Luna's Baublebilities

I got a last minute Holiday Commission to make a hand beaded, hand dyed velvet scarf in sage green with rose accents. 

I wasn't really sure how it would come out, I don't usually work in "subdued", you know. 

But, Wow.  I hated to send it away so fast. 




















 . . . . .

So -

I am totally and completely overwhelmed right now. 

But things are good.  Or mostly good.  Just very, very busy and I am very, very disorganized and slothful.  So that = Overwhelmed.

Here is a gorgeous rainbow Adventure scarf.  The photo is not good.  That blue is really an intense cerulean and the purple there near the edge is capable of burning your retinas out in real life.  Think Lisa Frank rainbows and unicorns but with less glitter and more sheen and you'll be close.   This scarf and it's velvet twin are going to the Arts Council today along with a few teal blue scarves for your buy local, buy handmade gifting pleasure.  (If you are not local and absolutely must have one of these rainbow scarves NOW or you will DIE - send me an e-mail or contact me through Facebook or my ArtFire shop and if the scarf has not been sold in the gallery, I will retrieve it for you and ship it to you in time for Santa.)

(Again - don't let this blue fool you.  It is bright cerulean turquoise blue, not midnight blue and that dark plum - screaming royal purple.  Neither of our cameras will take a good shot of these scarves because there is too much color information and the poor little pixels get all confused about what hue they are supposed to be.)

here's another collection that landed my earrings on the FP of ArtFire and made my stats skyrocket again.  I wish I could hug EarthMotherMosaics!  Thank You!



Last but not least - here is the Genesis of what I think is going to eventually become a gorgeous piece of Art Cloth.  It is a bamboo/cotton blend that I scrunched almost to death, shoved tightly into a container and dumped some Teal Blue dye over.  I love that crackley kaleidescopic look of the dye patterns. 

It is January 6, 2010 and it just keeps on snowing in Upstate NY.  The more it snows and the cold creeps further into houses and bones, the more apparent it becomes that The Beorningstead will not be move-in ready before March or April. 

Alas.  I will be asking Bry to move one of my large counter tops destined for my new studio into the livingroom here this weekend and will set up a dyeing area right here.  I've wasted enough time waiting for my new studio (curse you, banks and housing council!) and with both kids back in school, I'm ready to start really working here at home. 

Another thing I'm ready to work on are some more Mary Harding pandant necklaces.  I mentioned earlier that I had purchased a beautiful ceramic pendant from Mary at the Beading Party in October and that I had created a lovely beaded strand to attach it to - well here it is!    (Sorry about the poor photo quality, there's a lot of glare on my pendant.  My new studio will have a better photography set up, too!)

I used gold colored beadalon, copper colored toggles, some of my favorite Czech Glass beads, several interesting brass filigree components and created a big bail with a large brass filigree.  When I finished, I realized that the necklace was the perfect length for the plain turtleneck I was wearing while designing it, but a bit short for my favorite draped cowl neck shirt so I made a matching extension that allows the necklace to drape deeper OR that can wrap around twice so that I can wear it as a choker length bauble with tee shirts or open necked sweaters.  The bail I created is very wide and can slide off the necklace entirely so I can wear the bead strand alone or trade it out for a wide ribbon if I want to wear the pendant with a slightly more feminine style.

It is very versatile and I've had lots of compliments on it so I want to make several more to offer in my shops.  Mary has a very nice wholesale policy and I will be purchasing several of her pendants when my Christmas commission check come in.  You can find Mary's work on her blog, in her Etsy Shop or on her independent website.  She's a wonderful woman and her gorgeous work has been featured in beadstyle and a few other publications - stop by and take a look at all the amazing things she does with glass and clay!

Now - I'm off to work. Today I plan to finish a project that got stalled months ago.  I picked it back up yesterday and was re-inspired!  It may even turn out to be worthy of an article to submit to Beadwork.  Photos coming soon.



 . . . .

For my birthday yesterday, I went to work.  That's right - I didn't want to take the day off.  I really enjoy my paid day off every week and I particularly love the Holiday season at the Arts Council.  It was a pretty quiet morning yesterday, Hilary and I focused on staying on top of the inventory pouring in for the holidays and getting it displayed in the store during the morning.  We had a few visitors throughout the day and then something happened at 4:30 and we were inundated with shoppers.  I actually had a LINE at the checkout counter!

