So excited for upcoming Art in the Park festival!

This years Art in the Park is under new organization and I was fortunate enough to get in on a cancellation! I only have a week left to get inventory up to snuff in anticipation of the event. I have only about 5 nuno scarves on the go, plenty of scarf-lettes, some hats and I've recently been working on felted vessels and vase covers. Really nice....Drifting Saints are making a comeback as well, so we'll see what the next week brings. I've been experiencing RSI due to doing too much at once, so I'm giving myself lots of breaks and variations in my duties!
http://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3148131 This link is to a local paper advert for the upcoming show for those that aren't local to the event!
I'm going to upload my recent videos too!

Hot and busy Summer!

Wow! Can't believe August is coming to a close already! Crikey! I haven't blogged in awhile and I've been wanting to, but as usual, I get distracted! First show of the summer was very nice, not much in the way of sales, which part of the reason was I was not able to showcase/sell my jewelry line because of the over abundance of jewelry artists, so I had to build up my inventory on my hand painted silk scarves and felted items. I also re-purpose vintage wool blankets/cloth into hats and booties etc. so I made some of those up too. My hats were popular as were my scarves.
There was really good energy at this show and I met some fantastic artists! Good networking!

I had another show within two weeks of this one and this time I showcased my jewelry, but there were very few people that came through the venue! The crowd was congregated too far away to be drawn toward the vendors and such! Too bad because I had made up a good number of my chakra bracelets and necklaces along with some amazing POG's that I had made up too.(Positive Orgone Generators are based on the principal of orgone technology by Wilhelm Reich. Orgone energy is also known as chi, ki, prana, life force, is the energy present within all objects. It surrounds us and is within us.)
Right now I am getting ready for one the big annual Art in the Park that is held every year the weekend after labor day. Unfortunately because I was a late registrant, I cannot do jewelry again! Just too many jewelry artists! Can you blame us for loving the bling?? :-)
The only down side to all this is I have major repetitive strain in my left arm right now, so I'm in a lot of pain and I'm trying to wet felt scarves and slippers!
I will post some pictures of the last two shows...but you can see some photos at my Facebook page and hopefully you'll

like

it! :-)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Patti-Cook-Mixed-Media-Arts/113872642030786?sk=photos Just click on the Art in the Park and that's the first show of the summer with my Scrum Sisters!

African Angels!

Well, not really, but I like to have titles with a ring to it, so this was fitting...who knows? I may end up calling them that anyway. Been wanting to make up some felted 'doll' pendants of a sort. I saw some really cute ones at a bead workshop and thought that I would do something a little different,I want my own artistic flair to it. So, I had sketched out some ideas and then thought of how much I love bright vibrant colors against a dark background, the way a lot of indigenous cultures do and then my thoughts went to traditional African kaftans and tribal dress. The women always look so beautiful and majestic in them, so, I am fashioning my doll pendants after various African attire! Here's a couple of pics I took prior to taking the video below it and a picture of my sketches I made of others based on some research I did regarding traditional African attire.

100_4418.MOV - Google Docs

This is my latest project (well, I've got a few going on) but I wanted to work on a small project/s this weekend and I thought that perhaps, I'll do my little felted ladies...I had some sketches and now I've got a series of colored pictures of African dress that I'm going to do...here's a quicky video of my first one.100_4418.MOV - Google Docs

Muscles I haven't used in a long time!

Whew! I've been going strong trying to get this Alpaca combed, cleaned and then ultimately felted! I have an upcoming show in July with my two other Scrum Sisters! The committee wouldn't accept my jewelry this year because they have "their quota" of jewelry artists! (These are also on the committee!) Good thing I'm a mixed media artist! I am going to focus on my felted works. I am doing some Nuno scarves, wall art, I even made a funky hat from a piece of an old wool blanket and merino wool roving. I have some wool blankets and thought to recycle them to be worn or enjoyed in some way again. Will post pictures. Been trying to find some free patterns for non-knitted hats! May just have to go in and look up some at the fabric shop. Dangerous place for me though, love to go in and come out with BAGS of purchases! ooooh, I best stay away for now, I was getting excited just writing about it. I found this amazing big old Canadian made woolen blanket a week ago at the local thrift shop. I will use it as a base for some small bags/purses and also woolen hats and arm warmers. I washed it in really hot water to get it a little more felted and I really like the thickness, it will make some warm head toppers! I will also be making some more mandala pendents/cuffs etc. as well as some goddess type pendants! After all the mystics are saying that we are moving into a more gentle feminine phase! This will give me a chance to slide in some jewelry pieces without being called jewelry! They didn't nix my felted cuffs! So, I'm bringing them too! My fellow Scrum Sisters also encouraged me to paint and add some of my "Drifting Saints" Driftwood pieces. Why not? Christmas in July!
Peace and love and all that gibbly stuff!

