New Beads!

Woot!  New items just listed on etsy!  Yay!  Life is finally getting back to normal around here.  :)

The After Shot

Well, it's finally done!

I finally finished my booth makeover.  It has been quite a project!  It was fun, but it was a lot of hard work.  I made several trips to Hobby Lobby, Lowe's, Wal-mart and ordered stuff online, too.  I could not find the glass shelves locally at all.  I wound up ordering them online and paid more for the shipping than I did the shelves.  But, oh boy, do I love them!

I purchased eight glass blocks to use for shelf supports.  I added 2' panels of lattice to complete the lattice walls, I added a lush border of silk floral garlands around the top.  I turned my gridwalls sideways and hung them on one side of the booth.  I created new earring cards and hung those on the gridwalls.  I put lavender fabric behind the gridwalls to add some color there and to provide a back for the earring cards.  I brought out my old lavender table squares and put them back out (it has been a while since I used them).  I spray painted all of my black and white fully formed necklace busts lavender.

I recovered my dark twin towers and the smaller trio of towers with lavender fabric and spray painted the trio of candle holders.  I even spray painted the easel my books are displayed on.

I photographed four pieces of jewelry and had a friend of mine from the local art guild print them out in 12" x 12" size, (Thank you, Jim! You're a doll!) and framed them with purple-painted frames.  I spray painted the small choker bust on the table the same color of purple.

My goal with this project was to create a light and airy feeling to my booth and to definitely de-clutter it.  I have always been one to cram as much merchandise into my booth as possible, but I realize now that to give the classy gallery look and feel I need for better shows, I've got to integrate a lot of extra space.

This is fairly easy to set up.  The walls take longer than they did previously, but with less merchandise to put out, that part takes less time.  I guess it evens out.  I'm usually the last to leave any show, and I suppose that part won't change, but I am really much happier with my booth now.  It is something I feel I can be proud of.  I'll let you know if it helps me getting into better shows!

In the process of this makeover, I did find a lot of great useful information on the web:

http://bermangraphics.com/ is a site by Larry Berman, an artist who has tons of experience with shows and jury slides.  I even emailed Larry my images and he gave me some pointers on how to make them better.  I really appreciate Larry's help!  Thank you, Larry!

I also discovered http://groups.yahoo.com/group/artfestivalguide/ which is a yahoo group for art show artists.  Lots of great info there for anyone wanting to do shows!

Anyway, thanks for your patience, sorry to have kept you on the edge of your seat so long!  :)

Debby

The Before Shot

Hello all!

Now that there is a lull between shows, I have decided to take on the huge task of doing a booth makeover.  It is my goal to get into some finer shows and since I've been rejected a grand total of three times to such shows, I started to wonder if it wasn't my booth shot that was getting me disqualified.

I started researching booth photography online and sure enough I learned a few things.  The big ones are A) the shot must have an uncluttered look, B) NO signage of ANY kind and C) no people.  Well, obviously, I failed at all three:

This is the booth shot I've been using.

In addition, booth shots should NOT be photos take at actual shows, and should be taken with the three sidewalls up, in the shade or on a cloudy day, and using a tripod.

After reading all this, I realized I need to retake my booth shots and since I have to do THAT, I might as well do a booth makeover.  So... that's what I've been doing this week.  Things are coming along swimmingly!  I cannot wait to show you the AFTER photos.  I'm making some big changes, I think will be for the better.  I hope to finish by next week sometime.

Meanwhile, school is out and Ginny (the one in the above photo) is home.  She had an amazing year - the only kid in her class to make straight A's all year - and we are all very proud of her!  I can't believe she'll be in 3rd grade next year.  Time really flies...  We have some wonderful things planned this summer, which will bea lot of fun...  It'll be great just watching her get to be a kid for the summer.

Easier to Get Into Fort Knox

Hi all,

I am not very fond of Facebook right now.  I'm in Memphis, on my old laptop that recently had all of the software reinstalled.  Come to find out if A) you are in a new location AND B) using a computer that FB is not familiar with, you have to go through a series of seven questions before they will let you access your account.

If you have 208 friends like I currently do, and yes, I admit, I don't know them ALL that well, FB shows you random photos of seven people, and give you about seven choices as to who that person could be.  You can only pass on two, and the remaining five must be answered correctly or you will not get in to your account.  Fail three times and you will have to wait an hour before you can start the insanity all over again.

