In 2006, I did my first craft show, Handmade Arcade in Pittsburgh. I had  a TERRIBLE set up, no cords for my pendants and really sub-par soldering skills, but the feedback and love that I got was overwhelmingly positive. I remember one guy looked at my stuff and told me that I should apply to the American Craft Council show in Baltimore, that my stuff would fit in perfectly. I said thank you, but as soon as he was gone, I had to laugh. I said to my sister “Ha did you hear that guy, that is hysterical!”

Photo from my Demo taken by Tigerlillyshop

Fast forward to 2009, I got a call to do a demo of my process for ACC! I was shocked, and nervous about it because she mentioned using a microphone. I was going to be like the guy doing a cooking segment at the home show, too much! I gave in and took the opportunity, and it actually was not scary. It was pretty fun. I did my demo twice, made a little girl a necklace, and added ACC demo to my resume.

When it came time to apply for the 2010 show, I was not entirely confident, but wanted to give it a shot. I applied for both the main floor and for AltCraft, the new section which highlights new indie designers. I was wait listed for the main floor and accepted into AltCraft! My buddies in craft, Greenstar Studio, Elisa Shere, DandelionBlu, and Bowerbox Press were also in! SO exciting! I was offered a spot on the main floor last week, and although it was flattering, I did not feel like I had enough time to plan a fill 10×10 booth in 2 weeks, during a blizzard. I guess I am lazy, ha! Plus, I feel like I fit in in Altcraft the most, and I only get one year to be there. So Altcraft, it is!

So, thanks for listening to my ACC rambling. I am patiently awaiting the last of the parts that I need to make the cufflinks for the show, so I am kind of at a standstill. I hope to see some of you there! Here is all the information you will need. I will be in AltCraft booth 4

The choice of book was easy. I quickly shipped Caitlin my copy of Broken for Youby Stephanies Kallos. Broken for You is a wonderful story about a complicated friendship between two woman, who often use drunken plate breaking sessions as a way to deal with the hardships in their life, from love lost to health concerns. This leads one of the characters  the discover a passion in  mosaic arts. Clearly I can relate.

Just as this planning was going on in my head, I heard a giant CRASH! Next, I heard Jason say “I have good news and bad news.” When I walked into the dinning room, Jason stood there holding a vintage Johnson Brothers Indian Tree platter, which had fallen out of the cabinet. The good news and the bad news were both the same, the platter was broken. Thus, the decision as to which plate I would use for the book was made.

This purse represents Collaboration, one of the 9 C’s of women’s giving. This collaboration ended up being a giant collaboration between myself, Caitlin Phillips, Stephanie Kallos, poor Jason who broke the plate. The auction will be a part of the 2010 Celebration of Women’s Philanthropy, Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm at The Spear Center, General Growth Properties Building, Columbia, MD. Keynote Speaker: Sondra Shaw-Hardy is a noted philanthropist, co-founder of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute, author of the upcoming book “Women’s Philanthropy: Boldly Shaping a Better World”, and creator of the 9 “c’s” of why women give. 

Thank you Coleen for asking me to do this, it was great to think of things other then jewelry for a moment. Thanks Caitlin for doing this project with me, turned out great!

I’ll leave you with my favorite quote from the book. It represents my view on plate breaking perfectly.

My new favorites are this necklace and this bracelet. I really like combining a few different patterns in one piece. I will be adding them to my Etsy shop and taking what does not sell to ACC with me in February.

1 box of chicken stock and 1 box of beef stock (I couldn’t decide which I wanted and the mix was great!)

10-20 leftover crab claws

1 lb. crab meat

1 bay leaf

3 crushed cloves of garlic

1 onion chopped

1/2 bag frozen corn (or 3 ears fresh)

1/2 bag of frozen green beans (most recipes call for lima beans too but I am protesting here)

2-3 chopped carrots

1 28oz can of diced tomatoes (with juice)

3 cups cubed potatoes

Old Bay to taste (about 1 1/2 tablespoons)

Add beef stock, chicken stock, bay leaf, garlic, old bay and crab claws to the pot and bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer with the lid on. Let this simmer for about 30 minutes then remove crab claws, bay leaf, garlic cloves and any foam from the pot. Now you are ready to add all of the vegetables, canned tomato and potatoes and return to a simmer. Put a lid on it for about an hour.  Now add the crab meat and and check if you need more Old Bay. Be careful here, because it is better to add too little spice then to make it too salty. At this point, it is best let to soup rest on the stove for all of the flavors blend, then reheat at meal time. We ended up not having time for this step, and it was just fine. It is even better the next day!

Enjoy!

2010 started off well with a great blog post about my work over on We Covet . That is aways a nice surprise!

