I feel like I've been swimming in earrings! I can hardly believe it, but I believe I have them all sorted, photographed, listed & inventoried! I had no idea how many earrings I'd made! There were a couple of days that I lost track of time and was shocked at how long I'd been trudging along.
I normally move from project to project, making a little of this here and doing a little of this there. And I'm not saying none of that happened, but I'm working hard on being intentional and doing things in an order that makes sense - even if it's not the easiest or most fun part of the process.
Just in case anyone is curious - or for anyone who finds this because they are making the move to doing their art full time - I'm planning on doing local Farmer's Markets, Art Fairs, Craft Fairs, and Holiday Fairs. Phew! So a lot of these spaces require not only an application, but pictures of your products that have to be reviewed by Jurists who decide if you can participate. If I have to take them anyway, I wanted to take them for the website and, to make everything easier, I can not only use the same photos, but I can send a link to the website.
The Holiday Fair I looked into requires pictures of your booth - which means you have to have done other Markets/Fairs in order to get the pictures they need. So there's the starting point and ending point - now I have to connect the dots!
Step 1 - get the website up and running
Step 2 - start doing some markets.
Thankfully, there is an Art Walk every Saturday night that doesn't require photos, or anything, to be pre-approved. If there's a spot, I can get it. And I was going to do that 2 weeks ago, but when I went to sign up I read the notice that vendors have to bring their own lighting and there is no electricity. It took me a few days to figure out how to approach that - then I had the lightbulb moment (pun intended :) ) to look up rechargeable camping lights! I found a two-pack of rechargeable LED lights, with handles that can be used to hook them to the frame of a pop up gazebo. They also have an extra special feature of a fan in the center of the light. Being in Phoenix, I'm excited to have the summer air at least circulated if I'm going to be out in it for markets!
Those came mid-last week and I was prepared to sign up for the Art Walk this last weekend. My payment device had been ordered and was supposed to be delivered on Friday. It came in late Saturday afternoon. So it didn't happen, again. But I'm okay with that. We will see how this weekend goes but we have some exciting family stuff going on so if it doesn't happen until next week I'm totally good with that! And, in the meantime, I will keep working on the site :)
Step 3:Keep Adapting and finding new venues.
I've got a lot of ideas - and a lot of things I want to have be part of what I'm doing. I'm distressed that the local artists whose work I had the privilege of selling, and knowing how it was contributing to their income, was cut off. I want to find a way to do that again. There are some ideas that have been discussed in early stages - so early that I don't want to mention them just yet. But I am putting it out there that this is one of my goals.
And in the meantime I'm plugging away at things. I've found shipping boxes for the.clocks that will be a great way to store and transport them for shows as well. I'm getting things more and more organized. I've waited long enough for one project that other people figured out how to do it better and I've got the things to tackle that. Very excited!
I've got gorgeous bags, I've got new tape, I've got project areas that are being methodically worked through! I'm teaching art one day a week at a Summer Camp - the first class was so much fun. And later this week my second grand baby is being born! I know what is happening with my work is exactly how it's supposed to be because being available to help my family was something I was trying to figure out how to do. And now it's not a problem at all.
So if I'm MIA for the next week, it means I'm super busy! But I will be working on things still. I'm really enjoying working for myself - I've got a great boss! And I enjoy going to work every day - and having time to step away from work to do other important things. Work/life balance was another goal for the year that I'm now experiencing. Wonderful things are happening!
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