Steampunk Sale Continues!

All items in the Steampunk section of my Etsy store [Link Here!] are still on sale!


30-40% off earrings and pendants!
Just in time for Wicked Faire ;-)

I will not be a vendor at Wicked Faire this year (I finally get to go out and enjoy the con!) so you'll have to order your steampunkery from me in advance ;-)

Queen of the Cat People, class with a cult following.

Dream yourself to death

What am I wearing at Wicked Faire this weekend?

CASIMIRA

Wood, glass, seed beads, bone, polymer clay, green goldstone, multiple metals, various stones, single magnifying glass. Hand made bead-chains, hand made creature "molds" of small creatures. Will she stroke my head if I bind myself in chains?

[Not for sale, but I'm available to make similar items.]

Based on a secret city.

From a not so secret book.

And after Wicked, I'll also be vending jewelry at the Palimspest book launch party. Also in chains.


I miss my old photo rig. There's a hold on my moving date, I should unpack it and photograph some of my new stuff anyway.

<3 Me

Wicked Faire! Hooray!!

I'm in the middle of real estate hell, but there is one gleaming light of hope to look forward to:

The Wicked Winter Renaissance Faire, February 20-22nd in Whippany, NJ! Now open on Sunday!

Attractions include ME ;-), other awesome vendors, and lots of great performers and artists. The Lazersword Continuum, Voltaire, White Elephant Burlesque Society, and Repo: The Genetic Opera, with Terrance Zdunich in the flesh! Plus author Catherynne M. Valente, and spectacular steampunk events!

This year's theme is Wicked Chocolate Factory ;-), and I'm totally prepared.

Unfortunately, with all the packing, I am without my usual awesome photo setup. But here are some raw clues to what special pieces I'll have at the fair:







(Please don't eat the jewelry.)

Furthermore, I'll have some fine pieces based on The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice, one of Cat Valente's latest books. And by request of the author I'll have several of these:

Djebah, coins from the city of Marrow:


I was a little ... bored the night I made these, so they also glow in the dark. Yay for polymer clay.


For my online onlookers who can't make it to the fair this year- what I don't sell at Wicked will eventually end up in my Etsy shop. Also, I can make more tasty looking pieces if there is interest and demand. Just ... not this month.

Right now, my stock is still accessible, but my craft and jewelry supplies are all packed up. I'm so bored.

<3 Chrysilla

The Totally Normal Event [For Weirdoes], this weekend!

Totally Normal Event - a charity benefit for www.SPARCSummer.org,a summer program for gifted kids.
http://www.wickedfaire.com/TNE/index.html
This Saturday June, 28th, 2008,
Noon to very very late

Get your tickets here :http://www.wickedfaire.com/TNE/tickets.html

1401 Route 10 E, Whippany, NJ 07981
http://www.wickedfaire.com/TNE/hotel.html

Performing,
The Dresden Dolls (http://www.dresdendolls.com/main1.htm)
Freezepop ( http://www.freezepop.net/)
Voltaire (http://www.voltaire.net/)
DJ The Mighty Mike Saga ( http://www.myspace.com/mikesaga )
Luminescent Orchestrii w. Sxip Shirey (http://www.lumii.org/)
Barry Louis Polisar ( http://www.barrylou.com/ )
Whip Demo and many more.
http://www.wickedfaire.com/TNE/bliss.html

*Zombie Movies * demonstrations * Human Bingo * human statues * auctions,* swap meets, and Henchman Championships

With a costume contest
costume contest for steampunk,mad scientist and neo-Victorian.
It will be judged by author G. D. Falksen (http://www.myspace.com/gdfalksen)
Include prizes such as from
*Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab(http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/)
*Weird Tales ( http://www.weirdtales.net/),
*The Willows Magazine (http://www.thewillowsmagazine.com/index.htm)
*Death Rock Magazine (http://www.deathrockmagazine.com/)
and many more.
Prizes will be given for three categories
* best costume male
* best costume female,
* best costume couple.
Come dressed in you best and most imaginative costumes, and prepare to
show off and admire each
other's creations.
http://thetotallynormalworld.ning.com/events/event/show?id=2097238:Event:7358

Get your tickets now at http://www.wickedfaire.com/TNE/index.html

Many vendors
http://www.wickedfaire.com/TNE/bliss.html

Get your tickets here!
http://www.wickedfaire.com/TNE/tickets.html
So next week , we will see you there!


