Sara Naumann: In Pursuit of the Muse ~

This weekend I went to the Stitch, Hobby & Craft trade show in Birmingham, England. (Otherwise known as Stitches.) This show is a great place to catch up with what’s going on in the industry, talk to old friends and see what’s coming up in the market. I was glad to see people like Leonie Pujol and Amy Shaw and Tim Holtz, Sara from Crafter’s Companion and Leandra from PaperArtsy. I talked to stamp companies, magazine editors and (it seems!) everyone else!

(And although I was there in a professional capacity, I’ve now realized that I need—yes, need—Distress Paints and Distress Markers. And this Great Tape from USA Artquest, plus Paper Artsy’s Metal Card, Cosmic Shimmer and one each of all the new templates out there. In my dreams!)

Trends? Glimmer and shimmer mists, lots of masks and templates and very cool coloring options, from the aforementioned Distress Pens to Pebeo paints used in jewelry. I saw a lot of silhouettes on fabrics, bold citrus colors (a lot of orange and white), and of course UK-themed items in time for the 2012 Olympics.

I also took a seminar on trends from the lovely Stephanie Weightman, who talked about the popularity of flowers and floral imagery this year, the colors blue and turquoise, lace, birds and the grunge look going pretty with light pinks and pastels. I thought she was spot-on with her observations.

The show was great fun, and of course, being in the UK was lovely as always…book shopping (English language books at normal prices, yay!), Marks & Spencer Simply Foods, and of course, rain rain rain. (Plus a little snow.)

England is so civilized this way: You can always count on having a tea kettle and tea in your hotel room.

It’s good to be home, again, too, celebrating the very first birthday of Miss Anna!

Happy Wednesday!

I took this photo at an installation at the SMART Project Space—the exhibition has been replaced with a new one, but the theme here was Utopias, and this portion of the exhibit was a twist on the Andy Warhol notion of 15 minutes of fame.

Happy Friday! I’m off to the Stitches show in Birmingham (UK) tomorrow, can’t wait!

Hope you had a lovely Valentine’s Day—perhaps one that was a bit more romantic than mine…Keith is working on a massive project with a deadline presentation on Thursday, and Anna is on Day Four of her pink eye. I’m doing laundry 24/7 and sterilizing everything in a ridiculous (too little, too late) effort to keep the germs at bay.

Yes, it’s just roses and chocolates around here, I’m telling you.

Actually, I did want to share a couple of things with you that are love-themed: My mom, who makes beautiful stamped cards, sent Anna her first Valentine. Isn’t it sweet? And in the true spirit of grandmothers, Anna’s Valentine package included this card, plus three new outfits and a book called “Hug, Hug”.

My mom sent this sweet Valentine to Anna. (My mom makes amazing cards!)

The photo doesn’t do it justice, really—the shading on the mice is just perfect, and the hearts above their heads are accented with Diamond Glaze for very subtle dimension. Plus she’s an ace at getting those border punches to line up so perfectly.

Keith and I also got a card:

This is the card my mom made for Keith and me.

Oh—and here is the card I made with Anna, for Keith.

Anna's Valentine for her father. It says "I love you" in Dutch.

For this card, I wanted to make something with Anna (it’s never too early, is my philosophy) but she isn’t even a year old, so it’s not like you can just hand over the scissors. I thought the handprint would be something uniquely Anna, and make a good focal point. To make a card like this, you’ll need:

- Worn Lipstick Distress Ink

- Vellum

- Black and white cardstock; a blank white card

- Silver embroidery thread

- Black pen

- Clear tape

- A child

- Baby wipes out and ready

Just ink up Little One’s hand, press it onto the white cardstock, then lift and clean with a baby wipe right away. This is the only hard part of the card-making process—I said, “Good job!” which prompted Anna to clap for herself, then she made one of those sudden full-body twists only limber little kids can do.

Trim the handprint piece, write your message, and glue it to a piece of vellum. Tear the bottom edge and mat on black cardstock. Wrap with silver embroidery thread, securing the ends at the back with tape. Glue to a white card. Easy!

