We are open for business!!!

The Mayor of Rancho Cordova officially opened The Market Place today at 10am.

And here we are:

We now have a store front!

Kewish Designs at The Market Place
11395 Folsom, Blvd.
Rancho Cordova, CA 95742
(916) 859-9988
Open Daily 10am-7pm

While The Market Place is open every day, we will only be in our store, Monday - Thursday starting next week. Send us an email if you want to make sure we will be there!! KewishDesigns@hotmail.com
We are negotiating to hold workshops at The Market Place...stay tuned for more information!

Some other artists that have store fronts are (partial list):

Fire Arts of Sacramento (Metal working and poetry!)
Jimmy T's Catering (email: jtilton848@aol.com)
Jeanine Kemp (Abstract Art)
Quirky Creations (Fine Fused Glass)
Rohan Beal (photography)

This has been an amazing adventure...getting this up and running while completely re-designing our booth, making new jewelry and planning for the art and craft fairs we are doing!

Another big thank you to Sharon and North, Jayne and Jason!!!

(Jason...I am now going to publicly humiliate you by saying...GET YOUR PAINTINGS IN HERE!!)

:)

Only A Week Ago...

Ad seen on Craiglist: Free space for 60 days. Only 10% commission if you make a sale.

Yes, we moved on it, we answered the ad. Does it seem to good to be true? I will say that there are individuals in this world who are good and offer good things. It is true. This was an opportunity to grab.

The Market Place. A huge space in Rancho Cordova. And in this huge space, Kewish Designs secured a 10x10 block of realty...a void space ripe with possibilities!

We were told that there were four glass jewelry cabinets available - first come, first served. The cabinet was a mess, but we grabbed it, moved it and cleaned it. The light worked! Su-weeet!!

Now to decorate the space. Mind you, Josh and I have extremely different interior decor ideas. I am the wild bohemian/asian influenced/dumpster diving type. He is sophisticated, streamlined and sleek. Agreeing on how something should look takes us a. very. long. time. Very long. And it can get very heated.

We had recently done major cleaning at home, so all tables, coverings..."stuff" was gone. We had nothing to decorate with and not much of a budget. A plea was posted on Facebook - "got stuff?" and a beautiful couple, Sharon and North* Marques, kicked things into gear by offering up a dark purple throw-rug and a collection of small tables.

PERFECT!! Josh has a painting with purples, blues and gold. We were off and running. Sharon and North's offering probably saved us HOURS of ...um...discussions! A trip to Ross and the perfect fabrics were purchased.

Our space looks incredible, but I'm not going to reveal the pics until after the grand opening on Wednesday.

We have a selection of jewelry in the cabinet, photography, paintings and prints all up or on easels. Stop by sometime and check it out!

The Market Place

11395 Folsom Blvd, Rancho Cordova, CA

There are several artists there who have work that Josh and I love and appreciate! The huge space has become quite the gallery!

*check out the gorgeous work by North!

  

Just Playing...

Not everything needs to be an amazing piece of art. Sometimes you just have to play. Play is where ideas come from and skills are discovered...for instance:

I found a store with a stash of white buttons.

a white button

I bought a bunch of these white buttons...and painted them.

a blue button

Yellow buttons

I had a sea of button possibilities.

I have no idea what to do...but painting them is fun!

And then, while outside having coffee, a dragonfly flew over my head, and landed.

And I suddenly had a silly idea.

Actually - while playing with THIS idea, another one developed...and THAT idea is currently in the pickle.

Playing leads to discoveries. Don't forget to play.

Imagination is the beginning of creativity.

George Bernard Shaw

Life outside of the studio...Lisa's POV

A few snapshots of my day today...Josh and I wandered through Sutter Creek and Jackson, California.

For the bride who wants to go vintage, this set up had it all. All very pretty...so not me, but I can appreciate the charm of it all.

Ok...this is me! LOVE LOVE LOVE these shoes!! Even the little handbag.

Note it is a Chevy. Note the crunched bumper. Note the Nissan tag.

 

This vase gave me quite the creative idea. Instead of surrounding a stone with metal, why not surround metal with a stone...????

 

I am fascinated with old, falling apart buildings. Here is a window that someone once gazed out of...and now...the flora has taken over.

When did this lace curtain fall?

Cafe De Coco. Very good cappucino!

Need to hold a meeting? This strange little room was adjacent to the main dining area in Cafe De Coco. Just a big plain room. This is the view when you exit the bathroom!

I found white buttons...brought them home and began to paint them.

Trying to find it....again

Sometimes I just seem to make messes.

The big wire mess

I feel clueless...and so I go out and buy magazines.

Seeking inspiration

And...nothing happens. I now have a big wire mess and a stack of magazines.

I try to convince myself that my big wire mess is like writing my "morning pages".

Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning. There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages-- they are not high art. They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind-- and they are for your eyes only.

Except - I have not written morning pages in a very long time. Maybe an artist needs to do a daily morning wire mess. Just empty out the brain...waste some wire.

I don't know.

I'm going to eat a breakfast burrito and head out. Look at things. Touch things. Consider things.

Re-fill the well. Let's see what happens.

(Lisa Kewish)

The Business of Learning Business

Recently we set up our booth at San Rafael's Food & Wine Festival at Falkirk...a lovely little Food and Wine event with art and craft booths interspersed between vintners' and restaurants' tables. The day was sunny and warm, the setting was inviting. It seemed like a perfect place to sell our work...and yet we only made one sale all day.

Disappointing doesn't begin to describe it. And for a few minutes Lisa and I felt the temptation to run back to the easy, safe life found in a corporate job. But then we sat down and analyzed ourselves, our booth, our products...pretty much everything about our business and realized we need to change our perspective from artists to business owners in order to make it work. This doesn't mean we will compromise our art, but it does mean restructuring how and on what we spend our time, it means changing how we setup our booth and what we put on the tables. It means taking a hard look at how we price our work.

So, I guess it was a good day after all. It was good because it helped us recognize that we aren't just artists; we are business owners too. On some level we knew this, but our understanding of what that means just stepped up to another level.

Peace.
--Joshua

Life on a Tuesday night

Just thought I would share a little snapshop of my current point-of-view.

That is Josh (right side of pic) working on our table covering for our booth. We are fitting the fabric (Wal-Mart sheets) to be a snug fit on the table. I'm done with using bungee cords!! Anyway, he's measuring and pinning the fabric - I'll be sewing the seams in a bit -

To the left is Booger. Sleeping. The cat is actually helping by weighing down the fabric.

Yes, that is our mantle with my photography, one of my charcoal drawings (15 Pears), and some of Josh's sculptures...and a lava-lamp.

Yes, Josh's hair is actually spiking up in three spots. It has been a long day!

Welcome to our world! :)