The CHA Bra

I realized I never did post pics of the bra I made for Charity Wings that was auctioned off at Winter CHA. Here’s a bit of background. Charity Wings did a very successful Crafty Flash Mob at Winter CHA 2012. About 100 folks took over the convention center lobby before the show opened. It was my first and only flash mob and I had soooo much fun.

Elena being Elena, she had to up the ante this year. A very dear friend of ours in the industry was diagnosed with breast cancer and we were devastated. Elena and some folks cooked up an idea to do a mob flash where all the crafty peeps created altered bras and then “flashed” them before  Winter CHA 2013 show opening. No worries, the ladies wore pink T-shirts with their altered bras on top of the shirts. Because this show was a big one for us with our new releases, there was no way I could sneak out this year and participate in the fun. (sad face here).

As you all know by now, I pretty much support Elena in just about anything she does to raise money for the charities Charity Wings supports. I told her I would make an altered ICE Resin paper bra. I wanted to show the world how cool and transparent tissue paper becomes when a layer of ICE is applied to it, and well, I thought the breast area was the best possible canvas to get my point across. I bought a tiny little bra at the Goodwill, washed it up and then proceeded to cut the cups out of it, keeping the underwire, and attaching resin paper. I also made some wire leaves (a technique Susan created and taught me and a bunch of others how to do in her workshops) and added an Iced Enamels bezel and some German Glass glitter  to it. Just for the fun of it, I created an asymmetrical headband to go with the bra. When I finished the whole thing it seemed to me that I somehow channeled a modern-day Moulin Rouge costume inspired by our summer workshop in France.

The one thing I forgot to do was add extra “material” (resin paper) to the cups so the bra will need to be worn by one tiny little flat chested woman. Oops! I wasn’t exactly thinking of functional art now was I? The cool part of that all of the bras were auctioned off at a Westcott sponsored party with all the money going toward breast cancer awareness.  I have no idea how much money my bra raised,  but I do know that it raised a few eyebrows and was the object of a some scandalous jokes. Of course I love that, as art is supposed to inspire, stimulate and elicit emotion!

And to let you in on a little insider joke, when I finished making the bra I held it up for my husband to see. I asked him what else it needed, as in did it need any further crafty embellishments? Being the straight man he definitely is, his response was simply a sly smile, a quick sideways shake of his head and two words; “Just breasts.” I had to laugh. I really love my man!

On another non-bra related note, I’m off to Tucson Friday night for the To Bead True Blue show and more workshops and our booth. I doubt I will have time to update while I’m gone. I’ll try to take lots of pics and post them when I return.

 

 

The annual CHA CHA CHA

Elena from Charity Wings always brings fun and excitement into our booth at the CHA shows. We LOVE her and Charity Wings! The peeps were just awesome to talk to and demo for. Keep an eye out for our ICE Resin videos with them soon!

I’m back from  California and the Winter 2013 Craft and Hobby Association trade show. This was such an exciting show this year for me and for all of us at ICE Resin! We’ve been working really hard for the past  year now on all our of new product releases. It’s been months and months of hard work behind the scenes and there was absolutely nothing any of us could talk about. It’s incredibly hard when you are putting in 12-14 hour work days at various critical points throughout the year and when people ask, “How’s it going?” all you can do is reply with a smile and a non-committal, it’s busy!

Finally, now it’s time! Susan Lenart Kazmer and ICE Resin has our very first licensed designer line of bezels and components. At the show, we introduced Rue Romantique by Kristen Robinson. The collection is vintage Victorian inspired bezels re-imagined for today’s jewelry artists and crafters who also adore a romantic, elegant and stylish collection. Kristen has been with us since Susan and I handpicked our very first design team. She’s also been in charge of our ICE Resin Creative Team for the past two years at its director. She is an amazing artist, teacher, wife, mother, friend and beautiful human being. I’m so very, very proud of her and thrilled to have the company selling her gorgeous new line.

