Craftopia! Spring Craft Show in Rhode Island 4/28

It's SPRING! Let's celebrate by gathering

at the Hope Artiste Village in Pawtucket, Rhode Island

CRAFTOPIA

Saturday April 28

10-4pm

I've been working in the studio to finish NEW butterfly wing jewelry (think blue wings!) and NEW hammered copper earrings (think bohemian!) and NEW men's accessories- (cufflinks and tie bars). 

There's a lot of reasons to come out and shop handmade this weekend:

 Mother's Day - May 13

Father's Day - June 17

Graduation Gifts - beginning of June

Don't forget SUMMER! 

Everyone needs a little something to spruce up their spring/summer wardrobe, and butterflies are an easy way to make a natural statement.

You can find me there with bells on (or should I say butterflies and leaves and glass!)

 PopkoShop

 this is a photo of me at the November show

My sister AnnMarie will be set up too! 

She has gifts + accessories for you and your home. 

She makes photo frames, encaustic mixed media wall art and photo notecards. 

Here's a preview of her work as PopkoStudio 

(I know, don't get confused! Similar name, different work- were sisters!)

See you this Saturday!

Gem Show: Thriving on sparkles, beads and birthstones.

I went to the gem show this past weekend! It was intense, full of eye candy (understatement) time consuming (understatement #2), inspiring and made me wish I could just lay in a bed of pink sapphires. This first photo is what I really went to seek out:

Birthstone gems. I have them all now! I had to fill in some of the blanks (months) with glass beads or natural stones instead of gemstones. It's now a really pretty collection.
Apparently emeralds. are. very. expensive. And rubies come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and prices but the really pretty ones are very. expensive. I opted out of cheap rubies. I learned about gems this weekend. I wish my sister was with me, shes been a jeweler for about 25 years. She could probably smell a stone and tell me what it was. I actually think she could rub it on her face or tooth to really find out. She's done that before.
That's one way to know if a pearl is a pearl or glass.
Did you just learn something?

Below is a photo of just a few things I saw there - edit - a few million of the beads I saw there:

(click photo to enlarge)
I love how all the suppliers displayed them on triangular postal boxes. Good idea.

I was actually really glad I don't string beads because I think I would've gotten more overwhelmed than I already was. The top left photo is JUST glass lampworked beads that are in the shapes of full animals. ANIMALS! Crazy. CRAZY! The bottom three photos are gems I WISH I could have just to look at all day- this photo represents thousands and thousands of dollars of stone.


Held at 'the Big E' in W.Springfield- there's going to be one in Oct 2012 also, if you feel like planning:) These are held all over the country in civic centers etc, just google it. You'll be in heaven.


Below are some of the other goodies I picked out.
Moonstone and pink quarts (basic stones, and so girly and springtime and feminine).

You can see garnet, amethyst, aquamarine, citrine, pearls, sapphire to name a few.

These are for a collaboration with a new company that I may (or may not) work with soon. It's all in the planning stages right now. We'll see what happens soon.

Labradorite connectors and beads to compliment my butterfly jewelry line.

So, deep exhale, I'm ready to start my summer collection!

I'm a BearFest Artist!

I was chosen to be a 2012 bearfest artist! What is this?

"The Easthampton Bear Fest is a public art project in which life-size fiberglass bears are creatively transformed by locally and nationally known artists and will be highly visible throughout the downtown area of Easthampton, MA" 

The city asked people to submit proposals (much like I did in 2009) for how they envisioned altering a bear, large or small. Proposals are juried and chosen by a panel that the Easthampton City Arts put together.

They hosted a naked bears party in March where everyone was invited to visit a gallery that had ALL the proposals hanging up together. There were some great artworks on those walls...which would they choose?

 

Hosting the swag table

 I LOVE this idea, some sort of airhead bear.

 

There was a t-shirt contest by little kids. I voted for this idea!

 

This is the peoples choice box, above, where we could vote for our fave.

This is how BEARFEST 2012 all begins!