Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Happy Lucky 13!

My Heart... the Little Engine That Could

Hellooooooo? Not sure if anyone even reads this. Pehaps I should switch to Tumblr???? Well, if no one is listening then I'll just have fun entertaining myself with this first blog post of 2013...

2012 was a great year creatively and generally huge for taking the next steps in my life. Last year took a huge leap in working towards expanding my self expression and re-engaging with the world to be "seen" again and come out of hiding, which is the only way to truly make a difference. Well, that's true for me anyway. After years of wanting and longing, I got the guts to take a risk and made a move. I enrolled in Improv 101 with The Institution Theater in March 2012. I pretty much ignored Glint Gear and painting for the first half of the year while I was in the honeymoon stage with my new love, Improv Comedy. I am addicted to performing and find it challenging and thrilling. The people I have met and grown to love are treasures. My life will never be the same and I thank the Universe for that.

I came back around to Glint Gear after the summer to start making new items for the holiday season. Along the way I played with my fine art self and had fun with pen and ink/watercolor illustrations. After the shopping season ended, I dusted off my easel (literally... it had cobwebs all over it. Now what does THAT tell you?). And... last year I even dipped my toe back into my poet's heart and have decided that my next new adventure (once I find the time), is to learn to write and perform spoken word poetry.

So as I turn the corner into Lucky 13, I have a wonderful new problem - how to balance all of my expressions while embracing new ones. Any tips would be appreciated if you have found success in that.

Well, enough about me. Tell me about your 2012 and dreams for 2013. What surprises came your way last year? What new worlds do you long to explore this year? TRUST me. Take that first baby step and don't look back. I promise you will be so glad you did.

xoxoxoxo

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Hand Crafted from Start to Finish

Vegas Erupted Container
Glint Gear is hand crafted down to the smallest detail, the labels. The labels sewn onto my bags and purses are made by another Etsy Seller, Jennifer's Jewels. She does an awesome job, is such a sweetheart, and I love supporting other small businesses.I send Jennifer a jpg file of a square label with the oval shape printed as a dotted outline. Then I cut out the ovals by hand with scissors. This gives me the unique labels I want without the high cost of traditional die cutting.

Recently I decided to play around with painting a layer of the varnish that I use for the painted canvas appliques onto the labels to give an added layer of protection from dirt and grime.  My recent Long Bag pouch design featured in this post includes the label prominently displayed on the front of the bag or branding purposes versus hiding the label inside the bag. 

The labels held the varnish well, and I loved the slight glossy effect. A friend was over with his wife during open studio night recently and saw me varnishing the labels. He threw out the idea of including a few sprinkles of glitter into the varnish to give the labels that small extra Glint and pop. I LOVED the idea and thank goodness his wife just happened to have some silver glitter in her craft bag that night. (I know, I know... it's a travesty that I didn't have any glitter on hand! I will surely pick some up the next time I'm at a craft store.) Thanks, friends!

Below is the result. I have to say that even though this will add yet another step to the already lengthy process of creating a piece of Glint Gear, I love the effect so much that this will definitely be a labor of love just like each other step in the birth of Glint Gear.








Saturday, August 11, 2012

Orange Sparkle Purse in the Works


Orange Sparkle Purse, originally uploaded by Glint Gear.
Finally back to the design table after a hiatus to dive into a few other creative loves that have occupied my time for several months.

I started taking improv comedy classes and have fallen in love with it! I've taken classes at The Institution Theater and Coldtowne theater. The Austin improv community is amazing, and I can't wait to be doing shows some day.

I've also been playing around with watercolor and pen & ink plus making a few blouses for myself to wear. I hadn't made garments in years, so it has been very rewarding to make some fun things to wear that you'll never see on the racks.

Now the trick is to balance doing ALL of my creative interests outside of a full time job. Don't we all have that challenge?

Anyway, I'm having fun with this bag and can't wait to share the finished product.

Hope your 2012 has been great!

