"Put A Bird On It!" :: RNEST Challenge

It's time for another Rochester NY Etsy Street Team Monthly Challenge! November's theme is "Put A Bird On It!", which is more in reference to the delicious and varied poultry we will enjoy on Thanksgiving than the current cute trend. 

Personally though, I love putting birds on anything. I adore little birdies. If I could be any animal it would definitely be a little bird!

My "Party Bird" domino pendant was created with ridiculously tiny, hand-cut pieces of paper that I painted myself. Even the little poofy part on top of the hat is hand-cut! 

Head on over to the Rochester NY Etsy Street Team's blog to cast your vote! You have until November 14th at midnight.

You can also head on over to In My Head Studios' Etsy shop to buy this dapper little fellow for yourself! 

- Vickie

Casa Larga Winery Craft Show: 5/3/12

Join me for an excellent craft show TOMORROW, Thursday, May 3rd, at one of the finest wineries in town - Casa Larga! 

"Spring in the Vineyard"

Casa Larga Winery

10:00 AM - 7:00 PM

2287 Turk Hill Road

Fairport, NY 14450

There is more than enough time to get there after your workday. Unwind with a glass of wine with friends!

Our local paper has a nice write up of the show plus more information on Casa Larga's  events for Mother’s Day and Riesling Month. Enjoy the music of Chris Wilson while you decide what handmade goodies to buy from over 50 of the finest artisans around.

Be silly for your Tiny Works of Awesome! Cluck like a chicken at my booth for 10% off! 

- Vickie

T'was the Night Before Mayday! Underground

The nights before my craft shows tend to be busy with last minute projects and calculating how much glue I can get to dry by the following morning. Tonight is no exception!

I just got back from The Main Street Armory to drop off my tables. Oh my goodness, it was good that I did! I have a corner spot which means I can set up more than one table. Yippee! 

Now I have to pull out the extra displays from the basement and dust them off from last year. I hope there is room for the silver candelabra again. I think that looks awesome with pendants hanging on it. Oh, shiny!

I definitely have enough Tiny Works of Awesome to fill my tables! I made about 10 new domino pendants this past week. About 40 more Scrabble tile pendants were finished as well. Plus we have some new Reclaimed Hardware designs featuring rescued-from-the-scrap-heap metal nuts, washers, and other machine parts mixed with beads and wire. They are really cool mixed media jewelry with a funky steampunk style.

Yeah, I'm the girl at [big box home improvement store] staring at the Oh, shiny! displays of wing nuts, washers, gaskets, and hinges - and I look lost or possibly abandoned by the male who must have dragged brought me there - but I am only lost in thought as I dream up ways to use these beautiful shinies in jewelry. 

Come see them for yourself at Mayday! Underground Crafts + Art on Saturday, November 5, 2011 at The Main Street Armory in Rochester, NY from 10 AM to 5 PM!

 
    <3  Vickie

Success at St. Rita's Craft Sale

Our craft show at St. Rita's School was nothing short of a huge work of awesome! We were busy all day, which is just how I like it to be. Unfortunately that meant I didn’t get to walk around and mingle with my fellow crafters and Rochester Artisans. I’m sure there was amazing work to see and I missed it. But that’s also better for my wallet! 

The St. Rita’s Show is a very well-known show in Rochester and always well attended. The parking lot was filled all day. The organizers are more than, well, seriously organized. They had the kids from the school stopping by to ask us if we wanted food or raffle tickets all day.

We were set up in a classroom this year instead of the gym where we are usually located. I didn’t get my show application in soon enough and the gym got filled. I think we did way better than we expected to do in a classroom and I am very, very pleased with our show total. 

This was our third show here and we've gained quite a few repeat buyers. They came by saying they were afraid we weren’t there because we weren't in the gym. I have to say that made me fly up to cloud nine! People were looking for us! I am always deeply humbled by positive responses to my work. How lucky am I to be doing this?! Yippee!

 

New display for domino pendants. Very vintage cheese stand.

This year we are trying some new display ideas. I love this antique wood Kraft Cheese display stand. The slanted shelves have little lips at the ends - perfect for holding a lot of domino pendants (it's looking empty because I took this photo at the end of the day). The back of it is open so the cords hang out, and it makes for easy loading. But it's a little awkward for customers to pick up the dominoes. The cord comes pulling out and the viewer can't put it back on the shelf themselves. Quite a few women acted like they broke something when they picked one up. Not the kind of feeling I want to promote here. I'm wondering if this may be better suited to show Scrabble tile pendants as they don't have cords on them.  

What do you think?

