diana taylor makes ficklesticks for fancy necklaces, corsages and bracelets at stickballstudio in berkeley . bend , wrap, weave and wear!

Interweave Press, new best friend, CLOTH PAPER SCISSORS, MIU, Long Beach et al

At last. I am back blogging like a good little crafty entrepreneur. If I could tell you all how many times in the last 4 months someone told me to get on Etsy, start a blog, promote myself on Facebook or Twitter! Like they think I am some kind of grandma that never heard of any of it. Well, actually I do all of the above except twitter.  What WORKS is going to quilt festivals, doing demos and workshops and getting magazine articles published about Ficklesticks, because that drives people to my website, and cash into my register. DUH!  Interweave Press is my new best friend! They published an article about my Fickle Flowers in April's Cloth Paper Scissors magazine and another in Studios this month. As soon as the mags hit the stands, my web traffic revs up. I LOVE THOSE GUYS! I have managed to get booth space right around Make It University in Long Beach July 24-27, and I may be teaching one or more mini workshops there, too.YAY. 

Round about Little Rock ARK, people are starting to check out the Fickles! I am selling my work in the new Arkansas Studies Institute Gallery which features Arkansas artists. Found out I sold a necklace to an old advertising buddy from way back who didn't realize I was the artist! WEIRD. I am also starting to sell a bit of work at the Farmers Market in North Little Rock, the only farmers market that requires its farmers to actually grow the stuff they sell, and offer organics. It seems like a miniature Berkeley CA!   I will be showing kids how to make things with Ficklesticks at the Laman Library on July 14, and doing another demo at Ellie's Bead shop in North Little Rock on July 17 during Gallery Walk. I AM STILL trying to get into the Hot Springs Quilt Festival mid July. I will let you know about that one.

Just back from a big trip to Baltimore, DC, my hometown of Lafayette IN, and Lawrence, Kansas. Thanks to Carly at Webfabrics in Purcellville, VA (near DC) I had a couple of fun demos. I also got to see an extraordinary exhibit of Amish Quilts at the Textile Museum in DC and the Quilt Extravaganza in Chantilly.  In Baltimore, I visited Hampden, and the Visionary Art Museum, both of which made me feel pretty normal after all. In Lafayette, we pilgrimaged Arni's Pizza (where they still cut it in squares) and the Frozen Custard. AH, just like I remember it when we cruised the place in my Rambler in the 60s. In Lawrence, we sprawled at the condo and I visited Sarah's, where I got a few snippets of some Kaffe Fassette.

ENCORE CAREERS?Soda Jerk to Ms Ficklesticks? Stuffed pigs anyone? The boat is sailing AWAY

I am pretty sure that my life has been a series of encore careers. If any of these jobs could actually be called CAREERS. Some of these jobs I wasn't even very good at.

• Soda Jerk Goodnight's Drug Store
• Cashier at Kresge's
• Collection Agent for Sears
• ID checker at Military chow hall in Spain
• Crafter
• Owner of Granny's Fan
• Waitress at Juanita's
• Telemarketer for Leisure Arts
• Ad salesperson for alt weekly Spectrum
• Sales Mgr for Little Rock Free Press
• Ad Exec for Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
• Real Estate Agent
• Insurance Agent
• owner of Stickball

My first job was working a soda fountain in a drug store. Yeah, I was a soda-jerk. After that I went to work in a discount retailer and forerunner to K-Mart- Kresge's. I operated one of those old fashioned cash registers where you had to type in all the prices, including memorizing all the weekend specials. Yikes. Lucky thing I was young then. Then on to ollections for Sears. Good times.

Stay-at-home mom actually was my longest running job. Although in those 12 years,  and with four kids to referee, I started a little company called Granny's Fan. I designed soft sculpture items made from rescued quilts, embroidery work and doilies, and sold the one-of-a-kind angels and farm animals, cats and pillows to the likes of Macy's, Bloomingdale's and FAO Schwartz. If you had a couple of good ideas back in the 80's you could make some headway going to market and taking orders, hiring showrooms and road reps to sell your wares. Only the stores ever contacted me directly, not the general public. It was always sort of like a big secret where the stores got their stuff.

Then China opened up. The Internet came of age.

