Visionary Arts Musem in Baltimore

This is really one of my favorite museums. The art never ceases to amaze me with the creativity and inventive use of materials. Here is some of there outdoor pieces.

I love this mosaic with mirrors. I'm imaging it in the middle of my garden.

This is all made with paper plates and fills a whole wall.

A throne with different crowns on the right.

These are made with Styrofoam coffee cups.

Huge intricate ship made of matchsticks.

Little saying on the wall of the bathroom that hits home.

Just a happy little ring from the gift shop.

Lexington Market, Baltimore

In the little bit of downtime I have, I try to really pack it in. I thought along with the museums that I would do a Eastern Market tour. Here's my first in that series, the Lexington Market to get some crab cakes.

Faidley's...yum. I had arrived after they had closed early but they graciously made me a crab cake.

Bite first, photo later:)

Baltimore ACC Show

Well, at long last finally here at the ACC show in Baltimore. This is my wholesale booth with out all the kids stuff and I must say that it looks clean, uncluttered and I love the new pictures. It was a lot of work to get to this point, restocking quickly from Fall/Winter and creating line sheets and sale cards for wholesale. I must say it went rather well, I picked up some solid accounts across the country. The booth has been rest with kids stuff to, now onto 3 days of retail. There is incredible work here and have met some talented hat makers. More pics to follow

Sailboat Dreams

Working hard trying to restock on all of the kids coats. I see sailboats, flowers and trains in my dreams:-)

Sitting in on the jury for Krasl Art Fair

Sitting in on the jury for the Krasl Art Fair in South Bend, Michigan with my friend Judy Zeddies has been quite an educational experience. Suddenly I have a better handle on what juries are looking at and it gives me ideas on how to portray my work better to be able to get into more of my dream shows. Now to reshoot my images and booth shots. One more step along the way.

"Hat a Day" Wrap Up

Well, it's been a few days now and I'd like to say that I'm all caught up on sleep but it is just on to the next thing trying to catch up on the backlog of work. I thought that I'd revisit the project for a moment and reflect on how I thought that it went.

 I had a few things in mind when I started.  I wanted to have an outlet for some built up creative energy from working straight production and selling at lots of shows culminating with the craziness of the holiday season. January is always difficult for an artist with the focus on bookkeeping, taxes and applying to shows. This project enabled me to focus my attention creatively and create 31 one of a kind hats without regard to time, costs and production concerns. I ended up with quite a few great hats. The photographs of the hats can be used to jury into shows as well as a body of work for a show and sale at the end of the project.

I also wanted to use it as an opportunity to help me get a handle on learning more of how to use social media for my business and better connect with my customers. My blog now begins with a sizable body of work and I got posting down to where it was second nature. I hope that all of you have enjoyed checking out the hats each day and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you as well as seeing the direction this blog takes as it develops a life of it's own.

Hat #31 - Esme Hat

Felt in a bit of a celebratory mood with the last hat of the Hat a Day Project. The Esme Hat is a black polar fleece hat with swirls of colored fleece exploding around the crown.

Front view of the Esme hat

Detail of Esme Hat

Beautiful warm day spent torn between cutting hats and coats and applying for show thinking of doing some gardening work. Could it really be January? The last of my late nights making wild hats for the Hat a Day Project. Hooray! Fireworks!.....