Index-Card-A-Day 2013: Week 2 & 3 Catch Up

June was a whirlwind month. It was filled with sunny days, warm nights, and healing from gallbladder surgery. Yuck. I think I'm finally turning the corner on healing from that. No longer does every move or breath make me wince in pain. A dinner of steak and tater tots didn't have me wailing for death. Good times! I'll take 'em!

Without further ado, I present my week 2 and 3 Index-Card-A-Day work (even though we are already in week 7 of the whole thing).

The purple and pink card above (6-12-13) was started with fiber paste. I don't really know what this stuff is, but I like it a lot. It's weird... pasty yet sort of smooth, really sticky, and really fun. The texture it imparts is to-die-for. After that dried, I added some paint, handmade stamps, and flicked white paint on it. I used another handmade stamp on some Gelli™ prints - the flowers - and cut those out. The leaves and stems are also Gelli™ prints. 

  

These three pretty ladies are drawn with ink. I decided it was toooooo fussy to color in. 6-9-13

Insert the gallbladder surgery derailment that sent my summer plans spilling all over the tracks. 

These flowers (6-15-13) were given to me by the nurses on my floor who felt bad I was so very sick after surgery and had migraines on top of it. I didn't get any index cards done in the hospital so the rest of the cards in this post (except the last one) were done as I convalesced at my mother's house with limited art supplies.   

Red Haired Woman: 6-16-13: Marker, watercolor, colored pencil, gel pen on 3" x 5" index card. (I need to work on my proportions!)

Patio Table Texture Zentangle: 6-17-13: gel pen on 3 x 5" index card. This is the pattern on my mother's metal patio table. I took a rubbing of it with the side of a pencil then drew over that in blue. I erased the pencil and added more lines.

Feather Mandala: 6-20-13: Marker and gel pen on 3" x 5" index card. All I have at my mom's to work with are my nieces' art supplies - markers, watercolors, and colored pencils. Oh, and a lot of time on my hands to get fussy.

Dreamcatcher: 6-21-13: pen, marker, gel pen. This continues the healing theme I'm drawn to right now. Plus I wanted to better learn how to draw a dreamcatcher.

Find Your Bliss: 6-22-13: Gelli™ print, acrylic paint, markers, gel pens, paint pen on 3" x 5" index card. Oh, my sweet art supplies! At last, I am home from my mother's house. This card started as a Gelli™ print that I did a few weeks ago to have backgrounds ready. I doodled and stamped all over it. I went back over the black stamping with gel pens to add details. This one is a little too busy for my taste. I think I was glad to have my supplies at the ready and threw everything within reach at it. 

Index-Card-A-Day 2013 is soon drawing to a close. I will keep posting my cards until I am caught up, which actually may take a couple weeks after ICAD is officially over as I kind of lost a few weeks to surgery. Employing some radical self-love and artsy boundary loosening is very forgiving! Try it!

- Vickie

"Summer Evening" Gelli Print

Since my Artist Spotlight post went up at Gelli Arts' Facebook page I've had some inquiries into how I've created some of these prints. Several people had questions regarding the vibrancy of my prints. How do I do it?

To be honest, I'm not completely sure. I really had to go back and almost dissect my work to produce an answer. 

Right now my best "guess" is using color theory to not layer colors over each other that produce muddiness (like putting a bright yellow over a purple because red + blue + yellow = mud). 

I use rather bright paint colors to begin with. As with any kind of paint the colors vary in opacity and translucency. Knowing your paint helps a lot. 

Let's take a look at my "Summer Evening" gelli monoprint.

I will freely admit much of this print is a happy accident. This piece was very experimental from the start except for the leafy vine stencil I cut freehand. 

The first layer of paint is a dark cranberry purple -  Yes, I know I just ignored the suggestion above about putting those colors in a bottom layer. Experimental, remember? 

The large circles, when wiped out with my finger and a paper towel, looked really nice with how organic the edges became when printed. 

I added a little fuchsia over that cranberry purple. You can see in the wiped out circles the little lines and squares of fuchsia. 

I wanted a lot of color and layers under the vine to create a lot of dimension. Intending to just print on the left side under where I planned to put the vine stencil, I inked up my gelli plate with yellow. While printing the left side of the piece, the right edge of the paper fell out of my hand and into the yellow paint. EEEK!

Mud! Instant muddy brown. What to do?! Grab a baby wipe!

I figured there was enough paint on the paper already that it would hold up to a wet wipe down. When I wiped away the yellow paint it left this glowing, bright yellow orange behind. The fuchsia and yellow created this color in the white space of the wiped out circles. So basically this side of the print received a yellow color wash. Nice happy accident! 

Incidentally, you can see how awful that yellow muddied things up if you look in the upper right corner of the piece. There is some of that yellow that I didn't wipe off. (I suppose if I wasn't going for bright colors and wanted brown I would have been satisfied with that yellow.)

I printed a thick layer of turquoise while masking out the vine with my hand cut stencil. Then I used a handmade stamp over that with more fuchsia. Several more handmade stamps, some stenciling with punchinella, and some white gel pen brought the piece together.

Ta da!

Working on this piece got my brain wondering how color washes over prints would look. I added Distress Stains over some parts of other prints, and it looks really cool. Adds a pop the piece didn't have before. I also seem to have a thing against white space. I love full blown color all over. I made some prints on paper I covered completely in Distress Stains and watercolor. 

