Friday, January 22, 2010

Rare Bird of Fashion




Rare Bird of Fashion The Irreverent Iris Apfel, can you say WOW!!! There is an exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum of Iris Apfel a retrospective of her work and it is inspirational! You need to go to this if your a fashion diva or just to see how powerful women can be. My mom and I spent the day playing and wowing and studying everything Iris collected, designed and put together. We were in aw. Every woman in these rooms were so happy and charged it was the most wonderful energy. Her accessories from around the world were just magnificent and super sized. The fabrics "were to die for" all reproductions of exquisite antique material from around the world. This was such a wonderful day to spend with my mother sharing something we both love and appreciate. There is this fun thing at the end that you can take different pieces and mix and match to create your own designs on the computer. All I want to do now is create and share my creativity!


Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Visual Display for Artists




Newest Show Displays http://www.lisascala.com/CIP
I have been thinking of doing a workshop or a talk about doing visual displays to help market your art work. I have been doing display work for over 20 years. I started at my parents antique shop and then work at a jewelry gallery for many years. The jewelry gallery is were I got my most creative ideas and allot of experience using creative props to enhance the jewelry. We would redo our display cases and the two front windows every Friday. After awhile people would check what we had come up with on there way to dinner or coming home from work. This made it quite the challenge to come up with unique and fabulous windows! It was allot of fun and hard work sometimes working into the evening.
The important things to keep in mind when creating a successful visual display are:
1) Choose a theme or feeling that you are trying to create. If you stick with things you love they will probably have a connection to your work automatically.
color, style, texture, Asian, vintage, etc.
2) Think out of the box! Anybody can buy the display forms out of a catalog. Your own unique look! Look in your local hardware store, fabric store, or in antique shops to name a few places to find unique display items.
3) Try to keep it simple and clean looking. Keep in mind that your work will add the interest and color, the displays are only to enhance and be a backdrop for the pieces.
4) Show your work at different heights and levels. This can be easily achieve by putting boxes under your fabric or table clothes. Another idea is to use cake stands to lift the work up.
5) I like to use repeated shapes & images to keep the theme flowing. Using your logo in many different places in your display, this a good way to brand yourself and make people remember your art work.
6) Keep in mind that your display must work for every different venue. Sometimes we don't even know the configuration of our both or space before hand so keep this in mind while designing your display.
7) Easy set up! The weight and the amount of time it takes to set up the visual up is a very important thing to consider as well. This is not as easy as it sounds, I'm still working out the kinks in mine.
8) Plan out your display on paper before investing allot of time and money in various items that don't work together. You can work out sizing and shapes so you can concentrate on buying just what you need.
9) You can save money by using things that weren't necessarily meant for display. Be inventive!
10) Have fun with it and get creative! This will show through in how amazing it turns out!
GOOD LUCK!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Art Community Center



Artist Community Center
28 West Main St. Georgetown MA (formally Scala's Antiques)
W would like to create an artist community and gathering place that would be a space
to learn and share our passion for art with others. I have many friends and aquaintances that would love to
share there talents and love of art. We need a local place for our children and adults to learn to enjoy the process of creating.
We have talked about having "Lecture Series" inviting in artists and other interesting people.
We would also like to have an" Artists Success Circle" to exchange info.and ideas to succeed in the arts.
We have already had Artisan & Craft Shows that went very well socially as well as for selling our work.A big thanks to our supporters!
We plan on continuing these shows monthly. We also have been collecting winter coats for the less fortunate served at Ruth's House.
Thank you so much for the 75+ coats that were donated! We have really seen the local hometown support for this endeavor.
We really need this cultural gathering place in our downtown to bond as a community as well as bring others back into our great town.
I would really appreciate any input and ideas to make this a success.
Thanks Lisa Scala
If you are interested in taking classes, teaching classes, Artisan Shows, Artists Success Circle or just being a part of this exciting process
you can contact me at: lisa@thechicpeek.com
978 352 8614