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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.

TICKLEBERRY STRIKES AGAIN!

TICKLEBERRY TELEGRAMS - ALL-OCCASION CUSTOMIZED SINGING TELEGRAMS

For those of you don't know, besides A2Sea Creations, I also perform Singing Telegrams. I have a singing telegram to perform in Duncan this Saturday, in fact. The poor girl! She has no idea what's coming!

I recall my very first singing telegram. Few people know how it all started. Well, I'll just tell you!

It all began in Mackenzie BC, back in the fall of 1980, when a mother of a friend of mine called me up and asked if I had ever performed a singing telegram. I hadn't. So she asked me if I would consider doing one for her daughter's birthday. She wanted this birthday to be very special and unique. I told her I would try but I couldn't promise anything, seeing as her birthday was that very day!!!

So I spent the next hour hunting and scrounging up anything I could find that, if put together, might resemble a clown costume. And seeing as it was my friend I, too, wanted it to be special. So I wrote down as many things as I could about my friend. I took those notes and made rhymes for it all. Then I proceeded to put the poem to music, utilizing a song I had already written considering my time was so short.

So somehow, by some miracle, I managed to get it all together by 8:00 that evening. I arrived at my friend's door with guitar in hand, a funny outfit, a big grin and I sang her a song all about her. She loved it and was deeply moved, actually!

MY VERY FIRST CLOWN OUTFIT (Dig the eyebrows! And so skinny! Sigh..)

Word soon got around (small town) and the next thing I knew, I had another gig! The only problem was, I had come down with laringytis! What bad luck! But I figured I'd better go anyways because if I cancelled, that would have been worse for my reputation. So I managed to croak out my song. Next thing you know (as if things could get worse) my clown nose fell off and rolled under the restaurant table! Good grief! Well, much to my amazement, everyone thought it was part of the act, as I am under the table trying to rescue my nose, and they are laughing like crazy! And no one seemed to care or notice how terrible I was singing!

So I continued doing telegrams and I soon found myself singing in the post office, in stores, pubs, homes, convention centres... once, I even found myself singing down at a log boom!

I am quite picky about my telegrams... I love making them very personalized and unique for each person. I so enjoy making people laugh. I will probably do it until I 'croak'! In fact, I saw this tv documentary where they showed a headstone you can buy that laughs as you walk by it. Talk about having the 'last laugh'! I gotta have one of those!

I also compose and record wedding songs for couples. It brings me a lot of satisfaction to be able to take part in a couple's lives in such a special, memorable and personal way.

SNOW? AGAIN?

OUR GRASS IS GONE AGAIN

I gotta tell you... I am not normally one to complain about the weather but this is just getting silly! My husband told me to look outside. I said no. He said "It's snowing." I said, "It is not."
(A little denial perhaps?) Denial definitely has its place. But you can only lie to yourself for so long before it catches up to you. I am not a big 'out-in-my-yard kind of person' but even I am getting a mild case of cabin fever. My cat is not impressed either. Jasmine only stays out long enough to... well, you know... and then runs back in faster than you can say her name. I can't say I blame her. My cat is adorable, by the way. I think I will have to dedicate a blog post to her one of these days. She actually owns our home. We just live here.

Well I wish I had a sea story to share with you today but it's too flipping cold to go to the beach! Man! I did manage to get there last week though. I went to Chemainus and had a wonderful day. After a completely enjoyable visit with a good friend, I went down to the beach and collected tons of little pieces of driftwood and some sea glass. And I took some photos; some of them good, some not so good. But the sun was shining and I was actually not freezing to death, for a change. And then I went around to some of the quaint little shops in Chemainus to get inspired with ideas and, of course, enjoyed a delightful piece of cheesecake and a good, strong cup of Americano coffee. Mmmmmm! There is nothing so bad in life that a piece of cheesecake and a good cup of coffee can't cure.

My son Matthew loves his coffee, too. But he is serious about it... he doesn't mess around. He makes espresso and man, I gotta tell you, it truly separates the men from the boys! I could never quite understand people who drink weak coffee. If you can't taste it why even bother? If done properly, it's almost a religion. And my son does it properly! One day, if I am ever rich, I will buy my son his own Dutch Brother's Coffee Franchise. I think he would like that. Their coffee kept me awake at the wheel for 12 hours straight when I had to get home from Oregon to BC.

Okay, I better go and practice my singing telegram for tomorrow morning. It's a phone telegram so I don't even have to get out of my pj's if I don't want to. How cool is that? Not until I ship off a parcel from a sale we got today, that is. And then off to the art gallery to do my shift there. All of the artists there take 3 x four hour shifts a month and that is how the gallery stays open. Great idea if you ask me. I am happy to say that I just sold another photo there.

Signing off for today...don't look out the window. Try some good, healthy denial.