Walking tour of Bungay

   

      It's been a very lazy day. Spending most of the day finding the wifi password at my mum-in-law's place and catching up with the rest of the world as well as waiting for the rain to end. We ventured out to find some good photo shots and perhaps a pint or two. We shot first then found a good pub to drink and edit our photos. Got to love snapseed and modern technology for letting us do this at our finger tips. Here it is, our photo tour of Bungay on a late rainy afternoon. 

Happy Holidays from the UK

We arrived after a red-eyed flight on British Air, to a cloudy Chritmas Eve in London. Just enough time to do a little more Chritmas shopping before taking the train to Diss from Liverpool station. My mum-in-law lives in Ditchenham,  just a stone's throw away from Bungay. We spent most of Chritmas with family drinking plenty of champagne and mulled wine, and ate amazing food untill we screamed Uncle. We had A nice walk through the mud and an afternoon attempting to solve some tricky 3D wooden puzzles. 

     Today begins our third day of resting, eating and walking through this beautiful countryside and drinking in pubs. 

Tomorrow we travel to Norwich for my first Norwich Canary game in real life! Followed by a stay in Norwich until we pick up our car to travel to Chippenham. Will post more as our travels continue. Hoping everyone had a pleasant Xmas and time with their love ones . cheers! 

Thanks for The Best Season Ever!

Happy is the crafter who gets to watch her handmade items go into the happy hands of the faithful customers! Happy is the maker who gets to see her clients multiply each year!  Happy is the anxious salesperson seeing people remembering her products and wanting to buy more! I was the happy one this year. This holiday season I had tons of complements and very good sales beginning with two Clover  Markets along with a fall Art Star craft bazaar in a very special race car museum. 

The holiday season started off with "All Craft Considered" in the NPR building in Washington,DC. which was an amazing start! Then "Bazaart" at the American Visionary Museum and lastly "Holiday Heap" Charm City's Craft Mafia which had early bird tickets for the first hour. That first hour almost sold me out! 

An incredible season thanks to my incredible fans!! Thanks Again! I'm going to take a couple of weeks off to visit Family in England for the Holidays! Will post pictures when I get there! 

Latest Bird Portraits ....my latest favorites

Perhaps the effects of teaching high school kids all day  before going to my sweatshop during the week, invade my psyche and produce a certain flair when I draw my birds. I was very thrille with the attention these got during my recent holiday shows, with many comments about the personalities each bird had. I am not that conscience of the personality when I make them, except when I choose which bird I want to draw. Which bird photo speaks to me at that moment, the look on their face, their stance, their attitude that I am drawn to at the time. I draw the contour of the bird portrait with a fabric marker that disappears when I wash it out with warm water . And then I put my machine on this free stitch mode and precede sewing...drawing with my machine. I mainly follow the contour of the bird to get the proportions and specific details as accurate as I can. I add the shading as I sew , loving the quality of the sewn line.  I have always loved following the line! I used to use an overhead projector when I painted. Projected wallpaper patterns and drawings that I had created or appropriate. There is a meditative calmness that happens and my mind is allowed to wonder when I'm tracing , which I pretty much what I am doing.  The additional shading and details are allowed to happen with confidence.  Here are some of my latest pictured here. These are 3" and 4" hoop drawings. Some are listed in my shop. I love doing custom portraits of your favorite birds as well. Give a convo in my shop if interested. My shop is here.

New Totes

This was an amazing year in the jennyjen land with new products, new wholesale accounts , another year of being a Finalist in the Martha Stewart American Made Contest, and the best holiday season EVER! I'm so in love with the line quality of my sewing machine and my confidence of drawing with it has me smiling more than ever as I hover over my machine. I finally figured out what to do with those curtains I had from living in the CopyCat Building with my new up cycle totes. Here's a little preview on my new little loves: 

Messenger Bags upgrade

 

 

My newest version of my messenger bags have freehand machine stitched birds instead of the felt appliqué birds, for durability and a no pull effect. I love seeing my products out there in the world, but cringe every time I see a bird bird covered in pulled felt. The freehand birds are appliqué on and then sewn around the edges for extra strength. Closures are now all stainless magnets, saying good-bye to Velcro! All straps are adjustable with stainless steel hardware. A zipper pocket, and numerous accessory pockets fill the interior.  These guys are on sale for $125.00 in my Etsy shop!

 

                             

How I draw with my machine!

Check this out!!!! Thanks to my awesome buddy and Photo guru Ryan Twentey for filming and editing this video teaser for me!

A word or two from the sweatshop

Hiya from the sweatshop! I know, I know, I need to get this blog posting, web page making a happening thing! I have updated my technology with a new iMac and iPhone 6 hoping to up the quality and efficiency of my posts, photos in a hopefully consistent pattern. I am in my 28th year of teaching! Can't believe that one and my business of making has been growing and making some very good steps towards doing it full time! I am still hanging on to my teaching gig, not just for the benefits and pensions, but yeah, for the love of teaching art! Now that I am quickly approaching my last years, I am teaching at the top of my game and truly loving the act of teaching the way I want and seeing the benefits of showing up to work with a smile on my face. 

 Sweatshop talk: I bought a sweet 1950's era Singer Industrial Sewing Machine that I absolutely love the look of and am intimidated as heck to use it. I need to get some stronger industrial thread and go at it once my holiday making is over. 

The past month has afforded my three new wholesale accounts, the most sales of any holiday shows I have done and a some new products that I really am proud of ( and have been selling like hotcakes!). Putting the felt appliqué on the back burning and embracing the freehand machine stitched method of drawing with my sewing machine. My bird portraits have come to life and are filling up my sketchbook with so many ideas.  I am planning on posting my new products and my latest loves! Thanks for sticking by me and coming back to visit here every once in a while!