Thistle Hill Glass Spreads Bead Love!

A package of fabulous beads was donated to the Ladies Underground Tea and Arsenic Society (LUTAS) at the University of Southern Maine.

LUTAS is an organization founded by a couple of students (including myself!) who work in the Women's Resource Center on campus.

The beads were a huge success - everyone couldn't help but "ooh" and "aah". I saw some really awesome necklaces and earrings made with Thistle Hill Glass focal beads.

a couple new goodies ...

at the request of
Sweet Caroline


















and push pins (does anyone
still use bulletin boards?)

Took me longer than I planned to get back, but I've been putting my time to good use (uh, except when it comes to my schoolwork -- the pressure is building!) doing some new designs. Enjoying the farmer's markets . . . as a venue they're great when there's a crowd, not so hot in a downpour! Is it October yet?

My work is in the gift shop at Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council now, and I'll be back there for their Christmas shop extravaganza (always a good gig for me).

Other than that, it's reading, scheming, napping, sortin' my beads and playing with Timmy. (I should be working on my website, shouldn't I?) I'm bereft w/out Aman at theCasa Via, but I've got MChris and Wilco to look forward to.

Thanks for stopping by visitors, and for your comments. I'll be on vacation for the next several days -- see you when I return!

Tracy

I know you're out there!

My stats tell me alot of folks are visiting the blog, but alas, only lurking! I'd be interested to know how you found the blog. So if you stop by, leave me an occasional comment and let me know how you found me so I won't feel so lonely here in blogville!

Tracy

Another market on my schedule!

After disappointing news that the Farmers Markets in Troy, Colonie and Saratoga weren't taking artisans, I stumbled upon the Capital District Farmers' Market, which serves the Capital District with a daily wholesale market, and a Saturday public market. They've been in business since 1933 and have a steady following. Talked to their general manager, Fred Cole, today and he sounded very excited about having me join the market. And I can do my shopping!

Im hoping also to add the Sunday market in East Durham.

Cohoes Farm to City Festival

The Farm to City Festival in Cohoes yesterday was a great event. Well attended, good sales, live music (and tap dancing!) and critters! Of course I didn't get to see the animals as I was chained to the booth, but I hear there were goats, alpaca, baby chicks -- I did see the Clydesdales pulling the trolley cart around the block all day. Cohoes is a little post-industrial city (they call it Spindle City, after the once booming textile factories powered by the Cohoes Falls) doing an impressive job of revitalizing their downtown. There are still many empty storefronts, but the main drag in town, Remsen Street, is looking well renovated. There's a great sense of a community of people devoted to the resurgence of the town, and the Farmers Market seems a central part of that effort. This is a pic of the Cohoes Falls at a VERY high water mark. This is the point at which the Mohawk River joins the Hudson, and the picture doesn't it do it justice -- it's spectacular. There' s a hydro power plant on the falls now, but back in the day it powered a booming textile industry. (The mills have been recently converted to condos, overlooking the falls.)

I'm getting alot of repeat customers at the Market, and the gals at BeauKnits are sending a steady stream of fiber aficionadas my way, for which I am most grateful! My best customer has been Danielle and her folks, who have visited my booth every week to add new beads to Danielle's choker necklace. I have a great fan base among the kids, who really appreciate the color and tactile nature of glass.

Now if I could just break in to the other local Farmers Markets, I'd be all set! People seem to like the opportunity to see handmade art as they stroll the produce booths -- it adds to the festive atmosphere, and there's a real affinity between people who appreciate locally grown food and locally created art. I shall continue my campaign to find new farmers markets!






This is my latest inspiration -- these tabs have been a big hit, and I love making them. Especially gorgeous as earrings.

It took awhile, but I finally got some button cards to make it easier to show and tell at shows, shops etc. After struggling with paper weights/sizes, I decided a simple business card would do the trick. I spent several hours attaching all my buttons to cards -- and because this is how the world of customer service works, folks will probably say "can I just buy one of those and not the whole card?" Sure you can!

Now I can organize myself to do a mailing and/or sales visits to regional yarn shops. Alas, I have lost the services of sweet Caroline, who's gone to caffeinated pastures at the Barnes and Noble cafe. I understand -- would you want to spend all day every day with your mom? :o) She's still doing the Art on Lark show with me Saturday. Fingers crossed for good weather and good sales.

In case you were wondering Thistle Hill is a real place -- and a frequently imagined place. This is a piece of property I inherited in Petersburg NY, just over the hill from Williamstown MA. For the last 15 years or so, I've been daydreaming about living there, off the grid. That's both the appeal and the downside -- living off the grid. I'm fairly well versed in what off-the-grid living requires -- power source, water source, poop depository. With the property I also inherited the storage battery/transformer whatsit power system, generator and a composting toilet. I know my own limitations, and this is not a project I could manage myself, so I visit, daydream, cull firewood and pay the taxes. Here's a shot of Thistle Hill Road.

