Bizarre Market Today!

Hey, don't forget today is Bizarre Market at Chop Suey Books! Noon til 4pm.



I will have some items there including:



The newest flip book Cat Magic featuring the original depiction of Patches a flying cat.



A pile of new flip cat patches dolls.


For those uncertain, potential uses for flip cat mini pouches include:
cozy for your favorite marble, a match box, a doll, your ipod shuffle, a flip book.

bug & flowers

At first I thought this bug was a mantis, but its head and arms don't look right. Maybe it's too much of a baby (½ inch?). Or maybe it's something entirely different.

I made a new flip book and in the process jammed my printer beyond repair. So, instead of going into detail about how beyond repair irritated I am, I'm just going to post some flowers:



Dogwood, Columbine, Dianthus and California Poppy (which actually grew from seed finally!).

Spring Bada-Bing Loot!

Sunday's Spring Bada-Bing at the REST table was a success. I had the pleasure to hang out with:

Psychic Power Projects Karen Maiko and Jkadesigns

Although I didn't sell much of anything, I bought a few lovely things (I'm not including one which is a secret gift):


End of the World Switchplate by Wonder Wares

Anatomical Mouth Switchplate by Penguin Love, who also made some really snazzy little notebooks which were in the swag bags.

Moss Pin by Arthur Hash.

I also bought some I ♥ Alpaca stickers from Made By Tess at her adorable and colorful display.

So, of course I scrambled like crazy to get a lot of stuff done for the event, and I think I knew I was going overboard... I made 250 mini promo envelopes for the swag bags, though I didn't get them all in on time.


They included a tiny Catalog of Goods, a sticker, a coupon and either a 100 Random Square Inch Drawing magnet, or a teeny flip cat shrinky dink "bead".





I used my absolutely last sheet of Frosted Ruff & Ready Shrinky Dinks, Colorforms ©1975. I'm wondering if I can find this old style Shrinky Dinks anymore. The other sheets I had were modern and not at all Frosted Ruff & Ready. Check out the cool packaging:




So... next up is Bizarre Market this Saturday!

Get Ready for Upcoming Fun

This Sunday April 20th is Spring Bada-Bing, put on by the Richmond Craft Mafia. I won't be an official vendor with my own table, but I will be there as part of REST (Richmond Etsy Street Team).



Then.... on Saturday, April 26th from Noon through 4, Chop Suey Books will host the annual Spring Bizarre Market.



Richmond's most eclectic arts & crafts & oddities sale.
The Bizarre Market fills up Randolph Street with an
average of 25-40 vendors who sell everything from
paintings, knit clothing, retro clothing, prints, jewelry,
photographs, haircuts, new shoes, bottles of water,
and household goods. This particular market will focus
on all of these items, but we are encouraging all Spring
Cleaners to bring out yard sale and household products.

It is always free for vendors to set up, and we welcome
anyone with legal items to sell. We do ask that each vendor
donates 10% of the day's sales to our selected non-profit,
Books On Wheels. In return, BOW will be present with
the bus, fixing bikes and giving away books.

I'm not 100% sure that I'll be doing Bizarre Market, (because I still might go out of town). But I probably will do it.

Right now I am working on many little odds and ends, including Lookability goody bags for the Spring Bada-Bing.

I got a great envelope template maker from digging around on the internet. Luckily I learned how to "score" to get the folds to work.

I'm making some new flip cat goods...


Mini Pouches


More cats

Also, I was lucky to be featured in today's Etsy Finds - Print Plush email. There are many cool etsy mailing lists to subscribe to.

I'm kind of embarrassed IF my dolls are too inexpensive (now that I see the other Print Plushies), but these are similar to the ones that didn't sell in person for $8 the one time I tried. Pricing is so tricky! I need a pricing support group. Or I guess I need to do some "market research" and see how cat dolls are faring in the economy.

Oh, I almost forgot, I got a really great cat-related thing at the thrift store (yeah, breaking my shopping rules). I'll put that up next time.

Alchemy Success Part 2: Jackalope Taxidermy

Yesterday I reported on alchemy success from the consumer's perspective. It was about my new favorite raccoon shirt.

Today's episode deals with alchemy success from the maker's perspective. And that maker is me.


I couldn't resist bidding on the challenge to make a mounted jackalope "taxidermy" made of non-animal materials. I won the bid but didn't really have a plan other than ideas floating in my head.

Lucky for me the ideas in my head floated out pretty much exactly how I hoped they would. That's always nice. (Because believe me, most of the time it doesn't work out that way).





The process:
First I went to the hardware store and experienced the usual awkward situation of looking for unknown materials and not wanting to explain what I'm looking for... since I'm rarely quite sure. I bought chicken wire and screening. That was the base for the jackalope embryo:


This was built up with wire and screen and then covered with this foam carpet padding stuff. Then I made brown corduroy antlers. A lot of the sewing of padding and "skin/fur" was done using a curved needle. Actually, without the curved needle, it might have been impossible to get the "pelt" on the innards.


I like the profile.

The eyes were made using these glass globules I had for a long time. I had no idea what I was ever going to use these for, but now I know I can use them for jackalope eyes.



* * * *

Meanwhile, in unrelated news I must report, Patches is bemused by a camel cricket.

Alchemy Success part 1: Raccoon Shirt Transformed by Fisheye

Etsy recently reintroduced the Alchemy feature which is used for requesting custom items or bidding to be the person to make the custom items.

I decided to partake so I put out a call to have a shirt altered to fit. As many shirts as I have, I always wanted this shirt to fit, because the fabric is so awesome:



Yes, it is vintage fabric with raccoons. I imagine they are washing apples or some other treasure they scavenged from somewhere. Of course these raccoons remind me of Patches. I have had this shirt since 2002 when I attended the Art-o-Mat 5th Anniversary Swap Meet in Winston-Salem. I grabbed this shirt out of a giant clothing swap mountain at Mary's of Course! Cafe. Finally, some random thing I pick up and hold on to for half a decade has actually become usable.

And all thanks to Fisheye Accessories. fisheye is an etsy seller who makes one-of-a-kind accessories, primarily from recycled or repurposed materials.


One of my favorites is her Apple Tree Cross Stitch clutch, made out of an upcycled kitchen towel.

She did a great job on altering the shirt, which started out way too loose and slouchy on me.

Before:


and

After:


Next Episode: Alchemy Success Part 2: Wherein chicken wire is utilized.