Packets Away

I’ve been working on the list for the next set of submissions packets for children’s magazines and other publishers. I also have to finish pieces for a client and write out my workshop notes for SiliCon this weekend! Aside from that I have a few projects I’m working on in my spare time which may end up posted here.

Today’s Feature Artisan
Le Collezione
Need a little feminine charm for that new outfit?
Sometimes deceptively simple is simply beautiful. The creations at Le Collezione are simple yet stunning, old world yet creative. For example this lovely treasure called Midnight moonlight features a genuine cultured Biwa Fresh Water pearl embellished with an antique oxidized filigree bead cap suspended from a delicate antiqued chain. So if you feel like adding a little delicate charm to your wardrobe? Then stop by Le Collezione.

Submissions in Route

Dropped off submission packets today and now I’m starting on creating packets for children’s magazine publishers. As well I’m looking into other places to send my work before starting on back logged studio projects.

Today’s Feature Artisan
Little Love Blue
In need of a little kitty to add to your holiday fun or a soft felted face to greet you at work each day?
Cary, of Little Love Blue, crafts wonderfully playful kitties, bunnies and so much more in her Brooklyn studio. All her stuffed treasures are lovingly crafted from hand felted wool fabrics, soft natural washed wool and hand detailed with sweet little faces. She strives to make them all of superb quality, creating beautiful display pieces that are durable enough to actually be played with. So if you’re in need of a little holiday decoration or a handcrafted treasure for you or a loved one check out Little Love Blue.

Designs in the Works

Been working on the designs for a client while waiting to send out my packets. There was a problem with my stamp so they’re making me a new one to pick up later today. Which reminds me, if anyone is in need of design work or illustration services I do have time available.

Today’s Feature Artisan
Betsy B
In need of a stuffed friend to decorate your desk, home or car? Then stroll over the Betsy B.
Betsy B creates adorable llamas from reclaimed materials along with other interesting items. Each Cloud, the Earth Friendly Fluffy Llama is hand crafted from her own pattern on a vintage sewing machine while the details are lovingly hand sewn. If just getting your hands on one of these treasures isn’t enough she also offers kits and patterns to make you very own Cloud Llama. So if you’re in need of a stuffed friend that good for the environment as well why not stop by Betsy B.

Samples

Here are some of the samples I printed and cut yesterday that are going out to publishers. Currently I’m just waiting for the custom stamp I had made to mark the back of each sample before I can send them out. Yesterday the sister of a lady I had met at and Art & Wine festival called me up about doing some design work for her so that next on my project schedule. After that it’s back to work on my new pieces for the shop and working on my workshop for SiliCon.

Today’s Feature Artisan
Birdz N Beez
Into old world wonders or steam punk creations? Then why not check out Birdz N Beez’s beautiful jewelry.
There is something truly fascinating about the mixing of rigid clockwork and delicate curving designs which Susan Scherer of Birdz N Beez’s masterfully pulls off in her pieces. Birdz N Beez’s unique jewelry features antique silver plate, aged brass and vintage watch movements embellished with vintage glass beads, Swarovski crystals, semi precious stones and pearls. With so many beautiful pieces I just couldn’t choose a favorite, so if you’re heading to Steam Punk event or just looking to add a little time piece to your outfit check out Birdz N Beez.

Mini Promo books

Still fighting a cold and trying to get these packets out and on their way. Found the answer to yesterday question but can’t find the size paper I’m looking for so I will have to cut my own. Here are the new mini promo books going out in each packet.

Today’s Feature Artisan
Kreativlink
Are you a fantasy lover, gamer or aspiring writer or artist? Then check out Kreativlink’s beautiful handcrafted books.

In this day in age with e-blogs around every corner sometimes putting pen to paper just feels better. Renate Ikinger, Kreativlink’s creator, hails from beautiful Austria where she creates gorgeous hand bound and embellished journal/sketch books. The pages in each book are hand torn and stained with tea to give them that old world look. While the covers are either soft colored suede or thick acrylic felt but are always hand painted with interesting dream evoking designs. At its small size Kreativlink books are perfect to tote around on all your daily adventures.

