Spring Fling

So I had a fling with spring today. It was warmer then it's been yet (mid 50's= t-shirt weather here) and I spent a little bit of time outside. The tulips are starting to poke out of the ground and the trees have buds. Spring is truly on it's way. At LAST!!! So to urge it on a little I decided to make a couple of spring-y pieces of wire wall art for my etsy shop. I just listed two of the items, the third is still in the works.

Here they are- a flower,

 

and a little bitty bird on a branch- So Sweet!

 

 Happy Spring Everyone!!!

Happy 2nd Etsy-versary!

Last year's Birthday Cake :)

Earlier this week my Etsy shop, Bird From A Wire, turned 2! It's a momentous milestone for me because, well, I've been on Etsy 2 whole years! The time has flown but I feel good about this. My shop has really grown even since last year and I've had such a great time. I love my etsy friends and my etsy shop and I'm so very very glad I took this leap.

Last year I ran through some statistics with you on my one year anniversary. I had a chance to look back at those and I feel grateful. Grateful that I've had this time with you all, and grateful at the encouragement and kindness I've received.

But for the fun of it, here's some of this year's coolness~

• My etsy shop reached 1000+ hearts.
• It received over 14,000 visitors
• Over 50,000 page views
• My work made the front page several times
• I'm up to 148 sales
• Met lots and lots of amazing people
• Was able to give lots of money to Mercy Orphanage (thank you!)
• Took the show on the road with my first art fair

Best of all, I really enjoyed myself! I love getting to know you, love finding kindred spirits, love all the fabulous fabulous convo's I've had. It's been wonderful and and enriching experience! If any of you have been thinking of taking the leap I really want to encourage you. AND I look forward to saying all this again next year. This really is such an amazing experience and I am so so excited! So Happy 2nd Etsy-versary to my shop!

A Scaaarry Story- The weeks prior to my Etsy Shop's Opening

It's coming... my shop will soon be two. So like any good mom I'm looking back at the milestones of the last two years and thinking a bit about the beginning.

I'll try to tell you how severe my "butterflies" were at the thought of opening my first shop. They felt more like swallows divebombing at full speed into my stomach lining. I was crabby, horribly twisted up feeling and tense through the shoulders like you wouldn't believe. All this for weeks before I listed my first item. I feel pretty sorry for my husband in retrospect. I can remember him looking at me and saying, "are you sure you want to do this? Cause this doesn't look like something you're looking forward to doing." I know it didn't look like I was reaching out to grasp a life long dream but seemed more as if I was anticipating gall bladder surgery.

My Etsy Shop's Banner

It was just plain scary. By listing my work I thought I was inviting people to view it, judge it, dislike it, love it, buy it, or ignore it. My work is who I am and it felt very very personal. Anyone who's ever done a critique session in a college art class knows the trepidition with which you pin your work to the board. It's with a prayer to be kind, to be constructive not destructive, you're hoping for encouragement from strangers and the risk of an unkind remark or flippant judgement can be paralyzing.

The first item I listed- My Scribble Heart

But I did it anyways. AND if any of you are contemplating taking this step, or starting a blog, I have to tell you that the experience was NOTHING like my fears. Instead of standing there holding my work up before the world I merely sat at my computer, in my home, and uploaded a few photos. There was no dealing with judgements, kind or unkind, there was no sneering comments from passerbys. Instead I found encouragement, a community, friends, and lots and lots of hearts. I didn't have to try to sell my work, people would view it and if it called to them they bought it. There was no convincing, no pushing. I love that. Because really I don't want to push my work on people I want them to see it, and if they love it, buy it. If they don't love it, that's fine with me because I really really want the people who purchase my work to belong to it, if you know what I mean. 

But I was scared and I want to tell you that it's ok to be scared. You're fearful because you're taking a step into the unknown. It will be ok , you can do it, and the satisfaction you'll feel for having been brave with your work will be a high that will propel you to do more. To risk more. To dream of more. I know in my soul that you too can do it. After all, I did. :)

Ooh.... Guess Who's Today's Business Spark? Single Stone Studios!!

So I'm loving that when I opened today's handmade spark e-newsletter I found one of my favorite etsy shops ever- owned by one of my favorite people ever!

Shelley's told me the story of how Single Stone started before and it's truly one of the most inspiring stories I've heard. Shelley shares it with the handmade spark readers in this article.

So please click the link and CHECK IT OUT!!! Yay Shelley!!!

Wall Flowers- New Art in Etsy Shop!!!

