Borrowing from the Duggan Sisters

 I'm not sure what the proper etiquette is when you want to share something from someone else's blog. This from the Duggan Sisters blog just hit home with me so I wanted to share it. They write a great blog and this is just a snippet from a wonderful both sad and uplifting post. Click the link to read the entire post. They have just come home from a show and write:

"We are so tired that we’re nauseous. That is what a show, wholesale or retail, does to every single artist every single time. You assemble a singular and stunning booth showcasing your wares. You stand and explain and educate and sell and endure insults and ignorance and accolades. You do it indoors under lights too bright with unforgiving concrete beneath you. You do it outdoors in wind that sometimes becomes a microburst or a tornado and you stand shivering in snow in early October and you get rained on until you are soaked to your kneecaps. You sometimes sell big and sometimes hardly get noticed in the crowd. And then you disassemble your perfect booth and pack it into a van and drive to your home which might be across town or across many state lines. You are an artist. These shows are absolute bread and butter essential and they kill you every time."

I really related to this. All true statements...so why do I love this crazy business so much???

True confession time...

 Yes, it's true. Although it's not something I normally talk about, I love breakfast at the Waffle House! The most important thing is that you have to sit at the counter, right across from the grill because the high point is watching them cook. 

They have a really interesting system in place for remembering the orders. The waitress calls the order to the cook who actually never sees the order in writing. As I learned yesterday, the jelly packet on the far end of the plate means eggs over easy, near end is sunny side up, one side is over hard and so on. If the jelly packet is turned over it means something totally different. They keep track of absolutely everything in the order by little clues the cook puts on the plate! Considering the dozens of ways you can get hash browns there, it's quite a feat. 

I learned all this from the cook (wish I had asked her name since she was wonderful) at the Dublin-Granville Road Waffle House in Columbus Ohio yesterday. She went through the whole system for me, talked about all the variations and then I learned that the system was actually developed by the franchise right there and is now used franchise wide!

So after breakfast it got me thinking about how I could incorporate that kind of thinking into what I do. Not jelly packets but more the organizational end of things. I dearly love that life is made up of all these great little moments. And no - I've never had a waffle at the Waffle House.

Missing art fairs

 There's something special about people who sell their art at art fairs. We tend to be this wonderfully tight group of people all trying to make our living in this strange, probably out-dated way. We look out for each other and want the best for each other. We even celebrate when others get into great shows that we didn't. Or at least try to! My closest friends are those that share this experience with me since it's unique, wonderful and hard to explain. But someone please remind me of this warm fuzzy feeling when I haven't sold anything,  it's pouring down buckets, the wind is high and I'm trying to keep my booth from flying to the next county...

Things you don't think about...

Jewelers you should recognize this. You're in the middle of selling something wonderful at an art fair and you realize...you're out of earring stoppers! Or, you're out of care cards! Or bags!!! What have those elves been doing back in the studio, slacking off? Since now I'm also the elf, this winter I'm restocking all those little things I might not think of during my busy times. Putting 2 little earring stoppers in little tiny bags and adding the instructions turns out to be kind of a fun project. One of those mindless jobs best done in front of the TV. So how many will I need this year? Since I'm planning on a really good year - so I did tons! Now it's on to stamping the bags...

Two Weeks In...

Two weeks into the new year and one thing is certain. If I don't set more of a schedule, all this great time off from shows will be gone and I won't have all kinds of wonderful jewelry to show for it. 

But I'm getting things done. My office has had a major clear out and deep cleaning. It's fun spending time in here again. There's still much more to do but it's a great start.

Next big job to tackle is the "clean" side of the studio. Just the word "clean" in the same breath as my studio causes major laughter. For the last probably 3 years I've been just dumping things in there, leaving it for "later". I think later has now hit...

Then I get to go back into the working side of the studio and do what I love - make jewelry. I have lots of new ideas and I have the time to "play" with them and make them wonderful. I'll keep you posted!

Goodbye 2012

Looking back is always interesting to me and 2012 had some wonderful moments. This is like that annoying letter you used to get in your Christmas cards from all the people you hadn't seen all year. I loved those letters...

I stayed more local for my art fairs and loved it! One of the things I love about doing art fairs is the travel but I miss the time at home. 2012 was a nice mix.

Got to know some wonderful people better:

Patrica McCleery during our time in St Louis.

Julie Kradel who makes my old friend Steve Kostyshyn  so very happy.

Marilyn Greenwood and her husband Ken who, along with the Hecker’s and Mike Taylor, made the time on the Pensacola Beach between shows so much fun.

Became "Boonie" at the Boston Mills ArtFest which made me laugh even in 100+ degree tempuratures.

Had the easiest Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair ever because Jon Hecker was my roadie! My booth has never been so wonderfully engineered and due to his “fan work”, it was like having air conditioning!

Made my favorite ring ever – then sold it! When will I learn to just keep the darn thing when I really, really love it. I sold my last “favorite ring” right off my finger 20 years ago…

My jewelry won some awards!

Had some really bad pumpkin pancakes for my Halloween birthday but I was with my best friends the Hecker’s which made it great!

On a personal note - Got to watch my favorite/only nephew graduate High School and go off to college.

And…

Had two wonderful weeks off from everything with my very best friend Dick in our favorite place (other than home).

Wow – sounds like a year where nothing went wrong, no struggles, no tough times! Nope, it was a tough year, the hardest was watching my best friend struggle with health issues and not being able to help. But I’m focusing on the positives from the past year and looking forward to having even more positives in 2013.

Happy New Year everyone! Here’s to a great 2013!!!