Sunday, October 30, 2011

The Autumn window display at Hillside Shopping Centre.

I love creating window displays. I like the grand scale of a window display. I like to use the ordinary in new ways. It is fun to stop people, to give them something new to look at. Hopefully it gives them a lift during the day. In a window that has merchandise in it the main reason is to sell that merchandise for the retailer.

Very seldom does a chance come along to do a window display that gives the designer carte blanche with the design and installation. Michele Paget, the marketing director at Hillside Shopping Centre has given me this amazing opportunity.

This is the Autumn window display for Hillside. I told Michele that the Autumn window would be a scarecrow with produce around the base, except the scarecrow would be a ball gown created with leaves and flowers.

I love the drama of the curtains swagged back to reveal the lush display of flowers, leaves, and produce.

Here is a closer look at the dress. It is on a wooden platform that has four antique iron casters from an old safe. The slight height variation gives distinction to the dress.

Try this technique at home in some of your displays around the house. I have used this platform at home when I have done displays in our hallway. Have a look at these past displays herehere, and here. This link, here, shows you how I put the hallway displays together.

The swagged curtains are held up by cording that I had used in one of the hallway displays at home. I created the two tassels to go along with the cording. They look elaborate but were relatively quick to make.

There are three tall candle holders that I made a year ago that I decided to use in the window. The candle holders are supposed to look as though they are beaded ropes that are rising in the air; very much like the fabled Indian Rope Trick. The "rope" is a metal rod covered in antique, vintage and repurposed beads. Each bottom end of the rope is finished with a beaded tassel. They add a sense of mystery and drama to an already dramatic window.

The vignette at the base of the swagged curtains. Almost everything that I use in the window displays I buy at Salvation Army and various other thrift stores. The chrysanthemums and grasses are in a large, and heavy I might add, green florists container.

At the base off the arrangement is a very old beaten copper plate holding some fruit and flowers. Off to the left you can see the bases of the candle holders with their tasseled ends.

That is this Autumn's window display. The Christmas window will be going in in mid November.

  Don't forget the EHAG Emporium... 

  tomorrow October 31 at 9:00 PM EST  
  (6:00 PM for everyone on the West Coast.)  

Here is a sneak peek at one of the pieces that I will have for sale.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

My Hallowe'en mantle display for 2011!

I didn't do a Hallowe'en display in the hallway this year. I not only didn't have time but all of my fall foliage that I use is in an Autumn window display at Hillside Shopping Centre.


Here is this year's mantle display. I have a few other items tucked on some shelves but with a two year old grand daughter everything has to be kept up high! The images are fairly large so that you can have a better look when you click to enlarge them.


I picked up a lot of these decorations about 8 years ago. The items would turn up at the different thrift shops. I have a good friend that collects holiday items as well and when she is in the US she will find a few things for me to add to the collection. That dark burgundy area that has two party hats on it is a genuine fez. For some reason I associate the fez with Hallowe'en.


I picked up one of Amelia Schaefer's pie candy boxes at the Hallowe'en and Vine show when I was there. He's great!


I had some unpainted white wire branches that I had made earlier in the year so I plonked them into a vintage florist vase. I really like this vase; I'm not sure if it is a Hallowe'en item but it works for me. The black cat is curling around a yellow wooden bucket that is probably filled with fish! Most of my bridge tallies and plastic nut cups are hung from the branches.


This little vignette shows off my US zone Germany witch candy container, a velvet black cat, a ceramic stump vase and a thin wooden board with the Cornish Litany burned into it and then painted with opaque watercolours. The technique of decorating wooden objects with a wood burning tool is known as pyrography.


This last close-up shows Lori Rudolph's great teapot that I purchased at Hallowe'en and Vine this year. Behind the black cat teapot is a 1923 Butterick pattern for a Pierrot costume. Just below and to the left of the black cat teapot is a wind-up black cat that is chasing a butterfly. That probably isn't a Hallowe'en item either but as I said before, "It works for me!"

I'll show you the Autumn window display in my next post.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Hallowe'en and Vine 2011 - Jack Roads

The quality of the work at Hallowe'en and Vine was stellar but Jack Roads is in a class of its own. I talked to him a short bit. I felt like a teeny bopper girl meeting her teenage rock idol! The poor fellow, what are you supposed to say or do with an idiot standing in front of you!