Domino pendants all in a row

The cute little girls are a new design this year. They're really funny. The close one here calls out the girl on the right because she "eats paste". The clip art of the girls are from Lisa's Altered Art. 

Scrabble tile display

I better get busy making more tile pendants or we won't have many to show at Mayday Underground in two weeks!

Mixed media collage on a small shipping tag

Also new this year - small original pieces of mixed media art on shipping tags. This one measures 4 3/4" x 2 3/8". It's the perfect size to make original art that is affordable for most people. They can be set up on a shelf or used as a bookmark. You can do lots of things with them for display. They make really nice gifts, too.

Game piece charm bracelets and domino/BINGO earrings

Reclaimed hardware mixed media earrings : New this year!

Reclaimed hardware mixed media bracelet : New this year!

I think this nice old wood drawer needs something lighter behind the jewelry. The dark wood is swallowing the pieces. A nice tan fabric or handwritten ledger paper will fix that!

This was a great show to start off our holiday craft show season. I'm really looking forward to the rest of our shows. The next show is:

Saturday, November 5, 2011
Mayday Underground Crafts + Art
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
The Main Street Armory
900 East Main Street, Rochester, NY 14605
The BEST indie craft + art show in Western NY
First 50 people to arrive get a FREE swag bag of handmade goodies! 
Get there early if you want swag. There WILL BE a line.

- Vickie 
xoxo  

Be In It To Win It

I am giving away this "Blooming Brightly" Fine Art Domino Pendant, truly a Tiny Work of Awesome *, at the Rochester NY Etsy Street Team blog this week!!
 

Created from my hand-painted and hand-cut papers, these bright and cheerful blooms seem to pop right off this lively domino pendant. Shiny little purple sparklies add a bit of twinkle to what is already a very glossy finish. The edges of some of the paper is distressed to add more dimension. The pips (dots) on the back of the domino are 2 and 3.

The artwork on a domino pendant measures about 1-1/2" x 3/4". That's smaller than the size of 1/4 of a business card. Even the tiniest pieces in my collages are hand cut!

The winner (it could be you!) will get her/his choice of necklace length in either black waxed cotton cord or silver-colored base-metal ball chain (pictures shown with black waxed cotton cord). The domino pendant hangs on a silver-plated bail.  

* What is a "Tiny Work of Awesome"? It's a one-of-a-kind, teeny, tiny, original piece of mixed media collage that I create on various very small objects like dominoes, Scrabble tiles, and other game pieces and surfaces.

Head on over to the Rochester NY Etsy Street Team blog to enter for your chance to win! 

You can earn up to SEVEN entries by commenting, liking, blogging, and tweeting! 

Hurry! You only have until Tuesday, October 11, 2011!

Open to US and Canada only. 

 - Vickie

Birds and Bees

I am thrilled to be in this beautiful Etsy Treasury curated by Honey From the Bee! It features members of the Etsy Twitter Team.

That's my "Home Sweet Home" Domino Pendant in the second row, second from the left. That design is made from a larger image I created specifically for my domino pendants.

The original artwork is about 6" by 3" - roughly the dimensions of a domino just bigger. I collaged the house and stitched around the edges of it with red thread. Then I adhered the bird and nest to it. I scanned this larger work into my computer and shrunk it down to domino size. I printed "home sweet home" in a really tiny letters and backed the words with red cardstock to add more dimension.

This domino pendant is one of my favorite designs! I have a thing for birds and houses lately.

- Vickie

Shows!! There Are Shows!

Networking locally and, well, just showing up has netted a few shows for my calendar for the next two weeks. Yay for just showing up!

Thanks to my buddies on the Rochester NY Etsy Street Team (RNEST), I finally made it to a monthly RNEST meeting. One of our members, Chrys from aDifferentView, still needed some folks for b’Zart: a community celebration & art/craft sale to benefit Golisano Children's Hospital.

b’Zart is not going to be a stuffy “black tie” fundraising event. This is a party! I love that when I go to “work” I’m really going to big parties!

Expect an evening of festivities and entertainment, complete with drink specials, skee-ball, and darts. Skee-ball!! They are also offering a raffle with great prize packages; all ticket proceeds to benefit the hospital. I put a domino pendant into the raffle. Really, isn’t that all the incentive you need?

Several of my crafty RNEST pals will be there along with local musicians. It’s going to rock!

Come get your Tiny Works of Awesome from In My Head Studios!

b'Zart

Saturday, May 28, 2011

5 – 11 PM

The Firehouse Saloon

814 S. Clinton Ave (corner of Meigs St)

Rochester, NY 14620

15% of In My Head Studios’s sales will benefit the Golisano Children's Hospital

I'm giving out a secret coupon code for b'Zart on the In My Head Studios Facebook page sometime this week. "Like" me and you'll get it as an update!

