State Fair Entries

It is that wonderful time of year!

The leaves are beginning to turn, the wind has turned chilly and shadows grow longer each day.

The State Fair is right around the corner and I'll be turning in my entries tomorrow!  I'm so excited to see all of the wonderful artists and get ready for the fabulously fried food that comes along with the state fair!

Here is a sneak peek of my entries:

Here, a baby alligator is taking his first peek at the large world around his nest.  He peeks out of his egg, deciding whether to venture out into the large world or stay hidden for a little while longer.

Thanks to a very good friend, I've had these wonderful cups for a project for several months now.  I'm still working out details for my ultimate project, but I wanted to do something fun for this entry!  So, I took glow-in-the dark clay and made a daisy, then complemented it with a lovely tulip.

Sometimes, I like to develop stories for my pieces.  This one, a hen lays a very unusually large egg, which garners a lot of attention from the local newspaper!  Here, Henrietta is sitting on top of her precious egg in her nest while a copy of the newspaper has blown up against the egg.

Autumn is one of my favorite seasons and I have wanted to tackle a leaf bowl ever since I made the acorn egg two years ago.  This is the result.  The leaves have gaps between them, allowing light to peek out from a tealight.

Autumn Moves Swiftly...

And pretty soon, the winter holidays will be here!  Only a few weeks ago, our State Fair was ramping up and Halloween was quickly approaching!

Before starting my normal entries for the state fair, I had to finish up a request from a friend for a Witchy Cthulhu!  She had seen my versions at the PPD fair and asked if I could make her one.  I decided to go a bit further with this little fellow and not only give him a cauldron, but also a broom!

I entered five entries for the state fair.  With so many things going on, I entered pieces that I had made in the last few months, such as Easter Cthulhu, orca scrimshaw inspired magnet and my mini peacocks.  

I also wanted to enter the two egg competitions...one has to be based on the theme of the state fair, the other is open to any style.

For the open category, I made another peacock, this time, sitting on a painted, hollowed egg that is intertwined with ivy.

The theme for this year was "Homecoming."  I thought on this idea for weeks...started a few projects and then quickly dismissed them.  I even went so far as cutting up an egg and baking, but I set it aside for a Military Homecoming Theme.

It is supposed to be representative of the tradition of tying a yellow ribbon "around the old oak tree."  I remember during the first Gulf War, how popular of a sign this was in many yards.

The only entry that won a ribbon was my mini peacock sculpture.  Not only did it win First Place in the Miniatures Division, but it also won Best in Show!!! I was so shocked and thrilled.

The State Fair is one of my favorite events in the fall.  It's a great time to get outside, enjoy the cool weather and see some wonderful exhibits.  We don't ride the rides nor do we eat much of the fair food, but we love to people watch and play horrible carnival games!  To be able to walk around and see so many talented artists and crafters is such a thrill.  I'm already making plans for next year's fair.

My First Show!

My first craft show was a couple of weeks ago at Central NC Pagan Pride Days  and it was a success!  It was also a huge learning experience! Thankfully, Yarn Twisters and I had completed a dry run of booth set-up, table arrangement, decorations, etc. about a month before..so we were able to get everything up in about two hours on Friday evening.

On Saturday morning, we were up early (or myself, very late, running on less than three hours of sleep).  We had two hours to raise the tent, arrange everything we had left overnight, unpack our cars and get all of our items set up and arranged.  We took every bit of that time!  But, it came together very nicely!

And in perfect time, because we were very busy all day on Saturday!  We had so many visitors come through our booth and it was so wonderful to meet such sweet and wonderful people!

When we had a small break, I ran outside of the booth and sketched some tentacles on both of our display boards, highlighting our unique items!  I had Cthulhu sculptures, pendants and earrings to offer our customers, while Yarn Twisters had Cthulhu hats, dice bags and tarot/cell phone bags!  As you can tell, we created a "Cthulhu Alley" of tentacle goodness.

I had the right side of the booth to display my sculptures, magnets and jewelry on.  We also shared the rack in the back corner and mingled a bunch of items, including some of my larger sculptures and a friend's awesome bookmarks!

I missed out on grabbing an early picture before I sold two of my Cthulhus.  I also had a slideshow going on my tablet, showing previous work.

Notice the tentacle boxes, also created by me. ;)

We had inclement weather moving in, so Yarn Twisters and I had to scramble on Saturday afternoon when a brief shower moved through, protecting everything we had on display.  It cooled off nicely, though, and people lingered around after the rain passed through.  We did have to batten down the hatches on Saturday, since more storms were moving in that evening after the show.  Everything was packed into our vehicles, with the exception of the tent & tables.  I think we were all a bit apprehensive to what we would find upon our return on Sunday morning.