I wasn't going to put in any of the images that were out of focus but I did anyway. Fortunately almost all of the photos came out well.

Enough with the words, the pictures will speak for themselves.















Thursday, October 13, 2011

Hallowe'en and Vine 2011 - A Big Thank-You!

Thank-you to everyone that stopped by my table to look at my work. You have no idea how much your words of  encouragement were and are appreciated.

Thank-you to all of my customers that purchased work from me.

Thanks to all of the new and old internet friends that I finally got to meet in person. You were so encouraging.

Thank-you Ginny Betourne and Christy Silacci for putting on such a high quality show. Your hard work pays off and is very much appreciated by everyone, artists and collectors alike.

Here are some pictures from the show. There were more but I discovered that I had the camera set on the wrong setting the morning of the show, it was too late to take more pictures. There was so much great work there.


Friday at 1:00 in the afternoon we arrived at the Hermann Sons Hall in Petaluma California. The hall had been decorated. Everyone was busy setting up their tables.

All of the props and cloths for the table were brought down in my suitcase. The boxes had been mailed earlier and were sitting on the table ready to be unpacked.


My finished table. This was the first time that I had put it together. I will be making a few changes for next years table. I hope to be there and I am planning for it.


When I came to Arbutus hunter's table and saw her cotton batting figures I said, " Good heavens!" out loud. I like detail, it is important in my own personal work. Her work is so small, about 2 1/2". Each figure is meticulously painted. They are amazing.


Brandi McKenna's moon's are so much like her. Her face is as animated as her moons.


Charles Batte's witch figures and costuming were delightfully elegant.


I finally met David Everett of Chickenlips, he is crouching down behind his booth. We both have a love of stage magicians.


Christy Silacci's work is a hoot. She has a very odd, skewed, and fun look to her work. I like her large pumpkin guy.


Edgar and Edgar had some great vintage items. The large light that you see in the picture is a crystal galleon.


The faces that you see on the necklaces of Gabrielle Acevedo work are created with seed beads. Her bead weaving is very detailed, I love it.


I finally met Jorge de Rojas of HoHoHalloween. His work is wonderful, there was a pumpkin guy in a cucumber(?) car with orange slice wheels that I particularly liked.


Unfortunately this is the only part of one of the photos of Iva Wilcox's table that I could salvage. Thanks again Iva for the post show help.


We arrived on Saturday morning around 8:00am. Loyal patrons were eagerly waiting for the doors to open at 9:00am.


Kerry Howard Schmidt of Paper Moon Gallery creates her google eyed figures using needle felting. She had a bunch of off the wall but oddly endearing characters. I didn't get to talk to her, maybe next year.

This is the second photo that has a Starbuck's coffee in it. Where was everyone getting their Starbucks?


Maria Grimes makes beautiful lampwork glass beads that she then uses to create her jewelry.


This is just a sample of some of the wonderful vintage Hallowe'en decorations that Mark Ledenbach had for sale.


The patient customers were peeking in the windows to get an idea of what was available at this years show.


These two women were first in line. I photographed them and said that they would be in my blog about Hallowe'en and Vine.


This is a sample of the masks available from Mythica Masks.


Pink Eyed Sissies had  loads of Hallowe'en themed jewelry.


Lori Rudolph of Retro Rudolphs is very busy with last minute preparations before the show. Her work, along with everyone else's work, is amazing in person.


Here is another look at her table. There are two pumpkins on a black stool in the centre of the picture, they are actually pumpkin teapots. I bought the smaller orange teapot. I love it.


I wanted a piece of Sharon Blooms ceramic pieces but airline weight restrictions as well as packing it safely so that it wouldn't break made me decide that this year I wouldn't get a piece.


Amalia Schaeffer of Sweet B FolkArt is busy with last minute touch-ups. I have a pie of hers, I love it.


Tina Haller had a predominantly black, white, and silver theme on her table. She had garlands, hats, and little haunted houses as well as a lot other fun items for sale.


Vergie Lightfoot was behind me at the show. David Everett, Vergie, and myself formed one of the triangular pods in the centre of the room. The thick rich colour of her pieces and the incredibly deep texture of her painted surfaces is amazing. I love her pumpkins and cats.

This is just a sample of the work that was available at this years Hallowe'en and Vine. If you can make it next year I hope to see you there.

I didn't show any of Jack Roads work, that will be the next post.