First Craft Show

Well, Saturday was my first craft show, at Liberty Square Festival here in Sparta. Not bad for a first run, really. The item above sold (although it's on my custom item catalog and can be reproduced), along with MANY stretchy bracelets and keychains, and distributed many of our custom item brochures. I'm pretty happy with the results. Our Renaissance group, LLORE, also performed, with a few glitches :)

In other news, our website is live! Check it out: http://www.youvegotmaille.net It's mainly for creating custom items, with galleries of our one of a kind items, too.

We'll be at Sandbar Arts Craft Festival at Rock Island State Park this weekend Saturday and Sunday (if I survive till Sunday!) sharing a booth with Delavande, so if you're in Tennessee come on by! LLORE will be there, as well.

Autumn Magic (EtsyBloggers Carnival)

Advent of Fall Pendant by Elysian Fields

There's something in the air in autumn. The bite of promised cold, the smell of harvests past ripening. Magic, maybe.

Since I moved to Tennessee I love fall more than I used to. Up north, fall was a threat of a long, hard, cold winter. Autumn was a time to pull your resolve around you like your favorite cozy sweater and bear down to endure the snow and the dark days. Here, it is a respite from the oppressive summer heat and humidity, like a deep breath that stills the soul to peacefulness. You remember to look, because something is different.

The trees are magical. Shades from purple to amber to blazing red dress their leafy crowns until they create one of the most perfect wonders for a small child: raked piles of leaves. When I was young I had a dog that would follow his tennis ball ANYWHERE, and it still brings a smile to my face to think about throwing his ball into a three-foot-high pile of leaves, watching him take a flying leap into it and vanish. The mound would then move like a thing alive, until he emerged with his prize, triumphant, with a comic dry leaf or two stuck in his fur and an enormous smile on his face. Of course we took plenty of our own flying leaps, too.

Autumn is change, more than any other season. It is both celebration and preparation. It is ripened apples and harvested pumpkins, it is the crunch and rustle of leaves beneath your feet. It is dew that shifts to frost, coloring the world in subdued hues as dawn shades the morning in matching lavenders and peaches. It is the smell of a knit sweater that you pull out for the first time this year, the smell of last year's you that will never be quite the same. It is the most spectacular sunsets, and harvest moons, and a clear night sky in which each star seems sharper, more focused. It is gathering, both the harvest and the family, and thankfulness. Even up north, it was the contentment of knowing that, no matter what the winter or the future holds, we will survive it.

EtsyBloggers Featured Member for September: Joey & Aleethea

Oh man, these are some cute kids' clothes! Makes me miss having anklebiters around :)

Our beloved EtsyBloggers leader, Joey & Aleethea, is our featured member for September. If you've got munchkins you MUST visit her shop. And she's having a sale this month!


And right now on her blog http://joeyandaleethea.typepad.com/blog/ she's having a giveaway so GO VISIT!

(It's a really fun blog too so you should visit just for that reason!)

Chainmaillers' Guild Trunk Show Presentation

In case you'd really love to hear what I said at the Trunk Show tonight, here's a handful and a half of links to the stunningly talented chainmaillers in the Etsy Chainmaillers' Guild. This is the presentation I'll be giving tonight. This will be moved to the Guild blog after the contest but I don't want to make the contest hard to find for now.

Chainmaille can be…

Ancient

.....Or Modern

Fun....

...Or Fancy

Colorful....

....or Understated

Simple...

...Or Intricate

Distinguished...

....Or Spunky

Delicate...

...or Bold

Dressed Up....

...or Jeans-Casual

Masculine...

...or Feminine

It's Very Touchable

And Not Just for Jewelry

The possibilities are Endless.

If you're interested in learning chainmaille yourself, here are some of our guild members who can help supply you with the things you need:

One of the wonderful things about Chainmaille is the outstandingly sharing chainmaille community. You can learn many weaves at http://www.mailleartisans.org … and if you decide to make and sell maille here on Etsy, we welcome you to the Chainmaillers' Guild.

Chainmaillers' Guild and Wire Artisans Guild Trunk Show