Thursday, September 30, 2010

Change is good!

Change in the weather, that is! It's been very rainy here lately, but I kind of like it. Especially when I'm NOT in a plane! We just returned from a fun and hard working show in Florida. Back to Tarpon Springs for the Florida Watercolor Show. I love that area with all the history and sponges and Greek food! Yum! It's to die for...
We were able to see lots of our Florida friends again and spend some time promoting Jerry's products and Art of the Carolinas. Here are some photos from the event:

Our Booth Space

Christina sitting for artist, Vilas Tonape

Here is the (almost) finished piece
 

From left to right: Meir Bohbot, our West Palm Beach store manager, Sharon Davies, event coordinator for the Florida Watercolor Show, and Joe DiGiulio, Education Advisor for Jerry's of Raleigh.

Here's Joe with our favorite customer, Marilynne (Monroe) Rowland. She's just the sweetest gal around!

And here's me with Marilee on the left (Marilynne's daughter)
and Ms. Marilynne Monroe herself on the right!
So, we made it back home without too much trouble...lots of rain both in the air and on the roads...Lots of laundry and getting back to normal. Ha! Went in to work for a couple hours to get some more of the AOC orders entered. Wow! We're having a record year so far. Thanks to all of you for your eagerness to learn new things and experiment and push yourselves to enjoy your creativity to the fullest!

Speaking of which...here are a couple of shots of some new things I've been working on. This is folded and dyed heavy muslin. Dyed with Procion Dyes. I love the random, yet organization of each of the designs shown here. Uh, this is only the beginning! I'm really enjoying working with fabric and incorporating it with acrylics, dyes, resists. I'm basically working on my "stash" right now. I think after AOC, I'll work on creating some art quilts and hangings or maybe incorporate these fabrics into my collages. The choices are endless, but I really love this stage because it is all just experimenting. Such well deserved relaxation for my other side of the brain!

This is the beginning of a resist...


And these are about five pieces of fabric with different resists waiting to be revealed. I think I'll let them soak until tonight after work.

Oh, and one more thing...only 250 more shirts to dye for the show! WooHoo!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Mid September

I have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks! Well, really, I stay pretty busy all the time. I like it that way! Last Sunday, I hosted the Carolina Mixed Media Art Guild at my house and in the studio for our September Play Date. When these girls get together, the creativity flies! We set up a couple of stations for demonstrations of techniques, then took that to an ATC. Michelle showed everyone a fun and easy marbling technique that yields fantastic results! Dawn showed some really cool "pop-up" ways to make an ATC more interactive, Lynn demonstrated different inks on yupo paper that were awesome and Jeanne wound it all up by showing more of her fabulous inking skills, using silk paints on a number of different surfaces. Such a great afternoon with my creative gals! Throw in a little food, a little wine, some good music and we had some great starts and backgrounds for the artist trading cards that will be traded at Art of the Carolinas! You'll have to come by and see the results at the show and do a little creating for yourself...it's good therapy!








I ordered 750 tees for Art of the Carolinas for my staff and students. The pricing for the screen printing was so high for an assortment of colored tees. You see, I used to be in screen printing for years, so I know what the costs are, but it just seemed so high. So, I came up with this brilliant idea to dye the shirts myself. Since it's our 10th annual Art of the Carolinas, and I couldn't decide on a particular color based on the previous nine years' offerings, I decided to offer an assortment of different colors and who better to turn to than Jacquard Products. As you know, I've become a little obsessed with dyeing things and painting on the fabric, so what better way to combine work and play! Here I could use the iDye products, wash and dye them in my washer and check out the results of practically Jacquard's entire line! So, off I went to Jerry's and purchased some dyes, drug the boxes of tees home and sorted everything out. Oh my God! Before long, my livingroom, spare room, office and laundry area were FILLED with white tees! I just took the plunge and did the first load. I can get about 30 tees max in my washer and if I had two dryers, the process would be much faster! After doing this almost non-stop, except working hours, I think I'm almost 10 loads down: wash, dye, dry, fold, roll, tie and sort. Have your hands ever been sore from folding laundry? Basically, that means I still have 15 loads to go. I'm thinking my water bill might be a little steep this month!? Here is a sneak preview of the colors I've dyed so far:


Then, I think I told you about my first outdoor show: Art in the Gardens. That was this weekend. Friday was set up day. Hot, hot, HOT! I think I lost a few pounds during set up, so I'm not complaining...Everything seemed to run pretty smoothly once the tent was up.


It sprinkled, actually rained a bit and for the most part that was a blessing, except for the fact that some of my paintings were left out in the rain. We won't go there... Friday evening was the reception and opening for the show. Nice. Lots of people and music and they even had lanterns installed to add a little ambiance as the darkness rolled in. I made enough sales that night to cover my booth and have a profit to start the next day! Yeh, gotta love that...

Saturday was not as hot as Friday and proved to be an even better day sales wise. I felt totally prepared, thanks to Theresa Brown and Steve Filarsky for sharing their expertise in providing a check list. Rookies like me definitely need that. Bungie cords are my new best friend and actually Mother Nature was very kind as far as wind goes too, so thanks to all of you! And thank you to everyone that stopped by! It was great to see you or to meet you! All in all it was a great weekend.

 
Now off to dye some more AOC shirts!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit

What? September already!
Yikes...
Well, it's pretty bad when you have to look back at the photos on your camera to see what you've been up to. Since my job at Jerry's and my studio time at home and my pleasures and pass times outside of work sort of all blend together, it's just one big roller coaster ride!
August was just a blast. Lots of new opportunities, art endeavors, friends and actually a little relief from the heat. Morning walks have been a bit more cool to say the least...
Last week, one of our bradford pear trees split. We had a lot of rain and I guess it just got too heavy.
Bummer:
Later that week, Christina and I drove to Henderson to inventory three skids of stuff from Art of the Carolinas. Lots of fun coming up in that department, so stay tuned! On the way back, we saw this at the side of the road and I just HAD to turn around and get some pictures! Too funny.

Sterling Edwards was here for a three day workshop, Stylizing your Watercolors. He came over one night and we all painted in the studio! Lots of laughs and some great paintings too!

Here's Sterling and Joe

A shot from my work space over to Joe's

Nice!

Explaining my art quilt in progress...

Joe and Sterling discussing the Matisse paints

My collage almost finished

In the midst of all this work and play, I've been preparing for my first outdoor show, Art in the Gardens. The show takes place at the Duke Hospital on Wake Forest Road, right across from the Hilton North Raleigh in the gardens off St. Albans Road. Check it out! September 18th from 10am-5pm. So I've been creating all kinds of items to sell: collages, bags, bowls, paintings and notecards. Here's part of my stash so far that I have staged in my upstairs office:

Like I said, August was a fantastic month. I wonder what September has in store??? Stay tuned for more news from me. Have a great start to the month! - Sharon