birthday & craft fair weekend

Last week was my 22nd birthday, so to celebrate I invited my close friends to the Asian Pub in Cooper Square! It is one of my favorite places to go when I'm in the city... the food is really yummy and their drinks are strong and cheap {and they come with bubble tea straws.} It was a lot of fun seeing my friends whom I don't get too often; it's so difficult getting together now that we're all busy with such different schedules. I was so surprised at the end of our meal when the waiters brought out a strawberry shortcake and shot of tequila for me!

Strawberry shortcake!

Sunday morning I woke up super early and packed up the car to head over to Ridgewood for the craft fair! I couldn't believe how nice the weather was, but I was completely unprepared for such a hot day. I wore tight jeans and boots with socks, but after burning up in the heat for hours, I had my mum bring me shorts and flats!

When I first got my spot on the street and started setting up, I felt really intimidated by all the other vendors because {it seemed like} everyone had tents and many tables and displays, whereas I only had 2 tables and an easel with a bulletin board... oh, and a bunting!

It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to display my stuff... I could have used more frames for my prints and more boxes to prop things up against. Once everything was set up I finally regained my confidence, and immediately started getting sales and encouraging feedback.

Me in my booth {eyes closed- too sunny!} You get the idea though.

Still sunny, squinting

My first sale was a biker who bought a resin pendant/twig necklace on a whim. It made me think about how impulsively people buy things at these type of fairs. I got excited to see that even before the street technically opened, people were already intrigued by my booth and came to look anyway.

Twig necklaces with resin pendants

I was very happy to see that people bought my bags, and I got a lot of compliments on my choice of fabrics. I was a little sad to part with them because most of them I had sewn while in high school. However, I really needed to part with these since I am looking to start fresh with my designs and more importantly, clear out inventory! Unfortunately, no one bought my dress :(

I will be putting up the remainders of my inventory on Etsy, so check there soon if you see anything you like!

Bulletin board with a coat hanger... very makeshift, yes?

I thought my tea party and cupcake pins would have been more popular, but only a couple of the cupcakes sold. I thought they were cute, though! Look for them on my Etsy!

Tea party pins!

I don't have any photos of my prints {you can see some in the back of the photos above}, but those were the biggest hit! I was impressed by how many I sold, especially considering their price. I might even be asked to do a large piece for commission! It was most rewarding selling my prints. The thought alone of having my artwork in people's homes is exciting, let alone having people wanting to buy them from me!

Another rewarding experience was being able to meet so many amazing people. I had a lot of young girls wanting to talk to me because they were looking into becoming vendors at craft fairs too, and I was able to give them advice about it. I'm not experienced at all, but it felt so nice being a role model for these girls!

The best compliment I received that day was that my booth was the cutest. There were so many vendors there that I was worried I would have to compete, but the reality was that I was the only one with "different" stuff, and people were attracted to it!

I was so exhausted by the end of the day, but I was so excited as well. I love being part of these craft fairs and I can't wait for the next one! Each time will get better and better, and I just have sooo many great ideas!!!

The weekend ended with another celebratory birthday dinner with my parents at my neighbor's Mexican restaurant, complete with complimentary appetizers, extra margaritas and dessert! I tried to watch the new show Boardwalk Empire, but I fell asleep of course.

So that sums up my awesome weekend! Please check my Etsy soon for updates! Much love!

-g.

busy bee

Hello there! I apologize for the lack of posts this past week but things have been pretty crazy over at my end! Let me explain...

The past two weeks have been spent preparing for the Craft Fair. Unfortunately, it had to be postponed to next Sunday because of the weather... giving me another week to prepare {aka: stress out...} I also have been working on a couple of freelancing projects recently which has consumed a lot of my free time.

Participating in this craft fair has really helped me to think and reflect on my art. As soon as this craft fair is out of the way, I decided that I will be taking a little hiatus from "creating." I have a terrible tendency to start multiple projects at once without much planning. This usually means going to an art store, buying things without a specific project in mind, spending a day or two working on it, and then getting frustrated with the way it turns out and either put it aside to work on "later," or forgetting about it completely. I have about 20 different projects I can think of off the top of my head that are sitting in the pile called "Projects I Once Started and Will Probably Never Finish." This is seriously a complete waste of time {and money!} and it needs to stop!!!

I feel like this time will be a good time to think about my style as an artist. I enjoyed using different mediums while I was at school because I had easy access to them, along with help from amazing professors who helped to guide me in the right direction. Not having the structure I once had at school is a challenge that I'm facing right now, especially when I have so many different ideas that don't add up cohesively. This time off will hopefully give me a fresh start and a new outlook. I need to think about what I like to do, continue to sketch, research artists that inspire me, and learn who I am and who I want to be as an artist.

