Decorama

Matryoshka in Blue, Q. Cassetti.2012, Adobe Illustrator2300˚ Thursday night was great. Gold Dust Lounge played their surfer noir music to the delight of the outdoor revellers. The amazing and handsome Makepeace Brothers filled the auditorium which was blissfully airconditioned to all our delight. The sales in the shop were amazing (I bought a bunch of rhinestone wrap bracelets, some earrings for kitty and an amazing brooch that grabs my entire shoulder and encrusting it in colorful sparklers describing flowers and parrots. Kitty, Alex, Elly, Gloria and I had a great time. Rob was on the clock, but it looked like he was having fun too. Kitty and I got her set up with Kelly (Kelly Girls) for her weekend work in July at Governors Island with the Museum of Glass and the Cooper Hewitt Museum of Design in New York City. 

I was flattered and delighted to be asked to join a group of graphic designers who will work with the GlassLab Team on Governors Island  from June 30 to July 29, 2012. Each designer will be realizing a design/ idea with the hot glass team to learn and experience what glass can do. I have been working with the idea of nesting  Matryoshka dolls with the largest being clear and colorless with just etching for the features and simple detail. The second would have more etching and be a little less transparent, and the finally tiny one being brilliant, patterned etc. You all know how I love being a folky girl…and the Matryoshka shape really suggests glass…that we can decorate like crazy with glass waterslip decals, enamel paint, hand etching and diamond point pen. So I am investigating crafty etching products. Thanks to  Michael Rogers from RIT- for this decal supplier that can be put on glass: InPlainSite Art. So, I am ramping up to trial a bunch of these things prior to show date. As soon as I know the date, I will let you know…and as I am sure you will be seeing sketches as they come. I have a phone call to talk techniques and how we will roll this thing out on Tuesday. We are looking at a bunch of surface texture approaches (Graal for instance), or stamping and encasing the pattern into the glass before all the crazy applied decoration I would love to do.

We are rolling down to NYC tomorrow and back on Monday to take Kitty to FIT for her summer engagement. Now, all we need to do is watch her pack…(!). I am a bit worried…but hey, it will happen.

Spinning Candy

Lamps from Wanted Design, Q. Cassetti, 2012Wow. And it keeps coming. Gloria and I went down to Corning for an amazing opening of the GlassLab Show: “Making Ideas”  at the Museum of Glass. It was tons of fun, the exhibit was fresh and inspiring with a lot of things that had a high “want” including the snake candlesticks, glass hearts, glass dunnies, and glass gummy bears. I had the amazing pleasure of meeting and seeing old friends, and making a few new ones…Sigga Heimis (Iceland headquartered remarkable designer, warm and amazing woman; Sigga’s designer husband David Sandahl who works on prothesis design; and spent time with Marshall and Caitlin Hyde —learning more about them as people and artists. I had a great time and was wow’ed by the show, the people, the beautiful staging of the event and the warmth of the Hot Glass Family at the museum. It was truly an honor to be included.

Saturday was a day of planning and projecting as Sunday and Monday were days out of the office. Sunday, Rob and I got off early (6 am) to arrive in NYC at 11. I then went to Surtex, the licensing show at the Javits Center and Rob went over to be in a panel at Wanted Design. Surtex and the National Stationery show were inspiring, intellectually challenging, and is having me think a bit more dimensionally about my work. Do I want to take this puppy on? Do I want a rep? How do I hit the high end marketplace I think my work syncs with? Or is my work more geared to the European market…and should I be seeking our a rep in the UK? It was patterns upon patterns with many hot points being topics I love and work with from flowers and gardens, Christmas to even folkloric stuff. I spied lots of stuff with themes around wine, coffee, tea and cupcakes. Lots of Santas and middle America “fun and funky”—Scrubbed textured backgrounds, twitchy lines with  rubbed in color seems to be very popular. The stationery show was an eye opener and an amazing resource center for graphic designers. There were my  favorite paper vendors there (Curious Paper, Mohawk, Crane & Co. and Reich). There were folks who did elegant foil stamping, rolls of “wax seals”, board edging and gilding, embossing, engraving and my new drool love, laser cutting. Heaven. Also, a ton of DIY stuff for stationery stores to get into making custom wedding and event materials were there from simple software/layout systems to hand cranked diecutting sets (I admit, I just bought one!!). And did I say everyone and their brother were selling letterpress stuff! Tons and Tons and Tons. It was a lot to process, so I am planning on reading a lot and talking to you and others to see where this goes. Steep educational trajectory to make this happen.

