So Many Great Things!

I've got a bunch of really great things to talk about today, and maybe even some pictures, too!

First, I can't believe I forgot to tell you about this, but a few weeks ago I was notified that I was accepted into the docent training program at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts! I wrote about it on my Facebook page, but I guess I didn't say anything here...I'm SO excited, though! Training will start the second week of September, and run through next year.

Second, I finally went ahead and ordered some postcards with jewelry-care information on the back. I used one of my very favorite photos of my enameled beads, some wire and glass, and the brass plaque I stamped 'creative'.

I got them done with VistaPrint, and they're not bad for the first go-around. I'm thinking of putting that image on my business cards, too. It captures most everything I do with my jewelry these days -- metalwork, wire, glass, enamels, stamping -- so I think it would be a little more 'iconic' for my business.

Does anybody use MOO cards as business cards?

I made beads this week, braving the heat to do so. I'm getting really frustrated with my torch setup these days, because I have so little time to make beads and I want to knock out a big bunch at each torch session. Unfortunately, with the HotHead, it takes a long time to melt the glass, which translates to extra time roasting over the flame and fewer beads made in an hour. Roasting me, as well as the glass, some of which doesn't take kindly to roasting and turns all kinds of funny colors, or just flat out burns. Sigh. Someday, someday I will be able to move on from my HotHead to something that will get me where I want to be, glasswise. I am starting to feel very limited, and that sucks.

All I need is money, though.

Quoth the Raven...."Got to get started on some Halloween ideas!"

Chickens and eggs for the market

Blue beads for a necklace idea I had.

Those grey transparent beads? Those are supposed to be crystal clear glass beads, but thanks to the HotHead, that's what I get. I look forward to the day when I get to work with clear glass again.

Other good news...I was invited to blog at 'Studio Mothers', which is a wonderful community of support and inspiration for creative moms....and not only moms! I've really enjoyed reading it, and now I am thrilled to be a part of it! Check out my intro blog post here.

I added dates to my schedule at the Manakin Market, so I will be there twice a month for August, September and October. The market ends the last Saturday in October. I will also be at the University of Richmond's Arts Around The Lake show on September 25 (oh please don't let it rain like last year!), and Whimsical Wares, in Richmond, which will be sometime in November.

I think that's the update for now. Lots of things going on around here, but it's also August, which means my kids are home all day (no camp/summer school/activities!). I'm trying not to get too stressed about having less time to myself, and instead trying to figure out how I can fit in little pieces of productive time to make jewelry and get stuff done. I'll get there, I'm sure.

*************************************

If any of you are local to Richmond, VA, and interested in having your own private A Hot Piece of Glass Trunk Show at your home, please get in touch! I'm starting to book dates for home sales, and I've put together some great hostess benefits that will get you some free and special-sale jewelry and accessories. Whether we want to believe it or not, Christmas shopping season will be upon us soon, and a Trunk Show is a great way to get some shopping done AND hang out with friends! Email me for details.

Whimsical Wares!

Today (Friday 11/12) and tomorrow (Saturday 11/13), my work will be in a great new art and craft show that is being held here in Richmond, Virginia. I'd like to introduce you to Whimsical Wares!

This great show is being held at the Smoketree Community Center, which is located at 11100 Smoketree Drive in Richmond, VA 23236. The show is open from 11am to 7pm today, and on Saturday from 10am to 3pm. Lunch will be offered in the cafe, and there will be a huge variety of beautiful work to fill all your holiday shopping needs. We have original paintings, printmaking, mixed-media sculpture, ironwork and blacksmithing, woodworking, jewelry, cards, unbelievable pottery, and some of the best polymer clay millefiori work I have EVER seen! Amazing stuff, all of it made by a group of local artisans (including me!).

I took a few quick cell phone pictures this morning just before the show opened...sorry for the less-than-stellar quality...everything is SO much more amazing in person!

My display

The amazing polymer clay millefiori work done by Carolyn Schallmo

The stunning pottery of Steven Summerfield

The show!

Yes, this is my little Noah, helping out!

So, come on out this weekend and get your holiday shopping list taken care of, have some lunch and enjoy a unique shopping experience. Your loved ones will get a terrific handmade gift that is one of a kind, and YOU will be helping to support local artists and artisans.