Once I have figured that out, I hope to jump right back in to creating lovely things, participating in more craft fairs and selling my things on Etsy! I am really excited to start this journey... I'm happy to share this with you, my lovely readers, and I hope that this inspires you to reflect upon yourself and who you aspire to be! {Not to be corny or anything...}

And with that... I leave you with one of my "What I Wore" drawings from June!
{Please ignore my crappy scanner and even crappier editing job!}

-g.

renegade handmade

Hello y'all... today I am going to try my best to capture my favorite findings from this weekend's Renegade Handmade craft fair that took place in Williamsburg's McCarren Park.

It was completely overwhelmed with the craftiest, most artistic and creative vendors, some of which I recognized from Etsy and even from the craft fair I had a table at a few months ago. It was a perfect weekend for the fair...and although it was ridiculously hot and humid, the rain held out til 4 PM on the second day.

Overall I was really impressed. Between gorgeous displays, awesome products, and very creative tables, it was hard to decide what to highlight here. I'll try my best to include everything.

My mom and I arrived at about 11:30 and the vendors were still setting up. Since it was early, there was NO LINE for the photobooth by Magnolia Photobooth Co., so we jumped on, grabbed some props (we're into mustaches lately, so...) and took some silly pics. They posted all of the pictures from both days on their website too, very convenient.

On to the shops!

The first thing I bought was a really cute floral pencil skirt from Mary Savel. This isn't the skirt, but I was having a hard time deciding between a dress like this and the skirt. I might just have to go back and get this dress though.

I wanted to buy a piece of jewelry that was special and that I knew I couldn't make myself. It was a hard decision, but I decided on a similar pair of salvaged cutlery earrings from Ball and Chain. I've seen different variations of this a lot at other craft fairs and always regretted not buying one, so I'm glad I finally have my own pair of pretty cutlery jewelry.

Something that I've been seeing a lot of recently are these silly illustrations by Berkley Illustrations. A couple of months ago I got coffee with someone who bought one of my prints at the craft fair that we were both vendors at, and we talked about how to do well selling art on Etsy and at fairs. Well, Berkley Illustrations have sold over 17,000 prints on Etsy and now have a deal with Urban Outfitters. He must be doing something right, not to mention that his prints are awesomely ironic and hilarious.

Miniature Rhino definitely won overall for best booth. She had a little table set up with a typewriter and you could write your own message, place it in the bottle and then she will ship it for you! The art of letter writing... it's not totally dead!

Towards the end of the day, while waiting for my mother to try on a thousand different pairs of necklaces, I was looking through the racks at Les Enfants Sauvage. Before I looked at the price tag, I was considering buying this skirt, which is a African print fabric with a silk screened printed design over it. All the pieces they displayed were gorgeous... but the prices were a little too steep for me.

Bettula was one booth that I fell in love with. Their jewelry and home designs used birch bark finished with a shiny gloss that looked so fabulous. I've never seen anything like Bettula which was why I loved it so much.

Bloodmilk was another booth that was really unique and different from the other vendors. Their jewelry was very gothic looking, and I enjoyed hanging around their booth looking at all of their interesting designs.

Something that I was looking for that I didn't find was Blue Gear Works' booth. I've wanted an anatomical heart necklace for the longest time, but sadly I couldn't find their booth. I totally would have bought this necklace, though... probably in silver.

I saw a lot...a LOT... of embroidery hoops and embroidered things at Renegade. Since I am getting into embroidery recently, I enjoyed seeing everyone's versions of their take on embroidery hoops and all the fun things they can do with it.

McBitterson's stuffed ciggy is really adorable... I met the girls who ran this booth at the craft fair I did in March and they were super sweet. Their sense of humor comes out in their designs.

Mean Cards definitely had the funniest cards and prints on display. I also enjoyed reading the stories they had on display.

Finally, Mimi Kirchner wins for the best "stuffed people." This one is probably my favorite, but she also had matryoshka dolls, tattooed girls, men in suits, and other cool things. The price was steep though, at about $250 for one of these dolls. I think I'll just look...

So, that doesn't even cover a quarter of what was at Renegade, but you get the idea. Awesome and friendly people, creative displays, wonderful art, beautiful jewelry, clothes, etc. Lovely day!!!

-g.

FML

At work I had to design a website based on an invitation.

Unfortunately, this was the invitation:



So here was my design:



Let's just say... this is definitely NOT going in my portfolio...

-g.

P.S. Apologies for the lack of posts this week... I've been super busy! But if you are in the Rockland/Bergen area, PLEASE come to the craft fair this weekend!