New resources include (more tomorrow):

Accucut: a home/small shop mechanical die cutting machine
Silhouette Cameo: a small cutter that is driven by your pc. or mac. Will cut from original drawings you can make. Additionally, many existing designs  (many pretty tasty) available online for download at the whopping price of $0.99/ 
Stick with Print works: custom postit notes. small volumes. In Syracuse. 

Wanted Design featured the RIT Metaproject that Rob, Steve Gibbs, Eric Meek and Tina Oldknow were involved in to collaborate with both product design students and glass students along with Josh Owen and Michael Rogers as faculty leads. Remarkable work with great ideas, great craftsmanship and students who are articulate, poised and jazzed by the experience. There were a ton of young designers (it felt like Brooklyn) on site— showing new ideas, new ideas they were manufacturing etc. The best of all was Raleigh Denim (a jeans company run in NC. by a husband and wife pair with 20 employees making outstanding jeans locally out of locally dyed, locally woven denim in NC). Raleigh Denim has the secret to success, two amazing women who were demonstrating quite happily, and chatting away about how happy they are in this endevor…and how terrific it is to have a new business in their town. Bless them.

There is much much more for me to chat with you about. But, it is time to jump in the shaggin’wagon (Kitty’s name) to go get the cowboy. Late night.

this and that

A bow to the Dutch, Q. Cassetti, 2012, Adobe Illustrator CS5Gloria and I are readying ourselves to go to Corning this evening for the opening of the “Making Ideas”, a  GlassLab show at the Corning Museum of Glass. GlassLab is a very cool, design oriented, mobile glass prototyping shop that the Museum travels all over the world to work with designers, artists, and creatives to explore glass as a material. There have been fabulous things created by GlassLab— and this show celebrates this unique offering the Museum has. I think I will take a pocketful of temporary tattoos for my friends.

Kitty is back at Amherst for commencement at Hampshire. Alex is hanging out in the music room with friends making random music. It sounds pretty good. The grass was cut today (with a bunch of things that need some severe ripping out/poisoning (ie thistles). I was thrilled to see my 6 sour cherry trees survived the winter (what there was of winter) and two have little green cherries on their spindly, small branches.

Seems like Mr. White is in the young squirrel chase these days.  Two in one day…and more to come. Lucky Tucker the Hawk, he has been the recipient of these snacks which his person is so happy and thankful to pick up. Good for Mr. White…back on his game, leaving us beautiful prizes outside our door. What with Tucker the way he is, I am eyeballing roadkill in an entirely different way. I almost pulled the car over for a skunk until I realized that wouldnt be the best idea for anyone. Possum, yes. Squirrel, surely. Maybe even a bird or two…but nothing stinky.

Tomorrow are errands and Sunday we drive to NYC for Surtex, the licensing show. I am anxious to see how people are doing business, how they display their work, and the taste level etc. if its not a fit, I am planning on making a list of those folks I would like to work for…and develop a list to pursue the licensing folks within these organizations to make this happen. I do not want to be passive in this enterprise. However, I am anticipating a lot of thinking and talking in the next few weeks/months around this topic. I know the packaging/ comping/presenting world from my time as a graphic designer. I know about booths and promotion…have done it for others. Now its just understanding niche, the market itself, and how to plug in. Golly, I have made money for plenty of other people, why not myself?

Gotta go warm up the car…time to take the 1 hr. spin to Corning.

A day of presents

After Ambrosius Bosschaert, Q. Cassetti, 2012, Adobe Illustrator CS5There was a fresh young squirrel neatly left at my doorstep this morning. Dead, but not disturbed in any way. A beautiful little thing with his amazing paws with lovely pink pads and soft coloration. What to do with him? Toss him in the compost as usual…but somehow that didn’t seem right. In the spirit of a friend who told me the “waste not want not” tale of his own, I decided differently. This friend was really unhappy with a rather robust groundhog who had burrowed his way under the fence to attack my friend’s garden. Fresh vegetables were the prize.  My friend was not going to allow that sort of tresspassing—so he pulled out his beebee gun and shot the culprit dead. This same friend feels that if you take a life, you should take energy from it…and so proceeded to skin and dress the groundhog, place him neatly in a roasting pan, and put the whole thing in the refrigerator for his lady friend to roast for dinner. He said it was tasty.

