Ginny's Small Studio

Competition

Disclaimer: The following is my opinion and may or may not reflect legal guidelines:

There has been quite a bit of talk lately on FaceBook about copying artist work and about competing among artists and "want-to-be" artists. Copying to learn a technique is what goes on in a class. It has been a tradition amongst artists for centuries. Visit any large museum and you are likely to come across a class copying the masters in order to learn to see and to do. It is one way to learn.

The project you do in some workshops is definitely the design of the instructor. To copy this design and sell it as your own is wrong. To teach the exact class is also wrong. The right thing to do is to use what you learn as a springboard for your own original work. To do otherwise is, I believe, plagiarism and puts you in competition with the very person who was kind enough to share ideas with you. If you have taught classes yourself, you know that there is a great deal of thought, creativity, planning and trial and error that goes into the creation of a class. If you have created an art piece, you know how difficult it is to come up with something original. It takes knowledge, skill, imagination, hard work, time and material. If the original artist sells his/her work and you sell your copy, you are belittling and cutting into the profit of the artist who perhaps makes their living with their art. This is how I feel about it. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Speaking of competition, my peonies in my yard are competing for space. The flower heads are easily 10" across when they are open. Peonies are so beautiful.

We have been collecting vintage cameras and we have a bunch of them for you in the store. We have both box cameras and bellows cameras. Come have a look.

Show of Hands

Let's have a show of hands.

How many people are ready for Fall? I am looking forward to a chill in the air, the smell of a fire in the fireplace, a pot of soup and cozy sweaters.

How many people are ready for the elections to be over? I have nothing more to say about this.

How many people are signed up for Keith Lobue's workshops next month here at Small Studio? Don't miss this last workshop of the 2012 Workshop Series season. Keith is an awesome person, artist and instructor.

How many of you are signed up for our Zentangle class tomorrow with Launie? This is the first in a series of Zentangle classes here at Small Studio.

How many people are stopping by Small Studio today to get one of these cool hands that John just found at last week's antique swap meets?

Small Studio at Jefferson Square 26113 Detroit Road Westlake OH

ArtSeen in Vermillon

Sunday, my friend Candace kidnapped me and took me to this wonderful, intimate gallery in Vermillon OH. It is owned by Sherry Bradshaw and her husband, Warren. We went to see an exhibit by Jennifer Whitten who is a mutual friend of ours. Jennifer used to teach for me at Art Continuum several years ago. She is a wonderful person and a fabulous artist. I was allowed to take some photographs. Feast your eyes.

I would call Jennifer's work "Mixed Media Beading". I am not sure what she calls it, but it is so interesting.

A close up of the above work:

The bonus of the afternoon was talking to owner Sherry Bradshaw. Sherry is a petite artist with giant ideas. She casts birds and bones and whatever else catches her eye.

Here is Sherry explaining her work to a visitor.

Her installation is an amazing work which encompasses the entire end wall of the gallery. All the birds and other creatures are cast as well as the bones mixed in with the driftwood.

Local readers, be sure to stop by the gallery and see the work of Jennifer and Sherry.

Antique Swap Meet

We took a day off and went to a swap meet that was mostly antiques and vintage stuff. We have gone to this one before and have always enjoyed ourselves and found a few treasures along the way.

This time the organizers did a lot of advertising that they were adding a vintage market section. We were disappointed to find many booths that had painted junk either white or Martha Stewart blue and called it "antique'. There were many jewelry booths selling bingo charms that had not been enhanced or altered in any way other than having a hole drilled for a chain. We were hoping for more creative repurposing and upscaling like the shelves below made with antique ceiling tiles. This was a great booth filled with interesting re-made goods.

We had a great time though traipsing through the fields of booths, bargaining for a few treasures and treating ourselves to some of the fair food (great strawberry shake). John had egg rolls and cherry pie and lasted longer than I did. We walked around for almost 7 hours!

We saw some unusual things too. I am not sure what this model was made for or where one would display it. It was about the size of a card table, maybe larger.

