let the trading begin!

What is it about charms/trades/swaps that make us dizzy with delight? I've been posting photos on fb of some charms I have been making for  the Art-is-You Stamford, CT event and the phone has not stopped ringing! (well, not really, but the private messages wanting to know all about them is what I meant, lol)

If you aren't familiar, trade/charms/swaps are created and traded at events (in our case, Art-is-You). At burning man, people trade things or services as a way of bonding/interacting with one another. The act of creating things to trade, in my opinion, is the most fun. I think a lot of love and intention go into the process because when they are traded with one another, the recipient is always quite excited.

Traditionally most charms are made to hang off of something. I know the participants at AIY like to hang them off of their specially made name tags. It's not uncommon for swappers to make little packets of paper ephemera or mini art supplies. I know one year I gave out mini notepads and pens because I've found that most people seem to forget those when gathering their art supplies. In the past I have given out pins that have my artwork on them. People love to put the pins on their purses.

Charms I have collected over the years, mini dolls, beaded work, glass beads, mini felted animals, fabric flowers, mica,shrinky dinks,  soldered charms, bottle caps, dominoes, etc. If you are stuck for an idea, maybe think about something with fibers. It's a nice balance to some of the other trades. May I also suggest, packing a few extras to give to someone who doesn't know about trading and may be feeling left out. I've given out packets in the past of extra things for them to trade and it makes both parties feel very happy!

This year at AIY in Stamford, I am hosting an evening event where we take all our collected charms and hang them. I'll be showing a fun way to display our collected charms so that when we go home, it'll be ready to hang and enjoyed. Artists love to recycle/upcycle/repurpose items that are plentiful and economical at the same time. For my charm this year, I chose to use Jenga wood  game pieces. I love working on wood and I had made a tiny little watercolor that I thought would be perfect to duplicate and add to the jenga tiles.

  

steampunk palooza

today for the show (Country Living Fair) i worked on these steampunk pendants. they all use vintage watches: Elgin, Bulova and some names i don't even recognize. every little charm on each watch was soldered closed. any i sick of soldering tonight? that would be, a, YES! each pendant will go on a dainty little 16" chain.

my first wholesale order

a woman contacted me a few days on etsy to see if i would do a whole sale order for her of these charms. after some negogiating, i decided to do it. originally though, she wanted 30, but i decided to do 15 to begin with since soldering to me is a big pain in the you -know-what! i like soldering, but it does get on my nerves after awhile. she told me the letters she wanted and then i got to pick the paper and charms to be used. 15 in one sitting was plenty; although i did break it down into an assembly line production to make better use of my time. so these cute little charms are headed off to a store in Missouri.

i think this little guy lives under our deck. we spent a long time watching him today from Tucker's window. he is so cute! tomorrow i am going to leave out some carrots, hay and some of lilo's bunny food for him.

this pigeon made a nest on my mother in law's porch. she was having a tough time having enough room for her nest; so when she was off getting more sticks, my husband added a shelf where she was building and viola! when she got back she had a major renovation. from this picture it looks like she has one egg - but when i went back early this week, i see there is indeed two babies!

here is one of my most favorite flowers, a purple Clematis.

this week i have been busy finishing up grungy/steampunk charms that were intended for a swap. but i've gotten so great feedback on them (especially when i've worn them out) that i think i will be listing them on my etsy site and then making different charms for the swap. here are a few of the steampunk charms.

Valentine's Charm swap necklace

Remember that Valentine's Day charm swap i hosted for "The Charmsters group"? Well, a very sweet lady, name Sammy (http://sammystuff.blogspot.com/) took all my charms and made a necklace for me so i didn' t have to do it. Wasn't that so nice? And she hustled to get it done to mail them back out to me to arrive perfectly on time, yesterday, Valentine's day! i wore it to dinner. i love the clanky sound the charms.