2013 Crafty Chicks Show & Sale

Hello. I thought you might enjoy seeing some photos from last Saturday's Crafty Chicks Show & Sale. There were a wide variety of talented artists on hand and lots of great ideas for Christmas shoppers. It was a fun, festive day and I enjoyed meeting everyone and seeing their work.

Here are just a few of the artists at the show. Click on each photo to visit the artists' website or shop (if available), and do some Christmas shopping yourself. Enjoy. :)

Amy Estelle Metalworks (me) and my handmade sterling silver and gemstone jewelry

Amy Estelle Metalworks

Amy Estelle Metalworks

Cheryl Izzo and Gretchen Finch are two of the original chicks and organizers of the show. Cheryl creates elegant 'Letter' painted canvases, one of a kind frames, vintage button collages and journals. Gretchen makes beautiful vintage button inspired creations—button collages, sterling silver button bookmarks, and button bracelets.

Gretchen Finch

Cheryl Izzo

Cheryl Holtman, of Holtman Haus Studios, makes bright, modern, functional pottery
as well as raku fired decorative pieces

Cheryl Holtman, of Holtman Haus Studios

Michelle Darter, of Hue & I Design, creates one-of-a-kind lampshade artwork

Clara Porter, of Clara's Paperclip Jewelry, makes fun, fashionable jewelry from paperclips and beads

Karen Kawallek, of Lake Providence Lodge, custom blends her own amazing scented wax melts

Karen Kawallek, of Lake Providence Lodge

Cheryl Jaeger sews fun, colorful gifts—including patchwork clutches, doll quilts and writing kits

Cheryl Jaeger

Amy Cecil, of Apple Scraps, makes hand-soldered pendants with a fun, earthy vibe
from natural and recycled materials

Amy Cecil, of Apple Scraps

Karla Taylor makes beautifully charming 2D & 3D needle felting work

Flora Chang offers a wide variety of handmade wares, all incorporating her sweet, imaginative style

Flora Chang

Tag Team Tompkins is a mother/daughter collaborative, making art that honors literary wit and wisdom, including letterpress prints and original mixed media art

Tag Team Tompkins

Daniel Shanks, of Shankalonian Labs, upcycles old computers and dead electronic equipment into amazing sculptures and creations

Daniel Shanks, of Shankalonian Labs

Daniel Shanks, of Shankalonian Labs

Lorraine Elmore creates Christmas decorations made of paper and decoupaged glass
with a lovely Parisian feel. Kim Mallory makes charming paper mache shoes with a vintage touch. 

Lorraine Elmore

Kim Mallory

Julie Reed creates beautiful, unique crocheted items, such as scarves and felted, embellished brooches

Julie Reed

Thank you so much for visiting. Happy shopping everyone!

Amy Estelle

Save the Date—November 30th!

The 14th Annual Crafty Chicks Show and Sale is coming up soon—Saturday, Nov. 30!  Make sure to mark your calendars and plan on attending if you can. It's a great place to get some holiday shopping done!  

This will be my first year as a Crafty Chick. I'm looking forward to seeing all of the wonderful handmade work and getting to meet all the makers too! I hope to see you there! :)

Thanks for visiting!

Amy Estelle

New Shop Listings

Just a quick post to let you see my latest shop listings, in case you missed them on Facebook. I've had fun making some new earrings designs for the holidays, and plan to add more to my shop soon. And a recent trip to the Gem & Mineral show has really got my head spinning with new design ideas, so check back soon for more new items!

 Thank you for visiting.

Amy Estelle

2013 Hallmarket Art Fair

Hello. This blog post is way over-due. I thought you all might like to see some photos from the recent 2013 Hallmarket Art Fair. There were over 100 Hallmark artists displaying and selling their personal artwork to the public. You could find everything from ceramics, paintings, fiber art, woodwork, photography, and of course jewelry of all kinds. And despite raining most of the day, we actually had a decent turn out and even a few sales. :)

My booth display.

My booth display.

My booth display -- some simple, little necklaces. 

My booth display.

Some folks braved the rain. :)

The rain finally stopped for good around 3:00 pm. Then, we had a few sales. YAY! :)

Thanks for visiting!

Amy Estelle

The Artists Synchroblog (August)

The Artists Synchroblog (August) – The Artists Synchroblog is a group of bloggers who post every other month on the same topic, sharing our experience or perspective. On alternate months we undertake a Pinterest Project where we each take inspiration from a pinterest picture, create something (art, a meal, a DIY project, etc) and then post about it.

Hello peeps! This month it's time for another Synchroblog "Pinterest Project." I think you'll find this one very useful yourself. It's an "Etsy Treasury Posting Tool" I found on Pinterest by Stylish Home. This cool tool allows you to easily display your Etsy treasuries on your blog or website. You can promote your etsy team members by creating and featuring their work in a treasury, and then showcasing it on your blog. You can express your personal style by putting together treasury groupings by color, theme or topic, and then sharing them via your blog. And you can easily exhibit any treasuries that other people have featured your work in. Below is a screenshot of the post I found on Pinterest.

