Breaking up is hard to do...

This computer thing is ridiculous. Who would've thought changing from PC to Mac would be such a rotten pain in the ass? Don't get me wrong, the more I use this thing, the more I love it. It's just that I have other things I want to do with my spare time; data transferring is not exciting, people.

So I figured I'd get back in the swing of things by posting a few pictures I took for a juried show. We haven't entered many yet, but we hope to as the feedback we're getting makes us think this little Devochka thing could work. The dream of sustaining ourselves rather than working under someone else's thumb is motivating and seemingly attainable. The hardest part seems to be devoting enough time to the 'business' side of business running. I digress. We firmly believe that the photos make or break it in a juried show, so it seemed time to try something besides the standard black background. Why not fabric? After all, we're addicted to it.

We'd really like some feedback on these. We wanted 5 to choose from, and since we make such a wide variety of items, we thought maybe the vignette feel would be good for us. Although, in hindsight, we should've taken some details while we were at it...

It's starting to get late, and there's no better time than now. (That should be my new motto!)

Clockwise from Left, Resin square with hand-cropped photo from a trip to Vegas (this photo will never exist again), Hammered sterling and Moonstone earrings, Shrinky-Dink in resin cab in crocheted copper brooch, and Sterling ring w/ Ocean Jasper and Kyanite

A selection of wallets (wrist and pocket) and one upcycled leather cuff (in back.) We like this photo, but wish the silver leather wallet was scooted up a bit...

A selection of our resin work: Needle Pendants, Bracelets (i wish some of the others were still around to photo), and our new, super fancy Rings!

Some more 'masculine' stuff: acorn nut cufflinks, copper skull ring wrapped in steel, gray leather cufflinks

More! From L: Red skull pendant (we made that mold), resin square w/ cropped photo bracelet, (center)Large(ish) 'carved flowers' pendant, Sterling ring w/ vintage teardrop costume rhinestone, re-used pearl, and vintage glass ring, shrinky pendant (matte side forward) and 2 dyed pearls in sterling ring

I think I'm getting juuuuust sleepy enough that my brain went straight from conversational to factual...

Again we'd really like to hear honest critique. We have some ideas, but it's always nice to have an outside opinion. Oh, and wish us luck on getting in to The Big Crafty!

Adios, PC

there's a Mac in our future!

So, we've decided to ditch the idea of getting our dumb old tower repaired. I'm sorry, boogie, but you were a tired old heap and you know it! Our 'computer guy', Joe (we LOVE you, Joe) is putting a Mac tower together for us! We are so ridiculously excited! Can you say video tutorials, anyone? ...Anyone?

Our main hope is that all the data we haven't been wise enough to back up recently is recoverable...Joe seems to think so.

We're sorry as the dickens about not being able to blog and work our Etsy to death and post on our various favorite sites, but soon enough dear internets, you'll be ours again!

Tomorrow is (hopefully) the delivery day...It's a tweaked up G4 tower.



Old in its own right, but you darling devochkas just haven't got a lot of cash. Besides, we're saving our loot for a fancy schmancy MacBook Pro!!!

Arrrrrrrghhhhh!

Our computer died a painful death a few days ago. We were forced to borrow a computer from a dear friend. (Thanks, Amanda!) We've only got use of it for a coupla days while our old beast is getting repaired. (Thanks, Joe!) Not that I'm all that technologically advanced, but here's the deal...we got error after error after error. Tried repairing windows. Nope. Tried reinstalling. Nope. Tried putting a few new hard drives in. Nope. So it seems a chip on the motherboard dumped for us. WAAAAAAH!

Good thing? We found a hook up on a (being) refurbished MacBook Pro. Let's hope the money finds it's way to us.

There will not be too many blogs for a minute, but keep checking back. We'll let you know as soon as we get up and running again.

The mold-making tutorial will be one of the first things up once we're back on...

For a limited time only!

A short time ago, I rescued a stack of gorgeous!!! leather from ending it's life in the dumpster outside a local furniture store. It seems that one of the makers had discontinued a ton of colors, and the shop was sick of having them lying around.

Now let me say first, that I am vegetarian, have been for years, and do not purchase leather, not even belts, but I couldn't stand to see it get dumped in the landfill. Too shameful. So I scuttled home with my stack and heaved it down in the middle of my work table...

I made a wallet, which I hated and shall not post here or anywhere. Then I started on cuffs. Super sexy, snazzy little cuffs. Modern, wide cuffs. All sorts of cuffs. When the leather's gone I'll start working in fabric again, yum.

Also, as this week's installment of Whip it Out Wednesday! A rubber backed houndstooth belt! It snaps so you can exchange buckles (handy since I make buckles too.)