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I am humbled and honored to be invited again to be at reHatched: Female Artist Showcase Series on Saturday, June 4th at Tango Café. Amanda has a great line up of female musicians, poets, and artists. I thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment at the last reHatched show I did. It’s well worth the ticket price, which also gets you into another upcoming reHatched event. So it’s two for one!

reHatched: Female Artist Showcase Series

Saturday, June 4, 2011

7 – 10:30 PM

Tango Cafe

389 Gregory Street

Rochester, NY 14620

$10 pre-sold tickets*, $12 at the door*

*Please contact me at inmyheadstudios[at]gmail.com to purchase your pre-sale tickets.*

*Ticket sale includes (1) complimentary glass of house wine (red or white), free admission to (1) additional upcoming reHatched Event (the first Saturday of each month through September), AND a jam packed evening full of live entertainment and art from some of the area's most talented women*

I just might give out another secret coupon code for reHatched on the In My Head Studios Facebook page sometime next week. "Like" me and you'll get it as an update if I do!

Start supporting your community by supporting your fellow local artists, musicians, and poets. It not only helps them keep doing what they love, but it really does bring money to our area by creating small indie businesses and jobs.

I'll see you Saturday!

- Vickie

Double Your Fun! : A Giveaway!

I am super thrilled to announce another event I’m doing with my local Etsy Team*, the Rochester New York Etsy Street Team (RNEST)! We are a group of artisans living in or around Rochester, NY, joined in a common cause, creating handmade items that we share with the world in our Etsy shops. This is a fantastic group of folks to work with. They are fun and knowledgeable about the business of handmade. Plus they are seriously generous! There is a giveaway on our team blog every week!

Michelle from The Quilted House and I decided to double-team y’all for the holidays. We are offering a great big giveaway! A full gift ensemble… wrapping included!

I am giving away a domino pendant in one of my favorite designs – the “Home Sweet Home Nesting Bird Collage” Altered Domino Fine Art Pendant.

The collage on this domino pendant is a print of a larger work of art that I made specifically for my domino jewelry. The original is 6” x 3”, about the same proportion as a domino but bigger. I sent the edge of the house layer through my sewing machine and am delighted that the detail of the stitching came through in the tiny print on the domino. The text “home sweet home” is itty bitty text cut out, backed with red cardstock, and glued to the little print. It has quite a lot of dimension for being so small.

The winner gets their choice of black waxed cotton cord, ball chain, or ribbon for the necklace as well as their choice of length for the necklace. Keep reading for the details about how to enter the contest.

Plus, through December 31st, entering the coupon code RNESTROCKS will net you 10% off everything in my Etsy shop! [Shipping deadline for Christmas is December 20, 2010] 

Michelle, as you can maybe tell from the name of her shop, The Quilted House, loves quilting. She loves to create useful quilted items such as qPouches for your music player, gorgeous notebook and journal covers,  and awesome stockings and ornaments that are beautiful and will make you smile every time you use them. Her shop is currently chock full of fun items for the holidays and beyond!


 

She is giving away a cute little quilted mini gift tote! This little quilted gem is the perfect size to hold a few truffles and a gift card, earrings, a ring box, or the fabulous domino pendant you just won. The recipient can then reuse it the next time a gift-giving occasion arises - the gift that keeps on giving! How cool is that?!

I can personally attest to the precision with which Michelle creates her works of quilted awesomeness. I’ve never seen such neat and tidy seams and hems! Don’t get me started about her folded corners on her line of jotters! Whoa! You cannot go wrong with purchasing a bevy of gifts from her shop!

The coupon code RNESTROCKS will give you a 10% discount in The Quilted House, too!

Ok! So you are saying, “Shut it already! How do I win this pot of gold??”

Go to the Rochester NY Etsy Street Team blog and get the details, which involve the usual things like hearting my shop, following the RNEST blog, and bonus entries for tweeting and blogging the giveaway. The winner will be chosen using the random number generator on Tuesday, December 14th and will be announced in the next Wednesday Wellspring on the RNEST blog on December 15th.

Good luck! I can't wait to see who wins! I get excited about giveaways! 

Happy Holidays!!

- Vickie


*What are Etsy Teams? They are an Etsy.com community feature where one can gather at the crossroads of the handmade marketplace and community, meet people with common interests, and collaborate. The Teams feature makes it easy for you to join an existing team or to create, maintain, and promote a new one. It's also a way for shoppers to browse by theme or location and find shops that might interest them.

