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!