Hilarly and I stayed busy 'till after 6:00 wrapping packages (yes, we do free gift wrap for purchases from the gallery) and helping customers check out.  It was a mad house with constant chatter from the credit card processor and tissue paper crinkling non-stop as we stuffed boxes and curled ribbon.  Our little shop did almost $800.00 worth of sales in under 2 hours, most of it through debit and credit cards which add an extra step and a few extra minutes for processing each sale.  This much traffic in a normal retail setting would have been very stressful for both customers and the people running the checkout. 

But not at the Arts Council!  Our customers were all very friendly and chatted with each other while they waited.  I heard strangers giving each other advice on gift giving and talking excitedly about the beautiful things in the shop.   Hugs were ditributed among customers - even I got a hug!   And with every sale I entered in the compuer, I knew that a real person in MY county was getting paid to do something they love.  The work of North Country hands was being validated with evey check written, every nickel dropped into the cash box, every beep from the credit card machine.   Come January, when heating bills are due and winter is making good on its promise to stay, our artists will be getting their Christmas Commission checks and their long winter will suddenly become a little warmer and a little brighter.

The SLC Arts Council Gift shop and Gallery is located at 51 Market Street in Potsdam. It is on the block between Jreck's Subs and the Clarkson University Bookstore (used to be Westons for you old timers) on the same side of the street.  It is the sparkliest window in town and we have beautiful gifts ranging in price from $5.00 to $1,500.00 representing the work of over 240 North Country Artists.  We offer gift certificates that can be used for either goodies from the gift shop or classes offered throughout the year.   You will find pottery, stained glass, jewely, mittens, scarves, hats, woden boxes and bowls, paintings, photographs, quilts, sculpture, lamps, ornaments and magnets and many other lovely things. Normal hours are 10-6 Monday -Friday, 10-4 on Saturdays but we do have a few specail hours for the holidays.  Check them out on the SLC Arts Council's website.

The rest of my day was wonderful, too.  I got more Facebook birthday wishes than I can count, Molly had fun at call backs for her musical - she thinks she might get the part of the Queen - we'll find out today and Maxx had a fun afternoon with gramma and grampa, who picked him up at school so he didn't have to ride the bus.  Bry and the kids took me to dinner at Hotel Grande, where we met Meemo, Nate, Jo and Derek for a wonderful meal.  Hotel Grande is about as close as you can come to 'Mexican' food this far North and the little boys were amazingly well behaved so it was a great meal.   Mom gave me some cash and some chocolate and ran off with the check before Bry could get up to pay for the meal.  Maxx gave me a pair of lovely, warm plum leather gloves which go well with my aubergine winter coat, Molly gave me a beautiful bead from ADKlampwork (another Adirondack glass worker!) and Bry gave me a Llewellen's Witches Calendar which Ive been wanting for years.  It lends some cred to the joke that I want to be a Buddist Mormon Witch when I grow up. 

It was an excellent way to spend my big day.  I'm so grateful for my wonderful family, my perfect job and the sweet friendships I enjoy.






. . . .

for MYSELF but found that they were just too heavy for my elderly ears. (Believe it or not, earlobes start to get saggy and wrinkled somewhere around 40-ish. Sigh.)

















The gorgeous artisan beads are lovely enough that I don't want to sell them off. I guess Molly Bryn gets to enjoy them until I find another use for those beads.








The beads were made by Lori Lochner, a fellow Adirondack artist. She does incredible things with glass and has a small but wonderful Etsy shop.




I love the etched glass beads in this necklace.





And her sea urchin beads are wonderful.






But it is this Conch bead that really blows me away. Someday I want to work magic in glass like her!

So - Etsy is running a short poll on St. Patrick's Day themed items. Winners of the poll will have their item featured in two special advertising slots on Etsy for St. Patty's day. This will drive more traffic to these sellers' stores and potentially increase their revenue for March.

