Mark Poulin Sightings!

Today while exhibiting at the Ann Arbor Sunday Artisans Market, a young woman walked up to my booth wearing a necklace made by one of my favorite jewelry artists - San Francisco artist Mark Poulin! She purchased this amazing piece at 16 Hands Gallery in Ann Arbor. I am always so pleased when I see Mark's jewelry!

I met Mark a few years ago when I was exhibiting at the Buyers Market of American Craft. I was immediately drawn to Mark's jewelry because it is so clean, colorful, and youthful. His enameled pieces are amazing and depict drawings of lovable cartoon animals (which he calls "jewelry stars"), botanical drawings, and other graphics layered on colorful backgrounds. Aside from the appeal of the designs themselves, knowing a little about the process of enameling I am in absolute amazement that Mark can achieve this level of detail in his work. I have one of Mark's enameled necklaces similar to the reversible necklace on the immediate right and I wear it constantly.

Last month, when exhibiting at the Shadow Art Fair in Ypsilanti, a shopper came to my booth wearing a pair of Mark's earrings that she purchased from the Hudson Gallery in Sylvania, Ohio.

Mark also makes sterling silver cast pendants and earrings of his jewelry characters and they are so stunning. The silver absolutely gleams...I have several of his cast pendants and I love sporting these characters. My favorite is Orbit Girl (shown on the right).

Mark's jewelry can be found in galleries and museum stores around the United States and on Etsy.

Another Day at the Ann Arbor Sunday Artisans Market - More Display Experiments

I had another great Sunday at the Ann Arbor Artisans Market. I am preparing for many cold and windy Sundays at the Market so I brushed the dust off an old display (the shelf unit with hanging necklaces) that I made and used many years ago. I thought it would be perfect for the market because it is clamped to my table, making it very windproof! So I painted it white and gave it a try today. The only drawback is that I found it to be very much in the way when I tried to interact with customers. But I can display a lot of necklaces and earrings and they catch the light very well. Here's how it looked. And here are close ups of the rest of my displays. The box lined with green with the leaf necklaces in earrings (above, right) is also an old display that I painted to match the rest of my displays. It is an old shadow/display box with a glass lid (removed in this photo because the weather was calm) that will protect the jewelry from wind and rain. The display (left) is a tray for printing press letters. I made some of the compartments larger, lined them with paper and vinyl circles to highlight the jewelry. It works well and it's easy to set up beforehand and transport to shows.

If you are in the area, come and see me at the Market. Check my website to make sure I will be there!

Ann Arbor Sunday Artisans Market

Yesterday I exhibited at the Sunday Artisans Market in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Here is how my booth looked at the market. Now that my shows are over for the month and I only have one scheduled in September I'm planning on being at the Market every Sunday that I can. If you are wondering when I will be there next or when my next show will be, please check my show schedule on my website.

I had a wonderful time yesterday. Sales were great and I met some very talented and friendly artists. The morning was busy and I sold my first three pieces before I finished setting up. There was added excitement that morning because the walkers from the Breast Cancer 3-Day were coming into town and cheering as they passed by.

I met another jewelry artist, Marta England (shown on the right), whose work I admire! Check out her Etsy store. She is also a regular exhibitor at the market.

My 11 year old son has been helping me at shows and I was pleased that he came with me to the market. His job is to watch my stuff while I unload and man the booth while I take bathroom breaks, get food, etc. After I was all set up, he mentioned being hungry. I gave him a ten dollar bill and sent him into the bakery to get something for breakfast. He came back carrying two ice cream cones and a bag of what turned out to be a box of cones and the remainder of a pint of ice cream. I guess the bakery owners were kind enough to help him scoop the ice cream into cones. I was not entirely pleased at his breakfast choices, but I guess I need to be more specific about what he is allowed to buy. I think my son had a really nice time. He enjoyed meeting the other vendors. One woman spent a few hours with him making origami. He wants to come back with me next week!

New Cufflinks

I am now making cufflinks with a more attractive and elegant backing. This cufflink is easy to put into place and stays put. It also looks very nice and polished on the underside.

I have been enjoying making cufflinks for a few years now. In fact, I met my husband (who was a customer at the Shadow Art Fair a few years ago) by trying to sell him a pair of cufflinks! He bought a necklace for his niece instead, but now happily wears my cufflinks and his own men's necklace (see an earlier blog post - showing a customer wearing a necklace like my husband's).

Men enjoy my jewelry and glasswork because it's colorful, yet clean in design. I mix vibrant colors with more subdued shades of gray to make it more wearable for men. They also seem to enjoy hearing how it is made and the scientific aspects of glasswork. I had one gentleman stop at my booth at the Royal Oak show and tell me how my colors and circle shapes reminded him of the radio halo of the element, polonium. Here is the photo he e-mailed t me to illustrate this. I really enjoyed this comparison! It does resemle the way I layer my bands of glass in larger and smaller bands.

At the same show - Royal Oak Clay, Glass, and Metal, another gentleman custom ordered a pair of cufflinks to match a shirt he had. This is the pair of cufflinks I made for him and this is what he had to say after receiving them:

"The cufflinks are perfect and look totally awesome on
the blue Rufus dress shirt!!  Thanks again for all of
your creative efforts on my behalf. Excellent workmanship
and then some."  Walter, Bloofield Hills, MI

Amazing Etsy Find...

Today, at the Milford Memories Art Fair, I wore my favorite belt buckle that I purchased from bykali on Etsy. I received so many compliments on it that I decided to share it. I have a leaf buckle with a maple leaf on green/yellow. I wear it often and always receive a ton of compliments! She has some similar (and equally amazing looking) buckles listed in her Etsy shop now.

Visit her Etsy shop...you will enjoy it!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5418707&order=&section_id=&page=2

Shadow Art Fair - Summer 2009

As usual, the Shadow Art Fair was most amazing! The Shadow Art Fair is held twice per year (July and early December) at the Corner Brewery in Ypsilaniti. This was the seventh Shadow Art Fair. I have done six, including the first one in 2006.

Here is an excellent recap of the Shadow Art Fair made by Mike Ambs:
http://vimeo.com/5721887

For more information on the Shadow Art Fair, please visit www.shadowartfair.com.

Summer Art Fairs - Part Two - Saugatuck Shows

I was fortunate to do the two July Saugatuck art fairs. The first one was the Waterfront Invitational Art Fair on July 4 and the second one was the Village Square Art Fair on July 25. For the first Saugatuck show, I made some minor changes to my display that made a big difference. I made new table coverings! Here is how my display looks with the new table coverings!

This was a great show. We had great weather and I was very pleased with the customers' response to my jewelry.

Last weekend, I went back to Saugatuck for the Village Square show. I was surprised and pleased to see a lot of customers I'd met at previous shows, including the previous Saugatuck show. One customer, who (along with his wife) met me at the Royal Oak show, ran into my husband who was picking up lunch for me. He noticed my husband's necklace (which my husband has worn since I made it for him over two years ago) and recognized the work. My husband told him my booth number. Soon, he and his wife stopped by and he purchased a similar necklace. I was so pleased. I had originally designed this necklace, a small circle necklace with various shades of gray on the oxidized chain, for men. Since then, though I have sold a number of similar necklaces to men, mostly women have purchased the "men's necklaces" for themselves. This gentleman was kind enough to allow me to photograph him wearing his new necklace!