Cosa Verde Earth Day Giveaway

It's that time again! Time for the Cosa Verde Earth Day Giveaway!

This years stats are incredible - over 40 artists and artisans working with recycled or sustainable materials have donated over $1,600 dollars worth of product - which will be divided among four lucky winners. Yup, $400 worth of goodies! Just click the link, comment on your favourite, tweet the event, and check out the other ways to snag a chance at winning:


The contest runs through April 22 - enter early, enter often, and spread the word!

Pretty Things

Since I don't have new goods to put up in my shop at the moment, I was going to spend my time looking out for practical, useful things that make life better.

Fortunately for you, I am easily distracted by baubles, so you get to look at some jewellery today.

Welcome, Keys & Memories:

Typewriter key jewellery, like scrabble tile jewellery, has reached new levels of pedantic, so I was delighted to find someone producing charming pieces that you might actually want to wear if you weren't a thirteen year old girl.

It pleases me that her pieces have finished backings and a jump ring large enough to put a proper chain onto. Beyond that, she offers filligree style rings and pendant settings.

If she lived any closer, I would barter warm winter wears for the rods from her typerwriters (they make great antenni!).

Enjoy!

Shop Live - in Baltimore!

It's Friday! Hup, hup!

Today is also the day I am taking another box full of goodies down to the Woman's Industrial Exchange in downtown Baltimore. Goodies like these - repurposed vinyl serving trays (do not yell at me - you were not going to listen to the original soundtrack of Hold On! starring Herman's Hermits, either), coffee sleeves and purses.

Remember that when you shop at The Exchange more than half of the proceeds go back to the artist, and the rest goes to supporting the exchange itself, providing a valuable, relaxed, totally non-intimidating space for starting and experienced artisans to showcase their wares.

There is also a monthly trunk show featuring an individual artist and a craft night where you might get that UFO finished.

The Exchange is located at 333 North Charles Street, and looks like this:

There is also a very cute basement shop that used to house an estate jeweller (long ago) and is now available for lease, if you are looking for a shop with a creperie upstairs and Mick O'shea's across the street (seriously, you'd never have to bring lunch or dinner and you would always be broke, but that would be a fun life if you are into hip urban activities.) If my credit score were something higher than 320, I would find a small business loan and pull that off myself.

Wool Thumb Creations - a new shop worth clicking out

I think I have a new girlcrush.

You may have noticed that part of the deal in my shop is that everything is a limited edition (because I have a limited attention span) and you are never going to find more than ten of any item. I may make twenty or thirty of something for craft fairs, but generally I make a handful of something and come back to a similar project weeks or months later with new eyes and new embellishments. The result is a shop full of all manner of things - not like Dotty who makes pincushions, or Rebecca who twirls wire or Miscelena who makes paper. All of their shops can be described by one thing because they have found something they do well and have focussed on it, and I respect that dedication, but I've got too many penguins in the brain* to focus for that long.

So it is always refreshing to pop into the virtual shop of another artist, like WoolThumb Creations (also known as artstudioshanti) who does the same thing. I like to imagine that everyone else has bins and boxes of not only unfinished objects, but types of projects.

Like these:

I have a huge bin full of boxes of beads, many of which get turned in to things that never wind up for sale in my shop.

I love finding things made from recycled thrift store sweaters. You see, I love wet-felting old sweaters and turning them into dolls and library bags, but somehow they never seem to leave my house.

And I do not collect pincushions, but hedgehogs like Missy might just send me scurrying over the edge.

Actually, upon further reflection, I think my girlcrush is intimidating me into putting more stuff up for sale instead of hoarding it on a shelf so I can think 'I made that - I am so cool' every time I walk past.

*and if you know what that means, you are one cool frood who knows where your towel is.

Jellybug - Everyday Fabulosity

Jellybug is one of my favourite glass artists - I am often intimidated by just how much she manages to accomplish in any given week. In addition to absolutely gorgeous glass jewellery, she also offers a variety of recycled housewares, including adorable paperweights and snack trays:











This is recycling I can truly approve of: these items were not transported miles in some carbon-emitting truck, and all the intermediary steps of sorting, cleaning, transporting to the processing facility, pelleting, transporting again to the new end-user and re-forming have been replaced by simply cleaning and reshaping.

Three cheers for Jellybug!

(Oh yes, and her jewellery is fabulous, too!)