Trying out some new ideas..

I've always been fascinated with folk art primitives and Tim Burton type artwork, so I thought I'd give it a try. I would really like to see my clay go in that direction and incorporate it into my graphics. So, instead of talking about it, I created some "creatures" yesterday that I'm going to put on ebay and etsy. This is just the beginning of some of the ideas I have. Some of my inspiration also came from some old Halloween postcard graphics.

Although it's stepping out of my comfort zone, I really enjoyed making these. There were a little more time consuming. I baked them in different stages and added embellishments like wool, tissue paper and wings. But the process was inspiring for me and I like the end result. As I experiment with these, I'm sure the door to my imagination will swing right open. I just want to push myself to make a line of collectibles that are outstanding. Obviously, I have a ways to go, but it's a start.

Let me know what you think. I've just begun this process, so I'm a real novice. You won't hurt my feelings!..

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of my faithful followers and readers.

Many times this year I've mentioned that I've wanted to reinvent myself and over the last month many changes have started to take place towards that reinvention.

As many of you know, I am going to school, getting a degree in Graphic Arts. I've started to do more computer graphics and that has caused me to do less clay.

I've been "claying" since 1982 and although I'm not going to give it up completely, I am going to be doing more graphics. I even plan on using images of my clay in my graphics, so I won't be too far away from polymer! Along with the graphics I'm going to make art pins from clay to help supplement my income. I've started to work on some interesting pins and will be showing them soon.

I'm also going to start 2010 with a poster giveaway. So check back soon for those details.

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!

Craft show update

I did a craft show last Saturday at a local elementary school. I did about average for a school like that. I had a lot of snowmen and angels and people seemed to enjoy looking at them. Due to the economic nightmare in my area, I lowered my prices to $5 and $6 for a 3 inch clay baby.
This is the same price I was charging $20 years ago!! However, three older women commented that they didn't think they were worth $5.00 each. (true, people are that ignorant and rude)..99% of those that said anything were complimentary and nice.



I'm working on a few new things this week. Mostly pins to wear on jackets and coats. I also am trying out a new idea for personalized posters. I'll be posting those pictures soon. In the meantime, here are some things I've made recently and a picture of my display.

Polymer Clay Penguin Tutorial

For several years I've been making this cute little penguin on an ice cube. My design was published about 4 years ago in a craft magazine. I thought it would be fun to make a tutorial for it.

I used to get the ice cubes at a dollar store right around the corner. I haven't been able to find them there for awhile, but sometimes I luck out and get them at Michaels or Joanns. I haven't tried Hobby Lobby yet. Please let me know if there is anything unclear on the tutorial. I'm still trying to get the knack of movie maker! Thanks for stopping by. I'm slowly recuperating and anxious to blog more often. It's been a rough month, but I survived!

Card Stock

Here's a fun idea if you make polymer clay jewelry. I recently purchased a small book of glitter mat stack from Joanns crafts. They are 4.5" by 5". There are 72 papers and about 1/2 of them have glitter on them. The original price is $9.99 but I got them on sale for 40% off. I actually purchased two packs, one is called Glitter Sweet, and the other is Glitter Holiday. As you can see, I cut them in half or in thirds, depending on the size of my pins and they make a perfect card to pin them on. I was even inspired by some of the designs on the mat stack.

My plan was to use scalloped scissors to make them even more special, but I decided I like the crisp, straight edges. Next I am going to make tiny little labels with my business name, phone number and a price . I think I'll stick it on the back of the cards so it doesn't ruin the look of the card and the pin.

I'm not a scrapbooker but I love the papers and embellishments that can be found and I try to incorporate them into my business when I can.

Cake Toppers

I thought I would share the last two cake toppers I finished.

One is a baseball topper, the Chicago White Sox. The bride is holding a baseball bouquet.

The other topper is a family lying on a hammock. I tried to make them as cozy as possible. The mom has a little baby in her "belly"..

Chilling between two palm trees...



Happy family

I have a few more cake toppers to finish. One is a penguin and a giraffe and the other is a scarecrow wedding. I can't wait to start those. I think that's my plan for Saturday.

I also am working on my "Christmas in July" giveaway, so be patient,,it's coming.

Quick Update

When my real job starts to interfere with my blogging, I want you to know. That is the case all last week. My school year program ended and now my summer program begins, and I've been really busy working. I haven't been working on much clay though, except for some designs for sculpey (I hope they pick a few) and I've made some cake toppers.

