Anthology

sweet jars

Last weekend, we enjoyed a visit from Jessica and Anastasia of Confectionique.  We love the markets they have created over in Morey Airport once a month, and thought it would be a fun opportunity to introduce them to some of our customers.  In my dreams, I'd have more space for pop-up shops, as it was, they brought their little suitcase and everything fit perfectly on our craft table.  I know, Target is having pop-up shops too; we didn't exactly copy them.  Actually, I remember going to Japan several years ago and the department stores had pop-up shops.  It was a little disorienting until I figured out what was going on - one week the store looked one way, the next week it was something completely different.  But, anyway, it is a nice opportunity to bring something new into the shop and feature some of our other local and crafty favorites.  Just look at that suitcase!

In addition to their own clever creations, they brought their sweet little kits to make decorated jars:

I worked on one myself, though it was a bit of a challenge to fit everything in.  I arranged everything and then tried to put it in the far - ack! too wide! too tall!  But with a little rearranging and trimming, I was able to get it all in.  I printed out a little picture of the adorable girl and put some butterfly wings behind her to add a little fairy to the jar.  I like the idea of adding personalized images.

The Confectinique girls also left us with kits for a Sunday birthday party.
The 8 year-old girls had a fun time cutting out little paper pieces and constructing their own scenes.  They were particularly excited about the little little light inside the jar - what a sweet night light! 

Thanks for the visit, Confectionique!

look who's popping up: Confectionique visits Anthology

We're pleased to announce some visitors from the West... well, from the Middleton Morey airport anyway.  Confectionique will be at Anthology this Saturday.  They are bringing some of their lovely wares and will also be sharing their sweet spring scene jar project from 11 am - 1 pm.  You can stop in and make your own jar, or buy a kit to take home.  We're thinking they will be sweet Mother's Day presents.

Confectionique will also have a little sampling of their wares, and perhaps a little sneak peek of their upcoming May market.

We hope to see you on Saturday!
 

garland party afternoon

Oops... I lost track of this post.  I don't know what happened.  This is actually from a craft party from last Tuesday.  Before the party arrived, Sachi and I were gathering supplies and brainstorming options.  There's always some element of uncertainty, even trepidation - is everyone going to enjoy themselves?  will the project be what they thought it was going to be?  You know, all those silly "what-ifs" that take so much of our energy.  Why do we do that to ourselves?  I don't know.

Thanks, in part, to my office-cleaning of the week before, I had uncovered a lot of thrift store books so we had lots of materials to draw upon.  And the minute the party arrived, they were oohing and aahing over all the supplies.  Nerves immediately eased.

Most people used the circle punch from Fiskars (who I still love even if they did downsize the Madison office.  What can I say? I'm *trying* to shop smaller and locally, and have made big improvements in the allocation of my budget, but every once in a while, there's something made by a multi-national corporation manufacturing in China that is hard to resist).  The circle punch is the larger (and rounder) version of the square punch that we use for our photo snippets.

Anyway, everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves, and to put together totally unique garlands - which is one of my favorite things about craft parties: from a table of the same materials, everyone always ends up creating something different, something that is unique to them.  Aren't people so creative?

 

still my favorite craft project

Altered Golden Book.  I {heart} you so much. It might be true that a daughter of a librarian and a book lover should perhaps not enjoy tearing pages out of books so much.  But they were from the thrift store.  I like to think of it as giving them a new life.

Sunday afternoon brought a party of six (plus two - Mommy and a new baby... oh so sweet.... sigh, how did that girl already get this:

Anyway, I filled the table with a pile of Golden books, pre-cut pages of scrapbook paper, stickers, scraps of papers, glue sticks, scissors with straight and deckle edges.

The process of making an altered Golden book is simple, but it is a nice introduction to altering books.  And then the bulk of time is available for people to cut out images and text and collage back onto their new pages.  It is particularly fun to take sentences from stories out of context.

My all-time favorite altered book page is from a couple years ago, when a clever partygoer made the tragic Sleeping Beauty page.  It still makes me laugh.  It's the page with the title "a visit to the children's zoo," the image of Sleeping Beauty collapsed on the ground after pricking her finger on the needle, and the caption, "she's allergic." 

I think what I like best is the serendipitous way that these books come together.  I've been trying in my own artwork lately to trust the process and my intuition and what just happens to come along - less planning, and more pure delight in finding randomly wonderful scraps.

more love

Well, perhaps the Banksy cards aren't exactly Valentine, but they seemed to fit well with Wisconsin's current political situation.  Miss Forward was holding a big bunch of heart balloons on Wednesday night; I found myself thinking of all the things that have inadvertently become symbols of the Wisconsin protests: plastic palm trees, heart balloons....

Most of my energy this week has been focused on Valentine garlands.  I'm leading a church Sunday school activity on Sunday morning so I've been working on the prototype.  I ended up going rather low-tech: hand-cut and hand-sewn paper hearts, which is just easier all around.

