First Items Sold at Easely Amused Consignment!!

You guys!! I got an email from the shop lady at Easely Amused and it's official!! I have sold items and I am out there!! Watch out Austin, here I come!!!!

First Consignment Display - Easely Amused

Last night, I went down to Easely Amused so that I could (finally) get my displays setup to try to sell in Bridget's shop for my consignment deal. I was so nervous that when I got there and started taking my displays and pieces out of my bag, I was shaking and probably talking too fast and even dropped things 3 times!! I was just so nervous about how she would react to my displays along with just the fact that I was finally getting a professional display in a local shop!!

That slowly eased however as each item I pulled out of my bag, whether it was actual merchandise or display, she loved! She ooh'd at my colorful clutches, she aah'd at my jewelry, she wow'd at my clutch display and she 'neat!'d my single necklace displays I painted. 

I'm not sure exactly what I expected, but I was very excited when she seemed to appreciate every little detail I'd been so particular about and had taken the time to do! From the hot glue on the back of the jewelry boards so she didn't poke herself handling them, to the butterflies I punched and used as my price tags, from the printed out inventory sheet we both got a copy of, to the bags I provided for her to put jewelry or clutches that were sold in with a business card in each one already!

Needless to say, I'm very happy I took the time to make it look as nice as I could as I'm sure if she loved it, anyone else who sees it should like how I set it all up too... right??

If anyone's in the Austin, TX area and likes painting or just having a good time with friends, you should totally check out Easely Amused on South Lamar:

Well, you tell me what you think, yeah? :)

Entire display as I left it and what it will stay for at least a week.

Close-up of bracelet and necklace display using painted art canvas flat board on a wooden art display easel.

Clutch display with the handmade display risers and business cards in their little holder.

Close-up of earring display using painted art canvas flat board on a wooden art display easel.

Main row I'd originally planned for with the exception of shelf change altogether.

Close-up of the colors I painted the single necklace displays.

I used a couple of wrought-iron looking single art display easels for these two.

Far left with necklaces, bracelets and 2 single piece displays above.

Middle display with all my clutches in the shop at the time.

Far right with earrings and 2 single piece displays above.

Card design I ended up going with and printed 230 of. I am plenty stocked!

The single displays before I pained the 3 layers of paint on front along with the paper bags with handles for bagging a sold clutch and chevron paper bags for jewelry sales. The flat canvas boards came in a set of 3 for about $8 and the 2 easel stands I got sitting next to them. The paper pack on the far left is what I used to punch my price tags for the jewelry and clutches as opposed to using those little pre-strung tags or using stickers.

What the canvas boards look like without jewelry and hooks covering. I completely forgot until I got there that her lobby furniture is about the yellow I used as the base layer!! I just got 1/4" screw hooks to screw into the board for hanging jewelry and where the screws stuck out the back, I just hot glued over and did a solid layer of green on the back to cover the print they come with.

For the clutch display, I used the basic idea from Senn & Sons:

I used a LOT of hot glue to make sure all the pieces stayed and were as sturdy as I could get them.

I added a lip to the front so hopefully it would keep a clutch (maybe 2?) from just sliding off the 'shelf'.

I added a bracer piece in the back to give it more stability. The only thing I might change would be adding a base so if I used this type of display at an outdoor show, I can put little beanbags in the bottom to keep it from knocking over.

My first attempt at covering didn't quite work out with some gray cotton... You can see the hot glue lines really easily and it looked bad, worse in person than in the picture.

Found some awesome soft fleece material I never used for its intended project and had enough to cover the front...

...cover the sides with adding a little folded flourish for aesthetics...

...and put a panel in the back to cover the hot glue and hide the secret of how I made this!! Also, this would be visible from the window side and I didn't want it to look messy!

 Well, there you have it. My displays and the entire setup!! What do you guys think?! I took so many pictures because I was just so darn excited about having a public setup that I maybe took too many pictures, but hey, gotta document my progress, right?? I wish I could have taken window pictures of how they'll look from the street, but her sign was up and I didn't want to take off too much of the duct tape she was using to keep it on out there. Maybe I can get some pictures next time I show up.

I'm pretty excited about the change of shelving though and the fact that she hasn't found vendors to fill the other shelves. That means I can at least put another couple clutches at the top of my display (the other shelves were only 15" tall and 4 clutches are 16" tall...) along with maybe making more displays for other pieces to put on the 2nd shelf, at least, until she finds other vendors to showcase. I told Bridget that I was looking into making tablet cases and clutches with a detachable wrist strap and a 2nd whole-side pocket so that you could put your phone or bigger items on the other side in the clutches and she seemed as excited as I am, so those may be next on the plan!!

