Happy New Year!

Wyvern Studio had a great month in December!  This is motivating me to keep making new things.  Lucy's has a new collection of buttons with some new colors and a few heart shaped ones in preparation for Valentines day.

Note the yellow and black ones that I refer to as the "Squished Bumblebees".  Ah, things that I find amusing that no one else does...

Lucy's Art Emporium also has a bunch of new newborn baby beanies perfect for baby showers everywhere and Daisy has been putting together some wonderful little baby gift baskets.

I have been working diligently on my book.  I am hand writing everything at the moment to get all the ideas down before I forget them.  At least two notebook pages per lunch break at work, so about 8 - 12 pages per week.  I am not a writer, so this going to be some hard work for me.  I found a writing group at the library and the first meeting was very inspiring.  People from all writing interests such as novel, poetry, superhero action segments (read aloud with character voices) and even a very personal journal entry.  I like this group and I think next session I will even put together a few paragraphs to share with the group. 

My intentions are to start typing it all up and making it a readable story after my rough draft notebooks are complete.  Two notebooks so far, it may take another notebook by the time I am done with the story and the character development. 

My ETSY page has a bunch of items listed.  I have the intentions of making up some plaques with some funny, interesting images to burn soon.  Currently working on a commisioned baseball bat for a little boy.  Oh, this is going to be so sweet.  The dad is a HUGE Red Sox fan and apparently this child will have to be too.

So that is my January post, until next month....

NH Open Doors

http://www.nhopendoors.com/index.php


NH Open Doors

Wyvern Studio will be at Artstream from 10-4 on Saturday the 5th.  I will be bringing an assortment of buttons, hats, sushi scarves and some walking sticks.  I will also be working on burning on a walking stick while I am there.  Come and visit and support your local small businesses.

Craft: Fine Art, Seacoast

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51) artstream LLC

Mary Jo Monusky
56 North Main Street
Rochester, NH 03867
603 330 0333
info@artstreamstudios.com
artstreamstudios.com
Shop artstream gallery for affordable contemporary artwork including paintings, prints, jewelry, ceramics, and fiber arts. Artist demonstrations and refreshments.rn
Hours: Nov. 5: 10:00 AM-07:00 PM Nov. 6: 12:00 PM-03:00 PM

The Wedding is Over

For the people who know me personally, know what I have been busy doing for the past year outside of the studio.  Busy planning a wedding.  I never thought it would be such a big deal to plan a wedding and work on Wyvern Studio at the same time until I realised that I have not posted anything on Etsy for months.  I had not posted anything because I had not progressed on the work I needed to finish out in the studio.  Now that the wedding is over, I need to fill in all that time I usually was using to call vendors, create centerpieces, construct decorations, flip through bridal magazines, delegate tasks, blah blah blah...

Upcoming things for Wyvern Studio

1. NH Open Doors at Artstream in Rochester, NH.  November 5th from 10-4.  Artstream is one of the wonderful places that sells my hats, buttons and sushi scarves.  They have asked if I would have a table and promote Wyvern Studio for their portion of the NH open doors.
2. I have had an idea for a book for awhile.  After the wedding craziness and telling stories about it several people have said that I should write it all down.  Three book ideas are going down on paper as we speak.  I don't know which one will be the first one done, I just can't organize my thoughts enough to focus on just one.  I am not a writer by nature.  A book is a huge task for me.  But I figure if I just keep writing, later I can have someone help me out with the construction.
3. Wyvern Studio had a great month on ETSY!!!  Montana, Utah, Maryland and Australia were a few of the places that walking sticks were sent to.   I am so grateful for all of the friends that have encouraged my artwork, but am so excited to have people I don't know that are fans of my work as well.  I can't even begin to tell you all how grateful I am for that kind of encouragement.
4. I have been thinking of making some tutorial videos.  I don't have a video camera, just the digital camera capable of taking video.  I struggle with taking photos as it is, so I don't know where to begin with this one.  It is definitely one of the ideas swirling around in my head and it may be quite some time before it becomes anything.

More to come later and more frequent posts.

