Scrappy Wooly Carrots

Just picked from my Minnesota studio! I'm opening a new store called Whimsy Wire and Wool at etsy. My Scrappy Wooly Carrots will be my first offical listing. I will eventually use my Whimsy Wire and Wool shop as my main store, and use my cvoneschen shop to guide potential buyers and lookers to my new shop! Shew, I hope that wasn't too confusing?

I will be having a GRAND OPENING give away as soon as I'm up and running. I'll keep you updated, but keep checking!

Family Frenzy

Take chances,
make mistakes,
get messy!
-Ms. Frizzle, The Magic School Bus


My 9Year Old - His passion is for Robots!














My 6 Year Old - His passion is for Old War Planes
Art and children; The two are a perfect match. There's NOTHING that makes me happier than being with children who create with their little hands and big hearts. It's so precious, when they ask, "What should I do"? I usually just tell them, "What ever and however you want!" For some it brings on a bit of anxiety, others welcome the freedom. It's all about the mess and learning from it! That's why I LOVE Ms. Frizzle.

Ms. Frizzle is kind of my hero ... even though she's a cartoon character; I've always admired her famous phrase "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!" I personally would have put "get creative" in there, but I'm happy with the positive messages that she constantly quoted to her classroom.

I wanted to share with you the greeting cards that my 9 and 6 year old are making that we have been listing on my etsy shop. Both have sold one set each! They drew their pictures and I photocopied the originals onto a thicker stock so we could prepare for watercolor. They painted most of their characters, but they told me to "Pretty them up".

This has been a great experience for all of us. Just today, my 9 year old has been working all day on necklaces and bracelets and told me he wants to have an ETSY shop by end of day Sunday.

Hmmm, we need to talk more...
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Yell "HOODIE-HOO"

TODAY go out to wave your hands and chant "Hoodie-Hoo" to scare Mr. Hoodie away!

At this point we're a little crazy being cooped up inside all winter and not seeing the sun so it's your chance to chase away winter and bring in spring.

Read more about Hoodie-Hoo Day on the Offical Hoodi-Hoo Website. And more at Wellcat.

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Tomorrow

Tomorrow is HOODIE HOO Day! Stop by tomorrow to see the details of what you do!

Rosie's Wire Guys

Look at this cute packaging!
Somehow my 6 year old got hold of the toy popper, and what do boys do? **POP** What better way to celebrate the newest addition to my art collection!? All wrapped in Rosie's personalized tissue paper and sticker was this cute party popper, some lovely postcards, an oversized postcard showing great onstage pictures of her AWESOME theater house called "Rosie's Broadway Kids", and of course, "Wire Guys". 100% of the proceeds of every single sale in Rosie's ETSY shop goes directly to Rosie's Broadway Kids.

Introducing "Wire Guys" by Rosie O'Donnell

The shadow is art in itself. Beautiful!

"Wire Guys' new home for now. I LOVE to collect art that I connect to, and I'm quite fond of wire. The two paintings that you see in the background are done by one of my favorite local artists, Catherine Langer from Minnetonka, Minnesota.

Rosie O'Donnell Sculpture!

This Just in...
NEW PICTURES COMING SOON!
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I just received my "Wire Guys" Sculpture I purchased from Rosie's etsy website! YES, Rosie has an ETSY SHOP.
All proceeds from her etsy website go to 'Rosie's Broadway Kids '! It's an arts education organization dedicated to enriching the lives of children through the arts. Using professional teaching artists, Rosie's Broadway Kids provides instruction in dance and music and a professional theater experience for children who might otherwise not have the opportunity.
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Rosie says she will be offering more affordable work soon at her etsy website, so check often!
***I did ask Rosie for permission to post pictures :)
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Photography Tricks

Photography does not need to be so complicated! Don't be afraid of it, or too frustrated about it. These are practical and SIMPLE tricks I do every time I take pictures of my work.
In this section, all you need is your surface, a good amount of natural sunlight a transparent white plastic shopping bag and your camera! THAT EASY!!
Before I start with each step, set your camera in macro setting. If you don't know what this is, please refer to your manual. This setting is the most important setting right now, especially if you want to get up close. **Remember you won't be just taking a few pictures for one item! I take at least 10 pics to get a few great ones, and I delete the ones I don't want as I go along.**

1. I tool a picture in direct sunlight. You can see how dramatic the lighting is. There is too much contrast preventing the ring details to show up. Notice the amount of black values there are especially in the crevices of the wood? This look may be appealing to some, but I want the ring to be the most important feature.
2. Here is the trick!! A white transparent plastic shopping bag! Make sure the bag is mostly white, otherwise the color may cast a bit of that color onto your item your trying to photograph. I took a picture of how it looks from a distance. You can see the ring barely in the center of the picture.
3. Ahh, look!!! ALL I did is put the plastic bag in front of the sunlight to diffuse the light. This is a mini version of a light box! You may have to play around with the bag to get the look you want. It's all about experimentation. These are only meant to be guides.

If you don't have room to spare for a HUGE light box, this is a great solution to your storage challenge!! The only con to this technique is if you have windows that only face one direction you have a few hours to get your pictures taken. So plan accordingly.

UP CLOSE
Here is a before and after of the same pictures next to each other. You can see even better the detail of the wood and the overall appearance of the ring ... all because of a plastic bag!!!!

GOOD LUCK! Let me know if you've had any success with this technique!! I'll share the success stories on my blog! You can see more of my photography in my etsy shop!