My fellow Etsy blogger, 3RexesJewelry, has this gorgeous pair of earrings in the running. If you follow this link, you can see all of the beautiful things the Etsy community has created for this celebration & vote for your favorite

http://www.etsy.com/voter_list.php?ref=voter&room_id=34

If you are buying gifts for St. Patricks Day - buy handmade and support an indie artist! Check out Etsy or your local Arts Council gift gallery. It's so much more fun to buy and give gifts that are made by a real human being that you can actually communicate with. With Etsy, you can even find an artist that lives near you with the Shop Local tool. It is soo cool! Just scroll down the main page and look in the margin - you'll find it.

I'm participating in a nationwide Blog-in to continue to call attention to CIPSA legislation , slated to go into effect in about 13 days. This is very poorly legislation, crafted in reaction to lead laden toys from China. If this legisaltion is not changed it will have terrible consequences for business, families and the national economy. I can't explain it any better than Holly at Winklepots put it:


As parents and concerned citizens I’m sure most of us at one time or another have been confronted with the question of lead poisoning. But have you asked yourself what your government is doing to protect your children from lead contained in toys? The answer? They're banning toys, taking books from schools and libraries, hurting low income families, killing entrepreneurial spirit and risking putting the economy in an even greater depression than we've seen in decades. I'd like to introduce you to their solution: the CPSIA.

Do you know about the CPSIA? No? Then I ask you to take a few minutes to find out about it.

The CPSIA stands for Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, a new set of laws that will come into effect on 10 February, 2009 and will impact many, many people in a negative way. Make no mistake, this is very real. View it for yourself. If Forbes, the American Library Association and numerous other media are paying attention, perhaps you should too.

How will these new laws affect you? Well, here are a few examples:

To the Parents of Young Students:
Due to the new law, expect to see the cost of school supplies sky rocket. While those paper clips weren't originally intended for your student to use, they will need to be tested now that your 11-year-old needs them for his school project. This law applies to any and all school supplies (textbooks, pencils, crayons, paper, etc.) being used by children under 12.

To the Avid Reader:
Due to the new law, all children's books will be pulled from library and school shelves, as there is no exemption for them. That’s okay though, there's always television. Our children don’t need to learn the love of reading after all.
Article from the American Library Association http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?p=1322

To the Lover of All Things Handmade:
Due to the new law, you will now be given a cotton ball and an instruction manual so you can make it yourself since that blanket you originally had your eye on for $50 will now cost you around $1,000 after it's passed testing. It won't even be the one-of-a-kind blanket you were hoping for. Items are destroyed in the testing process making one-of-a-kind items virtually impossible. So that gorgeous hand-knit hat you bought your child this past winter won’t be available next winter.

To the Environmentalist:
Due to the new law, all items in non-compliance will now be dumped into our already overflowing landfills. Imagine not just products from the small business owners, but the Big Box Stores as well. You can't sell it so you must toss it. Or be potentially sued for selling it. You can't even give them away. If you are caught, it is still a violation.

To the Second-Hand Shopper:
Due to the new law, you will now need to spend $20 for that brand new pair of jeans for your 2-year old, rather than shop at the Goodwill for second hand. Many resale shops are eliminating children's items all together to avoid future lawsuits.

To the Entrepreneur:
Due to this new law, you will be forced to adhere to strict testing of your unique products or discontinue to make and/or sell them. Small businesses will be likely to be unable to afford the cost of testing and be forced to close up shop. Due to the current economic state, you'll have to hope for the best when it comes to finding a new job in Corporate America.

To the Antique Toy Collector:
Due to the new law, you'd better start buying now because it's all going to private collection and will no longer be available to purchase. “Because the new rules apply retroactively, toys and clothes already on the shelf will have to be thrown out if they aren't certified as safe.” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123189645948879745.html

To the American Economy:
Already struggling under an economy that hasn’t been this weak in decades, the American economy will be hit harder with the inevitable loss of jobs and revenues from suppliers, small businesses and consumers. The required testing is far too costly and restrictive for small businesses or individuals to undertake.

To the Worldwide Economy:
Due to this new law, many foreign manufacturers have already pulled out of the US market. You can imagine the impact of this on their businesses.