The leather:




The cuffs:









W!O!W! belt: brown/green super houndstooth cotton on orange rubber. Baby blue bias. (I love me some contrast!):


And finally, I just wanted to take a moment to share with you a podcast that I listen to at work. I am lucky to have a job that allows me to listen to about 7 hours of podcasts daily... CRAFTCAST by Alison Lee. Alison speaks with a different cutting edge artist every week. I call them cutting edge because these are the envelope pushers. These people, who take skill in their chosen medium(s) to a who' nudda level, speak openly and (hopefully) honestly about their creative process, designing new processes, what helps them out of lulls, sparks their engines, and keeps them going even when they're exhausted. There are marketing tips, ideas, and artists I look up to regularly! Her craftcast site is enjoyable, navigable, and inspirational in it's own right. Check it out!

Toodles, fiends!
Vulvaline

It's not that we don't care

Truly, it's not that we don't care about you Madame Blog, it's just that Vulvaline's life has been ridiculous lately. It's not so much something that we should go into detail about on this, our art blog, please just know that once things settle back down a bit we'll get back into our groove.

AK47's a making fool, no doubt! Vulvaline's putzing around trying to keep her fingers busy...here're a couple of items that have made us happy lately:

RESIN BRACELETS!









It's time to roll out...talk to you soon!

I know...I know! I haven't been devoting alot of myself to this thing I call a blog. If I'm going to be honest about it, today's going to be more of the same. We've been super busy on the festival trail, and there've been some bumps in the family road, so the blog's been pushed to the backburner of my brain.

We're going mining today at Emerald Hollow Mine! I'll take photos and fill you in when we get back, wish us luck on some extraordinary finds!

May the art be with you.

W.O.W. Whip it Out Wednesday (catchy logo to come)

So AK-47 and I were brainstorming last night about the blog, you know, trying to come up with something snazzy that would make us sure to post weekly. While brainstorming we whipped out a bunch of new stuff for the (AVL Vintage and Handmade Bazaar)with previously mentioned silver wire. Taa-Daa!

Whip-it Out Wednesday was born. This week's version is sponsored by Thursday: The Day After.


This series of posts is going to have quite a few pictures, well, on the good days, anyways...

Our messy little workstation in the living room:





Earrings galore, mostly salvaged beads, etc:


The Whole Gang and a crocheted bracelet inspired by a shop on etsy I swear I hearted, but can't find now:


and finally! three rings with a side view:

I'm not too sure why things throw themselves outta whack picture-wise, you're along for the ride with me on the learning curve express! Ain't it fun?

Artist to check out for today, July 9, 2009: Antony Gormley! Now, I don't know him personally, and I haven't got an anecdote about him; but his art is stupendous! It's ethereal and haunting. In me, it provokes thoughts of growth, movement, and change. I look forward to conversations about his work.

It's kinda funny

You know, it's kinda funny that AK-47 and I have been working so hard to be able to afford a good amount of sterling...and now that we have it, we are uncomfortable with it. We've been working with the warmth of brass and copper for so long now that the coolness and strength of silver threw us off. It's growing on us slowly, but shoooot.

Photos later!

You better work, bitch!

What exciting new things are coming our way! We were invited to design accessories for a local fashion smash up runway show. 10 -12 designers, one runway in a gorgeous park, and a theme. The girl putting together the show called and came to the studio to look at our finished items, and drawings for new ideas, and asked us to accessorize at minimum her line. We started talking fashion, and she asked us to join in as fashion designers. It'll be a TON of work, but no one in the house of devochka is complaining. So far she has put together 7 designers. When we get booked, then we set a date and have until spring/summer to build our show. Time to get crackin'!

Also, July is a huge month for us. We're doing the Lexington Bazaar this Saturday, July 4 from 11am to 6pm. Then back to work for 2 weeks, then the Bazaar again on the 3rd Saturday of the month, THEN on the weekend of the 25th, (Bele Chere weekend, y'all!) we're doing an independent handicraft/vintage bazaar at The Body on Asheland in Asheville, NC. Being busy is where it's at!

I thought I'd share with you some of the pieces that sold at Comfest last weekend now that we're settled a bit:













Obviously, these photos were taken at different times in different ways. We're still trying to figure out what makes us happy. Any input would be much appreciated.

Art calls!
Vulvaline

ComFest Killed!

This weekend was our biggest show to date! We packed up and traveled to Columbus, OH Community Festival (hereafter known as ComFest.) We were a bundle of nerves trying to make sure we were ready...vertical display ('cause we were sharing space), inventory inventory inventory, cooler full of food so we didn't have to blow hard-earned cash, clothes so we looked cool, display cases, business cards in droves, business card holder, receipt book, apron, tools and supplies to work on in down time. WHEW! That list is seriously not even the tip of the iceberg that got stuffed into our rented Toyota Corolla.

