Well, ’tis the season for Holiday Shows….and we have two coming up in November that are sure to delight!

Our first show is at the elegant Bellevue Club, Bellevue, WA; Saturday, November 5. This is a new venue for us and one we are very excited about. The show boasts it’s largest collection of artists and artisans to date making for an exciting event. Please come and visit not only Full Circle Studio, but all the other creative talents that will be selling their wares. Please click on the show link to get all the details and directions: http://www.bellevueclub.com/holidaybazaar/

Next on the show roster is the ever fabulous Artists Studio Holiday Sale on Mercer Island. The show takes place at the beautiful home of artist Leslie West. Opening night is Thursday November 10 from 6 to 9pm, Friday November 11 from 10 to 6pm and Saturday November 12 from 9 to Noon. This year the show will include over 12 regional artists including jewelry designers, mixed media assemblages, glass art, ceramics, hand made cards, wine…and of course, Full Circle Studio’s decoupage switchplates, flour sack towels, linen hand towels, paperweights and magnets. Please visit our show website at: http://www.wix.com/fullcirclestudio/artiststudiosale#! for all the details.

Please note that we are including a food drive to fill the shelves of the Mercer Island Family Services Food Bank. Please bring a few non perishable food items with you when you come, so we can help make it a joyful holiday for everyone!

I know this title just makes you want to rush and read what I have to say…I mean who doesn’t want to talk about cotton? Well, sorry to say, I do.

For over 11 years, I have been happily and easily producing a line of decoupage switchplates and paperweights…no trouble getting the product blanks, no trouble finding fabulous artisans to make the product, never had a back order or had to call a customer to say “sorry, I can’t fill your order for another two months!!!”….not ever. Until I ventured in to the world of cotton…flour sack towels to be specific. The goal was to create a beautiful, functional towel that anyone would delight in using everyday, didn’t want any slave labor involved or small children to be exploited in Third World countries. It all seemed simple enough.

Well, suffice it to say, it isn’t simple…it is really difficult. I could rant on about how the cotton market pales in comparison to OPEC..I could tell you that I now know about cotton being hoarded and prices going up 70%…I could tell you that their is a hierarchy as to who gets their allotment of cotton and what they have to go through to get it. You start to feel like you are brokering in contraband and scramble the globe to find any one…any where with the goods.

Finally, the dust has settled and we have a solution for our flour sack towels. They will not be 32″ x 36″ because if we made a towel that large it would cost $20 to $25. And if we could make it that size, we can’t be assured that the cotton delivered was not at the expense of a child, woman or impoverished country. What we can make is a 30″ x 30″ towel, in the same quality flour sack cotton and at the same price of $16…and no one was harmed in the process.

I know a lot of you loved our ultra over-sized towel and I am sorry we can’t continue offering that size. But I am proud and satisfied that we found a great over-sized towel that will be created with our same designs, same great weight of cotton and with no guilty conscience.

Here are a couple of the new designs I am working on for July. I hope you enjoy them!

With gratitude for all your patience!

Psst…the next blog will be to announce our fabulous new line of linen hand towels…great for kitchen or bath!
Kate

There is a fair amount of pressure writing your first blog of the year. You want to make it meaningful, full of hope and good intention. I could write about being grateful that I was born in the United States and not Egypt or Tunisia. I could write that while the Northwest is always gray and rainy during the winter, I am not buried under feet of snow and record breaking cold. But what I really want to write about is one of my favorite books of all time…a book that is a continual source of inspiration for me and, I hope, others.

It is a book for children and it is called “The Dot” by Peter H. Reynolds.

Why am I writing about a children’s book? Because it carries a profound message to everyone…of any age. I first read it to my daughter’s kindergarten class when I was the art docent. In an effort to ease the children into their own creative expression…no matter how it turned out or what it looked like…I found this glorious story.

It is about a young girl who feels she can’t draw, isn’t as talented as the other kids around her and is feeling frustrated. Her teacher invites her to look at her blank piece of paper and “to make a mark and see where it takes you”. She makes a dot. The teacher picks up the paper with the dot and then asks her to sign it. The next day the little girl comes in to class to see that her signed dot has been framed by the teacher and is hanging prominently in a beautiful gold frame. The little girl is then inspired to make an even better dot…in fact, she goes on a “dot fest” and creates lots of paintings with all kinds of dots of various sizes and colors. Her dot paintings are then displayed at the school art show and much to her delight and surprise, folks think they are pretty cool. A young boy comes up to her saying he wishes he could draw like she does. And yes, the girl invites him to make his own mark, a squiggle, and then to sign it. Needless to say, the young boy goes from desperation to delight.

