Friday Feature: Krystal from Random Wishes

For today's feature I got to interview Krystal. Her shop is called Random Wishes, here is a link: http://www.etsy.com/shop/kryslew1987 Krystal has many interests and talents, and her shop features an eclectic mix of beautiful candles, art and jewelry.

Tell me about yourself.

I grew up in the country on a farm. I learned from both my mother and my grandmother how to do crafty things. As a child I always wanted to be an artist. I would draw pictures for my family members and they would proudly display them in their homes. During High School I took all the art classes I possibly could. I absolutely loved it. I wish I had gone to college for art, instead I went for Culinary Arts and Baking and Pastry. I do have a degree in both. I currently work in Cooper's Seafood House in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Tell me about your store.

I started my store about a year ago. I was not sure on how I was going to do it, but asked around to different people and they showed me what to do and how to make things better. I have to say my store has improved in the last couple of months. I got a new camera which made my pictures better, and I have developed my skills a bit better and my items have sold more. I sell mostly jewelry, but I just started doing custom candles. I love doing candles, while making them they make my house smell so great and it lingers for hours. I also do paintings and knitted items. The knitted items will be in more as the weather gets cooler.

What inspires you?

The world inspires me. I grew up in the country and learned to appreciate the little things. I see a lot if not all things as art. I twist things to become my own and create something wonderful. My art teacher once told me the world is your canvas us it to your full advantage. My family also inspires me. They tell me what they like and I tend to put my own twist into it and it becomes a great work of art.

Do you have a strong support system? Who is your biggest cheerleader?

My family has always been there for me no matter what. My mom is my biggest fan. She is always asking what I have that is new. My Aunt Ann is always wondering what I have in candle scents and my father is 100% behind finding me a physical place to sell my items. I have a wonderful boyfriend who encourages everything I do. He is always telling me how great I am doing and telling me to never give up no matter how much stress I am under. My support system is very large and I am very grateful to have them.

What is your favorite food?

Well I went to School to be a chef. My pallet has developed a lot since I was 18. My favorite food used to be anything Italian. I loved Fettuccine Alfredo and Spaghetti. at least once a week I would eat one or the other. Now though I love sushi. I love to get a spicy kani salad or calamari salad with a rainbow roll and edema-me. I love trying new things.

How would you describe your style?

I would say that I am very random. I try to do different things all the time. Hence the name Random Wishes. I like to do a number of different things. I paint, I make candles, I make jewelry, and so much more. This way I never get bored and I always have someone to make smile.

Please visit Krystal's shop, clicking on any picture will take you to her store, and have a GREAT weekend!

♥Erica

Adventures in T-shirt land: Thoughts from the workbench

SO,

One thing I have learned about my two year old, is that it is usually easier to let her make a mess and clean it up later than try to distract her with her own toys, which would also make a mess if she was interested, but she usually isn't interested in her own toys.

This was the case today . I received a package with some fabric in it and she really took to a fabric with anchors on it and ran around the house in her diaper playing with it. I got some striped fabric from www.etsy.com/shop/christiecottage that I think will look awesome with it. I also took down my tub of buttons and let her play with that... which she really enjoyed, and I am not looking forward to cleaning later.

speaking of Autumn, I got to make some cute things for her as well this week.

It started with a package of onesies that was marked 18 months but actually had 24 month onesies in it. So, someone ordered an 18 month onesie, I made a 24 month onesie, and was lucky enough to catch it before shipping the wrong size. Autumn is almost 2 and can wear a 24 month onesie, but I prefer onesies so I cut off the bottom and surged the edge to make a tee shirt. Way cute. I liked it so much that I made another one.

Autumn has food on her forehead, and moments after this photo it was all over her shirt, too... and I am not sure if you noticed, but that was the screen from the picture I put up yesterday, and of course, here is my first shirt with that screen:

Which is available now in my shop.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/59508212/wind-up-bird-tee-hand-dyed-and-printed

Now for something exciting! I just ordered a chemical. What it does is remove natural materials when you put it on your fabric and heat set it. I have been having a very difficult time finding burnout fabric like I use for my featherweight scarves, so difficult that I have actually removed many of them from my store because I wont be able to make them if someone orders them. This chemical removes natural materials from fabric and leaves the man made materials, so ideally, with a cotton poly blend fabric I will be able to make my own burnout material. I also realized that I can probably screen print my designs with this stuff... and that means I can burnout my designs instead of only printing them with ink... and that is pretty cool...