It was a beautiful day and we were happy to be out and about.

Red & White China

You know how sometimes you get totally wrapped up in one look or one thing? That has happened to me with red and white dishes.

I have always been drawn to things red. We have red walls in our family room. Our bedroom and dining room are both red and white with a bit of pale green thrown in for good measure. But currently it is red and white china.

It is easy to find pictures online, but more difficult to find in person or to purchase.

I own red plates and I own white plates, but red and white, I have only a few.

I particularly like to layer my plates and patterns. Green looks great and so does black layered mats or chargers with red. Plates have always been a weakness of mine. It is what I bring home from trips as "souvenirs".

What are you hooked on?

Black and White

Silhouettes have always been around but it seems they are making a big comeback. I see different versions of silhouettes in gift catalogs all the time lately. When my kids were little and we lived in CA, the place to get silhouettes done was Disneyland. There was a "street" artist who would cut a quick profile and slap it on a card while you waited. Today, Debby Glick stopped in while traveling from Ann Arbor to her home in Pittsburgh. She shared a project she made using a silhouette made of her as a child.

Recently Debby and her husband were in Paris (lucky them!) and she had a silhouette made of herself. This small book is the result.

Thanks, Debby! I love show and tell in the store.

I also had a fun visit from Kelly and Kathy, owners of Spirit of Clay, a paint your own pottery shop in Mayfield Village OH, where they make cool stuff like this:

You two are a hoot!

We need a bit of white to round off this post. Here are two photos that I just love of white decorating. I need a tray that says "room service". Don't you?

And the cubbies below with a chair where one can just sit and gaze at those cubbies. Perfection.

Magazines

My name is Ginny and I love beautiful magazines.

Jeanne d'Arc Living is one of those lovely magazines that does such a great job of the pale color decorating that I admire so much. We now carry this magazine in the store! It is $13.95. Come on in and get your copy.

Also new today:

Authentic 1900s Dutch newspapers would look great as a decor item or rip them up for collage projects.

In keeping with the whole white decorting theme of this particular blog entry, we offer these creamy, dreamy little jars. They are about 5" tall and would make nice pencil jars or vases or look good on a shelf.

As much as I love to look at the basically cream colored rooms, I always opt for the deep colored walls and splashes of red here and there. What do you like?

Oh My!

If you have been reading my blog for awhile and if you were a shopper on my etsy shop, then you know how much I love the old red London double decker destination signs.  We now sell them in the store and they have been selling pretty well, as well as anything in the short four weeks we have been open. 

See where it says "Bricklayers Arms" and "Noah's Ark"? I just read that those are the names of pubs.  Since pubs in England seem to stay in business for 100 years and are located often on corners, the busses use the names of pubs for many of the stops. I love knowing that.

And....Look what my clever husband John did today:

He did a wonderful job of adding a few of the destinations to a dresser. It is for sale in our shop.

Maybe it won't sell.  I know a perfect place in our house for it to live.

Here it is March already. So what are we doing in March at the store?  Well on Saturday March 10th from 10:30-12:30 we are having a Mail Art Morning.  Come play, decorate envelopes, amuse our postal workers and maybe help out the PO a bit. This will be free, yes, free.  I will have all the supplies needed such as stencils, stamps, ink, markers, envelopes, paper scraps, glue sticks, scissors. You just bring yourself and a friend if you like. We have plenty of room. RSVP at 440-808-8599 just so I know how many to prepare for.

Then on March 31st, Candace Rich will be teaching "Mixing it Up: Making Cloth Paper".  This is a great technique class from 1-4 ($35 per student).  You will learn how to combine and layer to create a beautiful and strong material that can be used to cover books, add to collage and can be sewn.  Full details are on our website. Just click on "Store Classes". While you are there check out the Workshop Series too.  We have awesome teachers coming just for you. We will host all your favorite retreat instructors without all the pressure of a retreat. We have Leighanna Light, Michael DeMeng, Andrea Matus, Carol Owen, Teesha and Tracy Moore, Pam Sussman and Keith Lobue. Sign up now for one or all.  Registration is ongoing throughout the year until classes are sold out.

