Neglect

Oh, this poor blog.

I choose to regard my neglect of this blog as a good sign - it must mean that I am soooooooo busy making cool things & selling cool beads that I have no time to update!

Maybe I can come up with se content soon!

So much to do, so little time

Ahh, has a whole other month come and gone?   Things are ramping up for the holiday season here!  We have an action packed month.  Each weekend through October 15th, Polygolems will have product in the Tradewinds area of the Kansas City Renaissance Festival, in the Parisole Foundation Ra Elements Boutique!  We are looking forward to a great year at Ren - this is my first year participating, and I hope that we will participate for many years going forward!

Also, we will be at Art Westport the weekend of September 7th, 8th & 9th.  I will be in booth 105 as an "Emerging Artist" - I'm quite excited for the opportunity, and cannot wait!

The weekend of October 14th and 15th will find us in Mound City, KS at the Sugar Mound Art and Craft Festival.  We have never been to this show, but it comes highly recommended by a fellow jewelry artist.  Looking forward to it - especially as it is an INDOOR event!! 


We will keep you updated as we add shows to our calendar - if you get the chance, come out and see us.  We have some awesome new products!

Krakenbangles

We've been busy, busy here at Polygolems.  What have we been busy with?  Let me show you:

From top to bottom:

Sugar stones necklaces - experimenting with Pardo clay and salt. 

Krakenbangles.  Fun tentacles to wrap around your wrists!!

I've been adding new items to the Etsy shop, my goal for the rest of July is to get my shop fully stocked.  Come check it out:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/polygolems

Drive By Posting...

I am SUPPOSED to be in the shower, getting ready to go to dinner.  However, I spent some time this afternoon (our next show is not until the 29th - at Waterfest in Excelsior Springs, so I promised myself that I'd spend some time during my 'down' two weeks working on photography) working on getting some photography done so I can beef up my Etsy store. 

Photography, traditionally, has been very difficult for me.  I don't know my camera well enough, and I have a hard time getting lighting right.  Today, I made a home made bounce out of a priority mail box (flat) covered in aluminum foil, and set it up on a table adjacent to a window.  I was pretty pleased with some of the pics I got and wanted to share them here.  I'm working hard in my studio to replenish my stock - two pretty successful shows, back to back (one of which really was kind of a disaster - I broke my cell phone AND wrecked my car on the same day) really depleted my stock.

Here's what I've been making lately:

We had a great time last night at Liberty Arts Squared - come see us today from 9 - 4.

In other news, I received word yesterday that we have been waitlisted for the Lincoln Arts Festival in November.  Cross your fingers for us!

Just  a quick note.  Today, I received my invitation to participate in Art Westport 2012.  I'm quite excited.  Of the three juried shows I've applied to so far, this one has the most competition.  And they picked ME!

It's September 7, 8 and 9, 2012.  I'm going to have to get busy making more stuff!

Yay!

Another Confirmed Show!

I have just received notice that I have been invited to display at the Clara Brierly Festival of the Arts in Peculiar, MO,  June 8th, 9th and 10th.  Very excited.  We wanted an inside space, but were unable to get one (I kind of slipped in under the wire - they were kind enough to jury me even though I was a day past the deadline), so we're going to be outside.  Here's to hoping for nice weather.  

I'm also pretty sure that I'm going to do KC Riverfest on the 4th of July - that should be fun.

My calendar is starting to fill up - I'll be at the grand opening of the Parisole Arts Foundation's new building - OK, well, I personally won't be there, I'll be at Liberty Arts Squared that evening, but I'll either send  J to Parisole as my proxy, or I'll just have merchandise there - haven't really decided how we are going to handle it yet.  I just got my booth assignment at Liberty today, looking forward to going and doing that show.  It will be our first outdoor show - it  will be interesting!  I need to get the tent set up so I can hose down the sides :)

This is all very cool, I'm excited to start putting some events on my calendar.

Oh, I find out on May 15th, whether I have been accepted at Art Westport - they are jurying right now, and every time I think about it, my stomach ties up in knots!

Busy summer.  I need to go make earrings now. :)

Phlumphs. Or Pagodas. Earrings, at any rate.

