The Kentucky Crafted Market has begun! It’s bustling, bright, and happy in here. The artists are fabulous, the music is great, and there is so much to be inspired by. Come join us! The Kentucky Crafted Market Saturday, March 8, 10-5pm Sunday, March 9, 11-4pm Ky Horse Park Alltech Arena Lexington, KY Booth 237

The Kentucky Crafted Market is this weekend!! Here is a sneak peek of what I have available. I’m here with over 100 artists, and we are ready to see all of you. You can feel how glad everyone is to be here and to show off new work and enjoy one another. There will also be local food products, live music, and children’s activities. Hope to see you there! The Kentucky Crafted Market Saturday, March 8, 10-5pm Sunday, March 9, 11-4pm Ky Horse Park Alltech Arena Lexington, KY Booth 237

Today is set-up day for The Kentucky Crafted Market! I wanted to show you these two special journals that I will have available this weekend. It all started with Kim, the owner of @zigzaggallery in Centerville, OH, and her mother. I’ve been selling my work in Kim’s gallery for a long time, and we’ve also worked on a couple special projects over the years. She and her mom had these two pairs of boots that they did not wear anymore, but did not want to throw away. She asked if she could just send them to me to use however I wanted. I finally had a chance to cut them down and see how much of the leather I could actually use. It took one pair of boots to make a journal, but I was able to incorporate some of the original belts and features that made the boots unique. You can check out these boot journals and more this weekend at The Kentucky Crafted Market! The Kentucky Crafted Market Saturday, March 8, 10-5pm Sunday, March 9, 11-4pm Ky Horse Park Alltech Arena Lexington, KY Booth 237

Here is a full view look at my new quilted crossbody totes! I created these from leather furniture samples, and there were not many duplicates of colors. That means, each side of every bag is a bit different, making them that much more unique and one-of-a-kind. Because I have a limited amount of these leather remnants, this exact design line will be a small batch. Each leather purse has two totes straps, an adjustable crossbody strap, an inside pocket, and a magnetic snap closure. I’ll be debuting these this weekend at The Kentucky Crafted Market. The Kentucky Crafted Market Saturday, March 8, 10-5pm Sunday, March 9, 11-4pm Ky Horse Park Alltech Arena Lexington, KY Booth 237

✨✨NEW NEW NEW!!!✨✨ I’m excited to introduce my new crossbody tote! I’ve been playing with the idea in my mind for some time, sketching little designs here and there. I also wanted a slightly smaller tote size and decided to combine the two. While this is all floating around in my creative brain and sketches, I’m trying to organize and figure out what I’m going to do with all those leather remnant squares. I had also just finished that bomber jacket tote so there were some design elements from that piece that were fresh on my mind. I decided to put all the creative ideas together and see what happened. What came of it were these very one-of-kind, quilt-inspired crossbody totes. Because I didn’t have duplicates of the leather samples, both sides of the bags are different, adding to their unique quality. This particular line will be a limited amount because I only have a certain amount of these particular leather furniture samples. I will be debuting these this weekend at The Kentucky Crafted Market. If you cannot make it to the show and would like me to ship one, let me know. The Kentucky Crafted Market Saturday, March 8, 10-5pm Sunday, March 9, 11-4pm Ky Horse Park Alltech Arena Lexington, KY Booth 237

While getting ready for the upcoming KY Crafted Market this weekend, I’ve also been organizing and using stacks of remnant leather. Many of these stacks are leather samples from an interior designer who lives in Nashville. I will show you my latest design with it tomorrow. It combines several design elements that I’ve had in mind for a while and a couple new ones that were fun to add. Some of these scraps were also combined to create some large size journals (shown in last photo). Any guesses as to what the new design might be or what design elements it might feature? ——- The Kentucky Crafted Market Saturday, March 8, 10-5pm Sunday, March 9, 11-4pm Ky Horse Park Alltech Arena Lexington, KY Booth 237

We are one week away from the KY Crafted Market! The piles are adding up as I work towards my first art show of the year. This is a high quality show put on by the @kyartscouncil. There will be over 100 KY visual and craft artists, live music, local food products, publishers, and art activities for the kids. It’s free admission and $10 parking. I’m in booth 237. Hope to see you there! Kentucky Crafted Market Saturday, March 8, 10-5pm Sunday, March 9, 11-4pm Ky Horse Park Alltech Arena Lexington, KY