Submissions: Take Two

Came down with an awful cold so I’m still in the process of gathering/making the items for the packets. The same question still stands: When sending out sample images to publishers do you only put one image on a page or a few? If anyone has info on the subject please leave a comment.

Today’s Feature Artisan
RockLove
Where breathtaking beauty meets old world glamour.

After an apprenticeship in Florence, Italy, designer jeweler Allison Hourcade, the creator of RockLove came to NYC to start her indie jewelry label. RockLove’s jewelry breath’s new life in to old world style with gorgeous hand carved and cast nickel-free sterling silver and breathtakingly beautiful photos. If you’re in need of a little old world beauty to add glamour to any outfit why not check out RockLove.

Submissions

I’m in the process of sending out submission packets to publishers but came to a snag in deciding what “samples” actually means. When sending out sample images to publishers do you only put one image on a page or a few? If anyone has info on the subject please leave a comment.

Today’s Feature Artisan
The House of Mouse
In need of a little house mouse to keep you company at work or home? Why not scurry over to the House of Mouse and adopt one.

Anna of The House of Mouse brings to life our favorite characters, singers, & people in mouse form. I had a hard time choosing a favorite mouse because they are all so wonderfully crafted, so I chose Indiana Jones Mouse because something about a little mouse going on Indi sized adventures is unbelievably cute. Each house mouse is individually hand crafted and comes with a complete outfit and props to fit their theme. You even get a signed and wax stamped certificate of authenticity and a surprise goody as well. Not only do you get an awesomely cute house mouse to come live with you or a friend, but a portion of the proceeds also benefit the British Animal Welfare Charity to help wonderful recue animals find good homes. Every kitty companion I have ever had was a rescue and so I fully support this. So if you’re a little lonely or just in need of a few more laughs why not pick up your own House Mouse and benefit animals everywhere both real and crafted.

Unlocking What Really Matters

After much late night soul searching I have come to the conclusion that I really need to decide what I really want to do. So today will mainly consist of making a plan and going through it. Sorry about the lack of art from KatGirl Studio we have lots of projects in the works so keep checking back.

Today’s Feature Artisan
Dulcissima
Heading to a historical faire or just into old world style? Why not check out Dulcissima’s vintage jewelry.

Tanya Rippel rescues old objects and breath’s new life into them over at Dulcissima. Tanya strives to uncover long forgotten everyday things and gives them a chance to become something beautiful. This is not unlike my favorite children’s story the Velveteen Rabbit, so I have to ask is Tanya our vintage fairy? I have always been fascinated by keys, locks and antiques so this piece really caught my eye with its swirling curves and petals. So if you like this find or are curious what a timeless treasure could do for your wardrobe check out Dulcissima.

Feature Kick-off

Welcome everyone just joining us at KatGirl Studio’s blog. I hope you’ll all come back in the weeks to come to see if you or your friends snag a daily spot in the blog feature. Due to the overwhelming response I have enough people picked out to last months but fear not I will continue to look through the post for new people (I saved the link) to mix up the list a bit.

Normally at the top of each post will be a blurb about what’s going on here in KatGirl Studio but seeing as I’m still waiting for supplies to make my surprise new items and don’t want to talk about my crummy day yesterday lets kick the feature show into gear.

Today’s Feature Artisan
Lmdalton
In need of a little friend to keep you company on those daily travels or weekend adventures? Why not adopt your own Traveling Kitty.

Lisa M. Dalton is the creator of the Traveling Kitty Project, an interactive art project inviting buyer participation. Similar to those commercial made Webkinz young girls are always toting about but oh so much more cool because TK’s are handcrafted and one of a kind. Adopters of TK’s are asked to take their kitties along with them on their daily adventures and document them for sharing with the rest of the group. A fantastic idea, and a fantastic gift to brighten up anyone’s day. Check out the Traveling Kitty Project or claim your own Traveling Kitty today.

