The People You Meet...

A lot of people have asked me if I would stop doing shows given enough galleries carrying my work.  On a rainy cold day in a tent with no potential customers in sight the answer might be yes, but overall I don't think so.  One of the best perks, in my mind, of doing shows is the amazing people you meet.

Some of the coolest people I know are other show artists who I would never have come into contact with if not for the art fair life.  I have spent countless hours next to these like minded souls, and often end up making connections that last.  These artists run the gamut from limestone carving to metal work to jewelry to painting to photography to ceramics to mixed media... the list goes on.  I own pieces by many of them and will continue to collect as I can afford to.

Some of my favorite meals have been the Saturday nights, mid-show.  At one show last year the artist next to me invited me to go with a group and I ended up with a bunch of new friends - and a roommate for one of my shows this year!

Believe it or not the internet has made making show friends even easier.  I participate in multiple artist forums and you yourself interacting with the same people frequently.  You feel like you know them but you have never met them fact to face.  It's a beautiful thing when you will be at the same show as that person and can finally make that connection.

This weekend I start my social shows at 57th Street Art Fair in Chicago.  I have a list of people that I'm looking forward to seeing, some old friends and some new friends that I have been in touch with but have not met.  I can't wait! 

Changes for 2014

Closing out 2013

By the end of last years shows I had narrowed my fused work down to a few types:

Framed Landscapes:

Florals (framed and functional):

Auroras (framed and functional):

These groups made a really strong presentation at OOAK, but my sales were not what I was hoping for.  My florals sold fairly well, but the Auroras got a lot of attention and virtually no sales.  I am working on the theory that florals are a good gift, but Auroras are more of a purchase for self, and OOAK is primarily a gift show.  At least I have enough stock to start the new season to test my theory!

Changes for 2014:

New work

Over the winter I have been working on ideas that bring the Floral and Aurora Series together.  Right now these are all framed:

I am also working on some new shapes for wall pieces, larger than before with different proportions.

 

Dropping old lines

My current plan involves dropping

• all of the serving pieces except for cheese knives 
• the Quilt Series
• the Block Series

I have stock in all 3 and can bring them back if warranted, but sales on the Quilts and Blocks don't warrant the space in my car.  Margins on the serving pieces are low, so the big question is will that booth real estate be more valuable for higher margin items or will my overall sales drop so much that I miss those pieces.

Show Schedule

I'm keeping my top shows from last year, 57th Street, Spring Green, Northbrook, Geneva and Lakeview.  A special thanks to those organizers for wanting me back! I am hoping to go back to Riverssance but the jury is (literally) still out.  I'm also trying to add one show early, one show in August, and possibly one more in the fall.  I am also planning to go back to OOAK.


Without a magic Carnac the Magnificent hat to help me out I am gambling once again.  Stay tuned, I'll let you know how it goes!

2 weeks away from One of A Kind, year 2

I'm in full on planning panic mode, and I've realized that this feeds my inner adrenaline junkie.   I have 184 pieces ready to be signed and packed, 35 pieces in the kiln or in progress and another 70 in my plans (30 of that 70 are 5"x5" or smaller, so I can get a lot in the kiln). 

I have spreadsheets tracking the pieces and how much glass I have left to work with, checklists, display stands and frames en route to my house and platform pieces waiting to be assembled to raise up my shelves.

Here is the planned vision for my booth:

Now I am trying to figure out which pieces go on which shelving units, and how to group the framed pieces on the walls.  Last year we were winging it, and I think it took much longer than necessary.  This year I'd like to have a plan so that everything looks organized and polished.

The other lesson from last year that I've been able to make use of so far is to queue up my fusing work differently.  In order to make sure that I can stay caught up at my engineering job as well as in my fusing I have planned differently.  I try to get a weeks worth of pieces cut and queued up during the weekend so that it's just 15-30 minutes a night during the week.  Just enough time to pull the last batch out, clean out the kiln and put the next batch in.  

I'm also trying to take advantage of bulk cutting.  When I cut a piece and have less than 1/2 a sheet left over (a sheet is roughly 20"x30") I look at that sheet and the standard sizes that I use for bases.  I cut that sheet as efficiently as possible to create those bases and stack them out of the way.  That way, when I go to create the queue for the week a lot of the bases are already cut.

