Thank You, Oakhurst....

October 11, 2009

Thank you, Oakhurst Arts & Music Festival, for showing me how community can come together to enrich the lives of its residents.

Only one week after my trip to St. Louis for the Taste festival, I was back in Atlanta the next weekend to participate as a juried vendor in the Oakhurst festival located in Decatur, GA. The day (luckily) was sunny, and my boothmate-in-crime, Tasha Hussey, was in full glowing pregnancy mode, and was ready to sell!
The crowds were small, but pleased to be there (and that's all I ever need to be happy). We were located right by the stage, and as a result had the full fledged sound of music in our ears. Lucky for us, the entertainment was good and varied throughout the course of the day, from folk, to the blues, to African, to alternative.

I was enchanted by the true, generous community feel of the festival's patrons. I think that if I were to live in a small community in the midst of a big city, a festival just like this one would be the ticket to making the neighborhood feel like a true home. As I reach "motherhood" age, and my wonderful husband and I consider having a baby, I'll keep this neighborhood in mind, and will definitely do this festival again next year.

By the middle of the day, my jewelry-making assistant, Shannon, also popped by to grace us with her presence (she's putting on her full mo-del face for you all here). When she arrived, she brought along our newest creations from iram-inal, which we debuted at Oakhurst to test the market. The new SL line of fabric necklaces was a great hit!
We call it the "SL line" because Shannon, who is the fantastic designer of her own line of apparel - Shannon Lynnette - helped me to bring my vision of fabric necklaces to fruition through her skill and creativity. So, because we're vast believers that independent artists need to help each other out, we're looking at the SL line as a collaborative line, and we're so proud of it. If you want a look that is chic, voluminous, lightweight and eco-friendly, this collection is for you. Stay tuned for more info on this line as we continue to develop it!

So once again, thank you, Oakhurst, for showing me community, neighborly love, and a great time filled with music and cheer. See you next year!

Taste of St. Louis Was the Bee's Knees!

October 4, 2009

The "Taste" (as locals call it) is a festival that me and Mari and dedicated to doing every single year until we can't do it any more. The people are fantastic, the music is AWE-SOOOME, and the food is always on point.

Driving through St. Louis reminded me of how beautiful this city really is.... I've been to many places around this fair country of ours, and I think many of our larger cities (outside of the Northeastern region) don't take care to preserve and maintain the original structures that helped to create their cities. St. Louis is not one of those locations.
The architecture, the Arch, and the feel of the place moved me so much on the second sunny day there that I had to take pictures while driving in my car (wrong, I know). While I'm now mesmerized, I realize that I didn't appreciate the beauty of this thriving metropolis at all when growing up here.

Setup on the first day was amazingly frustrating, as there were gale-force winds up to 30 miles an hour. Luckily, our family friend, Cory, was there to help out so he helped to keep me sane by holding the tent down from blowing away (even though I had 150 pounds of weights already holding it.... we had to get more before the day's end). Eventually, my sister came to save me and added another 150 pounds to the tent to fully secure it for the eve. The festival began on Friday at 5:00pm. Normally, we are so busy in our tent that we don't have time to sample any of the delicious goods provided by over 30 St. Louis restaurants, but this year I wanted to TASTE! So, taste we did.... and I mean everything. Wish I had some photos of the great food for you folks, but it's IN OUR BELLIES! (and yes, please think Austin Powers).

This 3-day festival is one of the biggest in the city, bringing out over 150,000 patrons (some say closer to 250,000) to sample yummies, fill their tummies, and shop from fantastic artists from all over the country.

This year, we were fortunate to have our booth located on the corner of the main fairway between the juried Artists' Market and the Taste Row.... this made for a very, very, very busy 3 days. With the festival always running long (until about 11:30pm), it is exhausting work, but the great people always make up for that feeling.

Additionally, we had some great surprise visitors that weekend, from our beautiful mama, to Mari's good friend (and great supporter of iram-inal), Tim.

All in all, it was a fantastic, exhausting three days filled with great sales, new friends and fabulous finds (which I'll talk about in a later posting). Thank you to the many who purchased iram-inal designs' creations, and we'll see you next year!

Taste of Central West End.... Fun, Lots of Sun, and the Best Customers EVER

June 15, 2009
This year, we had a booth for the second time at the Taste of Central West End Festival in the hip and happenin' CWE area of St. Louis.

I (Malene) drove into a horrendous and violent tornado-warning storm storm (what we like to call normal summer weather in the Midwest) while commuting from Atlanta to St. Louis for the festival. Because every radio station in ears-length was screaming out the fact that a tornado was on the ground - and that I was driving right into the heart of the storm at night - I surged on and did not let the rain dampen my spirits and hoped for a great weekend (okay, I'm completely lying... I was scared out of my mind)....

scary St. Louis weather (seriously, ya'll)

I had thoughts of turning around and stomping right back to lovely Atlanta (where we only have to worry about the heat wave), but persevered. I arrived safely in St. Louis two hours after my scheduled arrival time and kissed the ground when I arrived at Mari's house.

