A Kaleidoscope of Spring

A Post Christmas Update:
Images are of marbled fabric, cotton and silk

This past holiday season was insane. Mary Elizabeth Arts in the past year has more than doubled sales from last year and we've run a projection and are on track to double them again this year.

My repeat customers are becoming my favorites folks. It brings me so much joy to be able to create pieces for special people I'm getting to know. Their generous feedback is what keeps me going. One of my favorite customers this year was the sister of Etsy's Founder. She purchases some glasses for a friends birthday and some pieces for her mother. I love knowing that the mother of the guy who created Etsy uses my work. That's just awesome!

We are on the hunt for an artist agent! This is very exciting news as it means that in the near future I'll be signing contracts with larger companies who will be reproducing my designs in factories and selling them in larger department stores. This will allow me to create new designs and pick back up on all my unfinished projects such as my hand-painted lingerie and silk painting.

There are two new babies in the family! My best friend of BlumeBloom just had her first baby, Emma Rose. And my sister-in-law just had her second baby boy, Christopher. Both babies are healthy, beautiful and perfect in every way.

This April I'm very excited to say that there will be a professional photo shoot of my glassware. All my product images I've taken myself and it's time to increase the quality of my listings. We are staging a faux dinner party, although I'm sure in the end the photo shoot will become a decadently staged real party. I'll be working with a few of my gorgeous friends as they sip champagne under twinkly lights this early spring. I am truly excited about this and can't wait to share the images with you. My wedding photographer Annemie of mexapixie will be taking all the shots. She's the gal who photographed my wedding so I already know her work is fabulous.

We've re-painted and re-carpeted the house! Having my studio, my packaging warehouse and inventory supply room in my home makes it easy to find living in total chaos a complete norm. I've grown accustomed to paint stains on, well, everything. And instead of scented candles and charming decorative figurines my house is constantly in a state of disarray. I secretly laugh when customers mention "stopping by my studio for a tour" I can image myself saying, "Welcome! Please just sit directly on the pile of laundry as it's the only clean place in the house." And on the way out the door everyone gets a complimentary lint roller to clean off the cat hair. So Nick, seeing my insanity grow deeper every day, has given me a new home. It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint and new carpet will for the the soul.





I have a few new oil paintings in the works. Canvas paintings are always a treat for me. It's hard to sell original art for walls these days. People tend to prefer spending their money on functional art that they can afford--and I don't blame them! But I'm trying to make it a goal to paint more with oils and canvas, even if it is just a few hours here and there. Right now I'm working on two piece from my honeymoon. A lake and mountain vista from Alaska and a Sea Cliff scene from Maui.

Back when I first started selling my artwork online the focus was on fine art prints of my original paintings. Over the past year or so I stopped making the prints and have been focusing on my glassware, until now! I'm working with Through This Lens, a local Durham photography studio and Roylee is not only making prints of my paintings but he's matting them as well so they are super easy to frame. These prints will be available in my shop by the end of the week!


And even more exciting, is my dear friend Lindi has created a small book with a whole bunch of my paintings. When I first saw it I seriously couldn't believe what an amazing job she did paring paintings. I couldn't have done it any better if I'd spent months laying it out. I was really impressed and remember thinking, it's almost like Lindi is a professional at this. Then I remembered she is. She has her masters in Museum Management and arranging artwork and displays is her specialty. Think coffee table book full of my colorful artwork--professionally arranged. The book isn't for sale just yet, but I hope to have it in print within a month or so. I'll keep you posted as to when it's available.

I'm so happy Spring is almost here. Yesterday I went on my first bike ride since last summer and I'm excited to see more sunny days and blooming trees. Happy Spring Everyone!

Black Friday Sale

Happy Holidays Everyone!
I'm starting the shopping season
off with a 10% discount on everything in my Etsy shop. One day only, Black Friday (Nov 26th) Just type in BLACKFRIDAY2010 when you check out and you'll automatically get a 10% discount. The code will only work on Friday Nov 26th. Have a great Thanksgiving!

In the Studio with Mud Pie

I've always found pottery to be a little soulful. There's something about holding a hand-made mug warmed by hot tea that evokes a sort of poetic mood. It's like holding a little bit of the earth, just polished and smoothed by an artists touch. I met Stacy of Mud Pie Studio over a year ago after I contacted her for a trade. In exchange for some of my work, I got some hand-made mugs for Christmas gifts. Ever since our trade we've gotten to know each other and our crafts a little bit more. Stacy invited me over to play with some clay in her home-based studio and I brought along my camera.

She sells her work full-time on her Etsy shop: MudPie



It's great to have a fellow Etsy friend to share in the ups and downs of running your own home-based business. She's just as swamped as I am, and often even more so because her work is so labor intensive. From raw clay she creates her custom pieces, each one made from scratch in her home-based studio. Stacy has become a well known potter on Etsy for her custom name and monogram clay creations. She even has a few copycats out there trying to achieve her success.