I've been rearranging my living room and studio space at home, doing a little organizing and consolidating (though much more needs to be done).  In the process, I was reminded of the wealth of supplies that I have and was pleased to put some of them to use for these garlands: 1 book of cake recipes, 1 atlas, 1 book of sheet music, 1 box of black & white Paris pictures... all to cut up into hearts.

And as soon as I'm done with the Sunday school activity, the papercrafts will be coming to the craft table for February.  We've been gathering supplies for card- and garland-making: an assortment of papers and rubber stamps.  I might have to reprise my hand-cut doily rubber stamp for my Valentines this year.

The low-tech theme continues with Sachi's projects: hand sewn heart ornaments, with text screenprinted by a local artist.

I also rearranged the front table a bit so there's room for our assortment of Valentine goodies.  The anatomical heart stamp has been particularly popular.

 

Meanwhile, Sachi installed the Valentine's window this week, also chock full of Valentine goodness. 

 

I'm particularly impressed with her embroidery hoops, with song lyrics that she hand-embroidered.  She HAS been busy with hand-sewing this year!

Valentine goodness

Well, to tell the truth, I'm not quite ready yet...  I'm in the middle of a big rearranging project at home (rotated the living room 90 degrees and am finally dealing with the consolidation & studio organization that needed to be done after I moved things to the shop... FOUR years ago).  I've also been busy with year-end paperwork and resting from Christmas (which means spending time on Pinterest instead of making things to restock the store).  We had an amazing year in 2011!  I'm so grateful for our great sales figures but I think a little rest is necessary before we jump back in to graduation, Mother's Day, summer tourists, and Christmas. Our California buying trip this year is to San Francisco and is later than previous trips to Los Angeles so I have a few more weeks to wait before getting away from Wisconsin winter for a little vacation.

Meanwhile, Sachi has been working like crazy the past couple weeks.  Her main project has been sewing these little sweetheart ornaments with Spanish phrases, inspired by a box of Spanish sweetheart candies that a friend gave her:

Today, Sachi is installing the Valentine's window (to be fair, I installed the New Year window right after Christmas so we are continuing to take turns on window installation and I am not being a total slacker).  Here are some of the pieces:

In other Valentine-related news, this weekend I am helping our church Sunday school kids make Valentines to send to people who are home-bound or otherwise in need of a pick-me-up.  I decided, for the sake of variety, that we will make Valentine garlands instead of just cards.  We can all work together on the garlands and string a bunch of hand-cut hearts with Valentine wishes on them.  On to baker's twine, of course, my current obsession.

Or maybe we will just stitch them with red thread.  I kind of like the hand-sewn look.

And so on to gathering Valentine garland- and card-making supplies, for church and for the shop.  As soon as Sachi gets the table cleared of her window pieces, I can start unpacking.  I'm eager to make some garlands myself, and know a few customers who are apparently all ready for card-making, judging by their requests.

Besides the crafty projects, we've got paper packs, cards, sheets of paper and more to choose from.

This can be a relatively quiet time of year in terms of customers and new arrivals.  We are waiting to see what we find on our buying trip and also slowly making our way through our list of current and possible consignees to restock and add to our collection.  We did restock our "Midwest is Best" t-shirts, which were a popular Christmas gift.  We were also pleased that a new artist dropped into our laps with these great tiles with her own collage images.

Finally, we were pleased to get more of the hearts for Haiti, stone hearts made by Haitian artists which fund works in Haiti.  We feel strongly that arts are an important part of life and appreciate the opportunity to help artists elsewhere in the world.

clever button girls

Can I just say how blown away I am by the creativity of our customers?  I love to see what people think of! 

I got a message a few days ago from someone interested in button-making.  She was asking on behalf of her Waunakee daughter who wanted to make buttons for her team, and planning to come in Friday afternoon.  Now, I get the button question a lot, there are some specs as far as size/paper that are important to know in advance, plus I appreciate the heads' up on incoming buttonmakers. 

But I had NO idea what they were planning!  The girls came in on Friday with little ziploc baggies, one for each team member, with tiny little words and letters cut out from magazines.  Now, I don't know if you've ever tried to cut things out of magazines - the final look is cool, but it always seems like when you are looking for a particular word or letter, you can never find it.  I was told they spent 7 hours gathering these tiny little pieces and I'm not at all surprised.  Of course, if it were me, it would have taken a week because I would have gotten distracted with other collage thoughts.

Anyway, they spent Friday afternoon at the shop, gluing their little pieces down on our background papers, and then making them up into buttons.  I love that each person gets their own customized button!  I don't know how it was when you were in high school, but we had our little group of friends and each person had a nickname.... and how fun would that have been if we each had our own button?!  I'm jealous.