I started Stickball. I invented lots of cool stuff. Cactus with a Frank Lloyd Wright inspiration, giant stuffed fruits, groovy stick people, Retro wire-armed dolls, jewelry, weavings and the rest of the Ficklesticks empire. I wrote a book and got it published and I've written a few magazine articles. I have secured booth space at juried craft festivals and quilt festivals. I am on wholesalecrafts.com. I have my own website. I've tried selling on etsy. I teach workshops and talk to guilds. With all this effort, I am pretty sure I only have about one foot in the boat, and maybe it is about to sail off without me.

I am sort of at a loss. If someone wants a stuffed pig, all they have to do is google it, visit etsy or ebay, find a cheap one from China, or download a free pattern somewhere. They don't even have to visit a real store. This is all find and dancy, but I want them to FIND ME! HELP I JUST FELL OFF THE BOAT I THINK! Throw me an oar

Houston, Kaffe Fassett and World Traveling Ficklesticks

It was all I hoped it would be and MORE! So many visual delights, so much creative energy. It was overwhelming. 

We  did great! And by we, I mean Ms Ficklesticks and my most able assistant Ms Freep. We did a most excellent job of spreading the gospel of Ficklesticks. We sold boxes of books, kaboodles of supplies and armloads of bracelets, necklaces and pins. Magazines want articles written, guilds and shops want Ficklesticks shows and workshops. Perhaps there will even be a spot for me on The Quilt Show in the not-too-distant future!

Kaffe Fassett visited and proclaimed Ms Ficklesticks a kindred spirit. Bits of his fantastic fabrics are recognizable in my work, as small as they are! It is difficult for me to take full advantage of his really luscious and magnificent larger flowers and such, due to the teenyness of ficklesticks, but I do incorporate his smaller prints and especially his unexpectedly-hued polka dots, using them to beautiful effect, I think. One of these days I will make another quilt, and use some of those larger blooms, making it an all day every day Kaffe Fassett quilt.

Liza Prior Lucy (his quilt maker) bought one of my most fabulous necklaces. I love it when my babies go to good homes!

Jewelry and books have by now reached South America, Australia, Europe and Japan. Missionaries are spreading the gospel!

We created (on the spot and between customers), a "Where's the Pumpkin Toss" tiara for an annual tiara competition, a prize-winning quilter wore it and took home an honorable mention!

The quilts were amazing, of course!  I was surprised to see even a small Burning Man wall quilt. Five or six years ago, I actually brought a quilt to Burning Man in a frame and quilted it by hand under our shade structure in the heat of the day when most Burners are lolling about like fat lizards. A marshall from the Bureau of Land Management patrolling our "street", ( looking no doubt for illicit drug use or sex in public) squealed on her brakes and jumped out of her 4 wheel drive vehicle to take a gander at my quilt, proclaiming "why, now THAT is something I never thought I would  see at Burning Man!" A much more common sight indeed would be a scantily clad, dust-covered, fire-twirling, cool neon wrappped twenty-something, navigating in near total darkness on a unicycle between the thunderdome and center camp. Visit burningman.com to see exactly what I mean.

I am officially moved back to Little Rock. Mr. Cakes, my new husband, is very patient with me and my messes. I am getting anxious to get my workspace set up in our new (remodeled older) home which should be ready in about 3 weeks.

Off to Alabama later this week, and Front Porch Quilts in Ozark AL, and my parents in Dothan.

There were a passel of political quilts that I loved, some gorgeous abstracts, and

I taught two bracelet workshops at the back of the quilt hall

Des Moines is des plus pour mme fickelsticks

Ficklesticks: The Full Monty, was a great success in Des Moines!  Thanks to all of the quilters who came from Omaha, Illinois, Alaska, Nebraska, Kansas City and all over Iowa, and swooped into my booth, in wave after wave. I was on a corner just before the Iowa Quilts room, situated in a spot that would be hard to miss. Lucky for me, it was a last minute cancelation. I am so grateful I was able to get picked for it!  

