Geekgirlcon

GeekGirlCon celebrates and honors the legacy of women contributing to science and technology; comics, arts, and literature; and game play and game design by connecting geeky women world-wide and creating community to foster continued growth of women in geek culture through events. It is based in Seattle, WA and every year they have downtown full of geeky girls. 

We had a very fun time at this years Geekgirlcon. We unfortunately were not able to get a vendor table so we attended as guest. This helped us make the decision that we definitely want to be a vendor next year. We will be more prepared and get all the paperwork turned in on time.  Here are some of our favorite artist:

• Stasia B. Illustration - we bought a couple of her stuff.
• Desu Desu de Studio - Mary really liked all her art
• The Gorgonist - She had some much cute stuff I could not decide.

There were so many more, but I cannot remember all of their names. If you want you can check out all the vendors and artist who went to the show here.

Time to start again...

Summer in Seattle has kept us really busy. We have had a blast going to all the events this wonderful city puts on for its residents. With Autumn approaching the activities are still plentiful but we have made time to make sure we get some crafting in. We are currently getting all our supplies ready for the Christmas season with fun holiday items and great gift ideas. As always, you can check us out on Etsy and we will be making sure we update our process here on this blog, and as well as our Facebook page. 

 

                                                                          

                                     Mary                                                                                                         Marcella                

                                                                 

Summer in Seattle

Marcella and Mary at Pride Fest, Downtown Seattle 

We love summer in Seattle. The city puts together so many great activities and events for everyone to attend. Fused has recently went to the Summer Solstice Parade in Fremont. We took many pictures which can be viewed here. There are way too many pictures to post them all here on our blog. 

Mary and Marcella with the Fremont Troll

Summer Solstice Parade, Fremont

We plan on heading to many other great events. We will take pictures of all our fun adventures.

We hope the weather stays nice, sunny and warm. Although it could lower in temperature just a bit. 92 degree weather is not fun when standing outside with tons of other people. 

We had a great time yesterday at the Etsy Birthday Party hosted by Etsy Rain and Ugly Baby and La Ru. They had fun crafts set out for us to make and also drawings every hour to win great prizes. Although we didn't win any of the prizes it was still fun crafting and making friends.

We made some chalkboard creations. We are to hide these creations throughout Seattle and then when someone finds one they are to tag where you found it. And then they are to hide it and share the message. I have included pictures of some of the ones we made.

You can view more pictures of the fun event from the Etsy Birthday Party Facebook page and their Flickr page. 

Sodo Indie Craftworks 2 was a great success. We had tons of fun and enjoyed all the fellow vendors. Our table was front and center. Cannot wait until the next one.

Mary posing at our table

Sodo Indie Craftworks 2

Our next show will be held on May 25th at the AD1 Studios in the Sodo district of Seattle. This is the second event for this venue. We are really excited about attending. We went to the first one and had great fun. You can read about the event here.  There is going to be great vendors, music, and free drinks. If you are in the Seattle area please stop on by and come to this awesome event. 

Renton Spring Festival - Results

We had a great time at the Renton Spring Festival on May 11th. The weather was beautiful; nice and sunny. The event was held in the Piazza which is located in downtown Renton, WA. We arrived at around 10am and starting setting up our booth. This is the first time we attended a craft fair outside. We were new to the whole setting up a tent. After a while struggling to pop the tent up, some nice craft fair folks came over and helped us out. Once we were told the trick to popping these up it was simple. Surprisingly, we were set up in under a hour. We are getting better at setting up.Or, we are getting better at organizing our product to present easier. We were glad for the extra space the tent provided as well as the beams from the tent. We were able to hang a frame and our sign from there and make our jewelry more presentable.

There was a really nice turn out from the community with lots of people showing up and eager to buy. It was a really nice location. Many people driving by and stopping not knowing of the event beforehand. Making for a bigger turn out. We did really well in our sells too. Many people liked our stuff and said they would look for us at other upcoming events. Over in the back of the grass there was a pavilion where many local dance and cheer groups were putting on performances. Unfortunately, Mary and I could not see the performances from out booth. Nevertheless it was a great time. We were really happy we had shade because as the day progressed so did the heat. We made many new friends and had a great time. Overall it was a great day.

Mary sitting at our booth.

Marcella enjoying time in the shade.

Piazza Renton Spring Festival May 11, 2013

What is this you ask? It is the next festival Fused will be attending. If you are in the Renton area, just south of Seattle, come on by and say hello. The festival is on Saturday May 11 and we will be there from 12pm - 5pm. You can check out the event website here. 

We are really excited for this will be our 3rd show/festival and our first one held outside. We are hoping Mother Nature will be nice and not rain on the day of the event. From past pictures on their website the event always looks nice and sunny. Hopefully it will stay that way. We are going to be introducing our cake pops at this event. We have just recently started this venture and we are positive it will succeed. So if you find yourself not really needing anymore jewelry then stop on by and purchase a yummy treat, our cake pops.  

Fairy Festival- The After Math

We put a lot of time in getting everything ready for the Spring Fairy Festival, and it paid off.  There was a nice turn out despite the cold, rainy weather. Luckily it was held indoors at Greenriver Community College in Auburn. We got to the event around 9 am and were approached by friendly helpers who delivered all our belongings to our booth. After we parked the car we headed inside. There were Fae folk everywhere. Mary and I should have dressed up to participate in the fun.

