It Takes a Village to Launch an Artist !!

I am so overwhelmed with all the incredible support and love this little family of Bloglandians have surrounded me with!!!! Like most everyone else I started my blog so that I could visit and explore the blogs and art of some very gifted artists. Like many others I spent my life living with people that just don't get it and really don't have the patience or desire to understand "it" For me it was a wonderful revelation to discover that I wasn't the only odd duck, that there was a whole world of people who can see music, hear art,touch the fce of words, smell& taste the beauty the human spirit can create. And with even all of that I discovered the unconditional acceptance, love and support of this awesome Bloglandian family!!! :) SO on Friday afternoon I dressed in my armor of many positive thoughts and set out to conquer my private demon!

The art walk and sale was as expected lightly attended. Friday was Good Friday. Here in Mexico the entire week of Easter is taken as vacation. Our little city fills and overflows with happy vacationers. The beaches resemble the insides of sardine tins!!

Our beaches not on  party pheromones!!

Same beaches overdosed on party pheramones

The street that skirts the beach runs from the original old part of town through the Golden Zone resort area of town. On a regular day it's about a leisurely 15 minute drive. Thursday evening it took Miguel 1&1/2 hours to get from his store in old town to his home on the near edge of the GZ!!!!! It's becomes a survival method that the people at the north end of town do not try to get down town and the people down town do not try to go north!! Even with the showing way down we did manage to sell a few pieces and took 2 orders for pieces!! :) But the best thing to come out of the evening was Helena and Miguel want to carry my jewelry in their shop!!!! Yipeee!!!!

So how about a bit of show and tell time????We all know the importance of getting our name out there, but with no budget for marketing it can be a bit of a challenge. I wanted to make tags for our pieces that were mini pieces of art, maybe not thrown away immediatly but used as a bookmark.  My ever so gifted and generous Bloglandian sister Laurie created an amazing Cabinet Card we use with our jewelry. Martha and I decided we would call our little venture El Pajarita y El Jaguar... Little Bird & Jaguar. I sent Laurie a picture of a baby jaguar, one of the baby parrots we rescued, a background of vintage lace/trim and a cabinet card. With the magic of photo shop this is what she came up with!!!!

 

I finished off the back side with another picture of lace then we attached the description of the piece of jewelry and a small note that all profits go to Conrehabit.

Oh by the way that's $380 pesos ;) We decided that for the first showing we would have a bit of an introduction sale by discounting the necklaces by $100 pesos

Miguel set up a table for us underneath one of the courtyard lights and I brought a lace table cloth and a few props. I even remembered a mirror!! :)

I brought this great seashell shaped pewter bowl to display the earring cards in. I think it might have been the small panic attack Tuesday that I went into over drive and made ten pairs of earrings

that was the contributing factor of the cellulitis. :(

I had fun with the cards I used for the earrings. I printed some of my favorite vintage ladies clip art & placed the earrings in the "ears" of my ladies, with just a bit of poetic licence...

On the backs I place a smaller picture of our CC and the price. After reading everyone's great advice about the matchy match earring issue, I decided to make them so they could go by themselves but were complements to the necklaces.

For the "sacks" I used small recycled brown bags we stamped a bird nest on and tied a bit of muslin ribbon through. These are the bags my daily fresh cinnamon roll comes in. LW always stops at the neighborhood bakery on his morning walk to pick one up for me, I am a very lucky girl!! :)

 

I did finish the necklace I made with the wreath and LeAnn's  blue bird. I used a couple of her cylinder and round teal blue beads and a nice big round open connector for a clasp. These along with the bird were beads that LeAnn had so generously donated to Conrehabit. I glued a little rhinestone (well you know me!) in the extra wire hole :) I finished off with a few milky stones (maybe moonstones) that Deryn had brought down from her stash.

With the support, love, constant encouragement of my amazing Bloglandian family, photoshop magic from Laurie, beads and pretties from Renate, Esther, LeAnn, and Deryn, along with her generous offer to "mule", the wonderful much appreciated advice and wisdom of all of my kindred spirits, that this little bird took off from the edge of the nest and found that she did indeed have wings to fly!! I wish there was a word that expresses the overwhelming love and thankfulness I feel for all of you. For thankful and blessed is truly what I am to be part of this incredible family of kindred spirits even if we are all a crayon or two short of being a "normal" box!! :) 

I'm off to rest my wrist and do a bit of catching up on blogs but not before reminding you that now is the perfect time to make a bit of art no matter where in the world you are  p;)