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Check out my friend's new book, "Salvation"

I am graced to know so many extremely talented people and have BIG news to share about one of them. Dear friend Chip Transue aka Charles Kent, has published his first novel!!! I gotta say, I'm excited and can't wait to read it because knowing Chip's talent, it's gonna rock. Also pretty excited that Ocean illustrated Chip's cover concept art. ;)

Chip is another beautiful example of following your dreams until they materialize. So proud of you, Charles Kent!

Below is Chip's official announcement. Please take a look and buy the book!
...
"I’m announcing that, after two years, my first novel, “Salvation”, has been published and is now available for sale through the publisher’s website, www.virtualbookworm.com, in hardback for $21.95, trade paperback for $16.95 or e-book for $6.99. The publisher has my personal author’s website (www.charleskentbooks.com) in the works, and will soon send out a press release to announce it to the world of book retailers and reviewers, after which it will be available for sale through other retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. To see a synopsis and order the book now, go to www.virtualbookworm.com. Click on “Shop”, then “Search” and enter my pen name, “Charles Kent”. Clicking on either ordering link (hard copy or e-book) will give you a synopsis and my author’s bio.

Please order and read my book, and feel free to email me directly with your evaluation."

Here is the direct link to his book on virtualbookworm:

http://www.virtualbookworm.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=bookstore&Product_Code=Salvation&Category_Code

Monday, August 8, 2011

The finished bag...

I had posted a green wedge bag in progress... Thought you'd like to see the finished bag. I call it "Warp Drive." Groovy, huh? More photos can be found on my Etsy shop.





Sunday, May 29, 2011

Never Say Never

Hey everyone! I am back! I know it's been a while since I've posted. I took a hiatus from Glint Gear after working every spare minute on making product for the trunk show back in February at Gallery Black Lagoon. But I am back at the cutting table and ready to rock Glint Gear again! Can't stay away too long from something that you love, right?

I wanted to share a recent discovery about Glint Gear... and that is, "never say never." I said I didn't want to varnish the painted sections because I didn't want to lose the texture differences that occur in the painting process. But I've been using one of my new bag styles with all the Glint pieces varnished. I am a good test subject for Glint Gear because I am VERY hard on my bags. I throw them around and generally treat them rough. And the varnished pieces look great. Not getting dirty, and the cracks that I varnished over are frozen in the varnish and not moving. OK.... I am going to start doing what I said I wouldn't do... varnishing all the painted swatches before I sew them on. This not only helps with wear, but it also actually does make the colors pop even more. And those benefits outweigh my adamant stance about not flattening out the textures. Experience really is the best teacher!

The bag in this picture was a test model I made for the trunk show back in February. My mom had sent me these wonderful vintage bag rods she found. I had been dying to find a way to use them other than the traditional way. I LOVE the way this bag turned out and get compliments on it regularly. I made another one similar with an interesting hardware treatment that used a clip, a metal ring and wooden handle. Yea, odd experiment! I'll have to dig out a photo of it. That odd bag, which I named WTF?, was the hit of the show and sold. This one I carry would have sold, but in my frenzied experimentation, I made the two bar straps too wide and made the opening to fit my small hands. LOL. The next iterations will have smaller bar straps to create a wider hand opening. I have 3 more of the rob/knob sets, so am cutting out more of these. I need to either find these vintage rod/knob sets on Etsy or Ebay or find dowels and knobs to make them myself. 

Look for posts of new creations coming soon. And feel free to drop me a line at glintgear@gmail.com or on my fan page to let me know what's up in your creative world.

xoxooxo

Saturday, February 5, 2011

On the design table now...


On the design table now..., originally uploaded by Glint Gear.
Happy New Year! Been a while since I blogged! Hope you all great hoidays and a great start to 2011!

I have been busy designing cool new stuff for the Austin Fashion Trunk show at the Gallery Black Lagoon on February 26th!


For more info, go to www.galleryblacklagoon.com


or check out the Facebook event invitation :

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=191246254234501

Hope to see you there. Feel free to stop by just to browse all the great designer's stuff (including Ocean's Squid Inkwear T-shirts!) and say hello to us both. If you do want to invest in some Glint Gear or Squid Inwear, we will be set up to take credit and debit cards along with cash!