I was going to have a contest and wrote a blog about it, but I canceled that contest and will start another one Thursday. It's going to be Christmas in July giveaway (so that by the time the winner receives it, it will be July).

Stay tuned!

Dog Tag Tutorial

I've been playing around with dog tags lately and thought I would share this tutorial with you.

Supplies....

Liquid Sculpey
PearlEx (assorted colors)
Dog Tag

Pink and Green Polymer clay

Dab liquid polymer clay onto tag

Smear it completely over the tag.

Apply a generous amount of PearEx to the liquid Sculpey.

Brush the metallic powders around the tag.
It's ok if it is not smooth, you want to see the texture.

Bake at 265 for 20 minutes. Let cool.

Add liquid sculpey to the edges and center of the tag.
This is where you will be applying leaves and flowers.
Use a toothpick or pointed tool to make leaf impressions.

To make the flowers, flatten a little piece of pink clay and roll it, then curl the edges back a little.
There are all kinds of different flowers you can add. Try a different style.

Bake again at 265 for 20 minutes. Add a loop and it's ready.

This looks so much prettier in person. Pictures don't do it justice. I added future floor polish to give it a shine.

But Honestly Officer!

Today, while driving, I went through a yellow light. I admit that I would have had time to stop, but I continued through it. Thirty seconds later, a police car was following me. Where it came from I don't know. It pulled up next to me, slowed down, pulled behind me and put on the flashers.

I pulled into an alley (turned on the blinkers at the last minute) and turned off my car. I took off my seat belt, pulled out my license and rolled down the window.

The officer took his time getting out of his car and as he approached my car, he stood back, away from the door. I looked up at him as he asked if I knew why he stopped me.

"I guess I went through the yellow light," I replied.

"No, that's not it," he said, "you didn't have your seat belt on."

"Oh, yes, I did." I informed him.

"No, You didn't." He replied back.

"Officer, I did. I always wear it." I tried to convince him.

"No, you put it on when you saw me, "he said firmly.

"But, honestly officer, " I almost cried, "I'm a nut about wearing my seat belt!"

He then asked me what my driver's record was and I told him it was perfect.

I handed over my registration, insurance and license and he went back to his car. He sat for about 6 seconds and returned, handing me my information.

"Watch out for the lights," he said.

I started to swear that I had on the seat belt, but he held up his hand to shut me up.

"I'm not going to argue with you, "he snipped, "I know you didn't have it on. You put it on when I stopped you."

I took a deep breath and bit my tongue, then thanked him for not giving me a ticket. Then as I watched him pull away I called him a few unflattering names. Luckily, I was left with a warning, but it was frustrating to me because I had my seat belt on. To be accused of something you haven't done is very unsettling. If I would have received a ticket, my emotions would have gotten the best of me. I'm thankful that at least he was "nice" enough to let me go.

What a way to start my week!

New Arrivals...

Here are some things I've been working on.



Reproduction Tins with gingerbreads.


My favorite, ginger with a cupcake





Ginger holding two bunnies


Contest...

There are three days left in the contest. Don't forget to leave a comment. Rules are in the upper right hand corner of this blog if you haven't read them yet. Good luck!

Another Blog Giveaway

As I promised, I'm going to have another fun giveaway. This one runs till March 5.

How does it work? All you have to do is post comments on all of my entries that I run from now till March 5. You can comment to as many of my posts starting now but only one comment per post. If I do 2 or 3 posts in a day, you can comment each time. After March 5 I will tally all the comments and randomly pick a winner. So the more you comment, the better your chances.

Comments can be a quick Hello, a long message, a question, a suggestion, a critique, or whatever suits your mood. (just keep it clean).

What will the winner receive?


This little painted canvas with a clay angel on it. This is one of my little creations I made today.
It's 3 by 3 and very lightweight. It would look cute in a child's room, office, hallway or bedroom.

This retails for $12 to $15 (still trying to figure out what I'm going to charge for these).

If you win, it's yours for free.

As before, United states and Canadian residents only.

Have fun!!!

Improvements to my work

In an never ending attempt to make my work the best that I can, I've discovered that when I take my clay the extra mile, it sells. Well, not all of the time, but I have a better chance at selling it.

