Friday, March 29, 2019

Watercolor Seahorse

Working with watercolors and digital painting. This is one of the sea life paintings I've put up on Zazzle. It can be customized for other phone cases just by clicking on the link and going there. As of now, customizing is only for some iPhone and Samsung Galaxy versions. 


Watercolor Seahorse iPhone XR Case
by trgatesart

Wednesday, January 09, 2019

It's 2019! I hope this year brings plenty of hope and happiness for all.

Snowflakes fall outside my window right now in New York. Only a couple weeks ago I played with the wood storks and ibises in the Florida sun. 

Young wood stork and ibises. Very friendly birds. 

 My husband and I try to visit his father in Florida every year. While there, we usually find something, or some place, we haven't gone to before. This time Brett found a Tandy Leather store in Tampa. Even though I've bought from them online and have been to Syracuse many times, I'd yet to visit any of the physical stores until now.

Tandy Leather Factory in Tampa, Florida


I should have taken more photos. The store has shelves of tools, findings, dyes, and more not shown here. Let me tell you, Home Depot is my husband's candy store. Tandy leather is mine. I'll have to check out the one in Syracuse next time I'm in the area.

On the way to Tampa, I told myself I was just going to buy the vegetable tanned leather I needed for a few projects. And I was good, after taking my time to look at almost everything and making a mental list of items I'll eventually buy, I only bought the 4-5 oz. Veg. Tan. But, it was superior oak. Splurged a little for the better stuff. Hey, I'm a gold member and it was on sale. Even better! As I was leaving, Brett insisted I get more as his Christmas present for me. I ended up with a nice double shoulder veg. Tan that was on manager special. It was nice to be able to pick out the leather myself. More leather projects for me. Yay!

Wishing all of you a great and productive new year!

-Trace

Friday, September 28, 2018

Tormented Mind Sanctuary at the Oakdale Mall

Last Saturday, my daughter, Kirstin, and I were among the many craft and yard sale vendors set up in front of the shops at the Oakdale Mall in Johnson City, NY. This was our first time selling at the Garage & Craft sale. Most of the craft vendors were spread out from the middle to the end by Payless. Meanwhile, the garage sale vendors filled up the other side of the mall. 

Set up near GNC and Verizon, our tables were a mixture of Kirstin and her husband, Josh, handmade items and my own.

Kirstin and Josh from Tormented Mind Sanctuary just finished setting up as people were starting to come in the mall. 

Kirstin's main and the best seller at our tables were her handmade miniature notebooks. The covers, made from commonly found trading cards, caught the eye of both children and adults alike. She also had earrings and necklaces she made from comic books. Plus magnets made with all of ours and my other daughter's, Megan, art.

One of Kirstin's notebooks using a trading card. (Don't worry. None of the hard to find, or expensive ones were used.)

For this craft sale, I brought some of my leather pouches, earrings, witch hats, bookmarks, and leather phone cord wraps. It's always a guess of what might sell well depending on the craft show, or Con. While people fingered through the cord wraps, no one bought any this time. Same with the witch hats. But the jewerly, leather pouches, and bookmarks did well. Some of the leather earrings I made the night before sold quickly. 

We try to bring extra when we sell. Hands on people are expected. There's always that individual who will pick up a notebook and bend the cover out of shape before deciding not to buy it. Or try to stretch out a pouch and sniff it to make sure it's actual leather. We did get some of the usual, “I can make that,” comments. Face it, all crafters and artists hear that. One person took a bunch of pictures and notes. I don't know for what though. While another woman stopped to go through her purse as she set it on top of my witch hats as if it didn't matter. 

Still, most of the people, sellers and buyers, were nice and friendly. Such a mixture of vendors. I didn't see anyone selling the same type items other than jewelry. Even that had a big variety. I would have liked to look around at other tables more, but the mall grew crowded. More so towards the end of the event. We had a lot people come to our table. 

I'm sure we'll do this again next year. It's local, which makes it far easier to go. I know what I'd take to sell that would do better. The only artwork I brought were on the magnets and bookmarks. A few people wanted to see my actual paintings and prints. I think my leather purses would have done well here too.

There's always next time.

-Trace

P.S. Bare with me. I know it's been a while since I've posted. There is more to come.