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!

Jewelry Pick of the Day - The Gold Wood Woven Necklace

08/03/2009

We want people to be fine, fitting and flashy at all times. We believe that gold is the key to all of these things. All in all, WE LOVE GOOOOOOOOLD (and yes, we're saying it like Goldfinger in Austin Powers).

Sometimes, a woman doesn't want to be weighed down by the weight that beautiful gold or brass pieces cause after a long day's wear, so why not choose an option that is shiny, fabulous, lightweight and eco-friendly? Well, we've found the perfect way - introducing the Green Collection gold woven necklace!

Made from South American sustainable palm tree wood, this necklace is chunky, fashion-forward and perfect for your holiday season party, in a suit, or for your weekend out in your LBD. And it also weighs in well under one pound, so prepare to get your disco on!

This necklace will be ready for sale on the iram-inal website starting September 2009. For any questions about this product, contact us any time at sales@iraminal.com.

The 2009 Indie Craft Experience - Beehive Style

05/31/2009

This weekend heralded the 2009 Indie Craft Experience Festival in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park. For the first time, at the ICE Festival, 12 talented designers from the Beehive Co-op joined together to create one big "mega booth." While sales were slower than last year, the ultimate result was a day of fun filled with lots of light, laughter and learning.

I.C.E. Patrons braving the heat Our Beehive "Mega Booth"

For this link, I'm going to give some shouts out to my fellow designers, and give you links to their websites so you can learn a little more about them and their wonderful products.

Brandi of Just Add Honey

Hazel Studstill of HJ Designs

Carrie and Sara of Brightshop

My booth, shared with uber-talented designers and friends, Shannon Edwards and Tasha Hussey

My boothmate, Shannon Edwards of Shannon Lynnette

My other wonderful boothmate, Tasha Hussey of Tasha Hussey Designs

Amy Leff of Throwing Stars Jewelry and Julia Farrill of Red Bird Ink

Julia and Amy shared a booth with the inimitable Arwen Fine of A. Fine Shirt

Alejandra Dunphy of Alejandra Dunphy Designs

An old Beehiver and friend, Wendy Burnley of Bella Bee

I encourage you to check out each of their sites. Their products are well made, handmade, and are local! Shop away!!!

A Fabulous Jewelry Party in Alton, IL

11-04-2008

This evening, my sister and I took the trek across the river to Alton, Illinois to set up for one of our fabulous jewelry parties at a very cool restaurant called Gentelin's on Broadway. Tucked away in the middle of downtown Alton, this inconspicuous location is one that is easy to miss, but we highly recommend you stop in and have a bite any time you're near the area. Oh, and be sure to order the spinach-artichoke dip, and Sante Fe wraps... they are beyond delish!

We arrived early to set up in the back room of the busy restaurant, and waited for the host, Elisa, to arrive. The party hopped off exactly at 6:30pm, with 20 women eager to dine, sip wine, and shop our newest iram-inal collections.

Our normal party setup and our Host, Elisa


Our Lovely Host, Elisa, choosing her free gift for the evening!

The Ladies, after dining for the evening

Over all, it was a wonderful evening full with prizes and great holiday purchases (many for themselves, too!). Afterward, the ladies invited us to eat dinner with them (which we are still raving about).

If you are interested in having your own iram-inal jewelry party, contact us at sales@iraminal.com for more details! We are always happy to come to you!

Gallery Announcement - Pistol Creek Gallery, Knoxville, Tennessee

September 7, 2008

We are so excited to announce that we recently found two retail homes in Knoxville, Tennessee. Having never visited the home of the Vols, we were pleasantly surprised to find that Knoxville is a large, bustling community filled with a creative arts community.

On the evening of the 6th, we opened our line at a new gallery just north of Knoxville in the suburb of Maryville, called Pistol Creek Gallery. Owner, artist and curator, Heather Whiteside, collected art from a very talented pool of artists from all over the country, and featured her own impressive architectural renderings. The opening event was a great success, filled with good food, great art, and live jazz music provided by The BBC Trio.

The best part about attending these events out of Atlanta is found in the opportunity to share a space with so many creative minds at once. I met a slew of the extraordinarily talented artists, such as Kenny Mencher, Sally Ham Govan (who has the most shophisticaed and impressive animal renderings I have ever seen), photographer Lowell Millican, Chris McAdoo, and Marshall Hall , and to name a few. Prior to the event, I had the pleasure of spending a little bit of time with fellow jewelry designer, Amanda Henry-Thompson, of Sista Creations, who makes a unique and very cool product called Bands for Bangles.

The event also supported the local chapter of the humane society, and we're very happy to say that a fostered dog found a permanent home that evening.

It was an event to remember, and Knoxville welcomed iram-inal with warm, generous and open arms. We cannot wait to get back down to the Knoxville area for our next event in November. See you all then!