Chain Mail Earrings

As promised, here's a picture of the "chain mail" earrings I gave to my mom for Mother's Day...

They were made by Lolly Pitts of "The Lolly Shoppe". I got them at Moonflower (of course!).

Miscellanious Moonflower

If you are into buying handmade and buying local, please go visit Moonflower Handcrafted Gallery at 330 West Commercial Street, East Rochester, NY (Across from the PianoWorks Mall).

Support your local artisans!

My monsters now have their own suitcase display! The shop owner rearranges the store every once in awhile, and I like what she did with my monsters recently. Definitely loving the suitcase.

I went to Moonflower last week for their the Mother's Day event to drop off and swap out some monsters (as well as buy my mom some chain mail earrings for Mother's Day...I'll try to remember to take a picture of them sometime so I can show you what they look like). It was a little slow at first, and there were not a lot of people there besides the shop owners and a couple of the artisans. But once we got out the "art table" and started painting, people miraculously started to show up! I think it helps for people coming into the shop to see artists creating...it makes them want to support those artists by buying something! (I did sell one of my recycled denim Earth Day Nubbins that night).

I took some pictures of some of the other artisans' work while I was there. I love how one artist does paintings on "junk". This painting is done on a ceiling fan blade. You can find her Etsy shop here.

I like the applique` on this shirt. I took this picture as a reference for making one for myself. I'd buy this one, but it's not in my size.

I love this crazy, big-eyed, snail!

And this cute...owl?...or cat? I'm not really sure what it is, but it's cute!

The woman who does the applique` kids' clothes has her Etsy shop here (although it is empty as of now).

Sweater Monster Parade!

Here come the sweater monsters! It must be the winter weather making me want to make cuddley, huggable monsters out of old sweaters.

This huggable guy went home last week with Becky, a fellow artist/vendor at the Spot art show. She showed me tonight that she has a picture of her hugging him for her MySpace profile picture! How sweet! He was definitely one of my favorites and was hard to part with. But I'm glad he's making someone so happy!

This monster is from the arm of the sweater the previous monster was made of. I just made her today.

I made this zipper-mouthed monster yesterday. He's the first monster I've done this with! The zipper goes to a little pocket on his front.

These two lover monsters (Valeria & Viktor Valentine) are at Moonflower. I made them yesterday.

This monster came from the same sweater as the above two. (thanks for the contribution Mom!) I finished up this one today at the show.

Moonflower Opening Night

I went to Moonflower Handcrafted Gallery's Grand Opening tonight. Mom came with me. I was glad to see that a LOT of people showed up...to the point that it was kind of hard to get around the shop! There was a lot of nice stuff there...jewelry, art, candles, dog collars, etc. Mom bought a piney scented soy candle (called Ozark Mountian) and a felted Christmas tree brooch.
Here are my monsters...

I saw a lot of different people picking them up and looking at them, but they were all still there by the time Mom and I left. No biggie. I didn't expect them to sell right away.

I gave Brandi, the shop owner, one of my new sock monsters as a kind of "thank you"/"congratulations" gift. She told me that her friends are already threatening to steal it from her!

I'm also donating one of my newest sweater monsters to a toy drive my husband's office is participating in...the "Pirate Toy Fund". This guy is rather robot-y looking isn't he? I think it's the straight lines and how I didn't add a mouth. That first set of horizontal lines imply a mouth.
But he's a robot with a heart! I hope he makes some kid really happy.

Moonflower Handcrafted Gallery

I recently received a consignment offer via Etsy Conversations from Brandi of Moonflower Handcrafted Gallery. I went over there today and...it's official! I am now officially selling my monsters in a real live shop!

There was another girl named Carla at the shop tonight helping Brandi set up things. She does cute applique on recycled sweaters and turns them into adorable hats, shirts and other sweet things to dress your wee ones in. Here is a blog I found of another fellow crafter who is also selling her wares at the shop.

The grand opening will be on Thursday, December 4th. 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm. Come and show us some love!

Moonflower Handcrafted Gallery

330 West Commercial Street

East Rochester, NY

My sweater monsters are just one of the things I've contributed. I'll probably contribute more after the craft show this weekend.