The Blue Brick

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The Niagara Pumphouse, Art by the Lighthouse

August 5, 2015

This past weekend, Tito and I participated in ‘Art by the Lighthouse’, an art show on the banks of the Niagara River, by the Pumphouse Arts Centre in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

The show was fantastic, and seemed to exist in a calm little circle, despite the terrible weather that was all around us. It was sunny and blue and we met lots of great people and artists.

What I really want to show off though, are our new jewelry displays!

A few weeks ago, at another show, I had an opportunity to see how our booth compared up against other handcrafts booths. I was a little disappointed – everyone else had tall, beautiful displays that attracted attention and gave height to their booth. Our work was laid out on the table, laid out beautifully, but from far away it didn’t look like we had much to show.

A few queries and conversations later, and I was planning to go for a drive through town after the show and see if we could pick up fruit or wine crates somewhere, when the owner, Liz, of Refuge Antiques came by, and purchased earrings from us, and I asked her if she had any suggestions.

I got more than I expected, and I can’t thank Liz enough for what a wonderful person she is – she gave me a little tour of her store, and worked out an amazing price for us on 3 gorgeous pieces; whitewashed, 1800’s barn windows. They’re beautiful, unique, and thanks to her generosity, we could afford them.

This is what we did!

Thank you Liz, for helping us raise the game on our craft booth! Your generosity really made a huge difference to us :)
I am a Bad Blogger

August 4, 2015

…And I should feel Bad.

I have all kinds of stuff to talk about (and some stuff that I can’t wait to talk about, but have to keep on the low for a few more weeks) but I’ve just been too disorganized to really it together for a blog post. We’ve been so busy; we were at the Niagara Jazz Festival Etsy Market, the Niagara-on-the-Lake Farmers Market for a few weeks, and the Niagara Pumphouse annual Art By the Lighthouse show last weekend.

We’ve gotten really good at loading our car, we no longer get lost in Niagara-on-the-Lake, we’ve eaten a lot of delicious (unhealthy) road food and show food and late night bar food, and we’re tired and happy.

We’ve gotten some cool new displays set up (more on that later) and produced some gorgeous sterling silver work, and created some cute drawings to tell people about what we do and encourage them to try things on, but that’s not here either.

I knitted something. I knitted it so furiously and with such speed that I hurt my wrist. I can’t blog about it… but now that my wrists are better and I’m free to start a new project I’m overwhelmed with possibility.

I’m spinning, and dyeing, but I haven’t documented it.

Today though, today all I have for you are photos of the sky. I shot the sky all the way there, all weekend, and all the way back. Apparently, there was hell to be had in the township over, or back in Toronto, or in St Catharines the night prior… but somehow our art show existed in a perfect, clear blue sky with perfect weather. Lucky us!
Art By the Lighthouse

July 29, 2015

Our biggest, and *possibly* last show of the summer is this weekend, in Niagara-on-the-lake, at the Niagara Pumphouse ‘Art By the Lighthouse‘ event. We’ve been busy bees, preparing tons of pieces, particularly sterling silver, for this art show. If you’re in the area, or feel like taking a day trip for the long weekend, come say hi! I’ve looked at some of the other artists in the show and this promises to be a pretty amazing show full of very talented potters, painters, sculptors and, of course, jewellers :) Hope to see you there!
Jazzing it up this Sunday!

July 23, 2015

This weekend the Blue Brick will be at the TD Niagara Jazz Festival! This year the Jazz Festival has decided to include an Etsy Market as part of it’s celebrations, and we’re totally thrilled to be included on the list. We’re only there on Sunday, but the entire weekend sounds like a blast. Come by and say hello!

