The penguin doesn’t like me..

I had been thinking about talking today about how much I like using Linux. The thing is, I’m not so much actually feeling the love today. I’ve been using the penguin for about two years and there are a bunch of things I really like about it. I think that the concept of an open source, free operating system that is out to make computers more accessible to the whole world is a great thing. I’ve also really liked not having to worry much at all about viruses or put up with anti-virus programs. I’ve found the suite of office, music and photo programs all do what I need and are just as easy (or easier) to figure out than Windows. The big drawback is that I haven’t been willing to put the time in to get any of the bigger computer games I like to run. I think that might actually be a good thing, since it means that I’m forced to actually work when I’m here, in the store. ) All in all, I’ve been pretty happy with it. The reason the love is a bit tarnished at the moment is that I just went ahead and did the suggested upgrade to the newest version and it hasn’t gone all that smoothly. The biggest hurdle was that the screen display was so mangled it wouldn’t even show me the button I needed to fix it! Now that’s fixed but we’re still having some trouble with getting the wireless back up. It will be resolved, by us or by us calling a professional (Nerds on Site has been great about helping us out and they know their way around Linux) to take care of the problem. In the meantime, I’ll have to upload these entries from another machine, so I’m likely to be posting a little later than usual.

wooden rulers

One of the areas of functional vintage that especially appeals to me is that of workman’s tools. I recently found a group of old rulers.

vintage folding ruler

Most are the various sizes of the four-bar wooden and brass folding type. A range of companies made them; Lufkin, Rabone and Stanley are some of the ones we have. (It’s funny that Stanley is the name I’m most familiar with, as ruler makers, since theirs seem to be the lower end ones of the group) I love the look of the old wood and the patinaed brass. They are typically made up of four bars of (usually boxwood, in the higher end ones) a dense wood with brass hinges that allow it to unfold until you achieve four times the original length. They are just such an elegant way to do your measuring that I know I’ll end up having one out for use while framing. A couple are not intact and I’m likely to use them in some art pieces down the road. I don’t want to take apart any of the intact ones so it’s good that some are already in pieces. I think part of the appeal is the idea that they would have been used, by students or craftsmen and it’s always fun to imagine the histories they might have had.

Promotional photos

There is a great deal of information and guidance about how to promote yourself as an artist to be found though talking to people on Etsy.

Me!

One of the things they recently suggested was to make sure that you have print quality photos of yourself as well as some “artist at work” pictures. The idea is that if anyone wants to a do a feature on you then the pictures are on hand so there will no delays, or need for a photographer to come out. (it helps you make that tight deadline!) I am not very photogenic and did not have anything from the last 5 years that I’d feel comfortable sending out and had no “at work” shots at all. When I went to visit my good friends D and P this weekend I asked D if he’d be willing to take a few for me. I knew if anyone could make me look good, it would be him. We did a series of fairly standard head-shots, (the one here is my favorite, in the black and white. I think I like the colour a bit better but it’s one of the ones he posted) a few framing ones, and then some of me at work on a mask. I love them! He’s posted a few on his blog, Zoe’s Daddy. (there you can also get a better feel for the amazing range of photo work he does. I especially love his macro garden pictures) Now I know that if I ever need them, I’ve got some great promotional shots all ready to go.

prepping for the shows

The Stratford Festival season may be almost over but things are still busy for us. The next two weekends running we will be doing craft shows.

vintage silver flower light string

The first one is only the one day, Saturday and it’s pretty small-scale. The the bigger one is the Stratford Rotary Craft Show and it will run for the whole weekend. I’m actually glad that we’ll be doing both because the smaller one gives me a chance to ramp up for the larger and to try out some booth options we’ve been thinking about. The first one is our local Zehr’s market, in a lovely space they designed for offering cooking classes. It’s very bright and open but I’m not sure how much traffic we’ll see. The other good thing about this show is that we’re able to offer some of the vintage decorations we’ve collected. One of the things I’m working on this week is to make sure that they are all clean, tagged and ready to go. A few need some small repairs and it’s good to get those out of the way now. I’ve also started listing some of the ones we’ll be putting up on Etsy as well. (like the vintage light string in the picture) It feels a bit strange to be decorating a christmas tree so early, but that’s how it goes in a retail shop. At least we saw our first bit of snow yesterday. It didn’t stick around, but it was definitely snow

french pottery?

One of the aspects of dealing with vintage is that we often are not one hundred percent certain about where a piece is from and, sometimes,

small painted mold

what it is. This little mold is a case where we’ve had to make some guesses as to its history. It’s fully glazed earthenware pottery that was clearly cast from a mold (but it has excellent workmanship and no seam lines, from the mold are present) and then hand painted before being sealed. There are no makers marks or stamps on it but the style of the painting seems to indicate that it might be out of France. The style is consistent with some of the southern designs and it could even be from Provence. It is fully sealed, so it could be used as an actual cooking mold, but, not being totally sure about the food safety of the glazes, I probably wouldn’t. It is very decorative, with the lovely painting, and it has a small hole near the edge that allows it to be easily hung for display. I expect it is a smaller version of a larger, functional type of piece that was made to be put out for show. I think it would make a fun addition to any kitchen decor.