annamora

annamora
Love her photos! Rich in saturated colors of the area, plus my favorite CATS! love cats <3

jemARTS

Fine Art

This is my ArtFire account. They are great! I was going to sell on Etsy, however, to get started on the web, ArtFire was a better deal for me and they are really taking off! I got in for ~10 a month for their pro account and boy do they give a lot of perks. I can upload as many pictures of an item to sell as I want at no charge. Serious artisans should check this out too!

Mademoiselle Chaos: How to make yarn from fabric scraps

I googled a querie on how I can make my own fabric yarn (cost me much more than fancy yarns!) I found this amazing site! She's amazing and full of free advice and how-to's! Here it is: Mademoiselle Chaos: How to make yarn from fabric scraps

Good photography advice?

Well, I hope I can get enough folks to read my blog and give me some good advice on photographing my work without having to commission it out to a professional!  I am a starving artist here!  All my money went/goes into inventory/stock and there's not much for the marketing.  I have a great little Kodak easy share camera that takes pretty good shots and has a lot of settings on it, but like I said, I'm not proficient at taking good photos of my work yet.
Please post me or send me an email at pateos.place@gmail.com 

My Web sites where I have items for sale!

There are currently two places where I am featuring my items for sale.  My website and my Artfire Account.  I will most likely post on Etsy too as that is a household name for many folks looking for handmade arts and crafts.  You can also email me at either my personal account or my gmail account.  Thanks for looking!

This is the finished piece of a needle-felted mandala that I have been constructing. Didn't really know what direction to take with it, so I let it take me instead...this is what I ended up with! Artsy-Fartsy! This piece is actually a birthday gift I want to give to a great friend of mine. But I want to bring it out and see what the reaction to it is first, see if she really likes it and then I will sigh a big sigh and let her know I am super glad, because it's your birthday gift!  LOL

More felted mandala's (or medallions)

Here are pic's of some more mandala's that I have felted. Some will be further embellished with beads/stones and some will be left alone, however all of them will be incorporated into some form of wearable art!

I am also uploading pic's of some square mandalas that I put together with small wooden craft pieces that I found at hobby lobby and used resin to permanently adhere the pictures to the wood.  I have also used inks to 'color' in the sides of some and some I have left plain.  Those that will be made into a bracelet on their own, will be painted on the back side of the wooden piece, otherwise I'll leave them plain (maybe, depends on finished piece...:-)
Any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

This is one of many felted 'medallions' or 'mandalas' that I have made and am incorporating into wearable art! I work hardened and hammered a piece of 14 gauge copper and then took 22 gauge copper and wire wrapped complimentary colored beads to frame it all in. This will be a pendant portion of a necklace that I've envisioned. Hope it all comes together!

Twitter Account

If anyone wants to follow me on twitter, my twitter I.D. is @patehosplace

Here is a video showing a work in progress. I had beads on it and then took them off and changed it completely to add a felt flower instead.  I wanted to give it a 3D effect. I hope you enjoy it!

My best pal Cindy modeling my "Pink Cosmos" felted armband.

This is my pink cosmos close up.  Embellished with mother-of-pearl, fresh water pearls, jade lentil beads and various farafel iridescent beads Retail: $45 - Sold

This one I call "Rose Garden" embellished with organza's, wool rovings, silk tops and I added carved rose quartz leaves. Retail: $30

This is called "Secret garden", lots of embellished flowers made with various organza's, wool rovings and silk tops.  This to is embellished with Farafel beads. Retail: $30

This is called "Goldies Garden" and was a commissioned piece for a friends mother.  Suits her to a tee!  Carnelian, rubies, smokey quartz, coral, pearls and vintage glass blown beads. Retail: $75.00

This was made with Aquamarine hearts, nuggets and chips, vintage iridescent beads, fire swarovski, malachite, opal, carnelian. Scorpio girl. Retail: $35

Spunky -bracelet for a July birthday child. Made with faceted Carnelian and carnelian nuggets, cubed jade, faceted moonstone briolettes and lapis lazuli nuggets. Retail: $50

Bracelet made for a spunky Taurus gal. Features Blue sapphires faceted and round, faceted carnelian, Czech fire beads, Faceted crystal quartz and beautiful purple faceted Agate set in gold tone rings. I call it "Bali Dance!" Retail $35

Another variation of a Scorpio gal - deep and mysterious! This piece was made with pink tourmaline, aquamarine hearts, faceted aquamarine, opal, carnelian and vintage beads.  Finished off with a cute kitty charm for a fellow cat lover! Retail $50

Sumptuous sexy and sultry Libra!

