Giveaway #10: Portable Seven Habits books gift set

Cindy was the winner of my Chalk It Up calendar! And now, for the largest giveaway of the year: the portable "Seven Habits of Highly Successful People" gift set by Stephen Covey, which I illustrated several years ago. This set contains 7 separate hardback books with pearlized foil dust covers that are illustrated throughout with my black line drawings. A great Christmas gift for yourself! Just click on the link below to enter.

http://www.giveawaytab.com/mob.php?pageid=206334139480176

Studio Remodel-Step 3

Yesterday I finally finished the forest "wallpaper" that I envisioned for my new nook. Also the hardwood floors got refinished, along with patching in new wood over the holes left in the floor from the closet wall. The floor guys used some of our original wood that we still had in the basement (from 1936-the year the house was built!) and some new wood so it could all blend seamlessly. I thought they did a fabulous job! Here are the steps to painting my wall scene:

First, I drew the scene very lightly on the painted wall with water soluble fabric chalk pencil.

Next, I started the long process of painting the trees!

The tops were the most challenging part because I wanted the forest to look

"thicker" towards the top, so I had to plan carefully what branches went where.

Voila! Finished handpainted "forest"

Closeup of the floor--can't even see where the wall used to be.

Colorful Damasks

Here is another sneak peak at one of my newest collections "Colorful Damasks". I'll be showing this collection, along with 15 other brand new collections, will be shown in booth #357 Sunday, May 19-Tuesday, May 21. If you're a licensee, I'd love to meet you and show you some of my 35 collections or if you can't make it to the show, please contact me at tammy@tammysmithdesign.com for a password to view my collections page.

For those of you who don't know about Surtex, it's a surface design trade show that I exhibit at every year in NYC. Over 300 artists exhibit their surface design work in the hopes of being able to license it to companies for their products. It is held in conjunction with the Stationery Show and the ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair).

Fall In Love pillow

Booth decor is my favorite part of Surtex. I've been really into hand embroidery lately so here's a pillow I've created from one of my hand lettering pieces.

Art Buyer article is out!

So excited that my article and ad are now out in the latest Art Buyer magazine! Shown in the article are my "Best In Show" dog portraits. For Surtex, I'm making these lucky pups into bright, funky hand-stitched pillows. Click on this link to read the entire piece.

Best In Show dogs

Meditation Monday-apology....

Okay so I've been remiss--I haven't continued on my Desiderata road for a few weeks now...but I do have an excuse. I was invited to make some of my 3D mixed media pieces for a show called Paint The Town that took place last Saturday night here in KC. It was such a fun event! I made some new wire pieces and chatted with folks along with selling some of my pieces-here's a few of them:

                      The Bookworm-made from an old dictionary, clay, dollhouse lamp, wood

 
                                  The Monkey Suit-glass cloche, wood, wire, metal, clay

Forest For The Trees-wire, clay, fabric, metal, LED bulb, electric cord

New Invites and E-Cards for Halloween

I've been busy designing new Halloween invites and e-cards in my Pingg studio! Here's a few examples below--click on the Pingg button on the right side of this page to take you to my studio.

Meditation Monday-going placidly...

Good morning. I haven't done my meditation Mondays here for a few weeks but would like to get back to it as I meditate every day but don't always write about it. I realized a short time ago that when I have problems or issues, phrases from Desiderata often pop into my head. If I'm fearful, I hear the "many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness"part and it helps me. I decided that I love this writing so much that I'm going to break it down piece by piece and feature it each Monday as a meditation. It's a lot of wisdom to take in all at once for me, so if I just focus on a part of it that helps. I'm not taking lots of time to do each phrase perfectly as far as the lettering goes, just trying to be spontaneous and get the meaning of the words conveyed. "Going placidly" is not always easy, but I hope that just focusing on this part for a few minutes sometime in your day may bring you peace and joy. Happy Monday!

Surtex Pics from Day 3

Day 3 of the Surtex Show and it is going great!!  I have been getting great response to my work, which is even more exciting!!  I am posting some additional pictures of my booth and of the detail we put into the design.  More pictures to follow of the great inspiration in and around New York City!

 

 

On the Other Hand...Something Completely Different

I am very excited about a new direction I've decided to go in! It's both a departure of sorts and also revisiting my past...I'll explain. When I worked at Hallmark here in KC, I was in the Party and Giftwrap department. We didn't design the cards that Hallmark is most known for--we designed the surface pattern. The decoration that went on everything from wrap to bags to plates, napkins, and cups. I became well versed at creating a repeat in Photoshop (after computers came along-before that we did it by hand with photocopies.)

So I have decided that in addition to continuing to create my 3D pieces (and finishing that commission piece from the last post), I am going to Surtex next May to begin my reintroduction into licensing! I am shooting for having at least 12 collections of 8 coordinating designs each. I started a couple of weeks ago and now have a few card and collection ideas percolating...it's really exciting to work in another dimension for a change. I think it uses a completely different side of my brain than building mixed media pieces, or at least it feels that way. How about you? Heading in any new directions?