Spotting My Work In The Wild

Hi!  Remember me?  I know it's been a dog's age since I last posted....

For the past two weekends, this has been my home, doing two art fairs.  Both fairs went well -- great crowds, good sales, and good weather (none of the predicted rain on the first weekend, and a good 10 degrees cooler each day the second weekend than it was at the same show last year -- seriously, last year you could see people's brains melting as they trudged through the show grounds....).  All but one of the pieces I blogged about in advance of the first show went to new homes -- hooray!

You better believe I was extra cautious as I passed by the Killer Cicada Tree this year. I managed not to drop food on my clothes.  I did perform a spontaneous interpretive dance otherwise known as the "YEOW, I Put My Glasses On Top Of My Head And Now They're Completely Tangled Up There" jig, closely followed by the "Now My Hair Looks Like A Scary Witch" boogaloo.  In terms of my typical show kerfuffles, both weekends were relatively calm.

I did spot a surprising number of people wearing pieces they'd bought from me at previous shows.  What a cool feeling!  It was kind of like spotting your favorite kind of bird perched in a tree outside your window.

Another cool result from the past two weekends was two new galleries interested in carrying my work, a new show that I might do next month, and a connection with a local company that could lead to some really exciting things. I have a few weeks' break before the next round of shows, but with everything else going on, I'll be spending every waking hour in the bead room.  I know, getting up and saying "I HAVE to make some earrings today" is an incredibly fortunate position to be in.  Excuse me while I go do a happy dance!

And The Fall Show Season Begins!

This week marks the beginning of the fall show season for me.  If you've been around here for a while, you know that this signals the onset of my own brand of slapstick and wackiness -- attacks of cicadas the size of a B-52, meteorological rolls of the dice, unexpected hairdo's, and the chance to meet wonderful new people.

This weekend is the Woodland Art Fair in Lexington KY, which was a terrifically fun show for me last year.  Here are a few of the freshest things from the work table that will be making their debut at the show.

And hey, if you're around, come visit me in Booth 153!

Strawberry Stains, Cicada Attacks, and Breastplate-Wearing Women

This weekend was the first of my shows for the fall, and y'all, I'm still grinning about it.

The weather was gorgeous, the crowds were HUGE, and people were very responsive to my jewelry. A lady came into the booth wearing an amazing breastplate (really, the only way to describe the construction of found objects and wires that had been fashioned together -- this piece would be the dictionary illustration of "statement necklace"), and I thought "oh, goodie, a woman who enjoys showing off her style."  Sure enough, she bought two of my more exuberant pieces, this necklace from the A Time To Stitch challenge:

and a green freeform peyote necklace that I'm not sure I have a picture of.  Bless her heart, I loved that lady!

Of course, it would not have been a story from my life if there hadn't been moments of wierdness and klutziness.  I made my way over to the artists' breakfast on Sunday morning, got a cupful of luscious looking strawberries, and headed back to my tent.  On the way, I passed a small tree and was thinking how loud the cicadas in it were, when a huge thing (it was either a mutant cicada or a B-52 - this thing was BIG) flew right into my neck next to my ear.  Imagine, if you will, me jumping up and down, waving my arms and whooping, while all the strawberries in my cup go flying around the park.  I slinked (slunk?) back to the bandstand, refilled my cup with new berries, and went back to my tent via a path that was far from the Tree of the Killer Cicadas.  Back in the tent, I bite into the first strawberry, marvel at how juicy it is, and then realize that I now have a big strawberry juice stain down the front of my shirt.  Yep.  Fortunately I had some water, so I started the second day of the show with a big ol' wet spot on my chest.  Classy, huh?

Anyway, here are a pictures of some of the earrings that went home with folks this past weekend. 

 

Another show this weekend -- I'll be at the worktable every night until then, working to get ready.  And this time, I'll steer clear of cicada-bearing trees...

Wherein Good Fortune Freaks Me Out And I Go On A Challenge Hiatus

Have you ever heard the expression, "be careful what you wish for"?  Because I will be the walking, talking embodiment of it for the next four months.

This is going to sound like the stupidest, "shut up until you have something real to worry about" post in the world, but y'all, I looked at my calendar the other day and nearly panicked.

And yes-I-know-I'm-an-idiot thing about it is that IT'S ALL GOOD STUFF.  But I'm still in low grade panic mode.

See, I applied to a bunch of shows this fall, and I got into most of them.  Fabulous, right?  Yes!  I'm thrilled! Especially since three of them are new for me.


(This is last year's poster - oops - but here's the info)



A great little show just a few miles up the road from me

They call this "Indiana's Nicest Day" - who could resist?

An indoor show, which is nice in November!

 

Of all of these fabulous opportunities, the one I'm truly, utterly, speechlessly excited about is the final one shown above, the Kentuck Festival.  It's in a town I lived in for fourteen years, it's a show I loved as a patron, and it's a show I've been applying to for years.  Seriously, YEARS.  It got to the point that everytime I'd send off my application I'd tell the kids "Mommy's just had her annual exercise in futility."  So you can imagine how excited I was to get the notice of acceptance!  (Actually, I scared the crap out of my poor husband, who thought something horrible had happened when I opened the email and screamed...)

So with all of this happening on top of my busiest time of year at my job, the next few months are going to be, um, interesting!

And as many exciting challenges are out there (I'm looking at you, Saturday Sequins, ArtBead Scene, etc...), once my reveal in the third part of the Bead Soup Challenge is over, I'm putting myself on a strict no-challenge diet!