First Ever City Sale!

I'm having a sale on a city! This is the first time I've offered my city prints, tea towels, cards, and pillows at a reduced rate. This sale is all about the city of St. Louis Mo so just go to my site and type in the words STLSALE when checking out with any STL merchandise to receive your 20% off!
Sale ends March 8.

www.tammysmithdesign.com

Time to Start the Giveaways Again!

I think it's high time to start giving things away again don't you? And since it's almost Valentines Day, giving away a print of the City of Love seems appropriate! Just click on the link below to enter to win my 11 x 14 archival print of Paris--winner will be chosen at random next Friday, February 6th. http://bit.ly/1wtETXx

Giveaway #5: Famous Buildings Tote Bag

Catherine was the winner of the Famous Bohemians tea towel! This week's giveaway is for the Famous Buildings tote bag. The winner will be chosen at random on Nov. 19. Good luck!

http://bit.ly/1wtETXx

Countdown to Chitown 5: Navy Pier Park

Navy Pier was built in 1916 at a cost of 4.5 million and was built to serve as not only a cargo facility for lake freighters but also as docking space for passenger steamers. At it's outermost tip, parts of the pier were designed to serve as cool places for public gathering and entertainment before air conditioning existed. Throughout the years, it has served as a commercial pier, a Navy training center, college classroom, and now is Chicago's number one tourist attraction.

How Do You Doodle?

If it's on FastCo, it must be true. Right up there with daydreaming, doodling is now being touted for it's mind-freeing attributes. According to FastCo, recent scientific research indicates that seemingly absent-minded tracings can help the brain process and retain information and solve problems. While doodling can improve retention for information that you're hearing, it doesn't always work when trying to remember visual images while doodling.

(Source:http://www.fastcodesign.com/3033893/asides/why-you-should-doodle-more?partner=newsletter)

Personally I'm a fast, manic, somewhat messy doodler. My doodles combine my lists for the day, product ideas, show booth ideas, and usually architecture or faces. Often when I look back at them it takes me awhile to even figure out what they ARE, which is fine as the very nature of doodling is that they don't have to be ABOUT anything. (The Virgo in me always feels like I have to be accomplishing something, so I look back at the doodles in hopes that some stray hair of genius somehow escaped and landed on the page as a really fantastic concept.)
Here's some of my doodles--although showing them to you feels a bit like going to the grocery store in a swimsuit. What do your doodles look like? Are you more of a Zentangular person or a structured sketcher?

The Famous Bridge Series

Last week I posted the work from many Brooklyn artists celebrating the 130th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge so today I thought it would be fitting to show my take on that famous bridge, along with 4 other very famous bridges that I have always loved. This collection started with a wire sculpture (as many of my collections do) and then it kept growing and GROWING to include DIY embroidery poster kits (which I'm proud to say will soon be on the Uncommon Goods website!), pillow kits, notepads, embossed postcards, posters, and tea towels. Click on the links here to go to my Etsy shop or here for my website to purchase any of these products below.

       Brooklyn Bridge wire plate sculpture

Famous Bridges-DIY Embroidered Poster kits sold individually

Included in the DIY embroidery poster kit are 2 skeins thread, needle and 

simple instructions

Detail of fully stitched poster cut out like a paper plate

                                           

Famous Bridges Pillow Kits

Each pillow kit comes with 2 skeins thread, needle, and easy instructions

4" x 6" notepads

Famous Bridges embossed postcard set of 10

Brooklyn Bridge embossed poster

Famous Bridges tea towel

KC Series: #2--The Kauffman Center

The Kauffman Center stands overlooking our city but not facing downtown or towards the river, rather it faces the creative hub of the city-the Crossroads District. It's a stunning building designed by Moshe Safdie, world-famous architect. When you stand inside the Kauffman you can look out through the glass wall that makes up one side of the building itself. At night the city lights dot the dark and in the daytime you have a view that's far reaching yet more intimate than from a skyscraper.
This piece is 12" x 12" x 1.5" and is mounted on gallery canvas and signed by me. It's for sale on my site here:http://bit.ly/1nAJ9xE

Renegade Craft Fair: Chitown and my new City Series

Just got word the other day that I've been accepted to the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago on Sept. 6-7! I've long been a fan of RCF and have been to this particular fair in Wicker Park several years ago, before these fairs grew so popular. It may have been small then, but I went with some artist friends of mine and we all loved the unique vendors that they chose, so I'm honored to be a part of that tradition. To celebrate that, I'm making a new series of city scenes in wire that will be followed by art prints, stitch kits and more. I had to do one for Chicago to announce the RCF (and I'll definitely do more) but for right now I'm switching back to my hometown. We have so many beautiful buildings here in KC that it's hard to choose which come first. I chose the Country Club Plaza because it's the reason why I live where I do (which is about 1 mile from the CCP). So, to kick off the City Series: KC edition, here's The Country Club Plaza in wire. It's on a 12"x12" gallery canvas and is for sale on my site here:http://bit.ly/SWafWl

From Sea to Shining Sea

I can hardly contain my excitement for my newest product group that I'll give you a peek of today: the Famous Bridges notepad collection. These are only 3 of the bridges in my collection of 5 and there is a whole line of products to go with: stitch kits, pillow kits, postcards, and posters just to name a few. If you haven't gotten the message here--stop by booth #2955 to check out the entire collection at the National Stationery Show coming up May 18-21 in NYC!

How do you build it?

So when writing my New York post about “Art Everywhere” it inspired me to explore deeper into the art that helps spark my creativity.  So in my exploration for this post I wanted to discuss my love of architecture and the architects that inspire me.   Antioni Gaudi is one who inspires me!

Gaudi’s architecture was marked by his passions in life:
      Architecture – Casa Calvet in Barcelona’s is a great “basic” example of beautiful form, design and unique architectural details that withhold the test of time.  This building was designed for a textile manufacturer who used the space for his business and the upper floors were the residence.  Not a bad place to live I’d say!

     Nature – What a great example of architecture in nature.  Parc Güelll in Barcelona was inspired by the English Garden movement and since it is perched on a hill, it provided fresh air away from the smoky factories back in the early 1900’s.  Can you believe that during that time, the Parc was a part of an unsuccessful housing site??

Gaudi was also skilled in ceramics, stained glass and wrought iron work forging and carpentry.  Throughout the Parc Güell you can see Gaudi’s love for ceramics in the detailed mosaics and attention to detail.  Amazing colors and patterns!

     Religion  - It goes without saying that the Sagrada Familia is the most familiar and talked about Gaudi church, since it has taken 130 years to finish the construction due to his untimely death.  The detail is amazing!  Many of the details throughout the church are inspired by nature and the natural design.

Astorga Palacio Episcopal

His final passion was for the love of where he lived!  There is something to learn from that type of love.  All of Gaudi’s work shows his passion for design, inspiration from nature and curiosity in textures and patterns.  There is something to say about having passion that can take many different forms in life . . . I know what mine are! 

What is your passion?