The crowd at ComFest was amazing! We were quite well received by the Festival Goers, as well as by the people with whom we shared our booth.

We made enough money to expand our selling like hotcakes ring collection to include sterling silver. Up to now we've been using solely brass, copper, and steel. The price point on silver is higher, this is an allergic world, man! It's just so darn expensive to get going with rings (earwires take a lot less silver. We also used profits to invest in gemstones, new fabric, a shade umbrella, bead/stone cases, and more festivals! Our little design business is growing so quickly!

AK-47 and I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone who stopped by our space. Your compliments meant the world to us and help us keep working even when we're exhausted. There will be new things coming quickly to our etsy site.

Also, due to popular demand, devochka will be expanding to include men's/unisex items including rings, cufflinks, and money clips. They were so popular we sold out!

I'm being beckoned, so more later. Thank you all again!

It is time

Hello, welcome to devochka's blog. This blog will be dedicated to all things artful, forward thinking, low brow, subversive and/or down right vulgar. We will be linking to people, places, trends, and ideas that we find inspiring, touching, thought provoking, humorous, and/or motivating. Also, we will be providing tutorials of some of the processes we use, and sharing photos of our new works. We hope that you take inspiration from this and use them to your best advantage.

I suppose we may as well begin by introducing ourselves, devochka is a. kender (AK47) and c. kibler (Vulvaline). We are a shameless dyke couple living, working, arting and growing together in Asheville, NC. Recently we started doing the festival scene locally, and it has been working well for us. Our company is growing, and we are pushing to keep the momentum up. As of now, we still work full time, so it is a struggle sometimes to meet the requirements of running and promoting a home-based business. However the more we do, the stronger we grow.

As you can see, our etsy site consists of mainly jewelry at the moment, but our ADD fingers touch everything at different times. We are painters, sculptors, fabric artists (wearable and otherwise), metal workers, fashion designers, graphic designers, and on...

That's enough about us, you will learn more about us than we ever imagined sharing through the life of this blog, we're sure, but now it's time to move on to a couple of artists who inspire us...

First: Rachel McKay

Rachel McKay has some naughty needles, for sure. Her needles attack a canvas with humor, grace, and vulgarity. 3 of our favorite things!!! I, Vulvaline first met Rachel on Craftster when I fawned all over a video game based cross stitch Rachel had posted. The fawning continues to this day. I am not much of a follower, no doubt, but I have checked back into Confessions of a Crafter and Rachel's Etsy Shop regularly for a hearty laugh, a huge smile, and inspiration by the buckets full.

Her blog is an invitation to her personal life, and she writes with no holds barred. Her blog reminds me to stop and take notice of the things in my life that are sacred, reminds me sometimes to not take things for granted. (I'm pretty good at that, generally, but still it's nice to be reminded once in a while.) Rachel's etsy shop is getting noticed! She can barely post a new piece before it gets gobbled up by a fan lying in wait. It's true! Keyboard cat went in under 30 minutes if I'm not mistaken. Her prices are beyond reasonable, and her needlework is fantastic. She obviously loves what she does!

And now onto our Second artist of the day.

Alli Good! AK47 and I crashed Alli's art opening at the The Sattelite Gallery in Asheville, NC. We had seen a small flyer for the show, but it slipped our mind in a haze of summer sweat, but AK47 got off work the night of the opening and called me and ordered me to get my ass downtown. So I did. We met outside the gallery and as we entered the gallery, my eyes widened quickly. Alli's images are colorful and crisp. Her canvases vary substantially in size, the images on them are beautiful in the traditional sense of the word. On the surface, her work is humorous, but if you let the paintings speak to you, they speak of flaws on display, self-consciousness, femininity/feminism, and acceptance. We were both moved. Unfortunately as broke-ass artists ourselves, we were unable to purchase anything at the time of the show and I was heartbroken about it. I wanted a Drunk Girl and a Random Thought UNTIL NOW!!! I was out and about in downtown Asheville promoting our wares, when I walked into the Lexington Ave. Bizarre Bazaar and lo and behold! Alli was there! I beelined to her table, perused a hot moment and POUNCED! During smart conversation with Alli, I purchased neither a drunk girl nor a random thought. I purchased "I Am So Lonely" a set of 9 small paintings of a girl saying I am so lonely. They're simple, they're heartbreaking, they were perfect! AK47 squealed with excitement and tore around the house looking for the perfect spot for them. We can't wait to see Alli at the next Bazaar Saturday, July 4. We'll have a booth, and hopefully it will be near hers so we can spend all hard earned money on the LPs she's now painting!

Time to art, thanks for putting up with my wordiness.

Vulvaline