One of the awesome features of this tool, is that when you share a treasury on your blog, all of the treasury items have active links back to their original stores! This is great news for everyone involved, because MORE links = MORE traffic! And who couldn't use more traffic to their shops!?

Another thing I like about this tool is that it gives you three layout choices. 1) Traditional -- gives you the standard Etsy treasury look, with the item title, shop name and price displayed. 2) Images-Only -- gives you a "cleaner" look without displaying the titles and shop names below the items, but instead shows the info upon hover-over / roll-over. 3) Tiled-Image -- might be my favorite look. It gives a more stylized look, featuring all items grouped together in a tight artsy collage. And, as with all of the layouts, all links are built-in and link back to the artist's shop. Very cool!

Stylish Home's instructions are clear and easy to follow. You just copy/paste part of your treasury's url into the Stylish Home tool, choose your display format, image size, how many columns you want, and hit "submit." The tool automatically generates the HTML markup that you need. Just copy/paste the HTML into your blog's HTML editor, and BOOM, you're done! Below is my first attempt at using the tool, on a treasury I created yesterday for my "Amy in The Arts" team! Just click on each image to visit each artist's shop!


'Amys in The Arts' by AmyEstelleMetalworks

A collection of my fellow Amys in The Arts teamies! Go Amys!

Treasury tool by StylishHome.

A big thanks to Stylish Home for their awesome Etsy Treasury Posting Tool! I hope you find this tool as useful as I do and that you get much enjoyment from it!

Now, take a few minutes and check out the other Synchroblogger's "Pinterest Projects" at the below links. That's what I'm about to do myself! :)

Enjoy!
Amy Estelle

http://www.islandgirlsinsights.blogspot.ca/

http://www.wrapturewirejewellery.on.ca/blog

www.elenorbuffington.blogspot.com

http://doxallodesigns.blogspot.com

http://lesliervillarreal.blogspot.com

http://www.journeyinjewelry.com/blog/My-Journey-in-Jewelry

http://simpledesignjewelry.blogspot.com

http://designsbylynnea.blogspot.com/

http://marikach.blogspot.com/

www.createrecklessly.com

http://design.kcjewelbox.com

www.allwiredupjewelrydesigns.blogspot.com

http://shaktipajdesigns.com/blog/

http://silversmithblog.com/

http://stonezjewelry.com/blog/

www.beadsbythebay.blogspot.com

MORNING BIRD vs NIGHT OWL

The Artists Synchroblog (July) – The Artists Synchroblog is a group of bloggers who post every other month on the same topic, sharing our experience or perspective. On alternate months we undertake a Pinterest Project where we each take inspiration from a pinterest picture, create something (art, a meal, a DIY project, etc) and then post about it.


Hello all. I can't believe it's already July, and time for another Synchroblog entry. July's Synchroblog topic is "Are you a morning bird or a night owl?" We can discuss when we think we are most productive, most creative, and/or what a typical day looks like.

I really had to give this question some thought. Since I work a busy full-time job by day, I basically have to be somewhat of a morning person -- or at least learn to be a morning person Monday through Friday. Up early, and out the door to my day-job as a Web Production Designer. Fast forward to the evening, after a busy day, and I'm pretty pooped. I enjoy unwinding at home with my Hubby -- dinner, tv and some surfing online. The evening is also a good time for me to check on my shop, my business & personal social media, and maybe catch up with some metal peeps. Oh, and fill the occasional order too. :)

Now, bring on the weekend! My favorite time! I always feel most free on Friday night, with the whole weekend ahead of me. That's when I start to feel creative and full of ideas. I start thinking about all I want to do over the weekend. (Whether I accomplish all I want to is another thing entirely, but I enjoy thinking of what all I could do.) The weekend is always best for bench-time. That's when I work on new pieces, photograph new work and update my shop. As for morning vs night, I think it's more of a question of weekday vs weekend for me. I am most creative when I feel relaxed and free from a schedule -- when I can do what I want to do. :)

How about you? When are you most creative? Check out the following links to see when the other Synchrobloggers feel most creative and inspired.

As always, thanks for visiting!
Amy Estelle

http://amyestellemetalworks.blogspot.com

http://www.islandgirlsinsights.blogspot.ca/

http://www.wrapturewirejewellery.on.ca/blog

www.elenorbuffington.blogspot.com

http://doxallodesigns.blogspot.com

http://lesliervillarreal.blogspot.com

http://www.journeyinjewelry.com/blog/My-Journey-in-Jewelry

http://simpledesignjewelry.blogspot.com

http://designsbylynnea.blogspot.com/

http://marikach.blogspot.com/

www.createrecklessly.com

http://design.kcjewelbox.com

www.allwiredupjewelrydesigns.blogspot.com

http://shaktipajdesigns.com/blog/

http://silversmithblog.com/

http://stonezjewelry.com/blog/

www.beadsbythebay.blogspot.com