In love with Flea Markets

My friend Shelley and I have been frequent visitors to a couple of flea markets in our area for a year or so. Tustin is fourth Sunday and Irvine is first Sunday of the month.  Irvine is way bigger than Tustin, so while they have a bunch of the same vendors, they really can't compare.  Today was Irvine's turn.  Please click on pictures for bigger images.

I loved the bench behind the big pillows, but the whole set up is pretty

For some reason today we were taking longer at each booth, basically  there was so much to see.

So, with no kids,  no rushes, no worries to be back at a certain time we went exploring with sunscreen on, all coffeed up we got going..

This is the first time I see this ribbon seller.  I loved her selection and all those colors were bright and beautiful!

Love!

This white vanity and chair was my favorite piece I saw today.  It was beautiful!  The price was not bad, I would have bought it if I had the space for it.  Which made come to the conclusion that a bigger home is what I need.      

The man who owns this store works the wood beautifully, he is my favorite always. He works on those pieces so much by pounding them, sanding them to give them character.  He stains the wood and cleans it to be ready to use as if it was new.

These are more pictures of this booth, so much to see.  

These buckets were $10, good for plants or flowers or just by themselves.
What do you think of the bathtub?

I thought these were so cool!

Unusual for a flea market?  Shelley and I think we should get this so when
one gets tired the other one will push...

Tomorrow I will show a few more pictures of today's loot.  Some stuff I got to use in clay pieces that I am about to start making for an upcoming show.  We also think that next time we should go to Long Beach FM.

What to make....

With so many techniques in ceramics, sometimes is hard for me to choose one.  While I love them all I constantly feel like I am pulled from every direction....  And to give myself some sanity, I try them all, even if it's one item per technique at a time. Here are a few I have been working with lately.







Owls are big lately, at shows I always sell a few at least.

I was finally able to get down and make some decals and follow through the whole process, while most pieces came out looking good a few were not so pretty.










So as you can see, I don't have a line of products that is all uniform, I don't have many of the same.  But I have fun stuff that I like to make and I make with the outmost care and quality there is.  Hope you like them.

Happy Birthday Etsy!

Last night The Road Less Traveled  in Santa Ana hosted one of the many party celebrations for Etsy's 5th anniversary.  About 25 etsy sellers got together to craft, chat, meet and of course have food.  Everybody brought something to eat , we had delicious salsa and chips, someone brought a pretty cute three layer cake decorated to look like a patchwork quilt with stitches and cute buttons, vegan cupcakes (to die for),  preserved jellies to spread over bread or crackers with cheese.... yumm.  Delilah the owner of RLT made a delicious lavender lemonade  and had her new kumquat vodka (very strong) but I gotta say, very good!

We spent a few hours there enjoying  a warm california evening, enjoying friends, company and of course discussing our stores, strategies, sales and future shows.

Thank yous go to The Long Beach Craft Mafia for putting a fun night to celebrate handmade along with Delilah and Nicoe Stevenson for hosting the party.  Nicole and Delilah were busy making vendor bags for the next Patchwork show to be June 27 in Long Beach  http://www.patchworkshow.com/.  Many of the attendees last night will be at the show, so we hope to see you there!

Bead Frenzy

Beads beads and more beads..... I have a show next week and most likely I will not use these beads for that show, still, I need to make some more. I got an order that I have been putting off long enough that now it's do or die! So, I got into it yesterday and just started cranking them. I am posting some pics for the different shapes, textures and sizes.... nothing new or amazing that you haven't seen before, just good old clay made into something small.



The bottom pictures are beads in different shapes I made these beads in less than one hour....  you can see that the darker the clay the more water it still has,  at this point the beads have dried for a while and it would be hard to change the shape or add texture.  This stage is called leather hard.  The beads that are white are completely dry, and definitely you cannot change anything at this point, their stage is called greenware and they are ready for their first firing called bisque firing.  Greenware is very delicate, if you drop a piece most  likely  will break, with beads they either break or chip.

I am using stoneware for these beads, I hope to fill the kiln with just stoneware pieces and label really well.  I  have several withe clays but they're not all the same, some low fire and high fire,  labeling will help avoiding under or overfiring....   the picture above is of some stuff made earlier this week.  I  have some pendants, beads, and connectors for jewelry.

What is your favorite clay to work with?

Is that time again!! Patchwork is Back!

So happy to announce that I was accepted into both Patchwork Shows coming up June 6 and 27th.
I have been doing patchwork for a couple years now and it has been one of my best selling shows and my favorite one to do. And to get accepted into both is double the fun in one month!

So prepare yourselves for two great Sundays of good fun, music and great food. But most of all a lot of unique handcrafted creations that are made from San Diego to LA. Patchwork attracts vendors and big crowds because it is undoubtedly the best show in the OC.

So here is all the scoop for you to go and check!

SANTA ANA SHOW
Sunday
June 6th 11-5 pm.
2204 N. Main St. at Buffalo
Santa Ana, CA 92706

LONG BEACH SHOW
Sunday
June 27th 11-5pm
marine stadium park.appian way@nieto
Long Beach, CA 90803




I hope to see you there and don't forget to look for Yolanda's Clay Beads!