Getting Ready for The Port Clinton Holiday Makers Tour

November 7, 2017Tammi SloanComment

I've been keeping busy in the studio most afternoons getting ready for The Port Clinton Holiday Makers Tour. It's December 2nd from 10-4. It's been something that we at Blueschool Arts have been wanting to do for a couple of years. There are five businesses participating this year - Abundant Earth Fiber Mill, Blueschool Arts (of course), Island Nosh, Make Whidbey and Whidbey Glass Gallery. This is our first Makers Tour. It is happening the same weekend as the Clinton Winter Market, which the Clinton Chamber of Commerce organizes. We really hope The Makers Tour is something that will take off and bring awareness about the growing arts community in downtown Clinton. For more details, click here for a map/flyer that Karin Bolstad, one of my Blueschool pals, designed. It's pretty cool!

In addition to pins, I've been creating all sorts of new earring designs using painting enamels and acrylic enamel with the sgraffito technique. I like how the combination of these two materials has taken me in a fresh, new direction.

I am also playing with prong setting some of my enameled cabochons that I made during my silk screening class. Here is an example of one I did yesterday. I embedded the silver wires in the soldering block, tight up against the silver ring I made. It really made the process pretty simple. Practice makes perfect. I can hear my mother saying that. Soldering is something that takes a lot of practice. There is so much to learn about how to hold things together and how much heat to apply and different types of fluxes, but that's for another post.

Resurfacing from a long hiatus...

October 10, 2017Tammi SloanComment

It's been a while, and a lot has happened since my Online Garage Sale. I spent a month in New Hampshire. My father passed away. A week later I went back to work. I spent a month taking an online class to learn how to silkscreen enamel. And now I'm trying to make sense of life. Life doesn't stop. Grief continues.

I wish I knew how to channel my grief into my work, to create a body of work that pays homage to my father. I guess it's too soon. So I've been working with some simple little line drawings and graphic images to create several sweet little lapel pins for the holidays. I guess they make me happy. Maybe that's progress!

Lapel pins with decals, silk screened images and sgraffitto designs.

Online Garage Sale

July 1, 2017Tammi SloanComment

My Dad being wheeled out of the hospital by his nurse.

My online garage sale has been a smash hit. As many of you already know, I found out my Dad has Acute Myeloid Leukemia just before I launched the sale. With that in mind I decided to change the structure of the sale, to speed it up, not knowing when I would go back east to see him.

The long and short of it is he is doing great, which is such a relief to hear! He spent two weeks in the hospital and went through five rounds of chemo. He went back to the hospital yesterday for his blood work, and it looks good. He goes to a clinic closer to home next Thursday for more blood work. If he can handle it, they will do 5 days of chemo every four weeks. He seems to have tolerated the first 5 rounds really well.

So, I'm going to continue the expanded garage sale as long as I can at 36 pieces a week. I have a shoe box full of some of my older styles. As I grow and my style changes, it's harder to keep the old styles around. They are still wonderful, but they don't look like my work to me. Consequently, I like to see them fly off to loving homes!

If you haven't signed up for my newsletter, do so, and you will receive the secret link to my online garage sale each Monday morning. Only my fans get in on the deals!

PS - You have to act fast. Things on the secret sale page poof away really fast.

Making Lemonade - The Saga of the Artists' Garage Sale Fiasco

June 15, 2017Tammi SloanComment

When Life Gives
You Lemons

Make Lemonade!

So, hey. Do you ever have one of those days when you wished you didn't get out of bed? That was my Saturday. I spent two weeks getting ready for the Schack Arts Center Artists' Garage Sale. I had my list and I checked it twice, or more than twice really! I was all packed before it was dark, the night before. That was a first for me.

Unfortunately, I forgot to put my purse on the list. We had gotten all the way down to the ferry - a 25 minute ride from our house before I realized it was missing. It had my phone and credit card reader in it! OMG!

There was no way to go home and get it and make it to the show in time to load in. I told my husband to just go home. I was so stinking mad at myself! He was the faithful driver extraordinaire. So, we headed home.

So, we decided TO MAKE LEMONADE out of a crappy situation. We decided to unpack the gear and go to the show anyway, to catch some good deals. It was still early after all. We've never been able to walk the show together. We usually tag team it. Steven goes around looking for deals and comes back to let me know what he has discovered. Sometimes I get to the deals before they are gone - like last year when I got a huge sheet of copper for $5, but sometimes I miss out.

We were able to hit the booths before the show technically opened. Some of the vendors were still setting up. One, a sweet lady from Portland, had barely started unpacking. She was ready to get rid of everything. She gave us a bunch of cool stuff, like an amazingly cool tool box.

So, to make a long story short, and in keeping with making lemonade, I've decided to offer all of my fans, whom I love and many of which found me shopping instead of vending, a great opportunity. I'm going to start listing twelve pieces of jewelry each week at GARAGE SALE PRICES. The one thing I ask of you, is that if you aren't already on my mailing list, you sign up. You'll get exclusive access to this special promotion. This is an opportunity just for my fans. You get first dibs on some really great deals. What I don't sell at the end of this promotion gets recycled.

Here's how it works...

You'll get an email once a week for 8 weeks, starting Monday, June 26th. There will be a link on a secret page on my website with the 12 pieces of jewelry available that week. Don't wait too long - whoever gets it first, gets it first. ONLY MY FANS have access to this secret page on my website. Each item on my secret page the first week is only $5 plus shipping. I will take down the listings that don't sell (if there are any), so don't dally.

Each week, a new collection will be posted to my secret page. The price will increase by $5 each week. For example: Week #1 all items are $5 each. Week #2 all items are $10 each. Week #3 all items are $15 each and so on...

As a special gift for indulging me and signing up to my mailing list, I will email you a free, downloadable print of my IT'S A JUNGLE OUT THERE tiny house. This is one of my favorite tiny house paintings. It's part of my Dream House Series. It has particular significance these days, given the political climate! Here's a sneak peak at this super cute print...