In addition to Rue Romantique, Susan and myself have also developed a Cold Enameling program that is really quite amazing. We launched our Iced Enamels program at CHA and will be talking about it lots more and and also teaching workshops in all the brand new techniques we’ve developed over the past year. Be sure to read the ICE Queen eZine for lots of upcoming projects and videos from our wonderful Creative Team with the new stuff, as well as more videos and education from the two of us.

Here are some pics of the show (the mustache ones are from our team dinner at Buco di Beppo where there were 14 of us being silly and letting off some steam):

Me and my darling Kristen Robinson. So thrilled to see her hard-earned success of her new Rue Romantique line.

My book signing of Making Metal Jewelry at the F&W booth.

Me and Susan practicing being French Artistes from the Belle Epoque era.

My one and only make n take that I got to do the last 2 hours of the show at the Purple Cow booth. They were directly across from us, which is why I was able to sneak away for a bit.

Katrina, our amazing office manager who also handles distribution, busily taking orders. We saw Katrina looking like this A LOT this CHA. Woot!

The Kristen Robinson corner of our booth. Sooooo pretty!

Kristen’s beautiful samples. She had the ladies salivating over her gorgeous art!

QR Codes and U

This is the QR Tag that When Creativity Knocks did for me. To see it, download the app on your smartphone by going to http://gettag.mobi

Just a quick note to let you know I’m on a three-person panel Wednesday talking about QR codes as part of a CHA webinar. If you are a member of CHA, you can still register for this free webinar by going to the CHA website, clicking on the education link and then online learning center. Here’s the direct link for more information.

I’m thrilled Ana Arujo and Scott Pfeiffer, owners of When Creativity Knocks, asked me to join them in the webinar discussion. Ana and Scott are experts on using QR codes in marketing, education and more. I’m adding my two cents as a designer and columnist and how people can incorporate this technology into their businesses.

Last summer, When Creativity Knocks created a QR tag and linked it to a video they shot that I did to introduce myself as a CHA Designer Member. If you want to try it out, whip out your smartphone and hold the QR reader app to your computer screen. I also did one for my column for Belle Armoire Jewelry, but the editors preferred a QR Code over the tag. Below is the video I did for them.

Here's the 30 second QR Code I did for my Art Chooses You column.

Since the seminar is this week and we are doing it via Microsoft Live Meeting, a program I’ve only used once before when my computer tekki husband walked me through a session when I expressed interest in how he does his work remotely, I’m really looking forward to seeing how this all works. I’ll follow up on the blog next week to let you know how it all goes.

I’m on Notes from the Voodoo Cafe!

Ricë Freeman-Zachary's great blog. You gotta check it out!

If you follow my blog at all, then you know I absolutely adore Ricë Freeman-Zachary, artist, writer, educator, innovator and inspirer. Ricë called me up last week and asked if she could do a podcast with me about CHA for her cool blog Notes from the Voodoo Cafe. She left her request in a voicemail on my cell phone, so when I called her back and she answered the phone I said “Yes, Yes, Yes!” before even saying hello.

Ricë is a terrific journalist. She is inquisitive and always asks a ton of questions, even the hard ones, which she does to me and I have to internally groan while I think fast on my feet to respond appropriately. You know questions like….”what did you really think of such and such when she knows darn well that I’m the type of person that if I don’t like something, I just keep my mouth shut and talk about all the things I do like about so and so. It’s easier for me to live my life this way. I once interviewed a 96-year-old woman in a nursing home who led a storybook life. She gave me this piece of advice as a 21-year-old reporter:

“Honey, when you wake up every morning, you can choose to be happy or your can choose to be miserable. I choose to be happy.”

I’ve kept her sage advice in my head, and try to choose positive. Anyhoo…I digressed…AGAIN! This seems to happen a lot.

Ricë wanted to know what the big deal is about CHA, and why so many of our mutual artist friends not only attend, but Tweet and Facebook and Pinterest, etc. If you have the time to listen to the Podcast, which runs about 35 minutes I believe, head on over to her post on our interview.