 In the photo above, the pieces on the far left standing on end are the bases that are waiting to be matched and used, the front center are pieces that are fused and waiting for slumping during the week, the back center are cut and waiting to be fused and the far right are pieces that need to be cut and put on the bases.

See, an old dog can learn new tricks.

Patience, no shortcuts

I'm not a particularly patient person.  I like to see results of my efforts immediately, an odd trait for someone who fuses glass.  Most sessions in my studio end with an 18-70 hour wait (thankfully way more 18 than 70) before I can find out if I created what I wanted to.  The final assembly for many pieces happens in the kiln so my kiln space limits how much work I can do in a studio session. 

This is my big kiln, I also have one smaller kiln that does a single piece at a time

People ask me if I know what I will get when I open the kiln.  When I started fusing that was a very real question.   My results were similar to what I hoped for 80% of the time and 20 % of the time I was surprised, and rarely in a good way.  After 8 years of fusing I can say that I am accurate (instead of similar) probably 95% of the time and when I get surprised it is almost always because I tried a shortcut.

So now I'm on a fusing marathon to get ready for One of a Kind.  Prepping for this show is stressful, I'm always afraid I won't have enough stock, or I will have the wrong stock.  I make spreadsheets to figure out how to maximize my fusing cycles and I plan to work at least a few hours EVERY DAY between now and the show.  44 fusing days until I load the car and it feels way too short.

So what is the most effective way to maximize my kilns?  Patience!  As I loaded the kilns tonight I considered putting one extra piece in.  It would make the fit a little tight, but I am fairly sure that the pieces wouldn't have ended up touching while they fired.  I put the extra piece on the kiln shelf, I started to walk away and I stopped.  If I misjudged this I would be reworking a 15" bowl, an 8" bowl and possibly scraping/refinishing a kiln shelf.  I considered the risk and decided to be patient.

Hopefully this new attitude actually nets more successful pieces in December.  I'll never know but that's my theory and I'm sticking to it!

Fall Transition

So I finally made it through the longest outdoor season I've ever taken on.   It started earlier, ended later and had more shows than anything I've done in the past.  I did 9 outdoor shows between early May and late September and traveled for the first time.  So, how did that work for me?

Of the nine shows I participated in I squeaked through without quite losing money on any of them, but there are 3 that I will not be returning to because I just covered my costs.  Two of them were out of town and had the lowest sales all year with the highest travel costs.  The local one was just too lackluster to spend the time and money at again. 

I sold more framed pieces than anything else, and my tie dyes were a hit!  Of course I've refined them a bit since I started making them:

  I like them so much they are the focus of both my new business cares and my updated website!  I've also updated my garden pieces,

the colors really pop now and that is something that I sold out of last year at One of a Kind...  oh wait, it's time to start getting ready for OOAK again!

So that is why this post has "transition" in the title... I'm not so much finished with outdoor, I'm beginning to get ready for OOAK!  I've got my booth assignment, much better than last year!  I'm planning how to handle the displays in this different layout, and I'm fusing like crazy!   If you take out the two quick trips I'm taking before December there 48 fusing days left... sounds like a lot but since many of pieces require 3 trips through the kiln, and each one takes a full day that means I can only product 16 kiln loads of pieces between now and then.  Oh panic!!!!!!!!!!

The Deal of the Art

I spend a lot of time interacting with other artists via the internet.  We pass information about good and bad shows, good and bad promoters, good and bad restaurants at shows etc...  And sometimes we get collectively enraged.  Last week one of these artists pointed out a news item that implied a promoter was going to "teach" art patrons how to "negotiate a price" on art.  The number of posts, rants and opinions that was generated in 24 hours was immense.  This is a topic that pretty much every artist agrees on:

Negotiation should not be considered standard practice at an art fair!