This weekend I’m headed to a trade show in Birmingham, England: the Craft Hobby & Stitch show, otherwise known as Stitches. It’s not open to the public—like the CHA show in California, this is for retailers and manufacturers and those doing business in the craft industry. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s new in the market, especially in stamps and mixed-media, and to see about any items I can use for the three (yes, three!) online classes I have planned with Creative Workshops for this coming year.

Wishing you a happy Wednesday!

Oh, mistakes…

I hope I’m not the only one out there who makes big fat, irreparable mistakes. (I’m specifically talking about mistakes in art—life mistakes are a totally different post!)

Last week I was working on some pendants as examples for my Narrative Jewelry class at Art & Soul in Virginia. Well, since I had the Ice Resin® all mixed and ready to use, I thought I should make as many things as I could, so I put together 5 pairs of earrings as well.

So the resin is mixed and the pendants and earrings are carefully balanced on level surfaces so they’ll cure properly. I pour and poke out the air bubbles, pour and poke and (as always) am totally amazed by the process. I set everything aside and go put together a vegetable lasagna for dinner.

Of course I check the pendants periodically to make sure no new air bubbles have come up. Everything looks really good, and I’m feeling pretty good myself.

Sample pendant for my Narrative Jewelry class—no bubbles, yay!

Another Narrative Jewelry piece—one students can make from the components in their kit.

A third Narrative Jewelry piece. This one is on a Scrabble tile. (I love the word "reverie"!)

Then, just before I have to go pick up Anna from nursery, I think to check the earrings. Now, the earrings are on ear wires, so I came up with a (genius!) way to let them cure: I used a piece of packing foam, and poked the ear wires into the side of the foam so they could rest levelly and not slide around.

Ear wires are poked into packing foam. Genius! (Well, unless you spill...)

Well, they didn’t slide around. They didn’t slide around because they were stuck to the foam. Resin is a glue, you remember, and apparently I hadn’t noticed that some of it had overflowed a couple of the bezels—not the fault of the resin, or the earring, just a mistake that I hadn’t noticed.

Anyway—so the minute I realized some of them were stuck, I had to prise them up off the foam without disrupting the others. Now, the resin sets up after 6 hours, and it had only been 4 hours since I poured them, so they were really sticky but not unmanageable. So in my panic, I grabbed a baby wipe (brilliant!) and started to wipe some of the resin from the back of the earring. You may never have noticed the little fuzzy fibers in a baby wipe before, but my sticky earring did—so then I had fuzzy sticky resin on the back.

A lovely pattern of resin on the back of the earring. This photo is after I frantically tried to remove it. Yes, resin is a glue.

And I had to go pick up Anna.

And the whole time I was trying to remove the resin, keep my eye on the clock, and noticing the UPS guy coming down the sidewalk and thinking please don’t ring my doorbell, I can’t answer it right now, I was kicking myself for not being more careful when I poured the resin into the bezel. Kick, kick, kick.

Okay, so here’s the status at the end:  Five pairs of earrings—with one ruined earring from each pair. Of course they were all different, too. They’re not unwearable…but they are unsaleable. So now I’ve got myself five lovely pairs of earrings. Actually, four. One of the earrings I accidentally touched the front part and basically squished my fingerprint into the resin. That’s when I said a lot of things I’m glad Anna wasn’t around to hear.

It was hard not to feel as though the day was wasted. I mean, that was my main project for the day and I blew it. And then I realized—well, the earrings are definitely not what I wanted, but my pendants did turn out just the way I wanted. And I’ll share the mistakes I made with my class so they can learn without learning the hard way.

Another thing? This pendant, made as a class example, is technically a mistake. I sealed the whole mini collage with Diamond Glaze, but I see that some of it didn’t take around the word, so it looks a bit mottled. And yet, I love it. So some mistakes are good! And others are…just, well, learning experiences.

Another mistake, technically—but I love the imperfections here!

The really ironic thing? My vegetable lasagna—a recipe I’ve been tweaking and refining for ages—turned out perfectly! Sigh.

No wonder my art supplies were frozen! It’s been cold around here—cold enough for people to skate and play ice-hockey on the canals.  I love how the sunset shines through the trees, and how the boats are frozen along the edges of the canal.

Happy Friday!