So, in that same spirit, I was thinking that maybe Elly’s hawk, Tucker, might think that this offering might be a mighty tasty snack. Poor Tucker is stuck in his hawk house during the spring and summer as he could be tempted to fly away—and so is constrained when he goes out and hunting is off the table until it gets colder. The taste of wild meat might be just the thing compared to the little bits of gizzards Elly produces for him. Our little offering went into a freezer bag and he is nestled among the bags of frozen kale and boxes of chicken stock for just that purpose. No roasting pan here. Just the real deal for a real raptor.

Another gift is that today is  Rob’s birthday. He is a present everyday to those of us who are proud to be his family. I hope there are lots of nice things in his day to celebrate how much he means to us. Happy Birthday dear boy.

Really nice illustration news! Nancy Stahl, a teacher at Hartford and a Vector Queen, just was admitted to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame for 2012 along with R.O. Blechman, John Collier, Ludwig Bemelmans (Madeline books), Edward Gorey and John Sloan. Talk about an amazing lineup…and it is so wonderful Nancy has been recognized for her beautiful illustration and work with the US Postal Service. Her illustration work is sublime—elegant and simple. She is the bar for all of us vector princesses as she keeps churning out inspiring work to all of our delight.

Would love to stay and muse with you. But, time is ticking. Today is CSA day and I have to get Kitty squared away with residence documentation etc. gotta go.

Whaddah day.

Barley Rondel, Q. Cassetti, 2012, Adobe Illustrator CS5The world was at the Rongo last night to hear the amazing Stringbusters and to welcome our favorite, Billy Eli with Eric Aceto and group. Many of the Tburg Royals were there…so there was lots to talk about with fascinating people who had things to say. Lets just say, I am having a love affair with our little Village, and every social event, every interaction just sweetens the love more and more. I had to leave a bit earlier than Mr. Cassetti as I had to be ready to rock this morning at the Community Yard Sale at the Farmers Market. Thanks to amazing Suse Thomas Wolfanger, she was there to help—getting money and spreading the love she does so naturally. We had an amazing day, a great turnout. As I noted on Facebook, fresh from the Market: “

Such fun at the Trumansburg Farmers’ Market! Bought a few amazing things (Pendleton shirts, Woolrich shirts) a pashmina scarf, a fluffy chiffon scarf with pansies on it, and a scarf with a 1953 calendar on it (amazingly interesting palette. Had a divine Kimchi hotdog from Trevor and Shelly MacDonald along with sampling their amazing Sauerkraut balls and a half sour pickle. Amazing! Sharon Tregaskis from TreeGate Farm was selling beautiful seedlings. Meg Meixner from Wolftree Farms was selling organic chickens and eggs. Margaret Shepard from Sage Hen Farm was selling garlic, leeks and greens. There were mushroom logs and perennials along with a great assortment of treasures. I am sunburned and energized. What potential we have in our amazing village! Pictures to come.”

This event was great because it allowed us to see how we needed to be “on” for our first day (we need keys to the electrical box, we need signage, a lot of direction getting people situated, a bit of process, a way for folks to hang banners etc.). It also prompts me to suggest that we should think about the flea market idea…and that maybe a Sunday event might be fun during the summer (once a month?). Do you think that could hold up? After seeing the crowd we got, I think there is something here…and could provide a fun activity for all. If we promote it, it can happen. I def. feel we need to do this sale again next year.
We need to get Alex to a boat for his senior dinner dance tonight. It will be a perfect evening for this party…which will be great for our boy. Rob and I will burn time in Watkins to take them home around midnight. Rob is off tomorrow to pick up Kitty and attend a meeting in Albany. Alex is going to be acting with Running to Places from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. I plan on making flower pictures just for myself (!) for Mothers Day!
I bought a pair of very cute black espadrilles as my mothers day present to me!
Onward to more springtime fun!

 

trying something new.

Graffiti or art? Q. Cassetti, 2012, NYC.I just registered for Surtex, the selling and licensing original art and design show at the Javits Center towards the end of May. Surtex’s site defines the show this way:

Markets Represented
Artists, designers, studios, agents and licensing firms selling and licensing art and design for a multitude of product end-uses: decorative fabrics, linens and domestics, contract textiles, wall coverings, floor coverings, apparel textiles, stationery, greeting cards, gift wrap and other paper products, tabletop, giftware, toys, ceramics, packaging and publishing.