The wonderful people who attend art fairs and consider buying the artwork they see should be aware of the following things before they question a price:

• We pay to apply to be in an art fair (usually $20- $50), and then if we are accepted we pay for our space (typically $200 - 500... but it can be significantly more) 

• We supply our own tents, displays, labor, transportation, room and board.  So by the time we open up on the first day of the show we are already in the hole, usually $500 - $2000.

• All of the work we bring to the show is hand made by us!  We have costs sunk into supplies, tools, classes, scrap and most importantly our time. 

• Our prices are set based on the cost of materials and the amount of time and resources required to create the art.  These are not random prices that we hope you are willing to pay so we can rake in the cash, they are prices that are based on what the value of the work is.

• We are at the mercy of the weather, the economy and many other things outside of our control (try doing a show in Green Bay during a packers game!).  If there is a storm and we are told to vacate the show for safety reasons we do not get a refund.  

• Most of the artists you meet do this as their full time profession.  The income generated over these weekends is used to pay mortgages, food bills, doctor bills, tuition bills, utilities....  For many this is the only source of income. 

If you have read my other posts you probably realize that I am in the unusual situation of being a part time artist with a full time job.  I participate in one third to one half  as many shows as most full time artists and I don't travel nearly as far as they do.    Even so  for 2013 I will be doing 12 shows, translating to 27 show days, with 4 hours of setup and 2 hours of teardown per show.  I am travelling for 4 of these shows so that adds 8 travel days.

In my last post I described the math that I use to figure out what it takes to break even and then how the profit is calculated for a single, local show.   Now scale that up and think about what I need to sell to have any profit on the year!  When I set my prices I do charge for labor involved in creating the piece, but not for the time I spend at the shows, so my version of profit is how I pay myself for the time spent driving, setting up, tearing down and selling.

Please understand that I am not writing these posts to host a pity party for what an investment of time and money it is to be an art fair artist.  I am just trying to educate the art fair patrons so that they will value our work appropriately.  I don't do this to get rich, I do this because I love it.  

Done Waiting (for now)

On March 17th I showed you my status summary for show applications...
I posted an update on April 8th...
Here is where I stand on April 21st... I have results from every application that has been sent!

By the Numbers:

• 14 applications sent
• 1 more applications to send (due 4/30)
• 4 rejections :(  and they came all in a row!
• 1 wait lists 
• 9 Acceptances ... I am still deciding about my participation in 2
• 0 in progress

Analysis:

• I have spent $300 on jury fees.  I was "invited" to 3 of the shows so my jury fee was waived). 
•  I am committed to $2495 in booth fees across 9 shows.  

So, before I generate any income in 2013 I have already spent $2795!  Luckily some of the later shows will let me do a payment plan so I can pay them after I have made some money at the early shows.

"Show Math":
There is a cost associated with the materials, labor, and kiln time (electricity) for every piece.  So when I make a sale, I have to take that cost out before I can begin applying the income to pay for my booth.  That income also has to cover travel expenses.  My cost of production is usually 30-50% of the selling price.  Let's call it 40% for now.

Sample Show (yes this is a real show, near my house so there is no hotel cost)

• Costs (jury+show+mileage+food) = $573
• I need to sell $955 to start making a profit.  60% of sales AFTER $955 are profit.  
• The average price of my pieces is $85.  I need to sell roughly 11 items BEFORE I CAN BEGIN TO MAKE A PROFIT!
• If I sell $2000 worth of items then I have made a profit of $626.  

Conclusion:
At least I know where I will be this summer!  To see the shows that I will definitely be at check out my site or "Like" Heartfire Studios on Facebook.

Oh, and based on the math, I'M CRAZY!

Still Waiting... Part 2

On March 17th I showed you my status summary for show applications... here is the April 8th update:

By the Numbers:

• 13 applications sent
• 3 more applications to send, although 1 may not be sent if others come back as acceptances
• 4 rejections :(  and they came all in a row!
• 1 wait lists 
• 6 Acceptances  (one came off the waitlist!)
• 2 in progress - next notification dates is 4/15/13

Analysis:

4 rejections from shows that I have never done before.  I've applied to 2 of them in the past and was rejected then too.  Next year I may try to apply with a different style of piece and see how that goes.