Below are her signature monogrammed pitchers. First pictured is a work-in-progress. Each piece requires at least two fired in one of the 3 kilns she maintains in her backyard.



My favorite pieces are the mugs with couples names on them. I've bought some for friends but want one for myself!



Stacy's most recent works include hand-carved graphic details that require an illustrators steady hand and an eye for precise detail.



This is her dedicated studio assistant taking a break from the photo shoot.

Stacy has an impressive collection of letter press block she uses for her personalized pieces. She even has some elvish script for the fantasy fans.

There are a lot of items ready to sell that she hasn't had time to list on Etsy. Top of my wish list are these clay earrings. Each one is hand-crafted from scratch.



Stacy let me play around with creating some pieces of my own. I'm no potter, and of course was once again drawn to creating trees. I made a simple little clay dish with trees etched in the clay. It's such a treat to get to take a break from my own mediums and explore another art form. If my little dish survives it's first trip through the kiln I'll be back to the studio to glaze it and hopefully make some more. There's talk of Stacy and I possible co-creating some pieces for sale next year.



Mud Pie, thanks for sharing your space and time with me! If you want to purchase some of Stacy's work you need to buy now because she's already limiting the number the holiday orders she'll be taking this year. So Shop now!

A Birthday Painting

This past Saturday was my dad's birthday. We were up till 2am the night before ringing in his 60th--not bad for an old man! The next day, a little less than top notch, we decided to tackle another "father daughter" painting. You can read more about the history of these paintings in a previous post here.

I bought the biggest canvas I could fit in my car. It was about 4x3 feet. The day was so beautiful and pleasantly cool for August in North Carolina, so we decided to paint outside. We wanted to paint a friendly landscape of a summer day.



I laid in the clouds and then the blue sky while dad put down the green fields.
We both worked on the trees. In this photo you can see where I've just begun to layer in the grasses down on the bottom of the canvas.



While I continued to build up the field and add in red little poppies dad painted in the dirt path winding off into the horizon. He did the wooden fence with a palette knife to give it some rough, splintery character. We both love painting with palette knives. I first learned how to use the palette knife in high school while copying some of Van Gogh's work as he use the tool a lot in his paintings.



We didn't have time to finished the canvas before folks started to arrive for the birthday party but we got about 3 or 4 hours in. The painting isn't finished so we'll just have to wait until the next beautiful Saturday to finish. We're planning on adding sheep in the field as well as continuing to build up the grasses, flowers and the background trees still need quite a bit of work. And the path and the fence will get some highlights and shadows to create a more defined look. But I think it's a great start. And we certainly had fun painting it. Happy Birthday Dad!

Somehwere Over the Rainbow

Well folks, it was a fabulous wedding. That's the great thing about weddings, every one is different and it's just a matter of making it work for you. Ours was complete with a 45 minute rain delay with a loud clap of thunder during the outdoor ceremony. In my opinion, this was the icing on a perfect day. While dad and I sat excitedly in a car waiting for the clouds to clear, our guests sipped prosecco under a big white tent and listened to Mozart across a manicured lawn.


The day started out at a blistering 97 degrees of North Carolina humidity. I planned a morning of "wedding yoga" to help de-stress any wedding jitters I might have had. A bunch of other folks joined in on the fun. But as we began our yoga class in the loft of the house, the air conditioning went out and our relaxing yoga morning turned into a sweaty Bikram class. This ended up being amazing because we all sweated out any hangovers we may have had from the rehearsal dinner the night before. The intense heat threatened to turn our wedding day into a sweaty mess.

About 20 mins before the 5pm ceremony the storm clouds rushed in with a flurry of cooling wind and shade. You can see pictured a large patio umbrella that went for a swim in the lake. The showers came and cooled everything down with delicate drizzles and it couldn't have been more perfect.
.

At 5:45 with wedding guests a little looser thanks to the prosecco we started the ceremony. Nicholas and I were actually married in the lightest of rains and it was perfect. A family friend, Mary Gayle Green, who just happens to be a professional Opera Singer sang out over the balcony as dad and I walked down the aisle. After the ceremony we were showered with rose petals from above. We walked back down the aisle to "Somewhere over the Rainbow" by the late Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole. A fitting song for our Maui honeymoon where we saw rainbows daily.

Before we get to the party, I'd like to mention a few of the details about my handmade wedding. The dress was actually just a simple BCBG white dress that my mom doctored with some vintage lace. I wore red ruby shoes because I'm the bride and I can do whatever I want; and there's really no place like home.



All the flowers were done by my talented best friend Emily. My bouquet was so stunning that even the fabulous photos can't capture it. She put some pears in it that were growing on a tree out back of the house. The house by the way is a beautiful Italian Style Villa my parents have flipped on and it's for sale.
The programs were made by my friend Elizabeth Turnbull and the adorable birdcage veil by talented Etsy artist Marisol Aparicio



Our dear family friend Wally Turnbull performed the ceremony. We are so honored that our wedding was his first! There is a beautiful image is of Wally outside just before the ceremony praying away the storm.