FAQ...

FAQ

Q:  Where do you get your sticks?
A:  The woods.

Q:  How long does it take you to make one?
A:  Long answer:  Well, I have to go out into the woods and find sticks on the ground that are detached from their respective tree, not rotted and soft, and has the length and diameter I am looking for.  I bring it home and strip all the bark and hope that there are no major cracks, holes, or rot.  Then I saw off all of the branch knobs and sand the whole thing down.  I think the sanding is the most important part, this is where you create the canvas, decide what you leave for natural wood features and create the surface for the burning.  Next step is to decide what design this particular stick is calling for.  I have a bunch of ideas in my head, but depending on the stick, size, form, curvy-ness, and coloring, will determine what image or design will fit.  Then I will pencil in the idea for the design and make sure it fits and is esthetically pleasing before I burn.  On to the burning stage where the whole thing comes to life.  I then add stain, coloring, stain again, touch up and then take a few photos before putting the polyurathane coats on.  I usually will bounce between 2-4 sticks at a time while waiting for stains and poly to dry.
    Short answer:  Approximately 2-3 hours.

Q:  How did you decide to do this?
A:  Every time I would go on a hike I would start by looking for a branch to call my hiking stick for the day.  At the end of the hike I would always bring it with me.  Sometimes it would end up in the fire, sometimes it would come home with me.  People would ask why I had a stick in my car and I would tell them the story.  One day in a outdoor sporting goods store I saw a bin of hiking sticks for an extraordinary amount of money and they didn't really look all that nice.  I decided to see what I could do with the stick in my car.  By the time I was done, I had created something that was beautiful and useful and no one questioned what the stick was anymore.  I created a couple more for friends and practiced my wood burning skills.  After taking my stick on a quite a few hikes, I found that it really held up well and was a great addition to my hiking gear.

Q:  How do you come up with your designs?
A:  There are some images that I love and find myself repeating throughout my artwork over the years.  It becomes a cycle and you can see them reoccurring in different mediums.


Ask me more questions and I will post more answers.

Hiking Stick ideas...

Working hard on those hiking sticks...  This past Wednesday was all day fun in the studio.  I decided to start having open studio to the folks that know me and would like to see what I do.  Wednesday was my first day, although no one came I was plugging away.

Thinking about new designs and what may interest the hiking/nature peeps out there...

• maple leaves...done
• vines...done
• australian aboriginal inspired...done
• zippers...I love zippers
• celtic design...who doesn't love celtic knots, right?

That is about as far as I have gotten... Anyone out there have any suggestions, ideas (good or bad ones)?

My next Open Studio will not be until well into July because of previous engagements on my "work" days off, wedding stuff and Independence Day.  Oh how the days are flying by!

Walking Sticks

Its been a little while since an update.  Wyvern Studio has still been busy.  With the warmer weather the crocheting has taken a little rest and the trails have been calling.  On my hikes I will be picking up more and more sticks to create into little wonderful pieces of portable artwork.

These are some I have made in the past and have so much fun making. 

I thought, well, hey there must be people who hike at least as much as I do that would appreciate one of their own as well.  I bet it would be a good turn for walking sticks to hit the ETSY scene.  I even checked to see if I could find something similar to what I am making there and there were a couple of things that were OK, but I think mine are better.

Thanks for taking this journey with me.  Along with my photography skills not being as sharp as I would like, my graphic design skills need some brushing up on.  I guess it doesn't help that I had no idea how to use my free software from the computer.  My ETSY shop needed a little makeup. 

Attempt number one was not bad.  The photo seemed cool when I cropped it but overall it just didn't jump at you as anything great.

#1  Meh...

Attempt number two seemed to want to be made a little more.  It had some warm color, I found a cool design thingie and my font seemed to flow a little better. 



#2 POP!

Oh, yeah!  Now we are in business!  Now I can cross one more thing off my list and watch all my sales come flying in, right?!

On March 5th I will be attending a Craft Fair in Billerica, MA.  This should be a great day for Wyvern Studio.  Save the date and I will post more information later on how to find me.