I am also deciding whether I will attend 2 of the shows that I have been accepted to.  They are difficult weekends for family reasons and if I don't think they will be amazing it probably isn't worth the trouble.

To see the shows that I will definitely be at check out my site

Conclusion:

It's still a crapshoot

What next?

The best thing about not selling what I had hoped to at One of A Kind is that I may actually have enough stock to get me through most of the outdoor shows.  A very freeing concept, I get to try new things!

So the big question is what do I want to try?  Working with the deep glass blocks was so satisfying...

 

I think it's time to work on more depth and dimension!

I'm thinking about trying my hand at some level of casting, or a variation of pate de verre.  I'd like to play with inclusions, and maybe something more like a mini chandelier or mobile.  So many options, it's playtime again! 

I wrote the above paragraphs before I went to bed.  I had dreams about Pate de Verre... I'm visiting the glass store this weekend... My family goes out of town without me tonight... I feel cosmic forces at work 

Still waiting

2013 Art Fair Application Status Summary as of 3/17/13 (yes, this is how I think)

By the Numbers:

• 13 applications sent
• 5 more applications to send, although 2 may not be sent if others come back as acceptances
• 0 rejections
• 2 wait lists 
• 5 Acceptances
• 6 in progress - next notification dates is 3/28/13

Analysis:

I'd like to say I'm doing a good job picking shows, but 3 of the 5 acceptances were invites from last year and I may not attend 2 of them.   The 2 new acceptances came from shows that are further away than I have traveled before so I am now making bigger commitments but I am excited.

Both wait lists are shows that I will do if I come off the wait list, and both are local.

Conclusion:

I have no idea what any of this means.

Waiting to Plan

I like to plan.  If you read my previous posts you will realize how much time I spend planning, it is somehow comforting to me.  My brain loves to be occupied with planning.  My brain is happily obsessed with making plans.  I even plan to plan!

I hate to wait.  The worst kind of waiting is when I am waiting for information from which I will make plans.  This is a hard time of year for me.   Right now  I am waiting before I can go further in my planning.  sigh.  About half of my applications have been sent, most of the rest will be sent next week.  Some of the responses will start coming in the beginning of March.

With the exception of the shows that I have been invited to or grandfathered into I have no idea where I will be this year.  Because I am adding some travel (see my post about this) I feel like there is even more planning to do.  Where will I stay?  Am I taking my 9 year old SUV or renting a vehicle?  Will anyone come with me?  And of course, What Items will I bring to sell?

I have my ideal schedule on paper, with a list of backup plans.  I have my photos, I have my money tied up, I have a few custom orders to fill and more than enough stock left from OOAK to be able to relax going into the season.

Now, what else can I find to plan?

The Art of the Educated Guess

Setting up an art fair scheduled should be referred to as  "The Art of the Educated Guess".  You have to decide which shows to apply to.  You have to decide which images to send.  Once you have your acceptances you have to decide which shows to actually participate in.  Each of these decisions is based on so many factors that you can never have enough information about that they are really guesses, hopefully the educated type.

Guess 1 - Where do I apply?

Each application costs money, so you can't just apply to every show that hits your radar.  I have broadened my travel area for the year so my list of potential shows has grown to more than 90!  I have spent hours reading reviews, considering driving distances, looking for potential friends and family members to stay with, considering costs, demographics and just plain guessing.  I am still a part time artist and I am looking at $600 in jury fees (20 shows), hoping to get 8 - 10 shows that I am happy to be at.  After weeks of banging my head on the wall I have  narrowed it down to 20 something to apply to and now I need to get my images together. 

Guess 2 - What images to use?

My booth has evolved nicely over the last several years and I have a booth photo that I'm really proud of:

But what to do about photos of the actual artwork?  I can use last year's photos, but my work continues to evolve and that doesn't seem quite right.  So it's time to go through my current inventory and pick a few pieces, get my camera set back for glass photos, and go!

The trickiest part of taking photos for higher end show applications is that while my instinct is to show off  all styles that I am working in, your photos are supposed to be a "coherent story".  I don't know who made these rules up all those years ago, but apparently artists are not supposed to have any diversity in what they create, and if they do they can't show it off.

