Thursday 28 July 2011

Inspiration Friday

A New Jewellery Range.

For those regular readers of my blog I was wondering if you were noticing all my inconsistencies recently?  I keep jumping from project to project but this seems to keep me interested.  A good thing about my writing down all my thoughts and sharing my To-Do list online is that I am now noticing how inconsistent I am at doing what is on my list!  I will add this to the To-Do list of what not To-Do in the future! :-)

This week was definitely one of those weeks that took a completely different turn and I began basically playing around to begin with, but in the end created what I hope to be the beginning of a beautiful New Jewellery Range.  It was completely unexpected but I am so happy with it I just had to share it with you and see what you thought.








 
This range is very different than my usual style but I have to say I am loving it!

So my Beautiful readers this is my Friday Inspiration to you. Go out next week and try something new. Look at what you create from a different angle and go with it to see what happens. You could surprise yourself :-)

Have a fantastic weekend!

Love, The Mouseketeer x


 

Sunday 24 July 2011

Goth Range

My Gothic Pendants and Charms are doing really well at my Market at the moment.  Things are also picking up online with a few visits to the post office last week to send out some orders!  Looking forward to getting time to create more designs for this range, but this week will be filled with re-stocking all the goodies that I sold on Saturday! Yippee :-)






These two pieces were among those that found a good home over the weekend :-)  Hope it continues!

Hope you all had a fab weekend x

Friday 22 July 2011

Dreaming of Summer

It is freezing here in Queenstown today so I found myself daydreaming about summer.

A little Style Eye Candy today for Inspiration Friday.......



AlexandraGrecco on Etsy                    Olivestyle on Etsy                         LanaStepul on Etsy

         MissBrache on Etsy                 AlexanderGrecco on Etsy         Damasquina on Etsy


I hope you all have a wonderful weekend :-)

Love, The Mouse x

Wednesday 20 July 2011

The Little Mouse

Well readers..........a friend of mine who always calls me by my second name ('The Mouse') came to see my stall last weekend.  He was looking at my collection of animal bookmarks and said to me "Mouse?? Where is the Mouse??"  Erm Light Bulb!!  Why did I not think of that..........!

Well The Mouse is now and should always be part of my collection........ so here she is :-)



My little Mouse Bookmark will be available soon from my website alongside this little Owl which has been a great seller on my Market Day :)


I hope you are all having a wonderful and creative day :-)

Sunday 17 July 2011

Let it Snow

Today I went for a walk in Queenstown Gardens.  It is a park located on the lake front of Wakatipu and I must say it is pretty beautiful in the winter time when you are surrounded by snow capped mountains.

Here are a few photos of the view I had this afternoon to accompany me on my walk.


Lakefront Queenstown

Panoramic View of Kelvin Heights and beyond

The Remarkables Mountain Range

I hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit of where I live.  It may be freezing at the moment but on a day like today I would have to say its pretty breathtaking don't you think?

I miss going for walks with my camera, it is definitely something that I need to do more of in the future (especially when I have views like this on my doorstep). 

Photos taken with a Fujifilm Finepix S1600

Thursday 14 July 2011

Inspiration Friday

It's that time of the week again.  I don't know where my time goes seriously! 

Anyone that knows me will know that I have a little bit of a penchant for bags and clutches.  So today on Inspiration Friday I thought I would share some of the gems I have found this week among the Handmade Marketplace.

            1 - LazyMondays Etsy                2 - treasuresbyalicia Etsy              3 - Charmdesign Etsy
    1 - hyperartpro Flickr               2- brighterday Etsy                    3 - emengeedesigns Etsy
              1 - marandalee Etsy                2 - patterndrafter Etsy                      3 -  lireca Etsy

All I can say is Yum Yum Yum :-)  I love the Colours and the Patterns in all of these.  Let me know which one you love the most, or share with me your favorite handmade bag or clutch :)

Happy Friday!!!

Wednesday 13 July 2011

To Etsy......or Not to Etsy........

That is the question of the day.......the week......the month!  I have been thinking about opening up an Etsy shop for a while now......a long while.  I have heard a lot of success stories but have also heard a lot of hopeful stories that have ended up with a bitter break-up from Etsy.  Kind of clothes getting thrown out of a two-storey building onto the street type break-ups!  A lot of people look at Etsy as their way into the online market, getting that dream scenario that means you wake up in the morning and check your email and voila one million orders!!!  In some cases I think this is true (maybe not one million) but I know a lot of people find success using Etsy, but in most cases its used for networking.  This is something I am still learning about and I'm sure will be learning about for the rest of my life.

I read a post today from Mill Girl and her thoughts on why you should have an Etsy Shop.  I have to say although her story is not one of mass sales and the Etsy Fairytale, I think her outlook on it is fantastic and has made me view it in a whole new way.



