Holiday Preparedness

   Had a lovely time last week when Mary Lou Zeek, of the eponymous gallery in Salem, came to visit my studio with her staff member Tina. They chose a large grouping of my jewelry for their holiday season. Now the pressure's on: I've just been accepted into the Llewellyn Holiday Market, which is only 2 weeks away, I have other galleries to keep stocked, and I'm in the last 2 weeks of my business class @ Mercy Corps. Gotta do homework for that; gotta make more jewelry; gotta get my show props ready; gotta get some sleep. Plus things are getting busier at my day job as the holiday shopping season approaches. Wish me luck!

I'm Back

 

 
  I haven't been able to add anything here for awhile - extra time seems harder and harder to find. Spent a lot of time working on my drawings, and now have a grand total of six completed. I'm hoping to keep plugging away at them, in hopes of a show in 2014. It will take me at least that long to get enough pieces done!  I've also spent a fair amount of time working on jewelry, at times making more folded bottle cap pieces. Sometimes I'm in the mood for my other line that includes vintage faux pearls, beads, maybe a found object or two; old dominoes, for example. I sometimes wish I could narrow down and focus on just one thing, but as a Gemini I find that impossible. Whichever art form I leave out tends to burst forth again later, unwilling to be relegated to the back burner. I guess I'm fated to a perpetual struggle as to time allocation. Maybe it's like that for all of us.

I'm happy to report that I have now added a new gallery to my roster: Redux Gallery, on East Burnside @ 8th. It's an awesome shop, full of interesting art, jewelry, and sundry other things. A lot of the work contains recycled materials. They're starting out with a small collection of my folded bottle cap jewelry; go check it out. I also took a small batch of new work to Guardino Gallery (NE Alberta @ 30th).

As for Mercy Corps, I don't qualify for their grant program, but I have signed up for their small business class, starting this coming Tuesday. I'm excited and a little nervous, and hopeful that it will enable me to broaden my audience, increase my sales, and lead, one happy day, to self-employment. Wish me luck!


 

Back After A Long Absence

It's been a difficult winter for me, so had to take a longer-than-usual break. The holiday retail job, the cold, the flu, the DHEA imbalance - I'm just now getting to feel up to normal activity levels. But I'm back! Been revamping my approach to jewelry; acquired some new tools to make flattening and folding bottle caps easier, came up with some more sophisticated ways to put them together, and am  working on ideas to bring together the caps, the beads & pearls, and the found objects into a more unified body of work. Other plans for spring include signing up for an Individual Development Account, which will involve saving up for a matching grant and taking a much-needed business class. I'm planning on this making my endeavors more professional and eventually living that artist dream to make it be my full-time job. I'll keep you posted.

Time once again for the annual Buckman Art Show & Sell. I'll be there with my jewelry, this year featuring some new bottle cap pieces that incorporate brass rivets. It's a new technique I've just learned, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I'm looking forward to seeing you there!