Westwood Art Show - come see me!

While I have been a busy little bee making things and getting involved in wonderful projects, the one area I have pulled way back on is the craft show scene.  This is likely the one and only show you will find me at this year!  So if you plan on perusing the plush live and in person at a hip outdoor event THIS IS YOUR CHANCE!

Look!  There I am, working away at my colorful little booth.  

Why this show?  Because I LOVE this show.  Westwood is a sweet neighborhood with beautiful, historical buildings like the Westwood Town Hall, where we will be holding the show.  The grounds around the Hall are grassy and green, trees creating a dappled screen from the sun.  It will be a beautiful day in the mid 70s, live music will be playing, artists will be displaying their wares, good food will be had, and crafts with the kiddos will be created.

See?  Look how cute this show is!  Older couples strolling together.  PRECIOUS.

I've been to a lot of shows in my day, both as a spectator and as a vendor.  This is one of my favorites.  The atmosphere is relaxed and happy.  There is plenty of space to move around, you aren't funneled through crowded pathways like cattle as is the case with other events.  I get so claustrophobic at things like that.  Not here!   Also, you tend to see the same artists again and again regardless of which show you attend.  But at the Westwood Art Show, most if not all of the folks working this show are from Western Hills or grew up here, and they typically are not working the craft show circuit.  So this is often the only art or craft show they will appear at.  It's a genuinely lovely neighborhood event with folks genuinely happy to see each other.

Kalli basically lived at the craft booth last year.  It was pretty great.

As Broadhope Art Collective will be opening just down the road in neighboring Cheviot, this is our home base, and many of the artists involved in that will be vending here as well.  So come hang out with us, won't you?  We'll be happy to tell you all about the new center.

And be sure to be there around 11am when Tara, also known as the stitching guru from Robot Inside, plays with her band The Mitchells.  Really, what can't that girl do?  (hint: nothing)

Best of both worlds - my monster banner and one of Tara's owl bags.  SWEET!

A glimpse of my booth from last year.  

See you soon!  Specifically, at the Westwood Art Show, this Saturday the 15th from 11am-5pm around Westwood Town Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio.

OH!  And have you contributed to the Broadhope Art Collective yet?

You have?  GREAT!  I love you and you are my favorite.

You HAVE NOT???  Well, hurry up!  We can't do this without you, you know.

Broadhope Art Collective - Help Make It Happen!

Broadhope Art Collective, our new art center in Cheviot, Ohio

Exciting news!  Remember how I've been hoping and dreaming for an art space where I can teach classes , exhibit  my work, and work amongst a community of artists?

You don't?  Well I have.  And doesn't that sound wonderful?  Doesn't it just sound like a DREAM?  

Well, it's time to make that dream a reality, kittens!  Check it out:

Yes, indeed, we have a building picked out, we have artists signed up, and we are ready and willing and able.  But we need your help.  The deposit for the space, the stools we'll sit on during workshops, the extra gallery walls where we'll hang pictures, the toilet paper in the bathroom...these things all cost cash dollars!  And kittens, we are starving artists, you know.  So won't you help a talented group of creative folk make their dreams come true?  There are all sorts of goodies available if you do!

I strongly encourage you to browse through the dozen support levels and see what rewards appeal to you.  We have all sorts of fun ways to say thank you for your support.  

I'll tell you about the two of my reward levels.  Let's start with the biggest one, shall we?  

Make your own!  I'll show you how.

At the $250 level we have the most fabulous MONSTER MAKING PARTY!!!  

Haven't you always wanted to sit down with your own, personal textile artists for a few hours, creating your own monster? And wouldn't that be so much more fun with FIVE OF YOUR FRIENDS???

Copious amounts of fun would be had, I can tell you.  There's only one of these parties being offered so jump on it right away!  Your party will be tailored to your sewing abilities and age level.  So if it's half a dozen kids walking in the door, we will be completely prepared.  All supplies are included, as is the use of our flock of sewing machines.  

And by the way, the most awesome Tara of Robot Inside fame is in cahoots with me on this.  We are partners in crime, my friends, and a package deal.  What's better than one critter maker?  