ReSource HuB - technology and business essentials. Comprised of companies offering resources for artists and designers including software, hardware, web tools, printers, publication, books, reference materials and trend services.

Profile of Attendees
Art buyers and licensees from the home furnishings, domestics, apparel, contract, gift, toy, beauty, stationery, greeting card, paper product and automotive manufacturing industries, plus publishing, private label retailers, licensing executives, buying offices, interior designers, licensing executives, advertising agencies and stock houses.

I think I will put a little book together of some of my images…in case I see someone who looks like there could be a connection…or at least as a tease that we should talk in the future. I have my new cool cards with the watermelon on them….None of this could hurt. Quite a few of my fellow alumni from Hartford are engaged in this arena—and my new work seems to have legs here and I know Christmas well (thanks to the work with Steuben etc). Plus, I have two advent calendars and bees (that no one has)…. It should point to the portfolio I need to build to really have a shot at this work. 

Today is a day of work— on the probiotic and big client. We will see what will happen. One thing for sure, its going to rain (you should see the grass…!).

midweek shuffle

Today was a day of decisions, meetings and ideas. Alex and I got off to school at the prescribed time with lots of laughs, plans, and chatter. He had a tennis tournament and plans for papers for his year end push. Instead of drinking coffee by myself in front of the computer, I went to Gimme! for a latte and company. It was so much fun with my friend Alan and his wife Marilyn and the community of bright souls that gather there every morning. We made plans for meetings around building projects at the Farmers Market. There are short term plans around where the picnic tables and benches go to the new gate for the entrance to the new Market Managers booth that could happen at Grassroots.

Then, it was back to the office...popping the pork butt into the oven for the second day (jazzed up with garlic, chipotle peppers, salt and pepper) to see if the slow-cooking will finally speed up--an be ready for dinner time. Now that it is past dinner time, the last 9 hours did the trick. Perfection. The boys had seconds and thirds.

Today was the day of more fun with organizing of Evernote, more searching on typography sites for great fonts for my new probiotic friends, and seeing how the type/illustration/research ideas fuse and come together. I searched the idea of probiotic...what did it look like, how is it portrayed in the world, specifically in yogurt, yogurt drinks, kefir, kombucha (a fermented drink made of tea, sugar and the great biological "mother"), of sauerkraut, of pickles, or even probiotic mustard. I discovered that probiotic is represented either as medicine, as supplements...something that is very clinical and logical to that of chocolate and candies with a probiotic add....a frivolity with "gut health" as a mere outflow of it's deliciousness. There is no consistency in the messages, the ideas, the products that his helpful bacterial is integrated in. The best hybrid product design/packaging incorporated a clean approach with simple typography (with a bit of personality) combined with an illustration or some sort of "gracenote" that takes the design off of stark and inapproachable. Interestingly, I started the sketch process working from my gut--and now that I have a bit more understanding--the solution I was reaching for was not even close. The research changed the entire scenario. Tomorrow will be the beginning of that fun.

More discoveries. I was trolling fonts --just to stay up to date which I fear I do not do often enough. I discovered the most amazing thing. FF Chartwell is a new font which takes advantage of the ligatures and glyphs offered in the current InDesign to create standard, customizable charts and graphs (elegant ones at that)--consistently. It is a gorgeous idea and the results are gorgeously consistently perfect. We are going to be trying this shortly to recommend to our corporate client as a tool to dictate graphs and charts within the corporate identity standards to take the creativity out--and add consistency and ease for the consulting designers and agencies. Well worth seeking out if you are a designer. Amazing thing.

Now, I have a wonderful collection of fonts to work with....to create decorative type slugs.
It is late now. It is time to wrap it up with BBC's Edwin Drood on the tube. We are all digging the Dickens these days.