I had an idea a while back for a line of home decor accents called wall flowers. Little whimsical flowers you could buy in a set and then arrange to hang around a special photograph or art. They would hang simply- with just a finishing nail and add a sense of sweetness, uniqueness and of course- WHIMSY to your home decorating.

Sometimes when we have ideas and we envision something the reality just isn't the same. When I finished hanging these little blooms on my wall this morning and stepped back, I was so pleased with the result. They're sweet little embellishments and are just the right size to really accent the space. They really do add to the arrangement of photos and art I have them interspersed around.

Another first for my shop, I'm offering them with the option of finishes. They are available in the original anodized black, a rust color, and a vintage distressed cream. I'm envisioning the flowers in cream arranged over a little girls' bed, maybe around her first initial. So sweet!

So if you've been searching for that special element to add interest and that handmade touch to your home then consider these little wall embellishments. I'd love to have you head on over to the shop and take a look and then, have a lovely day!!

Local Craftiness: The Mad Stamper

I've long had it in mind to tell you about a few local artsy mom friends of mine who've bravely begun they're own crafty businesses. I say brave not because they're risking so much- their work is all gorgeous, but because they all have young kids at home. Beginning a venture like this when you have children at home is daring. You never know when you'll be called upon to be Mom and carving out the time necessary to create and run a business is hard. They craft because they love it, or because it gives them something of their own to pursue. I admire them all tremendously for this and thought I'd share their work with you this next week.

First up is The Mad Stamper on Etsy. She specializes in handmade tags, embellishments, and cards. Her designs are always right on and too too cute. Check out the cute little fawn tags and the sweet baby announcements. Karen has this to say about her art (I stole this from her shop profile), and I completely agree with her!

"I am a Stay-at-Home mom who loves her babies more than anything! But I also need time to create. :) Especially with Rubber Stamps!!! Card making is my passion and then papercrafting. Creating is my release, it gets me back in-touch with my inner self, and allows me to breathe again... As a mom to 3 children, that is VERY important! It makes all of us happier in the end ~"

I love the detail and craftsmanship Karen pours into each of her creations, AND I absolutely love Karen. So please check out her Etsy shop- you'll be glad you did!!!

Welcome Spring and the Re-Opening of my Etsy shop!

My Etsy shop is now Open and full of wire and fabric inspiration. To celebrate the re-opening I decided to list this mini art quilt. I usually save these for my personal collection as they have so much time and effort put into them. They are always one of a kind and several have been featured in magazines. It is entirely hand stitched and has the word "Spring" written in 16-gauge wire. It hangs from a birch branch.

So Sweet, So Charming, So fun to make and hang!

Whoo-hoo!! 100 Sales!!

My Etsy shop reached a milestone yesterday- 100 sales!!!! I'm really excited. To reach 100 sales was one of my very first whispered goals when I started my shop and it feels really really good to see it. In fact, I copied it from my site so you could see it too. LOL!! It feels great. I know there are other shops out there that saw 100 sales the first month ( you shall remain nameless...) but my work is unique and not for everyone and so to see this is still a HUGE thrill for me.

other items

21 items for sale

100 sales

Thank you Thank you Thank you to all who've made this possible through your purchases or through your encouragement!!!

A special thank you to Terraworks who was the 100th sale!!! I appreciate your support!!!

Creating My Own Fall Garden

It's been a crazy summer weather-wise this year. Much cooler than usual. We seem to have gone from Spring right into fall with maybe a few odd days of 90's. Yesterday I saw my first orange leaves announcing the advent of fall. I do enjoy fall and fall colors are my absolute favorite to play with especially when I was doing weddings. Orange red callas with deep purple mums and chartreuse little kermit mums make me swoon. So this week when I decided it was time to restock the Etsy shop I created some fun springy blooms of wire and then indulged in some fall colored fabrics. I just loved working with these. So here's a photo of my springy-fall blooms and maybe the colors and patterns will get you thinking it too! The majority of them will be listed soon in my shop as well. YAY!

So Charming- the latest Somerset Home!!!

Ok folks! The latest Somerset Home is now available and has in it a "how to" for my jewelry tree AND my wire bird lamp! The article is titled Art as usual and in it I mention how I discovered that motto and applied it to my life. Which you, my wonderful readers know all about- but I bet you'd still like the "how to" part.

Both the tree and the lamp are classic designs from my Etsy shop but new to this version are the clay charms. I wanted to up the "art" part of the tree for the magazine so I came up with the charms. Here's a little about them...