“Whatever is mine is looking for me.” - Alice Walker This was a unique custom order made for an artist who had been collecting another artist’s handmade cards. She had so many of these notecards from over the years that she wanted to turn them into journals or include them on the pages somehow. We brainstormed and dialogued about the best way to do this and settled on incorporating the cards as actual pages. I added handmade paper in between so that every other page is part of a notecard. She arranged the cards in a specific order and shipped them to me. Each journal was made for a different friend so it had certain colors and enhancements for that person. What isn’t pictured is a heart on the last page of each journal where she can add the above quote to it. The thickness of these between the cards, handmade paper, and amount of pages we added turned out to be substantial, and it was hard to capture how great these felt to look through. When she received them, she said, “The journals are perfection! Thank you 🫶 I can see your skill and TLC while putting them together. 👏 👏 👏”

Do you remember the custom journal I did last year that had an outline of Santorini on it? If so, this blue flowered leather will look familiar. It was leftover from that project and the lady who ordered the leather for that journal wanted to use the scraps in a way that would compliment her journal. The journal was made very special for her trip to Greece. She decided to have a passport cover and pen holder made out of the same matching leather. She will get to travel with these two pieces in particular and enjoy that nod to Santorini wherever she goes.

It’s hard to believe that the KY Crafted Market is only 2 weeks away! It’s always such a fun one to kick off the year with and will be good to see everyone after being tucked away this winter. Mark your calendars! March 7 (wholesale day) March 8-9 (open to everyone) @kyhorsepark Alltech Arena Lexington, KY Booth 237 @kyartscouncil @kytourism

I received my handmade paper order just in time to get ready for the Kentucky Crafted Market! One of the papers that I use for my handbound books is 100% cotton, archival, and 200 GSM (135 lb). It’s handmade in India, and I’ve been ordering from the same people for 13 years. They do beautiful work and have been great to work with. I’ve learned a lot, including the impact of monsoon season on paper making. We were thankfully able to figure it out through all the difficulties of Covid (the timeline was MUCH longer but we both brought care and consideration during those exchanges). Generally, I can place an order and receive it within 3-4 months, but it took a bit longer this past time. This is a look at the large boxes it came in, some of the piles once they were unpacked, and then stacks of them ready to be sewn into books. This is a thicker paper so it likes an inkier pen, pencil, pastels, and watercolors. I also have some extra thick handmade paper in the large size that is 300 GSM (200 lb). I have a limited number of those, but will have some available at the Kentucky Crafted Market. Kentucky Crafted Market March 8-9 Ky Horse Park Alltech Arena Lexington, KY

This past weekend, I had a special guest in the studio, @rebeccamcgillicuddy . I met Rebecca at Mayfest a couple of years ago. I’ve seen her at multiple shows and have had many conversations about journals and planners and all the different ways she uses them. Recently, she had me do a special custom order for her. (More on that soon.) She is a talented artist and does a variety of beautiful illustrations, calligraphy, etc. She asked if she could interview me for The Steampunk Planner, her channel on YouTube where she shares about art, inks, paints, paper, planners, and more. It’ll be a couple of weeks before our segment is posted, but I will let you know. You can also see some of her work at noirartist2author.com. If you look at closely at the photos, you’ll see that the pages she is showing me are samples of @monasartsupply’s watercolors.

Have you checked out the @scoutedcafe yet? They are relatively new in Lexington and the perfect place to work, study, or meet others. The owner, Jennifer, also runs the beautiful publication @tsglexington and @tsglouisville. One of her interests with opening up this cafe is wanting to connect with and promote local artists. When I went to journal there recently, @yolandafineart was doing live painting. It makes for a nice place to network, which is one of the things Jennifer is great at. Pictured is my personal journal that I made extra thick and is almost full as well as one of my minimalist leather bags.

“Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won’t adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet. That would mean that security is out of the question. The words “make” and “stay” become inappropriate. My love for you has no strings attached. I love you for free.” -Tom Robbins The handbound journal pictured was a custom piece for a dear friend. She loves purples and journals and is one of those people who keeps a separate journal for everything. She has a different one for studying, recording, scheduling, dreaming, drawing, reflecting, etc. This is a medium size with lined paper and will be easy for her to carry around and have on hand wherever she is.

Taking the jacket apart was really interesting! I initially thought I’d be pairing it with some darker brown leather and using the jacket as more of an accent. However, as I slowly cut some of the seams, I realized that these were going to be larger intact pieces than I expected. I ended up only needing additional leather for the straps. You can see the really cool silk lining that looks like a map. The only part of this I used was what lined the front pockets that I incorporated. I sent the lining back with the tote to the lady who ordered this. She is a fiber artist and will use that in some of her future projects. You can also see all the batting that was inside that added warmth to the jacket, including some serious layers that made those fabulous shoulder pads. For this project, we stuck with just using the leather and were able to preserve those stylish front pockets. I added a magnetic snap to the side pocket so it would be more functional for a tote and put a pocket on each side of the bag. There is actually a simple pocket inside the tote as well. There was enough leather leftover that she decided to also have a small journal made, and I worked with some of the jacket’s features for the cover. The front of the journal is an embellishment that went across the jacket’s shoulder, and I added a magnetic closure underneath so it would not distract from the design. This jacket was very loved and meant a lot to the lady who owned it. It took her some time to decide to do this, but she had not worn the jacket in a really long time and felt like she was ready to enjoy it in a new capacity. We were both very pleased with how it turned out.

A lady approached me some time ago about possibly turning her leather bomber jacket into something else. She loved the jacket, but found that she didn’t wear it anymore. We had this conversation once or twice before she brought it to a show in December and announced that she was ready to finally do it. She said that she would ideally like it turned into a bag, but would leave it up to me as for how to best go about doing that. With these kinds of projects, I don’t really know how much of the leather I can functionally use until I start cutting it up and see the actual quality and thickness of the leather (often leather especially with jackets is paired down and very thin then glued onto other materials). I ended up being able to use much more of this jacket than I expected, and we went back and forth as I had ideas and questions about the design. I ended up being able to make one of my medium totes, incorporate the very cool jacket pockets, and make her a small journal as well. Here is what she said when they arrived: “WOW!!! I love them! Thank you so much for the fabulous repurposing of my leather jacket. I am working on getting back into a regular journaling habit, so the tote will be a “go-bag” of essential art and writing supplies. The little journal from the jacket leftovers is great. I love how it fits into the pockets.” Comment if you’d like to see a video showing the jacket details and the deconstruction and reconstruction of it.

Did you know that the @kyartscouncil has a podcast? It’s called KY Arts Cast, and Leeann Potter asked if I’d chat with her about the upcoming KY Crafted Market and what getting ready for it entails and more. The whole podcast is worth listening to, and our chat starts about the 27 min. mark. Check it out if you want, and definitely be sure to put the KY Crafted Market on your calendar: March 8-9 at the KY Horse Park in Lexington, KY.

This was a recent custom piece for someone that I had made a leather padfolio for several years ago. She wanted an update where she could fit her new iPad and still carry a pad of paper. I tend to make these kinds of pieces custom because iPads come in different sizes. I measured her’s with its case on and based the padfolio size off of that. She chose the leather colors, closure, and wanted leaves on the front. We went back and forth a couple times to figure out which leaves to use, colors, and placement. This is the final product and shows what I was working on in a previous post (the one with the binder clips). Her iPad fits nicely on the left, easy to replace paper on the right, and a place for her Apple pen/writing pens. She was really excited for how it all came together. Being a horticulturist, she especially loved having different leaves on the front.

This is my first time trying out this new toy, I mean tool. These electric scissors will come in handy! I’m finally working my way through stacks and stacks of upholstery samples that an interior designer from Nashville, TN gave me some time ago. I have a very specific idea in mind for these, and I’m hopeful that the execution will be as good as the idea is. I’ll keep you posted!

This is a recent custom order that I did where a lady loved the flowers, but wanted them in browns and black for a more subtle, subdued look. Like I do with most custom orders, I sent photos of leather options once she was ready to get started and then sent one more photo before I stitched everything together. She was pleased with the result.