weekend antics

Asparaganza 2012, Good Life Farm, Interlaken NYFarmer Melissa, Asparaganza, Good Life Farm, 2012It was a perfect weekend capped off by great music at Felicias (Rockwood Ferry) and a gentle spring evening party, Asparaganza, at Good Life Farm. Asparaganza was at Good Life with a brilliant cloudless blue sky, happy people, delicious things to try and buy along with music, games, tours of the farm and new friends and old. RedByrd Orchard Cider had it inaugural tasting (and indeed we tasted it!) along with Crooked Carrot, The Piggery, Cayuga Creamery (asparagas ice cream, ginger ice cream as a bow to Good Life’s prides), and Red Newt Bistro. There were farmstands and Toivo playing their happy music which was a perfect fit to a glorious afternoon. It was so wonderful to see these local producers, Melissa and Garrett and their friends in the context of the haven their farm is….with the geese and big draft horses in the background. Mike from Double E (Mushroom CSA) was making mushroom logs for folks to take home to grow their own mushrooms, there were games…and tons of balls and fun things for the teensy people who gamboled amongst all the larger ones. The energy of this event was so positive, so encouraging, so reflective of this emerging community that I just wanted to hug each and every producer for the gifts that they give us generously. We never really see the whole picture, just the perfect radish, apple, blade of grain or sunflower and not the work, love, and prayers that go into creating this amazing thing.  Maybe this little valentine will help communicate that.

New website for the Trumansburg Farmers Market! Took me about 4 hours to do…and I have a bit more to do (authoring some content) but at least we are up and running so the rackcards now point to something real. Here is the site> www.tburgfarmersmarket.com

I got plugged into some phenomenal new web based tools this weekend that I am so excited about I could sing at the top of my lungs. First one is IFTTT (if this [] then that[]). I know. It doesnt make much sense. What IFTTT does is link the social media venues you may be using, to leverage your messaging to the other outlets you support. Once creates or uses already created recipes to make your content work harder for you. An example is “If This” Facebook entry “then that” sent to Twitter. If an image is dropped into Dropbox, send the same image to Flickr….and so on…mixing feeds,Flickr, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, DropBox etc. It is amazing one stop shop where usually I have had to go into the mechanisms/the account information to try to network the content from one place to the other. Now it is so much easier and not so technical. Give it a try, its free.

The second geeky delight is Evernote. Evernote is a way to collect information, images, links, notes etc. to push folks to be more productive and less paper driven. Your Evernote is sync’ed between your computer, phone and IPad…so you can have your files ready and at hand whenever you want them as long as you can get a connection. You can share ‘notebooks” with people you invite…or you can keep them private or even not shared as long as its on your desktop. You can tag your entries, sort them a bunch of different ways…Worth seeing. Their customer support and videos are great (reminds me of Squarespace, a company that has that nailed). Plus, there is a community of users out there who are actively involved in moving Evernote ahead with cool plug-ins, ebooks, and forums. It is free to try, and if you choose to do the upgrade, its not going to break the bank. I am so in love with the productivity aspect of Evernote, I am worried that I could waste time being organized…but if it helps to get the work done…no worries.

Thanks to the prod of Evernote, I am knocking things off my list…and adding new. More to talk about later. 

Spin Out.

Tulip Riot, Q. Cassetti, 2012, Adobe Illustrator CS5Farmers Market meeting was good yesterday. We are planning on a monthly community dish to pass “Community Potluck Picnic in the Pavillion” on the first Tuesday of every month…at least through the summer so we are talking 3-4 events. That will need a poster, but I am good with that. Should be a nice illo…picnic illo. Maybe I can even try to make it pretty. Imagine!

We are also ramping up the decision making on our Saturday experiments at the Market. We are introducing a Saturday market 5 times this summer—as a trial balloon to see if there is traction beyond Wednesdays. We worked out many of the details—including some great music (Judy Hyman in September!). A board member is interested in tagging a contra dance after one of the Saturday market. Lots of great energy here.  I am hoping for the absolute best!

We have heavy grey clouds in the sky. Looks like a day of rain today. The farmers need it. As long as there is no freeze, we will take it. It was so glorious picking up my share at Good Life Farm in Interlaken. Melissa and Garrett’s property is planted beautifully with crops cut by rows of fruit trees…and these gorgeous farm buildings interspersed….complete with a peek of the blue lake in the background. Asparaganza is at Good Life tomorrow with lots of excitement around it. Should be a fun late afternoon with Melissa and Garrett with games(!), food from the amazing locals, and cider tasting from my friends at Redbyrd.

I spent some time with Trevor MacDonald, MacDonald Farms yesterday. New opportunity! MacDonald Farm has been making Probiotic pickles, sauerkraut and other delicacies since 1972. They have an excellent product, are known locally, and have something many other do not have, probiotic pickles—not “canned” pickles (made with vinegar). So we have tasty food with healthy qualities. We have history. We have a great story. Now all we need to do is shine it up. Should be interesting to see where this goes.

More later. Alex needs to be tended to.