Where Did the Last 30 Days Go?

Busy! Busy! Busy! And none of it was so interesting that it got a blog post! You know, the ho hum of everyday. Maybe I don’t see the interestingness for all the doing that gets in the way. So I guess you want an update on things seeing as it has been a month since we last met? Where have I been? What have I been doing?

A couple days after the show at St. Rita’s last month my dad had emergency surgery. Big, major, scary surgery. It went as planned but there have been a few complications. But Dad is now doing super-duper well after all the surgery and poking and testing. He is staying here with Mr. M and I for a bit. To be truthful, I like having Dad stay here with us. I get to hug him whenever I want and spoil him a little. He deserves it. He’s an awesome dad!

I get a lot of my craftiness from him. He makes things, too, but in a much larger scale. His skill in restoring antique cars and hot rods is stunning. He does it all old-school with steel sheet benders, welding, and paints them himself. You don’t find that much anymore. We have been hatching plans to restore a little MG he has hidden away. Of course, I want to make everything we would need from scratch, but he is experienced enough to know that is not practical if we ever want to finish it. C’mon! It’s a giant art project!! On wheels!

Other than that I have just been making “Tiny Works of Awesome” for shows. That’s my new slogan. Do you like it?

Way more custom orders came in this year than last and caught me off guard. Those are taking a little longer to finish than I hoped they would, but only because I want them to be my best work for my customers, and I am taking care of my dad at the same time.

If you are considering a custom order for this holiday, I encourage you to hop on it very quickly. I am only taking custom orders until December 6th in order to assure on time holiday delivery.

The photo up top on this post is a new work of mine. Trying the steampunk thing. She has a lot of little details like tiny watch parts, beads, washers, mini brass lock nuts, and brass nails. This one sold at my last show, but I am taking orders for more like her. Let me know if you dig it and want one.

Want to shop in person with In My Head Studios? I love to meet people at craft shows! My next show (and possibly the last show of the season):

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Irondequoit High School’s Arts & Crafts Sale

10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Irondequoit High School

260 Cooper Rd


Rochester, NY 14617

Craft Show Happenings

Yesterday kicked off the 2010 craft show season for me and I think Rochester, NY in general. “What?” you say. “A show on a Monday?” Yep. It was Columbus Day and many folks had the day off. The turnout was actually quite good! We did really well, I am happy to report!

And I must say that is a good thing because I worked my butt off this week, as did my mom and Mr. M to get ready for this show. My pals Heather and Maggie also worked like little elves for me, too. With all the health issues going on and the memory problems associated with them I forgot to really look at inventory early enough. The inventory box contained a little less than I thought it did. So a slight mad scramble ensued. I cranked out tiny art. Mom sealed the dominoes. Heather and Maggie put on the cord findings for pendants. Mr. M ran ribbons for domino ornaments. It’s nice to have minions really good helpers!

However, the stress of putting in 15-hour days all week got to me and I crashed hard Sunday night incapacitated in bed in pain. Mom, Mr. M and Heather were left with the final packing of all the show items. Thankfully I made good lists so it was slightly easier on them. I wanted to cancel the show if I could not finish it all myself. I’m sick of everyone picking up the pieces when I become ill. But they throw the “Well, if it was one of us, wouldn’t you pack up our show for us?!” Uh, yes. Absolutely. Yes, I would. Hands down. No question. But for some reason, the same just does not apply to me. Hmmmm… Baggage claim! Aisle 3!!

What I really needed was sleep. Mr. M and Mom set up the booth at 8:00 AM by themselves. They are pros at it by now. I slept in and Mr. M picked me up a bit later. This worked out well because this show was a long day, not ending until 7:00 PM. See what a lovely job they did setting up?

We have Halloween on one end of the table, Scrabble tile pendants and domino pendants in the middle, then checker and domino key chains, and Christmas domino ornaments at the other end of the table. Sales were a pretty even mix between all of them except the key chains. Not one sold.

I always look forward to the first holiday season show so I can catch up with my craft show buddies. It’s an awful lot of fun to be on the vendor side of the table!

Upcoming 2010 Shows

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Victor PTSA Arts & Crafts Show

9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Victor Intermediate School

953 High Street

Victor, NY

More information about the show

Saturday, October 23, 2010

St. Rita’s Craft Sale

9:30 AM – 4:00 PM

St. Rita School

1008 Maple Drive

Webster, NY

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Mayday Underground

10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Village Gate Square

274 N. Goodman St

Rochester, NY

The first 50 shoppers will receive a free swag bag!

