Spring Show Season Preparations

The spring show season is here and I am really enjoying it.  I just had a wonderful show in Shelbyville, Indiana, where I used to live and raised my kids.  It was busy non stop and I got to see so many of my friends!  It always helps to get the first one under my belt so I can see what people like.  These bunnies were the first to go, better make more!

My next show is a new one for me.  It is called the Indie Arts Vintage Marketplace and will be held at the Indiana State Fairgrounds April 6th.  Here are a couple of links with some more information:

https://www.facebook.com/iavmindy?fref=ts
http://www.indieartsvintage.blogspot.com/

I am sculpting more new items for this show, great ideas that I got at the last minute and just didn't have time to make.   Ben is making lots of dogs, too, and I can't wait to see them!

The Fairy Garden Collection has grown also.  Lots of new animals, birds and fun, tiny, little pieces that will add color and interest to your miniature landscapes.   There are even wee little owls that sit on a pic overseeing all that happens in these tiny forests.

The booth I use is getting a spring overhaul as well.  Living in this cottage has given me lots of ideas about room like presentation.  I can't wait!

New Pins, new ritabunnies...new life!  It is spring after all.

Yep, it has been very busy here in the cottage on Taft Street!  And that is how I like it.

Wren's Nest

Can you see the little nest in the wheel?

A wren can live anywhere.  I had a very determined one on Rabbitville Road, who kept building her nest in my gas grill.  I finally gave up, and didn't cook out that summer.  One also built a nest in a pile of sticks on the patio by my studio.  She often perched on the fence outside the windows and sang and, I thought, peeked in to see what I was doing in my nest.  We had lovely conversations, but I was frequently scolded for coming too near her territory when I came and went. Now miles away, and shaking off the cold,  I opened the back door of my car the other day and realized the reason for some of those scoldings...she had built a nest in the spare wheel that is attached to the back of my car!   Nesting season was over and the nest had been empty, but here was a sweet little remembrance of my old place and my little wren companion.   Bits of sticks and that lovely moss that carpeted my woods were carefully patched into a nursery and a sweet memory.   What a lovely going away present...

Wren on a Pansy Nest

I take inspiration from my surroundings when I sculpt.  I draw on my experiences and interpret them in clay.  That's what artists do I guess.  I have been sculpting these rust colored little bits of energy for a few years now. They completely fascinate me and they let me be familiar, share their lives.   I love the color and the movement, and I love their adaptability.   I see that there is a wren bird house on the garden fence here, so I will be looking forward to making new friends and hearing their songs.  A woman I met up here has asked me several times what I am naming my cottage and I have decided.  No surprise at all...Wren's Nest.  A wren can live anywhere, and so can I.

 

Morning and Spring is in the Air

It's morning on Taft Street.  I start my day in this sunny kitchen and prepare myself for sculpting.  I do my morning marketing and drink that important cup of coffee.  Then it's off to the studio to work in the clay.

Spring is in the air and I feel it.  The blackbirds are here and singing and the other birds are joining right in with their own spring songs.  The itch to be outside in my yard pulls at me.  This spring will be delightful, watching all these mystery plants come up and learning what is planted in my new yard.  The cottage is delightfully landscaped, and the former owners sent me a list of a some of what is planted.  Roses!  It has been years since I had cultivated ones.  Can't wait.

Taking the dogs out for a break, I see that I have Snowdrops up and blooming already!  And they are right in the fairy garden.  It must be fairy magic.  My grandson and I are going to do a lot of playing in that little spot this spring and summer.

Spring is coming in the studio too.  I am sculpting the Spring Collection for my upcoming shows.  Since I love rabbits there will lots of those, but also wrens and chickens.   New pins and earrings, pigs and foxes...it promises to be a great season.  These bunnies with their bright, cheery flowers remind me that warm weather is coming, and soon.

This wren perched on a teacup has been tossing around in my mind for some time.  I love wrens and the fact that they will build their nests anywhere, even in a discarded cup.  There's a lesson about happiness there I am sure.

This time of seasonal anticipation fills me with delight.  It's morning, and I am so ready for spring!

The Cottage on Taft Street

I'm settling in.  It took me about a year to make it happen, but I moved up near my daughter and her small family this past August.  I now live in a 1939 Cape Cod cottage near Lake Michigan and I love it.  I can tell you it has been a remarkable undertaking, exhausting, monumental and rewarding.  It took me 3 months to find the box with my socks in it and there are still things I can't find.   But I am in, becoming a part of my new community and loving each and every minute of watching my grandson grow and explore.  "Tanks Gaga..." that's all it takes.

But how does this old crabby basement become a studio?  With memories of my lovely tucked in Rabbitville Road work area still tangled in my mind, and a lot of help from my friends, I started in.  Two heavy coats of bright white Dryloc worked wonders.  This past Christmas season, my busiest time of the year, I worked out of boxes, finding each new color of glaze as I needed it.  I had a simple work table and a glazing station.  Shipping happened on another banquet table.  Boxes everywhere but it worked.

Thank you Kathryn for that lovely set of purple shelves.   This is that same corner before hurricane Rita happened.  And I mean this little sculptor, not the weather kind.  (I am sure I did more damage.)  After Christmas shelves were placed and jars of glaze found their homes.  
Those months of intense holiday working gave me a good idea of what to put where.

Scary, isn't it?  I have made a lot of progress in the last few months.  I want to give a big shout out to Brandt and Allyson, Mike and Kim, Lexie, Ben and of course, my little cutie pie Asher.  Obviously there is a long way to go, but wonderful things are coming out of this studio.  I like it.   Asher made his first sculptures here, his first owl.  And I am only 5 miles from Lake Michigan...good decision.  Now I had better get back to work.  

