Black Friday/ Cyber Monday Sale

I've put discounts on 59 items in my store! Here's a sample.

Featured items, update and sale information.

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade krummenacker.etsy.com

Well, our cat didn't make it. She had a brain lesion, which is untreatable, and it was causing her to be unable to swallow, and to shake violently. We ended up with a vet bill of over $800, and although my Etsy sales didn't cover it, a few generous buyers did make a significant difference for us.
I'm now hoping to earn a little money for the holidays-- my temp work has actually slowed up lately-- through a storewide 25% off sale. Just hit the contact button in the store and tell me what you want to buy, and I will be happy to adjust the price for you and reserve it for you to purchase.

Veterniarian bill sale-- help me help my cat

40% off anything in my shop. Convo me before purchase for the discount.

My cat has lost about a third of her body weight. They're giving her IV fluids and running a bunch of tests. The bill so far is $300 and that's not even knowing what's wrong with her yet. My husband and I are both low paid temp workers. Anything will help.

Thanks.
--
http://krummenacker.etsy.com

Arrrgh! Avast ye sea dogs!

I celebrated Talk Like a Pirate Day by adding a pirate themed trinket box to my Etsy site. I always enjoy a touch of whimsy.

The lid slides open: there's more pictures of it here:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15404881

Closed, it hold coins like a bank
Or open, make dolls walk the plank.

Welcome in Fall!

Etsy Buy Handmade krummenacker

To celebrate, I'm offering 25% off everything in the Clothing and Costumery and Hairsticks sections of my Etsy store. http://krummenacker.etsy.com -- I'd like to help people who are designing their own Halloween costumes to dress them up. Just hit the "contact" button on the store site and it will let you send me a message. Tell me what you want and I will edit it for the discount and reserve it for you to purchase.

Apple of Discord, and other ACEOs

These are ACEOs-- Art Card Editions and Originals, and in my case, all originals. They are art pieces done in the same dimensions as a trading card (like baseball cards), 2.5 x 3.5 inches. This makes them a great way for people without big houses and big budgets to have their own art collection, and I'm all about making art available for everyone.
This is the most recent group I've painted, but ACEOs have their own section in my shop and I just painted 5 more pieces tonight that I haven't had time to photograph.

Today's poem is extemporaneous, referencing the same legend in the red painting above.

Eris's apple: To the fairest.
Sweet temptation of the ego,
Shining brightly, like an insect
Full of toxics, sharp and bitter.
Brightly golden, worse than pyrite,
Costing more labor and bloodshed
Than Gold Rushes coming later.
Paris judges, but no winner
In the end, except Fair Discord.

New exhibition by FAE

Visions of Atlantis-- a watery theme for the hottest month.





Beneath the water, coral towers
Entwined with kelp around their bowers
Sparkle under sea-snow showers
Brightly decked wi' anenome flowers.

Magically successful.

With the difficulties I've had with the Art Nouveau Medusa, my artistic confidence was getting a bit shaken. So I was pleased to have this be a roaring success with this Wiccan business card holder.

For those of you not familiar with these symbols, the pentacle represents 5 elements: spirit, air, fire, water, and earth, with spirit being the top point. Although some Christians in modern times are suspicious of the pentacle, in medieval times it was also thought to represent Five Virtues and was referred to as being embroidered on the equipage of great Christian knights in epic poems. In the Tarot, the Pentacles are the suit of Air, Intellect, and Wealth: not bad symbols for a business card holder.
The Triple Moon symbol represents the Goddess as maiden, mother and crone. The waning and waxing of the moon has always been seen as a metaphor for the cycle of life, and the Fates found in many myths are likely a version of the triple goddess. I consider the Triple Moon an excellent reminder in today's youth culture that there are other times of life which are just as important. Those with life experience become more confident and more powerful.

Still trying...

to make a Medusa my customer actually likes. I can't wish for her to be less choosy, because a tattoo is basically forever. I do wish, however, she had a slightly better art vocabulary, to make communications with her easier.

I've got a few other little custom pieces to work on now, a necklace and bracelet set for a friend, and a Wiccan business card holder I got an order for through Etsy's Alchemy. Plus, I'm working on and off as a Kelly temp.