See you all later!

♥Erica

Running...

This weekend I got to fit all of the damas dresses I put in my post last Wednesday and I was very happy to see that they all fit well. We also got to see how the display in Stilo Lifestyle looked... and it looked REALLY awesome. I was really amazed at what a great job Stephanie did! She displayed my items way better than I ever could! Everything looked so... professional.

I went for a run the yesterday... that was wierd... I plan on doing more of it. This online conversation occured:

Me:I went for a run today. It made me wish I had an Ipod or some portable music device.

Friend one: I can't imagine running without earphones, tbh.

Friend 2: get an ipod shuffle. i might sell my iPod touch and buy a shuffle. they are easier to manage while running, cheaper too

Me: thanks! I just need something to distract me from the fact that I am doing something I hate ... but hoping not to hate w/ time

Friend 2: i hate running, have always hated running, will always hate running but it's just about the only way i can tone/drop weight

Not promising that I will start to like running, but I will stick with it anyway...

Here is a sketch colored in gimp, cause it is fun. I burned a screen of this image too, I havens printed it yet, probably will to show tomorrow though.

Craft Inc.

Hello!

First of all, Thank you to Jacki over at ChristieCottage for featuring two of my shirts in her two for Tuesday blog post... also, if you already visit Jacki's blog you may have noticed that she hosts giveaways AND that the two for Tuesday is a hint about who's Item she may be giving away! Make sure to go back to her blog tomorrow to enter to win your choice of $16.00 and under tees in my store!

I recently read a book in preparation for jumping into the uncertain waters of being a business owner and entrepreneur. (by the way, day two of "quitting my day job" is going pretty well, though I still don't work fast enough to keep up with my to-do list! )

I really enjoyed craft inc! It has a ton of information that I didn't even know to look for! It is also surprisingly well written. This kind of book has the potential to be a borefest but it was fun to read in addition to very helpful. I definitely recommend it to fellow crafters, weather they are interested in making their craft business a their full time job or not!

Also, I burned some new screens recently, and I thought I would share one of my drawings (this was scanned at the photocopy setting and then colored in with bucket fill for fun)

... and what kind of blog post would it be without some pictures of autumn to satiate the grandparents who read the blog!

Thanks for reading! I think you are extra special fancy!

♥Erica

Bearing Necklaces galore.

This weekend Adam and I purchased a table at the Duke City Derby bout since I decided it was not really safe to play knowing that I am pregnant.

We made 16 or so new bearing necklaces for it, and since we were displaying all of the necklaces we needed a way to display them all.

This is what we came up with:

We made a stand out of my FIRST pair of derby skates!

When I say "we" I mean I said " I have an old pair of skates we can use" and Adam did the rest.

It is probably the best imaginable way to display skate bearing pendants.

I have never done a table or anything like this, so I don't really know what is good for sales, but we made over $300 in the four hours we were there, so I am pretty pleased. I ran a special on shirts and that went over VERY well and we sold several bearing necklaces as well. After the booth fee and supplies I would say I made about $240.

In other exciting news, we just got a wholesale order- our first- for 20.00 bearing pendants... so that is a lot of work, but the order is for other derby folks, so that is awesome.

And what kind of post would this be without a random picture of Autumn?

;)

Xoxo

Erica

Black Market Gallery.

As I mentioned, last week I set up my art at an art gallery. The Black Market Gallery is awesome. It is a collective that showcases young artists, musicians and designers. It started a few years ago when the founder Josh Jones was throwing up awesome one night art shows every few months. I was lucky enough to be involved back then. I was able to do the first three shows, but it was a little too much for me to do them and roller derby. I also eventually moved to Portland for a while. I am so excited to be involved again!

