Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Collaboration
Monday, December 5, 2011
Urban Craft Uprising: promo from Behrens Films on Vimeo.
This past weekend I traveled up to Seattle, Washington for the Urban Craft Uprising holiday show. Wow, what a show!
It was quite the marathon of a weekend. My good friend Aimee came along and helped out. First we stopped by the Laika Studio for a quick holiday show on Friday afternoon. Literally it lasted 1 hour, it was the quickest craft show ever! Then we drove up to Seattle and started setting up my booth display again (twice in one day - whew!). A late night sushi dinner was all we could muster after this long day. Saturday we woke up early and finished setting up for Urban Craft Uprising and then the doors opened at 11. Over the weekend 10,000 people came into this show. It was awesome as usual. So many appreciative customers. So many mobiles will be shared throughout the Seattle surrounding area this holiday season. I felt the love. I am grateful.
Here's what my crafty display looked like
Saturday, October 22, 2011
New Website!
I have always made my own websites for years, and they aren't so spectacular. But I am a DIY kinda girl and lacking a budget to pay a website designer to do it right. I just let it slide for way too long.
One day while looking at some statistics for my Etsy, an advertisement caught my eye. I clicked on it, basically it was a listing on Etsy for 1 page of website design. This got me thinking... I started a bit of an Etsy search and found a local Portland woman and contacted her, asked her for a quote on making me a new site.
I like the idea of working with another creative entrepreneur, not necessarily an established website design business, but another person like myself that lives in Portland and is following her passion. The concept is so much more about mutually beneficial business than just services rendered.
And wow - it worked! I have a site that I love and it promotes my work in focus.
Martha J Baker is the name of the woman, and she is a great website architect. Thank you Martha!
Sunday, September 18, 2011
My Experience at the HelloEtsy Conference

Human scale Economies:a place where prosperity is measured not in dollars but in happiness and durability.
Want to hear about my experience? Here we go.
I am not selling a product. I am selling a part of a journey, a ticket to the game.
Rogue Ales has never made any attempt to grow bigger, they have just worked to get better.
She spoke about the pressures and stress of the "Time/Money Squeeze". I swear she pounded the nail right on the head. So many artists like myself have a lot of passion and talent but with the growth of our businesses we experience a serious time/money squeeze. Her answer: develop a very specific deep and narrow niche and set measurable monthly goals, structure your time to meet these goals, and finally Charge More! Remember this is Jackie Raise-Your-Prices Peterson talking here. Words of the wise. She kept re-iterating and illustrating the value of working your business into this very deep and narrow niche.A client of hers, Amy McAuley of Occulus Fine Carpentry, came to Jackie one day for a meeting and told her she had decided to get rid of all her power tools. This seemed shocking, for a struggling professional woodworker to ditch all of her power tools, but she explained to Jackie that she had decided to focus her business on historic window restoration and learning the traditional techniques to do so. In focusing her work on windows created before the introduction of power tools, Amy McAuley had found a incredibly deep and specific niche for her business. This niche was so deep and specific, that within the next few years she became a renowned and sought after historic preservationist and now her business is thriving.
"Community is the key to physical survival in our environmental predicament, and also to human satisfaction."
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Easels

Sunday, August 7, 2011
Variables in the Experiments
from left to right:
1700 degrees F
1600 degrees F
1500 degress F
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Auction at the Museum of Glass
The event was a wild and luxurious. The glass artwork on display was awe-inspiring. So many of my favorite artists had work in the auction and so many of the patrons of the museum came dressed in tuxes and gowns. I hope it was a successful night for the museum, as I know they raise a good deal of their annual budget at this particular event. But regardless it was pretty amazing. I felt under-dressed. I had somehow missed the memo that I should show up in my most fancy attire. Luckily I did dress up, and I clean up pretty well, but I felt embarrassed non-the-less. Although honestly many of the artists were not dressed in their finest. In fact it made it sorta easy to assume who was an artist and who was there to shop. :) My first thought when I saw all the formal evening wear was that I had missed my chance to really dress up.While I wanted to take pictures of the people and their formal outfits, instead I was snapping shots of the amazing glass.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Slumped Melted Glass
Monday, July 25, 2011
Draped Melted Glass
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Smile
Friday, July 8, 2011
Pictures from the Glass School
its a slideshow - press play
Aquila Glass School
1628 N Columbia Blvd, Unit A - Portland, OR 97217
This is where I teach torchworking classes - look how much fun people are having! I love this place.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Melting Scrap Glass into Art
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
the View from the Shop
- the train (I love the colors and shapes of the graffiti and train cars)
- the smell of cookies (there is a Kraft (used to be Nabisco) plant a few blocks from the shop)
- the view of Mt Hood