 

 

Spring Green

Inspired by Dutch Tulips, Q. Cassetti, 2012, Adobe Illustrator 5Warm and humid. Wet underfoot. The lilacs are popping and the green carpet stretches on and on. It is that spring green…not fall green(more olive) or summer green (more blue) but that brilliant yellow cast green that tells us that young and new is the time of the year.The birds are busy chittering and singing. The tiny red pinecones to be are clustered at the end of their branches with little tassels of green new growth. The peepers cheep and  the squirrels leap from branch to branch. I saw a little fox in Taughannock park last week, trotting happily across the street—rusty red against all the brilliant green. I love treats like that.

Tonight is the Trumansburg Farmers Market meeting. One month and a few days until we open. I have the print materials done (including a bookmark that is going to the library and used book store in town to show support to the library’s local food lecture series this year). I have the tote bags ordered (and should see next week). Banners are next along with programming in tandem with events in the village. Goodness where has the time gone? In a wink and a blink it will be time to start wrapping the Christmas presents.

I mowed down two publications yesterday and have a bunch of redo projects today. Redo meaning—revisions. It will be nice to finally have them finalized so as to be able to do something new. 

Our Kitty turns 20 in a few days. Where has that time gone? And, even better, she will be back with us soon for a few weeks before the adventure she will have this summer begins. No, its not Europe, but its another country for most, NYC. Classes and a job…with a berth in that fun city. She should really be able to expand her horizons and learn so much. We are hoping she will be with us for GrassRoots which would be a highlight for all of us.

anyway. My nine a.m. was postponed to nine twenty…so I should say goodbye.

April showers may bring May flowers

Parrot Tulip wreath, Q. Cassetti, 2012 Adobe Illustrator.Making my lists. Checking them twice. Getting them whittled down, down, down. am feeling like we are getting a little traction—moving this forward versus feeling victimized by the lack of focus on much of this work. Am wrapping things up today/tomorrow with new work coming through the door. The snarls are being shaken out.

Pro Bono-ville has a few quick websites to put up on Squarespace (Farmers Market). Am hitting stride for this week. I am liking InDesign this week…and enjoying how smooth working with text is. And the crossover between InDesign and Illustrator is totally beautiful.

As you can see. more illustration findings….parrot tulips galore. I am going to dig on the web for some alternative images to draw…more parrot tulips, more bulbs (frittillaria, muscari, daffodils, narrcissus). I am getting a few canvases ready for Picture Salon to output and stretch. Two monkeys that like to drink, and 3 floral patterned biggies (36” square)—all to be hung at the Stonecat Cafe. They are also interested in a series of paper prints framed for the restaurant (a former fruit stand). More for this evening as things are going to start a bit later with Rob having a meeting and Alex out winning tennis tourneys. This work is quite a surprise for me as it is very appealing, very applicable and very pretty. I did not set out to do this but to better understand Dutch Flower pictures, their compositions and the general feel. This process of making pictures always is a surprise and shock. Its a new body of work every 2-3 months. From fruit now to flowers.

Happy Crack

Tulip Wreath, Q. Cassetti, 2012, Adobe Illustrator CS5Its online this and online that. All my little customers have these odd needs of small run print that span the needs from bumperstickers to labels, banners to quartercards…and my goal is to make them look and feel as legit as any well funded startup. I am buying laser output, small volume bumperstickers from StickersBanners.com. I am buying stemless wineglasses with a logo laser etched on the bowl for $.95 a piece from Discount Mugs.com.(got samples and they are really nice…so nice i am thinking of having a mess done with my illustration and see what kind of cash I can get for them).  I am buying quartercards and mini postcards (as a business card) from 48hourprint.com (and just got them in less than a week from the release of the files to printed cards in my hand…including shipping). I just got rackcards and posters for the Farmers Market from bargain basement printing.com. And a new “can do” vendor who was helpful (on the phone no less)…and their name says it all: BannersontheCheap.com. My head spins from all the little thises and thats that are in process of arriving…and more to order and wrangle. But it does mean that we are making progress while discovering some cool new companies that can help me help my customers.

Mary Ellen Salmon will be distributing the rack cards (she is running a little rack card distribution business that is affordable..and she is but a block away)! So, my hope is plug all my folks into that program too. Now, all we need is some better weather for our farmers…enough of the freezing. 