Snow Leopards, Wedding Art & Experiments

Snow Leopards
Finished another Snow Leopard piece yesterday, surprisingly many people are amazed at how I produce them. To me it’s simple really I first “sketch out the basic outline and marking placement of the animal. Then I add the base shading over the whole piece. Lastly the most time consuming step I start at one end and work up the details with a mech pencil, kneaded eraser and an eye shadow wand. I cover the parts I’ve already worked on with a piece of tracing paper so I don’t rub off my work with my hand. I guess how you produce art is just one of those things you have to discover for yourself through trial and error.

Wedding Art
My friend Sally asked if she could use one of my pieces of art for her wedding invites (of course I said yes). I’m going to be taking care of all the production & design and trips to the printers which got me thinking maybe I should think about offering this service to others. I’ve been trained as an Illustrator to do such production and have been told my graphic design skills are up to par so maybe I’ll add that service to my list.

Experiments
I experimented with shrink dinks yesterday the first few came out alittle wonky but the last one came out ok but looks awful when I try to photograph it. I’m not sure the it produced reliable enough results to use as a business material so I’m back to waiting for my supplies to arrive. They sure are taking their sweet time or maybe it just seems that way because I really want to try them out now.


Some links to cool things I found yesterday:
Quit Your Day Job
The Black Apple

Party at Illusive

On Saturday I biked with my family to the Santa Clara Art and Wine to check out display ideas and run into people I’ve known my whole life. The festival is different from others because it takes place in the city and not a down town (because we don’t have one). As well all the food booths benefit different charities and groups along with most of the drinks. While sitting in the grass eating lunch we ran into my friend Jet who mentioned it was my friend Tim’s B-day party at Illusive later that day. Illusive is my friend Anna’s comic book store also in Santa Clara, she’s awesome and throws cool holiday parties full of geekiness. People show up, catch up with each other’s lives, munch on food and rock out to the music being piped out of Rock band. We laugh, show each other cool things we found on the web and generally just hang out in a safe geek-friendly environment. Illusive’s not your typical comic store and offer’s a nice mix of comic’s for both children and adults, art book, manga, funny shirt’s, geeky buttons, games and more.

If you’re new to the area or just in need of a good comic shop (this one’s owned by a girl) check out Illusive Comics on El Camino in Santa Clara.

The Color of Snow

Yesterday it seemed, I was waiting for everything. Waiting for my new mat cutter to arrive. Waiting for my supplies to arrive, waiting for someone to get back to me about work. Waiting, waiting, waiting. So I sat down and drew this snow leopard (my fav. animal). In the same way I drew my arctic fox, I’m happy with the results and I will probably color it tomorrow.

SiliCon, Etsy & Spore

SiliCon
Updates on SiliCon: I’ll be participating in the following panels & workshops.

Standing out in a sea of Awesome: Marketing for Artists
Saturday, October 4th, 2008
11:30 am - 12:45 pm in Monterey Room
One of the most important things for artists is getting your name out there but how do you do that and what on earth are art directors looking for? This workshop covers how to make mini promo books, promo sheet, post cards and why their important.

Digital vs. Traditional Art
Saturday, October 4th, 2008
2:30 pm - 3:45 pm in San Carlos Room
Some artists are doing all their work digitally. Others work with paint and canvas and/or air brush. Most use some combination of tech and techniques. Working artists talk about what they like and what they use.

Etsy
For those of you who didn’t read last week’s post the KatGirl Studio store is now open! Because it’s our Grand Opening the first 28 people to buy a print or Giclée get a free surprise print. Also in the coming weeks I will have some brand new special items up that I am currently working on. Curious to know what they are? Well you’ll just have to keep checking out my store to find out. If you’re also on Etsy drop me a convo I’d love to hear from you! TheBeadedPath just added me to their treasury take a look.