TWO CRITTER MAKERS!!! 

*******

OR....you can opt in for the $75 dollar level and have me, your dear darling plush artist, make any stuffed creation you can dream up.  Have a drawing your child created?  Have a design of your own you're dying to see become soft and 3 dimensional?  Or maybe you are just in love with a certain character or image.  Turn me loose on it and soon it will be in your arms, ripe for the cuddling.  

I've done this sort of thing for awhile now on a custom order basis.  My wonderful customers come to me with the most amazing ideas and I have a great time with them.  Here are a few examples:

I made the NKU mascot Victor the Viking into a puppet.  That was REALLY FUN.

I made Roland of I Only Like Monsters a big brother based on his likeness.  

Dudley got a plush version of himself made, Wibbly Woo style.  

This was a very open request for some sort of giraffe or lion.  Naturally I saw an opportunity to make both - a hybrid beast we refer to as the LoRaffe!

Zebra Talker is a character concocted by my friend's son.  To surprise him one Christmas, she asked me to turn him into a plush.  

A custom assortment of Christmas stockings went to a very special customer last year.  Yes, that's a transformer, zombie, Wibbly Woo, and the Nutcracker.  

 So please, please, please consider digging in those couch cushions, breaking up the kids' piggy banks, or sorting through the junk drawer to gather up some contribution to send to us.  This is a wonderful opportunity for us, the artists involved, but also for the community at large.  This is your chance to be a part of that!  Help make this happen, own a piece of Broadhope's coming into existence.  Thank you!

The fundraiser is right here:
www.indiegogo.com/broadhope

Come sew with me - One Night, One Craft at the CAC

Hi, kittens!  I have something exciting to tell you.  In one week, on Monday, July 30th from 6:00-8:00pm, I will be teaching a class at the Contemporary Arts Center's One Night One Craft series of DIY sessions for grown ups.  The class is $5, unless you are a member in which case it is totally FREE.  There's a cash bar, which enhances any craft, and admission to the museum is free to everyone for the evening as well.

  

But, Abby, what shall we make together?  

I'm glad you asked!  

We will hand-sew our very own monster gadget cozies, what I lovingly refer to as knucklebiters (because that's how far you get before they bite).  I've made about a zillion of these in my day, they are popular critters, and now I'll show YOU how to make one of your very own.  

Everything you need is included in the rock bottom price of $5.  This includes a darling felt needlebook I made just for you.  I'm so thoughtful!  

Because we are hand sewing, the knucklebiters will be made of felt instead of my usual choice of velvety-soft microfiber fur.  But TRUST ME when I say this is the easier choice for hand sewing.  Felt is fun and easy to work with, it won't move around on you like the fur would.  We will use a bamboo blend of wool that's more sustainable to the planet, and I have at least a dozen colors to choose from. You will also have your choice of hand-painted safety eyes and a fun, furry tail.  

Doesn't this sound FANTASTIC?  Can't you hardly wait?  GREAT!  I'll see you there:)

Here are the links to the event:

CAC One Night One Craft 

Gadget Pockets: Watch Out, it bites! (facebook event page)

Feel free to email me any questions you may have or leave them for me on the abbydid facebook page. This is a popular series and they often fill up quickly, so be sure to get there on time!  

How I Sent the Boy to Camp -or- How to Mortify the Boy

Right, so, my son turned 10, that went fine, and THEN we turn around and leave him at sleep-away camp for a whole entire week.  He was completely ready and willing to go, but me LETTING go has proved to be another story.  I am missing him like crazy, constantly wondering what he's doing and if he's having a great time and looking forward to picking him up Saturday morning.

I took special delight in packing him for camp and thought I'd share.  It should be noted that the boy is NOT IMPRESSED AT ALL, and is in fact probably thoroughly humiliated, but little does he realize that what I have done is COMPLETELY AWESOME and is sure to only make him MORE POPULAR with his fellow campers.  I am so convinced of this that I am CERTAIN I will get some sort of award when I pick him up in two days time.  

