Designers Downtown Market

***UPDATE! Due to bad weather, the Downtown Designers Market will be postponed until Saturday, March 21st!!**

This Saturday, March 14th, marks the first day of the Designers Downtown Market and my first art and craft show for 2009. The market will be located in downtown Raleigh, so all you fellow North Carolinians won't want to miss it.

The Designers Downtown Market features fine locally made arts and crafts with an outdoor big city feel. The vendors showcase some of the finest handcrafted arts and crafts in the area: jewelry, pottery, apparel, stained glass, paper crafts and more! There are five shows throughout the year. Every show is different, with new artists and craftspeople coming in every event. Browse the vendor list on the Designers Downtown Market site to find out who will be at the upcoming Market.

The market will take place at 509 N. West Street in the parking lot of Ornamentea and the surrounding area from 9am - 3pm. Come by and check it out!

Monday Must-Have - Crafttastrophe

Today marks a new installment of my Monday blog series titled Monday Must-Have. Each Monday I will feature a fellow talented Etsian and his or her phenomenal work. Each featured artist will have his or her own online Etsy shop where you can peruse and admire his or her one-of-a-kind body of work. Hopefully you will find new favorite artists and artisans whose work you MUST HAVE. :)

Today's featured artist is Crafttastrophe.

Who are you (actual name/and or shop name)?

My name is Rachel and I am the one-woman show of Crafttastrophe.etsy.com

What do you create?

I create unique hand painted shoes and accessories. All of my pieces are done 100% freehand, so they all have their own charming quirks. I love the idea of spreading one-of-a-kind original pieces of wearable art.

Where are you located?

I live in Northeast Ohio.

When did you start creating?

I started creating shortly after my birth. Ever since I was young I have been interested in art. My parents used to take my brother and I on extensive cross-country road trips when we were young, and they would get so upset with us because we were too busy drawing comics in the backseat to bother looking at any of the amazing sights.

Why did you choose your shop name?

Working out of our one-bedroom apartment, I've found space can be somewhat limited. At one point, I had gotten to the point where nearly every available inch of floorspace was being taken over by my art supplies. While I was describing the mess to a friend of mine, I mentioned that it had gotten so bad it was a "crafttastrophe". The name has stuck since then.

What inspires you?

Anything that catches my eye. Even everyday things that you might walk past 10 times a day but never really take note of; bright construction signs, junk food labels, a washed down wall of graffiti.

What is the most time consuming part of your craft?

The intricate details of my freehand work. Sometimes I get so caught up in adding more and more to the design that I completely lose track of time.

What is your favorite place to visit in your hometown and why?

Our apartment is attached to a beautiful park. When it's warm out, my husband and I love to go on walks down by the creek. It's wonderfully relaxing, and helps clear the mind and get new inspiration.

What is your most popular item that you create (and why do you think it is so popular)?

Recently I've been getting a number of custom requests for unique wedding shoes. I love being able to help fellow quirky brides! It's wonderful getting the chance to be a part of someone's big day!

What's your next project going to be?

I'm currently working on some freehand hand painted clothing. My main focus is on quirky party dresses and formal wear. I'm very excited about it!

What do you do when you are not creating?

I'm a full-time student, so when I'm not creating I'm usually either in class or making huge stacks of note cards to study from. When I have free time for myself, I love spending time with my husband and our three woozle (ferret) children.


Be sure to check out Rachel's Etsy shop to peruse her fantastic work. If you're interested in being featured in future Monday Must-Have segments, please feel free to convo me in my Etsy shop or email me. Have a wonderful day!

Weekend Deal

Looking for unique jewelry that catches the eye of passers by? Check out my wearable art! My wearable art collection features pendants, rings, brooches, and bobby pins. Each piece features a one-of-a-kind miniature acrylic painting on a wood tile which is then sealed and topped off with a resin finish. The resin brings out the saturation of color in each piece and gives them the look of heavy glass when in fact they are all very lightweight.

This weekend only you can get any two wearable art pieces for $40. Type in the code "PRIMAVERA" (which is Italian for Spring!) in the note to seller upon checkout, pay for your order, and I'll refund you through PayPal.

My special is actually featured in the Storque, the Etsy blog.

So swing by the shop and check it out! I've listed several new pieces each day this week. Have a wonderful weekend!

Friday Finds

It's Friday!! Whoo-hoo! Here are some fantastic Etsy finds for this fabulous Friday.

Are you in the doghouse? Check out this great card from SpawnStudio.

Cherry Cherry Coconut Soap from SwanMountainSoaps. This is the best-smelling soap I have ever come across. No lie.

I've been eyeing this teal sketchbook basic tote from DrikaB. I loooooove the colors.

These Neon Bacteria hand-painted shoes from Crafttastrophe are AWESOME!

I love how unique this Feather Necklace is from Noemiah.

Have a wonderful Friday! :)

Have You Heard of ByHand.me?

