This barn has a new glaze I'm trying out, it's a stoney surface and it also raku fires nicely. I really like the texture of it.I sat up late last night waiting on Gerry to get home from shooting a golf tournament out of town and we caught up after a week of him being gone. I had a hard time waking up this morning.Just a few more weeks and I never have to get a child up for school and pack a lunch again early in the morning. What will I do!
I moved my photo set up down to my studio so now everything is in one place and everything is finally out of my house. I get great natural light through the windows, and this cube folds flat for easy storage and then I can just switch light bulbs and use the lights for my studio.
I made some new test tile boards last week, cleaned my studio from the weeks of making for all the shows I had, and made a few barns. Also had lunch with a couple of friends and spent a lot of time with Wes, whose schedule is a mess right now because of exams. Lots of down time from the studio, so I need to ramp it up a bit this week and get some work made. I also spent some time working out some marketing and contacting a few galleries. The goal is more galleries, less craft fairs for the future. I also looked around at a few folks that have open Facebooks and I am still not convinced to jump in. The pages are boring, unattractive and irritating to me. The like thing and the way too many one word comments seems like such a waste of time to sift through.Yeah, cool, like, way to go, go for it, blah blah, really? Do we need this in our lives? I know I don't, I seem to be really happy without a tweet or a face and I love my blog. When people comment on my blog, it is generally a thoughtful and interesting conversation, not just a quick Facebook response. Sorry, you guys can have it, still not interested :)
Saturday was the Haw River Festival that kicks off the beginning of the Farmers Market and the Saturday Music Series. This is one of the festivals I'm not complaining about. The people that I meet here are great, the music is great, the farmers are great, the food not so great, but the ice cream is homemade. My tent is set up beside ice cream man, and while there are some days I sit there and sell nothing while he sales cone after cone, I do like him a lot and his ice cream is the best! This is the one non craft vendor I don't mind being set up next to. And the hamburger guy is in the truck across from me. So the deal is, while people wait in line for their burgers and ice cream they do wander into my tent and chat and often come back to buy something. Lots more burgers and ice cream were sold than crafts, really makes you think about getting one of those food trucks. My sales were way off from last year, but then so was my inventory since most of my work ended up at the NC Crafts gallery and Shakori. You just have to go to this market with the mind set that you are there for a good time, and you might just make some money too. I pack a picnic, bring the family and we make a day of it. This year Wesley got an extra bonus for coming along. The woman that is in charge of the market is also responsible for the new Haw River ballroom, which will be the latest venue for local and regional bands. It's a great space in the converted cotton mill. She came by my tent on Saturday and after we told her that Wes had been accepted to film school, she asked Wes if she had her video camera and asked her to film the opening night at the ballroom for their website. Wesley's first film gig! She was very excited and handled herself very professionally. It was really cool to see my child all over the stage and around the band filming with her new camera she got for her birthday. I can see her future and it looks bright!We had a great, very chill Mother's Day. We went out to breakfast, came home and watched some movies and then went into Carrboro for beer (me) and pizza. It was just Wesley and me since Gerry was in Charlotte, and it was a really nice mother daughter day. I hope all of you moms out there had a great day!
Time to get to work, just one more cup of tea.......
8 comments:
yeah the food vendors always make the most money at shows, we noticed that back when we used to go to car shows too and always threatened to become food vendors.
Yea, facebook. I'm on there but still on the fence about it. I will say I have it set up so that when I update my blog it goes to Facebook....I have gotten some new followers because of that. So even if you did nothing else that link is pretty effortless and you could pick up some new barn lovers. :)
Anna that may be the only good argument I've heard for Facebook!
hi tracey, i like that stoney-looking glaze. i admire you for your stance on FB although even though i succumbed. i have to say that it is pretty much a cesspool most of the time but... i think there are 1000+ people that have seen my work who might not have otherwise. i only put a link to blog posts on FB... so i write for the blog and just link to it from FB. congrats to wes on her first gig. i'm sure it will be good.
The word verification for this comment is Flingle so I'll say we had a flingle of a sale in Cincinnati.It is so nice that you and Wes are enjoying your time together.Congrats to her on the gig.
sounds like you have the world sorted trace....icecream, barns, photo studio, the kids off to college and work in galleries....LIKE hehehehehe
facebook does have lots of boring/useless crap on it. it does give you the option of hiding things... i hide everyones games and most of the apps that get passed around. it can be a great marketing tool. you can post pics of your work, links to your blog, post new work on etsy. there are also lots of galleries and gallery owners on facebook that you can connect with their page and sometimes them personally
...and yes occasionally some good discussions do occur!
on the other hand i really don't get twitter... that i find very boring.
The whole social media thing is rather bi-polar to me: curse/blessing, blessing/curse, etc. etc... (Or, is it me who is bi-polar?)... Anywho... The new glaze on your barn looks great!
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