CHA Winter 2012 wrap up

Me and sweet Susan

It always amazes me how people can get their blogs done so quickly recapping all the wonderful things that happened at CHA. It takes me about a week to catch up on some Zzzz’s and get settled back into the routine.

CHA this year was busy, as always. I remember the days when I used to attend the show as a member of the press. I’d just show up and look around the party. No real hard work on my part except to see, do, gather info and figure out what and who was interesting to my readers. That was seven years ago already (?!) Fast forward to now, and boy, have things changed.

Kristen Robinson's wonderful assemblage art sample

We re-designed the Susan Lenart Kazmer ICE Resin booth again this year. Coming on the heels of the summer show where the theme was the power of mixed-media, Susan and I decided we wanted to go full on mixed-media this show with amazing art samples from us, our Creative Team Director Kristen Robinson and our incredible SLK ICE Resin Creative Team members. We showed customers how our resin, bezels, ribbon, glitter, templates, new collage image pack and more could be used in everything from jewelry to collage to assemblage to journaling.

The show stopper was Susan’s chandelier and her cast figure ballerina with the lightbulb belly. I absolutely loved the lightbulb belly filled with glitter and a note. She is birthing new ideas and mixed-media excitement into the world, which is what we were hoping to do with our booth.

Isn't she lovely? SLK's cast resin ballerina that stole the show

Pre-Show fun included participating in a Flash Mob, which was the brainchild of Elena Lei Etchevery from Charity Wings and Wendy Russell. Elena organized the She’s Crafty Flash Mob to raise awareness for the charities that were participating at CHA. Kristen and I, along with 98 other folks broke out in dance right in the entrance lobby about 15 minutes before the show officially opened. It really was a blast and I can now say I’m so cool that I’ve been in a flash mob (grin). Also, I made a pair of wings for Elena that she wore around the show. I was pleased with the way they came out. Gorgeous 7 Gypsies Tissue paper covered in ICE Resin on a hand formed wing armature frame. I even used our frayed ribbons to make a rose and some girlie grunge goodness in the back where the wings attached.

Here’s the video from the Crochet Crowd, whom we met and fell in love with at this CHA. These guys are totally fabulous! We’re going to be working together in the future, so stay tuned.

We were movin' and groovin' for charity.

Another exciting happening at the booth is that Kristen was on hand to do book signings of her wonderful book Tales of Adornment, where she uses ICE Resin in every single one of her projects. The ladies flocked to the our booth, as well as the F&W/Norht Light and R&M Distributors booths to get their signed copies. I, too, did a book signing with giveaways and had so much fun handing out goodie bags.

Oh how I love these women. The both inspire me every day.

Creative Team members Tina Schiefer and JoAnna Pierotti were also at the booth doing some great demos throughout the show. It was JoAnna’s birthday on Sunday while we were there and we celebrated at Buco di Beppo wearing skinny stick-on mustaches that I bought in a little California shop when I was there last October. You can read Carol’s cute post about our ‘stashes over on the company blog.

Michael and Daniel of the Crochet Crowd with Susan

The other thing I really enjoyed was participating in the Designer Roundtable discussions, where people ask questions to CHA Designer members moderating various round tables. My topic was on looking at your work through the eyes of an editor, but the questions ranged from publishing books to Designer membership to product development. The conversations were exhilarating.

The only bummer of CHA for me was that we were so busy with the booth and customers that I just didn’t get to hang out with my artist friends as much as I’ve been able to do in the past. Boo hoo. Luckily, many of them stopped by for quick hugs so it was great to see them.

Wendy is sporting the ICE Resin and 7Gypsies tissue paper wings I made for Elena of Charity Wings. They came out cute!

That’s about it for my CHA wrap up. I’m not sure if I’ll be attending the summer show in Chicago this year. Lots going on in 2012. Just have to wait and see.

Me? Award Winner, OMG!

It’s Sunday night as I write this post. Winter CHA is over. We packed up the booth Wednesday, finishing about 5:30 p.m. and had one last quiet dinner in Anaheim. Thursday was spent on the road traveling I-10 home. I spent all day Friday snuggling my daughter, playing tea parties and taking a long 2.5 hour nap with her. I made my son his favorite dinner too. The weekend has been unpacking, cleaning my studio and home and reflecting on the days that passed and the events that transpired.