There is a small, logical, reasonable part of me that knows that is delusional.  Luckily, it is outvoted by the rest of me and I'm relishing in my daydream of being celebrated.  On we go:

  

I labeled the bags containing his underwear and socks.  Oh, I labelled them, all right!  I labelled them with mom humor and unnecessary advice.  Picturing the appreciative smile on his face is all the thanks I need.  

The campers were advised to pack all of their belongings in a big plastic bin.  Your average parent would look at that bin and simply see an empty bin.  Luckily, our son does not have AVERAGE PARENTS!!!  No siree!  I only saw an EMPTY CANVAS, and rectified this situation immediately.  I also employed the help of my baby daddy/marital partner and also my daughter who is going through her "monster phase" much like Picasso went through his "blue phase."  

I did clear this with the boy first.  Here's how that conversation went:

Me: I'm going to write your name on the bin, okay?

Boy: Okay

-fast forward to the "big reveal"-

Boy: *long silent stare*

Me: *beaming with pride, giant dopey grin on face*

Boy: I thought you were just going to write my name on it.

Me: I DID!!! SEE????  RIGHT THERE!!!  

You also have to label all of their stuff.  Presumably because they just toss their belongings willy nilly into the woods and into the lake and onto the ground and then stir them all up in one big stinky belongings stew to be sorted out at the end of the week.  I chose to approach this with machine embroidered labels.  On the towels, these labels double as loops with which to neatly hook the towels so they may dry and stay clean and orderly.  Like that's going to happen, not the aforementioned stew business.  

Lastly, just to sweeten the deal, I mailed him stuff.  There's a care package containing cupcakes and party hats and streamers to throw a party with his cabin.  That one I just bought from the camp, that's something they offer and hence is totally kosher and not 

embarrassing, right?

But THEN I also wrote him.  I wrote him this AMAZING letter filled with helpful dos and don'ts.  

I think we can all agree this letter is the MOST AWESOME LETTER EVER!!!  It's really helpful and informative and funny.  He is one lucky kid!  I am really looking forward to that trophy, I know just where I'm going to put it.

It may surprise you to learn the boy has not written to us, despite the pre-addressed and pre-stamped stationary I lovingly included in his kick ass bin-o-belongings.  This despite me pining for him as I sit by the mailbox.  Luckily, his camp has this amazing service where they upload photos from camp each day so you can see what your kid is up to.  I have been checking it several hundred times a day and can report he has done many fun activities except for on Tuesday when he somehow alluded the camera the whole entire day.  I assumed he had been eaten by a bear, and I felt had stayed reasonably calm despite this, but then today I spotted him in the pool and sitting on a bench so all is well.  He was even SMILING in one of them!  I'm going to have to ask how they got him to do that because all I get are disapproving glares and the shaking of the head.  

If you want to send your kid to a really awesome camp, by the way, may I heartily recommend to you Camp Ernst in Burlington, Kentucky.  They have been amazing, I've never heard anything but fantastic things about them, and this really is my kid's dream come true.  You can watch lots of other kids having the times of their young lives at the Camp Ernst YouTube channel, it's also really rad.  

Bleaching Skulls -or- We Make Party Favors!

My son has the audacity to turn 10 years old tomorrow.  TEN!  That is an entire decade since I gave birth to him, people, and I do not like the implications.  On the one hand, I've kept him alive all this time.  He's thrived, even.  On the other hand I am not all young and bouncy like I once was.  Instead, I am the mother of a tween.  He is almost as tall as I am, keeps his door closed a lot, is prone to moods, and has started to wear deodorant.  It is shocking.

That's my kid, the punk.

What this also means is that party planning has taken on some new twists.  Gone are the days of dinosaur excavations in the sandbox and Bob the Builder collective shouts of "YES, WE CAN!"  No, these days we play laser tag with a group of our best buds.  When asked what sort of party favor he'd like, I was told skull bandanas.

 Macabre?  Sure.  But my compulsively crafty brain immediately started spinning, and I concocted a plan to make our own bandanas with skulls bleached into them.

And guess what?  It WORKED!  Added bonuses: it was a fun activity to do with the kids, no one bleached themselves or their own clothing, and the patio got a little cleaner.   Check it out:

My patio is in rough shape.  Don't judge.