If you think this is exaggerating, here is a recent article from Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/16/cpsia-safety-toys-oped-cx_wo_0116olson.html

And for those of you prepared to be stupefied and boggled, The New Law
http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html

Did you know? If this upsets or alarms you, please react.

Our nation can do beter than this.

No photos today, I'm afraid. My system crashed Tuesday and I've lost everything, at least temporarily. Friends assure me that thyere May be a way to recover my financial data and our photos from the hard drive. Meanwhile, I'm learning how to use Vista on our new system.

A lack of photos seems appropriate to my subject today. Can you imagine what life would be like without the millions of American handcrafters and artists like me? If CIPSA goes into efect, it could very well shut us all down.

Here's a quote from Change.org that explains the situation:

"In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public's trust. They were selling toys containing dangerously high lead content, unsafe small parts, and chemicals that made kids sick.

"The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August 2008. Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in children's products, mandates third party testing and certification, and requires manufacturers of all goods for children under the age of 12, to permanently label each item with a date and batch number.

"All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational companies to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each item have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and updating their systems to include batch labels. Small businesses however, will likely be driven out of business by the costs of mandatory testing, to the tune of as much as $4,000 or more per item. And the few larger manufacturers who still employ workers in the United States face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.

"Anyone who produces or sells any of the following new or used items will be required to comply with the law: toys, books, clothing, art, educational supplies, materials for the learning disabled, bicycles, and more. Any uncertified item intended for children under the age of 12 will be considered contraband after February 10, 2009. It will be illegal to sell or give these items away to charities, and the government will require their destruction or permanent disposal, resulting in millions of tons of unnecessary waste, and placing an enormous strain on our landfills."


The law is already having an impact on families and communities in the U.S. This is what Dawnella of MothersMoon over on Etsy had to say yesterday:


"Today was a sad day for me... I went into the store front for the work at home moms co-op I have been a part of for two years, and picked up all my goods as the store will be closing at the end of the month. With more than half the inventory being items handmade by local moms...moms chosing to stay home with thier children to make their lives better...and the other products coming from small manufacturers (such as Sarah's Silks) there would be nothing left to sell if this law takes effect. This is/was a shop mainly of baby goods...cloth diapers, baby slings, quilts, natural soaps, nursing necklaces, handwoven bassinetts, wooden toys, creative playthings...but it was more, it was a place where moms came in to support each other. Sometimes purchasing items made by those other moms, but more than that a place to talk about their pregnancies, ask questions of other moms, take babywearing classes or cloth diapering classes...a local resource for finding breastfeeding support groups, and getting the scoop on local peditricians or midwives. Not only is the town losing a business filled with locally made goods, but the town is losing a vital community element."

So, if you want to continue to see, make, buy and sell handcrafted good of all kinds across America, please contact your legislators and visit Change.org to vote for amending CIPSA. The grassroots demands are working - CIPA has already proposed an ammendment to exclude consignment shops and resellers, but they have not yet made exceptions for American cottage industry. A reasonable ammendment might include a mandate that crafters and artists provide a list of all materials used in the manufacture of their items and any safety precautions parents should take but would remove the requirement to submit a sample of each item produced for expensive testing. We know the problems are coming from China and large industry. Most crafters I know don't mix up any lead based paint to sell to toddlers in their home studio.

Just in case you didn't know already, the Etsy Bloggers Street Team is sponsoring a Holiday Sale. Over 50 Etsy Sellers on our team are offering discounts and/or shipping deals on orders placed between this Friday and December 1st.

I am offering 10% off all orders at Lunasbaublebilities plus free shipping on all orders over $45.00. At GoblinsMarket, all orders get free shipping.

Plenty of other stores will be offering similar specials so check them out. You can see all of the Etsy Bloggers Team sales by clicking on the announcement. You'll find handmade everything from Soap and Scarves to Chainmalle and Childrens' clothes. People who make and sell Fine art (including Photography) and art and crafting supplies are also particiating.

Buying on handmade Etsy may seem a little strange, but it is a truly revolutionary way to shop. Everything on Etsy (excluding supplies and vintage goods) has been handmade by one individual artist/craftsperson or a by small cooperative of two or three artists sharing resources. The money you pay for your items minus a small listing fee and any PayPal fees (usually about 10% total) goes directly into that artist's pocket. The artist earns what he or she has decided is a reasonable & fair wage for their labor and goes on to make more beautiful things. You recieve something unique, carefully crafted and valuable.