A Little Road Trip

It has been lovely weather here all week and John and I have been gone almost every day, antiquing and driving and just enjoying the last days of warmish weather. Today we went up to Ann Arbor MI to visit one of my favorite stores, Found, in the Kerrytown shops.  This is an awesome store.  The owner has a keen eye for old things, new things, quirky things and especially for display.

The store was all decked out for Christmas and shoppers were snapping up the items as soon as they laid eyes on them.

The owner always has some interesting art items on display and for sale.

I couldn't resist some canvas placemates that say "SIT. EAT" and little hand appliqued stockings that they had displayed with silverware tucked inside. I love the twill "Believe" ribbon, too.

Visit Found soon.

Falling...

While the West Coast has sun and the East coast has snow (!!!) today, we are enjoying the last days of Fall.  It is glorious here right now.

My brother Doug and his wife Leslie have returned to their home in CA.  We had a wonderful visit with them and miss them already. I hope they come back soon. Now it is my other brother Bruce and his wife Sheri's turn to come here for a visit.  I have the very best brothers in the whole world and I miss them.

We attended an auction last night and were surprised at the price some of the items went for.  A Stickley bookcase went for $6,500.00 and a small 1950s plastic robot toy went for over $200! It was fun to watch but way out of our range.  

 

Dilemma

(Artist: Lenard Buffet for an Ella Fitzgerald album)

Here is the dilemma...we want to save the post office because we love our post offices and the wonderful people who work there. So we pledge to mail more cards, more letters, more post cards and more packages, but then a new piece of information comes to the front. Read this:

If all US households decided to start paying their bills online, the annual benefits would be:

Saving 16.5 million trees

Saving enough energy to power every house in San Francisco for a year

Decreasing greenhouse gases equivalent to removing 155,000 cars from the road

What is a thoughtful person to do? Save jobs or save trees?

The stencil words I made for our room at the antique mall a few weeks ago and shared with you have sold out. So I made more. This isn't as easy as it seems since each stencil alphabet only has one of each letter. This really limits the number of words that can be made from each set.

"Jingle" in the background is 8" tall! To buy a new 8" stencil alphabet cost hundreds of dollars.

 

Odds and Ends

Last week we filled our room at the antique mall with 1920s linen bus numbers.  They sold the next day. Back we went and put up the remainder and that same day all the single numbers sold...all 17 of them! So again we spent our week cutting and framing bits of those rolling signs that tell one where the transport is going. Our wall at Brothers Antique Mall (Medina OH) is now loaded with 1940s London bus signs.  I forgot to take my camera so you will just have to be satisfied with seeing the one that came home because it wouldn't fit on the wall.

I am so enamoured with these signs and we have quite a few to sell at our antique mall shop. Too big to ship. Sorry.

John and I really enjoyed the Small Studio Workshop Series that we did in 2010.  We had to cancel it for this year due to some pesky medical stuff, but we are planning our Series again for 2012 and we have lined up Keith Lobue and Michael deMeng already! All info will be available on this blog when dates have been confirmed.  I am awaiting word from other instructors.

Last, but certainly not least, I am abandoning John for a whole week while I go make books at Pam Sussman's.  She hosts and teaches 6 students in her home studio for a one week intensive workshop.

Here is what I made last time:

I can't wait.  Working with Pam is always fun, well organised and so instructive.  I haven't made anything artsy in quite awhile so I am excited to begin.

While I am gone my etsy shops will be closed and will reopen Aug 27th or 28th. 

No Paparazzi

I spent the weekend messing around with my etsy shops.  Yes, shops plural. I collect several different things, so it only seems logical to separate the collections into different shops.  I get bored after about the 4th or 5th page of etsy shops that list 1000 items. Maybe I have a short attention span. Now my shop has been divided into three.

One is called No Paparazzi and features vintage photo related goods:

TINTYPES

 

CABINET CARDS

I have moved my ViCTORIAN ALBUMS and other old photographs over to this etsy shop.