Money
makes the world go round,
Yet it seems
we're slowing down.

I wish prosperity to all my readers. Times are hard for many people, but I believe we can all get through this.

Custom design in progress

The idea is an Art Nouveau style medusa (with non-snake hair), who must be beautiful in a way more ethereal than sexual. I think this works but I want approval from the customer before I start to ink her.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Exhibition

The Fantasy Artists of Etsy have put together a new exhibition; the banner doesn't seem to work here, so I'll find a link...


Hmm, I added the link, but it's not displaying for me, so here's the copy/paste version.
http://fantasyartofetsy.webng.com/exhibition.html

The longest day still ticks away;
The hands of time are never stayed.
But dreams go on, and so does song
So let us never be dismayed.

Bracelets I have made

I've gotten on a site that makes slideshows easy to make, and I'm hoping it will work as well on a blog as on a journal. No poem tonight. My arm was injured recently and I think I've typed too much as it is.


bracelets

Near Neary Lagoon

Here's a photo from our "backyard". A wood duck has claimed a space on the water. You can't see the fish in this picture, but not far below the surface, there are koi/carp that are longer than he is.

Koi wait patiently;
Warmed in a California
Lagoon by Spring sun.

A New Start

Allan and I have moved to Santa Cruz. It is so beautiful here, I know I will be inspired to do much more art and poetry. For now, I'm recovering from an arm injury and don't have internet access at home yet... so I will post more once these problems are taken care of. But I have much to share.

So much charm

I had an order of a snake pendant a couple of weeks ago, and while I was trying to find a lovely snake, I discovered a set of dragons! They were so pretty, and the price was right, so I bought them to use in future items. Anyone who wants to order a custom item before I end up putting them to work in other creations, please speak up.
And since these are Asian dragons, I offer this haiku from my poetry archives:

Dragon brings the rain,
Drops like tiny pearls falling,
Seeding the rice fields.

The Custom-er is always Happy, part 2

Blame Canada-- well at least a Canadian girl with remarkable hair! Ordinary hair sticks are just too small to hold her luxurious locks so she custom ordered 11 inch, gem topped creations. We worked together on the choice of stones. Moonstone and turquoise/ malachite and pearl, on the different pairs. It's a delicate but elegant look.
And it's given me another idea. Sticks *this* long are big enough for knitting needles. And I know fancy knitting needles have their market.
Today's poem. Well, I'm proud of how things are going with my art/artisan work. So, I give you my poem on pride.







Pride

A thousand trumpets
Sing their clarion
Call to triumph,
An echo of the
Leaping soul-song.
To split the sky,
Etch names in stone,
Command the wind
Takes but a thought.

This glory must be shared!
Know, all, your beauty,
Wisdom, power, and measureless
Potential, heady as wine.
‘Til drunk with joy, we
Stop to rest, and savor
Sweet achievement.

The Custom-er is always Happy

Some artists don't really like doing custom work. It compromises their artistic integrity, or it makes them feel like a worker rather than facing it with inspiration.
I actually LOVE doing custom work, at least I have every time I've been given the chance. Of course, working with my own ideas is fun and creative, but it feels even more exciting for me to *stretch* myself by working with someone, to create something I wouldn't have, solely by my own effort. Just for instance, I tend to prefer very clear, strong colors: fuschia and cobalt, black and red; such combinations as the pure paints yield.
When a buyer was looking for an abstract with light brown, beige and light green, though, I found it intriguing. It made me think of leaves against sand, or a bit of forest undergrowth-- but she wanted geometric, not organic, design. Even more intriguing.
What do such peaceful colors suggest in a geometric style? Stability. Tranquility. But an art piece should also suggest a dynamic side, so I conceived of a sphere for stability and rays for motion.
This top picture was my initial foray, to see if that general concept would work. With a request to tone down the green (She was right-- the green was highly mixed with white, but still dried darker than wet) and approval to add a few more rays for balance, I ended up with the second and final version. We were both happy with it, and as it fit well in a priority envelope, it should be in her hands about now.

