A shorty for now...

My ad on Craftsyble.com

Just a quickie for right now....I've been so busy with the prospect of a festival coming up. Each day, I head into the studio and work for about 5 hours, trying to produce at least two sets of earrings. It's been a productive week, with (happily) several sales! Here is a quick view of two new earring sets (i.e. wearable art). You can check out my shop (www.savannahschrollguz.etsy.com) to see the entire range of what's available now. I actually list things nearly every day. I'll be back here soon to expatiate (now there's a word I memorized for the GRE that I never get to use in everday conversation!) on some other Etsy artisans whose work has gotten my attention.

"White Morning Glories on Pink"
(check them out at www.savannahschrollguz.etsy.com)

"Red Poppies on Yellow"
(check them out at www.savannahschrollguz.etsy.com)

PCA Emerging Artist of the Year

Tonight, Michael and I will be headed to the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts to see the "Artist of the Year and the Emerging Artist of the Year 2012" exhibitions. I'm especially excited to see Emerging Artist of the Year Vanessa German's work, which I first saw in Shadyside's Gallerie Chiz (on Ellsworth Avenue) back in March 2011 when I was working on a review of Peter Calaboyias's retrospective. In the two vimeo videos below, German describes the personal value of her work, that she views it as a kind of visual and spiritual language. The second video describes her process, which involves excavation and layering. More on her work after we see the show tonight. In the meantime, the videos:
Sneak Peek #3: 2012 Emerging Artist of the Year, Vanessa German: Love from PFPCA on Vimeo.
Sneak Peek #5: Emerging Artist of the Year, Vanessa German on Process from PFPCA on Vimeo.

In the kitchen with me....

Hot pepper jam is a tradition in this house, dating
back to the "Pre-marital XXX Hot Pepper Jam" of
August 2006, which we gave away (with just that name
label) right before Michael and I got married. Today, kids,
is hot pepper jam day...at least the first of several batches.

Here is the frothy goodness that is warming vinegar, sugar, and
pureed peppers. You can't see it here, but I have a dog at my feet who
has absolutely no idea what to do with the chewie I've given him to keep
busy. No idea. He is walking to and fro and crying very softly. It is, I suppose
an embarrassment of riches for him. I'm not exactly sure.  

And I'm filling jars here....

Loading the canner....

And out come seven lovely visions of hotness. They all sealed.

Pretty. Now, dishes washed and into the studio!

Some experimentation...and other good things



The under-sketch for the necklace prototype I'm
working on.




One part of the painted necklace prototype before sealing.



"Raining Cloud II" earrings (up close); now available in the shop!

"Raining Cloud II" earrings on me!

The sweet little chickadee family growing on our front porch in the $8
decorative cabin we got at Cabella's in May.
This is the mother's second nest-full of peeping little ones.
And wow are they loud!

Fred in the outer garden area.

The many generations of chickadees on the cables outside our
bedroom window.

New Glasses, Lulu, and Apple Pie

Just made yesterday, like a newborn babe:
"Louise 'Lulu' Brooks" (Art Pin)
Now available in my store!
....along with a few other new goodies.

I'm still carefully embroidering the fabric for The Dream Chair. It's an involved process, and I've found (sadly) that I need to begin wearing reading glasses to see what I'm working on and especially to thread the needle. Holy crap, I realized I was spending a good five minutes trying to get the thread through the eye and then I was holding it so far away I'd fairly buried the whole operation in my lap. And yet, it is very tiresome, since my new specs seem to go missing all the time, although with the level of bling on them, you'd think I wouldn't have difficulty locating them. Like they'd throw up a bat signal with the rhinestones when I began asking where they were. Here's me, with a goofy smile and my new Elton-John worthy specs. (Nope, I did not cut my hair. It's all still there. It's just that it's pony tail season.)


Goofy smile: check.
Reading glasses crazier than they look in person: check.
Getting old: check (aww crap).



Thanks to a fantastic receipe on Etsy, I've made a truly excellent
new kind of pie crust. You can check out the pastry recipe here.
Here, she's egg'd and sugared, ready to slide into the oven

And...the finished awesomeness that follows
making that pastry receipe. YUM!!
(Mine has apples rather than peaches. I know...totally
out of season, but still so good!)

Art jewelry for sale at Sunrise Soap!

It's been a busy week in the studio as I get new items ready to send out to Sunrise Soap Company, located in York, Pennsylvania, near Central Market. I'd written a blog post about Sunrise last December (you can read it by clicking here), when Michael and I first discovered it. We returned at Easter. It's an amazing little place and actually not so little: it takes up the first floor of one of the neat row homes along Beaver Street. It's filled with handmade soap, scrubs, art, glasswork, earrings, and other amazing finds. Chris Clarke, the owner, also has a kitchen in which she makes soap and conducts soap-making classes. My art jewelry is now for sale there! There are currently two art pins at Sunrise and more pieces are on the way. Just below is a picture of the items headed to Sunrise today, with a few close-up pics.


Eight new items, packaged and ready to go!



"Cat in the Moon" earrings

"Clyde, the Raining Cloud" art pin

"Coffee, Lovely Coffee" earrings

"Ye Olde Outhouse" earrings

"Sweetie Pie" earrings

New Art Pins in the Shop!



Art Pin - "Old Carriage House" (2012)



Art Pin - "Prize-Winning Apple Pie" (2012)

Art Pin - "Key Lime Pie Slice" (2012)

Art Pin - "Coffee, Lovely Coffee" (2012)

New art pins and Dream Chair progress....

Michael and I are sitting in the kitchen listening to the Pirates game. I just took some cupcakes out of the oven, which I will eventually ice with the watermelon-flavored frosting I made this afternoon while it was storming. (Hooray for rain! I've gotten so, so tired of watering the garden every morning).

This week, I've been working on my Reference Short Takes column for this month, but I've also been working on additional art pins, two of which are pictured here: a blackberry lattice top pie slice and a different version of cherry pie than the lattice top I sold back in May.

Art Pin - "Cherry Pie Slice II"



Art Pin - "Lattice Top Blackberry Pie Slice"



The Dream Chair -- upholstery fabric embroidery in progress



Detail: The Dream Chair upholstery



Up next, embroidering fabric and upholstering...

The Dream Chair (rear view)
sealed and top coated (three layers of satin finish)

The Dream Chair (front view)

The Dream Chair, with fabric I will embroider with leaves for
the upholstered seat

New Website!

The New and Improved SavannahSchrollGuz.com

In addition to regular studio work, I've begun the process of revamping my website to reflect my new creative direction. She looks a lot different, no? In addition to navigation tabs above the banner (which I've cropped out of the screen shot here), I've added image blocks, including: illustrations, fabric design, functional art, writing, art jewelry, and paintings. I'm approximately three-quarters of the way completed with the conversion. It will be necessary for me to entirely revise the 'Writing' page so that I might include reviews, fiction, and books. Very likely, there will be some subpages within that segment, so information is soundly and logically organized. More about what's doin' in the studio shortly.
In the meantime, you can check out the new site and watch as it continues to evolve here: http://www.savannahschrollguz.com/