This year will mark the first time having a booth at the American Craft Coucil show! I will be in the AltCraft section which is dedicated to showcasing rising indie crafters. I am so excited that me and a few of my friends in craft, Elisa Shere, Dandelion Blu, Green Star Studio, Pink Kiss Pottery and Giant Dwarf were picked out of 400 submissions. So cool.

Also in February, I will have a broken plate purse in a charity auction for The Women’s Giving Circle. I am busily trying to figure out the logistics of that. More details and photos to come!

Coming up in May, the book Craft Corps will be coming out. I am proud to be included in this book of amazing crafters. I may only have a small blurb and a photo, but that is still such an honor to be in a book with Faythe Levine and Jennifer Perkins, among others!

This year I will concentrate on getting my work into more shops, maybe gaining a little more press and generally breaking a lot more plates. I will hopefully be updating the shop more regularly (psst-I added this ring yesterday) and maybe writing one or two more blog posts then normal. Who knows, I am no good at resolutions.  

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

I am so excited to dive head first into my projects for 2010 (including these Fiesta ware pendants in the photo.) I have lots of great ideas that I can not wait to share with you all.

Have a safe and happy holiday and New Year, and don’t forget to save all the plates that will be broken in the next week. You never know what they may become!

PS-Still have time for your custom order! Just fill out this form and get your plate in the mail! custom-order-form-new2!

I am honored to be a part of this years 12 Days of Indie Holiday Shopping from Indie Fixx. To win a $50 gift certificate to my shop leave a comment at the original post with your Broken Plate Pendant Co favorites for yourself or your gift recipients. Multiple entries will be accepted, but you must leave a comment for each entry, i.e. if you find 3 favorites, then leave 3 separate comments. This will increase your chances for winning. One random commenter to win. This contest ends December 9th at 11:59 pm EST. Go comment!

While you are at it, check out the other 2 giveaways that I am participating in:

The Jolly Holiday Giveaway over at Queering Domesticity, where my favorite ginger elf has gathered a nice collection of goodies from some of my favorite crafters.

And last, but certainly not least, I have a necklace in the BEST Holiday Giveaway, be sure to enter to win these goodies from talented Baltimore crafters.

Off to prepare more for Squidfire!

If you’d rather stay in and shop on Etsy, I will be donating 10% of Etsy sales to the MD Food Bank, along with other members of the Baltimore Etsy Street Team. So, whether you are buying for someone else, or a gift for yourself, you can feel good about your purchase.

In other news, I have some work in a few giveaways on the interwebs. First, check out the Jolly Holiday Giveaway over at Queering Domesticity, where my favorite ginger elf has gathered a nice collection of goodies from some of my favorite crafters.

I am proud to be a part of this years 12 Days of Indie Holiday Shopping Giveaways on IndieFixx. Be sure to check back in the next few days to find out when my goodies will be up for grabs.

And last, but certainly not least, I have a necklace in the BEST Holiday Giveaway, be sure to enter to win these goodies from talented Baltimore crafters.

I am kind of excited about this holiday season because, instead of killing myself and doing 10 shows, (that may or may not be lucrative) I decided to focus on doing only 2 local shows and building my Etsy shop. This may be my greatest decision ever, or a huge mistake, BUT the deed is done. To be honest, bad shows really make me question my career choice. Sitting behind your booth as people walk by, afraid of feeling pressure to buy if they make eye contact, is not a fun way to spend the day. Even seeing tweets from an artist suffering a bad show (you know who you are) make me twitch. On the other hand, a great show can make you want to go home and make and make until your next show comes. A good show is not necessarily about sales (although that helps) but it is sometimes about the connections you make with future customers or shops. Sometimes it is just having great conversation with folks who appreciate handmade things and understand why you do what you do.

So with that said, here is your early warning of my holiday schedule:
December 5, Charm City Craft Mafia’s Holiday Heap

December 12, Squidfire’s Holiday Art Mart

My work will also be at Craftland in Rhode Island from December 4th-Decmeber 31st

If you are curious where the rest of my BEST girls will be this holiday season, check out the new calendar feature of the Baltimore Craft website. If you’d prefer to shop in your jammies go to the Shop Local section of the website where you can now shop by category. Now THAT is crafty!

OH-One more thing, You can now get Gift Certificates to my shop in any denomination. Perfect for when you just can’t decide.

Here is the inspiration and beginning…

Without further wait, let the shop update continue…

PS-Have you seen Foodzie yet? It is like Etsy for foodies. While you are waiting for me to finish uploaded, check it out. My friend Shani is to blame. =) I think cheese and a necklace might make the perfect holiday gift.

