The beat goes on with my new upcycled drum head mandalas

I'm excited to share a new product I'm working on.  This is a large hand painted mandala suncatcher made from an upcycled drum head!  It's a faux stained glass window!

I've been collecting drum heads from all the drummers in my life for some time now, and I'm finally inspired to go forward with the idea.  I'm feeling super inspired lately - maybe it was the amazing visit with one of my old best friends who stayed with me last weekend (she lives in England and we hadn't seen each other for 16 years) or maybe it was my recent session in a sensory deprivation tank at Float On...or maybe it's the fact that I'm going to be vending at Crafty Wonderland's spring sale on May 11 and I really need some new work for my booth!

At any rate, I'm going for it!

Above you see the clear drum head with my original design on it. I drew it with a black marker and then went over it with "liquid leading." That stuff is kind of a pain to use. You are supposed to squeeze it out so that it looks like actual leading. Unfortunately my hand doesn't like doing all that squeezing. It hurts - I've tried it on some of my small CD spacers that I use to make my regular Mandala Suncatchers and found it to be quite painful and unsatisfactory. The lines ended up looking kind of shaky anyway and I just couldn't make them perfect. This is one of the reasons why I never went on to do the drum head art that I'd been planning for so long - the experiments with clear CDs were too disappointing. 

So, this time around, I decided to draw it with a marker and then apply the leading over the top with a paintbrush.  This worked out just fine!

Above is a shot of what the liquid glass paint looks like when it is being laid down on the surface.  Obviously this is a plastic drum head, not glass, so I'm really not sure how different this is from actually painting on glass - but I found it pretty cool and fairly easy to work with.  The paint goes on really thick and puffy and opaque from a little squirt bottle - it flows like crazy, almost too fast, but I managed to control it.  As it dries, it becomes flat and clear.  I like it because it goes on fast, only needs one coat, and you don't have to go back and outline afterwards.

Whoa - I managed to get a little bit of BLUE SKY in this one!!!

(Close-up of the design)

I love my kitchen!

So, I am still in the process of working out this product idea.  I know that I need to figure out a way to make them hang-able, and I also need to get some more colors of paint!  I will be experimenting with adding hardware (perhaps a chain) so that it can be hung from a hook at the top of your window frame.  I hope to have a good selection of these for Crafty Wonderland and will be adding them to my Etsy shop too!

I'd love to hear what you think - please leave a comment and let me know!

da Vinci Arts Fair 2009

Here are some shots of my display at this year's da Vinci Arts Fair - going on today until 4 pm! This is a great fundraiser for Portland's only arts-focus middle school (which my son Julius attends). I am happy to donate 30% of my sales to the school.

Da Vinci Arts Middle School is located at 2508 NE Everett St. in Portland, OR, in the Laurelhurst neighborhood.

I also have a small selection of painted record cuffs available today at Odango! Hair Studio (owned by my friend and fellow former Duniway mom Ann Sanderson), where they are having a holiday craft sale. Stop in to check out lovely handmade creations and consider going back for a haircut (Ann cut my hair before the taping of my "That's Clever!" segment, and before my trip to New York - I totally trust her for the most important haircuts!).

Odango! is located at 5510 SE Woodstock in Portland.


My next show will be Crafty Wonderland's Super Collossal Holiday Sale on December 13 at the Oregon Convention Center.


Happy holidays!

Star Trek treasures

Check out this awesome Etsy treasury of Star Trek inspired items (including my Klingon Triskelion Mandala Suncatcher)! Click here to see before it expires!

Making stuff

Here are some recent shots of Eye Pop Art works in progress.
And here are some pictures of some recently completed bowls that I made for a shop called Le Cadeau in Memphis, TN.


My work is also now available at Oop! in Providence, RI, and Sea-n-Green in New Jersey, and I have a second wholesale order in hand for BuyGreen.com, which will be keeping me busy for the next couple of weeks. Here's a picture of the Oop! gallery in Providence (from their website) - it looks so cool, I am stoked that my Mandala Suncatchers are being carried there. Speaking of suncatchers - I sold a bunch of them to Angela from summerscreations, and she made them into a nifty mobile to add some color to her new studio.

Angela said, "My husband just finished fixing up a beautiful new studio for me and it's in desperate need of color. Your suncatchers are beautiful and exactly what I needed! They look absolutely beautiful! I took off the suction cups and tied each with fishing line of different lengths. I screwed some cup hooks into the ceiling in a triangle shape and hung them up. They're so pretty spinning around lazily up there; I'm going to get a neck ache because I can't stop looking at them!"

Here's a picture that she sent me:


And one more thing: today is National Etsy Day! We're all supposed to shout "Etsy" from the rooftops. If you don't have an Etsy account (you can register as a buyer-only), sign up today and be sure to mention my Etsy username in the Referrer Username box at sign up! (It's EyePopArt.) Thanks and have a great day!

100 items sold!

I came home from my weekend at the Art Walk, checked my email, and found a sweet message from my friend Ryan of Littleput Books (as seen on Martha Stewart on Friday!), congratulating me for reaching 100 sales in my Etsy shop!

How in the world Ryan has time to pay attention to milestones in little shops like mine is beyond me - she is simply a rock star and that's that.

My 100th item sold was this "Love" Mandala Suncatcher - I noticed that when I was listing all my suncatchers, it got way more views than the rest - I wonder why that is.
My 100th customer will also be receiving a free copy of the Mod Mandalas Coloring Book as a special thank-you gift.

Let the sun shine in!

Oh, how I love my new camera! I spent some time yesterday photographing my Mandala Suncatchers in the window, and they came out great. I kept wishing for a little more blue sky, and as I continued to work, I got my wish! I love how the shadows of the clouds can be seen through the mandalas.I am busy listing bunches of these in my shop - take a look! My Mandala Suncatchers ($10) have a lovely glow when the sun lights them up, and they also make you happy on a cloudy day.