Etsy under 20$

I have been featured in a really cool blog called Etsy under 20$, where they find cool deals on vintage and hand-made items on Etsy. 

The theme for this particular blog was tacks, and so she included my thumb tack earrings. 

http://etsyunder20.blogspot.com/2009/06/handmade-finds-under-20-tacky-but-in.html

Check out this blog, it's really neat, and a good way to see all the best deals at once, instead of looking through the whole site. 

Crafts for the World

I have listed some new items on my Etsy website. I only have six right now, but they are some of my favorite items. I need to find a way to take more pictures of my stuff easily. I need a new digital camera with a macro lens, since my items are so small. I have been told they are really helpful. I also need some lights. I would like to start listing my record bowls online. I could list the records names that i have and a list of basic shapes. Then the customer could customize their record. I could even paint it, because acrylic paint sticks really well to vinyl, as long as it is covered with some mod podge or sealer of some kind. 

Here is a link to my Etsy Store:

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade ACranberryCreation.etsy.com

Miranda July is a God(dess)

I just received

Miranda July's new book in the mail and devoured it in a few short days. It is a wonderful and shocking collection of short stories. Her blunt, sexual, and life inspiring style of writing makes me her newest biggest fan. Miranda is an amazing artist and writer, and i strive to be a fraction of her one day.

Here is her bio:

Miranda July was raised in Berkeley, California, where, as a teenager, she began writing plays and staging them at a local all-ages club. Her videos, performances, and web-based projects have been presented at sites such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and in the 2002 and 2004 Whitney Biennials. She wrote, directed and starred in her first feature-length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), which won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival and four prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, including the Camera d’Or. July’s collection of stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You, was published by Scribner in 2007 and won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Her fiction has been printed in The Paris Review, Harper’s, and The New Yorker. In 2002 July created the participatory website,learningtoloveyoumore.com with artist Harrell Fletcher, and a companion book was published in 2007 by Prestel. She lives in Los Angeles and is currently working on her second feature film.

I LOVE her website. It is a bunch of art assignments for yourself or for the world. People read the assignment and post their contribution. Even if you don't do any of the assignments, it's nice to look at what everyone else did. You all need to run to the bookstore/video store and see her work. In the mean time, i just saw a very funny video where she makes a button:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RBir3jmQSc

I just recently saw Me and You and Everyone We Know, and it is now one of my favorite movies. It is a braid of stories that are all beautifully real and dysfunctional. It makes me want run out into the street and make art. She is one of the lead characters. And may i add how beautiful SHE is!

Happy Sunday

I saw a play yesterday

it's called Mnemonic and it was a workshop at UC Irvine. I take advantage of every play that is performed at UCI because most of them are free or cheap. I won't be so lucky when I get to LA. This particular play was WONDERFUL. It was new, experimental, and dynamic. The set was minimal, just 6 strips of screen hanging down from the ceiling and 4 industrial lights shining against the back wall. There were chairs and a big table that was used in more ways than i can even remember. It was the best use of technology and media in a play that i have ever seen. There were over 300 cues, which is an incredible amount. When the audience walked in, every chair had a program, blindfold, and leaf. The play started without warning, and by the time we realized the play had started it had been about 5 minutes. The director, who is apparently part of the play gives a speech about origins and memory (hence the name Mnemonic) 

mne⋅mon⋅ic

    [ni-mon-ik] 

–adjective

1.	assisting or intended to assist the memory.

2.	pertaining to mnemonics or to memory.

–noun

3.	something intended to assist the memory, as a verse or formula.

The play had three stories simultaneously: The discovery of the 1991 ice man, Alice's search for her father, and Virgil's coping with Alice leaving him. I was highly impressed with the amount of languages and accents spoken in this play. The actor's did a wonderful job of learning so many. I love experimental theatre, and the new.

I have discovered a new love: Sculpey! Yesterday i made some cheeseburger and ice cream cone stud earrings. I think i will be creating a whole new line of sculpey earrings. As long as there are objects in the world, i can make sculpey earrings out of them.

Sprout!

Sprout! Brought to you by One Million Ways

 So today i sold my earrings at an event at my college (UC Irvine) called Sprout. It was a May Day festival celebrating new art. The organization that was running it is called One Million Ways

http://onemillionways.org/

At the fundraiser they were selling shirts to help buy desks for children in Ghana and Kenya.

We know of 350 students in

Ghana and Kenya who need

school desks. Here's how you         

can help: 

When you buy a shirt,

you buy a desk. It's simple.

Made from 100% organic

cotton and printed with

water based ink.
Good for the planet. 
Good for the kids.

Good for you.

Our Price: $20

Shipping & Handling: $3

This organization and cause is really close to my heart because I will be studying abroad in Ghana this July for four and a half months at the University of Ghana, Legon. I will be studying theatre, drumming, dance, twi, and creating a one woman show from the interview monologues that I collect from the people of Ghana. I love Ghanaian Culture and it's so important to support those who don't have things that we take for granted like water and desks.

They were also raising money for a play pump, which is essentially a merry go round that pumps water from a well. It will go to a country in Africa or South America.

www.playpumps.org

This is my first blog. Not really sure what to write about. I start a fan page on Facebook. Just search for A Cranberry Creation. There, you can see pictures of some of my stuff. I don't have any pictures of my record bowls at the moment. I had my friend Brian Gurrola take the original pictures, and he's a wonderful photographer.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bredgur/