One day (soon I hope) I would love to have a my own space to create, paint and hang out (close friends would have an open invitation to share and play with me too). Right now my space is located in my bedroom. It’s nothing fancy but suits my need for now. I have a large bedroom so it’s not that bad but *sigh* I (and always have) longed for my own and “real” studio and yes, with an sink!
In the meantime, get my fill of inspiration and great ideas from Houzz. I have had my account for many years now and love hoarding away images in my Ideabooks. These images make me smile, dream and hope.
Here’s my curated “Studios” Ideabook. If you aren’t already on www.houzz.com, you should be. It’s wonderful.
Attention Crafters, artists and artisans: Craft Fairs, Festivals, Art Shows, Bazaars and Sidewalk Sales Are Coming! Are your ready?
Spring is around the corner (really, it is) and this means it’s time to rejuvenate your look for 2017. You’ve sewn, painted, knitted, crocheted, beaded, sculpted all your beautifully handcrafted items throughout the long and cold winter months for the seasonal fairs and you feel that you are all set to go. But are you really? With so many people vying for attention and sales at craft fairs and festivals these days, now more than ever, it’s crucial to stand out from the crowd.
Signs, promotional cards, banners and posters can help you gain more attention and more sales
Don’t get lost in the sea of table tops this year. Your artistry, talent and craft are on display and you need to attract and keep eyeballs (and wallets) at your table for as long as possible.
You cannot afford to overlook your look in 2017 – Claim it
If you are in the midst of preparing for the craft fair and festival circuit this summer, let me help you boost your promotion strategy and bring your craft and talent the attention it deserves.
Today I decided to experiment with my paints and wanted to see how the high pigment but matte quality of gouache and the equally unique pigments in my metallic paints would play against each other.
I really like the result. I used a high quality archival Touch marker to outline my forms.
I feel as though I may have been channeling Klimt.
Whether you need a new snazzy business card or a service card (like mine below) for your business or even a poster to enhance your shop window or craft show table, I’m your gal!
Depending on the scope of the project, I can offer clients a flat rate or hourly rates. Just drop me a line here and let me know what you need.
My aim is to provide a turnkey graphic design shop for my clients, so get in touch with me and we can discuss your project and best of all, we will make it happen!
This is an image of my what my card will look like and yes, I cannot wait to receive them. Local shops and businesses on the South-Shore take note: you may be seeing this beauty in your post box very soon (if you’re lucky)!
Over the last two weeks I’ve been doing some exploring with my crochet work. With Spring soon coming, I know that bundling up is going to be less of a priority and I need to adapt to that seasonal change. ** Hard to believe but it won’t be this cold for much longer (fingers crossed).
Scarves as accessories are something which interest me because as someone who loves the look of chunky yarn crochet, I’d like to wear my creations well into the Spring without the threat of overheating.
I loved the colour combination of rusty red, orange, green and creams throughout this unevenly spun and felted yarn. It was a total pleasure to work with and I so regret not purchasing more when I had the chance.
The idea for this accessory scarf was to play with the organic quality of the yarn as well as use it’s informal patchwork of colouring in a free-form crochet fashion. This allowed me to also experiment with the interplay between random increases and decreases throughout the length of this scarf. The “wibbly wobbly” quality of this long (like really long – 124 inches) scarf is very bohemian and carefree. At it’s widest, the scarf is about 2 inches and about 1 inch at it’s narrowest. The addition of mismatched crocheted flowers adds to its boho charm.
I now need to find this style of yarn in a cotton blend which would also do well in the Summer time. Accessory scarves are worth exploring and I will do so in the coming weeks.
Wibbly Wobbly accessory scarf – patchwork colours with flowers
An exploration in intuitive painting, texture, collage and various media have led me to this recent piece.
The contrasting textures I achieved in the base layer were created by working with molding paste then adding multiple layers of acrylic paint colours. The handmade paper collage sits well on top of this highly textured background.
The use of marker (black and coloured) as well as white pen allows the flower and vase to rise to the surface. I also love the delicate shake-y illustrative quality of the white outline.
More exploration in this style is the plan. Thanks for reading this.
After managing other Pages for many years, I finally have one of my very own to keep an eye on.
It’s very new and very empty right now but trust me, over the next few weeks that will change. I intend to give my personal Facebook profile a break from the artsy posts and use this as the centre of my creative pull.
I hope you will join me here @handmadeinmind and see what I am making, crafting and experimenting with. As my Page indicates “Handmade in Mind” is aimed at providing handmade and one of a kind crochet pieces for those who are not interested in wearing what everybody else is wearing and aren’t afraid to make a bold style statement.
Now if you want something quick and already made, you can purchase one of the items from the Hand Made in Mind Shop (more details about that in the next paragraph).
About the Shop! The Shop will mainly focus on my one of kind crochet items – my explorations. There will usually only be one of these items available. Those designs can also serve as the basis of a collaboration with a client too.
As I sharpen my photography skills over the coming weeks, more of my designs will appear in the Shop.
My art pieces will not appear in the Shop but rather will remain as a separate post with the option for more information, purchasing details or for commissions. I’m not married to that decision but as with all things, change and evolution is inevitable.
Thanks in advance and I hope to interact with you and, of course, answer any of your questions here; on my Facebook Page.
This jumbo chunky cowl is for my lovely gem of a client! I cannot wait to get it to her later this week.
It’s made with the puff stitch using Lion Brand Thick & Quick yarn in the Eggplant colorway and it’s all done with my very favourite new 15mm hook from Clover. I decided to tassel-join the ends rather than seam them. It makes it as unique as the client jumbo cowl it’s for.
Want to customise a cowl of your very own too? Drop me a line here. Let’s see what we can come up with together!
This is a piece I completed this week. I used metallic acrylic paints and I accentuated the colour blocks with ink linework.
I did not use a canvas but rather a sheet from a mixed-media paper block from Papier Canal Papers (a machine-made paper company located in Montreal) which I purchased from DeSerres a few weeks ago.
The unusual format of the paper block was what I was attracted to first and then to its one rough edge. It’s unframed right now but that could change over the next few weeks.
In my first experiment I used 
Josyan McGregor 