Etsy Market at the TD Niagara Jazz Festival
Sunday, July 26th at the Village Family Stage
11am to 6pm
THE VILLAGE STAGE is located at 111 Garrison Drive, Niagara on the Lake. Google Map.
Alpacas at Eighth and Mud

July 20, 2015

On Saturday, after the farmers market, Tito and I decided to pay a visit to Alpacas From Eighth and Mud, a farm that I’d learned about during the Frogpond Farm art show. We got to visit with John and Sharon (the owners), meet the herd, view their fibre mill and learn about their processes, and finally, purchase some spinning and knitting fibre, an excellent tour all round! Thank you John and Sharon for the tour, we’ll definitely come back!

My spoils included 100g of undyed white fibre, I’m dying half of it (more on that later) and leaving the other half natural.

This stuff drafts like butter! This is an effortless lace weight spin.

Check out that beard!

The store, where many, many lovely things are sold.

A spinning machine. I’d never seen one before, fascinating!

Making roving, and blending their own hand dyed colour.

Soooo soft.

The biggest carder I’ve ever seen.

You can buy poop! Had to take a photo, lol.
Awesome and Creepy

July 15, 2015

On the way back from Georgia last week we passed by this abandoned park, just off the 1-75 in Tennessee. I didn’t have anything but my phone camera handy, but you know I had to stop and check it out! There are 2 rusting ferris wheels, a huge model rocket, a clown sign, something called the ‘patriotic palace’ and probably a few other tidbits that I missed in my hasty tour. All of it is being reclaimed by nature and it’s literally right off the highway. A quick google search revealed nothing about the park, but it had a great, creepy vibe to it, especially on such a glum, rainy day.
A New Experiment; Wooden Bezels

July 14, 2015

I am super excited about these. This was Tito’s idea for a new bezel design using bits of bark and driftwood that we found at the edge of Lake Ontario. The wood has been carved, cleaned and sealed, with copper elements built on to frame the wood and hold the resin. I think he’s brilliant, but then I’m biased ;)

These beauties will make their debut this weekend at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Farmers Market, come check us out!
Niagara-On-The-Lake Farmers Market, and a Bit of Tourism

July 13, 2015

This past Saturday Tito and I had a booth at the Niagara-on-the-Lake farmers market. We’re there again this Saturday, and that’s our last appearance at this particular market for the year, so come down and check us out if you’re in the area! The market also features amazing jams and jellies from Gryphon Ridge, organic wines from Frogpond Farm and a host of other deliciousness, including baked goods, a florist and locally grown produce, definitely worth a trip.

After the show, Kim treated us to a little driving tour of the area, it’s amazing (for a couple of road trippers) how much of it we had never seen.

Before all the erosion brought it to it’s current spot; here is where Niagara Falls used to be:

This is a giant whirlpool on the Niagara River. I should have taken a panorama to get the entire thing in, it’s huge!

Of course, we got to spend some time at Kims with her critter collection. This is baby muddy foot:

And something amorous is going on in the background there…

Amazing lunch in the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake proper at the Shaw Café followed. Isn’t this place beautiful?

And finally, back to the big city for some PanAm Games action. Love it!
FO – Tut Tut, looks like rain

July 8, 2015

What’s a long road trip good for? Casting off a Henslowe, that’s what.

The yarn is from ‘See Jayne Knit’ and the colour way is called ‘Tut Tut, looks like rain’. I decided to take the FO pics yesterday because the day and the yarn were a perfect match.

Normally I’m not a fan of variegated yarn and lace patterns, but I don’t think this turned out too badly.

It’s a comfortable size, the yarn is super soft, and I’m sure it will get lots of wear this winter :)
FO – Custom Fit Featherweight

July 2, 2015

The Custom Fit Featherweight is off the needles, fits like a dream, and I’m totally in love.

Chaos

Blocking

Magic. Gets me every time.

As soon as I really came to terms with having to seam it all up, I briefly panicked.

Luckily Amy Herzog has a number of fantastic tutorials on her blog that made it super easy. I got better as I went along, much faster than I expected to. Before I knew it, it was done.

Tito and I are currently road tripping through the US. Tennessee is stunning so I thought, ‘what better place for FO shots?’.

We even got photos with some super friendly State Troopers :)