Brody did a lot of this himself.  Here he is rinsing like a washer woman.

We used blue and brown bandanas, with different results.
The brown changed really quickly, while the blue took longer and had a more ghostly effect.

Arr!  

Here's a quick how to if your nutty enough to do this yourself:
1.) Cut a stencil.  I had some sort of Martha Stewart brand stencil film that I did not love.  It kept curling up on me.  But I had it so I used it.  You could use a different kind of heavy duty plastic sheeting, a non-curling kind, or some thin, heavy duty cardboard or mat board.
2.) I framed the stencil out inside of a large piece of cardboard for stability, then I "floated" the eyes and nose using string that was anchored along the sides and strung across the skull in sort of a web-type method.
3.)  I mixed a solution of 1/2 bleach, 1/2 water in a spray bottle.
4.) We laid the stencil over the bandana, sprayed the bleach solution onto them, removed the stencil, then watched as the color changed.
5.) When we liked where the color transformation was, we quickly transferred the bandana into a tub of water we had on standby to stop the bleaching process.
6.) I rinsed them all out again and plan on giving them a go in the washing machine before tucking them into the gift bags for the party tomorrow.

And there you have it.  Bonding with the boy and getting my craft on.  Happy Friday!

A word about pricing...

Creature holding creature.

As many of you may have noticed, abbydid has been scaling back since last summer.  I had been hitting the craft show scene pretty hard, and the balance with family life was getting a bit out of whack.  It was becoming too much, I wasn't enjoying my work, and changes needed to be made.

The result was to drastically cut back on craft shows.  Today you can find abbydid plush in one of two places; my etsy shop and Fabricate, a brick and mortar shop in Northside of Cincinnati.

The next step is to raise my prices to better compensate me for my work.  This is the part of the job I hate the most.  It's difficult for me to price my work, I'm constantly under-valuing what I do.  I took a long, hard look at my price list recently and determined I needed to be more realistic about what I charge.

I've often joked I get paid in compliments.  Some of my shows I've participated because I consider it community outreach, a way to support neighborhoods I love and want to support, despite the knowledge the sales may not be very high.  After four years, however, abbydid needs to be more profitable to be sustainable.

This has had me pondering, probably for the 1,000th time, about the prices we pay for things, and how what we pay is too often unrealistic in relation to what an item actually costs to be made.  There's nothing quite like making something yourself to quickly bring home how spoiled we've become having inexpensive goods at our beck and call, not to mention the short cuts that are made to achieve these rock bottom prices.  Ethical work practices,  quality materials, workmanship, these arewhat are often sacrificed so we can save a few bucks.

In my personal life I strive to be a conscientious shopper.  I try to be a localvore.  I consider how the animals were raised when shopping for meat.  I consider the origin and growing season of the produce I'm buying.  I support handmade whenever and wherever I can.  If I'm going to talk the talk I had damn well better walk the walk.  But the reality of the situation of living outside of the city and raising kids makes this hard work.  Work worth doing, absolutely, but I'm not beyond taking a lazy shortcut here and there to keep things running smoothly.  I'm in Target at least once a week.  I know that's not ideal.  The majority of the clothes we are all wearing are mass produced over seas.  My biggest confession here - sometimes I just don't care.  Sometimes I get tired of trying to do the right thing and say to hell with it.  But this doesn't last long, I know better, and these aren't issues I can readily ignore.

Those are my personal choices.  This is how I believe my life should be led, and these are the ethics I want to pass on to my children.  The flip side of that is to be sure I'm compensated fairly, as well.  My kids need to see I value myself and my work.  I need to see that, too, honestly.

Now, I know all too well there are indie crafters out there over-charging.  Not every handmade item is an artisan, one-of-a-kind creation worth it's weight in gold.  But by and large this is not the norm, the vast majority of crafters and artists are struggling to strike a balance between making a profit and maintain a price that is attainable to their target audience.  It's tricky.  We, as a community, need to keep this in mind. Before we loudly complain at someone's booth when shopping at a craft show that this is so outrageously expensive, I challenge us all to stop and truly think about what it takes to dream up the idea, create the piece, make adjustments and perfect the design, photograph the piece, market it, list it online, haul in displays and tear them down again at a show, pay booth fees, take a 40% cut when selling through a store, shop for materials, and the zillion other things it takes to run a craft business.

