a New York boutique! I'm so proud of them.

Blessings, Kim

You're Invited to a Sneak Peek!

This is the second in my pair from "Core of Faith." Entitled "Faithful Heart" this was inspired by readings in Isaiah and in a sermon preached on Sunday about the true, right and good fear of the Lord. Our fear of Him should inspire us to love Him even more.

This was created with a vintage bottle. When I found it the little gold heart was already firmly affixed. That was the beginning of direction for me... the heart is always at the core and as you peel back the layers you find what drives someone... "All that leads the heart to knowing" is firmly attached as a reminder... What leads our heart to knowing? The Lord alone.


This is another of my "Fairy tales in Glass" line... Thanks goes to JoannA from Mosshill Studios for that sweet title. "To love and to cherish" is simply beautiful in it's sharing of a sweet and pure love. This vintage bottle is embellished with encaustic wax, crushed silk ribbon, bead, wire, "Cherish" brass tag, vintage picture reproductions, glitter and layers of trim... both new and vintage.
Here's another from my "Core of Faith" series. This is "King of Kings" and was inspired by the fibres used on the bottle... as I began to layer I saw the royal colors. King of Kings is a reminder to me of who alone is worthy of receiving honor and glory. Adorned with various fibres, tag, bead, wire and of course encaustic wax, one also notes the snippets from an old book "King o'er all things" and "Love Divine."

"Winter Wind" was fun to make and very different from most pieces. It started out as "Winter Wonderland" using the piece adorning the twine bow as the focal point. Upon finding the antique shoe clip however I began to see a different picture. The layers of blue satin and white eyelet, sprinkled with the merest shake of fine white glitter should give one the feel of a cold and icy winter's day where the wind is blowing the snow, the sun is catching the flakes in the air as if they are falling diamonds and the beautiful tree in the field is already decked out in all it's finery.

"Come with me" is my first attempt at encaustic on an antique book cover... here I have used an old journal cover from which the pages had all fallen out. Embellished with rich fabrics, vintage buckle bases, black lace, both vintage and antique buttons a snippet of "Come with me lassie" poetry and a sweet reproduction of a vintage 1900s postcard .... I hope you enjoy her as much as I do.

There will be more at my booth, all prices and styles. Please join us, Saturday, November 28, 10-4 at Pourhouse Cafe across from the main library.

Shalom, Kim

Silence is golden

or, in this case the blog silence may be golden, but it's not so silent at home.

I may have bitten off more than I can chew this time around. Seems I said, "Yes," to the request to be a vendor at the Art and Soul show on Nov. 28. This is my FIRST year... actually, truth be told it's my first at most of what I am doing for this show.

However, I couldn't, of course, JUST say yes to the show, I am also on call for a birth, STILL trying to complete my CBI Doula certification (2 book reports finished last week!), homeschool the girls, teach one adv. level co-op for an 8th grader and a sophomore, "teach" art at our larger co-op on Friday (that is not too difficult), and try to keep up with the girls' assignments from that co-op... I'm woefully behind. IN the meantime I'd really like to start teaching childbirth classes again.

My classes fill a needed gap in the community, they bring in some extra dollars, and it's a great way to meet people and minister to them. However, I would have to be out of the home at least once a week if not twice. I'd have to find a location where I might teach... my basement is now FULL of homeschool items, weight bench, etc., "craft studio" (can you say tables with LOTS of stuff on them), TV, books, etc. In other words... it won't work. I might fit three couples in the living room, but that's not going to make it worthwhile for a paying class.

Hmmmm, we'll see what happens. In the meantime I continue to study for CBI and to create for Art and Soul. My latest creations are button jewelry... very Victorian in their feel... or modern... I'm not sure exactly, I just know they're not like other jewelry I've seen. (Too bad... the other stuff is really great! Just come to the show and see.)

Don't you just love that wrinkly linen shirt? HA! Fooled you... to better show off the necklace I had MMH tuck an old hankie in her shirt front. Oh yes, the tricks of photography! And yes, those three large pieces are old buttons.

