12/3/14

Lots of Dots

There's a wonderful little store in downtown Tacoma called Moss + Mineral. Shopkeeper Lisa Kinoshita has filled the space with mid-century treasures, curious objects, art, an array of unusual plants, and Lisa's lovely jewelry. It's gem of a store.

A few months back, I stopped by M + M and while chatting with Lisa, she asked if I might be interested in creating a window display. I instantly agreed, and we decided December would be a great month to do it.

I was excited for this opportunity because while working retail in my younger days, I always LOVED doing any sort of display work. And, if you know me at all,  you know how I love the holidays. This would be the perfect month to tackle such a project.

For the display, I created many paper ball and sequin garlands to hang in the window space.

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I punched and folded over 1500 paper circles to create 150 balls in several shades of white and ivory, and in five different sizes ranging from 1" to 2.5" in diameter.

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They were strung on lengths of gold embroidery floss along with large, sparkly sequins. As I finished each strand, I hung them from my dining room chandelier to keep them out of the reach of my cats, who were very intrigued by this project. There's nothing cats love more than dangling, sparkly things, and those flashy gold sequins on gold thread sure caught their eye.

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Over the course of three days, I spent roughly 35 hours creating these pieces. I do enjoy repetitive crafts, and can sit making things for the stretch of many hours. I love making multiples of things and watching the quantities grow.

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Moss + Mineral is located at 305 S 9th, across the street from the Rialto Theatre. Of course you can see the windows anytime, day or night, but please come by during business hours (Thursday - Saturday from Noon to Five) so you can step inside the store.

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Lisa has a few of my holiday pieces for sale in the shop, and  I'll be there during the the Third Thursday gallery walk with more of my work. I'll be sharing more details on that event soon.

Thanks for this amazing opportunity, Lisa! I felt honored that you asked me, and it was great fun seeing this project come to life!

5 comments:

snowpaws said...

These look amazing! What sort of glue do you use?

mollysusie said...

Oh! I was wondering how you made those (I was thinking somehow folding the paper into a ball) but you just cut a bunch of circles, folded them in half and glued them together? It's beautiful!

Lynda said...

Would you come decorate our house please, Laurie? Your work, and aesthetic, always knock me out. I’m so glad you got the chance to do this project!

Laurie Cinotto said...

For these, I used Uhu, Snowpaws.

carol anne said...

This is really incredible. I saw the photos on Flickr and found my way over here looking for how to make it.