Kitty playing

Finished off a new cat pattern- the model for this was a beautiful fluffy tuxedo cat named Buddha who belongs to some friends of mine. He LOVES playing with shoestrings! :)

New display!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found an artist who was selling her used oatmeal-colored KD Propanels online, and I managed to get 70% of my planned display panels from her at a great price! So I can't wait for my next show to have a chance to use them! Of course in the meantime I need to get more hardware from the company, good velcro hooks for hanging things on the panels.. oh, and actually set them up with my tent to make sure everything works as planned. Once I do that, will get some pics up online to show them.

"Family Portrait" Limited series piece

I finished off and framed a new Limited series piece called "Family Portrait". It is a picture of three pug puppies snuggled together on a big pillow. The piece is 1/3 edition, framed to 11x14 with a aged-bronze patina metal frame, tan and maroon matting, and a hand-painted watercolor background of yellows, browns, golds, tans, black, reds, and oranges.

Polar bear pattern

Finished off a new pattern:

Red-tailed hawk

My car was in the shop, and my back was hurting, so I spent most of my day sitting on the couch. Which means I had lots of time for drawing, so I managed to get another pattern completed. This was from the Birds of Prey weekend I went to back in February- I am finally finishing this guy off now!

Frog pattern

I actually managed to get a relatively clear picture through glass of this little guy? girl? during my last visit to the Cleveland Zoo Rainforest exhibit. He was a fascinating blueish-white with dark markings and he smiled at me when I was taking his picture.. :) I want to say he was labelled as an Australian milk toad, but I can't find that designation when I searched the Internet, so maybe I remembered wrong? Will have to check on that the next visit I make to the zoo...

*Later note* turns out the Australian milk toad is actually an Amazon milk frog- the zoo's webpage has a fantastic index of animals with pictures. At least I got the 'A' and the 'milk' part right.. :)

Bull Terrier

New pattern- based on the handsome boy I saw at the Medina dog show a couple weeks ago... Wonder if his people get tired of people saying "Oh look! Spuds McKenzie!".. I must have heard that 5 times from people walking by while I was taking pictures of him. :)

Ibizan Hound

I finished a pattern for the beautiful Ibizan Hound I met at the Medina dog show last week. In most of the pictures she had her ears down, so I didn't think she looked as distinctive, but in the picture I ended up using as a model, her handler had just gotten her attention with a piece of food so she looked all perky.. :)

Career decisions

In keeping with my new 'career plan' decision to change the type of shows I am doing, I think I may need to make some decisions about my woodcarving.

First of all, a lot of 'fine art' type shows tend to either frown upon or outright reject artists who try to jury in in multiple unrelated media. And I don't think I can consider what I have now a coherent body of work since there isn't really much that connects my woodwork with my paper work. Except the 'Inspired by nature' or 'Once upon a tree' idea, but I am not sure that is enough... And if I am going to give up one of my two media, I think my papercutting work is more different and has a more unique voice and style than my carving and therefore has more potential going forward.. Also, my current woodcarving style tends toward a more rough and unfinished look, which again doesn't necessarily fit the atmosphere of the shows I am shooting for.

I still love carving though, and I don't want to give it up. And I have SOOOO much carving material to work through!! :) But I certainly don't have room for all my output, so I would need to keep selling it somehow. I'll keep putting stuff on Etsy of course, but I don't sell enough through there to really move my inventory.


Hmm... this is a tricky one. Any thoughts?

Equipment decisions

I have been trying to make some decisions about upgrading my display setup, and now thanks to my EZup tent breaking on me in June I need to start doing research into upgrading my tent as well!!! :\ Over the last couple years, my work has been changing and becoming more complex, as well as becoming almost all pure original work. Because of this, I can't afford to charge prices that will let my work sell well in a typical craft show environment in this area, so I need to work on upgrading my display image so I can fit in better at the more "fine art"-type shows instead. This is going to be a gradual process of course cuz professional quality displays tend to be expensive!! :)

The bets choices I have seen for portable display of 2-D work are carpet panels. And even better- they come in a knock-down version- each 7-foot panel comes in two pieces. This means that I won't have to worry about upgrading my vehicle as well to accommodate 7" long display equipment- definitely good news!
This spring I picked up a 2-tier carpet panel print bin from Armstrong Products and so far I am thrilled with both the product and the service from the company. I am hoping to buy the portable desk later this year, and some of the carpet panel walls I need next year (tax refund, here we come! :) )
I am trying to decide between Armstrong or Propanels. There are pros and cons to both, but at this point I am leaning toward Propanels because their panel width choices made a setup that I really liked- since the Armstrong panels are wider I would be more limited in my display space (even though I would be able to buy less panels and it would therefore be cheaper). If I go with Propanels, I will have to get 6 30" wide panels and 4 25" wide panels for the display layout that I have in mind. But I figure I can split the purchasing up into pieces to spread the cost out a little- there doesn't seem to be a shipping break for clumping them together.

Now all I need to do is win the lottery!!!! And I am one of the lucky ones since I have a full-time job to support myself with- I have no idea how the artists who do only art festivals full time do it!!