1000 ideas for creative reuse

I was SO excited when my copy of 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse arrived yesterday. So excited, in fact, that I completely ignored the box containing my awesome new winter boots for about a half an hour while I flipped through it. I soon learned that there is nothing better in life then flipping through a book with your work in it while wearing new boots. Seriously.

This is just a quick post to tell you about the Squidfire Philly Art mart that I will be participating in on October 17th. This is the first time Squidfire is bringing us to Philly, and everyone is really excited to go. Philly is right around the corner, so please do stop by and get some holiday shopping out of the way!

Also, while writing this post, I just got some great news! I made the final cut for the book 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse which is due out November 1. You can preorder a copy here.

Anyway, once I got there and met with James, he had to take some time to work on my design and make sure it was perfect. I sat in the waiting room, (which was so nice, it felt like a spa) reading Martha Inc. on my Kindle. The whole scene was kind of funny, and made me wonder what Martha would think, and how silly it was to be reading my Kindle while waiting for a tattoo. Was that the first time in history, I wondered?

I was surprisingly not nervous, I thought I might been but I was confident in my decision, design and artist and had no reason to be nervous. James was finished with the stencils and worked with me for a while to make sure the placement was perfect, then it was time to get started.

At this point, I got a bit nervous about the pain. This was not my first tattoo, but it was the first in about 12 years, so amnesia had set in. Once he started, I was relieved. It was not bad at all and I got a really cool lesson on the kind of machine he was using and how it was designed by a guy who invented a boat motor to use less voltage. In tattoo machinery, this translates into less trauma on the skin. Anyway, I digress. Just a few petals in, I noticed someone watching from the side, and realized it was Jason coming to visit. He had a meeting in Rockville, so it was perfect to stop by and say hi. He stayed for a minute, and had to go to beat traffic home.

The tattoo process took about 3 hours. It was really bearable pain, until the sensitive bits on the back of my arm and close to my armpit. Ouch. I imagine that he does these parts at the end for sanity sake. I was glad when it was over. I have to go back in a few weeks to add color, but I am really happy with the outcome so far. The best part was, when I got home, Nolan pointed to my arm and said “what’s dis? It’s pretty! cool” all while nodding his head in approval. I hope he doesn’t mind having an odd mom, too much.

I am taking the day off today to express my loove if plate patters with a tattoo! I found this quote on 144 plastic jumping frogs blog, and had to share.

“Everyone with a tattoo has their bullshit reasons behind it; You always want to live by a religious philosophy you briefly learned about in your eastern cultures class, you want to honor that guy you spent a fateful spring break with, you want everyone to know you’re hard to touch, hence the barbed wire on your bicep. While none of us want to admit it, most of the mental preparation done before getting a tattoo is figuring out what you’re going to say when people ask you what your ink symbolizes. You want to be deep. You want to be profound. You spend months crafting the beautiful soliloquy that will give insight to your masterful epidermal tapestry. But most of us are dumb and only profound in the way that a Zach Braff movie is profound. Every tattoo explanation I’ve ever heard (including my own) comes off as a cover story for the real reason we get tattoos: they are awesome.”— Johnny Highland

I guess my bullshit reason is that I am really proud of what I have been able to do with my silly breaking plates business. I am proud that I am surviving the crappiest economy that I have had to deal with by making things with my own hands out of objects that would be trash. Although I may not break plates forver, I want to remember the time I did forever because, well, it was pretty damn fun. I want to look at this tattoo and remember all of my awesome BEST girls, all the silly fun had at craft shows (spray tan and wine, anyone) and all of the odd calls, seemingly out of the blue, from a magazine that likes my work. Really? Rachael Ray? Crazy. So yes, I wil be a grandma with a tattoo, but when my grandkids ask about I can say “Sit down Deary, let me tell you a story about breaking plates.” The real reason, is that it is awesome.

If you have not done so already, I would REALLY appreciate your vote as The Craftiest Bastard of 2009. Click this link to vote. I’ll wait for you…

Finished voting? Finished asking your friends to vote for me too? Thanks.

In other news, I will be featured on Guffly on Monday!! Guffly is a one product per day online store and community featuring eco friendly products and fair trade lifestyle goods like home, pet, clothing, office and personal accessories. Please stop by Monday and make a nice comment (or buy a necklace if you feel so inclined) and share with your friends on FB and Twitter. Thanks for being such a supportive bunch! OK, that is all for now!

I am slowly building up stock for the upcoming craft show season. My first show this year is Crafty Bastards in DC. If you have not attended this show in the past, you really need to go this year! It is worth a drive, Just check out the vendor list! After that, I am headed to Philly for the first ever Squidfire show in PA on October 17th.

If you have not already done so, please become a fan of The Broken Plate and The Baltimore Etsy Street Team on Facebook! There might just be a giveaway coming soon!