Mayday Underground Flyer

maydayunderground.wordpress.com

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Irondequoit High School’s Arts & Crafts Sale

10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Irondequoit High School

260 Cooper Rd


Rochester, NY

We Have A Winner!

I’m pleased as punch to announce that Samy was randomly drawn as the winner of my “Sophisticated Squares” Altered Domino Pendant!! Congratulations!!

The Rochester NY Etsy Street Team, a local Etsy Team for Rochester and the surrounding area, hosted the contest. There were more than 60 entries! It was such fun all week to meet new people and get some good feedback about my work.

Samy is also known as PrincessSamy and PSVintage. Delightful vintage goodies fill her Etsy shop. She says to “Think of her as your very own personal shopper, sorting through all of the ‘blah’ to get to the ‘ooh lala’.” Who couldn’t use a little more “ooh lala”?!

Where else can you find Samy? Looky below! Links!!

Shop: PrincessSamy.etsy.com
Twitter: twitter.com/psvintage
Blog: samyinwonderland.blogspot.com/
Facebook: facebook.com/ PrincessSamyVintage

A Handmade Giveaway!

I want to thank everyone who has commented and/or emailed me about the piece Kathleen Landers did about me in The Examiner on Monday. So much crafty love coming my way! I’m delighted!

Now I get to spread the love to you! The Rochester NY Etsy Street Team (RNEST) is holding a giveaway on their blog for one of my new domino pendants! How cool is that?!

About the prize:

This altered domino pendant is part of a new line I have launched. I created several pieces of artwork in the same proportions as a domino but on a larger scale – about 6 inches tall. Then I do some pixel pushing magic and print the art very tiny to be put on a domino. An eclectic mixture of color and texture makes this particular domino pendant stylish, classy, and chic.

The wood domino measures 1 3/4 inches (4.4 cm) tall, 7/8 inch (2.2 cm) wide, and 5/16 inch (8 mm) thick.

The necklace:
• YOUR CHOICE of length of black cotton cord (i.e. 16” or 18” or any length you want!)
• Domino hangs on a silver-plated bail
• Necklace closes with a silver-plated lobster clasp

You can see a close up shot of the original artwork on my flickr site.

I love this process as it gives me the ability to create very meticulous work that keeps its detail when scaled down. You can even read the words from the text I used for the larger collage in the smaller print!

So head on over to the RNEST blog and make your comments for entries!

How the contest works:

ENTRY #1: Go to In My Head Studios’ Etsy shop, heart the shop, and then leave a comment on the RNEST blog telling Michelle your favorite item.

ENTRY #2: Become a follower of the RNEST blog and leave a comment there letting Michelle know - or if you follow already, leave a comment saying you're a loyal follower.

In addition, there are at least 6 other chances for extra entries such as answering a trivia question about me, becoming a follower on my blog, Twitter, and Facebook page.

The winner will be chosen using the random number generator on Tuesday, June 22nd and will be announced in the next “Wednesday Wellspring” post on the RNEST blog.


Many thanks go out to Michelle of The Quilted House for organizing the RNEST giveaway and blog post! I love our local Etsy Street Team! So much support and information gets shared in this group. The RNEST Team, in my opinion, is an indispensable resource for Rochester, NY Etsy sellers. If you are from the greater Rochester area please feel free to contact our leader Linda at her Etsy shop for more information on joining.

Happy Giveaway! Can't wait to see who wins!

Still Time to Ship for Christmas!

This Paris Postage Altered Domino Pendant is one of my very favorite designs. At the home jewelry show I did at my sister’s house it sold right off my neck. So I knew I had a winner! I made two more this past week. One sold out of my shop in less than four hours. Have not had that happen before! I went to go check on the views on it and it was gone! I still do the Happy Dance of Joy when I make a sale!

The comment the buyer wrote humbled me: “This is a gift for my mother -- she loves Paris and spent hours playing dominoes with my grandmother, who died last year at the holidays. So this is a perfect gift. Really need to have in time for Christmas! Thank you!”

The "perfect gift"! I love hearing things like that! (Do not worry! You will have it in time! I shipped it yesterday!)


There is still one in stock so if you want it, don't delay! The domino is very vintage. The dots on the back are nice and big and have a rich patina on the off-white color.

Right now through December 20th I’m offering free worldwide shipping! Deadline for orders to be shipped in the US in time for Christmas is December 20th so I can get it in the mail to you by the Post Office’s cut off of December 21st. It’s currently too late for on time delivery outside the US but a late gift is better than no gift! ☺

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade inmyheadstudios.etsy.com