Fairy Gardens

 I love little things.  Teeny tiny, miniature items from daily life have always made me smile.  I have collected them for years, tucked in little boxes and wrapped in tissue, safe.  And I love gardening.  I love planting, nurturing, protecting and watching new life grow, all green and ready to make flowers.  So, this business of fairy gardens is just my style.  I have been making all kinds of bits and pieces and putting them together in little planters.

It is kind of like playing with doll houses again, except you are playing with furniture and little things in dirt.  That makes it even better!  Here is a picture of my first fairy garden.  I even made tiny little bunnies.

He even has dirt on his tiny feet...

Now who wouldn't want to live in a little house like this.  I like to put houses in my little gardens.  I think it makes it more inviting for fairies and wee folk to want to live there.  The colors are amazing and add so much to green, green plants.

My son Ben has gotten in the mix too, making little dog houses and pups in just the right scale to make little dog gardens.  I just love these!  He is making tiny garden tools and watering cans too.

This is just too much fun!  We are bringing them to our summer shows, see you there!

The Nursery

Somehow we always end up in here.  After we have chased the puppy and grabbed her tail and been licked on the head.  After we have emptied the cabinet that holds the plastic containers and scattered them all over the floor and cooked imaginary meals that we know mommy would certainly enjoy.    After we have stepped out on the deck and looked at all the constellations  we need to talk about.  After we have played with our toys and left them all over the living room floor.  We somehow end up back here, in the nursery with the special toys that wait for bedtime.  We sit on the floor and play with each car and truck.  We stack our blocks and we knock them down and we turn on the toy that Gaga loves the most.  It's a plastic alarm clock music box, with star shaped buttons on the front.  When you push the purply star it plays classical music.  The blue button plays Brahm's Lullaby, but we're not ready to go to sleep just yet.   Gaga's favorite, and the best, is the green one that makes the nature sounds.  We love that one.  It sounds like spring peepers and crickets and water rushing by in a little creek.  And every once in a while, we hear a night bird and a bull frog that says "Barrumph!"

The top of this toy is magical.  There is a place where light shines through a little stencil.  We take turns putting our hands over it and it shines flower shaped bits of light on our fingers, like the constellations we gazed at in the starry sky earlier in the night.  Maybe that is why Gaga loves this toy the most, those dear and familiar animal sounds and the stars above that remind her of home.   

We listen and we continue playing.  Cars roll under the bed and we fetch them out, zebras dance across the floor and dolphins swim all in a line, until baby scatters them like the waves that hit the shore of the lake nearby.  Baby goes after this toy and that, but always circles back to sit next to Gaga.  Then it's off to play again.  He climbs her knees like a tower and gives her another hug.  Finally, baby crawls up to Gaga,  and stops, stares intently at her and then gives her a little kiss on the cheek, musses her hair and smiles.  Perfect moment that Gaga will never forget.  He chases after another toy as the music box plays on.  

We're getting sleepy now, both of us.  After this long day of playing and visiting and looking at giant animals that must be mooses, and scary animals that must be bears, it's getting close to bedtime.  This day has been so perfect, we don't want it to end.  One more change of diaper, one more big hug.  One more crawling around the room with sleepy eyes and baby yawns and Gaga sings the sleepy song that mommy started months ago.  Sleepy baby, time to say goodnight...

Our Day

Ahh, we have a day.  How are we going to spend it?  

Hmmn, just what kind of mischief can we get into...

I watched my grandson the complete day today.  Mommy had a very special Chamber of Commerce dinner that she organized and daddy helped out too.  I got to be moral support and baby watcher.  Sweet.  We got up, got ready and took off on an adventure!  We decided start it off right and go to one of our favorite places, Bass Pro Shop and look at the animals and watch the fish.  

The aquarium there is huge, filled with all kinds of freshwater fish that one could no doubt catch if they were using tackle purchased from this store.  Baby's eyes were glued to the fish movement and the water fall above it.  He talked to them a bit and we moved on.  We talked to mounted foxes, bears and moose.  He was stony faced when we came up to the big grizzly mount.  He stared.  But the moose was almost too much for him.  A salesman said, "You can see that he just can't quite wrap his mind around it."  Perfectly stated.  I could see the wheels turning, the mini daddy mind calculating the size and trying to understand if this was some kind of really huge dog?  And would it step on him?  Or lick him on the head like his puppies do with some really huge slurp?  Shudder.  

We stopped in to see busy mommy for a minute.  Yep, she was busy alright.  We went to McDonald's for a snack and I finally got a picture of his first tooth that came in yesterday!  And the second one which thank heavens popped out today.  First time trip to McDonald's for us, he enjoyed the place but really didn't eat much.   

Michaels!  Aisle after aisle of wonderful colors and toys and paper and all the things that gaga and baby love.  We had a whirlwind tour trying to spend that 40% off coupon because we were meeting our very dear friends for lunch.  He teaches people how to run businesses, she teaches people how to knit.  They are lovely!  He took mommy and one of his daughters to China a couple of years back, she taught mommy all kinds of things about new babies and nutrition.  They are keepers.  

Baby sat between Nana Knitter and I.  While we were eating, and we talked to him quite a bit, baby leaned over towards me.  He looked at Nana Knitter and he looked at me.  Then he looked back at her, reached down and patted my arm and said "Gaga."  We were amazed.  This is my gaga he was saying, and she and I have adventures.  We go see great big hairy things and she tells me what they are and stories about them.  We talk about our plans for fishing and camping and we walk on the beach.  We dance and we laugh and we eat ice cream every chance we get.  She gets me to eat my vegetables and she has me try new things and buys me watermelon and we eat it and laugh.  She loves me, and I love her.  She is my gaga!

We had a day and we filled it with fun and play, visiting and learning.  It was the best and you can bet there will be more.