In the past several years I have become more focused and work in 4 basic styles now. I can even break the styles into two families, but how do I choose for my jury pictures?  The 4 pictures shown here are NOT a coherent story.

 

On top of trying to make the photos work together, many shows only want 3 images of your work, none want more than 4. 

Ultimately the biggest irony related to jury photos is that tools like Photoshop have changed the game.  There are people out there who will take your mediocre image and get it jury read (for a fee).   Some are even generous to give you great advice on the phone without a fee (thank you Larry!).  So are we being measured in artwork or Photoshop skills?   Ultimately I hold out hope that without a good item to photograph you can never get an image that gets you into the top shows.  Cynically I fear this is not true.

So what images will I use this year?  If I had enough money to play games with it I would consider sending two different applications to the same show.  One application would have my floral pieces and the other would have my quilts.  Would one get in and not the other?  Would both get in?  Would neither get in?  Hard to say and I can't afford that game.  I do love my floral pieces, when I am in the right mood making them is the best feeling, but my quilt pieces are more unique and ultimately make for more interesting photos.  So now I have to narrow it down from 9 images to 3 or 4 depending on the show.  Here are the images I am considering using:

Guess 3 - Which shows to participate in?

I try to balance my show schedule against my world.  I try not to do more than 2 shows in a row.  If all the show acceptances and booth fees had the same timing this would be a difficult dilemma.  Unfortunately the timing is different for every show so that makes it closer to impossible.  I might have been accepted to my second choice and have to pay for the booth before I hear from my first choice!

In the end I have created a few rules to protect myself from the worst scenarios.

• I do NOT apply to shows that require non-refundable booth payment with application.  I would like to keep my flexibility until show season is a little closer.  
• I do not apply to shows with "rolling juries".   I am concerned that the standard goes down as we get closer to the show date.
• If a show doesn't allow setup the day before the show starts I look at logistics before I apply.  There are shows with Saturday morning setup that close at 10pm on Saturday.  There needs to be a very good reason for me to put myself through that.

Now that I have done all my prepping it's time to start sending in my applications.  I'll keep blogging as the process goes on.  Wish me luck!!!

My Alter Ego

During the week I am an engineer for an enormous, multinational conglomerate.  My reputation is built on working on nearly every product that our company currently ships.  I spend a frightening number of hours sitting at my computer using spreadsheets and project planning software to figure out how to keep a line of building controls products on track.  I work with budgets, resource planning and company politics to keep everything moving along.  

As the weather starts to look hopeful, suddenly my schedule changes and I begin to take random Fridays off of work.  I am not the only one with such a schedule, many of the folks I work with are obsessed with golf, sailing, fishing, hunting and the like so people don't notice too much.  The only difference is that when I take a Friday off I do NOT check my voice mail and email periodically. At some point this becomes an issue, I miss some big event that crops up on a Friday and on Monday (while I yawn and try to recover from my weekend) I finally have to answer the question "what do you do with all those Fridays off?".  My answer (stated with a sneaky smile)  "I have an alter ego!"

Some folks get very perplexed about what I might mean and walk away.  This is a fair reaction given that we once had a very conservative employee (wore suits in a jeans environment) who came in on Monday mornings with traces of glitter all over his face.  Some people think I'm pretending to be a super hero, laugh and walk away.  Other people just get curious, which gives me the opportunity to talk about my favorite topic despite the fact that I am at work.  That's when I tell them "I am a glass artist".

The best part about my job is that my boss and most everyone who works directly with me knows about my alter ego, and they are all very supportive.  I have given countless gifts of my own artwork and have a few pieces scattered around my cube.  However, those outside of my immediate associates rarely have a clue.

The most interesting scenarios occur when someone I work with who doesn't know my alter ego strolls through my booth at an art fair.  Reactions vary but usually fall into one of two categories: "wow I didn't know that about you!" and "um, do I have to buy something?".  Usually when I see the individual later at work they at least acknowledge that they saw me and ask how the show went.

