hey all…

hope your holiday shopping is going well, but if you’ve hit the wall and need some fresh inspiration [i sense shameless self-promotion in the air…] come and check out the portobello west fashion + art market this sunday.

yep… it’s my last show of the year and i’ve got some lovely new pieces again, plus i’ve been creating art jewelry using digital versions of my original artwork. the art-to-wear jewelry pieces are made with silver plated nickel bezels ranging in size from 1" square to 1/2" wide x 3" long, resin encased mini-reproductions of my artwork and gorgeous, chunky silver plated rollo chain. i really love these pieces and hope that you will too!

the main focus of the show is of course my original canvas artwork and i’ve created another 12 new pieces just for the show. the sizes range from 6×6 all the way up to 12×12 and everything in between. i’m trying to finish a large [really large!] piece in time for the show, but i don’t want to rush it… so you may see a really large collage or maybe not. you’ll just have to come by to see for yourself =)

i’m also taking a big dive into the portbello west market for 2008. i’ve just sent in my contract to do all their 2008 monthly shows! ack! am i insane or what? ah well… time will tell. the market runs from march to december, the last sunday of every month. what i like about that is that it will force me to continue experimenting and developing my techniques and it will keep me making artwork throughout the year! love that. and i’m a girl who needs deadlines, so this is perfect for me. it’s a big commitment and i’m pretty pumped about it. keep your collective fingers crossed for me…

i’m going to be resuming [or at least trying to] my fresh friday mosaics, i miss them. lately i just haven’t had the time [hmmm, can’t possibly imagine WHY?]. so you’ll get a bit of mosaicky goodness on friday, maybe something festive even! in the meantime, that’s it for now… a shameless self-promoting plug, a bit of eyecandy and mosaic promises. have a good night y’all!

last year, terry and i decided it was time to radically change our christmas decor.

part of it [the change] was necessity due to a change in our home’s living room [square footage] as opposed to our bowling alley condo livingroom. part of it was just needing something new and fresh.

we bought a tall, narrow, pre-lit tree last year. it’s black and looks amazing. we went with an all new theme too… all pink, lime green, orange and purples. we bought all new mercury glass ornaments that are a combination of matte mercury glass [love it!] with tone on tone flocking and some with a bit o’ sparkle in the form of vintage glass glitter. the look is wicked. fresh and modern but with traditional shapes and ‘types’ of ornaments. the black tree looks more like a really dark green and is truly very sophisticated looking. we’re so posh LOL!

so who knew that this season, a full year later, the HOT colour trend is pink. albeit soft, pale pinks, not our hot magentas. but still. we’re on trend, on target and it’s starting to look mighty festive in our living room and foyer.

the next task on the list is our outdoor lighting now that our annual fall/winter pruning has taken place. terry will be working on the lighting this week and we’ll get to put out our new penguin/igloo character set [purchased at costco of course] in the front yard. yay!

it’s kinda bittersweet around here this holiday season. last year, at this time, we were struggling with a very very ill and dying 3 year old kitty - my Mackenzie. she was our primary focus and we were doing everything we could to nurse her back to health. we miss her everyday and thank god she didn’t have to suffer discomfort for long. putting a beloved pet to sleep on december 23rd is truly a heartbreaking and devastating thing to have to do. talk about killing the holiday spirit…

this year is such a contrast. we have a happy healthy pair of kitkats [kodi and baby lulu] and the biggest worry we have now is making sure the christmas tree stays UP. this is lulu’s first year with a christmas tree since she ‘just’ turned 1 year old and the novelty of seeing a tree in our house is slowing starting to wear off. needless to say there have been a lot of ‘no’s and a lot of spritzing with the water gun. she’ll figure it out eventually and is getting better with it everyday.

i hear ornaments moving on the tree… time to get out the water bottle again. goodnight all…enjoy this bit of festive inspiration and pick up the latest issue of Blueprint [a fave magazine] for 2007 holiday trends.

XO Christina

Pink Christmas, originally uploaded by studiowerx.

hey all…

well, i completed my first art and fine craft fair last week with my original artworks. the nutshell recap?  feedback was great and really positive [yay for me!] but the weather [snow storm all day] and the neighbourhood [waaaaaaay out in the suburbs] kinda dampened the buying trend for most of us artists.

the snow storm was a nasty, wet vancouver style storm. that means it snows, gets slushy, then freezes and causes general mayhem and chaos on the roads. it also means that most vancouverites and suburbanites who are even the least bit intimidated by snow didn’t venture out to our show and dampened sales considerably. also, the suburban, somewhat rural nature of the location where the art market was held really isn’t the marketplace for my original artworks. my themes and designs tend to be more trendy and fashion oriented and in my opinion are better suited to downtown vancouver, not the ‘burbs. ah well, i had to try right?

overall though i’m happy. i sold some original artwork, sold some funky resin filled pendants with reproductions of my artwork inside and the feedback [even from the country folk] was really good. comments like gorgeous, beautiful, intriguing and vibrant were the norm. i did find it interesting though that a few of the artists [and buyers] thought these were photoshop reproductions and not until they held the original in their hands did they realize [or believe] that each piece was an original. trust me… my painfully sore right hand [thumb and index finger in particular] can attest to the fact that each and every piece is labouriously HANDMADE and finished. there are no skipping steps for the computer and believe me, i’ve considered it LOL! but it’s the handmade, serendipitious nature of the process and each piece that appeals to me.

so… in preparation for my last show of the year, next sunday december 16, i’m working on yet another batch of new art and thought i would include a little teaser just for you. i really love this new one and especially the ultrafine crackle i was able to achieve. it gives the artwork great visual texture and adds an element of distressing and shabby chicness that i love.

i hope i get to see some of you local vancouverites who bailed on last week’s show, because of the snow, at my next art market - portobello west. here are the details:

portobello west
paperWERXings: Original Mixed Media Collage artworks and accessories
date: december 16, 2007 from 12 to 7pm
where: Rocky Mountaineer Station, 1755 Cottrell Street, Vancouver
artists: dozens of high-quality, local artists with an emphasis on fashion and design