Then I have created The Right Route which is all vintage travel related items.

TICKET ROLLS

GAS STATION NUMBERS

Authentic SUBWAY SIGNS and coming soon London Bus Signs

I still will have the Small Studio etsy shop that offers craft supplies and vintage goods:

Now go forth and create!

Today at Our Antique Mall Booth

John and I have spent the week cutting and framing a destination scroll from a 1928 London Transit bus.  In the 20s, London was recovering from WorldWar I.  Cars and trucks were still considered a somewhat new form of transportation.  

Today John hung the framed numbers in our little room at the antique mall. Regular readers will understand how difficult it was for me to part with these graphically wonderful pieces. We sold five others before we even had these hung. I am quite in love with these train, bus and subway signs. They have been showing up in decorating magazines with increasing regularity. 

Last week we added these other British bus destination signs.

Below are a few views of our room at the Brothers' Antique Mall on Rte 3 in Medina OH.

I may be late to discover the blog In My House. I have really enjoyed looking at the flamboyant photos of this (maybe Danish?) blog. The blogger also likes the vinatge destination signs.

And other signs, too:

It is an absolutely glorious day here in Northeastern Ohio.  I am going outside!

Shameless Plug

I have been trying to destash my house of all the odds and ends and excesses of my various endeavors, online and offline. Almost daily I add new stuff to my etsy shop.  Usually I only add 3-5 items, but yesterday in a spurt of enthusiasm, I added all the rest of my vintage New York City subway train roll signs.

I have added about 15 of them.  They are the last of these. Here is what we did with one of them. We framed it and hung it. This is the kitchen when we lived in CA a few years ago. The strips are 52" long, so they make quite a statement.

I have lots of other stuff in my etsy shop. I have all the wonderful Coffee Break Design stencils, kits and novelties. I still miss Mike (the late and great owner of CBD) so much.

One of my favorite items is the 12" high Masonite mannequins.  The set comes in two sizes 5" and 12" (shown above) and includes one male, one female (two males shown above) and two sets of wings in case you want them to soar. They can be painted, stamped, drilled, collages, etc...you know what to do with them, of course.

I have a variety of other goodies besides the above.

Go on over and have a browse:  Ginny's Small Studio

 

Shopping for Vintage Treasures

Several times a year there is a huge flea market and antiques fair held at a county fairground about 3 hours from us. We have been several times and always find a carload of goodies or at least enough treasures to make the 6 hour round trip worthwhile. The july show is always the biggest and most fun so this year we decided to go a day early and stay overnight. That way we could be one of the "early birds" and gather all the good stuff.  

We set the alarm for 6 AM. took our showers at bedtime and made sure the hotel served an early breakfast. Off to sleep we went dreaming of all the goodies we were going to find the next day. The next thing I was aware of was John getting dressed and shaking my shoulder to wake me up.  I stretched and yawned and looked over at the clock.  It was only 4 AM! John had looked at the clock wrong. We laughed and tried to go back to sleep, but no, that did not happen.  

Here is what happens when you are the first one at the fair when it opens:

The vendors aren't ready. Most had set up the night before, but were covered up and not ready for customers.  It was disappointing, very disappointing.  We walked around for several hours.  It is a huge fairground with hundreds of vendors both indoors and out, but even by 11 AM there were few open.

As we were leaving, we saw this guy in the truck above begin to unload.  I can't imagine how frustrating this truck full of old and new garden decorations would be to load and unload.

If you are a scrapbooker, you may want to check out my daughter's etsy shop for some crafting goodies.

Bits and Pieces

Small China Rant:

Did you see the program on China last week on CNBC?  It was very, very interesting.  Regular readers here know that I get on a rant every so often about too many products being made in China, lack of quality, loss of jobs here, etc. I had thought that the jobs going to China wee improving the workers' lives over there.  Well, apparently this is not true either.  According to this documentary, Chinese workers are working around the clock for $200 a month.  They live in company dorms and work 16 and more hours a day.  