Obviously, the most amazing thing that happened to me this trade show is that I won the Plaid New Horizons Award for the CHA Designer member whose been in business 1-5 years. Marisa Pawelko, the Modern Surrealist, won the award for 5+ years. It’s a cash award — $1,500 each (!) However, the thing that means the most is the personal handwritten note and signed card from Mike McCooey, the President of Plaid.

I’ve been thinking about the award and all that it means to me. In addition, I’ve been thinking about what to write here on my blog about the experience. Honestly, I’m still at a loss. I feel like I need another week, at least, to process it, but in Internet time that would be like talking about something that happened a decade ago. So, I’m diving in, feeling like my words are all thumbs and my tongue is tied in knots.

Obviously, the words honored and blessed come to mind. So do humble and grateful. Interestingly enough, I find the adjectives fierce and powerful also seem to want to be part of my award thesaurus. Winning an award of this magnitude makes me feel proud from my bangs to my toenails. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around it. Me? New Horizons Award Winner? GET OUTTA TOWN!

If you’re like my husband or family, you’re probably wondering what project I designed to win this award. That’s the kicker, I didn’t. This award is such a high honor because only CHA Designer members can apply and Plaid executives decide the winners. It’s based on a body of work as a Designer, in addition to the professional steps you’ve taken, such as writing books and articles, teaching, community service and your short-term and long-term business goals. You have to say exactly how you plan to spend Plaid’s hard-earned money working toward a better future for yourself. This award is an investment by one of the largest and most influential craft manufacturers in the people they choose as winners. This means this year, they choose me. (Hit me with a two-by-four now please).

As I said, it’s going to take me a while to digest all of this. However, there are a few things I know for sure, and Plaid’s faith in me made it crystal clear. I am meant to do this. I have a passion for this industry. As a lifelong crafter and self-taught artist, I’ve been creating with every product imaginable for most of my life. I get excited when I walk into Hobby Lobby or Michaels and see something that inspires me. I love being both a customer and an educator at independent stores whose owners share the same passion for creativity as I do. I feel a jolt of positive energy every time I’m fortunate enough to stand before a group of mostly women at mixed-media art retreats to teach them techniques that inspire them to take their creativity to new heights.

Seriously, somebody pinch me.

3 Little Houses All in a Row

I’m in sunny California along with Susan and the ICE Resin team setting up our booth. We’ve been working hard for months on the booth, art samples, new products and all kinds of crafty goodness for the Winter CHA trade show.

Just a quick post today since we’re all busy little artists. I thought I’d share a sneak peek of another one of my mixed-media pieces I made for the show. I call this one 3 Little Houses All in a Row. Sorry the pics are not the best. I had to grab them quickly. It was actually still drying on my kitchen table so I couldn’t even pick the canvas up for a better view.

This is a large 18×24 canvas that is really bright and colorful. I added houses made of hardboard with images from our brand new Art Mechanique collage pack that I resined with our signature product, ICE Resin. There are bezels, resin paper leaves in the tree, a sweet little clay birdie and even some Industrial Chic charms on this canvas. Everything but the kitchen sink!

Be sure to check in with the ICE Queen eZine to see what we’re up to. Carol, our social media maven, is at CHA to collect some video and information for us.

Here’s wishing you a truly Artful day!

CHA Giving Tree Ornament

I’m off to do the CHA CHA CHA. (It’s an old joke, but I never seem to tire of it). This time, I’ve packed up my car with extra stuff for our booth -Susan Lenart Kazmer ICE Resin Booth #1029 — along with my luggage, too many shoes and my sweet friend Carol LaValley, who does the social media for us.  

The booth has been shipped ahead of time and is waiting at the Anaheim Convention Center for me, Carol, Susan, Kristen and a my sweet hubby to assemble it and get it looking “wowza” for the Winter CHA 2012 trade show.