At One of A Kind I ran into a co-worker with fascinating results.  This woman is a very high level manager type who I interact with on a regular basis.  Many of our interactions are conflict based, always respectful but by design we are usually on opposing sides of an issue.  I have known her for roughly 20 years, but we have never really interacted at all outside of work.  During the last day of OOAK, when Wendy and I were so tired that we might have been described as "slap happy", this woman wandered into my booth with a group of friends.  I watched her pick up some pieces with apparent interest and then I said hello.  She recognized me, realized I was the artist, was shocked, asked a few polite questions and then couldn't get out of my booth fast enough.  

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I have seen this response before, I think these people are afraid that knowing the artist obligates them to buy something and they want to leave before they feel trapped.  The most fascinating part of running into this particular individual is how she has completely ignored the fact that she saw me in the weeks since the show. I have seen her in the hall, been in meetings with her and been on several calls with her.  I have no desire to make her uncomfortable so I haven't brought it up, but I am somewhat amused.

I wonder what the reaction would be if my alter ego was something more shocking?  Or is the artist life shocking enough?

a One of a Kind learning experience

Last weekend Wendy and I had a booth at One of A Kind (OOAK) in Chicago for the first time.  It is quite an event.  It takes up the entire 8th floor of the Merchandise Mart which is roughly an entire city block.  It runs 4 days, with  over 600 artists and by many estimates more than 70,000 potential customers.  It is also more than 5x what I usually spend on a booth.

Here is a quick summary of the weekend:

Wednesday 

10 hour setup, everyone at the show is super helpful and things look so promising!  For details see my last post.

Thursday

Arrived at 9 to add some finishing touches, show opened at 11.  Slow sales, slow enough to create a very real panic. If this is our pace we won't even cover parking for the 5 days we need it!!!  As we observe we realize we are in "newbie land".  This is the area that people are put in when they don't know enough to ask for a better spot.  While the rows that run from one of the building to the other are full, our row of 4 booths on either side gets a cursory glance from the end and only the people most devoted to seeing EVERY SINGLE BOOTH get to us.  Lesson 1:  Understand location and flow before agreeing to booth location.  We stepped back  to figure out what will make our booth more appealing to the cursory glance.  Given all of the white background that leads up to the ceiling we decided to create a line at the top to stop the eye and to decorate the large post that sits in the middle of our booth to make it more festive.  We closed down at 8 with a plan to do yet more finishing touches in the morning.  Biggest lesson of the day for me... Lesson 2: Standing shoes are not the same as walking shoes - my feet hurt!

Friday

Wendy went for supplies and we had 30 minutes to redecorate before the show opened at 11.  Black duct tape and silver wrapping paper did the trick.  Booth looked much better and the sales really began to rock.  We will never know if there was a correlation to our redecorating, but by the end of Friday we knew we would be at least ok by the end of the weekend.  Panic gone, we relaxed and enjoyed the crowd.  During a run to the supply room all the way on the other side of the building I made friends with another glass artist and got to visit several other other glass friends.  Sold both of my "winter scenes" 
 so I decided to see if I could somehow have more available by Sunday.  When I got home at 10 I put 5 pieces in the kiln for a single firing process.  These pieces normally take two firings - I was hoping to get one or two successes.

Saturday 

Crowds and sales made for a near exact replica of Friday. Still on track to have acceptable results but it was becoming apparent that some of the pieces I had hoped would fly out were not selling at all.  Time to rethink my tie dyes...

Sunday

Checked the kiln for my new winter scenes - cutting corners doesn't work.  Look for a new scrap melt that has a lot of white and green soon.

While we hoped to have a 3rd good day in a row Sunday was odd.  Most of the shoppers seemed to be more interested in the event than in the purchase.  Fewer people leaving with shopping bags but we had acceptable sales, signed a contract for next year (indicating that we need to be in a different space)  and prepared to tear down.  The rules say that you need to get proof that you are paid up, then tear down, then get a work order to have your boxes loaded out.  The line of people for work orders at 5:05 was long, hard to believe all those booths came down in 5 minutes but I decided to play by the rules.  Lesson 3:  Turn in your work order form immediately!  We turned the work order in at 7:00 and they came for our boxes at 10:30.  We were not the last ones out but it was pretty lonely by the time we were done.


