I mentioned a few weeks back that I had been accepted in to two conventions this year…

Well, here is the second one! Art School Dropout will have a table in Artist Alley at Otakon in July!!!

This is pretty big for me since my family and I have been going to the con the past few years and loving it. Now I wont get to walk around and enjoy it, but I will still get to see all of the amazing cosplay getup’s and just be surrounded by everything anime. I’m super excited!!!

The convention is held in the exact same place as AwesomeCon in DC, except instead of taking over half a floor, Otakon takes over all five floors, the building next door and half of the Marriott on the other side. It’s crazy!

Im trying to decide if I should change up my product lineup for this show, or just add more pastel colors? Your thoughts?

Lucky me, our local conventions are some of the biggest around! They aren’t San Diego ComicCon big, but they still have up to 20 times more foot traffic than any craft show I’ve ever done. I applied to two, and I got in to both! Though I’m only announcing this one for now, and will talk more about the other one (which is way way way bigger than this one) in a few weeks.

So yeah, Art School Dropout will have a table in the new Makers Market at AwesomeCon in April!

It’s held at the Walter E Washington Convention Center in Washington DC. and is THREE WHOLE DAYS of awesomeness! I am really excited and I can’t wait to start adding in more nerdy pieces in to my lineup! Anything you’d like to see?

I am so excited to get back in to all of this!

Keep an eye out for more in the coming weeks…

The last class was all about glazing all the pieces we had made, which was super exciting. I had been itching to bring these babies home.

Once they were home I was still excited and decided each one needed it’s own photo shoot.

So that is what I did!

I have been sharing these on IG and will probably continue with the next batch as well.

So if you’d like to follow along, just check out my InstaGram!

The next session is all about tall cylinders, trays and matching cup sets! I am still so excited!!!!!

Here is my third post dedicated to my toy portrait series! It has been so fun to work on!!

It’s forcing me to think of background and scenery that compliment the toy and not just a plain white background (though sometimes that is the complimentary color) I have missed days here and there, BIG TIME, but that’s fine! This is my project and my schedule. If it takes 400 days to finish the 100 day project, then so be it!! :)

This year has been all about experimenting and growing as an artist.

So this weeks shop update is all about surface design on jewelry. I drew up some wonky shapes, laser cut them out of acrylic, hand painted each one and then covered the tiny abstract painting in resin.

These have been so much fun to make and I love that each and every one is 100% one of a kind.

I also took some of my new ceramics designs and translated them to jewelry. These pieces are designed by me, then laser cut and engraved by me and then I fill in the engraved parts in different colors of paint. The finished pieces are so neat to look at and wear!

You can find all the new jewelry pieces here.

In other news, all of the Crafty Bitches Club tshirts have shipped. Once photos started popping up of people wearing them I got a lot of requests for more. So I have started a second preorder with a delivery of early July. If you want to get in on this second run, just click on over to the order page here.

A month or so ago Cheryl Sleboda of Muppin.com and Sew Much Cosplay put out a call for bloggers to take part in the yearly Spring Clean Your Studio Blog Hop. We were asked to take a photo (or seven) of our studio as it was and then clean it up and share the difference.

Due to being very sick with numerous chronic illnesses, I haven’t really sewn in my studio since last November, so it was a complete and utter disaster. It had turned in to a dumping ground for all my sewing and craft supplies, as well as my daughters supplies (I didn’t know about that part until I started cleaning). I am also redoing my fabric, craft and product storage in my workroom (I know it sounds weird that there are two rooms, but they are rather small and one just couldn’t contain everything) and I was storing a lot of the bins holding my fabric in my studio.

It was ridiculous.

When ever I needed to sew something real quick, I’d just use my machine that I had stashed away in the dining room. Again, ridiculous.

So I jumped on the chance to force myself to clean my studio up. I NEEDED the push so badly.

If you are curious about how bad it was, and then what it looked like afterwards, then keep reading…

So here is the before…

I couldn’t even walk in there!! I had started storing my everyday sewing supplies permanently in my travel sewing box.

Ridiculous.

Are you ready for the reveal?

