Marburger Farms - Garden Edition - JUNKMARKET Style

This video clip is fun to watch. It shows Sue, of Junk Market Style educating us about what to look for when planting garden containers, and was filmed at Marburger Show in Texas this past Spring. The Marburger Show is one of those things on my bucket list to do.

Click on the link below to see this video.

Sue's Video at the Marburger Farm Antique Show

Fun fact is cute and funky little Sue is sporting a Mimi-Toria's Designs necklace during the filming of this clip too.  Although this clip may be a bit old, many of you may not have had the opportunity to see it yet, and it is filled with interesting and educational information.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.  Sue is always a hoot and so entertaining.

Marburger Farms - Garden Edition - JUNKMARKET Style

Details are a Good Thing

So I'm trying to be better about updating my blog, and since I'm homebound nursing my back to health I will post two days in a row.  Score for me. . .  :)

This was a custom order for my husbands, Aunt Debbie.  She attended a Junk Market Under Glass event with her sweet daughter, Christi and I happened to be wearing my personal "Believers Necklace".  She loved it, and asked that I try to do a focal similar to mine for her.  It took a while for me to amass the right elements, but than finally, it all came together for me.

This was sent to Debi right before the Holidays and this is what she received in the mail.  The photograph of the mannequin with wings is one I took last Summer and had made into professional stickers.  This made a nice little extra touch for her otherwise white cardboard jewelry box that I have been packaging my SOLD items in when shipping via the mail.

I love bakers twine for packaging and happened to have it in aqua/white, black/white and grey/white for my packaging choices.  When I found this pretty aqua feather in my stash and the ivory floral pick, I decided to use this for her package.  I of course, was short on time, and oh how easy it would of been to throw that white box in the bubble mailer.   However, I'm glad I took the time for presentation.  This was one of my highest price point items, thus deserving of forcing myself to slow down and take that extra time to gather the right materials to make a statement.  In turn this went from a blah, to ahhha package with a few extra touches.

I bought these picks one year at the end of the Holiday season on clearance for like .29, and it probably would be about that same time of the year that I bought these, so if you like them places like JoAnn's, Michaels or Hobby Lobby would be apt to be the kinds of places to carry something that could be used like I did here.

This photo shows the focals of the necklaces.  My original one that she loved is on the right.  What I recreated for her is the one on the left.  Each of ours has about 18 vintage religious charms and I carefully chose each and every one to be more desirable for a person that is of a Protestant faith vs. the Catholic faith.  So no saints were used, and only one of Mary.
Many of you know that I create only OOAK (One of a Kind) jewelry designs, so when Debi asked me to make one like mine, I explained to her that I couldn't do exactly.  When one works with vintage elements like I do for these creations, I can only make it resemble one another, not duplicate.  The "believe" silver tone and bronze tone word tabs and the crown elements are new, so that portion was changed with the words being chosen in different metals, but all else is vintage elements.  A pretty good match and I think she was pleased in the end with the results.

A Few January Sold Items

It has been a while since I posted some of the jewelry I've been creating and/or have sold, so thought I'd share a few items real quickly tonight.  My Internet is having fits, so I'll make it short and just a few photos.  Enjoy...  Sorry, but these all have sold at either recent events or through my face book site.

On a side note, I have been laid up most of last week with quite a severe back issue, but am hoping that I am on the mend now.  It appears that the good Lord is telling me to slow down a bit, and smell the roses, as I tend to go pretty non-stop when I'm awake.  Unfortunately, this may mean some down sizing at future shows, but this will unfold according to how my back heals from this injury.  It was not lifting excess weight, but rather reaching for a jewelry product off a shelf in a backwards grab while walking forward and my sacroiliac came to a screeching halt and chose to lock up for about a week.  Not a fun thing to experience, but indeed I am much more fortunate than many that actually have a lingering illness they are battling and even those that are fighting terminal disease.  This just has gotten my attention.

Bethlehem Steel, Sparrow Point numbered vintage brass tool tag id, along with a sparrow bird, turquoise nugget and a long antiqued gold tone ball chain necklace.

These two lovelies are both sold, but are buttery soft leather adjustable style cuff bracelets and I have a variety of these types of pieces that will be featured at the March 1-3rd Junk Market Under Glass event at Otten Bros. Nursery in Long Lake, MN.  This is a fabulous event that you'll want to be sure to plan to attend and schedule it on your calendar.