This was a great learning experience and it should set us up for an incredible show next year.  And the best part is... I don't have to create stock for the first summer shows, which means I can spend the next 5 months doing the creative stuff that I love without concern for "will it sell"!

Success, or Opportunity realized!

In July I had what appeared to be a disaster (read about it here) - that resulted in a lot of broken fused glass.

I've spent the last two months trying to figure out a way to salvage the glass without creating things just to consume the lost glass.  Many wonderful people have given me suggestions but as is typical for me I had to just meander until I found my way.

In my attempts to reuse the glass I become progressively more convinced that it should not be identifiable as a scrap once I had a finished product.  For my quilt pieces that is a goal,

 but these needed an entirely new life.   After many directions and several more blog posts I have found the formula, and it's good enough that I am quite proud of the result.  And best of all, even I have trouble identifying which of the broken pieced contributed to the new one.

Here is my favorite to date.  It's a dish that stands about 4" high and 6" in diameter.  I had one other that stuck to the mold so it had to be shattered to remove it.  This no longer feels like a bad thing, it will just go back into the pile of glass that gets used for my new line of Tie Dye dishes!

Right now I am busy trying to get enough pieces ready to justify my fees for One of A Kind in Chicago. I hope to have enough of these to make them a focal point of my display!  Stay tuned and see if I do it...

The Lemonade is getting better!

 So I am still trying to combine my broken pieces with the fuser saying "Never refuse to re-fuse".  My first few attempts were not good but I learned as I went and I have a few pieces in their final firing that incorporate my newly found scrap.

 

Turns out that layering it with clear scrap gives it some nice depth.  

The two on the bottom left are also scraps layered with clear scraps.  These will be draped into bowls.  The piece on the top right is embellished with glass lace made from the frit that was produced when shattering the scrap.

The top left in this picture incorporates the blue scrap from the top of this post. The piece on the right is the glass lace piece.  The bottom left (pink/yellow) was made with the same clear/scrap technique as the blue one.  All the pieces in this shot are about to slumped.  I'll update this post when the final results are available.

Making lemonade, one tiny piece of frit at a time

My last post (Oops or Trying to Find the Opportunity) explains why I had a large bin of shattered glass and why I am working on better ways to move my finished pieces.  It has taken some time  for me to really work on this opportunity with results that might be worth pursuing.

First I had to find a way to make the shattered pieces stop resembling their former selves.  When I wrote the last post I had visions of quick and easy pieces where I just threw the shards together into fascinating patterns, did  a single fuse and had a masterpiece.  After playing with the big pieces for a while I concluded that they remained too much like parts of broken artwork and not enough like components for use in a new piece of art.  So I started smashing them.  The business end of crowbar did wonders (please don't try this at home without a LOT of safety gear!).

 I smashed until I didn't see the original pieces mocking me.  I had an assortment of sizes and then began to try to make that glorious masterpiece.

Not a a bad first try, but it felt forced.  Had I started this design from scratch I would have had sizes that I chose rather than what came out of my workout, so I stepped back for a few days.  This piece is not permanently in the frame, I think I'm going to slump it and see if I get something that suits it better.

I let this percolate in the back of my mind for a week, and tonight I began smashing with a plan.  I found various household products to use as large scale sifters and now I have medium pieces, small pieces and rainbow frit.

I have a bunch of experiments loaded into my kiln... tomorrow night I find out if any of them are opportunity knocking... or if I have to go back to the drawing board.   

Oops, or Trying to Find the Opportunity

Confidence:

I've been carting around bins of fused glass pieces for years now.  I thought I had figured it all out.  Lots of bubble wrap, bins that nest when not in use and stack really nicely while I pack up and load.  After a while it became habit and I become confident.

Disaster:

My last show (several weeks ago) was ok, but not great.  I won my first award, but sales were lackluster at best.  Finally it was time to pack up and load out.  This was a show that required us to dolly out to the street so first I wanted to pack everything, take down the tent and then move everything at once.  I failed to notice the slight slope in the walk way as I stacked my bins... see what's coming?  I didn't.  I leaned my shelves on the bins to get them out of the way while I took down the tent with help from my hubby and my friend.  Bins and shelves seem to be doing fine and I'm almost done!  Just getting the canvas into the bag and suddenly CRASH!.  That's when I said "Oops"  or maybe "Oh S---" or maybe something worse.