In my car is my handmade ornament for the Giving Tree, which is part of CHA’s theme this year The Power of Community, where a handful of really wonderful charities are participating in all kinds of activities at the show. Each CHA show, Designer members are given the opportunity to make something using products from manufactures they work that will be featured on the show floor. My friend and fellow designer Candice Windham is the coordinator of this program and she does such a fabulous job working with Keri Cunningham of CHA every year on a cool theme/project.

The summer theme of Crafty Couture was so big that I knew it would be hard for Candice and Kerry to top that one. I think stepping back a bit and making this show’s  designing opportunity all about charity, particularly in this economy and how much folks are needing some extra help, is a really lovely thing to do. I’m 100% supportive and all in. If you are at CHA, you can see all the designer’s ornaments at the Community Park.

I chose to make an ornament for Charity Wings, just because they’ve kind of become my pet project this year, which I’m sure you’ve noticed if you’ve been reading my recent blog posts. I love their “Crafting for a Cause” motto and how the volunteers raise money for all kinds of great charitable organizations. Plus, I adore hearts and their logo is a heart with wings and a crown. Not that’s something I can sink my artistic chops into!

My ornament is an acrylic house shape that I hand cut and layered with vintage sheet music paper that I resined up and then added color to with alcohol inks. It has a die cut swirl that I cut from my stash of Grunge Board that I stained with inks. The focal is one of my favorite SLK bezels, which is is the large rectangle hobnail shadowbox, filled with magnetic poetry pieces, vintage rhinestone chain and ICE Resin. The entire background was sealed in a lovely layer of ICE and allowed to dry overnight.

I formed a paperclay heart by hand, painted it and added highlights. I also took copper wire pieces that I forged and handformed into wings and heated with a torch to give it a lovely patina. To complete the piece, I added a whimsical metal crown to the heart and added a copper wire hanger where I drew a bead on either end for the perfect cold-connection. It just needed a tiny bit more so I added a large wirewrapped pearl and crystals and some on our gorgeous silk ribbon. This stuff is luscious!

The ornament will be donated to Charity Wings and auctioned off for charity. I’m not sure yet if that will be done at the convention, or if it will happen post-CHA. I’ll be sure to let you know if it’s the latter though in case you’d like to own it for yourself.

CHA Video DejaVu

Since I’m heading to Winter CHA this week, I thought it would be fun to share the video Elena Lai Etchverry, founder of Charity Wings, and I did together this past July at Summer CHA. I was so in the moment while Elena was interviewing me, that I honestly just watched this film again the last week. As I’m viewing it (oy, it’s always so hard to see oneself on film isn’t it???), I can’t help but cringing at some of my silly comments. But then I just shrug my shoulders because this is me. It’s who I am when the camera rolling, or when I’m talking to a group of people or even amongst my friends. What you see, baby, is what you get.

Elena and I are teaming up again this coming CHA. I made an art piece for the Giving Tree, where CHA Designer members picked a particular charity and made an ornament for them to auction off to raise money for charity. SLK/ICE Resin is also sponsoring Charity Wings CHA Live Streaming program this year, which Elena and her team do an amazing job covering the behind-the-scenes happenings at the world’s largest Craft wholesale trade show. Here is some more information if you wish to sign up for the program. Insider crafting info and a tax write-off? What’s not to love?

I doubt I will have time to make new posts too often at CHA because we will be swamped with the Susan Lenart Kazmer ICE Resin booth and my other gigs as a CHA Designer Member, but our Social Media Maven, Carol LaValley is coming with us this time to update the company blog and take lots of short little videos during the show. Be sure to check out the ICE Queen eZine and look for me and the rest of the team throughout the week there.

CHA Live Winner

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner….Beverly Jordan, congratulations you won the LIVE from CHA All-Access Pass giveaway courtesy of Charity Wings. I’ll email you in a bit to get your addy and pass along the info that Elena needs.  

Thanks everyone who played along. Your comments were awesome! I will be forwarding them along to Elena as well so she knows what ya’ll are looking forward to seeing. You can be our focus group of sorts!