Most of us are in it because of our passion for what we do.  We are crazy to do it, quite often, so it's the love of it that keeps us going.  To see a little profit at the end of the day certainly helps keep that fire stoked.

All this is to say, kittens, my prices have gone up a bit.  Thanks for your support and love.  Carry on.

Whipper Slappers, monster slap bracelets 

 

Joy-ridden, a little art show by yours truly

I've been making plush for 4 years now.  Hard to believe, isn't it?  In some regards it feels like I've done it forever, in others it feels like I just started yesterday.  It is not unlike parenting in that regard.  Oh, how time flies/crawls simultaneously!

A close-up of "Emerging," a needle-worked photograph by Abby Langdon

And as much as I love what I do, I was feeling a little burned out.  A little stagnant.  It was time to shake things up a bit and try something new.  Enter my first ever SOLO ART SHOW!

A shot of the 14 pieces in the show just before the opening.

Yes, indeed-y, my friends, I took that extra, wobbly step across the threshold, crossing officially over from Craftworld to Artworld.  And, as it turns out, it isn't such a leap after all.  I mean, I consider plush-making to be art, absolutely.  I've had plush pieces show up in galleries here and there, and it's been a thrill each and every time.  But this was different.  This was a personal challenge, an introspective journey.  Some people have New Year's Resolution?  I had an art show.  From the moment 2012 heralded in I began working on these pieces to explore my creativity, my consciousness of my path through life, and my view of the world around me.

It's been a wonderful experience.  I've learned so much about myself.  I've learned to let creativity come as it will, not to rush it or push it or enforce constraints that need not be there.  I've learned to go with the flow, and to recognize inspiration when it quietly sits down beside me.  It has been an absolute joy to create this show.

The work consists of needle-worked photography on canvas and miniature needle-worked assemblages in jars.

And so I named the show Joy-ridden, because that's exactly what I want to be - riddled with joy.  I think far too many of us know what it is to be constantly guilt-ridden and angst-ridden.  I have left that by the wayside.  I want to be joy-ridden, don't you?  So let's!  Let's be thrilled to be alive and spread that joy around.

Funky angled shot with Tree/House in the foreground.

That's what my show is about.  Looking at the things around me and seeing all of the beauty: the old, abandoned building with the out-dated stereotype painted on the side, the sleeping trees in the dead of winter, the giant robot that makes me smile every time we drive past.  None of it is mundane.

Opportune Moment and Prize Inside, two needle-worked assemblages.

The little jars are terrariums filled with the ingredients to a happy existence.  These are the things I hope to carry with me and pull out whenever I need them.  My safe place, my opportune moment, my ebb and flow, they are all part of what keep me moving in the right direction.  I hope you have those things, too.

The show opened this past Saturday, and it was wonderful.  Dear friends and family were there, as were lots of new faces.  There was so much positive feedback.  I was riding high on a cloud all night.

That's me to the left, laughing like a goon, surrounded with love.

I want to say a huge thank you to Chris and Aileen at Fabricate for this opportunity.  They've been the primary brick and mortar source of abbydid plush for the past few years, and they were gracious in their willingness to take a chance on me and my first solo show.  I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to Christina Ward Creatures who generously used her vacation time to help me hang the show (and when I say help I mean she did most of the work while I got the hell out of the way).  And lastly, I am so extraordinarily grateful to my husband Jason.  No one on this planet has a more supportive spouse, it simply isn't possible.  From hanging the show to framing to helping me determine when a piece was done to knocking out design work at my every whim, he is patient and kind and talented.

I'm sickening myself with how sappy all of this is.  I'll be back to my randy, sassy self momentarily, I promise.  Meanwhile, go see the show while it's up at Fabricate through May 6th.  You'll be glad you did, promise.  Details are available here: Joy-ridden by Abby Langdon

Hooray for presents! A guest blogger reveals her covert robin gift to me.