The charms are made of wire and polymer clay. I used Studio Sculpey brand clay. The stamps I used were from the Magnetic Poetry "family and friends" collection of word stamps. I also used the Studio Sculpey brand of brown antiquing glaze for a slightly distressed look. On the back of the charms I glued on little scraps of fabric to match the tree branches. Just seemed like a nice little finishing detail. They were tied on with little scraps of embroidery floss (DMC 844). It was a fun project!!

This won't be in the book but I will be including a more detailed "how to" of the charms for a charm bracelet project that will also have cute little fabric charms. SO cute!! Hope you enjoy it!

Happy Etsy-versary!!!

Today's the day! One year ago today I listed my first item on Etsy! It amazes me it was a year ago. I am so grateful to the reception my work has received. Very very grateful! This morning I mentioned it to my husband and he suggested I get a piece of cake to celebrate. Jasper and I thought it was a good idea but then came home with this yummy little masterpiece. YAY!

It struck me as a good time to review the amazing wonderful crazy things that God has worked in my life in the last year. So here goes...

Etsy Coolness-
82 Sales + additional direct sales
3000+ hits on my Wire Tree
Front Page 8 or 9 times
528 store hearts + lots of item specific hearts
Sent $300+ to Orphanage
Had visits from over 87 countries
Over 10,000 visits since January this year
Countless conversations
Lots of friendly encouragement
Found 1 kindred spirit (the best of all!!)


Other Wonderful things...
Started blog- and remembered I love writing
Submitted work to 3 art magazines
Published in 3 art magazines!!!
Got crazy idea to submit a book idea
Sent in book proposal with sample work
BOOK PROPOSAL ACCEPTED!!!
Play/meet weekly with local Christian artists
Filled 3 sketchbooks
Appeared on Local News as local Etsy artist
Let God lead me
Debt free!
Set up my very own studio room in our house
Took chances and jumped when God said "jump"!


I kind of can't believe all the wonderfulness that has come into my life this year. And it all started when I risked rejection and made my work available to the world. Letting others see my work was probably my biggest hurdle. Starting my site on Etsy and feeling all the love and support there has let me open my life to possibility and God's plan. I feel so very very grateful!!! Thanks to you all for your comments and encouragement too! I love my blogging family and you are all part of it!!! I am very grateful for you. AND I can't wait to see what the next year brings!!!

At Last! New Listings on Etsy

Seems like it's been forever- but I now have some new items listed! There a bunch of new wire words, some wall size and some embellishment size. I love these stitched to either canvas or my mini art quilts. There's also my favorite of the new listings- a scribble pear and scribble apple. They're the perfect "pear". Ok sad thing is I used that in the listing too.

Next on the to do list- I have 5 finished book projects due soon (luckily I also have a mom and dad who are willing to babysit next week).

I'd love it if you'd check out the shop to see the rest of the new items! Thanks!

Etsy Front Page- YAY!!!

Etsy Front Page 7/13/09 thefuzzymonkey
Originally uploaded by Etsy Front Pagers

"Love" this! Love that they included me as well! Thanks to TheFuzzyMonkey for creating this treasury!

New to the Shop!

I found a little time to play the other night and came up with these two designs. One is a jewelry display and the other is a photo holder. The photo holder just makes me laugh when I look at it because it's an image that I've noticed a lot lately while out driving and that it came out during my play just shows how single minded I can be. So I have a bird atop a tree. Then because I felt like it I added the nest. Have to admit that nest isn't all that practical. It's small and wouldn't hold much but the little birdie seemed to want it. It said "please please make me a nest!" So I did. Besides, who says even functional art has to be completely practical? As long as it's lovely!

I also did this little mixed media piece over the weekend. I painted the background and stamped on it before I left for North Dakota and then added the stitching and doodling while I was there. I like it and it's happy but I think it might want a few more 3d elements. I'll let it sit for a while and see.
I hope all of you are enjoying your spring and thanks for letting me share some of my play pieces with you!

Wire Embellishments- Coming SOON!

I stayed up late the other night writing with wire. It was fun and I liked the look so I just kept going... and going...and going. In fact I bent the night away! I was watching Cold Comfort Farm while doing it and the time just flew.

On occasion people have purchased items from me to use in their own artwork. Birds, flowers, words, little bits of this or that. I love the idea that they are combining my work with theirs. So for a while now I've had it in mind to try selling some of my wire work as "supplies" on my Etsy site. I thought I'd start with words. I've used them stitched into mini art quilts, and my canvas paintings, as well as on scrapbook pages. They just seem to add a really nice dimensional layer and I really like the look of the wire combined with fabric and paper. These are sized just right for use in any of those mediums. I also thought that maybe using the words in their mixed media work would maybe encourage more people to pick up the wire for themselves and bend a little of their own. A girl can dream, right?

