Inspriation from the Strangest Places

Last week I was at a Junior Chamber conference in Kelowna (where I bought a great piece of local art from a neat little store called Funktional). During the conference there was an Effective Public Speaking competition and the topic was 'getting inspiration from the strangest places'. During some of the speeches my mind wandered (says a lot for the speakers doesn't it? that's a whole other blog entry!) and started to think about where I get my inspiration from.

At my core, my most basic level of inspiration comes directly from my family. I have an over-active need to make them proud. I remember when I was in college out west and stumbling across a really old hand carved tomb stone that said his name, years and in quotes "..and he was a damn good Irishman." I think that sums it up, he made people proud of who he was. Now I may not want mine to read the same thing (since I'm not Irish) but I hope it will have the same impact.

When I moved passed my core I thought about my art. Why do I create? Why do I choose beach glass? I started jotting notes down and then I realized I was basically re-writing my artist statement. I remember when I first wrote my artist statement it seemed so daunting and difficult, but putting it in the context of inspiration it was all of a sudden easy.

So the next time you're asked to submit an artist statement, start with the question 'where does my inspiration come from?' You may even be surprised with your answer!

It's orientation time!

On Saturday, we had a new exchange student from Japan move in with us. Shizuka is here studying english for 4 months. The last few days not only has she had an orientation at Queen's but at our house as well. Everything from how to do laundry here, that we have a funny hot water tank in our house, what life with a 4 year old is like, the type of food we eat, etc. It's been fun for all of us, but it did make me relate it to my customers a bit.

When my customers buy a piece of jewellery from me, it is often their very first piece of beach glass jewellery. Which means they don't know how to take care of it; how to wash it, how often it can be worn, what if it tarnishes, etc. So I need to make sure to give them some sort of an orientation. Do you do this for your customers? Maybe with an FAQ page on your website, a little tip sheet given with each sale, or just by showing them during the sale?

The second thing it reminded me about was language barriers. In most cases, the challenge may not be as significant as Japanese to English; but often I hear artists (and other business owners for that matter) getting too technical when they talk to clients. Remember, you know the intricate details and 'lingo' associated with your industry but your customers may not, they may not know what those acronyms mean. You may just get the same crossed-eyed, squished up nose look I got from Shizuka when I said it was 'muggy out on the weekend'. So make sure you are speaking the same language as your customers, they'll appreciate it, Shizuka does.

First Day Jitters

Yesterday was my son's first day of school, JK. All summer both of us were looking forward to it so much. He was so excited about it until....the night before. That's when the nerves set in. "What if they make me play games I don't know?" What if no one wants to play with me?" "What if I can't reach the toilet paper?" (I know who knew he had so many worries?) So we talked them all through and other scenarios that might pop up too. We read the letter from the school and packed his backpack with everything on the list. We made up his lunch and labelled it all.

In the morning we went over the letter again, reviewed what was for snack and what was for lunch. We walked to school early so that it was less intimidating when we arrived and we could get the lay of the land first. He made friends instantly and all seemed to be good...until the bell rang and then the tears started. So we re-introduced in him to the teacher, went over his backpack and food again. Talked about what the day would be like and told him he could ask the teacher to call me at lunch if the day was still horrible. I never got the phone call, in fact when I picked him up at 330 he said he had a great day. It was harder than daycare because he had to learn more and play more, but he liked it.

This whole process reminds me of preparing for a new show. I am all excited leading up to and the night before I get nervous. "Do I have everything packed?" "Do I have enough stock?" "Do I have the right products for this show?" So I do the same things as I did with my son, review the confirmation letter, review what I packed and try and get a goodnight sleep.

The day of the show I try and go early to get the lay of the land. Introduce myself to the organizer. Give myself a time that I'm allowed to leave if I want (if this is possible with this kind of show).

The morale of the story is whether it's the first day of school or preparing for a show, preparation is key, but most important is to make sure you've packed some good snacks!

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!