Color washing first also helps me avoid the "white blank page" staring contest. It's already started! All I'm doing is adding to it, I tell myself reassuringly. 

I would love to share in the joy of your happy accidents! Link up to your posts about them in the comments, please!

- Vickie

Challenge! Index-Card-A-Day 2012

I am jumping into the water over at DaisyYellow for the 2012 Index-Card-A-Day Challenge! What am I talking about? Here are the details!

The 2012 Index-Card-A-Day challenge runs June 1 to July 31, 2012. Make something on an index card every day for 61 days. If you start after June 1st you do not need to catch up, really, truly, seriously, just start. This is not a fancy schmancy challenge. You don't have to be on twitter or flickr or facebook or have a blog. Just index cards!

61 days, you say? That sounded like quite the commitment... until I realized...

It doesn't have to be the Mona Lisa every day for 61 days!  

Just do something!

Well, that sounds better. All I have to do is SOMETHING. Particularly a 3" x 5" something on an index card - because that's the size I have handy. And, since I am working on practicing more kindness towards myself, there will be no beating up of my self-esteem if I miss a day. (Got that, brain? I'm talking to you.)

I can always catch back up. After all, this is a CHALLENGE! So, yeah, it's sort of going to be a challenge for me to spit out something everyday - especially on days where I can't even lift my own head. 

Plus I am starting late due to my vacation and I absolutely do not feel the need to try to catch up on 7 cards unless the mood strikes me. And that's OK! 

The card pictured above is my card for yesterday - Saturday, June 9, 2012. It was created with watercolor, colored pencils, inks, stamps, stencils, and a bit of gel pen. I like the colors on this one. It had me craving mango smoothies later that night! 

   

My Index-Card-A-Day 2012 for June 8, 2012. Created with watercolor, Pitt pens, and Copic marker. I intended to keep this one simple to start with, but the juicy watercolors were calling me and I painted this with a small waterbrush. Now I am glad I took the extra time on it.  

An amazing number of folks are getting involved! Check out the flickr group! 

I hope you will join us! Get your friends and family involved - even if it's for just one card. You will most certainly have a fun time with them making art!

I am now off for a lazy Sunday with Mr. M and hopefully more mango smoothies!

- 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  

NEW! This Time of Year: Artist Cards, Editions & Originals

New in my Etsy shop! It's an Artist Card, Edition & Original (ACEO)! Isn't she a cutie-pie?!

This ACEO is an original, mixed media collage. It is made with paper, vintage lace, digital photos, machine sewing, a hand painted background, and text from a vintage book. The crown and wings have sparkly glitter on them. The card measures 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches - about the size of a baseball card.

This is one of one (1/1) in this set. You are getting an original, one of a kind ACEO. Signed by the artist, Victoria Porter (me!), on the back and dated 1/15/10. It will be shipped via USPS First Class in a protective sleeve with hard backing to prevent bending. The copyright symbols and letters do not appear on the actual card.


ACEOs are a fun and affordable way to collect art from your favorite artists. They are suitable for framing and make great gifts!

I'll be coming out with many more so stay tuned! I love making these!

I can make custom fairies from digital photos of your little sweeties if you like. Shoot me an an email at inmyheadstudios {at} gmail.com.

Craft Shows Galore

I’m sure you’ve been waiting with bated breath for the craft show update. So wait no more!

This year I signed up for three craft shows in the span of two weeks. Crazy, I know. But we pulled it off. The first was at St. John’s of Rochester, the second was a fundraiser for the Victor PTSA, and the third was at St. Rita’s School. It was our first time at all of these show so I didn’t really know what to expect. All three were very well attended. Overall, I am extremely pleased with how we did.

I was honestly surprised to have gotten in to the St. Rita’s show, as it’s one of the biggest, most well attended craft shows in town. As a jewelry vendor we sometimes don’t get spots because the jewelry spots get filled up early. Maybe it’s because my jewelry isn’t beaded whatnots… it’s different. We were also extremely lucky to have gotten a spot in the gym. Some vendors were in these tiny classrooms. They had three or four booths in these rooms and if there were more than five or six shoppers in the rooms you couldn’t walk around. So I think the traffic in the classrooms wasn’t as good as in the gym.

The location of our spot was excellent - in the middle of a short aisle near the back door where people were coming in. It’s always good to be near an entrance, I think. Spot location is a big factor in your sales totals! We had our best show total ever at this show – beat our last one by a whopping 33%!

My booth consists of domino pendants, Scrabble tile pendants, domino Christmas ornaments, and a few checker keychains. The feedback from customers and the just-looking folks was great. I lost count of how many times I heard the word “clever” about my work! Several shoppers also placed custom orders in addition to their purchases.

The craft show business is still new to me. This is only our second holiday season doing this. I still get all ecstatic that people like my work enough to part with their cash for it. My feet have not really touched the ground yet after the last show. Words cannot do justice to the feeling of gratitude I have for being an artist and all the good stuff it brings my way. People like my work and took it home with them and are giving it as gifts to people they care about. How cool is that?!

We have one more show this year unless I can squeak into something else. Our next show will be at the Irondequoit High School on Cooper Road on Saturday, November 28th from 10 AM to 4 PM. Hope to see you there!