NaBloPoMo

I’m not a writer. Okay, so I’ve been managing to keep up with this blog, but I don’t think of myself as a writer. This really is more of a journal than what I would consider genuine creative writing. As a non-writer

birch bark mask, Yeti

I’ve watched the whole Nano event with a bit of envy. (it’s where writers sign up to write a novel length work during the month of November, quantity is what counts, quality can be fixed later) What I liked about the event is that it pushes an idea that I believe in; practice is vital. Several years ago I read Stephan Kings On Writing and I found it had advice that works in any sort of artistic endeavor. He says that the most important thing to do, if you want to be a writer is to write. I’ve found it to be the same in my own work. You have to make the stuff. It made it easier for me to accept that the the first few attempts at something will likely not be what I want or intended. It takes a while for the hands to learn how to do something new and doing anything is better than sitting around waiting for that perfect moment of inspiration. In the spirit of keeping up with the doing, I’ve signed up for NaBloPoMo. It’s NaNo for bloggers. The premise is simple to blog every day and since I already try to do that,  except for Mondays, it seem like a doable challenge. We’ll see how it goes.

In other news, my mask Yeti, was part of a birch bark feature on Caleb and Emily Deigns‘ blog. (he also made it to the Etsy front page, a while ago!)

Pumpkin lanterns

It turns out that we don’t seem to get many trick or treaters here. I only had a couple here through the day and the parentals said less than twenty showed up at our house,

all three squashes

through the evening. I was away handing out goodies at D and P’s house. (we only had around thirty kids, but it was still a fun time) We have a set of wrought iron plan stands that fit the two larger pumpkins perfectly so, after closing, they were taken from the store and used by our house, to show that we were open to candy hunters. I had done a test lighting of them the night before,

sugar skull closeup

(and the winds were very high so getting them lit was challenging) and I think something stronger than candles is needed to show all the details. The first photo is of the whole group. I was a bit disappointed in how they looked lit. The dragon’s mouth mostly disappeared and the fins didn’t show up well. (and he can barely be seen here) Jack looked good, except that, if I ever try one of him again, I’ll have to cut the mouth a bit wider all the way across because the light didn’t shine through and show the sides. The carving of the sugar skull could be partially seen and I like how the teeth looked. I’m looking forward to next year and hope then I’ll be able to get around to some of the things I didn’t get to try this year. Now, it’s time to get geared up for the holidays!

 

 

All Hallow’s Eve

So it’s Halloween. The day is very gray and the wind is high, but it’s warm. I’m wearing pirate gear (I love the masks but wearing one all day, not so comfortable)

our mostly naked tree

and we have a big bowl of goodies for anyone who stops by. Our big maple has managed to lose almost all of its leaves over the last day and night. It looks like one more round of raking should take care of cleaning up the rest of the fallen ones. Next year we’ll be setting up a couple of leaf compost hoops, but for this year, the leaves have been taken to the municipal yard waste pile. Speaking of Halloween, the masks have been making appearances around the blogosphere. I did an interview with the ladies of Suavoce for their “Friday Fantasy” feature. I love how they made my own pictures look even better! You can see it here. Andrea at Beadmask has a couple of entries showing a couple of mask treasuries we were both included in. (here and here) Treasuries are a neat part of the Etsy experience, but they are short-lived so I’m happy she has permanent copies, showing. I’ve also got a couple of masks making an appearance in a group of beautiful glam images on Loliblog. The only problem is that they used the back shots! *sigh* I include them because I want people to see my masks from all angles, not because I thought anyone would use them. I’m not sure how I feel about it, but I guess any publicity is good. Right?

Black mask ornament?

Now that Halloween is almost here I’ve been trying to look ahead, in terms of the Etsy shop. I took a ton of photos, over the past couple of days,

painted mask ornament

of the mask ornaments. I’ve also started back into making some new ones. I want to have them for the shop as well as for when we do the Rotary show. Considering how well people have responded to some of my different pieces I decided to included a not-very-traditional ornament in the lot. This is one that was done on the largest ornament form, painted, “tattooed” and then the details accented with iridescent paints. I’ve used the hand-drawn “tattoo” effect on a number of pieces. Some were leafed and a couple, like this one, were just painted after. It’s kind of nice not to be limited by what I have in lace and I also like that it feels a bit less formal. While I made the ornaments to go on trees or wreaths, most people have told me they were going to have them out all year-round. This one is really designed more for regular display then a holiday tree. I’m sure it would look terrific on a gothic/fantasy themed one, but I’m also sure it won’t get put away after the season ends!

more “Love”

This is the second of the garden art, key pieces I just finished. It also uses a vintage frame and is smaller than either of the blue ones are.

garden art, "Love is the Key"

I wasn’t a 100% positive that I could use this frame, I thought it might be too small. What I did was to cut the board for the back and laid the heart out first, to see if it would still fit and look balanced. Once I knew it would work, I went ahead with the painting and distressing. I’d found the tiny heart lock a few years ago and always knew I’d find something it would fit into. It’s the perfect scale for this piece and, while it’s still all bright and shiny, it should get a nice rusty finish fairly soon after it goes outside. Another different aspect of this piece is that I used a much heavier wire for attaching the keys and lock. The others have several loops of a thin, distressed wire. For this piece I used a single piece of very thick copper wire. It was harder to shape and attach but has much more presence and becomes an integral part of the design. It jumps out a bit right now, due to the colour, but it should oxidize through a great brown to a final verdigris.