Announcing Upcoming Etsy Showcase

In honor of Summertime, etsy is creating a special showcase to help get us through those winter blues. TGL Designs will be featured in the Jan. 3rd Sunshine: Summer and Vacation Showcase. This showcase will be in a prominent place on http://www.etsy.com/ homepage. Please check us out and see some new pieces we will be lising just for this showcase.

The picture on this post is of a denim blue stoneware pendant that I have made and paired with red & blue sponge coral to make a terrific summertime necklace. This necklace is great to wear with your favorite white shirt and blue jeans...shorts, of course.. to the beach, picnics and even fourth of july celebrations. It will carry you right into the fall with your favorite denim jacket as well.

Happy New Year from all of us

Tracy

Holiday Showcase on Etsy.com

TGL Designs will be in a Holiday showcase on Dec. 10th, 2008 on Etsy.com. I am hoping to not only draw attention to my etsy store but of course sell some items. I am still trying to learn all the ins and outs of marketing on Etsy. I was told that purchasing a space in a showcase is a good way to get your name out there. This will be my second showcase, so far. The first showcased my porcelain snowflakes. I was pleased with the results. I had one snowflake get 45 views in one day. It has taken some items in my store 4 months to get that many viewings. I will be adding more products to my store before the showcase, so check it out at http://www.tgldesigns.etsy.com/. Also don't forget about my regular website at http://www.tgldesigns.com/

Until next time

Tracy

Candlelight and Coffee 2008

My table decorated for Christmas

What a great night. At my church each year, at least 40 or more ladies get together and host a Candlelight and Coffee holiday kick off party. I have participated in four of the five years that we have been doing this. Each hostess sets her table for 8-10 people in an Autumn, Winter, Thanksgiving or Christmas theme. It gives us the chance to use our china and crystal. Then during the party, each hostess serves her table, Russian tea, coffee, hot chocolate, baklava, and wonderful desserts. We have door prizes and each year a different speaker. This year Dr. Jennifer Thomas, co-author of The Five Languages of Apology, spoke. Jennifer was my next door neighbor for the past 9 1/2 yrs. It was great seeing her and catching up.

The best thing I love about the party is seeing every one's table. You can get some really great ideas to use on your own holiday table. I love seeing the different patterns of dishes and the creative ways each one is used. I would never of thought of using pink dishes for Christmas but several ladies did and they were great. One was even a pink breast cancer awareness table, with a pink Christmas tree and ribbons.

My table didn't quite go as I had planned. I used my set of Christmas dishes by two different manufacturers that blend very well together. I alternate the patterns between dinner plate and dessert plate and then alternate that between guests. Every other guests at my table for 8 had a charger plate I made from cardboard and feather trim. I had planned on sewing a velvet tablecloth out of some fabric I had been saving for upholstering some chairs one of these days. After five hours, I gave up. I went out to Linens n Things, which is closing, and was lucky enough to purchase a 90" rd. tablecloth in the same color green as the velvet I had planned to use. Ok, that was not that bad but my center piece was the disaster. I had purchased a 27" tall glass column back in April at the furniture market. The day I was bringing it home I was in a car wreck. I was ok, the car and the glass column were not. I bought a new van and glued the broken column. The broken end of the column was to be the base for a fresh floral arrangement. The night of the party, I arrived back at church to add the floral arrangement to my table. It was going to be spectacular. It is very important to our guests to be able to see the lady sitting across from them. My arrangment was going to be the solution. However, I broke the other end of the column when I sat it on the floor beside my table and accidently hit the metal rim of the chair. It was just not meant to be.

Despite my crazyness and perceived disasters, the party was a smashing hit. We hosted 405 ladies, not all members of the church. It is a great outreach in the community as well as a kick off for the holidays.

Our Beloved Tasha

Tasha

3/24/94 to 10/23/08

Oct. 23rd was a sad day in the studio and the Isley household. We lost our wonderful salt & pepper minature schnauzer, Tasha or as I liked to call her, Tasmanian Tasha, because she was a wild girl. She loved to jump like a rabbit when she ran and tell her brother Samson that she was the boss. Tasha was with us for 14 years. It was sad to see her age. She had dementia, had lost her hearing and her eyesight was very poor. Her sense of smell had failed her, she had lost alot of teeth which made eating a difficult challenge. But, she lived a long and wonderful life. She will be missed by all family members. Thank you for coming into our lives.

TGL Designs at the Carolina Home Show & Sale

TGL Designs has been busy over the last several months. For the month of October, I worked the International Furniture Market in High Point, NC setting up a showroom and running that showroom during the market. It is an exhausting but rewarding time. Not only do I get to catch up with friends from across the country, since I only get to see them every six months, but I also get to share my jewelry designs with them and sell.



The Carolina Home Show at Hawk Spirit Studio in Reidsville, NC is a great show. It is usually the first full weekend of November. Bill and Susan Moore have done a fantastic job over the last 13 years building it up. Sixty-five or more artisans are represented here. The studio building is loaded with pottery, photography, paintings, stained glass, and turned wood just to name a few. The outside vendors include jewelry, handmade soaps, steel sculptures, garden accents, hand spun and woven textiles and even this year a wine tasting booth. The first photo is of the studio building. The second is of some outdoor vendors and the last photo is of TGL Designs humble abode for the weekend.

After I recovered from the show I had to get ready for the a holiday tea at my church on Friday night. I will post pictures in the next blog. I also had to get ready for a show on Sunday ,in Greensboro at the Farmer's Market downtown. Each year they host a Holiday Arts & Crafts show. I was in a tent outside. The tent space was great but the weather that day was terrible. The winds were high. One vendor's tent totally blew away. My tent was eventually tied to our van, after being weighted with 25lb bags of clay.

Until next time,

Tracy

New Earrings for Etsy

These cute little porcelain pumpkin earrings came straight from the pumpkin patch. I have just listed these fun fall halloween earrings in my etsy store. Check them out at http://www.tgldesigns.etsy.com/

Also, today the kiln is running with some new celestial pieces in various shades of blue. They are about 3"square. I used colored navy blue porcelain clay on some and others were glazed with my marine blue glaze and textured blue gray. They were designed for a magazine submission for later in 2009.

My First Post

Hello Everyone. This is my first posting to my blog. My name is Tracy Isley from North Carolina. I am a full-time mom first, as well as, a jewerly designer and ceramic bead artist. I have been in business making and selling my designs since the fall of 2004. I started making ceramic beads in the summer of 2005 after teaching a jewerly making class to middle school aged children at the Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History in Danville, Va. We had a blast. The kids got to learn how to make their own ceramic beads to use in their jewelry. I was hooked on making ceramic beads after that. I now use porcelain and stoneware clays in my beads and pendants. After taking a colored porcelain class from Chris Campbell, I feel deeper in love with the medium. I now use colored porcelain in my animal print beads and pendants. I plan on using it more in my designs in 2009. I can't wait to get started making all those designs that are floating around in my head. But first I must get through the holiday show schedule.

Check out my website, TGL Designs for more of my designs and my fall show schedule. I admit that I don't have every thing up on the site yet. I will be working on my website as well as my etsy site as much as I can.

I look forward to sharing my jewerly designs with you in the near future.