Well, it's Tuesday

So, I've been working on my Art Every Day month pieces, and truth to tell, I haven't shown any here because I haven't finished any yet. I've been grabbing a few minutes here and there to work on some journal pages and some jewelry pieces, but nothing is completely done enough to show. I'm occasionally scatterbrained when I get several good ideas all at once!

Anyway, I realize that I actually HAVE completed a few things in the last few days....if you look at beads being 'complete' even if they are not made into jewelry. For some reason, I have been very interested in focusing very intently on the beads I am making over the last couple of days. By this I mean that I have been spending a lot of time in my head, rummaging around in there, and so the beads I have been making have been detailed, large, complicated to make on my torch, and have consisted mostly of very very small dots and thick layers of encasing. I love working with dot designs, as most of you may know, and encasing is one of those skills that I feel you really have to work on and practice. The base bead has to stay warm throughout, but develop a solid skin on the outside so that the encasing layer can be applied without smudging the base. I've also been playing with a variety of methods to get the encasing layer to go on evenly and cover the base bead as completely as possible.

And the dots....I am a huge admirer of Brad Pearson's work (and he even lives in Richmond! I need to take a class from him someday), so I have been trying to incorporate some of his detail and technique into my own beads. Of course, compared to his work, mine look like they were made while I was drunk, but, hey, practice makes perfect, right? (and kids, don't drink and torch. Bad idea.)

Anyway, that has been my focus for the last two beadmaking sessions. I've been trying out different color combinations, too. I think some of these are successful. Some, not so much.

I'm liking this current focus on focusing. I am feeling very insular right now and spending a lot of time thinking. My favorite way to deal with a 'mood' or an introspective period like this is to hole up with some loud music directly into my head and something to do with my hands. Somehow I think this helps me work out whatever it is that's in my head. My mood and state of mind definitely informs the work I make at any given time.

At this point, I am going to sing the praises of Pandora. I absolutely LOVE listening to my Train station (ha!), and now that my husband has bought and installed our new media server, I am thrilled to be able to listen to my music in the house like we have a real stereo system! (How dated do *I* sound??) Music is an essential component of life, especially mine.

Oh! For any of you who are local to Richmond, VA, my work will be available for sale at Whimsical Wares, a new art show and sale that will be held this weekend, November 12 and 13th. It will be at the Smoketree Clubhouse on Smoketree Drive in Richmond. Open from 11-7 on Friday and 10-3 on Saturday, there promises to be a lot of really great work for sale -- jewelry, painting, ceramics and other fantastic gifts. You should go check it out!

AAARGH!

Please tell me it hasn't been over a week since I posted last! *sigh*

I've been caught up in the whirlwind of getting ready for Arts Around the Lake on Sunday, and prepping to go up to northern VA for ArtBliss. I knew it would be a challenge to jam both events into the same weekend, but it is necessary. One of my goals this year was to take more metals and jewelry classes (Melissa Manley! OMG! I am taking her class!), and also to get into better and bigger shows. Funny how both goals seemed to converge on the last weekend of September this year!

To be honest, I have made a few new things, but I haven't photographed them. Really, I feel like I don;t have time to fiddle with pictures, and if the items don't sell this weekend, I'll take the photos and put stuff up on Etsy. I know I promised to add this necklace to my Etsy shop a while back, and it hasn't made it there yet, mostly because I needed it for inventory for the show. The one thing I did do, however, was set up my display in the yard as a test run for working out the arrangement of things. I also wanted to use it to see how much inventory I needed to cover my available space, and see if there were any 'holes' that needed filling. Here's a quick-and-dirty look at the booth overall:
It's a 10x10 shade, with two of the collapsible banquet tables. I only have the two tables, and I usually set them up this way, putting myself either behind, or off to the side. I don't own the side walls for this tent, and I wish I did, because now I can't find them in white (it's a Quest brand shade from Dick's Sporting Goods), so I use white bedsheets instead. The biggest problem with that is the fact that they blow all over and billow like sails. I have to weight them with clamps. I also don't have enough to cover more than one side. It'll have to do for now, though.