And yes, "Many vendors" includes me ;-) With lots of new shiny things, including a new line of polymer clay work! Join us!

Long time no speakey!

Sorry I've been out of the loop, my Cat People, but life has been one truckload of crazy after another. I'm about to start a graduate school program in January, along with some other hobbies, but I will be at Wicked Faire III come hell or high water (or Elder Gods), and the Dances of Vice Festival will be giving some of my work away as prizes, probably via raffle system. And if Wicked Faire ends up scheduled for the third weekend in February rather than the second, I will be at the Vice Festival as a regular attendee and ne'er do well ;-)

If you haven't yet bought your tickets for Wicked Faire, make sure to give them my name (Queen of the Cat People is fine). It makes it all the more sure that I'll be at their next event, and maybe have a bit of extra cash to throw a room party ;-).

The Etsy migration was a great success, and my main hub-website is currently a place holder, as work begins on a more professional looking gallery. But to tide you over, here's a project I completed a few weeks ago but just haven't had time to show off...


Egyptian Priestess Collar, with matching earrings. Polymer clay, goldleaf, stamps, gold ink, sterling, garnets, various Egyptian deities. I really like working in this medium, expect more polymer fun coming soon!

<3 Chrysilla

Home and safe... phew!

Sorry I didn't post between the events, but I needed to hibernate for a bit. Both SalonCon and Wicked Labyrinth kicked convention butt, and I did very well for myself and for the Interstitial Arts Foundation.

Now the only question is, do I ask to be on the IAF's "friends" page as "Queen of the Cat People", Chrysilla, or my real name? They'll link my name to my website if I ask, but its always fun to be eccentric.

If you're curious:
Here is my SalonCon photo gallery,
And this is my Wicked Lab gallery, including a pic of the lovely lady who won the Other Mother necklace :-D

I have video footage of my booth kittens at Wicked Lab singing songs about selling shiny objects, but those will have to wait for now. First I need to redesign my website and start the Etsy-migration before I can wrestle around with YouTube ;-) And yes, this means I'm about to undertake a major online overhaul of shiny, just in time for the holiday shopping season (I hope!).

That also means there may be a lag in shiny postings, but I'll see what I can do. I'm going to start selling earrings online thru Etsy, so that's some new pictures you my readers have to look forward to. Also, STEAMPUNK!

And expect ... eventually ... more projects from my Bards & Beads community, especially after the New York Whole Bead Show this October. I've got three books to catch up on, yikes.

My next planned engagement is Wicked Faire in February 2008, but I'm currently waiting to hear if I've made it into the Bust Craftacular on December 8, ironically in the same space as the NYWBS.

<3 Chrysilla

Coming to a convention center near you!

First, I am the happy winner of the last challange on the Bards & Beads community. At about the same time we started reading Cat Valente's Orphan's Tales, she won the Tiptree Award for the same book. So she set us up the bar- whichever of our OT necklaces she liked best (posted by mid-May) she would purchase and wear to the ceremony. She was torn, and the other necklace was gorgeous too (I'm so jealous of people that know how to work in wire), but when she polled for help on LJ I came out the winner. Yay! So now Ms. Valente is the owner of the Ixora necklace, which will remain a QOTCP original.

Here's a pic taken by a mutual friend of ours of Ms. Valente in her full Tiptree regalia at Wiscon 31. It's gotta be an awesome ceremony if part of your award is a tiara. Congradulations!

Sadly, my finances did not balance out for me to go to Wiscon, but if I don't have the riotous good time my friends have promised me for DragonCon, I may make Wiscon next year's "big" convention. Between travel and convention expenses, each would probably cost about the same amount of $$ for me.


However, I am scheduled for several events over the next few months, some selling, some just attending:

Gothic Pirate Ball on Thursday, July 17, 2007 @ The Element/Vault which I think used to be The Bank (of legend). I will be selling jewelry there, but it's a less-vendors-more-dancing sort of event.

DragonCon, August 31st thru September 3rd 2007, in Atlanta, GA. I won't be vending, but I will be attending, and wearing as much jewelry as I can without passing out from the weight.

Camarilla Club North East Regional Event, September 13-16 in Syracuse, NY. This is a Cam Club event, and I'm not sure they'll have a dealer's room. Not sure if I'll have the energy for it anywhoo. But I will be well-costumed and bejeweled, promise ;-) If you're a fellow Cammunist, check out the Conventions page on the main Camarilla Club website.