Finishing up some earrings - the earwires are now made and have been tumbled, all I have to do is attach them.  Which I plan to go do shortly. :)

Shows and Pagodas and Phlumphs

I'm so bad about updating this page. I do a lot on my personal facebook, I guess I should create a facebook page for Polygolems and when I post there, remember to come post here, too.

First Friday was last night, it was fun, but HOT!!!  The A/C wasn't working, and there were several hundred people in and out.  What a sauna.

Our display looked nice, though:

We had some good sales, and made some new friends.  It was a lot of fun. Today, I'm back to the grindstone of working and making some new product, because.....  I am double booked on June 1st!

June 1st is the grand opening for the Parisole Arts Foundation brand new building, which is going to be a blast.  There will be free booze, and belly dancers, and fire performers, and the Steampunk group is coming out - there will be costumes and fun and Art galore!   Unfortunately, I'm also booked at Liberty Art Squared June 1st and 2nd.  I'm not sure how I'm going to work it all out, I may see if J is willing to hold down the fort at Parisole while I am at Liberty manning the tent.  I may just make sure to have some pieces for sale at the boutique at Parisole.  Either way, I have to have enough inventory for TWO (TWO!) complete shows.

I'm going to have to be a busy, busy girl this month... In fact - I need to go get to work!!

OH! Wait - let me show you these little earring that I'm making.  I call them Pagodas - Jay calls them Phlumphs.  (OK, he says they are spelled flumphs.  I like the extraneous "ph"!!)

I just think they are the cutest thing - and I'm making them in all sorts of fun color combos!!!

OK, now - I'm off to work.  Really truly this time!

Catching up!

OK, I've been very lax about posting here, I need to be more disciplined!! 

We have been very busy, though.  On April 6, we had a table at Gallery2010 here in KC in the Crossroads district.  We really enjoyed it a lot and made some great sales.  Our table looked like this:

It was a blast, and there was a great Reggae band playing most of the evening, and of course, FREE WINE! :) We had great success and will be going back again May 4th. 

I've been working a ton with metallic surfacers and patinas over Polymer Clay.  A couple of months ago, Christi Friesen released a product line called "Swellegant!"  I ordered the full line (OK, really, my mother ordered it for me and gifted it to me) within a day or so of its release.   While I was waiting for my box to arrive, I started doing some research on my own, and found the Sculpt Nouveau website and wondered if Christi Friesen's products were the same or similar as Sculpt Nouveau.   Well, when my box of Swellegant! arrived, my questions were answered.

Swellegant is basically Sculpt Nouveau's Metallic surfacers, Dye-Oxides and a couple of traditional patinas, all packaged in smaller, more affordable quantities and marketed to Polymer clay artists.  Cool!  I spent a couple of weeks playing almost non-stop with the Swellegant! products, and had a great time and made some pretty cool things.  However, my mind kept wandering to all of the products that work with the metallic surfacers that Sculpt Nouveau offers that I *didn't* have.  So, I did what any fool would do and ordered a big old box.  Wheee!

Since, I've been having a ton of fun making what Jay calls "Rice Bowls."  I love these little not quite concentric circles:

Aren't they sweet!?  All of them use a combination of the Swellegant! product line and some other patinas that I ordered directly from Sculpt Nouveau.  The last one has some funky little headpins - I made those with some copper wire and my torch!  Sometimes, I DO play with fire. 

I have actually recently branched out into square shapes, but don't have any great photos yet.   Stay tuned!

Last week I purchased some awesome color recipes from Crafts by Chris (http://www.craftsbychrisonline.com/main/).  The color recipes are all based on Pantone's Spring/Summer 2012 colors. 

I have been working busily mixing them up for the last few days, and have made several small pendants with some of the colors.  I really love how they are turning out:

This one is "Amberlight" and "Winter White" - the little bead in the opening is a jade bead, cupped by a sterling silver bead cap.  I like it.

This one shows the front and back of one that's a little brighter.  Tangerine Tango and Solar Power, and I believe that the accent green is Margarita.

Blues and Greys.  Canal Blue and Smoke - I think the accent is Nightshade.

My favorite.  Margarita, Autumn Leaf and Bellflower. 

I'm about 3/4 of the way through mixing all of the colors to make color chips.   Looking forward to getting the rest of them mixed, but I couldn't resist stopping and making a few little pieces.  I really like the organic geometrics of this particular little pendant. 

Testing testing testing.