 Made with Jade, smokey quartz, black and green moss agate, carnelian. Retail $50.00

Another September birthday bracelet (this gal in the latter part of the month which puts her under the Libra sign). Lovely Carnelian, Rubies, Chiastolite, Black Agate and small agate beads are used as well as Sterling Silver charms. this bracelet would retail $40.00

This convertible necklace was made for a gal that wears a lot of grays to work and she wanted something to compliment but to also have the metaphysical benefits of these stones too. Here is a necklace that is downright funky!  Made with black leather chording and 925 sterling findings a plethora of fine faceted and carved crystal and smokey quartz dominate this piece. There is rare white turquoise, shell, vintage stone beads, pearls and a single purple sugalite (very good for Virgos)The large portable pendant is a Drusy black Agate, just beautiful all by itself or with the rest of the gang! This necklace can be worn all together (the Agate hook onto the bottom ring) or it can be worn as a choker with the pendant alone. (shown below) This necklace would retail for $125.00

Detail of pendant as a choker. 

Blustery March Madness!

Brrr! the blustering, unpredictable moodiness of March, yikes! We've been up and below the freezing mark several times this last week, making roads treacherous to drive on. But fear not! All that means is that Spring is just around the corner! Yay! with the increased cost of utilities, it was getting expensive to heat up the ole place. My little cottage by the lake is not as pristine as these newer tighter homes!  Okay, I uploaded some pictures of jewelry, but was unsuccessful in posting to blog or to twitter!  I don't know why and I'm not sure what to do next, but I will continue on.  I'll just starting adding them here as I did with all the others. I hope that I can reduce them enough to fit onto this format.  I hope you enjoy them.  Please comment, I'd love to hear from anyone!

Uploading Jewelry for sale!

I've made some headways with uploading my photos to my google account. It's quite slick the way google has incorporated all this into one user id. Blog, mail and photo albums and with their software (or their partner's software) I can post to blog or twitter, great stuff!  I am hoping to upload more of my unisex necklaces, not sure what computer they were copied to (my laptop is much faster at processing these days than my "older" pc)
Anyway, I hope that I can configure my website that I have had for a year and have done very little to because it's very labor intensive, they don't make it easy to upload or even find my "administrators" page where I can do the editing. It's not a cut and paste either.  I used a generic template thinking that was easier, but it's not!
Oh well, perhaps I'll bite the bullet this weekend and "get er done!" Please leave me a comment if you have stopped by!

Art Cards doing well

Loving the feedback I'm receiving from those who purchased my VFF Art Cards!  I'm glad that I followed up on an idea.  I played with it until the final product, but that's usually the way it goes. I made 25 and have signed and numbered each one. I may do this every year, but not sure.  I had some ideas for Easter Art Cards, but my 'heart' is saying focus on Mother's Day. So that's where my creative juices will be focussed.  I do already have in the works my "Bracelets for Mum" series for our Mother's Day Art show and sale. I will have on hand a bracelet for every month of the year.  So, if your mum was born in January, that bracelet will encompass at least 5 of the stones identified for that month. I am also working on mixed media wearable art necklaces and bracelets.  I 'll be incorporating wool roving, ribbon, beads and semi-precious stones on arm and neck items, actually I have already done at least 6 of them and will upload the pics here as I have them on my PC, today I'm using my laptop at my BF house! Two of these are my personal ones. The first one I've called pink cosmos (my favorite drink too!) and the one I'm wearing one now I call "Orbs Are". My sweety and I are big into science, free energy, anomalies, the unexplainable etc. and right now we're fixated on these 'orbs' that this gal from Philadelphia  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYWhPolTrfk ) has been filming with her infra-red and night vision cameras.  These are NOT  'orbs' that have been captured by digital cameras...these are flashing flying orbs!  Too cool.  Any way, I made my bracelet in honor of them! :-)

Be My VFF! - Pictures

Here are the pictures I promised! I am showing the outside and the inside of each card.  I'm only uploading three as they are all similar but unique because each one is handmade, signed and numbered. There were only 25 art cards made, so be sure to get yours! They are 14.99 each plus shipping ($1.00 each plus .50 for each additional card)