Saturday is for wreaths

That's right, tomorrow... or today, depending on when you are reading this.

We're excited that local artist Stefanie Lin will be joining us from 11 am - 2 pm to share her wonderful yarn-wrapped wreaths.  Watch her work on her own creations, or have a seat at the table and make your own.  Stefanie is bringing supplies so that you can make one on the spot, or take home supplies to work on later.

 

She's already shared some pictures of her own creations, as well as the basket of goodies she is gathering for people to use.  These would be fun to customize with your own ornaments too.  I have a favorite angel ornament which I think might look really sweet on a wreath.  I just have to figure out where I packed her.

 

 

it's beginning to look a lot like....

Dare I even say the word? As retailers, we've been thinking about Christmas for quite a while now, though I only just added Christmas music into the iPod shuffle. 

It's strange how much time I've spent preparing, and now it seems like it's almost over.  Don't rush things! you might say, but I did already get some sales calls about Valentine cards.  I am making progress on my personal list of gifts to make & buy, feeling proud of myself this year for sticking to the mostly local/handmade resolution. 

The adorable girl put in a request for a Cinderella dress and I had one late night of sewing.  I was pleased that the dress is made mostly of fabric that I already had in my collection, even did a little repurposing of something started for a completely different project.  I had to put it in a box and wrap it, otherwise I would run the risk of spoiling the surprise.  Bad enough, I know, that she already knows the dress is on its way.  And now that that's checked off the list, I can't help thinking about accessories... shoes? crown? maybe undergarments of some sort since that sparkly fabric can be kind of scratchy on bare arms/legs?

Meanwhile, at the shop, it is definitely looking like Christmas, even though I went with the Alice and Wonderland theme for the window.  I feel like it is a nice mix of holiday - storybook - whimsy, perfect for the season.  Our silver tinsel tree is covered with a variety of ornaments from whimsical cupcakes to souvenirs of Madison/Wisconsin.  Sachi's felt Wisconsin ornament remains a favorite - she brought in help this year so hopefully she'll keep up.

This weekend we hosted a craft party for a group of people making holiday gift tags.  I'm personally quite pleased with the cardstock Wisconsin gift tag that I made.  I'm so addicted the die-cut machine at Scrapbook Superstore, it's just a shame that I discovered it so late.

From December 8 - 14, the table will have an assortment of papers and glitter for people to make decoupage ornaments.

We are particularly looking forward to this coming Saturday, when guest artist Stefanie Lin will be coming to teach her yarn-covered wreaths.  She'll have supplies and ephemera for embellishment, in addition to the goodies we have for sale at the shop.  You can also bring your own holiday ephemera to work into your wreath - I have a few favorite childhood ornaments that I'm thinking would work nicely in a wreath.

Stefanie will be in the shop on December 10th from 11 - 2.  She will have supplies if you'd like to work on your own at our table, or take pieces home to work on later.

From December 15 - 22, we'll have holiday garlands at our craft table.  We'll have paper available for triangle flags, circles or paper chain garlands.  Bring in your old Christmas cards if you'd like to cut them up and incorporate them into garlands.

We have plenty of rubber stamps and supplies for card-making, holiday paper and baker's twine for creative gift-packaging, and many other items for the crafty person on your holiday list. 

We have works by over 100 local and independent artists so your purchases at Anthology go to support many creative endeavors.  We really appreciate your business and your general efforts to buy local and handmade this holiday season!  Thank you!

enamel sneak peek

I know I've mentioned before how much I love enamel. We always love it when we get to pick out pieces for the shop - some of which are available for your own jewelry-making, many of which I make into the earrings and necklaces that we have for sale.  I always feel a little bit like Donald Duck's uncle who would swim/roll/otherwise bask in his piles of gold coins - except for me, it's gorgeous shades of enamel pieces.

And we thought it was about time that you got to share in the fun.  So we are excited that we were able to make arrangements for an enamel trunk show over Thanksgiving weekend.

The back table will be filled with a lovely assortment of enamels and we will be on hand to help you if you'd like to do a little jewelry-assembly right on the spot.  Or, you can just pick out lovely pieces to bring home with you.  There will be lots to choose from in many different shapes, colors and sizes. 

It is a simple matter to put a pair of enamels on ear wires for a simple earring, or cluster a few onto a necklace.  Paired with our warm brass findings, you could easily get a few Christmas presents taken care of, and you can take credit for making them yourself!

We will be closed on Thursday but the trunk show will take place during our regular business hours on Friday and Saturday.  We will be keeping some pieces in store for the rest of the holiday season, but, come Monday, leftovers will be sent back to Duluth so get 'em while the getting is good.

There are shapes and styles we don't regularly carry in the store, plus you'll get a taste for how I feel when Sara comes to town - so many lovely enamels to choose from!  here are just a few pictures to whet your appetite.