Thankfully, everything of ours still stood when we arrived on Sunday.  It didn't take us nearly as long to setup, since we knew where we wanted everything.  Having straw tossed down to help with any mud, it was amazing at how quickly it dried out and we had a gorgeous day!  It was cool, breezy and the sun was shining.  Surprisingly, there weren't as many visitors on Sunday, so I had time to work on some sculptures and pendants, finishing four of them before leaving that afternoon.

We had some great visitors on Sunday as the American Wildlife Refuge brought some feathery friends around to visit and educate the public.

Finally, I was informed that you haven't truly experienced Pagan Pride Day until you have consumed a Cthulhu Cake or Cake Pop.  Well, I couldn't resist bringing both home to share with my boyfriend, who was an amazing supporter through this entire journey. *heart*  

My parents were my biggest fans and I sent them pictures constantly from the craft fair!  Dad had given me the tropical fish clips that are holding down my tablecloth (there are also dolphins and orcas scattered around our tent, holding down essential items).  They worked better than any professional clips!  Mom was constantly listening to my ideas, concerns and offering constructive suggestions from her years of experience in craft fairs. Without my amazing support group, I would have never had the courage to attempt something like this. :)

Yarn Twisters and I have already reserved our booth space for next year.  Hope to see you there!

Busy Busy Busy!

Another weekend has finally come to a close and I have been frantically working on several projects, both for the Central NC Pagan Pride Days Festival, as well as for home and work!

One of the projects that I worked on this weekend was a large assortment of magnets.  I had a lot of fun creating these and will probably try my hand at a few more before the end of the week.

Butterflies, dragons and unicorns, oh my!

Celtic crosses

My pumpkin Cthulhu was also finished this weekend.  All he needs is a pumpkin chai latte and he would be the perfect fall accessory! 

Check back later this week to see more of my creations, specifically some earrings that I finished or you can follow me on Facebook to see more of my WIP (work-in-progress) pictures and sneak peeks at finished projects.  

The Results are In!!

We made it to the Fair and had a blast!  I buy our tickets early so we get a discounted price, but it can still be expensive, so you want to make the most of your time there.  We paid a little extra for parking, but it was worth it since we were right across the street from the fairgrounds and everyone was SO nice!

Of course, you have to sample the fair food...in all of it's fried glory.  One of our favorite vendors does amazing cheese sticks/cubes/melty goodness.  Here is a jalapeno pepper jack with jalapeno ranch dressing.

So worth the calorie count!  Followed by Italian sausages and more fried foods.

After the food, we decided to walk off all of those calories by checking out some of the livestock exhibits.  Look at the adorable bunnies!

We finally made it to the Handicrafts and Hobbies exhibit.  To my shock and amazement, every single entry won a ribbon!

Here are the results!

My acorn egg won First Place AND Best of Show for the egg decorating competition.

My pumpkin egg won a Third Place ribbon among some beautiful entries!

My Gnome Sweet Gnome house also won Third Place in the decorations division.

As did my hermit crab :)

My miniature Koi Pond received a 2nd Place ribbon in the Miniatures category!

I am so thrilled that all of my entries earned a ribbon of some form.  We also had a great time and won some stuffed animals at the balloon dart toss, as well as the ping pong ball game for goldfish.  I refused to bring home any fish, so the lady let me have a stuffed one instead :)

We also did a turkey shoot for the first time!  My boyfriend did a much better job than I did (his two targets are on the right, mine are on the left and are less..holey) :)  We would have won, but one guy was just a smidge closer to the crosshairs. It was still an amazing time!

Which came first, the egg or the pumpkin?

You saw me turn a chicken egg into an acorn, for my next trick, how about a pumpkin? :)

So, I finally managed to get a chicken egg the appropriate color of orange.  The challenge with this piece was that I could not create a base of any type around it.  I had to scrap my original idea and come up with something that would be able to sit on a provided egg base, but still had no idea if it would really work or not.

Needless to say, I held my breath when the organizers went and placed it in the display.  Guess what, it held!  I was so happy and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

To finish off that moment of triumph, a family came by, looking at the displays as they dropped off some of their childrens' entries and the father actually pointed to my egg and commented on how "neat" it looked. :)

It is always so flattering and uplifting when a stranger comments on your work and has no idea you are standing beside them.