I put up a variety of items. I had acrylic paintings, watercolors, and prints. I also brought some shirts, arm warmers and bags. Not sure how well you can see, but the pillows are a new item, and I am working on a few more, and I will be listing them in acrylicandsteel soon.

The first Friday reception was a ton of fun. It ran from 8pm to 12pm but Autumn decided we needed to leave around 10.


She WAS having fun... another artist let her play with some markers and a notebook, and she enjoyed dancing to the music. When she started getting tired she really wanted to run around and pull things off the walls.

The Other art was awesome, and the MC's were very good. I plan on continuing to participate, and hope soon to be able to put in some volunteer time so that the gallery can be open more often.

We had a roller derby game in Taos this weekend too, and it was my last travel game. I found out on Saturday that I am pregnant, and while it is hard to stop playing roller derby I am VERY excited to be having another baby!

Talk To you later!

Xoxo,
♥Erica

Treasury of the Day:seeing red

seeing red

• 

  Antistar -Original Larg...

  AstralArts

  $2,500.00 USD

• 

  Set of 10 Red and Pink ...

  cynthiavardhan

  $200.00 USD

• 

  Handmade Bouquet Saddle...

  afropumpkin

  $550.00 USD

• 

  especially red wedding ...

  Weddinggowns

  $1,988.00 USD

• 

  Take The Plunge Necklace

  pkkdesign

  $400.00 USD

• 

  Red Airplane Jetsetter ...

  madelinzero

  $75.00 USD

• 

  Tattooed Lady doll

  mck254

  $250.00 USD

• 

  Restored Royal Quiet De...

  retrorubbish

  $450.00 USD

• 

  Open Neck Pleat Trim Ja...

  prizysebastian

  $145.00 USD

• 

  elenor the large elephant

  rabbitsmoon

  $56.50 USD

• 

  Set of Porcelain Cups

  kristenkswanson

  $72.00 USD

• 

  Circus b'zerkus handmad...

  zerkahloostrah

  $365.00 USD

• 

  Native Roots Run Deep, ...

  Niceharpy

  $3,000.00 USD

• 

  vintage Rocketbuster co...

  vintagecowbo...

  $699.99 USD

• 

  Red Hot Chili Pepper

  lilithist

  $119.00 USD

• 

  Drips - Microfiber hand...

  MonkeyandSeal

  $26.00 USD

Hello!

My art room has had many recent additions. I got an old adjustable Acme Dress form on ebay, a newer (but not nearly as nice) adjustable dress form, and finally took matters into my own hands and got my serger fixed.

It is an awesome machine, a Wilcox and Gibbs industrial serger that my best guess (which I am getting from the manuals copyright date) dates it in the early 70's.


I bought this thing when I was living in Portland. I found it on craigslist for a pretty good price. The lady said she couldn't figure out how to thread it , but that it worked. We looked everywhere online for instructions on how to thread it and ended up buying a manual from www.relics.com . We carefully followed the instructions and when we had threaded it and unthreaded it several times we still couldn't get it to stitch. Thinking we were threading it wrong we took it in to a sewing machine repair store to have it threaded, and have them show us what we were doing wrong. It took the woman over an just to thread the thing, and when she was done she said that the timing was off on the loopers and then didn't fix it for some reason. It has pretty much sat stored since then.

I ended up going with a business called Adjust and Time here in Albuquerque. His price was the best in town, and on top of that he was a mobile business. AWESOME. He did a great job, and I am very impressed. I also found out that the place in Portland didn't even thread the machine correctly. GAH.


I am working on adding a collection of made to order sewn items to Caustic Threads, hence all of the additions to my workroom. My beautiful and sweet friend amber is going to be modeling for me (in my pictures) so I decided to wrap her up in duct tape. This is a good way to get a very close mold of some one's body, and I can use this duct tape form now to fit the clothes without her having to come in for fittings all of the time- and that is good because we are both pretty busy.

I have also finished two new paintings for the Black Market Gallery.








This one is actually not quite complete in this picture, though it is now.



I haven't titled either of them yet.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

xoxo!
♥Erica