The rarity of what I do

Every artist can take pride and promote the uniqueness of what they do. Every piece is unique. Well, I'm going to take a moment to talk about what makes my work so unique. Yes, some of that is the way in which I use the beach glass, but what really makes it special is what I start with. The beach glass itself is unique and now a days becoming increasingly rare. At the Women's Art Festival I had many customers come up and talk about all the recent publicity about the the trouble in finding beach glass now.

When I was a little girl I used to be able to walk on my home beach in Port Stanley Ontario on Lake Erie and find buckets full of wonderful treasurers, now I can barely find 5 pieces. It's true in the spring that I can find lots, but each year it is less and less. Between plastic products and the responsible behaviour of recycling (which is a good thing) finding glass is rare now.

Here's an article that someone from the Art Festival pointed me to from the National Geographic early this summer. the article is written by Margaret G. Zackowitz. A short but worth while read.

Photo Time

Since my blog about Adversity... everyone wants to know what the earrings look like (for those that didn't come to the festival yesterday to see them, shame on you). So here is a picture of them.

For those that didn't visit the festival, it was a great day. Beautiful weather, fun music, creative vendors. As a vendor, I found the show to be a good ROI, but I did hear others saying they may have done better at the market. Interesting how somethings work differently for different people, even when you're comparing apples to apples. I actually heard this from another jewellery designer; however, maybe it was because it's like granny smiths to macintoshes not two apple the exact same. It would be interesting to do a real study on this. Julie Davidson Smith, a friend and fellow artist, sent me a pic of my booth in action. Thanks Julie.

And the last picture was sent to me by Carolyn Barnett. It's the necklace she made at the last Bead 'n' Bitch. I absolutely love the button she used! She also included an old piece of wire wrapped beach glass I had done and wasn't happy with the wrapping so I threw it back in the discard pile to redo later. Goes to show, that your disgards are someone else's treasure (just like I talked about in an earlier blog entry)!

The next Bead 'n' Bitch is tomorrow night.

Adversity inspires creativity

This week I've been busy preparing for the Women's Art Festival for this Sunday (on top of having a cold, camping with the family, writing a few proposals, hosting a potluck...you get the idea I'm sure). In the midst of creating some earrings I ran out of jump rings. I had two solutions (well 3 but giving up just isn't my style) 1. try to order some but not sure if they would arrive in time and the shipping would cost more than the order or 2. be creative and try something different. So I went with number 2.

I started using my tiger wire and some crimps, some silver wire and voila... a new beautiful, little bit whimsical, style earring was born. In fact I love this new design so much that I made several pairs with the same concept. I can't wait to show them off this weekend at the festival! (that's why I didn't include a picture, come to the festival to get a peak!).

So what I learned from what started out as a frustrating situation is that sometimes it's good to shake things up a bit, put yourself in an adverse conditions and you'll be surprised with what you come up with...I sure was pleasantly surprised!

A bitchin' good time!

Last night was our first Bead 'n' Bitch. The ladies had a great time and produced beautiful twisted wire necklaces. I think everyone learned something, even me. Thanks Carolyn, Julie, Diane and Kelly. See you all on the 19th!