Saturday, June 25, 2011
Inspiration: Plant Starts
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Kiln Glass Resource Centers
Monday, June 13, 2011
Pendleton Woolen Mill Party
Friday was the big international Craft Party - Erin and I went to the Pendleton Woolen Mill to check out their festivities - what fun! Awesome party favors, lots of woolen needle felting - I made a bookmark, there were also stations to make felted soap, felted wrist cuffs, and felted banners.Monday, June 6, 2011
This Friday is THE Craft Party!
Friday, June 10
Open Craft Activities: 11 am–6 pm
Regular Museum admission ($3 adults)Craft Party at the Pendleton Woolen Mill: 2 pm–5:30 pm
Etsy sellers bring your business cards!Craft Party: 7 pm–10 pm
Sliding Scale Donation ($5–$25; Age 21+ only)Museum of Contemporary Craft
724 NW Davis Street
Portland, OR 97209Benefitting Quilts for Quake Survivors and Mercy Corps' Japan Relief Fund
Etsy's at it again! I Heart Art: Portland and Museum of Contemporary Craft host an all-day celebration and an evening party in Portland as part of Etsy's Worldwide Craft Party. We've teamed up with the Quilts for Quake Survivors project and Mercy Corps' Japan Relief Fund to reach out beyond our community and raise money to help those in dire need through our own crafty ways.
Daytime
Drop by the Museum during regular hours, 11 am to 6 pm, and craft in the Lab all day long (regular admission applies). Help sew quilts for the Quilts for Quake Survivors project or choose from three different crafting stations: embroidery, Japanese-style papercutting or a Mighty Ugly project.
See the I Heart Art: Portland blog post for details on the daytime schedule.
If you'd like to participate during the day, please RSVP on the Meetup.com page. The tickets available for purchase through this page are for the evening party only.
Visit the Pendleton Woolen Mill from 2-5:30pm and get a tour, play with the woolen craft products, view some pieces from the archives and network with other craft artists.
Evening
At 7:00 pm, the doors will open back up to the Museum and the real party will start! We're taking over the entire space with complete with food, beer and wine, a DJ, and even more crafting stations. Your door donation will get you an entry into the drawing for a whole slew of crafty prizes (books, gift certificates, handmade goods and more!), some food and beverage tickets, and a lot of crafty fun!
Throughout the evening you can rotate through hand-felting, origami, hand-weaving, and make your own crafty artist trading cards. The quilts made for the project will be on display, and Modern Domestic will have them available for sale and sell raffle tickets.
Is your head spinning yet?! This is going to be the biggest, craftiest and most awesome craft party Etsy has ever seen! Plus all proceeds will go to Mercy Corps' Japan Relief Fund, so you can get your craft on and feel good about giving back to those in dire need of help.
Learn more about the QfQ Project and Mercy Corps' Japan Relief Fund.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Farmers Market Trip
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Speed Dating for Artists Round II: Visual Artists and Galleries
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Snaily Snail
Friday, May 13, 2011
Sheer Potential
I have been making mobiles of glass jars. The jars are things I have made, blowing the forms using a torch. Each one is just a little bit different. They are simple round shapes with round openings, no flat bottoms. They do not sit on a table - they float! I wrap a bit of steel wire around the lip of the jar and attach a swivel. When you touch one (which how can you help but touch that enticing glass globe and wonder what you can put inside!) it dances in response to your fingers!
You can put anything inside the jars in this mobile - that is why I called this piece "Sheer Potential" - the content is all yours. You could put little words written on paper, love notes and inspiration. Or small feathers or flowers you picked up on a walk. The glass washes out easily, its made of Pyrex glass, so it is not a problem to wash it out (although it is attached to a mobile). Here are some more ideas: plants, snails, moss, feathers, small toys, fake flowers, shells, plastic animals, sparkly things, jewelry, small candles (you could pour wax in there and put little wicks and make them candles!), LED lights, used computer chips, sewing notions, bobbins, buttons... oh my. I'm getting carried away. I had a lot of fun taking pictures of different objects in the jars, today I am going to the pet store in search of a snail to put in a jar :)
I love these shapes and how they hang in the air waiting for interaction. This is a very impressionable mobile! Not only does it move if you blow at the pieces or touch them, it holds whatever you think of putting in the three little jars. Reflection and interaction - a lovely little bit of art to share with the world. Thanks for checking it out :)


