New Workshops, new shows!

Excited to announce that I’ve added a couple of new workshops to my August roster, in addition to the upcoming glass-etching workshop on August 27th. I’ll be teaching two workshops on terrarium-building on August 14th and 23rd!  These two classes will focus on how to create sustainable tropical ecosystems under glass, with step-by-step instruction and tips on keeping your terrariums beautiful long-term. Attendees will get to personalize their terraria, and we’ll use truly unique glass vessels (no fishbowls here!) to build in.  Very excited to offer this class at the Presentation School Foundation in Brighton, as previously, I’ve only offered it and Brookline Adult and Community Education and Newton Community Education.  If you live in the Greater Boston area, or will be on August 14th or 23rd, join in!  You have to pre-register to attend, register here.

This Sunday, I’ll be exhibiting at SOWA Boston, debuting some new pieces. I’ve created new terrarium ornaments, botanical-gilded lanterns, terrarium shadow boxes and botanical-etched decanters. SOWA is open from 10 AM – 4 PM on Sunday, and is free to attend (it costs $10 to park, but you can use the parking voucher at any of the vendor booths!)

Spring is Sprung, Assembled, and New Additions

Hi all!

The sun is finally out, on a regular basis, here in New England.  The sun and I have a troubled relationship (I’m allergic) but I’m still glad to see it!

Things are blooming, and my allergies are punishing me, but I’ll take it!  It’s Summer show season, and I can get back to taking photos for

Hieropice outside, in gorgeous natural light.  Doing that in January was brutal.  We’re just coming out of a tricky, scary period here in Boston, and I’m happy to feel good about going outside again.  After the Boston Marathon bombings and the manhunt for the bombers that followed, we were on lock-down here in my neighborhood as they turned up about 10 minutes away, in Watertown.  We were prohibited from leaving our homes, and it turns out the local man who they car-jacked in their escape attempt was car-jacked two blocks from my house.  I have several friends who live in the neighborhood that was a constant fixture on the news for days, as the police exchanged gunfire with the bombers and searched for the surviving bomber in resident’s homes.  Everyone I care for is safe, thankfully, and I’m relieved the worst is over.

On a positive note, on May 18th, I’m taking on my first craft show as Producer, and I’m quite nervous, and excited about it!  I’ve been reaching out to all the artists’ whose beautiful work I’ve seen at shows, purchased on Etsy, found in consignment shops like Boutique Fabulous and Magpie, or elsewhere online, and asking them to apply for the May 18th show, particularly those with Etsy shops.  I’ve had this vision of making an all-Etsy craft show happen for a while now, and it’s finally going to happen!  The Somerville Beat interviewed me about the show, and did a great piece on it here , wherein they featured my Orange Flower Terrarium Necklace and we chatted about the vision behind the Assembled show on the 18th.  And, I’m even more excited about some new, one-of-a-kind pieces that I’m about to launch.  I’m finishing them up now, and can’t wait to show them off, I’m really proud of how they’ve turned out and they’re really different/unique, which is my constant goal.  I’ve never seen anything like them in my 31 years of life, so I hope you’ll all respond as positively to them as I hope you will!  Anyway, get outside and enjoy the proliferation of Spring, if you can!  I know I will.

Cheers!

Dara

Craft Festival!

There’s still time to apply to Assembled: A Handmade Arts Market in Assembly Square! April 30th is the deadline: http://bit.ly/12o2w4y

Why You Should Apply

I’ve encountered an exciting new opportunity!

Well, let me back-track a bit.  I’ve been out-of-the-loop for a little bit while I cared for a loved-one who was ill, but now I’m back, and embarking on something very exciting!

   I’ve wanted to do an all-Etsy-seller craft show forever now, but logistically, it seemed challenging. BUT, Aigner/Prensky Marketing has launched, with the backing of Federal Realty, a series of Summer craft shows to celebrate the redevelopment of the Assembly Square Mall area in Somerville.  You can read more about what they’re hoping to do with the area here: http://www.assemblyrow.com/vision/, but they’ve got big plans for the it, including creating new housing, restaurants and shops, and it promises to be pretty cool.