Good Mail from my friend Brian Kasstle in CA:

Thank you, Brian.  You added smiles to our day...and here is the back:

Tin Types: I have been collecting Tin Types for several years. In the 1800s Cabinet cards were affordable mostly to the wealthy. Tin Types were affordable to the masses. Photographers could set up their cameras on the street, in pubs and at carnivals. They were never great quality and many became dark with the images fading. The Tin Type below is one I found on this trip and it is so clear, much more so than most old Tin Types. 

Yardstick Art: I saw this on the Gypsy Girls blog...love it.

 

 

Flea Market

Don't you just dislike it when someone goes to a flea market and posts all the wonderful finds they purchased?  Does it make you jealous?  Jealousy is so unattractive between friends, even if you have never met.  

This morning, John and I were up before 5am and out of the house by 5:45am. It was very, very dark, but the full hanging low moon in the clear sky was worth getting up and out early. We drove three hours to an antique flea market that is only held a few times a year.  It opened at 7am, but we arrived about 9am.  We have been to this market before and have had great luck, but today there were very few vendors and very few customers.  The weather was cool, but sunny with hints of buds on the many trees surrounding the grounds.  It should have been perfect.  John and I still had fun and still found a few items, but not the carful we anticipated.

Above is a metal piece that once adorned the cover of a Victorian photo album.

I have no idea where this piece above originated.  It has a flat back and is tarnished and rusted, but still elegant. She is about 10" tall.

I really enjoyed the responses to the mail art blog entry.  I can't exchange mail right now, but would like to in the future. Brian: snail mail address is PO Box 11 Avon Lake OH 44012

In other news, I will be offline for a week or so and my Etsy shop is also closed for the same period.

Enjoy the spring!

 

 

Oops...Forgot to Blog

Where did the week go?  We were just busy doing stuff.

We went to an auction.

We went antiquing.

We added stuff to our antique mall room.

We attended a basketball playoff.  Our grandson's team won!

We had breakfast out with my son and his family.  Love that.

We did lots of mundane stuff.

I may not have blogged, but I did add some things to my Etsy shop.

Here is the question of the day: 

What is your most memorable Valentine's Day?

 

 

Still Winter....

We can't tell if it snowing or if all the snow swirling about is being blown off the trees and house.  It is cold and the forecast is ice and snow.  We are on the edge of that big storm that is being reported.  John and I were discussing at dinner tonight our survival skills if we are without electricity.  

Flashlights? Check

Candles? Check

Blankets? Check

Water? Check

Food that can be cooked without our electric stove? Hmmmmm

Crackers and cheese and wine? Check

Wish us and everyone else in the path of this storm good luck.

The petite little ceramic box above was a surprise gift from my LA friend, Judi Delgado. She is the most thoughtful person. It is tiny, maybe just the right size for a ring. Love it! Thank you so much, Judi.  

I have spent the last week in doctor's offices and labs.  I had a really bad reaction to some medication. It was one of those side effects they talk about on TV ads that doesn't happen to everyone. I was down and out and pretty miserable. In fact, my whining about how long it was taking me to get over the flu was part of this side effect (not the whining...the getting over).  The medication was shutting down my kidney function. Very scary. 

I leave you with this photo of some of my old ledgers.  Why don't they make books like this anymore?

I loved all your comments on the tv shows.  We watched Pawn Stars and Chumlee which was recommended by several of you. All of these shows are so interesting, aren't they? I am amazed at the prices both high and low.

The Allure of TV

I have never been much of a TV watcher.  I like to watch movies on TV, but John likes sports and political talk shows. I like the political talk shows too, but eventually they depress me and bore me with their rehashing.  John usually is the one who turns the tv on, so he has clicker control and like most men uses the clicker irresponsibly meaning very, very often.

While I was sick, John gave over possession of the clicker and I found out that although we get 100 channels or more, nothing much is worth watching....until I found all the auction shows. What fun.

I have been watching Auction Kings. 