Mari did this festival by herself last year, and realized it was an extraordinarily busy event. With the success of last year, we decided to give it another go with the two of us this time around.

our booth at the festival

Despite the scary commute to St. Louis, the weather over the 2 and 1/2 day festival was FAB-U-LOUS, and the customers came out in droves. Admittedly, were placed in quite an odd area off the main drag of vendors, but were placed toward an exit area, which resulted in a great flow of buying customers.

standing room only!

Anyone who has ever worked a festival knows that it's a trying, tiring effort that that takes all the strength you can muster. This particular festival went from 11am to 11pm every night, so we needed help just to make it throughout the day. We're thankful to have wonderful friends and family who are always willing to stop by and help. Big "ooo-ooooh's!" and hugs to our mama and great friends, Mike, Cara and Liz. We can't thank you enough.

We also had the pleasure of neighboring with a fellow jewelry designer named Melissa. Her jewelry was also chunky and funky, and she had a good weekend overall. Spending time with her and her parents was great fun.

our beautiful mama modeling our necklace and ring

the brains and the brawn for the weekend, our friend, Mike

our booth neighbor and fellow jewelry designer, Melissa

The biggest advantage of doing festivals is that we get to meet our buyers in person. There's no better test of your product and marketing efforts than seeing how your own product presents itself in the face of the potential buyer.

I'm proud - and unabashed - to say that our customers are the BEST new business owners could ask for... they're always honest in their assessment of our new designs, and are happy to give recommendations (and plenty of compliments) on our lines as a whole.

As it says in the liner of this entry, we also have the most fly and cutest customers ever! From indie, to sophisticated, to conservative, we create designs that look great on all. The best part?

Our oh-so-cool customers allow us to take photos of them wearing their purchases! If ever you visit our website - http://www.iidesigns.com/ - and are unsure whether or necklaces will fit right on your frame, or whether they're too big for you, just take a look at these lovely ladies wearing some of our creations:

yellow jade woven necklace

rust recycled palm wood woven necklace

green recycled palm wood double woven necklace

gray agate slab single strand necklace

It was a fantastic festival full of great music, great food, and great people. We look forward to seeing you all next year!

Cold as I.C.E. - On a 90+ Degree Day

June 9, 2008


The Indie Craft Experience's "Lucky #7" Festival was this past weekend, and iram-inal designs was a proud participating vendor. Although the weather would just not quit (never creeping below 90 degrees), those who love all things handmade came out in full force.


Our setup for this fair. Normally, we are enclosed, with a boutique-type feel... however, the heat prevented any of the vendors from keeping their tent walls down.


Customers looking at the variety of vendors.


A lovely iram-inal customer wearing amethyst and ruby quartz cluster earrings. She was sweet to let me take her photo for our blog!

Set in beautiful Centennial Olympic Park, folks munched on frozen lemonades and purchased all of the handmade goodies offered by a wide variety of artists, from jewelry makers, to handmade handbags, to specialty stamps. Surely, there was an item for all.

As my sister and I both had festivals on this weekend (me in Atlanta, and Mari in St. Louis), I found it was particularly difficult doing the fair without her. My neighbors, however, were wonderful about watching my booth when I had to step away, and bringing cold (and much welcomed) drinks throughout the day.


Katherine Smith of KSmith Jewelry out of Atlanta. Beautiful, elegant pieces made with semiprecious stone and silver.


Sarah Neuburger and friend of The Small Object. She makes a wonderful variety of items, from paper goods, to custom stamps. You may see her items at http://www.thesmallobject.com/


The crazy, wonderful girls of The Mod Dog, out of Atlanta. They create unique, custom designed collars, leashes and pet accessories for your dogs and cats. You may see their collection at http://www.themoddog.com/.

Also, a big thank you to the I.C.E. organizers and all of their helpers for pulling off another wonderful event. iram-inal looks forward to participating next year!

Blazin' Hot at the CWE Taste & Art Fair!

June 9, 2008

See that subject line? Literally and figuratively, my friends! What started out as a soggy event, ended up being one of our most successful, thus far! Leave it to St. Louis to be hot, humid, and windy all on the same day, right?

Friday - Afternoon set up and shopping

Got to love the resilience of STL folks! 30 minutes earlier, not only was there a torential downpour, we'd also had a second tornado warning!

Take a gander at our boutique style festival set up located in the Juried Fine Artists section of the event.

Saturday Morning - the complete set up.

Our friend, and "Model du Jour," Court, wearing an iram-inal ring

Thank you to all who shopped, shopped with us again (you know who you are!), looked, and commented on our boutique, style, and jewelry! We had such a great time - see you next year in the same spot!

A lovely iram-inal customer wearing a green agate double woven necklace.

Oh, one last note - a HUGE kudos goes out to the 2008 CWE Event Staff! They were taking care of business, zipping up and down the thoroughfare in their nifty little golf carts. Way to go for pulling off such a fabulous event! It's nice to be a part of an Event where we vendors are taken seriously!