Now I get to take a break tonight for a show bf and I are going to with friends and then I get back to work tomorrow on the last few clutches I cut fabric for last month and start planning what I want to do with the rest of the fabric I've bought since then. I also need to figure out what I want to put up in a friend's dojo who's going to make a shadowbox display box and I get half of it, 18"x36"!! I've also been advised to check out another local store about 15 minutes from my day job's location that does consignment of local vendors to see if I can setup a consignment deal with them too!! I will definitely keep you guys posted though!!

Craft ya laters!

BYOB Paint Classes and First Official Consignment Deal!!

You guys have heard of Groupon, yeah? (If not, it's a service that works with businesses to offer discount buys of services/goods that basically help businesses get noticed or get some easy business to try and retain long-term customers. They provide emails and have deals not just for your city, state but also for vacation trips and more! It's pretty awesome.) Well, my friend got a couple of classes scheduled through Groupon to a BYOB Paint class at a place called Easely Amused here in Austin, TX. If any of you can, I highly suggest making it out to one of their classes sometime. They've only been open for 2 months, but the owner Bridget, is FANTASTIC!! She makes the classes so much fun with little stories, jokes and just her love of what she does!

For these classes, you are allowed to BringYourOwnBeverage (see beer or wine, etc ;) ), you pay the $30-$40 (depending on size) for the art piece you want, and you are provided all the supplies from the canvas to the brushes to the paints. Once the class is over, you get to go home with your very own piece of art that YOU painted. It doesn't matter your skill level when you go, it will turn out however you want it to. The awesome thing is to see the variety that comes out of the same class, with the same instructor and all the different choices people make and ways they paint.

This is pretty much what you start off with: a blank canvas, a plate full of paint colors, water cup for your brushes and whatever brushes deemed necessary by Bridget you'll need for the picture and of course, my choice of beverage for the night was a bottle of Cabernet Savignon.. yummmm!

This is after a few steps of a blue wash on the top 3rd of the canvas, kiwi green on the middle and a darker green on the bottom of the canvas. Then layers of dots from a pumpkin red all over, to a red on the bottom half and a bright orange on the top half.

Here we have Airon deep in thought as she's adding the leaves on her trees.

This is my finished piece, with a few more layers of leaves added on (including some dark reddish brown leaves in the bottom right corner of the foliage) and tree trunks, nice and whispy!!

Airon's showcasing her awesome finished piece! She added the extra white stripes near the trunks in the grassy area and a few holes in the leaves along with adding a pretty cute bird's nest with some robins!!

After the class, I got curious if I could re-create this picture again. Only, I didn't want to do a full-size so I grabbed a 2"x3" miniature canvas from my stock and.....

What do you guys think?? Pretty similar, eh?! Painting in miniature is pretty challenging! I maybe could have added more layers of leaves, but I like the way it looks now!

The next picture we did (we had 2 Groupon sessions) was poppies!! This is the first few steps done:

We did about 5 yellow dots anywhere on the canvas to place our poppies, then made red sort of flower bodies around them. Then we did a light blue wash down the middle and dark blue on the outsides.

Then we did another round of the blue washes to make them darker. This is Airon's (she wanted more than 5 :) :

This one is mine:

The next few steps were to darken and texturize the poppies, add some dark brown and black scribbles in the centers, leaving however much of the yellow we wanted, and then add some lavender and pink to the meeting ground of light and dark blues and added kiwi green stems.

I added a little more texture to the flowers and was done with mine:

Airon added a few more details and stems and such to hers and here is her final piece!!:

All in all, I'd say these classes, if you have a studio near you, are a MUST!!!! If you happen to be in the Austin, TX area, you can find Easely Amused here. You can also take a look through the picture gallery to see the variance of these pieces people have painted!

 It was such an awesome experience, both times and even though it was the same studio and same instructor, the experiences were still different!! It's also pretty awesome to see all the variations on final pieces with the same instructions!!

Now to the more exciting part!!

I showed Bridget about 10-12 pieces of my jewelry and the pink and brown flowered gathered clutch I showed you guys the other day.... SHE LOVED IT ALL!!! She's giving me a whole shelf on a bookshelf that is in her lobby with the backside facing a full wall WINDOW to the outside/street!! I am so excited about this opportunity for consignment and look forward to working with Bridget on this first time endeavor for my business and hobby!!

Now I just have to price everything, make more clutches, figure out displays, layout on the shelf, etc.....

SO EXCITED!!!! I can't wait to setup my shelf and don't worry, I will definitely show you guys what I come up with!

Craft ya laters!!