The photos FB shows you to identify are NOT "profile pictures"...  No, that would be too easy.  And, the photos might not necessarily be from their own accounts.  They could be tagged photos that someone else uploaded.  Using Sharon's (my show buddy) laptop, we searched for every photo in my list of friends and never found one that matched.  Some of the photos were artwork - as many of my "friends" are artists - and there was even one photo that showed 1/4 of a person's face and they expected me to recognize it.

Trying another approach, I tried logging in and clicking "I forgot my password".  FB sent a link to my email, and I clicked on that link from the email, fully expecting to access my account that way.  Even though I used the email they sent me, FB still did not trust that I was who I said I was, and attempted to test me again, and again I failed to get in.

I give up.

Anyway, needless to say I'm not fond of Facebook right now.  I will have to wait until I can return home tomorrow night and use the other computer from home before I can get on FB - and believe me, I will gripe!

Meanwhile, on a happier note, I had a great first day at the American Bead Show in Memphis today ~ still tomorrow to go!  :)

It's Show Time!

The Altus Springtime Gala went very well, I'm happy to report!  We had a little bit of rain that morning, but it cleared out and the rest of the day was beautiful.  :)  I had a great show!  Yay!

Now I am ready for the American Gem Show in Memphis this weekend.  I am SOOO looking forward to this show.  I've really missed the fine folks of the greater Memphis area.  It will be good to see some familiar faces again.  I have plans to meet up with some of them for dinner tomorrow night and again on Saturday.  My show buddy Sharon will be with me and we will have a great time, I am sure.  Sharon is such a hoot!  She is really fun to be around.

Anyway, I am all packed and ready to go so I think I will go relax in front of the tube.  If you're in Memphis this weekend ~ be sure to come see me!  :)

A Not So Simple Life

Today was the Blooms n' Blues Festival in Altus, Arkansas, and I was planning to exhibit at this event.  I sent out discount postcards to people in the area who might be interested in going.  I packed up everything and loaded the van.

Then, the weather came.

Storms brewed up yesterday afternoon and continued throughout the night and this morning.  I decided not to go.  I really hated that I had to miss this event as it was to be my first show of the season.  It has been unusually calm this spring, very little rain, and this was really the first storm so far, and it just so happened to fall on this weekend.  I was really bummed, and... admittedly, a little pissed off with Mother Nature.  The typcial "why me?" scenario completely dominated my thoughts this morning.

A friend of mine, Jim, a wood turner who is the president of my local art guild, did go and set up.  He called me about 10 a.m. to tell me that I had made the right decision.  He went on to say that his canopy had blown over in the wind and was now a pile of twisted metal.  I feel so bad for him.

Now I am hearing reports on the news that tornados broke out in Mississippi and destroyed many homes.  This brought me back to reality and my "woe is me" attitude is completely gone, replaced with feelings of gratitude that the outcome of this morning's storm wasn't much worse for me.  I still have my home.  I still have my family.  Some people will have no homes to sleep in tonight.  To those people, I apologize for having felt sorry for myself.

Next weekend is the Altus Springtime Gala, a small, yet, fun event in the small town's city park.  Altus was made famous several years ago when Paris and Nichole spent their first season of The Simple Life there.  I cannot think of Altus or visit the town without thinking of that show, and that Paris Hilton walked on the same park grounds, sat in the same bar, or frolicked in the same gazebo as I have.

Last year the Gala was rained out and I did not go.  Let's see if this year we'll actually have a good day and good weather.  Only time will tell.  Meanwhile, I am leaving my van packed all week for the show.  At least I won't have to reload it.  There is always a silver lining in everything that happens.  We just have to know where to look in order to find it.

Dogs, Lizards and Frogs, Oh My!

OK, I've been busy!

Busy making beads!  Yes!  I said beads!  I need to update the slide show there, but yeah... been makin' beads.  Yeah!

OK, so I'm excited.  Can you blame me?  I've made a whole bunch of critters:  Dogs, kitties, lizards, frogs -- and an Arkansas Razorbacks!  What the heck?  Lotsa Hog fans in these here parts.

I finally got caught up on my listing, so most of them are on etsy.  Go check it out - you know you wanna.

Don't know when I'll update my ol' website.  Haven't tried to log in to publish changes since I got the new computer.  Probably requires a fair amount of head-scratching configuration.  Just don't wanna...  I'm sure you can dig that.

Anyway, shows are coming up!  Two in Altus, AR, on the 24th of April and on May 1.  After that, a show in Memphis, TN and another in Branson, MO both in May.  Anyone nearby should come see me.  Mention the blog and get 20% off on everything in my booth!

Yeah, now that's exciting!  :)