For instance, I just had a few sales on eBay. The clay that sold had extra details giving it that little punch!

Sometimes it's hard for me to get that through my head as I'm making something. I made a gingerbread with a cupcake. Looked pretty cute to me. But it sat on eBay without many views and no bids.

Instead of re listing it, I took a look at it and re-designed it.



Above is the original and below is the redesign. I added a few more cupcakes to her.


Here's another clay baby I tried to sell.




I added another monkey and put it on etsy. I only increased the price by $1.00, making it $7.00, which is a good price.

I'll see if that makes a difference in sales. I think I'm going to look at several of the items I have and see if I can liven them up a bit. It can't hurt.

Indie Crafters

You no doubt have either heard the term, Indie Crafters or you are one yourself.

I have been trying to find a definition of Indie crafters, because when I see a site that offers Indie crafts, I'm confused. Other than the occasional pink skull and crossbones, or odd looking hand stuffed toys, most of the items look like "crafts" to me.

According to the Urban dictionary Indie means the informal use of the word independent.
"Also, for many, it has come to symbolize originality and forward-thinking, especially in music and design.

By this definition, indie is any business or designer that is not associated with a large company. Indie can also define the consumer who chooses to support small business, independent record labels and handmade items rather than shopping at big-box stores."

By that definition, I guess that anyone who has made things by hand is an indie crafter.

Sometimes though, that name implies the younger generation. I once tried to get into an Indie/urban craft show in Detroit and was turned down. My first reaction was that I was insulted. My second was that I must be too old. Of course, they didn't know how old I was, but that was my reaction.

When I first went to etsy to check it out, I thought to myself, I think I'm too old to be here. But, I didn't let that deter me. I'm still trying to build some success there and I'm sure my age has nothing to do with it. But whenever I see a profile where I think the artist/crafter is close to my age, I feel a little better.

In your opinion, what do you think Indie crafts or crafters implies? Leave a comment, I'd like to better understand.

Pioneering!

The bottom line is that it doesn't really matter about the age issue. Or if a person calls themselves an artist or a crafter or an Indie crafter. It's more curiosity on my part. It's very exciting to me to see the interest that younger people have in crafting. (My daughter was knitting the other day, and I was ecstatic!)

Sometimes I wish I was 20 again, only in this decade. How valuable the Internet would have been to me when I was younger and more ambitious and when I could stay up till 3 am crafting and had the stamina of a horse!

When I first found out about Polymer Clay it was 1982. I was at a craft show and a lady had made fruit from colored clay. Now, I had seen white clay in the art stores, but colored??
She was kind enough to tell me it was from Polyform Products. I found a package of white at the art store, and wrote down the address of Polyform. I called the operator, who gave me their number. I found out they could sell me colored clay, but I had to have a sales tax license. I had to go downtown, get a name for my business and get the tax license. I finally ordered a box of clay, (8 or 10 colors, 10 colors each)..That whole process took about 6 weeks.

No stores in Michigan sold colored Sculpey in those days. In fact, when I had a little gift shop in 1987 through 1989, I sold Sculpey III and taught classes. The UPS man would deliver my clay on Thursday and there would be two or three customers hanging around the shop to grab up their favorite colors. Look how easy it is to buy clay now!

I guess you could say that I'm a pioneer in crafting. Or at least claying. Plowing the way for others, making their journey a little easier. Hey, I like that idea. I think I'll use that term to describe myself.

Debbie Garrity, Pioneer Crafter.

Polymer Clay Graphic

Here's a graphic I made today to put on my Daughter-in-law's myspace page.
Feel free to right click and save it.

Design "firsts"

For years I've been making a polymer clay "bashful" santa ornament. I think the first time I made him was in 1985 or 86.

I was doing a craft show and a friend told me about a tee shirt she saw with a naked santa holding his hat over his "package". She had seen this shirt at another show and kind of scribbled the design down for me to look at.

I loved this idea and at the next craft show I had several bashful santa ornaments ready to sell.

This was not my original idea, but I had never seen anyone do them in clay. For awhile, I was the only one that I knew of who was making them in the Detroit area. Then slowly, I began to see them in other clay artist's booths. Did they copy from me? Did the tee shirt guy copy from them, and I from him? I don't know.

By the 1990s I started to see them at Claires, the jewelry store. They were little earrings made in China. I wondered where they got the idea from.