We got our booth set up in just about under a hour. We had a great view of the stage and all the festivities. I loved how most of the volunteers were dressed up and in character to interact with the guest. We started off pretty slow but as the day continued so did our sales. We really enjoyed the company of the vendors who were seated on either side of us. I wanted everything there. I had to refrain myself from buying many things. Mary got a tarot card reading and I got my "dragon" drawn. We sat next to Rob Carlos, who can see your dragon aura and will draw it for you. He had a lot of insight about myself and it reflected in my dragon. It is a really cool picture. As the day progressed Mary got hers done as well.

As the event drew to a close, I was sad to leave. We said good-bye to our new friends and proceeded to pack up our things. We are definitely growing as a company and we have been learning from our past shows,  making our display better. We are even going to change it up at our next event. Which should be up soon.

Marcella sitting at the booth at Spring Fairy Festival 2013

For more pictures you can check out the Facebook Page for the Spring Fairy Festival.

Artist Trading Cards. A project to pursue or too much hassle for, what could be, not a strong market?

Our main questions: Is there a strong market for Artist Trading Cards or ATC/ACEO.  These bite size pieces of art  look like something we would have a great time making. We could express our artful genius without being limited to jewelry. It is very alluring, but we do not know if the market is good. Are people really buying these wonderful pieces of miny art. I think the answer is yes. 

If you take a look on popular handmade selling sites you see tons of these ATC's. The possibilities are endless on designs. From stamps, paint, collages, or hand-drawn images, they give a great little pop of uniqueness to any space. We found a great website called ATC's for all, which shows off many people's pieces of art. You can also venture over to Etsy and gander at all the ATC's available there. 

I think once we are done with our Spring Fairy Festival we are attending. These wonderful ATC/ACEO will be hitting our Etsy store.  Here are some we found online which we absolutely love.

Proud to announce: Fused Seattle will be part of the Spring Fairy Festival 2013  on April 13.

This is our first time at this event, so we aren't sure what to expect. But we image it will have great people and be tons of fun. The Spring Fairy Festival has been around since 2008 and strives to be a venue where artists in the fairy & fantasy genre can connect with their fans.  

The Fairy Festival is indoor at the Green River Community College located in Auburn WA, from 11am-6pm costing $15pp.  It is a costumed event with great music, art and fae. We will have to dust off our fairy wings and participate in the fun.  As the event gets closer on the calender we will be updating our status. 

New Store at Storenvy.com

We have expanded our online presence and opened a store on the new and exciting website Storenvy. You can find us here.  Along with our already popular Etsy store, we are excited to show off our wares in more than one spot. Please support us and check out our stuff. You can either "heart" our products via Etsy or "envy" our products via Storenvy. Or both!

Our Day with Moxie!

On one cold, rainy Saturday morning we decided to get together with fiber artist Moxie. We woke up pretty early (around 9am) and started our trek across town over to Greenwood where Moxie resides. When we showed up at her studio it was fun right from the start.

Moxie, who has been doing fiber art with wool for over 8 years, is super talented. You can view her stuff here High Fiber Diet at the Bellevue Art Museum. Also at her shop Made by Moxie. We first met her at the Urban Craft Uprising here in Seattle. A venue where tons of local artist get together and sell their wares. We sat in on one of Moxie's demonstrations on how to transfer wool fiber onto a cotton t-shirt. It was very informative and a lot of fun. Mary made a mustache on a skull and cross bones beanie. I made a heart on a t-shirt. Mary and I were really excited to have finished our projects and couldn't wait to learn more.

We reached out to Moxie after the event via email and scheduled 2 hours in her workshop. So, back to that cold Saturday morning. When we arrived we were each given supplies to help us create a masterpiece. Moxie showed us the technique to create the basic ball shape that you can see if almost every felt design. As the time went on it felt more like we were hanging out with an old friend and were shooting ideas back and forth to each other. Time flew by in no time. Mary and I left with a lot of knowledge and supplies. We hope to have some of our finished products up in our shop soon.

Poster from the event

Our first craft fair! 

We were contacted by Brenna Paradame from AD1 Studios here in Seattle about possibly joining her at her first craft show. Mary and I were more than excited to be part of the event and jumped on the invite. 

It was scheduled to be on Saturday January 19th at her recording studio in South Seattle. It was a very intimate venue. We loved it! We showed up about 2 hours before the event started to set up. All the other vendors were really nice and it was great to interact with them all before the show started. There were probably 12 vendors in all and the crafts were excellent quality. Vendors' wares consisted of handmade jewelry, clothing, and art. There was music and drinks and as the night went on it felt more like a small party gathering than a traditional craft fair. It was really great. Tons of support from our friends and family came out for the show. We did really well being our first show. We covered cost of table rental and products and still had a nice profit margin. We cannot wait until our next show. Stay posted!

Marcella and Mary 2013 Sodo Indie Craftworks

Fun Times!

We really have a fun time taking pictures of our products (when the weather permits). One lovely Seattle day we went to a overlook park up on Queen Anne hill. It was pretty cold and started to rain on us. We were able to get a couple of pictures before the rain drove us away. One great thing about living in Seattle is there are picturesque views tucked away in every corner of the city. 

Fused Seattle is super excited to be part of the blogging lifestyle. We are new to this and hopefully will have great engaging and informative information for everyone who loves handmade crafts and jewelry. 

Some background information on how Fused began. Mary and I (Marcella) met while we both worked at Holland America Line in Seattle, WA. We became insist friends realizing we both grew up in Florida and are totally the poster 80s child. Three years later we decided to start making jewelry together. We were so excited to start this new venture together and decided to become business partners in our Etsy store FusedSeattle . We decided on the name because we have different styles but we both have the same underlining values of product quality and production. As our journey continues in this venture so will this blog, documenting our growth.