Handmade Top 10 Team Challenge

Handmadeology is currently running a contest on their Handmade top 10 site.  It is open to all Etsy Teams and the Etsy Mud Team has entered with currently 168 pieces and 35,610 votes as of right now!


This is the advertising that is up for grabs for the winning team.

1. The winning Etsy Team will get Handmadeology’s largest advertising package.

This will include:

* 3 month 250X250 ad space right on every page of the blog
* 1 spotlight feature article that will go out to our 150k+ readers per month
* 10 Twitter blasts across our entire network (50 total)
* 10 Facebook shares on our network of fan pages (30 total)
* Backlink Building Package (exclusive to top Handmadeology sponsors)

2. The winning Etsy Team will get special access to our top selling social media bundle in our Etsy shop. This bundle sells for $24 and every team member will be able to pick it up for only $5.

So please visit the Etsy Mud Team list and vote for your favorite pieces! And don't forget to share it around!

Lovely June Treasury on Etsy

'O C E A N' by marbled

Specimen Crystal Stacke... elseetee2 $55.00	GreenWitch Natural Perf... IlluminatedPer... $8.00
Teal Green Swirled Lamp... GlitzGlitter $39.00	A New Day. early winter... zuppaartista $32.00
Aqua Green Recycled Gla... madebymoe $28.00	Oceans Melody Rose Ring... lizhutnick $13.50
GeNESiS original abstra... linneaheide $300.00	FisH Named RoXi ... Gir... buttuglee $45.00
leaning tree - 8x10 fin... LaloveBenedict $24.00	la mer appelle.....An E... DragonflyCove $10.00
NYS Fossil - Eurypterus... lesperancetile $18.00	JELLYFISH Tshirt Vintag... nonfictiontees $20.00
Gaialai-Lampwork - Ocea... gaialai $22.00	The Little Mermaid Neck... roomofyourown $29.00
Grassy Field. Hand Embr... merriweatherco... $45.00	Mare...Turquoise blue a... Textilemonster $16.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Delta Blues Night at Saratoga Arts

Last night Don and I enjoyed a full evening of Blues as part of the SaratogaArtFest 2011. It was a very rainy evening, but there were still a lot of people on Broadway in Saratoga with their ArtsPass present!

First off was the film "Delta Rising" - here's a trailer of it. If you get a chance to see it - you should - I highly recommend it!



After the film director Laura Bernieri talked a bit about making the film. She just won the Director's award from the Beverly Hills Film Festival. Then there were boxed dinners from Saratoga's famous Hattie's Restaurant, which were delicious - fried chicken, coleslaw and biscuits...what could be better than that?

Next up was a concert by Saratoga's "Street Corner Holler", with much foot tapping, and chair dancing! Here's a sample of their sound, with the song "Kokomo Blues". Enjoy!!



Well, it's onto the glaze color for next year's ArtsPass!!

SaratogaArtsFest!!

The annual SaratogaArtsFest is in full swing today and no amount of rain showers can dampen it's spirit!! Last night's performance by Triple Play was amazing, made doubly so with appearances by Chris Brubeck's dad, Dave, and Joel Brown's father, jazz clarinetist Frank Brown. This was my first visit to the Arthur Zankel Music Center at Skidmore College, completed 18 months ago....why has it taken me so long to get over there???

We've made the ArtsPass since it's inception 5 years ago, and this year I was really pleased to see so many people in one place wearing our creation. This year's color is turquoise, or as Pantone has labeled it "Lagoon".

Ken, Nan, Me, Sara, and Dave proudly displaying this year's ARTSPASS.

Close-up of the ARTSPASS -
designed by Christianne Smith of DesignsmithStudio
beads and silk cord from Linda Schrade's Saratoga Beads

Tonight we're headed off to

Delta Blues Night at Saratoga Arts

6:00 p.m.: Delta Rising (film screening)

Delta Rising is a fascinating film that documents the history of the blues, and more specifically, the birthplace of the blues, Clarksdale, Mississippi. With its abundance of blues clubs and museums, Clarksdale makes a legitimate claim for being the birthplace of the blues, a claim that is supported by the testimony of blues heavyweights. Featuring new interviews with, and performance footage of Morgan Freeman, Willie Nelson, Pinetop Perkins, Charlie Musselwhite, Mose Allison, Ruby Wilson and others.

7:25 p.m.: Dinner is Served!
Enjoy a box dinner of Hattie's Southern fried chicken (two pieces), cranberry cole slaw, and a biscuit with your Delta Blues!

