Old Hats

I have become an efficiency expert for myself these days. I like to maximize my time, even when I'm having fun or relaxing. An example is that I always have a sketchbook, the kindle app on my phone, or a good old fashioned book with me to take advantage of any time I may have to spend waiting. So  yesterday I had an appointment with the eye doctor, so I grabbed my sketchbook and the junk mail to go through while I waited. As I flipped through the store flyers and sale papers, I came across this picture of a gown. The general idea ignited something - stirring up an old interest of mine. Back in my middle school days, I had a passion for clothing design. It was a strong contender for my ultimate career, and into highschool, I spent hours sketching designs. I remember drawing concepts for classmates' prom dresses. Eventually that interest gave way to other forms of expression, but I always had a fond place in my heart for wearing the designer's hat. Anyway, when I saw this gown, I thought to myself "no, no, no, that needs tweaking!" (sorry, Vogue sewing pattern people!). So I whipped out the sketchbook and started laying it out, the way I thought it should be. My version is inspired by the stunning, clever fashions of old movies that designers like the inimitable Edith Head clothed in unforgettable style. Such an inspiration. Anyway, here's my slightly "octaned" up version:

What fun to revisit an old love!

Wordless Wednesday

Flashbacks and Fuel

Hi! How's your day?

studio flashback:
papier mache prototypes

Mine's been great- lots of creative fun and being all industrious and stuff. I just wanted to share a little highlight. As I was check-
ing out my statistics for my shop on Etsy, I noticed a hit that came from a blog. Whenever I see a particular blog or website send traffic to my shop, I go check it out, to see what led the visitor to me. So when I visited the blog, I found the sweetest post, written by my very first customer on Etsy, back in 2009. I had set up shop in the fall of 2008 and my first sale (on my birthday!) was to Sharon, of Morgan Street Soap.
Anyway, after receiving her item, Sharon wrote the nicest post about her experience buying from me. That is what I found today: http://morganstreetsoap.blogspot.com/2008/11/dreaming-big.html
 Warm fuzzy feelings abound. And, as a bonus, more fuel for the drive to create more and better and share it all! Stay inspired :o)

Lightbulbs

I love it when an idea just comes to me, especially when it's the solution to something, clear as a bell. Yesterday that happened as I was attempting to get an order packed to ship and couldn't find just the right thing. I was shipping some papier mache gems, and I needed something in the same vein as the metallic finish on the gems to use as filler for the bag they were in. I like to pack pretty, so my things are fun to receive! The closest thing I had was plain brown kraft shred, and it wasn't doing it for me.

So I put that aside for a bit to go do other things. That's my way of allowing the "lightbulb" to find me, so to speak. And it did. I remembered a sad crumpled sheet of metallic gold tissue paper that I had laying around that had been used and reused, and had seen better days. It wasn't really pretty enough to use in a gift, but I hadn't had the heart to ditch it. But anyone who knows me knows I like to recycled the mess out of some things, until they just turn to dust or disintegrate from time and space. I thought of the gold tissue and this random handheld mini shredder that my awesome brother had given me years ago (more on him later). I dug up the paper, then found the shredder and before I knew it I had this:

excuse me while I make flaxen gold (ignore the fuzziness of the pic, please)

Which became this:

oh my! love this!

 Which I used for this:

 

 And that was my lightbulb. Side note: I've been busily working on lots of new things, including reorganizing some of my work areas. That's my "shipping department" in the background. It's awesome, but the lighting is not really conducive to picture-taking. Anyway, with all this making new and reworking, it could just be a huge coincidence that Etsy has set up something new called an "About" page for sellers. The moment was ripe to share a little, so that's one of the things that's been on the project list. Here's a sneek peek at my (as yet unfinished) about page, (which reveals the shipping department!): http://www.etsy.com/shop/studioRenee/about/

That is all. Have an inspired weekend!