Spore
I waited over 3 years and now it’s finally here! I was watching the Discovery channel(my fav channel) on Saturday and saw the Spore special they were playing spliced with an animal’s of the future show. Apparently this was the show he saw that inspired him to make Spore. So on Sunday we ran about trying to find a store that had copies of the game. We ended up at Fry’s where they had a nice little display table with all the different collections you could choose for the game. I got the Galactic Edition and Aleric got the art book pack so we got all the special features combine. I had a blast playing the cell part until I saw Aleric playing it and his had much smoother movements and that’s when I learned I had had my settings set to high and now that I set them lower the game runs much smoother. But how awesome is that if it was one the best games I’ve ever played and it was even working right when I played it? I keep toying with the idea of applying to EA since the office that makes all the games of theirs I actually play is just a couple cities over.

Con-X-Treme, Etsy & SiliCon

Con-X-Treme
I’ve spend the last few days avoiding writing about the con since I don’t usually like to speak ill of anyone, but I can’t just let other’s fall into this trap if the con is still around next year. I’ve never seen a more mismanaged travesty than what took place at Con-X-Treme and I’ve been in student run school plays. The con was over pitched, they made it seem much more professional that it was and lied more than once about what was going to be there. Half of the things I went there to do never even took place including the charity auction. The staff there nice but basically forced to do the bidding of the one person in charge and as I found out later had to pay to get in just like everyone else. I felt worst for the attendee’s since they paid $30 for a day pass and there was almost nothing to do. We gave one attendee, Jeff Lee an impromptu art lesson after across the room silent hangman stopped being fun. All that unpleasantness aside I did meet some cool people Joey Jordan A fantasy/SiFi artist from Washington, Steve Savage creator of the blog Fan-to-Pro and the guys of the local band Phoenix Ash. I also re-met Jen of Juror2 who I had seen around our area at farmers markets in the past. Scott Aleric and I were also asked to be in a panel by Joey where we discussed design, color theory and layout. I could go on and on about why the con was a complete and utter failure but frankly I’ve got more important things to do.

Links to cool people:
http://thejefflee.blogspot.com/
www.joeysrealm.com
www.fantopro.com
www.phoenix-ash.com
http://juror2.net/

Etsy
On a more pleasant note the KatGirl Studio’s shop is now open! I’m operating it through Etsy, though you can also get to it through my site. Etsy for those of you who don’t know is an online marketplace for handmade items. Unlike ebay they don’t charge you to open an online shop, just a tiny fee to sell an item plus it looks more like a cute boutique than a used junk warehouse. Currently there are only Giclée’s(fine art archival prints) and prints but soon there will be mini masterpiece wearable art, mini canvas prints, ACEO’s and other cool handmade items in my shop. Also I am designing plushy Kiki Kitties (our mascot) that will hopefully become available for adoption around the holidays. Please check out my shop if you’re bored, in need of a gift or tired of staring at plain white walls. www.katgirlstudio.etsy.com

SiliCon
KatGirl Studio will be at SiliCon October 3-5. I will be sharing a table in the Artist’s Colony area with Scott Aleric the creator of Hell Has Found Me & Lost Graphics Studio. You won’t be able to miss us with our shiny new 89 in. retractable banners. We went last year and had a blast I was even a last min. stand-in in the Lolita Fashion Show. This year Peter S. Begal the creator of the Last Unicorn will be there along with a lot of other cool people.

I’ll be offering the same images that are in my store at SiliCon so if you’re planning on attending save yourself the shipping and just pick one up there. If you are attending the con and want one of my images as a print and it’s not one of these please email me and I can see about making one for you. I will also be offering some buttons and maybe a few other goodies as well. So come by and ask me whatever you like or just say hi.

I will be part of the following panels and workshops at Silicon:
Saturday, October 4th, 2008
2:30 pm - 3:45 pm in Monterey Room: Digital vs. Traditional Art

Standing Out in a Sea of Awesome: Marketing for Artists
TBA

www.siliconventions.com