4 bins stacked, 4 bins went over - gravity had finally won.  Luckily they landed on grass, sadly, it turns out that my method for packing glass is not as good as I thought.  I immediately tried to reach in to assess the damage and immediately cut myself so I had to back off, close the bins back up and take them home with no idea of what I lost.  As we loaded the car I kept telling my very patient husband that I was trying to see this as an opportunity - several of those pieces had been with me for years, but mostly I was frustrated and upset.

After a stop for much needed beer and burgers we finally got home and unloaded the car.  Before I even went in the house I just had to see the damage.  I found my gloves and started sorting.  Out of roughly 100 pieces in the 4 bins I lost 19 and they were all bigger pieces.  Probably around $2000 worth of merchandise.  Here is what the damage looks like:

Lesson:

Before my next show I will have a new packing setup.  This one involves sturdier bins and packing with insulation as well as bubble wrap.  I will probably have to pack an extra bin or two but that's what comes from experience.

Opportunity:

Tonight I am going to start to see what I can make from this.  I have some ideas and they do not all involve pot melts.  In fact, I have several shelves full of failed experiments that might come in handy.  Stay tuned for results!

Booth evolution - or - Don't Panic!

3 years ago I made the leap to drop jewelry entirely and focus on just glass.  My first season I tried to work with displays that had been the basis for my jewelry booth... I painted the wood white so the colors of the glass would show up and came up with a start that left patrons snowblind, although I didn't think of it that way until I looked back at the pictures.

Last season I invested in chrome shelving to give me more depth (the white shelves were 8 inches deep) and to break up the white.  By the end of the season I had found light green fabric and . created curtains to allow me to raise the walls without taking in the background view of whomever was next to me.  I was getting complements about the cool, spa-like feel of the booth but I wasn't done.  The wire shelves were a pain to setup, worse to tear down, and difficult because even with plastic tops things liked to fall off and through.

For this season I invested again (and gave the chrome shelves a good home) and bought wood folding bookshelves.   They take up less room in my car, go up and down far easier and look much nicer. The setup took longer than expected but that probably had something to do with the fact that I hadn't put up the tent in 8 months.  The only thing I didn't manage to bring was parts for my chair because I couldn't find them, but overall the results were great!

  My next steps (hopefully complete before my next show in 3 weeks) are
 1) a smaller folding bookshelf to use as a "desk"
 2) higher chairs (hidden behind the tall shelf on the right)
 3) final work on the curtains to make them fit properly
 4) hiding the weights at the front of the tent.  The curtains hide the back weights

 If I get all of the done for the next show I may be able to focus on just glass!  For the first time I feel like the end of my booth evolution might be in site!

And it turns out that Wendy and the experts were right (see previous post if you don't know what I'm talking about).  Getting rid of the flea market feel worked!  We sold 50% more last weekend than the same show last year with pretty similar weather and crowds.  

Now it's time to head off to my favorite glass store and get back into the studio!

Panic!

In the past Wendy has told me that I put out too much, disjointed merchandise.  Then I spent the winter reading about the juries for higher end shows.  Then I panicked.  Wendy is right, a booth that resembles a flea market with a glass theme is not the way to go.  So I've spent the last few months focused on 4 themes:

1) Paint with frit - general
2) Paint with frit - garden
3) Quilts
4) pattern bars

Within these themes I have everything from wine racks to glass blocks and enough to fill my booth at a non-flea market density.  The booth will look cohesive and upscale (yea, new wood shelves).  But will I sell less because I don't have EVERYTHING out?  Sales guides say I'm doing the right thing.  Juries say I'm doing the right thing.  Wendy says I'm doing the right thing.  Intellectually I believe I'm doing the right thing.  But what about the customers?  Will they buy?

If the weather is good and sales are bad do I go back to the flea-market?  I guess I'll have to sort it out on Sunday.