Giveaway #3-Chalk It Up 2015 20-month Calendar

The winner of last week's giveaway was Daniela. Now on to this week's giveaway: One of my Chalk It Up 20-month calendars, produced by Hopper Studios. I just saw this calendar at Hobby Lobby the other day but had no idea they were there before then. Click on this link to enter: http://bit.ly/1wtETXx

Studio Remodel-Step 4

I thought you might like to see how the chairs are coming along that I'm reupholstering for my studio. I'm learning how to sew at the same time as taking this upholstery class---and apparently I chose two really complicated chairs as my first project! Par for the course for me but I learn best by actually doing.

Here's what the chairs looked like before I did anything with them. They looked pretty awesome but when you feel the cushioning, it feels like it has rice inside because all the foam had disintegrated.

Here's one of the faux bois tables that I bought at the same place I got the chairs. They needed repainting too.

Here's one of the chairs completely torn apart and new burlap attached.

And this is how you cut holes in foam with a special attachment on a drill that is 

actually set to reverse--that way it doesn't tear up the foam.

 

 This is where I'm at right now--the foam is glued to the chair back and I've attached some of the buttons. This is called tufting and it's really fun to do--good thing I like it because there are 58 buttons on each chair!

Time For Another Giveaway!

I think it's time for another giveaway! My online shop will open on Friday, Sept. 20 and will feature my new wire work and my faux taxidermy work as well. To celebrate that I am giving away a stitched faux Jackalope. Just "like" my Tammy Smith Design page (if you don't already) and click on link below to enter.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tammy-Smith-Design/206334139480176?sk=app_289264554441128

New Wire Work

I took a little time out to make some more wire art in between redoing my studio and freelance projects. I really missed bending wire and it was great to get back at it! Some of these pieces are for sale in a local gallery here in KC named SavArt Gallery and some are destined for my upcoming new online shop. If anyone is interested in purchasing any of these pieces, please email me at tammy@tammysmithdesign.com.

The Empty Nesters

8.5"L x 6.5"W

$90 for both

Coollama

18.5"L x 10.5"W

$95.00

Anteaterina

22"L x 16"W

$150.00

Business Class (2 pc)

$175.00

Faux Fox Fur

31" x 12"

$225.00

Leaf Me Alone

$125.00

Queen Cat(herine)

$150.00

Retro Kitchen Set (6 pc)

$325.00

Hooty Owlington III

SOLD

First Giveaway!

Yesterday I received samples of my 2014 16-month calendar that I did for Graphique de France...so I'm having my first giveaway! I'll be giving away 4 calendars so there's 4 chances to win. All you have to do is like my Facebook page to enter. Here's the link:

 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tammy-Smith-Design/206334139480176

Below are 3 examples of the calendar pages:

Studio Remodel-Step 2

We went on vacation while our neighbor cut a hole in my closet. I highly recommend leaving for a few days if you're having construction-or destruction-done on your house. Much more peaceful that way! When we returned home, here's what we saw:

He did a fantastic job so now the next step was painting the room and finding some awesome chairs for the nook. I had a Queen Anne style of chair in mind and I wanted to find them second hand if at all possible, instead of buying new. On First Fridays,  I looked around at alot of flea market shops that we have here in KC...and man, do we have a lot! but I didn't find anything Friday night.
Here's a pic of Gary, my studio assistant, laying on his window perch. He was feeling somewhat displaced and kept wandering around the room howling until I brought his perch in. Talk about a creature of habit.

I decided to paint the nook a really dark slate grey because I have a plan to paint a design in that area with the lighter grey that is the room color. I wanted it to feel very cocoon-like but I also wanted a hit of a bright color so I painted the edge of the wall a bright lime green called "New Lime" by Benjamin Moore. Here's what the nook looked like after painting:

Next up was finding the chairs. After I struck out on finding anything Friday night, I went to another flea market we have here called Urban Mining. That's where I found these awesome red velvet Hollywood Regency chairs! So much for Queen Anne. This is much more me anyway:) I also found these fantastic little faux bois tables at the same place. LOVE Urban Mining! 

Next will be getting the floor redone, recovering the chairs and painting the tables. This is taking alot longer than I thought it would and I'm getting a bit tired of having my desk in the living room 

BUT I think it will definitely be worth it.