One thing I am really thrilled about is my new earring card racks. I found a couple of tall slatted shelves at a yard sale a while back, and my husband cut them in half widthwise for me, and hinged them together so they stand up. My large earring cards fit perfectly on them! I made some sandbags to weight the bottom in case of wind. You can sort of see the top of the stands in back of the table. When I took the picture, I hadn't figured out how I was going to make them work, so there's no picture of them yet.

Don't worry, I promise pictures of my totally put together and dressed-up display after Sunday's show.

I'd promised myself I wasn't going to get stressed out about this show, about prepping for it or about being in it, OR about it being the same weekend as ArtBliss. I want to do both, I CAN do both, and it will all work out fine. Yesterday, however, I found myself descending into the depths of craziness, and it colored my whole day, leaving me exhausted by the end of it.

My torch and tank setup decided that yesterday was THE day to go all nasty on me and cover my glass and beads with a layer of grey, sooty crap. Over everything I made. And on my 'make list' was a set of pink beads made with CiM's Gelly's Sty, a color I typically don't have trouble with at all. Here you can see (the horror!) the difference:

On the left are the original beads, made with Gelly's Sty a few months ago. On the right....the nastiness of yesterday. Same batch of glass, too. Yuck.

I've decided that I don't have time and energy to mess with it right now. I am going to disconnect the torch and hang the hose up for a couple of days and re-evaluate. I have beads to make into more work for the show, so that's not an issue, really. I had planned to make some sets to offer at ArtBliss, but I may have to bag that.

And if you've stayed with me all the way down to here in the post....wow! :)

At any rate, i ended up making a bunch of earrings yesterday and getting them put on cards and into my inventory box was a huge relief. I wish I could say the transition from Plan A (beadmaking session) to Plan B (making earrings) was a smooth and seamless one, without gnashing of teeth and railing against the injustice of it all, but at least I got something done. Right?

So. I am totally TOTALLY looking forward to seeing some of you at ArtBliss this Friday night! Safe travels, if you're traveling, and see you there!

Getting back to it...

Okay, so I think I took the month of August pretty much off. Too hot to make beads, too hot to do much, kids running around, work stuff needed doing, and frankly, I was out of inspiring ideas.

But fall is (finally!) coming, and it's on, now, baby!

My first big (real) art show is on September 26 (Arts Around The Lake at the University of Richmond), and I am in "make" mode, planning the inventory I am going to need. Thankfully the preschoolers go back on the 14th, and I know that I will be spending every preschool morning at the torch, making the beads, and at the table, making the jewelry.

Halloween is right around the corner, and so is Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's early, for the September show, but I am planning to have all 3 holidays covered in some way for my displays.

Right now, I'm working on a series of bracelets and some necklaces in "theme" colors....I am making bead sets in specific color palettes that will be simply strung and turned into earrings.

For example, the 'Hallowscream' line palettes are:
lime green/orange/black/purple
black/white/grey
lime/orange/black
orange/black/purple

I'll make sets in these color schemes and do a simple bracelet, earrings and necklace for each, and then a number of single sculpted pendants: ghosts, pumpkins, bats, etc.

Here are some of the beads from the first go-round:
I'm planning to do a Fall palette, a Christmas palette, and a Winter palette. I think I can manage enough beads to have 6 bracelets, at least 6 pairs of earrings, and 6 necklaces for each palette, plus any sculptural single pendants I think of.

I'll be making many more beads for the 'Bloomz' line I've been doing, and trying for 8 or so bracelets, earring pairs and pendants. Then there will be the rest, which will be my one-off designs, and the work that has been published recently.

God, I hope that is enough. It might not be, but there is my plan, not having done the show before.

I pray that my sales will be sufficient to allow me to buy my new torch, pay (off?) my kiln, and start paying for an oxygen concentrator.

The sales needed for those goals approaches the $1K mark. Realistically, can I do that in one day? I don't know. Should I try for it and set myself up for it? Absolutely.

And so, I pray.

Please let me stay positive throughout this incredibly busy September, let me get done what needs to be gotten done, and please let me not get to stressed out while doing it. And please help me to see the path clear to the goals I have set up for myself so I can finally, finally get to where I want to be.

And I cross my fingers, and I plan, and make, and think, and create, and design, and set-up and tear down and rearrange.

Wouldn't it be something? A new *real* torch, an oxygen concentrator AND a kiln by the end of 2010?