Wedding Cake Toppers

Well summer has had a beautiful (and hot) start and I'm loving waking up to do whichever project I feel like doing that morning. I needed a break from the beans and the canvas so I started with my cake toppers. Thanks to my sister, giving me the idea and the go-ahead to do my first one, I've started painting these cute little "lovebirds" to show off in October. Of course, they're all available to be custom and I'll be selling them for $60-$80, depending on the details and "nests" preferred.

I posted the pictures of my southern lovebirds, the groom in a linen suit with a simply beautiful bride beside their future home together, and the military lovebirds (being so close to Jacksonville I figure a few marines will be getting hitched around here). Other grooms I painted are wearing anything from tuxedos to the traditional Scottish attire with their different brides wearing various veils or hair pieces. These cute little things were a pleasure to do and I can't wait to get some orders from some brides!!

Kissing Orange Street Goodbye

Well...after running around this town like crazy, trying to get my "business" official, and hitting a few speed bumps along the way, I've decided to wait and go back to my original plan. So Riverfest will (hopefully) be my first booth, Orange Street Arts Festival (in May) will have to wait for another year. In registering my business, it turns out there is another unico out there (who knew!?) so I had to change my name to unica...which is the female version of unique or one-of-a-kind in spanish, so it's a better fit anways. It'll be a great show to go to and talk to vendors and feel out how the process works by those who actually go through it.

So don't come looking for me in May! I'll be walking around as a customer. I wanted my first show to be one I feel great about and there is not enough time in May to get ready for the appearance I wish to make. I'll be keeping busy with my art for now and I'll keep you posted along the road to October 2!

A big thank you to Doug at the CFCC Business Center!!! He sat down and explained the whole business process so clearly to me last week...I'll look forward to seeing him in October.

Stuck in Bean World

I'm back in action!!! For the past few weeks, I've been planning for my sister's bachelorette weekend and doing some event planning for the PC3 Mentor Program TILT night, in addition to my usual work load, and I finally got to spend some time on my unico projects this past week! I've decided I might try and make it the Orange Street Arts Festival in May as a tester booth to get ready for the big event in October...which has pushed me to get some stuff done fast! I figure that might help me better prepare and get a look into what customers like more of and less of so I don't waste as much time on items not so desired.

So last Christmas Eve our family decided to draw names and make a special gift for that person using their requested color...I got mom and she wanted something "espresso". I got the idea to use actual espresso beans to make her gift and came up with what I've been calling "bean art". After completing that project I LOVED it and thought it would be cool to continue this bean art for the booth! (Her gift is the one above.)

So after being cross-eyed for several hours a day from gluing bean after bean, I came up with these two completed pieces! Each one is about a 2' square shadowbox, custom built (thanks dad) and painted. The white one has an antique finish on the frame and the yellow one is crackled with a bluish green underneath. I still have another frame I hope to start and finish within the next week or two...I might need to take a break from these beans for a little while and start on some other projects that are a little less monotonous! Hope these are a hit though, I don't know that I've seen anything like them around town so maybe there won't be much competition in the bean market. ;)

 

Snow = Production

   Well the weather in the south cost me my trip to Atlanta this weekend to be at my sister's wedding shower with all the O'Connor's. As soon as I realized I couldn't go, and was pretty down about it, I decided to make the best of it and break out the paints!
   A lot of artists seem to have their own personal style in all their pieces and (as you will find) I don't know if I've found mine yet...or that I really want just ONE style to perfect, so I like to try my hand at a lot of different things and maybe one day I'll have my own "look" but for now I'll keep you on your toes.

   So I broke out the ol' trusty box of paints and brushes and sat down to paint something fun. I knew I didn't want it to be serious or time-consuming...just wanted a lovely afternoon, inside a snow-capped house, while I enjoyed bringing a little story to life. And that's what I did. It took me 4 hours and I came up with these little guys. I wasn't sure what I wanted their relationship to be, whether they were friends or maybe mother-and-son but (with a little help from my roomies) we decided this lady was a cougar, and she has her eye on this young chap. But you can make up your own theory! So, although I missed out on all the fun in Atlanta this weekend, at least I accomplished a little something.

