whew

Boy life can get busy fast.

Tuesday

Another June, another summer program at the Music Academy of the West. More vocal students, more costumes, more coordinating.

Today's adventure was driving down to Upland to pull costumes. This year I am coordinating with a local SoCal costume designer. We decided to meet at a logical point since we were coming from different home bases. Hers is in Long Beach, mine is in Ventura.

The logical meeting point ended up to be Irwindale, where the 210 & 605 freeways intersect. Irwindale. There are 2 landmarks that I know of in Irwindale: The Miller's Brewery and the gravel pits. Neither one seemed like a good place to leave a car. I found a Costco in Azusa, not Irwindale but just over the city limits. Lots of parking, safe and $1.99 pizza.

What a trek- 90 miles one way. through the San Fernando Valley... through the Other Valley: San Gabriel... and keep on going!

I took an alternative route home because there was an accident in The Valley somewhere. I stayed on the 210 and wound my way up around the foothills and through the Santa Susana Pass into Simi Valley. I love the Santa Susana Pass. It looks like a perfect backdrop to a Hollywood Western.

Tomorrow we meet in Downtown LA. We are shopping for fabric. There are gypsy costumes to be made!

Details

I'm working on the details of setting up a shop on etsy.com. I'm calling it Noodleville. For those of you who haven't heard of the website: it's a website dedicated to the handmade item. There are all sorts of things from jewelry, photography, clothing, handbags, ceramics for sale. The key is that everything has to be made by the artist/artisan. Nothing manufactured or mass produced.

One of my friends here at Sea Breeze Art Studios turned me on to it. I was looking for a venue for my newly created line of hand built ceramic bowls. I finally found something I enjoy creating that seems to sell. Each bowl or plate is an original. No two are the same, they might be similar but not exactly.

The texturing of the clay is intriguing me. I have burlap, block prints & letters that I am embossing with. Some of the bowls have positive messages on the bottom. I have made a couple of "batches" of bowls and friends and family have snatched them up. A good sign.