Eh? Eh?

Well, here you go…

I can see the actual floor now! I can even walk on it. Crazy, right?

I even had room to bring in a ladder and have my husband finally help me hang this metal sign I’ve been hoarding for almost 7 years.

I had bought it when PA Fabrics was going out of business in Lemoyne, PA. My mom would always take me to the Baltimore location and it was a staple in my creative life. So I am beyond happy that I get to have a piece of the shop hanging in my studio.

I also like how much contrast it adds to the kind of hectic wall.

I also finally hung all the acrylic peg hooks I had designed and laser cut for myself. They hold my tools very nicely as well as dowels to hold my washi tape.

My husband and I also took this time to switch out some bookshelves. I had a skinnier dark grey bookshelf under my TV originally, but I switched it out with a wider white one we had in our bedroom. It added storage AND blends in with the wall a bit more.

I also added a shelf in my closet storage to hold my paper cutter.

I’m still trying to decide what to do with the storage on the top shelf in the closet. Do I add another shelf? Do I add a curtain to hide everything? Its just my zipper, Velcro and other bulk item storage, nothing special.

I kind of organized my thread in rainbow order as well. Not all my thread, but my mostly used thread. The rest of it is either stored with my longarm or in storage containers under the pegboard desks.

Do you like my thread storage? I made it using clear nail polish racks attached to patchwork wood.

This is my ironing corner! I couldn’t find an ironing board that I liked, so I made one.

This is a 2′x4′ piece of plywood covered in cotton batting, ironing board fabric and quilting cotton. I then attached it to a rolling metal cart. It has been perfect with my gravity fed iron. Plus being on wheels means I can move it away from the door for the rare chance I may want to use the patio out there (we don’t use it much because it’s long, skinny and uncovered)

Since we are on the subject of things I made because I am picky, here is my design wall!

It is made from two large pieces of 1/2′ thick Homasote (paper board) that I covered in flannel and attached to the wall. It kind of does double duty in the room. The flannel allows for me to use it like a normal everyday design wall, and the Homasote makes it like a cork board. So I can attached finished pieces, papers, inspiration and EPP pieces that wouldn’t normally stick to a design wall.

OK, well that is it for now! Maybe I’ll feel good about this room again and maybe share more photos? OR maybe I’ll share some photos of the other room being redone? Would you like to see that?

If you enjoyed my CLEAN studio and would like to tour other creative’s studio then you should check out the rest of the Studio Spring Clean Blog Hop…

I’m 4 weeks into an 8 week wheel throwing course that I talked about here.

I have been sharing progress shots on IG and thought it would be nice to have them here too. I like to see progress.

It has been so much fun learning and playing in Kristen’s studio. She’s an amazing teacher and very patient with me and my ridiculous ideas.

Like when I want a geometric top on one of my bowls, or when I put a hole in the bottom of a bowl and want to make it into a wind chime. Shes up for it all.

In a few weeks we get to glaze everything and I can not wait to see all these pieces finished!

Life has gotten a little hectic, so I won’t be posting photos AS often, but I’ll try…

Back in January I talked about feeling discontent and wanting to mix things up a bit. The post was titled “Weaving, Looms & Change“.

It was crazy how much changing things up helped me!

So I continued to build on that idea. I learned how to crochet, I started playing with different types of painting and surface design AND the biggest one was I TOOK UP CERAMICS!

Ceramics/Pottery has been on my wish list of things to get better at since high school. I never had the opportunity or access to a studio or class… until now!

It turns out there is a very talented potter who lives right across the Potomac River in Virginia. Less than a 10 minute drive from me. Her name is Kristen Swanson and her classes and finished pieces are in high demand. Seriously, go look at it all. It’s gorgeous.

I somehow wiggled my way onto a wait list along with my friends Joann and Tanya (both fantastic local artist friends) and we were lucky enough to grab an 8 week Monday night class together. The lessons are all about using a wheel, but there is also extra studio time in the week where we can experiment.

I don’t have many pieces to show off yet, but if you follow me on IG, you can keep up in my new adventures! Adventures in CERAMICS!!