Couture Code!

No doubt you've seen QR Codes popping up all over everything from your food packages to television commercials to magazines. QR codes are scannable squares that quickly link to websites or text via your smartphone. Recently I created the silk QR Code scarf, a 30" x 30" hand painted QR Code that is scannable and wearable at the same time. I've made several custom ones so far for customers that have websites that they want to promote in a fun way. Back in September, Etsy posted the scarf to their facebook page and since then, my scarf has gained lots and lots of hearts and over nearly 5000 views!

The QR Code scarf is the ultimate combination of fashion and technology and I was flattered when it caught the eye of Digitally Chic! Digitally Chic is a San Francisco networking group for those passionate about fashion and technology, so you can see why I'm glad they found my scarf. They will celebrate their one year anniversary on December 2 and I'm happy to say that crystal j. silk will be a sponsor {along with Thinkgeek and HP, woah} for the big party! If you live in the San Francisco area and are into fashion and tech this would be a great event to meet up with some like-minded people.

So, if you have a business or website and want a fresh way to promote, check out my QR code scarves, I'd love to paint one from you. And by the way, they don't have to be black and white, I just did one in purple and white and hope to have some other colors on the way soon too.



Scan me!


Happy Happy Thanksgiving!!!

My Current Etsy Faves, Edition No. 4

It's been way too long since I've done an edition of My Etsy Faves! Here are some items that I'm loving on right now. Full of color and texture, these items make a great collection.

I've been playing with the new Etsy circles and they have inspired me to look at other crafters items and favorite more pieces. Have you tried the circles on Etsy yet? It's sort of like Twitter on Etsy, you can see what and who other people in your circle are loving. I've really found lots of cool shops and products and met some really nice people because of them. If you're on Etsy, add me to yours!

crystal j. silk Trunk Show at the VMFA!

So in less than a month I will be selling some new wares at a trunk show at The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts! The Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria exhibit opened on Feburary 12 and crystal j. silk has been invited to do a trunk show in conjunction with the exhibit. The African Art Wing of the Museum has recently re-opened too and the museum shop wanted to do the trunk related to these 2 major museum exhibits. I will be in the VMFA Shop for this one-day event on Saturday, April 23 from 12 pm - 4 pm. Artina Slaughter of Mashulu will also be there selling her wonderful hand-crafted bags and accessories.

Have you been to the museum lately? You've got to see the Ife exhibit, it will only be here until May 22. It is an incredible collection of ancient African art fashioned from terracotta, brass, copper and stone -- so detailed and sophisticated when you consider it was created in the 12th through 15th centuries. There is a group of life-size portrait heads that are the highlight of the collection that have never been shown outside of Nigeria and you can see them here in Richmond! And not to mention that the Picasso exhibit is here. This exhibit too is very special in that the VMFA will be the only museum on the east coast to house it. Picasso was influenced by African art, and collected it too. His mixture of ideas from African masks and carvings with geometric shapes and configurations gave birth to Cubism.

How cool is it that both of these exhibits are here at the same time with this truly exhilarating connection. I'm so thrilled to even have my work in the same building as these great works of art!

I am working on a new collection of hand painted scarves, ruffle scarves and pillows inspired by the Ife exhibit for the trunk show. I'll be superbusy from now until the show {with 2 shows in between - Fool for Art and Spring Bada-Bing}, there will be much painting and sewing to get ready. I hope to do a progress post soon so you can take a peek at the collection.

Save the date! April 23. You could make a day of it, go see the exhibits and stop by the gallery shop and check me out too. I am beyond excited!

Straight from My Heart

This year is just whizzing by, can't believe it's been over a month since Valentine's Day and the Richmond Craft Mafia's hearts being featured in the Home and Garden section of the Richmond Times Dispatch! We were mighty proud to get asked to make hearts to be included in our local paper for this special day. It is a privilege to have my work printed in the newspaper, the article got lots of attention! Many thanks to Julie Young for writing the article! I was happy to add this to the in print section of the featured area on my site. I made these 3 pillows from quilted hand painted silk and I love the way they arranged them for the picture. You can see the really crispy digital pics of all the crafty hearts paper, fabric and mixed media hearts made by my crew here. Also some great shots of the full spread here on the Richmond Craft Mafia blog.

I started out crystal j. silk with pillows and do still make them for orders, though I haven't focused on them in a while. I really enjoyed making these little heart guys and actually will be doing a new pillow collection for an upcoming event*. The heart ones here are what I call mini-pillows, about 6 inches in size. I made a variety of mini-pillows a while back, but never photographed and listed them in my shop for sale. Since making these hearts, I've been considering revisiting the concept. I'm thinking skulls, robots, maybe some diamonds or raccoons, they really could be anything, you know... What do you think?

*My big event announcement will be in the next few days. Stay tuned. ; )

Pirates Mutiny!

I never fail to get excited when I am featured on Etsy! I've loved Etsy from the day I first laid eyes on the site when I was looking for a place online to sell my wares. There are so many sellers on Etsy now that it is truly a privilege to get one of your items selected for a feature. My hand painted silk skull scarf seems to be a perennial favorite and was chosen for a recent Etsy Finds shopping guide. It was in the Pirates Mutiny Section of a nautical themed edition. I am so grateful to have another thing to add to the Etsy part of my featured section! You can see all of my other Etsy features here in one tight little spot, including treasuries and the ultimate - being the Etsy Featured Seller!

Caffeine & Bacon!

I didn't know it, but the awesome online resource for "stuff for smart masses" ThinkGeek also has a paper catalog. There is something nice about looking at an old school catalog, actually turning paper pages is still so great. A feeling that you just can't get by browsing the internet. I was so thrilled when I got a tweet from one of my twitter buddies that they had just received their ThinkGeek catalog in the mail and saw my bacon scarf in there! You know I immediately ordered one of my very own. So here it is, the hand painted silk bacon scarf, on page 21 - the Caffeine & Bacon page! Hilarious. It's so fun to see stuff you made in a printed publication, and I took great pleasure in adding this to the in print page of the featured section on crystaljsilk.com.

Who else can say that their creation appeared on the same page as baconnaise and bacon lip balm?! : )

crystal j. silk in 2011!

My website will be a year at the end of this month! I am proud to say I have consistently made a new item to post on there every month since. When I redesigned the site in Wordpress I committed to the monthly updates and the Wordpress platform has been very conducive to this. Although I often wait until the end of the month to do the updates I actually enjoy logging in as the "administrator" and tinkering around behind the scenes. Seems like I always find something to tweak and I've added lots of cool plugins and widgets over time. No doubt I'll add more as time goes on, it's such a work-in-progress. Even though it's on the computer, I am proud that my site is handmade by me {through the genius of Wordpress and the magic of code} and the concept of my site fits in nicely with my diy handmade philosophy. My website is my little piece of the digital world where I keep everything in one place. You can find everything from my latest tweets and Etsy shop updates to customer feedback and links to my Facebook page and flickr photostream to information on wholesaling with crystal j. silk.

The latest area I've been tweaking is the featured section which shows all of the mentions and press and such for crystal j. silk. I'm ecstactic to have some new updates to add already this year! I will highlight the newest additions to the featured section over here on the blog in the coming days, ending in a big announcement of some excitement I have coming up in the spring!

This little birdie scarf was the first item that went up on the site last year and was my first blog feature this year on the Try Handmade blog! It symbolizes the coming of spring and hopefully more things that will be taking flight at crystal j. silk in 2011!