Men Are NOT Forgotten at A2Sea Creations

Earth and Sea - Rustic Glass and Antique Copper Pendant 

I am happy to say that our Etsy Shop has several gifts that are very suitable for the men.  We haven't forgotten you fellas!   Above is my newest creation which may be worn by both women and men alike.  This pendant is quite unique... I hand-picked moss and lichen from several trees in the forest (in pouring rain, I might add) and dried them in the oven.  It was not a pleasant odor.  (An understatement!)  In fact, I thought the fumes might be poisoning my hubby and I.  Still don't know if they did but we're still alive, so that's promising.  Anyhow, I am pleased to say that after a couple of days, the smell went away.  I had to air out my oven for quite awhile though so I'm thinking that if I do this again, I will need to think of some other method.

The upside of it all is that I got this idea to use some of the lichen and moss I had collected and preserve it under glass in a handsome new pendant.  I am loving how it turned out.  It actually looks kind of like a little scene from under the sea!  I also discovered that the moss worked beautifully on some magnets I made the other day for the Parksville Tourist Centre.  

 

  Seaview Decor Mirror 

So we have some other creations that are just great for men as well...  we have a very rustic, seaside mirror(see above)  and our Nautical Treasure Box which is great for cigars, pens or pencils, reading glasses, coins... you name it. (see below). 

 

Nautical Treasure Box

We also have our 'Message In A Bottle' (see below left ) and our Floating Candle Beach Lantern.  (see below right).  So there you go gals... gift ideas for your fellas (or yourselves, for that matter!)  Now let's hope our weather improves enough to actually go to the beach!  We are so looking forward to that once again!

          Message In A Bottle                                   Floating Candle Beach Lantern 

Written and published by Micki Findlay - Co-Creator/Owner of A2Sea Creations on Etsy and Creator/Owner of A2Sea Photography

Our Italy and Greece Adventures

Well here it is November already and I am wondering where September and October went to?  How could I have missed them?  I must have because I see that my last blog post was in August.  Hmmmm.....

So what's new with us?  Cheryl and I returned on September 19th from our amazing trip to Italy and Greece with so many stories to share... thrilling stories of adventure and excitement, danger and peril, pirate ships and police stations, train robberies and lost luggage, landing on the wrong island, angels and miracles, wonderful mistakes and strange secrets, gypsies and gyros, surprise trips through Venetian canals... you name it - it happened!  So I am in the process of writing a novel about our many adventures as they are just too fantastic to not be told.  I warned my husband and friends that they won't be seeing much of me in November as I will be typing my little fingers off.  I guess I should have worked harder in typing class in grade 10.  Oh well.  Wish me luck!  I will let everyone know when my novel is published.  Quit laughing... it could happen!

As for A2Sea Creations, we were delighted that the local shop on the Nanaimo harbour took so many of our creations this summer, right into the fall.  We're hoping it continues like this.  Also, a shop in Chemainus has expressed an interest in taking some of our Christmas decorations so we are keeping our fingers crossed.

Cheryl, my co-partner and quilter-extraordinaire, sold another one of her Tropical Fish Children's Quilts to a local gal in Qualicum Beach and has also created a lovely new Killer Whale Wall Hanging which is for sale on our site.  Be sure to check it out and consider it for a Christmas present for your nautical-loving friends and family members.  Christmas is only 52 days away you know!

I hope everyone has been enjoying our spectacular fall weather.  Happy November everyone!

Micki of A2Sea Creations and A2Sea Photography

A2Sea Is Now In Three Tourist Gift Shops!

OUR THIRD OUTLET

Cheryl and I are quite thrilled to report that our creations are now officially in three tourist shops! This one is the latest... a little gift shop in Brown's Bay Resort, just north of Campbell River.

The lady who owns the resort contacted us through our Etsy site to ask if she could sell our products in her shop. So I decided to go down there personally to meet her and bring basically one of everything we make. She decided to buy just that... one of almost everything - just to see how things sell. She also placed an order for a few more items so, all in all, I would say it was a pretty successful day.

I had arrived ridiculously early as I wasn't quite certain how long it would take me to get there and I haaaaaaaaaaaaate being late. So I walked down to their floating restaurant and had some lunch. You will never guess what I ate... not in a million years. I had sushi with yam fries in the middle! Crazy! I had to order it to try it out because I had never heard of it before. They were quite yummy, btw. I was impressed with the restaurant... the cook gave two free candy-covered ice cream cones to two little girls, which I thought was a really nice touch.

