1. The Restyling Etsy Debut and 2. The Process Behind a Lamp

1. I have more pottery as well as the debut of some of my ReStyling work on Etsy! Go to www.sjcoffin.etsy.com OR see the right hand bar on my blog!

2. I also wanted to share the work process of a recent piece that I finished.

A dull base and shade... ready to be ReStyled.

I tore the shade apart... which was quite gratifying!

I had some burlap seed bags from the garden center where I used to work (Merrifield!). I cut it, washed it, and lint-picked it (yup, I just made that a verb).

I traced the shade along the burlap, cut it out, and burned my fingers like crazy as I hot glued the burlap to the frame. There are sacrifices for beauty, you know!

Meanwhile, the base was drying from it's coat of metal primer. I think it already looks cooler as you can see the shadows and details of the metal work.

After tightly wrapping the burlap, I sprayed it white (coat after coat after coat) which really cleaned up the rustic look. It looked FAB. But, as I looked at the shade I knew it just needed a little something.

My mom had just refinished a small antique bench and the leftover antique brads were sitting on our workbench. Voila! Perfect finishing touch to the burlap shade.

The base got numerous coats of gloss white and came our beautifully!

Bada bing, bada boom! The white on white gives the rustic burlap and vintage base quite a modern edge. Sleek and clean without being cold.

And with a lower wattage bulb, it gives off the perfect little glow.

SOLD.

Creative work takes a while...

Thanks to RCA for sharing this. I found it encouraging and challenging. Keep working!

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

Lessons and Limitations

Last Saturday I took my new wares to their first debut. It was a Flea Market. I had my doubts (which turned out to be true) but knew that this would be good. It gave me an end goal, it forced the work out for critique (a scary but necessary part of this whole process), and forced me to try something I wasn't absolutely certain about the outcome.

[Click here for more pictures from the day]

All in all the day was complete fun and a flop. I learned so much about the market for my things, about display, and about pricing. The flea market was a great debut. People who go to flea markets like that are either really in need of a deal or just really love old things. The latter are my customers.

People's responses were so encouraging. They would be snooping around all of these random stalls with assorted items and suddenly stop at my display. The intrigue, shock, and appreciation was payment enough to make up for the lack of actual money made. People don't go to flea markets to spend a lot of money for hand made things... they go for deals on old things. I did sell the New York mail/Key piece to a woman who loved it. She was from NY and had just bought a house on the Chesapeake (where I found the crate top). I also met a master craftsman who ended up giving me some metal Victorian ceiling pieces and some large letters which I certainly have exciting designs for. (I know i just ended that sentence with a preposition and I'm not changing it! ha!)

Armed with a healthy dose of discouragement to surmount, I left the experience much better for doing it. I was humbled and seriously cold (ha!) but as the G.I. Joes say, "Knowing is half the battle." So, I'm getting back on the horse and continuing to ride towards the sunset, dagonit.