Studio Remodel-step 1

Take a look at this messy studio-I can't believe I'm actually showing pics of it but it's only because it doesn't look this way any longer! I cleaned out this room completely and am in the process of having the closet taken out to make room for a recessed seating area. We're lucky to have a neighbor who is an awesome carpenter so we hired him to do the job while we were on vacation. More pics to follow soon on the progress and the new space!

closet that will be gone to make way for a recessed sitting area

as you can see, I have waaaay too much junk for this room--I've needed to do

Spring cleaning since well, Spring of 2009!

NYC and Surtex-the good and the....well, not so good

I'm happy to say I'm back from my second Surtex show and it was a really good one! I was able to make some fantastic contacts and I'm excited about the possibility of working with some great companies. Here are some photos of my booth--I was pretty happy with the way it turned out, although there is a bit of a story here....
I had shipped my box with all my banners in it to NY 8 days in advance via FedEx Ground and asked them to hold it at the 42nd st. location. When I checked tracking on it 6 days later, it said it was in NJ so I thought it was slow, but still going in the right direction and the delivery date was still correct so I didn't worry. The next day when I checked it however, it said my box was back in KS where I live!! I immediately got on the phone and found out that the 42nd st. location does NOT hold FedEx Ground shipments, even though they do say that on their website. The person I was talking to told me I probably couldn't get my box to NY til Monday! I was trying to keep calm and got ahold of a customer care representative, who said this should not have happened and she would do what she could...needless to say, I was really worried that I would not have anything on my walls, so I printed out about 17 more sheets of all my collections and cut them out in ovals to put up in case the worst thing happened. Luckily, the worst thing didn't happen--FedEx got my box there the next day (at no charge to me) and I was able to have banners in my booth after all! Color me relieved.
Sunday was a bit slow, but Monday at the show was a really good day...until the afternoon when my right eye, which had been feeling a bit blurry in the morning, started hurting so much that I had to ask my friend Karen to watch my booth while I took a cab to a minute clinic. It was a corneal abrasion, which I think occurred while trying to adjust my contacts. The rest of Monday was a little dark to me, because I had to wear sunglasses to avoid the glare of the booth lights--I'm sure that looked more than a little odd but it felt much better!
I intended on spending my final day in NY after the show doing some shopping, but by then all I wanted to do was relax so I had an awesome lunch at The Smith in the East Village, then a wonderful 1 hour massage right across 3rd Ave at Renew and Relax.
All in all, it was a very good trip and I was reminded once again how glad I am to be in this community of supportive people. At Surtex, I don't feel that I'm in competition with other artists--on the contrary, others go out of their way to get to know you and be kind and helpful. I look forward to building relationships with the potential clients that I met and also to future Surtex trips! Lastly, I can't thank my friends enough for being there for me when I needed help.

                                                          Here's booth 357 at 10:30am.....

                                                    and here it is around 10:50am..................

  and finally, here it is at about 11:00am. I couldn't believe that setup took so little time!

I really wish I had taken some photos without me in the booth, but I didn't...

always one thing you never think of!

In the background, you can see my "Big Wig" ladies. I'll post some closer shots of those in a few days.
They're each printed on fabric and contain hand-stitching elements in the hair and handmade wire frames. They're hanging from brown grosgrain ribbon.

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).

2013 promo packets

These little wire birds are getting ready to fly East next week! They are part of my promo packets for the press room at Surtex.

New Patterns for 2013 Surtex-Musicality and Lock and Key

This week I'm going to start showing some of my new collections that will be debuting at Surtex this year.

 Below are Musicality and Lock and Key. Last year I focused on mostly abstract patterns so this year I'm doing more illustrative work. More to come tomorrow!

Surtex time again!

I finally finished my ad for ArtBuyer magazine that will be distributed at Surtex. Can't wait to be in NY now but it feels like I still have so much to do! Please come see me in booth #357 and stop by and say hi!

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!

New Hand Lettered Cards

I recently opened a Zazzle store featuring some of my surface patterns as well as hand lettering. Today I was thrilled to see that my "Breathtaking" card made their Today's Best list. The text I have inside the card is "You've always taken my breath away", although this text can be customized to anything you'd like! There are other several designs in the Hand Lettering collection that I've made into iPad and iPhone covers as well as many other products. Click on the photo below if you'd like to check out the store.

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!