Here is one of the mirrors we sold to Brown's Bay Resort. This one is completely covered in sand: white and brown. We do not have this style on our site quite yet, but we have a similar one that is worth checking out. We will be posting one like this soon so be sure to check out our site from time to time.

So we better get back at it. Looks like we are going to be pretty busy for awhile!

Christmas Bazaar This Friday!

CHRISTMAS BAZAAR THIS FRIDAY!

A2Sea Creations has been invited to a local Christmas Bazaar this Friday. Come and get into the spirit and get your Christmas shopping done at the same time! Hope to see you there!

Date: Friday, November 20, 2009
Time: 1:30 to 3:00 pm
Locations: Eagle Park Health Care Facility, 777 Jones St, Qualicum Beach, BC

Click on the map for map link:

Our Online Shop Featured in Cafe Handmade!

FEATURE STORY IN CAFE HANDMADE

In the Studio with Micki and Cheryl, A2Sea Creations

October 14, 2009

We are two creative friends who reside on beautiful Vancouver Island, BC, Canada; Cheryl in Nanaimo, I in Coombs. Our adventure began with me designing a beach-themed, glass ball ornament for our local art gallery’s Christmas table in 2008. They sold like hotcakes so Cheryl and I got to thinking that we ought to make and sell more. So what began with a little ornament, soon ballooned into whatever our creative brains could think up; from ‘Nautical Notepads’, to ‘Mermaid Catchers’, Seaside ‘Treasure Boxes’ to our ‘Beach Under Glass Candleholders’, beach-themed jewelry to ‘Message in Bottles’, ‘Seaview Décor Mirrors’ and more. We hadn’t taken any crafting classes… we just went with our creative instincts and before we knew it, we had shelves and shelves full of seaside treasures!

At the beginning of our venture, Cheryl and I worked at my kitchen table. This was far from ideal as my kitchen was soon taken over by seashells, driftwood, raffia, sea glass, moss, sand you name it. What a mess! It was clear that we needed to figure out a better solution. So my rarely-used guest room became our craft room. We had planned to put up shelving but when we priced out the materials, it was not an option. So our Plan B was to buy several tall, inexpensive bookshelves and a long, fold-up work table… one that we could also bring to local craft fairs.

Cheryl and I have a sort of ritual, you could say. She comes here in the morning and I put on the coffee (only good coffee, I might add… very important to the process!) and we bring out the Bailey’s and we munch on my yummy, homemade granola bars. Music is also a very fundamental part of our creative process. We usually listen to the 70’s channel on cable and sing along (badly) to all the words that we remember (which aren’t many and usually the same). As far as setting a specific time to work, this is always a challenge because we both have very unpredictable schedules. I have a singing telegram business (http://www.tickleberrytelegrams.com/) and Cheryl works part-time in a thrift store and as a house/pet sitter (‘U-Petcha’). So we aim for once a week to come together, while working on our own in between, whenever possible. Summer…well that’s another story. Our work has been pretty much on hiatus due to vacations, family and friends. But we do have a craft fair coming up, so we have been making a few things for that as well as our online store.

We take pride in the fact that we use primarily local, organic, recycled, upcycled & eco-friendly materials that we collect with our own little hands. We work with beach-combed items such as seashells, sea glass and driftwood. Even seaweed! It is not unusual to see my kitchen sink full of soaking seashells and my oven full of drying seaweed. Interesting smells come out of my kitchen! Cheryl and I are in love with the ocean so it only stands to reason that we would enjoy working with natural materials the ocean provides. It is a pleasure to go walking on the seashore while discovering what new treasures we can find and utilize!

Cheryl and I sell our products online in our Etsy store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/A2SeaCreations. I am also a photographer so I opened another Etsy online store which can be found at http://www.thesingingphotographer.com/ We also sell our seaside treasures at local craft fairs and a store in Coombs, here on the island. I also sell my photography in the Nanaimo Arts Council Gallery.

Humans need two things; connection and a sense of self-worth. Buying and selling handmade provides both; the artist receives the validation that comes with selling something they have designed and a relationship is formed as the buyer communicates directly with the artist in the customizing of their desired item. The buyer becomes more than just a customer; they are a supporter of the artist’s work and vision. Handmade products come with a personal history and unique story and buying handmade creates a sense of community with people from all around the world. These dynamics are lost in the world of large scale manufacturing.

It would be great to expand, but not so much that we lose the joy of creating for fun. Cheryl and I will likely keep creating for as long as we are able. We have not looked that far into the future as we both tend to live in the moment as much as we can, enjoying the process and our friendship. As a photographer, I am continually learning new techniques and trying out new processes so that I might keep growing in my art.