Although some of my jewelry is pretty big and bright, I sold a a bunch of it at the show! One customer wore one of my favorite new necklaces, -the "Swirly Girl"- all over the show and then out to dinner in Des Moines and was asked at every turn about the piece. One of the vendors from Indiana wore a new "Ponytail"  necklace in her booth and directed quilters over to me.  Another exhibitor, who volunteers as a clown in a children's cancer ward, bought a giant woven flower necklace and an outrageous Ficklesticks Zoot Suit Necktie for wearing there! The International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, NE, left with several bracelets and corsages and necklaces for their new gift shop. I think that will be a great spot for my patchwork fabric and wire jewelry. I am anxious to see how they do with it. I even sold a heart pin my "swirly girl" cutomer created while she was standing there. I guess I owe her $10!  I think I will make some more before Houston!

I sold about 100 of my book-Fast Fun and Easy Fabric Ficklesticks, about 80 pounds of my 36" white, cloth-covered florist wire (running out on the morning of the last day!), buckets of turners, needlenose pliers and kits. 

I am busily making more jewelry over the next two days in my new husband's living room in the old house in Little Rock. I am a little lower on inventory than I wanted to be going into Houston! At least my sewing machine and car are here now, after having driven across country through California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and finally Arkansas. WHEW. I return to CA on Wednesday to pack my ABF U-Pack modules, including my sewing stuff which will go into storage for a while.  I will leave Berkeley on the 25th, fly back to Little Rock and then drive down to the Houston show, returning to Little Rock in time for Mr. Cakes's birthday on November 3.  Presumably our new (old) house will be ready to move in soon! Otherwise, I may have to buy some more FABRIC while my stash languishes in storage! I am giving some thoughts to some wall quilts with ficklesticks, an idea that has been rolling around in my head for a while...That would be just TERRIBLE (not).

Ms Ficklesticks

Nine Eleven wedding

Ms Fickelsticks has been busy teaching Ficklesticks making, planning a move, securing booth space in various quilt festivals, picking out a house and GETTING MARRIED. Mr. Cakes was so incredibly eager to get married! He picked me up at the airport in the pouring down rain from Hurrican Ike (which pounded Arkansas for a couple more days!) and marched me straight to city hall for the marriage license.  Being chief of vital records for Arkansas, he naturally had a couple of questions for the person supplying the document!OMG we had only 60 days to complete the task. Forget December. How about next week?

So wearing paisley, on September 11, before Gustav headed our way, we married on the sunny back deck of Vino's-- our favorite watering hole and Arkansas's first micro brewery. Fifty friends and family watched Mr Cakes without hesitation or blunder and me choked up and sniveling make our twenty-years-in-the- coming vows. Retired justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court and member of the LIttle Rock Wind Symphony, David Newbern,  married us and although we had requested "here comes the bride" on the tuba, he thought we were joking.  So, instead the crowd hummed da da da da as I marched out to the deck with my former neighbor, Wayne Simpson. He performed the dual role of father of the bride and maid of honor. Though often silly, he is the finest voicer of organ pipes there is, and a  true and loyal friend.  (visit nicholsandsimpson.com). Best man was Mary Cameron, another fine attorney, and friend of both the bride and groom, pitch-hitting for Ms Ficklesticks for symphony dates and such while I was in CA. She is also the person who warned Mr Cakes 18 years ago that I might just leave him if he didn't straighten up. Which, of course I did when I moved to California 5 years ago. Flower girl was Dotty Oliver, the publisher of Arkansas Free Press, my former boss, and a flower child if ever there was one. Paul Shell and others took special pride in knowing that the nudging they did was finally paying off. Pizza and Vino's' famous India Pale Ale and other brews were enjoyed by all. A very charming wedding it was indeed. I did wear one Ficklesticks necklace.

I left for California on Saturday. I resigned from my job at Stonemountain and Daughter within the week. Funny, I don't feel married yet.

Ficklewedding

After almost 20 years, there is going to be a wedding! Ms Ficklesticks will marry Mr. Cakes, and imagines a glorious affair with Ficklesticks bouquets and boutonnieres, a Ficklesticks basket full of memento Ficklesticks flowers for the flower girls to throw, Ficklesicks springs for the rings on the pillow, tiaras, bowties and cummerbunds (sp!), garlands, streamers, "just married" in ficklesticks for the getaway car, and of course a tiny Ficklestickfigure bride and groom for the cake! Then, of course, in attendance, my publisher, C&T Publishing,  as official wedding photographer, carefully chronicling every tiny Ficklestick! The groom imagines something a little more like "you, me, a dark room and the judge or whatever". Ah, marriage negotiations, they are such fun!