Bread and Butter

Well I've been thinking of everything that's going to go into this booth and most of the things I want to do turn out to be a little pricier than the average Riverfest buyer is probably looking to spend. Things like painted furniture and original paintings. So I got to thinking of some "fillers" that I also like to make but don't take much time. I saw these frames in a local gift shop and they were $38 for some paper and ink. I decided to make my own one year for some friends for Christmas and I cut my own words (instead of printing). So I've spent the past couple weekends making about 20 of these and I think they look great! Now all I have to do is buy all the clip frames to put them in. I'll add more pictures of them once I get them all ready. The one here is for one of my sister's wedding pictures. I'll have forms ready for people that want one of a special date or name. I'll probably be selling mine for about $20-$28. Let me know what you think! Should I add a ribbon to hang them from or not??

My story...

So this is my first time as a "blogger" and the set up alone was quite the experience but I think I'll get the hang of it. If you don't know me, I guess I should introduce myself...

My name is Rebekah O'Connor, I usually just go by Bekah, and I am a 25 year old 1st grade teacher assistant in lovely Wilmington, North Carolina. I was born in California, moved to West Virginia when I was 7, moved to Pinehurst, North Carolina when I was 11 and finally made it to Wilmington in 2004. I graduated high school in 2002 at Pinecrest High and had NO clue what I wanted to do so I took a semester off before heading into college and continued working at an art studio in Pinehurst, which I had worked at throughout high school. There I learned how to faux finish walls, paint furniture, murals, floorcloths, and more...anything custom a person would want, we did it!

After working there, I left home and went to Penland School of Crafts in the mountains of NC to learn how to sculpt with clay. The school isn't a college, just a pure look into the world of handmade crafts. They had courses on blowing glass, creating jewelry, making paper, welding iron, weaving textiles, and I chose sculpting clay as my "major". Well it was an adventure and although the environment was completely inspiring, the people formed quite a different crowd that I wasn't at home with...I leave it at that.

After leaving Penland, a few weeks early and eager to get home, I brainstormed with my family and we thought interior design would be a perfect fit for my future career. That way I could use my creative eye everyday and make spaces for people to enjoy living in. That's when I moved to Wilmington and went to Cape Fear Community to get my associate's degree in interior design. I have to be honest, half way through the degree I had some big doubts as to whether I'd enjoy the field but I felt I just had to finish SOMETHING and get a degree, so that's what I did.

After graduating, I got an internship with a small, local architecture and design firm. Leaving there every day left me without a sense of accomplishment or fulfillment. Unhappy but not sure where to turn to next, I went on a mission's trip to Kenya with my church, Port City Community, that summer. Our team was assigned to help teach in the orphanage we had helped build there and I fell in love...with kids and with teaching. So when I got back I decided I might want to be a teacher! Well, not wanting to dive into school again, I walked down to the elementary school a block away from my current home at the time and decided to apply for a teacher assistant position. That way I could figure out if I would want to teach, from experience, not books.

So 4 years later here I am...LOVE my job but DON'T want to teach and NEED to use my passion for art. So I got to thinking, thanks to mom, and I thought to myself...if I could dream up my future, what would I be doing? And I always come back to the same thing. I want to own my own business. I want it to be able to make anything completely custom, whether it's paintings, frames, lampshades, redoing grandma's outdated furniture, making a room special with painting techniques and faux finishes. I want it all to be unique or....unico.

The goal I have set for myself this year is to have a booth at Riverfest (an annual street fair in Wilmington during the first weekend in October). Get my name out there and show the community what I really love to do, and what I feel I am best at. So over the next 8 months I will be making all sorts of artsy things right here at home! And I want your opinions...what you would change, what you love, what you want and haven't been able to find. This is the first step to making my very possible dream, into a reality. So join with me as I walk (or stumble) down this sure-to-be adventurous road! I'm SO looking forward to your comments.