Well, back to life here. We have two extras for two days while their parents finally get to celebrate their 15th anniversary. We also have a library visit to make, a trip to the post office for Sarah so she can get her quilt pieces, a trip to Mama Magpie's house to help out there and dinner, and all else that is included in a homeschooling family... you know, LIFE.

Hope you all are having a good week. I'll try to get photos of everything before or during the show.

Remember, Art and Soul, Nov. 28... if you're in our area just come to the Pour House across from the Main Library and we'll be there from 10-4.

Blessings, Kim

Altered Bottles

So, way back this summer I hit my first ever auction. Then I went to my second auction and it was in a home. And I was sooooo surprised, because everywhere you looked were bottles... all shapes, sizes and colors. Now, I love my ball jars, and there are some awfully pretty bottles around, but we're talking thousands of bottles and I'm not exaggerating. I, of course, did NOT bid on any.

HIT MYSELF IN THE HEAD!

Because, a few months back I did bid on some bottles at an auction and won them and had a GREAT idea for "altering" them. But, it wasn't quite complete. What I really wanted was some way to "finish" the look. Then, lo and behold I discovered Joanna Pierotti's art journal blog online. Her blog is my new "go to" blog for visual beauty. Her art is incredible. When I first visited her blog she was was using encaustic (molten beeswax mixed with damar resin) on her "flat" pieces... often using old book covers and many layers of wonderful cloth, ribbons, charms, and other ephemera.

I finally got up the nerve to write to her to ask a bit about encaustic art. Well, before she wrote back I had already been reading a number of books and researching online and decided to try the "cheap" approach... i.e. not rush out to buy everything new. SO, with an old used griddle, washed out tomato paste cans (in which to melt the wax), some inexpensive camel hair brushes and old wax crayons and beautiful aromatic pure beeswax I began. I altered my first three bottles. Then I heard back from Joanna and found her next online class is in altering bottles. How cool is that?! She actually shows four of them on her blog. While our finished pieces are different I definitely think she gets the credit for my vision for my bottles. And now, of course, I could just kick myself for not bidding on at least a couple of boxes of those bottles! Oh well...

Here are my first three altered bottles. I hope you enjoy! (And, if any of you have antique or vintage bottles with flat fronts please let me know, I'd be happy to "dispose" of them for you. HA!)

"Dreamer"

This is actually my third bottle. The woman's picture is an actual postcard piece from the early 1900s, the buttons are vintage buttons from the collection given to me by a friend from her friend. The crystal is from an old chandelier and the paper is from an old journal I found at a fun antique mall. The little copper tag says "dream"... I keep thinking she is dreaming of the man she loves... she just has that look. You'll be able to purchase her at the "Art and Soul" show on November 28 at the Pour House Cafe. (If you're interested now please leave a comment and I'll get back to you.)

"The Harvest"

Here again is another vintage postcard. I just cut it apart and collaged. The picture was so sweet.. I'm not sure whether the harvest is the grain or the girl, but either way it works! I added glitter, and some copper colored wax crayon to the beeswax. The ribbon is kept very simple as the picture is not one that calls for a lot of bling. I loved the vintage earring to cover the knot... just the right touch.

"The Fairy Song"

This is such a sweet picture of a young child... turned fairy with the simple addition of delicate golden and lacy wings. The song title behind this little fairy is "Twilight: Song Without Words". That sounds like a fairy song to me... something beautiful and magical being sung in the garden as the birds and bees settle to rest.

I hope you've enjoyed my latest creations. As Joanna told me in her email, encaustic is very addicting. I'm not sure whether it's the texture of the beeswax, the rich aroma or simply the joy of creating, but I'm fairly sure I'll be making more altered bottles if given half a chance. See you at "Art and Soul" in November. Please come, it will be my first time to be part of a show and I'm getting more excited every day!

Blessings, Kim