Claire Here At Your Service!
And the FAMOUS SHIMMER-CAT has a new venture: cat toys! Stay tuned for her favorites that you can buy for your own favorite feline friend!
EVERYTHING HERE IS HANDMADE BY ME, EVEN THE MAGNETS, I LAMINATE THEM ON MY LAMINATOR, THEN CUT THEM OUT INTO DIFFERENT SHAPES, then I affix a magnet to the back.
TOWELS WERE selling so well that I was sitting at the sewing machine A LOT!!
I used to put my artwork on lovely waffle weave STRIPED colorful towels! They were super! update: These striped towels were suddenly discontinued, I was shocked! I searched and searched and still have some hair because I didn't pull it ALL out! And finally was able to find some more expensive towels, but the quality IS better, so I'm ok with it and hopefully you are too! If not, that's OK. I'll be trying some new things! Making more skirts, lampshades perhaps, other clothes, hmmmm... I might want some goats.
NEW IDEA!! I'm making small quilted wall hangings! These will be available at Wild Oats & Billy Goats in Decatur GA & Kress Emporium in Asheville, and here at my studio to start. Then they might make the leap to other locations! Or even a page for themselves on my website. Oh they are fun to make but not big sellers so let's chalk it up to an EXCITING EXPERIMENT, let's face it, once the thrill is gone, it's time to move on to something else... and meanwhile I will enjoy them in my own house!
I paint backwards on old windows (reverse-glass painting). I am especially suited for this process because I've always been able to write backwards! A lot of my towel images come from window paintings.
I was making Cardboard Paintings, I called them the "Archival Schmival" Series. They hang from wire with beads and you can put them over a doornob... or on a wall. UPDATE: They are not selling like hotcakes, they are selling more like cardboard, he-he (... on to something different...) BUT I did get some images for my towels from some of these paintings... and this leads me to my next sermon "there's no such thing as wasted time" "amen."
ABOUT ME: I grew up in Atlanta, went to Boone NC to college for some partying and meeting some lifelong friends, then to GA State for a quarter, then to Ft. Collins CO to study art, or so I thought, but I didn't think I could do it so I majored in Black & White photography, which I'm not that great at, but I love and appreciate the medium. Back to Atlanta where I went to the Portfolio Center to become a Commercial Photographer, (I was dreading it from the start) ...then I saw some graphic design work on the wall and thought "i want to do THAT!" so I switched careers. I did really well! Got a job in Greenville SC (picking up a few more lifelong friends, to go along with my other Pace Academy 4th grade lifelong friends and those Boone NC ones I picked up) and finally one day (doing Landmark Education for a while helped me make the leap) I decided to try to make a go of it, and started doing art and art shows. ALSO reading the book "Life Paint & Passion" led me to do workshops with Stewart Cubley which have been very influential in my life and art! I was freelancing (graphic design) in this transition period. Right now (as in 2018) I'm living on a muscadine vineyard in Decatur GA. I sell my magnets and other artsy goodies I come up with, and am always sewing something or painting ... Business is Great, People are Terrific & Life is WONDERFUL!!! yaHOOO!
Further update: I'm moving in April 2019, perhaps to Brevard NC, or somewhere in Western NC, and perhaps to Pine Lake GA or maybe to both or neither. How's that for knowing what the heck I'm doing? Well, I know it's going to be GREAT, whatever it is! Could be anywhere actually!