*Abby, here.  Today I have a GUEST BLOGGER!  Isn't that wild?  Yes, indeedy, it is.  Why you ask?  Well, because a few months ago I signed up to be part of the Covert Robin, a gift exchange between crafters on the blogosphere.  My dear, darling friend Rachael of Imagine Gnats organized it.  She's pretty rad.  And also, free stuff?  Hello!  But I digress - today Nichole shall tell you about the lovely gift she made me, which I adore and have hanging in my kitchen even as I type.  Enjoy:

Hey there abbydid readers.  My name is Nichole and I blog over at Yeung Mother Hubbard.    Back in March the lovely Rachael at imagine gnats had the awesome idea to do a handmade gift exchange.  This wasn't just any gift exchange, it was a mystery round robin gift exchange.  It was such an awesome idea that I had to participate.  

Once I received my partner and the stalking began.  I started at Abby's website, where I found her awesome plush critters!  Next I checked out her Facebook Page where I found her fabric design.   

But how could I incorporate her design into my gift? I thought about it for a long time.  And then it came to me!  A menu board!  I had recently reinvented my menu board at home and these little guys would be a perfect backdrop.  

I use my menu board all of the time, it is such a time and money saver for me!  I plan my meals on Sundays and then stock the frig with those ingredients.  When I get home from work, I just start cooking!  No more "what's for dinner" in my house!  Perfect for a busy mom, right?!

I hope that you enjoy your menu board Abby!  

This was a great experience and great idea!  Thank you to Rachael for dreaming up this great idea and thank you for having me on my blog today Abby!  

 

quarterly update

I was reminded today I have a blog.  I was all like, I do?  And then I looked, and sure enough, there it is!  A blog!  So I've dusted it off and decided to add a little something to it.

It's not that I don't have things to say.  I do.  All sorts of things.  I mostly say them in my head, however, and occasionally to actual people.  But that leaves you out, dear imaginary audience!  So let's rectify that.

First off, I have a website now.  It's really very beautiful.  You can look at it right over here: www.abbydid.com

Isn't it amazing and wonderful?  I'm so pleased.  It really helps that I sleep with the guy who made it for me.  Reeeelaaaaaax.  I'm married to him.  And before you go asking to have him make you one, too, let me just say it took me FOUR YEARS of said sleeping with to go from asking for a website to actually having a website up and kicking.  Not sure how fair a trade off that is.

Next up, GUESS WHAT?  I have my first solo show coming up this spring!  This is quite a departure for me, as it is not plush-related at all.  Well, just barely.  You'll see.  I love my creatures, and I love finding them good homes with happy folks like you, but it was time to venture off into a more introspective, explorative direction.  Mark your calendars for the opening on April 14th at Fabricate.

So, while I have been stitching away, the results have been of a very different nature.  I have butterflies in my stomach venturing out into unchartered territory like this, but it makes me happy and I really like what I'm doing, so it is my fervent hope that it will inspire similar feelings in all of you.

For an idea of what's in development, here's a piece I created for Fabricate's anniversary show last November.  It's entitled "Home Base" and it depicts one of the places I love most in my hometown of Cincinnati, the Union Terminal.

Here's a closeup.  What I do is take a photo, tweak it on the computer to amp up the colors or distort them to my liking, then print it onto fabric.  After that I back it in batting and start stitching away.  It's sort of like doodling, but muuuuch slooooower.

The plushmaking continues, as well, but not at the break-neck pace it once did.  I'm learning to balance things a bit better, not just run in all welly nelly.  Hooray for personal growth!  What this means is craft shows are out of the picture for now, but probably not forever.  Fabricate and my etsy shop are the best places to find my work, and you know if you ask nicely I'll make you something special.

One new creation in the shop is the Whipper Slapper.  I LOVE this guy, he's ridiculously fun.  He's a monster slap bracelet, and I highly recommend you snatch one up today.  Personal monster protection is all the rage for 2012, my friends!!

So that's it for now.  I love you all, my kittens, and hope your new year is off to a good start!