Family Circle Magazine Featured our Snowflakes!

WE are so honored to share with you, our handmade wooden snowflake ornaments are featured in the Family Circle Magazine, December issue, page 28 !! on Page 190 is the buying guide with all the information to find the items in the magazine.

We hope that you get a chance to take a peek at the issue,  its also got lots of decorating ideas as well as recipes for the holidays! we made extra snowflakes this year !! here is the article too!

http://www.familycircle.com/holiday/christmas/decorations/backyard-holiday-decorating/

Sale time starts tomorrow!

Just a quick post today, we are having a sale in our shop starting tomorrow and running through Monday! each day will have a code to use, you must check in  to our shop, facebook page or here to get  the code for the day! tomorrow and Fridays is BLACKFRIDAYNOV2010, type that in the coupon code box at checkout in our Etsy shop and 15% off your entire order! This sale is not in our artfire shop.
We are Thankful for all of our past and future cutomers, and this weekend we will be saying thank you in the wallet!  Looking forward to seeing you at our Etsy shop!
love to you all
Kimi & Stacy

It's not snowing outside yet, but snowflake adoptions are available at the studio!

We haven't had any snwo at our place yet, although the mountain peaks are white again....i am not looking forward to shoveling out the drive way! but we have been in high snowflake gears in the studio!

Its the time of year to start thinking about decorations and ornaments again and we have been not only making them but finding them on Etsy! there are so many talented artisans making lovely ornaments for your holidays to be glitzy and bright!

For animal lovers, i found the cutest hedgehog ornament made of clay!

If you love snowmen you have got to see this pair!

Porcelain and personalized ornaments abound on Etsy
ANd , of course, there's one of my faves, a hide-a-heart ornament!

So whatever your heart is looking for, try out etsy and support a real person, instead of the mall or chain stores this year!

My first Curated Front Page Treasury~~

I love to do treasuries! i joined a treasury group, and we make lots of treasuries, our goal, of course to be on the Front Page of Etsy! but also to have fun and promote other artists!
well, this treasury was not one i did under my team guidlines, it was a random pounce on shops with no sales and i wanted to pick the most unrelated items i could! well, it was on the FP on saturday and i didn't even know it!! and , i am so glad , several of the items have sold! WHOOHOOO!!
it is a real thrill to have an item on the FP as well as to have a treasury I made on the FP, WOW!
Congrats to all the great artists in this group, including:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SquidBox
http://www.etsy.com/shop/castawayshall
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SimpleShapes
http://www.etsy.com/shop/itsastitch
http://www.etsy.com/shop/littlebrownpen
http://www.etsy.com/shop/HeartfeltEmbroidery
http://www.etsy.com/shop/muddywheelstudio
http://www.etsy.com/shop/andrewsreclaimed
http://www.etsy.com/shop/uncommoncreatures
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BlackBaroque
http://www.etsy.com/shop/StravaMax
http://www.etsy.com/shop/bluebirdheaven
http://www.etsy.com/shop/DannyRoberts
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BugUnderGlass
http://www.etsy.com/shop/velvetmechanism
http://www.etsy.com/shop/angelydia
Hope you will check out these fellow etsians and thier really cool art!
Love to you all
Kimi

Glass Evil Eyes and hair forks and stick, Oh MY!

WE love glass eyes! And this is the time of year for creepy things too! but we think they are fun all year long..hey, who doesn't need an extra eye in the back of thier head, i mean really??
THis is one we did on request , a dark brown eye in silk oak wood on antler....we also had a request for a yellow cats eye in zircote wood on antler and here it is...

WE love making these!!!
When we asked what you would like to see more of some people wanted to see more inlaid forks, but the reason we don't keep alot of those in the shop is that they are expensive to make, and usually someone will say they want one like that one, but with changes..so we try to have one or 2 made and ready to buy but they really work better as a custom order, then you get what you want, in the color and wood you love!

Now, i would love to start putting live treasuries up on here, and i am learning how! i hope to start featruing the treasuries i make and that we are included in as well as honor the makers of the treasuries that include our work, because we really, REALLY appreciate you all so much!!

SO, thats it for today, hope you enjoyed the pictures and remember to read our previous post about the holiday custom deadlines!
Love to you all
Kimi

AHHhh , Laquer and scotch tape, the smells of the holidays...

Well, let me explain that title. FOr years we have been making snowflakes for the Holidays. For so many years, that i now equate the smell of the laquer we use on the snowflakes with the coming of the holiday season! and scotch tape, well, that has always made me think of the holidays , becuase of gift wrapping! we are working on our new batch of snowflake/ stars and i wanted to share a little about them with you.

Stacy makes thes out of six pieces of wood each. They are cut to a specific angle on each side, and then cuts are made on all four sides of the diamond shaped piece. Some are made on the table saw, some on the router. Then after all the cuts are made, we glue the 6 pieces together to form a sort of log. Its very tense and tough thing to do, but we have come up with a system over the years! we end up with "logs" of snowflakes! once those are cured, we slice them off into the snowflakes you see. They then have to be sanded on each side and BOY is that fun...yes, skinned fingertips galore! after they are all sanded, we put the finish on them.

That also involves alot of time and tedious efforts, to which we have come up with a plan, but it still just has to be done...a labor of love , these are!, for the effort, we are rewarded with these!

SO, thats the tale of the snowflakes from our end of it! ...but heres the real tale:

Wooden Snowflakes

In the spring, about the time that Scrying Lake dissolves into shimmering mirrors, the trees on planet Gratoe come into bloom. Most beautiful of all the flowering trees, however, is the SnowStar whose feathery-white blooms have six petals that shimmer like  daybreak on new snow. As the air warms soft breezes carry the heady scent of these flowers far and wide, signaling that warmer times have come again.


Beauty in nature is transient, and as spring gives way to summer and the trees ready themselves to bear fruit the SnowStars fall. The flowers coat the ground and for a time it seems that it has snowed in summer. Soon enough the SnowStars grow ridged and lose their centers, but retain their delicate six-pointed shape, taking on an uncanny similarity to a snowflake.

These the children gather and hang as winter solstice decorations, both a celebration of winter and a portent of spring when the SnowStars will bloom again.
(This is a tale that was written for us by Nightblooming on Etsy.)
Hope you enjoyed another  little peek into the Grah-Toe Studio workings!