Working on Photography Tutorial

♥ ♥ Happy Heart Day ♥ ♥
A few updates!
I'm still working on a pictured tutorial for taking better pictures using natural lighting (sunlight) that I'm planning to be up this weekend. The tricks and suggestions are simple and the tools I use I can guarantee you will have in your home.

For now here is a piece I finished just for fun. I really like the clean look of a half drilled semi-precious stone. I can let the bead be the main character of the piece, and there are no wires that need to support in it's roll to stay adhered. I'm uncertain if I'll continue doing jewelry this way but thought I'd share my results. What do you think? Would it fit in my shop?

'TAG'! You're it!

baroness-bijoutery just tagged me!!

Rules of tagging:
1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post these Rules in your Blog
3. Write 7 Random things about yourself
4. Tag random people at the end of your post and link to them
5. Let each Person know they've been tagged

Look at who I tagged!
On a Roll
Sassy Glass Designs
My Tutor List
Lady Farrah by Locklear

Some random things about me:
1. I am a cheesehead. Yes, from the land of beer and dairy but I did NOT grow up on a farm. Far from it! But I now live in Minneapolis.
2. I played violin for over 15 years and toured Europe with a symphony for 3 weeks. However, I do not play anymore but do pick it up every now and then. The last time I played, my calico 'Sassy' bit my ankle. Not sure what THAT meant!?
3. I was Condom Queen in college! REALLY, it's true, I won a Pizza and that made me quite happy! It was a promotion/contest on campus where I had to spell reservoir, be the first to throw 5 packaged condoms in a basket, blow a condom till it popped and a few other things that I don't remember. Do I want to?
4. I've made a series of onsies for a VERY FAMOUS well known African-American golfer who's married to an ex-model who had a baby girl lastyear. No paparazzi around to take a picture with the baby in one of them. SHUCKS!
5. I'm addicted to Diet Coke.
6. I've always been artisitic in all aspects of my life including scheduals, timing, organization, music, kids, cleaning, driving, cooking, talking...you get the picture....haha, and I LOVE puns!!
7. I'm addicted to etsy...oops did I just admit that!?

My 'Luckey' Dog

This is Luckey!
Our family adopted Luckey November of 2007 and she is a part of our family! Luckey's first mom moved into a home that didn't allow dogs, so my animal loving FIL called us up and informed us that a certain 6 year old Golden Retriever named Luckey needed a home! Well, here she is. We're all Lucky!!

Today Luckey wants to play, and I need to work on taking photos of my work!

Luckey!
Luckey telling me she wants to play ball.

Sad Luckey. "I will play later!"

After I take my picks and play with Luckey, I will be listing new jewelry! Don't forget to look at my etsy shop.

How Toos

As an art director who worked extensively in photo art direction, I was SO fortunate to work with amazingly talented photographers and stylists that passed their "tricks-of-the-trade" on to me. It is now that now I greatly benefit from all of those experiences for taking my own photographs. I've been asked through the years who does my photography? And I'm so proud to admit it's ME!

I'm going to share what I've learned and learning to pass on to YOU, and hopefully you can also benefit from my own tricks.

Stay in touch!

•Cathy

THANK YOU ETSY!!!

Mishmash Wire Ring - III

Great News!!
Mishmash Ring - III has been picked by etsy to be a part of the Gift Guides, under Just Jewels. What an amazing honor! I couldn't figure out why my views and ♥s were up?! It's amazing what can happen while you're asleep!? You can see more rings like this and other wire and wool fun and funky items at my etsy store.

The Passionate Pondering Artist

Recently in this photo I noticed a small detail, that today has become so big. Not yet two, this little crayon has legitimized my crazy passion as an adult ... to endlessly create.

As an artist (I think I can speak for many of us) I constantly doubt myself whether I should pursue my lifelong passion, or go back to corporate world where I earned a stable living as an art director.

I know I'm very capable of 'making it' in the handmade world, because frankly, I have A LOT of DAMN good ideas! So far, where to advertise has been my greatest challenge, but with a heart so filled with passion and perseverance, obstacles will be overcome with a style that only an artist can claim.

Follow me in my quest as the passionate artist. You can always see my newest creations at my shop.
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Swirls of Wool

I've been working on a smaller scale of my Scrappy Swirly Pins to make into pendants, bracelets and possibly earrings. I layer several pieces of recycled wool onto each other and roll to make this swirly effect. For about a week, I've been developing a technique to keep the wool pieces from separating and I'm pretty happy with the results. This pendant is 3/4" round swirl of wool, that hangs on a very large ball chain. Sturdy and Sweet.
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This swirl bead pendant is a bit of a contrast from the previous necklace because of the smooth snake chain and the beautiful faceted glass turquoise bead that delicately hangs.

Here I'm using my two most favorite mediums of wire and wool.
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To see more like this, go to my website.
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Y ME

Mmmmmm.....
You ask," What's with the green on my keys"? I say, "Great question, why don't you ask my (at the time) 5 year old"?

I'm ALL for self expression, but this went a little too far, Don't you think? I guess my green nail polish wasn't high enough on the 3rd shelf? But strangely, I'm a little sad, because I'm going to miss this little green mess my son made. I'm FINALLY upgrading to a Mac. For the last 7 years, I've been on the family DELL 'designing' on MicroSoft.

Actually, I know a Mac quite well; before kids I worked on a Mac in my profession. But now, I've finally purchased a (secondhand) G4 laptop from a good friend from California. He sent it in its original box, it's just beautiful! So in the next week, I will be transitioning full-time to my new-to-me Mac, with Illustrator AND Photoshop!
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GOOD BYE!

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