People bring their treasures into the gallery and talk about where they found them and what they want to get at auction. It is always a surprise.  Sometimes there is no interest and sometimes the items go for far more than they are worth. It is a fun show with likable regulars.

Then there is Storage Wars.

Storage units that have been abandoned or are in arrears on payments get auctioned off.  They are opened, but nothing can be moved, just looked at.  They go for quite a bit of money and funny thing, everyone seems to find some rare treasure hidden in the storage unit. I don't like the characters on this show so I only watched it a few times. Also it seemed really staged and phony.

American Pickers is fun to watch.  Two guys go off looking for old stuff to resell.  They run into lots of great people with hoards of stuff in old barns, empty fields and yards. Sometimes the people are happy to sell to them, sometimes not, but it is always interesting.

The only thing about American Pickers is that they give you the price they paid and the value, but not what they actually sold it for.  Still a fun show.

John and I have gone to a few auctions and we have really enjoyed them.  It is as much fun to watch the people as it is to buy.  We have had good and bad luck, but of course, I really only remember the good buys.  Love big swap meets, too, but it is too cold right now to attend any of them.

I forgot to mention in my last post, that our Costco had the Stampington big magazines for $10.49 instead of $14.99. They didn't have all the titles, but a few of the current ones.

Ghosts of Amsterdam

Artist Jo Teeuwisse found a cache of old World War II negatives at a flea market in Holland.  Intrigued by the photos, she researched and photographed the same locations now.  Layering the old and the new with Photoshop, she amassed quite an interesting collection.  They have been exhibited in galleries all over Europe. I was not familiar with them until my Dutch son-in-law sent me the link.  Here are a few more of Jo's photos. 

In the US we tear down and rebuild something different, but in Europe the tradition is more rebuild again as it was. So, it is not surprising that she could match up the old photos with current landscape. Obviously what is in color is new and the black and white is the old.

Here is what the artist said in an interview:

"What do you hope others will get out of your merged photos?
I hope that they remind people of history, make them realize that the past is all around us and that things happened where they are walking, where they live, where they work. I am passionate about the past, I think it is one of the most important subjects in the world. Without knowing where we come from we don't know where we're going. Seeing a place you know well as it was many years ago is always fascinating, seeing that same spot at a time when something important, horrible, lovely, interesting or unusual was happening, this is also confrontational and will hopefully make people think."

I was so intrigued by this type of combining the old and new, but quickly found out that she was not the first to employ this technique with WWII photos.  Below Leningrad and Berlin:

These photos are by Sergey Larenkov.

St Petersburg:

Chilling, isn't it?  It gives a new meaning to "if walls could talk".

Blog-Hopping

I love some of the foreign blogs that seem to be all about white.  I can't read them although there is a way to translate some of them, but the translation is often a bit off.  The blogs are still wonderful just for the photos.Today I share four blogs that for one reason or another, have caught my attention.

Love this window!  Click here for the link.

This one, too. You can find it here.

Great photos on this French blog, too.

And last  go here for more goodness.

Organized

My name is Ginny and I am an organizationaloholic.  

I love to organize things. Big things. Little things. Events. Dinners.  Workshops.  Notebooks. Cupboards. Oh, and cubbies.  I love cubbies.  

I seem to collect so many little things that just don't fit into other storage.  Either they are too little, too fragile or too inconvenient not to have out in the open.  But then I do not like clutter.  It drains me of energy.  The simple answer is cubbies.

Now the spotlight is on Pottery Bard.  Over the years, Pottery Barn has offered a number of different cubbies.  I think I have purchased all of them.  We had cubbies in my store from Pottery Barn.  Originally dark wood, they eventually became white with underneath red crackles.  They were great for displaying stationery, rubber stamps, small gift items, samples and rolls of ribbon. I store many of my ribbons in cubbies here at home.

Everything is right at hand when one has cubbies.  What is your favorite storage thing?

We are off to pick up Keith!

Bookish Things to Look At

Don't Forget to Sign Up for Keith Lo Bue's Workshops Coming in October and Lynne Perrella's Workshop Coming in November.