You can see images about my wedding ring here in a previous blog posting.

I told my hair stylist that I wanted her to do whatever made her happy with my hair. I wanted her to have creative license and she really came through with something stunning. The little silk flower clips were also made by Emily on the day off the wedding. The pearls I'm wearing were a lavish gift from my late Aunt Becky. She knew she was dying of cancer and wrapped these pearls up as a gift for the day I was married. She even included some pearl studs for my future husband which Nicholas wore on our wedding day.
The gorgeous photos were taken by local photographer Annemie Tonken of Megapixie Photography. Her work is, as you can see, stunning. I asked her to capture moments rather than staged pictures and she really came through with fabulous work.





The party afterward was a joyous blur of sparklers and dancing late into the night with the talented band Boomerang. There was an improptu late night limbo contest. It wasn't until I was one of 3 left that I realized everyone had been cheating for me. And the whole time I was excited to be doing so well as I'm terrible at limbo.



As I mentioned before, it was a wonderful wedding. Two days later we were off on our honeymoon. A 5 day stay in Alaska and then 8 days in Maui. A special thanks to Nicholas who took the traditional bride's role and essentially planned the whole event. I just got to enjoy it all.

In 8 days I’ll be a Mrs.

Basically everything is taken care of, mostly thanks to my efficient fiancé. He’s been busy putting this wedding together while I’ve been focusing on getting my last minute orders out the door (and insanely agreeing to do a craft show today). I took care of the “fun stuff” the photographer, the wines and champagnes, music, flowers, rings…those sorts of artsy tasks. Nick got stuck with tent and table rentals, food ordering, technical music set-up--the logistical tedious parts. This is just one reason why we work so well together, he does all the hard stuff.

I find myself in a unique position, being 8 days away from a Mrs. There’s no stress or nervousness about actually getting married. That’s the part I’m ecstatic about. It’s the pleasing family, friends and expectations that are stressful. As an artist who works with brides-to-be daily I now better understand their messages and custom requests. These girls aren’t being “Bridezillas” they just want everything to turn out perfectly, and for a good reason. It’s a special day and everything about it should be special, down to the particular shade of green in their peacock toasting flutes.

There is a light at the end of the planning tunnel (besides the "I do's"). The honeymoon! Nick jokingly says that our honeymoon is great wedding insurance. Even if I get cold feet I wouldn’t back out. Not with Alaska and Maui just 10 days away. We aren’t yet sure exactly how one packs for glacier hiking and snorkeling in the same suitcase—but that’s what the day of the flight is for. We’ll have about 4-5 hours to creatively cram snorkel gear, parkas and trousseau pretties into a bag before for the 12 hour flight to Anchorage. I’m looking forward to the 12 hours of nothing--nothing in my hands to paint, nothing on the computer to check, nothing on my to-do list to prepare. But back to the wedding….

My dress(es) have been an adventure. My grand plan to have an artist make them backfired. After two attempts I finally gave up and bought one at a store from BCBG. It’s adorable and with a little added lace that my mom stitched on it’s just darling. My two “disaster dresses” will be put to good use. But I don’t want to spoil any surprises so you’ll just have to wait for the photos on how I plan to use them. The ceremony music will be performed by a professional Opera singer Mary Gayle Greene, who just happens to be a close college friend of my mother’s. Everyone attending will be spoiled by this musical treat. Not many of us have the chance to visit an Italian Opera Hall. So the opera is coming to Durham and will be sung from an outdoor balcony overlooking guests sipping Prosecco with raspberries and a very nervous bride hopefully not biting her newly manicured nails. It will be one of the rare days that my hands aren't covered in paint, I hope.

The flowers, thankfully, have not been on my mind one bit. My best friend and professional florist is flying in this Sunday to take care of everything. I’m just going to set her loose and see what magic she comes up with.
I'm mostly nervous about leaving my shop for so long. Owning and running your own business certainly has some cons to go along with the many pros. I'll worry about customers not being able to reach me, I'll worry about the amount of work I'll have waiting on me when I get back. I'm hoping all this preemptive worry will be for naught. Etsy what? Etsy who? I'll vaugley recall something about glasses and packages 10 feet under turquoise water with a bright red and yellow fish lazily swimming by.

A Video Tutorial on Painting Lavender on Glassware

An easy step by step video tutorial on how to paint Lavender Buds on your Glassware. Perfect for Mother's Day gifts. Here is a finished image:
http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=27971394

Sweet little lavender buds to enjoy with your bubbly. I've hand-painted delicate stems of lavender with non-toxic ...glass paint. The flutes are dishwasher safe and are perfect for everyday toasting. Notice the tiny detail of the two-toned purple lavender buds.

Cheers to Spring!
Check out more of my work here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/marywibis