Crow Haven Farm

Check out Michelle's whimsical creations. Each one seems to have a unique personality with a fantastical story to tell.

CrowHavenFarm
Hello, my name is Michelle and I live in a very magical place in Pennsylvania. My studio is located in our 1800’s stone farm house which is surrounded by fields of wheat, corn and soy. It is a wonderful place to live and be creative. However, I do cry every morning when I have to leave my safe haven and go to my day gig in the city, but when the clock strikes 5:00 p.m., my legs are already running to my jeep to get me back home and into my studio.
My husband and I have converted a room on our second floor into my studio. Our Summer Kitchen that is attached to our house has been transformed into his studio (he is a drummer). As you can see by the pictures, I have to be very organized in order to keep things from finding their way into the hallway! I love clear tub containers. I try to get these when they go on sale or I ask friends and family members to donate their old ones to me because I can always use a clear container for found objects from my hunts at the garage sales, thrift markets and the DOLLAR STORE! Love the dollar store. If you are an artist, you will love the dollar store!
My medium that I am currently working on is polymer clay, otherwise known as Super Sculpey. I have tried numerous brands of doll making clay and have found that this works best for me. I also love Creative Paper Clay and Papier Mache. I am currently working on a line that I have entitled Ebs, meaning “Eclectic Beings.” I took a class with Wendy and Toby Froud back in May of 2008 in New York City and I learned a bunch of new techniques and how to use certain tools. This course was a wonderful start to my development of sculpting art dolls. However, my art dolls have taken on such a whimsical feel that sometimes it’s extremely hard to part with them!
My studio is set up so that I can easily get to everything. In one corner I have a table that I use as my painting station. I also adopted a an 8x8 table from Staples that is used as my main table. As you can see the table is being occupied by stackables all the way across it! All of my containers have been marked with what is exactly in them. I have an attic up on the 3rd floor which is being totally refurbished and designed for extra storage. This will help in getting some of my containers out of the studio to give me more space and be able to spread my materials out, instead of using the mat floor! LOL. I do like the feel of closeness. I need to have all of my little bits and bobs around me. I use a lot of mason jars because when you are in a groove you want to be able to see your bits and bobs instead of spending hours on end searching for the exact piece you need.

I love working in mixed-media. I can incorporate everything I love doing, such as, sewing, painting, assemblage, sculpting and needle felting into all of my art dolls. I have recently been playing with canvas boards and cigar boxes using bees wax and oil pastels. I love Bees Wax!
I will be opening a new shop at Etsy in early November. My new shop name is ShodeeHonee.

In the meantime, look me up at http://www.crowhavenfarm.etsy.com/.

I have not added new items lately, but hopefully CrowHavenFarm will be updated with more primitive treasures and ShodeeHonee will be up and running with my new whimsical line of original painting, original drawings and of course my Eclectic Beings, Ebs in November of 2008. Just in time for the Holidays!
Cheers!

Three in a Space ~Working Together~ Is it Possible?

Have you ever tried to share your space with someone else.? My space is a family games room with a built in extra large workspace ~ the Ping Pong table. I don't share my space with someone else per say but I do need to clean up my stuff when we have friends over to use the space. I love my space and will use any excuse to spend time in my retreat.

Here is a top excuse for spending time in the studio:

"If I weren't in here, I'd be eating. This is my diet plan." Annie Nordmark in Chicago,IL

~ If you have any excuse to share please post in comment on the blog!~

Featured Etsy Shop ~Krafty Krew

Koodos to Krafty Krew who have mastered the art of togetherness.

By ~KraftyKrew

Well lets see ,we are a joint venture of 3 me , my mom, and my sister and we live in my sister's home. My mom and I share the converted garage so we do with what we have .It's a bit crowded,but we manage.

Let me tell you~ there are times it drives me crazy. I don't like clutter or piles. But since I am not in my own home; well there you go. We try to use plastic shoe boxes to organize. We also use those crystal lite plastic tubes for our pens, rulers, buttons, etc... I use a lot of binders to keep myself organized with my projects and my mom and I use file cabinets to store our patterns.

We also take pictures of our projects to keep a log of what we make.

My sister uses those space bags to store her fabric. She has more room. She had a room built to suit her.

I have a few shelves for my fabrics, which I love .Fabric ~you can never have enough. Who ever dies with the most fabric wins :~) My mom also has a few shelves for her fabric but you will notice that a lot of our fabric is stacked up. We just love to go shopping especially those great fabric shops in Los Angeles.

We all do try to keep our own items and tools separate but sometimes we find that someone has taken our stuff. All in all we manage pretty well. We have fun together and help each other to make the best item so we can list and sell.

So I hope the pictures don't scare you .We do have some kind of organization , don't ask me what it is but I guess it's working for the moment LOL!!! If anyone out there wants to help me ,come on over and help me clean up my work area LOL!!!

Thanks for the opportunity~ kraftykrew aka Rita, Frances, Irene.Pss... the person you see in the picture is my mom. Here she is making her purses and wallets .She also makes soft sculpture dolls. You should see her Mr "T" and Betty Boop. I cant wait to list those. I think everyone will go gaga over them .

http://www.kraftykrew.etsy.com/