For those who love all that is handmade, there is another site for us to find and drool over handmade goodness from a variety of online venues. That site is ByHand.me. What exactly is ByHand.me? According to the site it is handmade items, handmade artisans, handmade code, and handmade friendships. This is the revolution of the handmade playground. It starts with a simple guy, Adam, also known on Etsy and Artfire as infivision. He decided he wanted a better social community to promote handmade. While ning offers this to some extent, he felt it was too generic and has a poor user interface. In a quest for something better he developed http://byhand.me. Designed and created in under a week and for under $100 - ok so he had to purchase the domain and a security certificate - ByHand serves as a free social network for those who make handmade and those who buy handmade. Here's a run down of what you can expect from the site:

* Artisan Directory
* Spotlights
* Forums
* Member Blogs
* Social Networking
* Chat
* Private Messaging
* RSS Feeds
* And more..

I recently became a member and am loving it. One of my favorite things to do is create a Spotlight. Spotlights allow you to curate nine items in a gallery format. This allows you to pull items from multiple venues and create what Etsy calls a "treasury" of handpicked items that you'd like to show off to the world. Spotlights never expire, and only are removed when you choose to delete it. Here's one I created with my items:


There's even a blog that features Spotlights that have been created on ByHand.me called Found-Handmade. I'm actually one of the publishers on this new blog and post at least one Spotlight a day that catches my eye. I've found quite a few new favorite shops from perusing the Spotlights.

So if you're a big fan of all that is handmade, swing by ByHand.me and check it out! You won't be disappointed. :)

Workshop Wednesday - Crocheted Flower Earrings Tutorial With Jennifer White Designs

Today marks another installment of my weekly blog series titled Workshop Wednesday. Each Wednesday will feature either a tutorial by yours truly or another talented artist or artisan, or a snapshot of an artist's creative process. This week's Workshop Wednesday features Jennifer of Jennifer White Designs. She has graciously put together a tutorial on how to create crocheted flower earrings.

Crocheted Flower Earrings Tutorial

You’ll need:

●Less than 1 ounce of yarn. I used Sugar ‘n Cream cotton in color Faded Denim, but any worsted weight yarn will work.

●Size G Crochet hook

●2 surgical steel earring hooks

●2 decorative beads or buttons

●Sewing thread in a color that coordinates with yarn color.

●Sewing needle

●Jewelry pliers

●2 3in. head pins


Stitches Used:

Chain stitch (Ch): Yarn over, pull yarn through loop on hook.
Double Crochet stitch (dc): Yarn over, insert hook into next stitch, yarn over, pull yarn through stitch, yarn over pull yarn through two loops on hook, yarn over, pull yarn through all remaining loops. One loop remains.
Slip Stitch (sl st): Insert hook into next stitch, yarn over, pull yarn through stitch and loop on hook.

Making the flower (Make 2):

Make a slip knot with yarn. Place the loop onto crochet hook and chain two. Turn.
Round 1: Work 5 double crochet in second chain from hook. Slip stitch into next stitch. You now have a small circle.


Round 2: Chain 3, (dc, ch 3, sl st) in same sc, (sl st, ch 3, dc, ch 3, sl st) in each sc around, sl st in first sl st to join–5 petals. Fasten off. Weave in any loose ends.


With thread and needle, sew decorative button or bead in center of flower. Repeat for 2nd flower as well.


Now take one of the 3 in. Head pins and use pliers to cut it in half.


Discard the flat end, (assuming you’re using the kind with a loop at one end) Next, slide head pin through the top stitch of one of the flower petals. Then, using pliers, bend pin up and toward the loop so that petal is secured onto head pin.


Next, take earring hook and attach the head pin loop to the bottom loop of hook.


Repeat for other earring and enjoy your funky new jewelry!!


Be sure to check out Jennifer's work in her Etsy shop! If you're interested in being a part of future Workshop Wednesdays, please feel free to convo me in my Etsy shop or comment on this post. Have a great day!

New Wearable Art!

This afternoon and throughout the week I'll be listing brand new wearable art. I will finally have several new bird silhouette art pendants. The bird silhouette pendants are some of my more popular designs, and I am excited to have several new pieces to list. In the past I've only made one or two with each batch of new wearable art and they always sell very quickly or get requested to be shipped with consignment orders. The last time I listed one it sold within 15 minutes of listing. Some pieces may be similar but no two are exactly the same. The new pieces will be listed in several new colors. Here are a few examples of previous pieces:

Bird On Branches

Bird Silhouette

Bird On Branches
Bird On Branches
Bird Silhouette

I've also created a brand new size of wearable art rings! The new rings will feature 0.75 inch diameter miniature circle paintings. Some of these new pieces will feature tiny bird silhouettes, trees, dog and cat silhouettes, my cosmic design, and much more. Right now I have larger rings available in my shop like these:

1 inch diameter ring
1.5 inch diameter ring

The new size will be smaller than those already existing in my shop, and will make a more subtle statement than the larger ones. Over the next few days there should be a ring just right for everyone in my shop. ;)

Please be sure to check out the shop this afternoon and over the next few days to snag yourself one of the new pieces before someone else does. As always, please feel free to convo me in my Etsy shop or email me if you have any questions. Have a wonderful day!