It's been a while.

Thanks to a hand injury, I've tried to minimize my typing for a while.
With Spring here, there's a lot more light for taking photos. I've even set up a little photography station near a window so I can use natural light and yet not go out in the big asthma-provoking outdoors.
While packing things to move, I found this Dragon Glass Candle Holder I painted a while back and stashed carefully away. It's gone into my store inventory boxes for now, but I wouldn't mind at all having to ship it before we move! So pretty-- the gold paint doesn't photograph well with a light background, so if you go to my store, you will see a dark background, too, that really shows how it can shine!
I've updated photos on many of my older listings to make them clearer and more informative.

No poem, because I'm late getting ready for bed. The way I react to the fibromyalgia and asthma keeps me nocturnal-- but I can function by day on the coast, where I'm so much healthier.

New Art

I've been finishing a lot of paintings lately. It's an urge I've had as we've gotten closer to moving. I can't stand to pack an unfinished canvas. Unfortunately, even trying to fit two paintings into one post makes the formatting on this blog rather difficult.



Come to my etsy site to see the rest of the new listings!

http:krummenacker.etsy.com



Here's a poem I wrote that combines goddesses and Egypt.







Bast breathes an Eternal purr mixed with moonlight.
Twin moons with the glow of gold watch through the night.
Silent, she sidles, the hush of wind her sound.
Twisting like a river, she marks sacred ground
Until Ra’s rays fall upon her silken fur
And Bast becomes woman, but her face, her purr
Recalls the midnight prowling and moonlight glints.
Bast is the feline Pharoah, benevolence.

New FAE exhibition

src="http://fantasyartofetsy.webng.com/exhibition/exbanner_march.jpg"
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March Madness was my idea-- I've seen lots of Alice In Wonderland and dark fantasy stuff, so when we decided to do more exhibitions, I thought it would be good to give people a chance to pull out some of their more unusual pieces.

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last update, but I got an injury on a fingertip that has made typing a lot more difficult for a while.

In the theme of madness, this poem was written in character a while back, but works quite well without any background and isn't really that dark...

Silver Tears


Oh kiss, my love, these silver tears,
And make the madness go away.
My pain is more than I can say,
Yet at love’s touch it disappears.

Now beak these bonds, these chains of hate
I’ve carried through long, lonely years,
Forged of faithlessness and fears,
And tempered by the blows of fate.

Then bring, my love, the light of day
That burns the fog that clouds my sight,
For still my soul is full of night
And only you can see the way.

Then lift, my love, with easy might
This spirit lain with heavy weight.
Your love alone can consecrate
A heart so long removed from right.

The silver tears that gently traced
A song of woe across my face,
Are vanished, lost in your embrace;
And lest by me you be debased,
Or that your love may seem misplaced,
I vow to dedicate to grace
All strength within this mortal case
Until my faults are all erased.

Green Goddess

It started with an experiment with making skirted fairy pendants/charms. I noticed some of them had a rather goddess-y silhouette, so I decided to try make a goddess figurine. I had copper wire I could use to give her arms and the spiral, and with spring already underway around here, a green goddess seemed just right, with leaves and a slender strand of beads like a stalk or vine.

I intend to do more in other themes, but this seemed like the perfect start.

My muse loves it, too.

The lady green loves growing things,
And dances with the sun.
Her pale mane, it falls as rain,
And washes everyone.
As her dance flows, each creeping rose
Bursts forth before her face.
The rain, and dew, and moonlight, too
Reflect her glowing grace.

FAE's Storybook Romance

The Fantasy Artists of Etsy street team has an exhibition up. See what my colleagues have been making!

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Daylight?!

When I'm traveling, of course I cannot be quite the night owl I usually am. So now that I'm home I've been able to take new and better pictures of a lot of my etsy listings. Also, I've got new listings up, like this mermaid vase and a banshee art piece. http://krummenacker.etsy.com

Since my title is about changing my schedule and being up in the day, my poem is one I wrote years ago when I was reluctantly diurnal.

The day devours time;
The hours, sun-scorched, die
Or are pushed into
Oblivion by
Clocks’ hand and digits.

