New Fair Display Walls!!

OMG! I am SO excited! I found some great stuff today on my latest trip to the Habitat for Humanity Resale Store in Denver.  (They have stores located across the U.S. and Canada, all of which benefit Habitat for Humanity’s excellent program.)  I often find great grout, caulk, and tiles at the Resale Store, much of it donated from home improvement stores when the manufacturer decides the new season calls for a new shade of ‘white’.  This time, I was looking for something to use as a fixture in my upcoming summer fair booth that I could hang my mosaics on; like a vertical wall that’s freestanding.

Well, hallelujah, I’m here to tell ya, I found the PERFECT thing for it and I am SO excited! It’s a brand new set of bi-fold doors; 2 sets of 2 doors adjoined by hinges, that can stand upright very well, but I’ll hit Depot for some kind of L-brackets to mount on the bottoms so they have some support on the floor for the weight of the mosaics.  These ones are perfect because they’re brand new, unfinished, completely flat surfaced, and 6 feet, 8 inches tall!!!  And, for a zippy lil price of $45 for all 4 doors, they more than fit into my fair ‘budget’.  I thought I would share this ‘find’ of both the display option and the Habitat stores, if you weren’t already aware.

Closer-up of new display walls

I also scored an awesome wooden display cube that I can use as a riser or a double shelf for displaying tabletop items.  This one’s great because the depth on it is at least 12″, which is much larger than most riser-type fixtures.  And, at $5.00, ya can’t beat that!One more thing I found myself not being able to leave at the store was the most awesome, super-duper, cool, yummy-rific, bright baby blue, ceramic, completely in great shape, TOILET!  Yes; you heard it here; I AM going to mosaic a toilet and put it in my backyard!  The tank’s going to become a planter and the bowl will either be a birdbath or have a fountain in it!  It was only $35!  I canNOT wait to be able to start gluin’ on that baby after the fair and get it in the yard for summer!!!

'Fish Bowl' by Jean Wells

Barbie Pink Toilet

Garden-y Mosaic Toilet

Fun Sunny Mosaic Toilet!

Beautiful "Fireworks" clock by mosaic artist Linda P. Smith

Garden stone from MosaicSmith on etsy

Thought I’d take a minute to continue sharing some of the wonderful mosaic artists I’ve found along my “journey”…

The latest I’d like to share is Linda Smith at  MosaicSmith Mosaics…Linda is an artist out of one of my favorite areas of the country for beaches; Tampa, FL.  Linda is a mostly self-taught mosaicist, like me, who makes and sells wonderful functional and decorative pieces, available through her etsy store.  I’ve included photos of some of my favorite pieces of hers above; the bright colors on the clock and the garden stone are SOOOOoooo up my alley!  She also does mosaic jewelry, custom pieces, and installations.  Linda writes a  wonderful mosaic blog and I was honored when she recently referred to my blog post (and photos) on issues w/ glass gems and grouting in her blog.  She shares a lot of great information on her blog; it is a wonderful resource for all things mosaic!  You can also find Linda on Twitter @MosaicSmith (http://twitter.com/MosaicSmith), Flickr, and Indiepublic, an online community for independent artists/crafters and art & craft lovers. 

Just went to an event last night for the ‘Denver Handmade Alliance’ (http://denverhandmade.org/blog/), a group of local crafters working together to support and promote their art businesses. The group started out as an etsy local team (and still is!), but also includes those crafters not on etsy. Crystal and Brett from Vital started the group after wanting to make some local connections with other etsians (Vital can be found on etsy at http://vital.etsy.com and http://vitalhome.etsy.com ). Vital is now so successful that Crystal and Brett work their business full time via etsy and craft fairs and also have a local gift shop, Tomte.craft (http://www.tomtecraft.com/). You can visit their Denver store on the West side of Commons Park, right by the downtown side of the (white) Highlands walking bridge that goes over I-25; 1644 Platte Street; 303.717.0371.

Denver Handmade Alliance has a terrific blog, a great group of involved crafters, and many opportunities for getting involved to support a local organization that can support each other! I’m looking forward to joining with other crafters to find affordable and worthwhile craft fair opportunites, promote each other’s art and teaching ventures, and spread the word about all the great handmade “stuff” people can find in Denver! You can also find DHA, Vital Industries, and Tomte fan pages on Facebook and TomteCraft and VitalIndustries on Twitter!