I will continue to create my original hand stamped spoon pendant necklaces with bling and also simply stamped spoon pendants for those that like a more modern feel to theirs.  These pendants are scattered through out the internet with others selling them now, but I'm happy to say that mine were originally created into necklaces early on and still are an original design that had been inspired by a local gal stamping plant markers out of silverware.  About four years ago, I bought some of hers, and made them into pendants, and soon after started using my vast collection of silverware I had been collecting to hand flatten, hand stamp, hand polish, hand ink, drill and hand select the bling pieces that I would cold solder to each pendant, choosing it according to what had been stamped on them.  Thus, the hand stamped spoon pendant was born...  Because of the wear and tear on my body and an injury I suffered while setting up at an event several years ago, I have since started hiring a friend to use his industrial press to save my back from one step in this multi step process.  You may think they are simple, easy to duplicate, but truly they are a labor of love and quite time consuming, when you attempt to create a well made design.

This was one awesome piece that had two different chain options sold with it, so that there were many ways in which it could be styled.  With it's oversized leather tooled cross, vintage key, gorgeous chunky semi precious gemstone bead and funky heart and cowboy hat, it was a quick seller at my recent Trunk Show.

A Trunk Show at Marishka's on St. Germain

Marishka’s

Located in St. Cloud, MN, this boutique style shop, is tucked away in a beautifully restored building in the downtown historic shopping district on St. Germain Street.  Marishka's is located at: 811 West St. Germain Street in a thriving neighborhood of eclectic shops.

Mary Franke, the passionate shop owner will greet you with a smile as you enter the front door and you will leave feeling like an old friend.  The warmth of Mary and the atmosphere of her incredible shop will send you off vowing you'll be back soon.  Her unique treasures in vintage, European antiques, repurposed treasures she picks for her shops, boutique style gorgeous clothing lines for both women and men, scarves and fun accessories, home furnishings new and vintage, home accessories and up to the minute updated jewelry keeps you coming back.  Most items are one-of-a-kind, so when you see it and love it, you buy it.

Right inside the front door there was a beautiful Fall Harvest display of hand created velvet pumpkins in which real stems from last years pumpkins were used.  They are all the rage online, but Marishka's was my first introduction to these lovely designs located on the bed in the above photo.  They are gorgeous...

Mary has a great eye for detail and merchandising her shop...the photo above with the  fresh produce nestled on the straw bale, with the pumpkin sign beckoning behind,  is an example of her talent.  Her merchandising is layered beautifully and there is always a scene waiting to be discovered in her store.

Home furnishing accessories, some new, mostly vintage and usually gracing a lovely patina on them.

Mary offers both soft and hard furniture pieces in her shop. 

 Note the incredible original brick wall in the background...

Beautiful wood floors adds to the ambience...

Lovely one-of-a-kind home furnishings...

She carries multiple lines of jewelry, as well as artist created designs in which she hand picks.   She carries accessories such as purses, scarves, belts and other fashion finds which are also tastefully hand picked by Mary, to accent and enhance the clothing lines that she sells in her shop.

Mimi-Toria's Designs Jewelry

will be coming to her shop November 18th.

Mary also searches out MN artists and I am happy to say I will be her featured Artist at her shop during the upcoming St. Cloud Fall Art Crawl, in the downtown shopping district in St. Cloud.  It will be held on November 18 from 5-8 p.m and I will be doing a Trunk Show in her shop during this event.  

Marishka's is a perfect match up for my Mimi-Toria's Jewelry and it will be great to be working with her.  As you can see Mary uses vintage displays to feature her jewelry she has for sale and it is a perfect fit for my vintage redesign jewelry I create.

There is a great area in her shop that has wonderful clothing for sale too.  The shop has four different distinct areas as well as the most gorgeous changing room ever.  I love her changing room.  See photos below.

The lovely changing room!  My personal favorite spot in the store...

I love this sign and exposed area in the changing room...

you can't fake this look.

Some examples of the beautiful antique furniture you will find peppered through out her shop.

