A little late..

I have been soo busy lately I haven't had much time to post, so to catch up..

December 1st and 2nd I had an art show at the ArtCraft building downtown (thanks to Mark!!). It went really well for me- we were really busy all day. I only got a couple minutes at the beginning and ends of the show days to wander around and see the other fantastic artwork on display there.

Today (and hopefully tomorrow) I spent about four hours wandering around the big dog show that Cleveland holds this weekend at the I-X Center. I took a lot of wonderful dog pictures thanks to all the owners and handlers that took time to talk with me and pose their dogs for me, so I will hopefully be coming out with some great new papercuttings in the next couple months. Some of them were of dog breeds I didn't have in my inventory already, which is even better. I plan on starting in on the smooth-coated Chihuahua, Miniature Pinscher, and Pyrenean Shepherd as soon as I finish off my Christmas commissions...

Gifts from the Heart at Landerhaven, 11/18/2007

Next-to-last show of the year.

Last outdoor show for the year

Saturday was a BEAUTIFUL day for an outdoor show.. and especially fantastic for October! We were right next to a nice area of metroparks and we were under shade for most of the day so 80+ degrees wasn't as bad as it could have been- though most of us left all the sidewalls off our tents so we could catch all the breezes that came by. The show was really light in terms of customer traffic, but I got to talk to a number of interesting people in the process.. And I got a lot of small carved ornaments finished while I was sitting there, which I needed to do since my stock was getting really low.

Something new..

I have just started playing with carving cypress knees. It can be such fun cuz they have such unique shapes! They have the same pluses that I love in cottonwood bark- softer and lighter then regular wood, they have 'natural' shapes, and they have a different colored outer layer that you can leave on in parts to give contrast and a feel that the carving is 'emerging' from the piece of wood. The minus is that they are incredibly soft and a little sticky so they have to be carved with SHARPsharp tools and you STILL end up with some grain crushing occasionally...