The Salon Convention, September 22nd, in Edison, NJ. This was a blast last year! And this year the talent is even more impressive! This year my crew and I *may* host a room party the Friday nite before, but that is uncertain. Depends on who is going, and how much a suite costs, and if there are any left to begin with. I will be selling jewelry again this year.

Wicked Labyrinth, September 28-29 in Edison, NJ. They are taking over the whole hotel and doing strange and wonderous things with it, but I will be in the vendors room which is only open that Saturday.


Soooo... yes. September will be wild. I will have to sleep through August to get ready, but I think it will be worth it ;-) Still wondering if I should get real rennie garb this season, I'd certainly get a lot of use out of it.

<3 Chrysilla

Wicked Faire 2007

Yay, what fun!

And here are some pictures of our operation:



That's me in the middle, with my booth bunnies Audrey and Jenna :-) In fact, Audrey writes a webcomic called The Bunny System (rated PG-13, I'd say). She drew something really sweet for me while we were at the faire, I'll post that later ;-)


This is a closeup of half the table. The guy in the corner is Nick, my other booth bunny. He's starting up his own leather business at Nicholas's Leather and wanted to get a feel for how these things work. We have agreed to share a booth next year, yay!


And this is the other half of our table, with the raffle display.

And here's a complete gallery of pics from the faire!

Our raffle made $100 for the Joseph D'Angeli fund. The winner was this lovely lady, who once worked with Mr. D'Angeli at the Liberty Science Center:

(picture posted with permission)

Things I'm glad I did this time around:
-Brought my wooden hand. I purchased it to display rings, then, um, forgot to make rings. It seems happy to be passing out business cards tho.
-Made more of the picture-frame-earring displays, and set the pins into them *before* going to the faire.
-Printed out price cards for the earring displays and trinkets box, and signs for the raffle.
-Had a raffle! They are fun, make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and make more $$ for the charity in question than if I just sold the piece at retail value and donated the total.
-Brought three booth-buddies with me. After all the hours I've spent making jewelry, it's great to be able to doze behind the counter while your employees handle the salesmanship.
-Remembered to bring the scissors.

Things I may do next time:
-Get a bigger/extra table. This is the biggest I've had yet, and I still don't have room for everything! Wow, my inventory just keeps growing.
-Set up the table(s) in a more space effective way for the space.
-Have some new ideas in styles and techniques, but you'll see those later ;-)
-Bring tape.

My next engagement will be with Salon Con, but that's not until September! I'm really liking cons and festivals, I should find a couple to tide me over in the mean time. Any suggestions in the NY/NJ/CN area? Might do PiCon this year, it was highly recommended by friends of mine, but I'd have to figure out transportation first.

Wicked Faire, Saturday Feb. 10! That's tomorrow!

If you've got transportation, and live somewhere in the area of Edison NJ, you should probably be going ;-)

If you are going, I'll be raffling off a necklace for a local charity, tickets $2 each and three tickets for $5, drawing at 10pm. I'll also be selling my usual array of necklaces, bracelets, and earrings.

See you there!

<3 Chrysilla

Blessed Imbolc!

A bit belated, but I've been busy messing about with the blog format :-)

Look- pentacles!


Copper and other metals, with malachite and glass beads. I love how copper looks with malachite, and with turquoise.


Onyx, garnets, & sterling. I really need to get more of those carved onyx roses. The pendant was improvised from something I got for another piece, but the commissioner decided to go with something else. It's drilled on opposite ends, so I threaded an eyepin through one of the holes and added a tiny sterling pentacle in the middle.


And don't forget to go check out The Wicked Winter Rennaissance Pirate Ninja Faire on February 10th!

Upcoming events, and a raffle!

I will be making an appearance, with my shinies, at Jeff Mach's Wicked Winter Rennaissance Pirate Ninja Faire in Edison, NJ.

Aside from my usual shiny-selling activities, I will also be raffling off this piece for the Joseph D'Angeli fund.:


The bat charm is made of wood and very light, so it just wouldn't behave until I weighed it down a bit. It doesn't have a clasp, but is long enough not to need one. Has both regular and red tigereye, and I've found that red tigereye always looks really nice with these kinds of wood pendants.

So come by and see us ;-)