This will entail a move back to my former home, Little Rock. My  beloved is searching now for a house with enough space for Ficklesticks, visits from family, space for growing things, and room to wander off from each other! The wedding will take place some time after the Houston Quilt Festival, Greater Chicago Quilt Festival, and the San Francisco Celebration of Craftswomen. So, we are thinking early December.

Apparently, my former position at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is open still ( or again, and again! ). Some offers have been made for Ms Ficklesticks to return to exact same desk and chair. Though the prospect is interesting, I wonder how it could be fit into my new life as wife/author/crafter? I am relishing the idea that as Ms Fickelsticks, I will be traveling the quilt festival circuit, teaching workshops, selling my Ficklesticks wares hither and yon, being flexible enough in my work schedule to go visit all the children I am leaving behind in California.

Long Beach, my new best friend

The quilters went wild for Ficklesticks at the first ever Long Beach Quilt Festival! My booth was thronged with fabric fiends! Several allowed as how Ficklesticks and the booth was the greatest and most interesting spot in the show! They were so kind and enthusiastic about Ms Ficklesticks' endeavors! The booth was so full at times that the merchandise was trumped by backsides! Granddaughter Maddie ran the credit card machine with aplomb. Ms Ficklesticks regaled them with tales of being a lapsed quilter and a former real estate agent, gone nutty! We sold ALL the books we took before the show was even finished. I sold 100 pounds of wire, turners, pliers, and my finished work. The hit of the show was the posies on tie-dyed elastic cord necklace. Second place went to either the cherry necklaces or the 36" twisty bangle bracelets. Someone even convinced Ms Ficklesticks to sell the green hat with poinsettia hatband that was featured on the cover of the book!

The booth looked great and had the advantage of being on a corner facing the dining area! It was very eye-catching with a striped see-through (shower curtain!) table drape, a big square drying rack from IKEA full of necklaces and baskets and hats, a giant poster of the cover of the book surrounded by a giant ficklestick daisy, a "paisley" and several weavings, bright colored round soft drink tubs filled with kits, and wire and tools and bracelets, candy jars and fish bowls filled with ficklesticks gumballs, posies, sparkly oysters and pearls, giant sunflowers, a ficklesticks birdcage hanging from a birdcage stand at the corner of the booth, (It sold before the show even opened!),round "polka dot" table-toppers and rugs of assorted bright colored IKEA bathmats, IKEA "trees" that were turned into a cherry tree and hangers for brooches, a place for stunts and acrobatics by tiny witches, santas, ballerinas and brownies (who passed out tiny chocolate bars), and some very groovy sparkly and dotty posy-shaped fabric covering the bolt butts of the booth next door.  For something done on the cheap, which creative Ms Ficklesticks is known to be good at, even I(she) was impressed.

The long drive back to Berkeley was delightful, with a stop in Santa Barbara to see the mission Maddie wrote about for a class assignment in school. Then another stop at Arroyo Grande to see a quilt shop, visit an ice cream parlor where they actually make their own. Ms Ficklesticks, like the true ice cream afficionada I am  got a scoop of merlot raspberry truffle. A visit to the Arroyo and the swinging bridge completed the visit.

Live from Berkeley, news from Denver and Lawrence

Ms Ficklesticks is just back from what seemed like a tornado tour of Kansas. Back and forth across the state she went TWICE! Tossed like a will 'o the wisp, Ms Ficklesticks landed in Kansas City, swept through Lawrence, Kansas ( and checked out Sarah's Quilts) to Denver and back again on a "family" road trip, headed back and forth to a family reunion. Of course, they all stopped to see the world's largest Van Gogh reproduction, standing on a giant easel in the town of Goodland, KS: Sunflowers, of course!

Ms Ficklesticks also grabbed an opportunity to sell and promote her new book FFE Fabric Ficklesticks by C&T Publishing.  Through the glorious world wide web, she met Marge of The Creative Needle in Littleton, who had a booth at the Denver Sewing and Quilting Show, being held the same exact weekend as the family reunion. How convenient! Now Ms Ficklesticks wants an ELNA after sewing on one of Marge's! She sold all her books.  Cheryl of the store, wants to teach Ficklesticks classes!