But that’s not the big story.  I will be producing the premier show of the Assembled: The Handmade Arts Market at Assembly Row, for Aigner/Prensky Marketing on Saturday, May 18th.  AND it’s going to be an all-Etsy show!  A show full of Etsy artisans sharing their unique, handmade wares, to kick off the Summer.  I am so excited.  Sometimes, vending online means you repeatedly interact with people who you never get to meet in person.  You may even talk to them every day, or perhaps they’ve purchased a number of your pieces, but you have no idea what they look like or who they are and could pass them on the street and never know it.  This show will be such a great opportunity for Etsy sellers to connect to eachother, to supporters of the Etsy marketplace, to chat and exchange ideas. 

The show will also feature a workshop on how to start an Etsy shop, tips and tricks for running a successful shop, etc.  So if you have an Etsy shop and feel you have something prurient to share, or you’d like to start and Etsy shop but aren’t sure where to begin, or you’re already running a shop but could use some help getting it where you want it, come to the workshop!

Where the Assembled show will be held

Applications for the May 18th, Etsy-themed Assembled show are now being accepted.  Please apply!  Or, if you know of an artist in New England whose work you love, please forward the link along to them: http://www.assemblyrow.com/wp-content/aruploads/2013/03/Application_for_artists-fillable-form.pdf.  I want this show to be spectacular, and with your help, it will be!

Cheers!  Dara

Uforge Gallery Holiday and Craft Fair

The Uforge Gallery Holiday and Craft Fair is tomorrow!  We’ll be there!

JP Rocks and Rolls

I’m a little late in posting this, but tomorrow, Hieropice will be a vendor at JP Rocks and Rolls in Jamaica Plain, MA.  JP is a unique place, very quirky, with a lot of creative people in it, so I really enjoy hanging there.  The show tomorrow also has an old record sale portion, so if you actually own a functioning record-player, it might be worth checking out.  It’s 12-3 PM, at 45 Danforth Street, JP.

Anyhoo, hope everyone is enjoying a lovely Saturday, the sun’s actually out here!

Want to Dance?

Happy Sunday evening all (or not, depending on when you’re reading this).  We are in that lovely crux betwixt Summer and Fall, where the weather is (albeit a bit unpredictable) cool and crisp but full of sunshine here in New England, and I hope you are all enjoying it!  I definitely am, I took a jaunt through the SOWA/SOWA Vintage markets in South Boston this afternoon; lots of really fascinating items, and, in the vintage market, anything you could possibly imagine.  Mostly everything you never knew you needed, until you saw it, and thought, “I DO want a glass chemistry distiller tube!”  It was a lot of fun, playing with all of the do-dads.  I hunted for a really special terrarium vessel but didn’t find one this time, but I hope to visit both markets again soon!

Next Saturday (September 15th) is the World Damba Festival at Tufts University, at which I will be vending.  I have a number of new terrariums and jewelry designs to debut at the Festival, and I am really excited to do this festival in particular for a number of reasons.  Tufts is my Alma Mater, I attended it simultaneously as the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.  I haven’t been back on campus in years, and how cool to be there representing my business, after completing my education there years before!  Feeling very proud as a female entrepreneur of color.  

But the real fun is the festival.  Damba is a Northern Ghanaian celebration with roots in Islamic tradition, with an abundance of dance and song and food.  My partner is Ghanaian, and has missed elements of home (the ones we all do when we’re away, food, family, social gatherings), and I am really looking forward to his opportunity to reconnect.  It’ll be wonderful to learn a bit more about Ghanaian culture, and I know the energy of this festival will be amazing.  The festival runs Friday through Sunday, and Hieropice will be vending 10 AM to 6:30 PM on Saturday, September 15th (next weekend!).  Hope to see you all there!

 

Cheers,

Dara

 

P.S. – Check out the festival’s Facebook page: World Damba Festival

Thanks for a great show!

Thanks everyone, for coming out to Arts on the Arcade!

The Last Day!

Today (Wednesday, the 29th) is the final day of Arts on the Arcade, in Government Center.  Stop by for some one-of-a-kind crafts, locally-grown produce, and excellent live music!  We’ll be there, 11 AM to 3 PM!

Arts on the Arcade!

Arts on the Arcade is tomorrow (Wednesday, August 22nd), 11 AM to 3 PM, at City Hall Plaza, Boston.  I’ve got a ton of new terrariums and new jewelry to show.  Hope to see you all there!