7:45 p.m.: Delta Blues from Street Corner Holler (concert)
Street Corner Holler are traditionalists, but you won't find an academic bone in their bodies. With its raw, fearless, righteous mix of swamp boogie, buzzsaw blues and delta stomp, the street-corner sound of Mark Tolstrup and Dale Haskell has been honed to grab the audience as they try to stroll by. It's all achingly beautiful and haunting, music played with such honesty and abandon that you want to stay up til dawn.

9:15 p.m.: Open Blues Jam led by Saratoga Acoustic Blues Society
Bring your guitar or harmonica and stay after the concert for a round-robin jam session with Saratoga's own Acoustic Blues Society.

I'll let you know how much we enjoyed it tomorrow!!

But for now I'll leave you with a little of what we heard last night at the Triple Play concert - so good!!

Night Swimming

Synchronicity is a wonderful thing and I pay a lot of attention to those events that make strange and interesting connections. Our son Harry has excellent taste in music - I say so becasue I really like his choices for the mixed CDs that he makes for us. A recent gifted group of songs included REM's "Nightswimming", and somehow that song snuck unnoticed from my radar when it was released in 1993. Now it is stuck in my head, in a very good way. So today, when Etsy sent an e-mail loaded with treasuries with the theme "night swimming", I knew I just had to post a link to this great performance by REM along with one of the treasuries.

I hope you enjoy them!

'night swimming' by blackbirdtees

Fathoms - 8x8 photo ErinTyner $35.00	Oil Slick - Handmade Ir... JarosDesigns $
Sparkling Galaxy Druzy ... HouseThatCrowB... $75.00	Ghostfish fine art prin... studiomme $12.00
Smile -photo art earing... Raceytay $14.00	Cross bather minn0wbathers $135.00
Pine and cherry tree un... WinchesterLamb... $5.00	Polaroid Clock - How to... jerseymaids $55.00
Claylight Pendant - 5.5... lightexture $175.00	Peaceful Clarity Print StudioZen $20.00
EMBROIDERY HOOP ART Scr... sweetharvey $12.00	My delusions - Signed p... movezerb $19.00
aelalabbe $	The Stars Look Down Moxiedoll $110.00
Cosmic Tortilla 04 - Ne... LeiliDesign $45.00	black & white shore pos... treefox $50.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Thunderstorm!

I do love storms - blizzards in the winter and thunderstorms in the summer. When I was a kid, my brother Chuck, our best friend Tom, and I would wait for the storm clouds to gather. Then we would set up cardboard boxes, grab umbrellas, and sit out in our backyard with the storm on top of us, feet drenched and shoulders hunched for protection. My Mom would yell out the back window for us to get inside, but we never could hear her......until after the best of the storm had passed.

I admit that we were very lucky and that it could easily have been a case of natural selection in action. But we're still here and I do love to stand with the door open watching the storm approach. Yesterday's storm approached quickly and ran away just as fast.

Take a peek and enjoy!

I don't know what it is....but it glows in the dark!!

The other evening Don was mowing the lawn and somehow it got dark outside!? A tiny glowing dot caught his eye and, of course, he had to share it with me. I do love things that glow in the dark. I always have. When I was in 2nd grade I received a glow in the dark statue of the Madonna for being able to recite "The Lords Prayer" in Church School. In my personal search for that transcendental experience of being submersed in the glow of my Madonna figurine, I decided that leaving it on top of my bedroom lamp with the light bulb on, full glow saturation would be achieved. Sadly, that wasn't what happened, and the smell of melting plastic was impossible to clear from the house that night. Back to the bug.

I tried very hard to steady my hand to take a photo. Hand held wasn't the way to go, I know, but I was way too lazy to set up the tripod. So what looks like a full worm glowing is really just the tip of the insect reinterpreted with a shaky, long exposure. I do love that color!

And here's the little bugger the next day in the sunlight. Very cool, I think. I love the salmon pink color and shrimp-like appearance. A great color combination with it's neon green glow at night.

Here's a photo I found on the web - I think it's the same bug, but his one is a little more developed. My guess is that it's a glow worm. Anyone?

New Work - Ornament Tiles!

I finally decided to experiment with an idea that I scribbled in my notebook at least 6 months ago - combining my decorative 4x4" tiles and my ornament tiles together by pressing the smaller mould into the larger tile. My very first pressings came out of the kiln a few weeks ago. I was able to sneak them into a production kiln, and I was so happy with the results that I've decided every kiln should have at least one experimental piece included!

Production kiln with 3x3" field in green and "Celtic Circles" in blue.

Two new "Ornament Tiles" on the bottom level of the tile crank.

"Celtic Circle" 4x4" decorative tile for a kitchen backsplash.

"Apple Blossoms with Sunflower" and "Twain Coral with Frog Drummer"

"Twain Coral with Frog Drummer"

I'll take photos of the process to show you how I make them in the next few days. You can find them for sale now, in my Etsy shop!