It was  an interesting show and gave her some ideas for the Long Beach quilt festival booth (#2156)she has been getting ready for and stewing about.  She decided that the poster she had made will certainly anchor passing eyes to the booth, sort of smoothing out the chaotic first impression a booth full of Ficklesticks made from myriad patterns and colors of fabric can create!  Money well spent, she thinks. The charming Ficklesticks birdcage she made to hang in a  birdcage stand she purchased recently at Oakland's Depot for  Creative Re-Use will make a great hand-out holder. But can she fit everything into her RAV4 along with two grandchildren? Fishbowls, a folding screen, a drying rack, the birdcage stand, beverage bins, vases, credit card machine, office supplies, bath mats, a shower curtain and Ficklesticks kits, 100 copies of FFE Fabric Ficklesticks, and actual Ficklesticks made into all manner of jewels and baskets and wall art! Yikes AND suitcases! 

Just back from Denver, she attended the Northern California Quilt Council's "meet the teachers" meeting in Pleasant Hill, CA.  She was too late to get on the roster, but nonetheless passed out some info about her classes, and met some guilds and shops interested in having her in. She also dropped off samples at C&T to go to the Craft and Hobby Assn. show in Illinois this week. FICKLESTICKS are launched!

Bend, Wrap, Weave and Wear!

Live from Berkeley, I'm Denver Bound

Ms Ficklesticks had to take one day off to clean up. Scraps, bits of sparkly eyelash fabric, fluff and stuff all over the  place. After that we all enjoyed a dinner out at a new restaurant in Oakland named Camino. All local ingredents and unpredictable and unusual offerings, including cachaca with basil and lime for a cocktail. It was great, and my official celebratory dinner on the occasion of the publication of my book! Both daughters and their families were on hand and so were Angus and Janet Powelson, who greenly rode over on their tandem, and Terry Schoop, actual Burning Man employee.  Everyone at the table wore ficklesticks, except for one adult male (Terry) and my baby grandson(who had some sticks to play with instead)  Each had on a  necklace or a necktie made from Ficklesticks. It was fabulously freakentastic. As far as I know, no one dribbled any cherry tomato soup on them. We picked blackberries and picked up ice cream. At least the blackberries were local. HAR

We're making kits today for the show coming up in Long Beach: Booth 2156 under Stickball, my company name, fyi. Grandsons Josh and Nathan will be helping me by packing tulle and ballerina parts this morning.  They are convinced that it is going to be girly. Probably more blackberry picking this afternoon.Must eat seasonally and locally, dontcha know.

Off to Denver via Kansas City on Thursday. I will be signing books in the booth of The Creative Needle at the Sewing and Quilting Show in Denver this weekend. Saturday only, I think. I am attending a family reunion of a long time "family friend". So-called boyfriend, actually. Another discussion for another post. Kind of a long story.

Live from Berkeley,it's Thursday noon

Exciting things are happing in Ficklesticks world. Ms Ficklesticks is getting ready for the Long Beach Quilt Festival in So. California July 25-27. This is harder than it looks. Gotta order lights, electricity, a phone line for the credit card machine, figure out how to flameproof drapes and cover a concrete floor, how to hang art, display jewelry, how much to make, how many books to take, what kinds of kits to make and take, signage, how to fit it all in the car, reserve a hotel room, yada yada yada. Sometimes she wishes she was already rich and famous and had been "as seen on TV' already! It would be quite helpful to have as many minions as Martha Stewart. (maybe 1/100 as many).  Which reminds her of her two friends, Stewart and Mary Mike who dressed as Stewart Martha and a glue gunner for a halloween party she gave in Little Rock some years ago.( Remind Ms. Ficklesticks to tell you some time about an unsanctioned Burning Man party she held in her backyard 3 blocks from the Governor's mansion. She remembers fondly how it made "low profile" in the local alternative weekly.) I digress.

Ms Ficklesticks is also filling an order for Glad Rags in Chesterton, IN, a premier and by the looks of it, somewhat wild ladies clothing boutique. She noticed that the store's logo is a blue spiral. She is thinking seriously about making a couple of blue spiral pins to send with the order.