The night gives time back—
No demands, schedules.
Crickets mark seconds
In broken rhythm.
You breathe minutes, hours.

The moon speaks of months;
The stars sing the music
Of eons’ passage.
You look up and fall
Into forever.

A Journey To Be Taken

This week, Tuesday-Friday, I will be spending time in Santa Cruz. I truly think it will make a world of difference to my health once I am living there. We will be scouting out mobile home parks, as the most likely source of affordable rentals. Allan will take a test for a county job. We will probably both be looking into other job opportunities and such as well.
I love ocean air, the cries of seagulls, the towering sequoias in the mountains above. The area has been calling us for years, and the move has been too long delayed by second-guessing.
I like the people who live in the area, too. People feel better and it shows in their interactions.

Today's poem is about a different type of ocean-- the cosmos. I wrote this after stargazing one night at college.

Black Ocean

If an ocean had no floor,
A weight would fall forever.
In a black, endless sea
Drift a million pearls
Lit from within, at changing depth.
There are no shores,
But a lush, green isle where I stand.

I want to fall into the cool dark,
The ocean that is the sky,
Among the pearly stars.
Sometimes I start to fall,
But the island pulls me back,
Earthbound.

A poem, mainly

Although this is a cool painting I did, recently listed on my etsy site. http://krummenacker.etsy.com

I hope you can read LOLcat speak, as the poem is not written in normal English.




Cheezeburger Cat sez:
I CAN haz cheezeburger!
Not question; statement--
Way of living.
Az ceiling cat iz witness,
Never be hungry again.

Life full of things,
Some I DO NOT WANT.
But embrace invizible stuff
And they will be there.

Believe in ur cheezeburger,
And nom. nom, nom.

Who?

Allan Krummenacker, that's who drew this. :) My husband and I both love owls, and barn owls, with their heart shaped faces, were perfect for his "love birds". The name of the picture is "Moonlight Rendezvous", and while we gave the original to his mother, we did make prints which I've just listed on my Etsy site.
http://krummenacker.etsy.com

Seems like the perfect poetic finish for this will be one of my love poems...


Kiss me into heaven, with each tiny touch a stair.
Kiss me into heaven; let me know how much you care.
No words can yet express
The way you do with each caress.
With you alone, I dare to give myself to happiness

Thank You, Tracy!

My friend Tracy helped me out by modeling my hairsticks. I'm afraid I had a little trouble holding the camera steady enough, but I got one usable photo on each, which, combined with better focused pictures, should help people solve the question of, "But how to I *use* them?"
Doesn't Tracy have lovely hair? We had a great visit, besides.

I wrote this poem years ago, back when Tracy, some other friends and myself, had a pretend Assassin's Guild going, and I was fascinated by reincarnation and Asian history...

The wheel turns--
Clans at war, locked in struggle.
Lord kills spy, love kills lord,
Ripples on a pond.
The wheel turns.

A new item from Allan

Doesn't he do beautiful work? Okay, I'm biased, being his wife and all, but I love how well he creates a sense of dimension on these calla lilies. There's even a sense of the slightly fleshy texture of the flowers--my parents have a huge bed of calla lilies outside their house and I used to play with them as a child.
Actually, when I was about 5, one of my favorite games to play by myself was "magic potions", which was basically inventing ways to process substances and imagine what a mixture of them, with the right spell, could do. The calla lilies were one of my favorite things to work with because of the interesting textures within them.

and here's a little poem I wrote about a form of "magic potion" that I have long been skeptical of:



The masquerade begins.
Glimmering promises of beauty
In colors bright or shy,
Perfectly matched,
Tantalize the eye.
Photographs like romantic dreams
Gaze at you,
Or romp through sunlit fields.
Like a gypsy tune,
The call of magic,
Your youth recaptured,
Your wishes fulfilled,
Sing the ads,
The catalogs
Of a billion-dollar industry:
Cosmetics.

My mom has an art blog now

http://artid.com/members/Caroline/blog/

She's really been my main muse; she read us the best books while we were growing up. She's done wonderful writing, from nonfiction, to poetry, to novels. And as you can see, she is a truly talented painter. You might say she taught me the art of finding ways to show people the world through your own eyes.