No frantic bidding. No major corporations and greedy middlemen. No child labor. No sweatshops or human rights abuses. No mass produced junk. No shopping malls or giant retail stores. Just you, the artist and something beautiful that comes to your home in time for the Holidays. You can even do a search for artists and craftspeople who live in your little corner of the world so that you can buy local and well as handmade.

Go check it out!

So - last week was photo day at school for Maxx. I really didn't want to get his photo taken this time around because he hasn't been eating well & has grown another 2 or 3 inches recently plus he cut his own hair a while ago and we had to completely shave his head to finish the job. What with being extra skinny and having almost no hair, he looks like a small prisoner in a concentration camp. Not an image I want to send around to family and friends!

So I thought, "Well, I'll just order the smallest package so I can get the class photo for his memory book." When Molly was small, you could order the small package for 10 to 15 bucks and get a 5x7, a couple of wallets and the class photo. And they had lovely backgrounds and were just very pretty photos, as you can see.

Their business practices always bugged me, though. I would order a small package that I could afford and they would send home a larger package including things like stickers, bookmarks, more large prints, etc... with a letter demanding that I either pay for those items or return them to the school. Since the kids open their packages on the bus and give away half the stickers to their friends before parents even get to see them, most families ended up having to pay through the nose for the extra stuff sent by the photo company. If parents sent stuff back to the school instead of paying for it, the school was supposed to shred the extra prints.

Now, the same company is only offering mottled color backgrounds and if you want a bright color instead of a blah grey, you have to pay an extra 5 bucks. If you want the class photo, you have to pay an extra 10. If I had wanted to get a photo of Maxx that didn't look a prison mug shot and would include the class photo sheet, I would have had to pay 30 bucks.

Last year $30 wouldn't have been a big deal, but living on half salary makes it seem like a much larger chunk of change than before. I couldn't stomach the idea of taking that amount of money out of our grocery budget and giving it to a huge national conglomerate school photo scam job for a picture that would surely make my kid look like a starved convict.

As I looked at more of the package prices, I saw that some of the bigger packages were running over a hundred dollars. I am totally mystified! Why would anyone spend that kind of money on school pictures? Even if your kids looked super on photo day - even if they were using beautiful backgrounds? If I had hundreds of dollars to spend, I would go out and find a professional photographer who would take some time to get GREAT photos of my kids. Maybe the dog could even be in the photos. I would be so much happier about spending photography money in a way that supports a real live local artist and helps a local small business.

Last night I stayed a little late at the Arts Council to help out with Fright Night and I met the very photographer I would hire if I had hundreds of dollars to spend - and if Maxx had any of his beautiful hair right now!

Jodi Durow is new to St. Lawrence County and she does child, family and pregnancy photography in black and white. She was asking about promotional opportunities at the Arts Council for photographers and when I mentioned my frustration with school photos, she pulled out her beautiful business cards. I visited her website this morning and I am just so impressed with what I found there. Her photos are warm and personal. Her subjects look happy and comfortable with the camera. Her fees are appropriate for her services and to top it all off, she is a very engaging and peaceful person. In the few minutes that we were able to speak with each other in the crowd and craziness of Fright Night, I felt like I had met a new friend.








(Jodi's Business cards are from Moo and they are amazing! The photograph is saved here in very low resolution so that no one will want to steal this beautiful image but the actual card is beautiful. It is very sturdy, the image is crisp and it feels substantial and professional. That does it - I have to get some Moo cards!)

She is also an infant bereavement photographer. If you are unaware of what an infant bereavement photographer does, you can visit the NILMDTS website. This service is one of the most compassionate and one of the most most difficult things I can imagine doing for another family. As I was looking at the Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep website, I realized Jodi's calm manner and engaging approach makes her perfect for this service.

I can't afford Jodi's photos right now but I do appreciate the fact that we have a real live talented portrait artist right nearby. And I'll be saving this business card against the day when I do have some extra money to spend on portraits.