The Art Dept

It’s one of my favorite lines at a show, but I’m not just making it up. It’s true.  “I made this for you before we met!” When I set up at a show it’s with my entire repertoire of handmade wearable art. Most of the pieces I have crafted in my country studio in the middle of winter with the wood stove cranking and no one around but the cats. At times when I’m working away in my studio, I look at a finished piece and think to myself,  “Who would wear that? What was I thinking? Am I crazy?” And on and on. Then lo and behold, I go to a show, and something wonderful happens. I meet the one I made it for.  It happened several times at my last show, which was Penrod in Indianapolis.  This is a necklace I made as a show piece, which means it was photographed and used to jury into art shows.  It is a unique piece, entitled “Yoke” because of the style of the necklace.        I put it in my showcase at Penrod and eventually she came. She and Yo...

I wrote this on the back of an envelope at my last show: I’m sitting in my new white tent, four hours from my peaceful country studio.  It’s raining. Again.  And this time I’m too far away from my studio to spend yet another rainy afternoon there.  Which brings me to the age old question: Why am I here?  And, more importantly, What does it take to keep getting here?  So here’s my four part answer to the question about what it takes, which I believe also answers why am I here.  Show up Maybe once or twice in my 30 plus years of doing art shows I have experienced the perfect show. Perfect weather both days. Perfect location, lots of customers who bought exactly what I made for  them without questioning whether I had it in orange  (I don’t) or if I am from here (I’m not) or if I teach classes (nope). Other than those two perfect shows (which I actually may have fabricated in my memory) all other events have been a ...

 Yep there’s something to that. Santa, because he’s Santa, has to be extremely organized. He’s actually a genius of planning and preparation! Imagine all that he has to do and keep track of all year long, not to mention on the big night!  His to-do list must be a million pages long. Hopefully Santa takes advantage of technology to stay organized So, in light of making the best of the most wonderful time of the year, here are three simple tips for effective list making: 1. Keep it simple      Santa’s list is long, but he’s had a long time to practice and perfect it. Your to-do list needs only the most important tasks that MUST be completed that day. This will prevent you from being overwhelmed. A short list will allow you to prioritize and focus on the essentials.  2. Plan ahead       While you are most likely not managing a village of elves or magically making reindeer fly, it is important to be prepar...

It happened again, and I just want to tell the story.        When I work on the jewelry pieces, I’m in my studio, by myself, squirreling away. I work on one color combination per week, and make as many pieces as I can in those colors. So it was silver and gray week, and I had this fabulous strip of dried acrylic paint which I had peeled from the palette. It looked a little drab, so I coated it with resin and sprinkled on some glitter. Then it wanted to be adhered to a frame of handmade paper, and then backed with painted artist canvas. Now it was beginning to get an identity! Because of the rectangular format, I chose to  suspend it from a smaller rectangular piece of textured silver clay. Then I finished it off with a strand of harmonious beads of paper, clay and metal.           By then it was time to clock out for the day. As I was cleaning up and organizing the work space, I took one more look at the piece I had j...