When I joined ebay in 2001, I started to sell the naked santa in my auctions. It was a good seller and naked santa had a good run.

One day I was in a forum and noticed someone was upset about her naked santa design being copied on ebay. I began to read the thread and found out that I was the offender! The irritated ebayer ranted on and on about me. I posted a reply, explaining that I had been making the naked santa for years and that I didn't even come up with the idea. She finally calmed down and even to this day, we periodically send each other emails. She lives only a few miles from me, maybe she saw my naked santa at a show and was inspired. I'll never know.



Over the years I've seen lots of different versions of this naughty santa.

I've often wondered though, who came up with this idea first?

Benjamin Franklin said, "“Originality is the art of concealing your sources” Isn't that the truth!

Tales from the Pumpkin Fest

November 2004: I did a craft show where I broke even...

December 2004: I vowed to never do craft shows again.....

October 2008: I do another craft show....

South Lyon Pumpkin Fest

I had high hopes for this show. The booth cost me $150.00 for two days. It was with a lot of trepidation that I signed the check and contract.But I really thought it would be worth it. I had done this show in the past and did pretty well, the citizens of South Lyon really support their community events, and my quality of my clay had improved a lot since the last time I'd been there.

So it was with a lot of excitement and hope that I and Mary Ann headed off to South Lyon on Friday night to set up for the Sat. and Sun. show.

Beginning to set up the booth...


I found these fireplace screens on sale for $2.50 at Kmart last year. I bought 4 of them and they fit perfectly on my tables.


We hung pins and ornaments on the screens.

We left the booth at 8:30 Friday night looking like this. The next day the rest of the gym was full of crafters.

I brought a lot of Halloween ghosts and pumpkins.
Saturday

The show started at 11 am on Saturday. I arrived at 10:00 and had to park my car about 1/2 mile away from the school. There was shuttle bus service for us, which was great, because my legs wouldn't have made it, my knees hurt so bad.

During the day, people meandered through the show, making comments about the crafts as they ate popcorn and cotton candy. I had a few too many sticky fingers touching my clay babies as parents don't seem to think it's rude to have their children touch everything in sight. Within the first hour I heard enough comments to last me the rest of the season. "Remember when these were popular?" "I can do this" "Why should I buy this when I can make it" and, my favorite,"These break"

If it weren't for the many positive comments I heard, I might have been in a bad mood. But for every negative, there are about 100 positives. People smiled at my clay, remarked on how cute it was and loved the prices. My favorite moment was when a Down Syndrome child kept saying, "ahhh" "Ohhh" as she looked at the fatty fairies with their glistening wings.




I had a lot of pre-teen girls bought little ghosts and pigs. I gave them all a $1.00 off the prices and they were thrilled. I thought it was interesting that three teen boys were fascinated with how I made my dragons and bears. They were into pottery and asked me a lot of questions.

I interacted with a lot of different characters during the show. One woman pointed to my clay pigs and told me it brought back bad memories for her to see a pig since someone called her that 20 years ago!?! Another woman started talking about her boyfriend then suddenly asked me if I wanted to see his picture. I was polite and said yes. She whipped open her purse and proudly show me her "kid Rock" lookalike boyfriend.

At the end of the day, I had made my money back from the cost of the booth. This was so discouraging as the point is to make money, not break even. But, I had hope for Sunday.


Sunday

They say

hope is tomorrow's veneer over today's disappointment.

I was full of hope.

However, Sunday was horrible. No one came shopping. The aisles were void of shoppers. Crafters stood around talking, comparing notes. Thank goodness Mary Ann came with me because I had someone to talk to. The show ran from 11:00 to 5:00 and I barely made $50.00.

At 4:30, we started to slowly take things apart. Mary Ann watched the booth while I went to catch the shuttle bus. A few of us waited for about 15 minutes before he arrived. No one complained though, because he was such a nice guy. I headed back in my car to the school. I had to maneuver my car past a petting zoo, a giant lemon and crafters who were running back and forth to their cars. Mary Ann had already started to bring the boxes out to the parking lot and I loaded up the car. The show ended at 5:00 and by 5:23 we were on our way home.

There are many good points to doing a craft show. I now have a lot of stock. I got to network with other crafters. I passed out a lot of business cards. I received a lot of great feedback from the public.

Hopefully, at my next show, I'll actually make some money!