I was talking with some of the folks at our Farmers Market potluck last night…to find out that the recent freezes have all but wiped out 95% of the apples and soft fruit (peaches, apricots, cherries) in this area. It is like a death for these farmers who count on the weather to behave for their living—and here we are on the front end of the growing season knowing that certain crops just will not be there in the late summer/fall. My friends Mr. and Mrs. Waid were full of happiness—beekeepers that they are—saying things were fine for them and their hives were happy. I would love to go see what the Waid operation is just out of curiousity and of course, to see the lovely hives of bees. There is some pleasure for all of us at these potlucks and i hope that we can continue this feeling of community through the summer as we all seem to enjoy this…and much can evolve from our relationships.

Yes, I am a little dutch girl. I am working on some pictures that are derivative of Dutch flower paintings…and am trying very hard to keep the flowers dead simple…graphic and blocked that will give the impression of the painting, but still feeling bolder, more modern. With these vector files, I am building a great symbol library of objects which I think of like colorforms or to a jeweler a wealth of findings— objects that can be changed, recolored, reconfigured but reused…in a variety of applications.
These wreaths are just a hint at what they can do. What with the promise of expanded patterning in Adobe Illustrator CS6, I am psyched about the opportunities. I am just cranking out these wreaths in different colors etc. while building the pictures which take longer and are not the candy crack that this instoillo stuff is doing for me. Mindless and so sugary….and when folks see the stuff (even ALEX) they rave. I am worried that my inner happy is peeking out…what happened to the Princess of Doom? I hope she is still inside. However, with this happycrack stuff there  IS something here—and as it is flowing…I am going with it.

 

On to the next

Prom goers, 2012On to the week. Prom, as usual was great. The kids were excited and glamorous—with all of us drab stringers, happily snapping pictures and wishing them well. From our report, it was the best prom ever…loving the dining out, loving the limo ride, loving the picture taking. The girls were beautiful with Kyra in purple and Elly in gold. Kyra had a wonderful hair design with feathers. Elly posed with her hawk who thankfully wasnt grumpy—just confused with who this glittering creature was that came to get him.

Alex and Sevi were gentlemen (with a little reminding)… and all was good. We went to the Rongo to hear Long John and the Tights and mix it up with our friends from around here…old time music afficiandos who turn out for LJ and Tights. A quiet weekend for all of us. Just some shopping, some groceries and a nice chance to just be in the moment.

This week promises all sorts of things from work and project completion to Farmers Market needle moving. There is hope to do a project with the Farmers Market and the community build this summer at Grassroots, so I need to honcho this…or get some help with someone else honchoing it…Perhaps a glorious, eccentric Market Manager office with a bulletin board, a place to hold a Gott cooler for water, a clock, a brochure rack, and a place to sell our bags and do the food stamp/chit exchange. I want it to be really fun and perhaps be a campanile with awnings? a two storied lemonade stand? I want weathervanes and whirlie gigs. You get the idea. Now, I just need to muscle the people to make it happen. Time is awasting.

Had a good chat with Kitty. She is in the throes of final projects— and she is busy signing up for classes for next semester, and putting her plans in place for the summer. She will be with us mid May until the end. And then she has May> August in NYC to study sewing, draping and pattern design at FIT with her weekends working for the Governor’s Island installation of the Hot Glass Show with the Museum of Glass. This will be really electric for her…and then she starts mid August for a few weeks to help catalog costumes at Smith College with her wonderful teacher. All in all, reinforcing her path of costume design…and I think it will be a remarkable time of learning and growing.

As you know, Alex is to be Ike Skidmore in Oklahoma along with piano lessons and working for me doing social networking and brochure distribution for the Farmers Market. It is going to be a fast slide from the end of school to the beginning of college.  And, as I have not mentioned it, Alex has chosen Hofstra as his college. He got into every school he applied to…and with the knowledge of his learning issues combined with his desire to delve into music composition as soon as possible, Hofstra will give him that along with access to the city, access to prime internships, and a supportive learning environment. I think it will be great.

On to the paying work.

It's Here!

Gorgeous Roses from Vinegarden Florists of Trumansburg!Prom day 2012! Alex is going to the prom with Kyra. Sevi is going to the prom with Miss Eleanor Ann. There will be the traditional photo taking chez Camp (yay yay yay)…and then the traditional “Falls” photograph that every junior at Charles O. Dickerson HS needs to have in their memory book. I take my child’s picture and everyone elses as they are so darned cute…and are such big kids from the little we had just seconds ago. What an exciting time! So this year there is a limo, dinner in Watkins Glen at a hotel, and then the prom itself. Alex has a tuxedo (yay me for being smart last year and buying one online for boy wonder). He cannot find his cummerbund…and he has decided to bag it as he thinks they are stupid. Interesting from someone who is so about social protocol.