In the meantime.. for all those mixed media artists out there- Wire Words Embellishments- Coming Soon!

Prioritizing With Perspective

Recently I've been gifted with an amazing amount of orders in my Etsy site. Which I love! But I've also been given the gift of a Thursday morning Christian Artist's group, a wonderful family and friends, and most recently....AMAZING new art stamps. OK so the last one doesn't seem to fit with the others but the stamps have just been taunting me. "Come use me- Come play...." To which I respond, "Sooon, after I finish my orders, the chapters I'm supposed to read by tomorrow, the craft project I'm putting together for my mom's group, and life. "

This morning I met with my artist's group and we talked together about focus. It's something I struggle with constantly. I need to be focused on a project in order to finish it. I also need to be able to give my husband and son the attention they need. The orders for the shop- I need to focus on those because this is my beloved business. So how do I do it? How do you do it? How do you give the necessary amount of focus to all the important things in your life?

Currently, I prioritize. But I'm not sure that's the best way to manage it all. I don't know about you, but my priorities get out of whack pretty easily. Right now the orders are getting the most of the time and attention I can spare from my family. Then, other "commitments" I've made are prioritized according to due date. Finally, any reading I have to do. Self-development comes last. It's squeezed into the very beginning or the end of the day and frankly that seems to cut my husband out all together. So I'm not happy with this. But I think we all do it. One thing I've learned over the years though, is the importance of keeping perspective. In the proper perspective my health and development would move to the top. Because we would all agree that it's way more important to give our car an oil change than a car wash. Right? Maintenance is necessary for us as well. If we spend all of our time pushing ourselves and take no time to pause to catch our breath and grab a coffee then we soon find ourselves running on fumes.

This morning in my artist's meeting I was able to look objectively at my week and asked to consider the things I had done. Just taking that brief time to reflect (and drink coffee) was completely inspiring. I spent the rest of the day recharging. I went to the craft store and library with my son. I looked through some craft books I've had waiting for me forever, and I started to play. I used my amazing new art stamps to create a project, I started to work on a birdhouse photo holder that I think will be amazing, and I spent an hour playing "kitty" with my four year old son. Giving him some of the one on one attention he needs during the day. It was a great day! Now, instead of spending the night perusing Etsy and Flickr or working on some orders, I am going to go upstairs and pick out some windows and doors I like with my husband. Of course, I'm going to bend a bit of wire as I look( multi-tasking); but we can't get rid of all our bad habits in one day- right? :)

Time Mis-management

Just a quickie post today. I've been swamped with all kinds of little time distractions. Not the little meanderings I talked about last- but life stuff. Things that are important but take time. For instance, super cool that both queries I sent to Sew Somerset were accepted but there is the whole have to write the articles thing now. Tuesday afternoon a reporter from WCCO called and wanted to interview me about Etsy. SUPER COOL but that meant frantic cleaning and prepping the project they wanted me to work on. Tuesday and Wednesday- shot. And there's this book I decided to write on the back burner constantly simmering.Today I realized that I have 20+ wire flowers to make for keychains for my Moms group to stitch tomorrow. It'll be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the teaching experience but....it all takes time and right now all I want to do is play with the beautiful new fabrics I picked up this morning. How to balance the "life" stuff and "fun stuff" is still a mystery to me. If any of you have a clue- I'd love to hear from you!

Make Friends

Last August I took the leap and started an Etsy site. I was a wreck for weeks before we launched. It was just so intimidating to actually put my work out there. I was far more concerned that no one would like it than I was that anyone would buy it. That came later :). It was so worth it! I found validation on Etsy. People did like my work and I even do pretty well selling it. YEAH! But FAR more importantly I found a community of people that are incredibly supportive of each other. One of my favorite Etsy finds was Shelley from Singlestone Studios. She is an amazing artist who's vinyl wall graphics are truly unique and extremely well crafted. She has been extremely supportive and has even gone so far as to surprise me with matching graphics for this blog and my etsy site. I LOVE them!!! Many artists try to operate in a vacuum. They are missing so much by not "making friends". We don't create in a vacuum. We absorb everything around us, including the work of other artists, I truly believe that it is part of who we are. I have been so blessed by the Etsy community, the sellers and the buyers, that I truly consider them to be the best thing about my time there.

So anyways, please check out Shelley's etsy site and her blog- they are both full of eye candy for the color and design enthusiasts! Here is one of my all time favorite wall graphics from her site. Wouldn't it look lovely in your home?