For Liz at Mill Girl her story has been one of success through networking and finding a community to which she now belongs to.  From her story I took that she views Etsy as an online gallery space from which she gets a few orders but more often will receive some great publicity and make some new friends along the way. 

Etsy will help you promote your business if you put in the time and effort to help get yourself recognised.  They have a featured artist section on the home page where staff at Etsy will select a shop based on originality and descriptions.  Another thing I need to work on is the descriptions of my work, a name can actually sway a purchase, but that's for another time.  



Also each day Etsy staff handpick what products will be featured on the home page.  Which has instant 'clickability' for your store.



Well readers in case you have not guessed already I am adding an Etsy store to my to-do list.  I have been looking into it for too long now and I dislike thinking about things and then never doing them.  Also yesterday I was looking at the Etsy help page and was 90% sure I wanted to go ahead with it, when today I was talking to my brother who asked me "do you have an Etsy store yet?".  I take my signs where I can get them and I feel that I am being told to give Etsy a go.  So the eternal optimist that I am I will go forth and start with the view that I will be one of the lucky (one million customer shops) and hopefully avoid the bitter break-up.  But if all I get from Etsy is some connections and a sense of community from the handmade industry then that's ok for me too.

Have a lovely day readers and if anyone has, or is thinking about setting up an Etsy shop then I would love to hear about your experience.

Tuesday 12 July 2011

Snow Day!

I woke up this morning to a blanket of white.  Its freezing in Queenstown but you can't miss an opportunity to build a snowman!





The View Outside my House


 
I took a break from my New Wedding Invitation Range and decided to build a snowman.  And I must say he looks very happy indeed :-)

Saturday 9 July 2011

New Sweetie Bracelet

Just wanted to share my new Yummy Sweetie Bracelet design with you all :-) Chomp Chomp :-)




Available Now From my Website

Thursday 7 July 2011

Inspiration Fridays

Cy Twombly - April 25, 1928 – July 5, 2011

This week I was sad to hear about the passing of American artist Cy Twombly.  I loved the energy and sense of urgency in his work and his use of text inspired a few projects of mine in my university days.

I would like to celebrate his work by sharing some of my favorite artworks of his with you all.




Apollo and the Artist, 1975



Coronation of Sesostris, 2000



Coronation of Sesostris, 2000



Proteus, 1984



Ferragosto I 1961



Hero and Leander (To Christopher Marlowe) [Rome], 1985



The Rose (II), 2008



The Rose (IV), 2008



Photograph: David Lees/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image


Rest in Peace Cy Twombly, you were a true inspiration.


The photographs in this blog were taken from http://www.cytwombly.info/index.html where you can view a complete list of his artwork.

Bookmark designs

Some more additions to my Bookmark Collection.  These will soon be available to purchase online alongside all my other little friends!

Owl Bookmark


Doggy Bookmark

Friday 1 July 2011

Friday Inspiration

I have decided to start a Friday Inspiration Day on Creative Nibble where I will share with you some of the people or images that have inspired me over the years.  We have worked hard all week so we deserve a bit of eye candy on a Friday, especially for those of us who will be working through the weekend as well!

I am beginning my Friday Inspiration with an Illustrator that I discovered all those years back at art school.  "We have a guest lecturer today I was told".  Usually right about then I would sigh and roll my eyes because that meant three hours sitting in a lecture theatre listening to some self involved 'artiste' talk about the inspiration they got from the way a leaf fell on their arm one day or even worse from such-in-such who exhibited in such-in-such a place who got published once in such-in-such!!! 

I'm not saying that hearing about how people are inspired is not interesting for me because it is, but, anyone who has been among a 'certain' group of people who think they are artists because they can talk a good game about a scribble on a page will know exactly what I am talking about.  And if you are one of those people who had to sit through a completely boring lecture listening to someone talk about the same piece of predictable artwork for hours will feel my dread on the 'Guest Lecturer announcement'.

However that day was different, that day Sara Fanelli walked into the studio.  She didn't want to give a lecture she just wanted to basically hang out with us for the day and talk about they way she worked and see if she could help us with anything.  I must admit that I did not know her work when she walked in but when she left I had fallen in love with her work and felt like I had just met someone truly inspiring.

Self Portrait


From what I remember her telling me was that she loves to scribble and doesn't care what that scribble looks like as long as she gets it on the page.  She showed us some of her sketch books and I remember she was a little embarrassed by some of her sketches but always had a smile on her face when she looked at them like she knew a story behind it.

From Dear Diary (2000)

Pinocchio (2003)

Pinocchio Book Spread

Pinocchio Book Spread

I love her characters and her sense of fun in all her illustrations.  Her children's books are inspiring and refreshingly different.

Pizza Express Menu and Theatre Poster


You can see more of Sara Fanelli at her website www.sarafanelli.com.  I hope her Illustrations have made you smile because they always do that for me.