New Blog Location

I've moved my blog over to TypePad. Check me out there for entries beginning March 2007. You can find me at:

http://potbellyarts.typepad.com/

Thanks for visiting!!!

Done!

One last card to round out my '3 for 3' swap on the theme, ORIGINAL PROSE & POETRY. This one's called, "A Finely Made Shoe." And of course it's entirely tongue in cheek. I do hope that, if I were motivated (or had time) to delve deeper, I could come up with more meaningful poetry than this... :)

Escape hatch

I've really needed a creative "escape hatch" lately, because all my creative energies are going toward things I HAVE TO DO, which earn important income. Sometimes the pressure takes all the fun out of things!

I've recently become re-enamored of ATC's, but I'm doing them in a totally apart-from-bears way, and just to swap with other artists (not sell to card collectors) at this point. I found a great forum with THE most imaginative swaps which I'm going to have tons of fun playing with over time. Just a fun, self-growth, personal experience kind of thing, this is; not a money-earner or something I necessarily want to publicize (except in my blog, obviously!, which is more an artist's journal than a sales venue...)

Here are a few ATC's I've whipped up in between other projects the last week, including my "signature card," which will ship out to every swap partner so they'll know who I am and how to reach me if they want to swap some more!

Aleta made me do it

Mrs. Breese told me it's about time I post something new here. She's right, of course, as she always is. Trouble is, I'm screamingly busy and find myself short on things to say. Must be some kind of virus or something, given my usual diarrhea-of-the-mouth-i-ness. (Note: my mother used to actually tell people I had that condition. 'Diarrhea of the mouth.' Charming. What every girl wants to hear.)

Anyhoos...

I took a fun little quiz this morning and it turns out the answer to the question, WHICH ALICE IN WONDERLAND CHARACTER ARE YOU, is, of course, Alice. Blonde and clever and prone to letting curiosity get her into trouble. Yep, that's me.

What Alice in Wonderland Character Are You?

You are Alice The heroine of the Wonderland tales, you are filled with curiosity and random inquiry. Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Oh, snap

Turns out I might have broken my freaking wrist in my idiotic flesh wound accident of last Thursday. I'm waiting on radiology reports from x-rays taken this morning. Went to the doctor this morning when I realized that, despite near constant icing, over three days of rest and Ibuprofen have not lessened the swelling any, and that my wrist still feels "funny."

Wish me luck, please, re: the results. This just could not have happened at a more inconvenient time, professionally. If it's a break I'll be forced to cancel my Nevada City show.

UPDATE: The radiology report came back negative for fractures. Yay! Now I just have to grit my teeth thru the pain of bearmaking, which hurts my hands on a GOOD day, even without stitches and bruises and soreness.

The report did show some early arthritis in my fingers. Yeesh! I'm only 41!

Ewww...

New math:

Shelli + Wusthof slicing knife + hubby's half-eaten birthday cake + lifelong tendency to illustrate points in gesture-rich, melodramatic ways + tile countertop + re-enactment of Psycho stabbing scene + knife-thru-cake-to-counter impact = broken knife tip + high-speed knife tip ricochet, leading to gaping flesh wound requiring wee hour ER visit + five stitches + unending sheepishness over idiotic inadvertent self-infliction of work-limiting injury.

Not the easiest thing to type, cut, draw, or sew with... {sigh}



Apparently, if rammed point-down against hard surfaces, knives -- even $100 ones which claim to be unbreakable --can actually break, leading to potential injury. My recommendation: Keep this in mind.

Nevada City trinkets

I'm frantically getting ready for my mid-April bear show and it occurs to me that I might not have enough bears to fill my table space. I usually take about eight and since they're big that suits my table fine! But this time I'm behind schedule with them AND working on Boyds stuff (very enthusiastically, I might add) so I want to be sure to have something interesting and bear-related for my table in case I come up short with the teddy bear thing.

I'm enamored of paper arts and mixed media and recently saw some "captured fairies" in a Somerset Studio magazine so I thought, "Why not 'captured teddies?'"

Here's what I came up with on that theme, tries #1 and #2, with more to follow. They'll be part of my table display in Nevada City this April.

NEWS! Announcing my partnership with Boyds Bears!

I've been sitting on some really, really exciting news for many months now, and I've been so arm-chewingly excited to share it, but it's not been the right time to make official announcements... until now. Having been given the go-ahead at this point, let me giddily share my exciting news!

I've formed a partnership with Boyds Bears, a teddy bear manufacturer here in the US and based in Pennsylvania. So in addition to my self-representing artist bear business, Potbelly Bears, which will continue unchanged, I'm also now going to be designing a small line of plush for Boyds, which I'm sooooo incredibly excited to put on my resume because they make THE cutest bears and have such a warm, friendly, recognizable brand. I have not joined the Boyds design team as one of their designers; rather, as a freelance artist, I'm working on a small collection patterned after my original designs. If I can come up with some ideas that are appealing and workable for both mass production and for their market (no small task!), Boyds will be looking to produce my bears in big numbers and at great prices, to what we all hope will be a really welcoming and receptive collecting audience.

My line will not be marketed as Potbelly Bears or as "artist bears." Rather, my small contributions to the Boyds family of bears will simply mingle among the product lines that Boyds has already established, and put in place. This avoidance of the "artist bear" label for my Boyds work was actually very important to me in my negotiations with them. That's because, as a maker of high-end artist bears myself who hopes to continue producing high-end, kinda-pricey artist bears over the long term, I never want to do anything that might undercut myself, or my fellow bear artists -- especially surrounding our one-of-a-kind pricing structure, which reflects the skilled labor, attention to detail, and cost of materials for our bears.

I absolutely hope and believe that my Boyds line will be darling and affordable and have my uniquely Potbelly "look," but what they won't ever be is handmade, by one person, with meticulous attention to every last detail, because, by definition, being mass-produced, they're simply not created in that way. Boyds really got it so right in their thinking on this, I think, and I'm just delighted that we're of the same mind in this area... and that with this partnership there's the possibility of reaching a wider audience with my work, and of hopefully drawing some new collectors to our hobby, and for Boyds!, all while protecting the "artist bear" designation (and pricepoint) by reserving it for soft sculpture pieces that truly are one-of-a-kind, artist-created, hand crafted works of art.

It's a long, long process to go from design concept to product at retail, but at some point the idea is that all the stars align just right and my bears will be on your local retail shelves with the famous Boyds label attached!

For now, I'm screamingly busy, busy, BUSY with the design process and prototype construction, as well as prepping simultaneously for my once-yearly show in mid-April (the Nevada City Teddy Bear Convention), so please excuse any spotty updates that may follow for the next month or so. I'm still accepting graphic design clients and trying to fit it all in... I'm just sleeping a heckuva lot less!

So, so exciting and fun!

Visit Boyds Bears at www.boydsstuff.com or at www.boydsbearcountry.com.