Below are some photos of the Mimi-Toria's Designs Jewelry pieces 

that I will be selling at the 

Trunk Show 

at Marishka's

811 West St. Germain Street

 on November 18th from 5-9 p.m.

I hope to see you at the Trunk Show, but if you can't make it then, be sure to take the time to stop on in and check out this downtown gem in St. Cloud.  I promise you won't be sorry you did.

ETSY and Thoughts about Customs

Every heart has its passion,

Doing what you love gives your spirit wings.”

author unknown

Did you know that I have an ETSY store?  Trying to get it started, but I am still working on orders from the last two events in September, as well as custom orders I've had backed up for a while, so it's been very hard to get enough items extra to list in my Etsy store too.  

I also have 2 Trunk Shows that are coming up in November that I am designing jewelry for too, as I need to have a good variety of product for each of these show dates.   Mark your calendar...

The first one is:

 November 11 & 12th

Antiques Downtown

Elk River, MN

(held in conjunction with their anniversary sale at their shop too)

To see how to purchase on ETSY click on hi-lited link:

'A wise person once said, “Find something you love to do, and you’ll never have to work another day of your life”.

Obviously, this is a generalized statement, but truly if you love what you are doing, it really doesn’t seem like work.  For me personally, when I am designing jewelry on my own, and not a custom commissioned piece, it does not feel like work, as it’s something I love to do and feel so blessed to be able to freely create. 

However, sometimes when I’m doing a custom design as per a customers specifics that it can become work, if I’m not inspired by what I am to create.  I find balance is the key in my design business.  I have chosen to say “yes” to some of these custom designs as a service to my clients, but it isn’t something that I would choose to do over the freedom of creativity that I usually have when I just let my found elements/beads and baubles inspire me to design with them.  I often find it a struggle to get myself creating these custom orders.  Do you find this the same for you and your business?  If so, what have you found to be effective to get yourself motivated to create someone else’s vision?

Truly, it isn’t that my vision is better than someone else, or better the wants specified from a customer, or anything like that.  It just is that then my creativity feels like it's put into a box.  Yes, the box may be large, or it may be very specific and concise.  Nonetheless, this box so to speak, is a specific set of parameters, and as an Artist I find it sometimes squelches my creativity.  It’s not that eventually, maybe a really great piece is created for a said customer, but it takes me longer, and I find I need to have the elements I’m creating with in my possession for a longer amount of time.  Than suddenly one day, a design inspiration may strike me, and I can start on the project commissioned.   Or, maybe I’ve run out of time allotted and I just have to bite the bullet and design, inspired or not.  I find this to be the worse case scenario.  How about you?  Do you have any creative exercises to deal with this portion of your business?  Or do you never choose to do custom orders?

As a customer, how does this affect you?  Do you get impatient with the wait, when dealing with people such as myself that struggle to create under a set of parameters?   Or does the end result outweigh the frustration of the wait?  I’d love to hear the feedback from you all. 

Please, don’t anyone think this is intended for you….

It is not!

I am at my cabin for a 24 hour period and have been working on jewelry orders, as well as just some free design work (my own creativity at work), and was editing some photographs of photos I’ve not ever gotten around to editing, when this blog post jumped in my head.  It is NOT intended to apply to anyone in the past that I’ve designed custom pieces for, nor is it for any I’m working on now, or in the future.  Just some thoughts I wanted to explain and also wanted to get feedback from other Artisan followers as to how they handle custom orders and their creativity.  Also, would love to hear from past, present and future customers as to how you feel and/or handle it when you are on the waiting side of this.

On a side note...  I cannot take any custom requests through the end of 2011.  Time to get caught up on back logs of customs.  Sorry...

Stay tuned for future post on the upcoming Trunk Shows.  The second date is: November 17 & 18th in St. Cloud, MN at Marishka's on St. Germain.  A lovely boutique style shop located downtown St. Cloud.  I will be the featured Artisan on November 17th as part of their annual "Art Crawl".  Mark your calendar...

Have a great day!

And be blessed ~

Gretchen :)

Video Clip - Mimi-Toria's Design

Mimi-Toria's Style

A sampling of some of the treasures I've been creating with for the upcoming Junk Market Under Glass Fall Edition.  See more details below and you will not want to miss this show.  There will be a fabulous line up of vendors at this event.  Quality all the way...