To market to market

It's official, we'll be doing the Cohoes Farmers' Market tomorrow from 4-7. It has been some time since I wrestled with the old EZ-up (an ironic misnomer if ever there was one), so I guess it's time to haul it out, hose it down, and hope everything is in working order! It's actually fairly easy to setup if there's more than one person doing it (and some kind soul has usually volunteered to help when I'm solo at a show). One person doing it, however, is like watching slapstick.

So if you're in the neighborhood and you need some honey, rutabagas or buttons, please come by!

(I just had to add, Sweet Caroline, after a day listing dozens of new goodies on etsy, decided to go to Albany to see Styx at the weekly riverfront concert. I lol'd.)

I placed two ads on Ravelry today, once I figured out how to use GIMP (graphic image manipulation program?). GIMP is essentially like Adobe Illustrator, which is great because I've been battling with trying to load my Adobe programs and getting serial number errors
(bang head on desk, pause, repeat). I knew there had to be an online program to do what I needed.

So I'm directing Ravelry knitters to my etsy site with a couple ads, with a very limited budget. We shall see ...

Out and about in Troy, NY

I love acorns! We went on a mini-adventure today, over the bridge to Cohoes, NY to visit the little knitting shop Beau Knits (four years old this month!) We were looking in to placing our buttons in their shop, so hopefully you can soon find Thistle Hill Glass tucked away in Cohoes (which really, is looking quite fabulous these days.)

Our mini-adventure ends with Kismet Gallery. Kismet has their hands on a handful (hee! alliteration!) of our necklaces, earrings and of course, buttons! They have a lovely little store down by the post office, filled with consignments from tons of local artists.

So it seems we're starting to make our rounds.

Back when we were Kopi Glass, we did this during the holidays and it was a fun gathering... So there's a good chance we will be having an open house this summer.

Today I burned the living crap out of my most important finger. (That'd be the right index finger.) I've had little burns from glass over the years (many little burn scars on my upper chest, and I've had a couple down my shirt too - yowza), but this was a doozy. I grabbed the wrong end of a LARGE hot glass rod. Alot of screaming ensued as I ran to the kitchen for Caroline's aloe plant.
I inserted offended finger into an aloe leaf, secured it with a rubber band, took a nap (yep) and a couple motrin and woke up with a pruny, yet healed finger.

Aloe is the stuff. Hopefully I can get back on the torch tomorrow.

getting it together

The pieces are coming together. We have a pretty solid working routine -- time on the torch,
glass work, cleaning, sorting, photographing, a little jewelry workuploading pics. And it requires a daily brainstorming ... Caroline (button model to the stars -- scroll down) is a great addition -- great eye, good ideas, and wacky as all hell.

Today in the Studio.....

We've been working on button use ideas! You can do just about anything with the buttons: put them on bags, on mittens, hats, sweaters, scarves, pillows, headbands, button bracelets, necklace accessories, pouches.... I have a couple pictures of Caroline modeling a few of her articles of clothing, now adorned with Thistle Hill buttons!






Oooh, shiny.... More pictures of button ideas in action to come!

We will be joining many other talented artists and performers at the Albany's, Art on Lark.
Art on Lark
June 21st, 10:00AM to 5:00PM

Happy Birthday Dad.

back to the torch

Faced with the prospect of job hunting and returning to the grind, the time had clearly come to get back to the torch. So with the help of Caroline (teeny tiny freak show), I am getting the studio organized, working on a website and my etsy store and am churning out the glass with renewed vigor.

Of course, I still have 4 courses to go before I'm a college grad (on the 30 year plan) so I've got to fit in the reading and writing too. There's a possibility of my working part-time temp -- had a promising interview at NYSUT today, so life is suddenly extremely busy and I'm diggin' it. NYSUT seems like a good fit -- both ways. They like my experience with organized labor and as a legislative assistant, and I like the hours. Fingers crossed on this one.

Job one is to keep my energy up, which I struggle with. But besides a gramma/baby nap on Sunday, I haven't napped for a couple weeks -- and those who know me, you know I live to nap.

So Kopi Glass is no more -- too many people said "what? copy glass? what is that?" and all my printed materials were out of date, so time to come up with a new handle. I imposed on my girl gang to brainstorm new biz names for me, and hours of hilarity ensued over the weekend. Among the favorite (but, really, unusable) suggestions: Slut Buttons, Glass of the Mohicans, Bellybuttons, Buttons Along the Mohawk, Khyber Pass Glass, Your Ass Is Glass, Wandering Jew, Pure Bug Beauty, Afroburner Buttons -- you get the idea.

After all that (thank you ladies, I shall treasure your efforts) I went back to my first pick, Thistle Hill Glass. It's a real place, the location of my Petersburg property. So if I never get to build my dream shack off the grid, I'll at least have memorialized the location.

Suddenly there aren't enough hours in the day. I like that. My energy plan -- a swig of liquid B-12 with my morning pot of coffee.