Also, I wish to mention that some of my poetry will be going onto part of the FAE website. I don't know what the exact links will be, because our webmistress is remastering the site. But I can give you a sample for your reading pleasure now

Enter the Dragon

A dragon tries to fly against the wind;
How valiantly he struggles to ascend
A sky forbidden long to such as he!
Though others rise upon his vast wing-breeze
(And seem to soar aloft with such bright ease,
Surpassing him in height but not in might),
He’ll not content himself with lower flight,
But roars, insistent that the sky be free!

Oh, valiant dragon, dropped before your time;
Oh, cruel curse to interrupt his climb:
And yet, the dragon’s legend still remains,
And lifts up others, following his name.
The dragon has, at last, achieved his fame.
Do you see him in the clouds, atop the sky?
Remember him, and he will always fly,
A pioneer, rewarded for his pains.

A quick way to see what FAE has been creating

Click
here to see items from FaeEtsy's talented artisans

Moon River

I love working with real stones, and pearls. They have a wonderful feel to them, and seem to interact with personal energy even as I work. The chatoyant pale stones are moonstone, and the blue central stone is amazonite, thus Moon River is a sort of play on their names. Freshwater pearls unite the themes-- the moonlight-like gleam of white pearl, and freshwater for the river. Silver seemed the natural choice of metals to go with, being associated with moon and water in magic.

Design is a great pleasure; if one has enough materials to choose from, it is possible to layer a wealth of meaning in one simple item.

Here's a poem I wrote with a watery theme, although not fresh water. ..

Sing me the love song
That the waves sing to the beach
Embrace me like the tide.
Where we touch,
We merge,
Reshaping one another
In the landscape of life.

In California, winter doesn't tend to last long

And so I've been focusing on spring and summer themes. The FAE team is doing a Storybook Romance competition/exhibition right now, and whether I have something suitable or not in my story may depend on what is considered fantasy. BTW, no one has bothered commenting on my questions on the FAE blog as to how the lines are drawn, anyhow.

My asthma has been worse lately; it seems our rains have been doing more to encourage mold than scrub the air.

I sometimes fret, and sometimes seethe,
When I find it's getting hard to breathe.

Playing with something new

I sanded down and painted a little tin with acrylic craft paint and mod podge, added glitter, an owl I'd made from salt dough, more paint and mod podge, and it is cute as can be. I am not, however, convinced it is 100% as durable as can be, so if any of my readers work with metal and know the right cleaners and paints to get a really durable finish, please let me know.
The tin is the size of an Altoids tin, but came as a promotional thing in a box of tea. I didn't much see people being interested in tins with tea related graphics on them, but the owl is just the sort of thing the people *I* know love.

I'm afraid I only have one poem with an owl theme, and it's a bit grim. The muse is lost in thought over a cup of tea and not giving me new words, so here it is.
Death awaits,
An owl perched watching,
Waiting to swoop,
To lift the stray in its talons
Aloft in the sky.

New year; new listings; new sale

Happy 2008, everyone.

We will probably be moving soon, so I'm offering free shipping on everything in the US and normal US shipping costs for people everywhere else. I'd like to have less stuff to pack and move!

I also might get a day job afterwards, so I want to get plenty of listings up before then-- it takes less time to check the site and ship as opposed to wrestling with listing information. Don't worry about me becoming less efficient, though; I will, as always, have my husband's full cooperation in getting things shipped.
He HAS to help-- I'm selling his art, too, as can be seen from Autumn Melody for Wind and Strings show here and drawn entirely by him in soft pastels (the medium, not the color).
I've got a lot of new jewelry I want to list, once I have good photographs. And bookmarks-- everyone can use nice bookmarks, although it's a bit tricky to find good materials to do masculine styled ones.

And the muse is quite friendly today; this is a brand new poem:

Shadows of the past year
Slowly fade away;
Soft lights shine above, here,
Heralding the day.
Hope for new beginnings,
Brilliant joys, arise.
The future's underpinnings
Reflect upon my eyes.