So here is my New Year’s wish for all of you…make your mark! It doesn’t matter if it is something you paint, draw, sew, play, collage, write, photograph, cook, drink, wear, arrange, make, grow, sing, dance or design. Just do it, for you. The world will be a better place because of it.

And if you are stuck, you can always go to our “Lesson in Decoupage” and start there.

Thank you Peter H. Reynolds!

I have said it before, and I am going to say it again…it is the simple treasures we give ourselves that make life smile.

This is not to say that when I pass a billboard of the MegaMillions jackpot tally, I don’t think about all the fabu things I could do with 25 million dollars…honestly, I think I would make a great millionaire. That said, I would still subscribe to the simple treasures mantra. A small item, filled with delight, that I use every day.

Full Circle Studio was founded on this principle. And that was almost 11 years ago…during another “economically challenging” time. Had I been a more avid follower of the news, I would have known this and thought better about starting a completely new business based on my limited artistic skills. But being more devoted to reading People Magazine than the New York Times business section, I didn’t factor that particular fear in to my new plan. As most of you know, it started with switchplates. Mostly because that was what I new how to make, having just redone the switchplates in my home because they were ghastly. What I discovered was a simple addition to an ordinary object that I use several times a day.

Then I read an observation by the founder of Revlon: his experience was that in economically challenging times, lipstick sales soared! Why, because lipsticks were an inexpensive little luxury that made you feel good. I have often said that switchplates are the home decorating equivalent of a new lipstick. ( Sorry gentlemen, I don’t know what the male counter part is). I keep this motto in mind as I add new products to our line…whether it is a paperweight for your desk or flour sack towel for your kitchen…a small, useful item that brings a smile to your heart as you go about a busy day.

Just think about this as we enter this season of gifting….simple treasures!

What are your “simple treasures”?

Here’s the truth…nothing makes me feel more like a slob of a human being than getting that fall issue of Martha Stewart Magazine…you know the one…the Halloween issue. There I am in the afterglow of buying school supplies, school has started, I’m looking forward to wearing sweaters again…and then bam, I go to the mail box and see that cover of Martha in full witch drag with more ideas on Halloween themes than I could ever think of. Now don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy the holidays. And by that, I mean Thanksgiving and Christmas…these are holidays…Halloween is a great night for kids and a wonderful opportunity to stock up on chocolate…but apart from a nice assortment of carved pumpkins, that’s it for me. I don’t have Halloween dishes, I don’t have an inventory of costumes and I certainly don’t have Halloween décor…I mean it is enough for me to find the angel for the top of the tree each year.
I don’t want to sound like a curmudgeon…I love decorating my home for Thanksgiving and Christmas…I love warming up my home with the colors of fall and winter. I just believe that you can create an inviting holiday ambiance without being under additional pressure to make sure the Turkey décor is switched out for the Santa accessories by the time the long weekend is over…you know what I mean?
With that in mind, we have created new designs in towels and switchplates to add a touch of autumn delight. The images are those we love; botanicals, owls, dragonflies…just worked in to a fall palette. We have also added a Holiday section that includes towels, switchplates and paperweights….And yes the Holiday items incorporate all the imagery we love…birds and botanicals…but collaged in hues of red and green and are guaranteed to add a touch of the season to any room….but you won’t have to feel embarrassed if you still have these goodies out when the Super Bowl is on!

P.S. Special thanks to clever Lois at The Sparrow House for her great idea about wrapping the towels with a wooden spoon to make an even greater gift idea! Please visit her website at http://www.sparrowhouse.com.
Enjoy

A chat about collage, inspiration and how it all began.

A few weeks ago, I was gifted with a call from Deb D’Onfrio ( a truly splendid artist). Deb and I have never met but she knew of FCS thru a store we sell to back East. Deb started to talk to me about her own art and how she was working to expand her art to a wider audience. We talked about all those initial fears of taking what you love to create and turning it into a business, the lack of confidence, trade shows, websites, the joy of creating something you love and having people buy it…we covered a lot of ground. While I am no expert on any of this, what I really wanted Deb to know is how important it is to keep people around you that support your dreams…in other words, The Goddess Network.

Created by Deb d'Onfrio

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