I had my delight this morning, going to the florist to pick up the corsages and as tradition has it, taking as many pictures as I can of the spectacular art Marcia has made with flowers. There they are in the cooler—organized according to last name and then numbered. Marcia has a point of pride in creating each corsage to being different and as she admitted, this year was tough as everyone was wearing purple or blue…and you know what the purple and blue offerings in flowers are. Few and far between…but with different ribbons, glitter and rheinstones, Marsha goes for broke and I get ramped up just from her ability to do variation on a theme so completely. Marsha was a complete doll letting me poke in her coolers to take pix (reference for the new Dutch Flowers series) and even boldly going behind the counter to take pix of the cream and cranberry tiny carnations. Prom Prom Prom. It is so much better to live the prom through one’s children than the reality of what that even was as a prom attendee (ho hum boring). And the clothes are so much better than when I went to the prom. Girls have the chance of actually looking beautiful…versus the nasty mid seventies everyone regardless of looks, looked terrible.

I better go wake up Prince Dauntless as his guests will be here in a half hour.

progress

Just finished up ordering a collection of things for our friends at Redbyrd. Postcards, business cards, custom glasses. I discovered a cool resource for affordable, digitally output bumperstickers and banners: Stickersbanners.com. I think I will order a few things from these guys before I start raving as I do about my new favorite resources online.

Its exciting to have these Redbyrd pieces coming…along with a new label for a new product that these two cool people dreamed up…and they like that too! Yikes. Too much fun.

The Distillery is getting close. Cool on that too.

Alex found out that he was cast as Ike Ketchum, cowboy, in Oklahoma last night. There is a bounce in his step and a happiness that I hadn’t anticipated. I love the idea of my boy in pearlie snaps, chaps and a gigantic cowboy hat. He regaled me about his Handel piece he is singing at school to build his chops…pulling out the sheet music and singing along with the notes to point out the range and craziness of this Baroque piece. My little baroque cowboy.Maybe he could learn to yodel too!

I am going a bit crazy about Dutch flower paintings again. I would like to try to do a very bold, graphic approach—using the layouts, the blocking and suggested palettes as a place to start. I plan on tacking this on to the farmers market vegetable imagery. You will see what will happen as it will be posted as we go.

Rob is home tonight. It will be great to have him back.

April Snow

Inspired by Dutch Painting, Q. Cassetti, 2012, Adobe Illustrator CS5I woke up at around 3 a.m. and peered near sightedly out the window to see that yes, there was snow…and quite a bit of it to burden the trees—that spring snow that breaks branches. The snow is out of sync with the season like everything else. So though it was weird and sad, it was not inconsistent with the winter we have had this past year. I can only whisper small prayers about the fruit and flowers, the plants, the asparagus, the leeks and potatoes, the buds and blossoms. My poor farmer friends. I would be ripping my hair out by the roots…and threatening to raise critters only. Wild.

Alex was delighted though, that we had a snow day today. So he has been downstairs screaming with happiness with his friends—playing games and snacking on this and that.

Alex had a great audition yesterday for Oklahoma…Singing and reciting from “Once Upon a Mattress” and trying hard with the dance aspect of the audition. So, now we hurry up and wait to see if our 6’2” Prince could become a cowboy. We can only hope. It is a week and counting on college decision time. It is five days and counting on the prom event…with yours truly throwing the pre-prom dinner for 6 or 8. I will need to raid the freezer to see what delicious bits I have squirreled away for this festivity.

Rob is at the Museum in Conversation Seminar in Albany. I sent 15 giclees of the fruit project with Rob for their silent auction. It appears they sold and sold well. So I have tasked poor Rob is see which images sold well and those that sold in a lesser way.Lets learn something from this.

I had a really nice conversation with Redbyrd Orchard Cider yesterday. I love their thinking, their confidence and their product which they are really doing right. It is so amazing to watch them lean into this new business and the potential it can have. I am enjoying our relationship and am buckling up to watch their success which to me feels like it could really rocket. I need to jump off right now and prep their files as we are working against a deadline and need to get cards, postcards etc. ready for this event.