In all the chaos of ordinary life things, I haven't mentioned how much fun Robert and I had at the Artfest art fair in Springfield, MO. I had a lot of wonderful conversations, was inspired on so many levels (art, poetry, people watching, booth setup, overhearing conversations etc.), and sold a few things.
Robert filling up the water weights in a gas station bathroom (he has a funny story about this):
Last minute hardware additions in the hotel parking lot 😆:
I especially loved the conversations with people who said my art reminded them of their ancestors' and/or family's artwork. I remembered two of these techniques, Kumihimo and Huichol beading, both of which I looked up later and was totally gobsmacked by. There are so many beautiful techniques and art forms out there. I will never know them all!
Robert and I also walked away with a few things to work on. The biggest thing that needs to change is naturally the smallest thing. I printed all my artwork tags on business card paper, and after putting them up, they all promptly fell to the ground overnight and also every time we had a breeze. I also had two tags for almost every piece of art, because I decided to include QR codes to the item's blog post where I talk about the process and/or share progress pics.
My plan is to make laminate tags this time on the laser engraver at work and figure out a way to squeeze in the QR code so everything is on one tag. That way when someone buys a piece of artwork they have something more durable if they want to look up the QR code later and not some tag that got super soggy from falling to the ground despite multiple hooks and gorilla tape. I am still trying to figure out how to secure the tags to the walls. I'm concerned the laminate tags will still keep falling if there is any wind. I may need to tie them up with something durable instead of hooks.
It's nice to have a takeaway that's manageable. I have another art fair coming up the weekend of June 7-8th in Topeka, KS. The only thing that's changing for this fair are the tags. Everything else we want to do will wait until fall if I'm accepted to the fairs I've applied for. When I applied for the Topeka art fair, I knew I wanted to reach out to a writer friend of mine who lives there. During the pandemic my monthly poetry group started meeting virtually. Even once it was safe to meet in person again, we stayed virtual because one of the members of the group moved and we also gained two out-of-town writers who were friends of other writers in the group. One of these writers that I've been meeting with virtually for the last few years lives in Topeka. It's only an hour away, but we never get around to going there. After the art fair, Robert and I are going to officially meet her in person and check out her garden, which is legendary. It's going to be a wonderful weekend!
Last month I decided to do something brave and apply as an artist for a show/project that I've been a part of as a writer in the past. This show is in Columbia, MO at the Columbia Art League gallery and is near and dear to my heart. They pair up 35 writers with 35 artists and they spend a couple months interpreting each other's work. I have been accepted three times as a writer. This year I decided to apply as an artist for the first time, and one of my pieces was accepted. I received the poem that I'm interpreting, and I couldn't be more pleased. The piece I submitted for interpretation is an embroidery piece with flowers and a tangle of wild grass. The poem I'm interpreting is about prairie grasses. Seriously! When I haven't been working on finishing up a couple collages for the June art fair, I've been making these absurd prairie grass drawings with lopsided birds. I finally have three pieces of fabric and a few beads picked out. It's going to be a wild journey.
Work is still a lot, but I can now do so much more such as build trophies, plaques, and other things without assistance. Customers and their stories are my favorite part of my job, but I also love the accounting side of things and pretty much anything to do with production. I have no issues with stopping everything and building 70 trophies for a rush job while I listen to an audiobook. Love it.
I love not knowing what someone is going to walk in and hand me - an old blue croquet ball, a horseshoe from a Clydesdale, a rubber chicken wing, a broken pig figurine from a trophy, a Precious Moments bible (haven't seen one of these since I was a kid), buck antlers, a dagger, bowling pins, an ancient matchbook so worn you can almost see through it. We recently had someone ask to personalize the tiniest of lapel pins. We have a scratch engraver but no jig to hold something like that, and nobody wants to lose a hand holding it, so that was out. We had some time to think, so we did. Finally, it came to me that we could stick it in a piece of styrofoam so it lays flat so we can UV print on it (UV printers can only do flat items).
We are almost done with all the building updates, but it's been busy and kinda wild some days with our everyday workload in addition to end-of-the-school-year orders. Also, we had just priced everything in the showroom, and now price changes are slowly trickling in thanks to the tariffs. Thankfully, we chose to use price range stickers, so there are some items that are still in the right range even with the tariffs.
We also had our first official UV printer job with a handful of others starting to trickle in. Our biggest task for the UV printer is making jigs for future orders, which are these pieces we custom cut on our laser engraver that will hold multiples of the same item such as medals. Our first official sand carving job is due in less than two weeks, which is very exciting. Once we get going on the sand carver I am going to be going to a lot of liquor stores to let them know we are officially in the bottle engraving business!
I am eager to share all of our before/after pictures around the shop, but we aren't quite finished. Robert and I are hoping to put together more shelves this weekend, perhaps even the rest of them, and then we can officially organize products again, which will be a thing of beauty and so nice to have everything in its place.
For right now, Margo is the most beautiful thing at work (she has no trouble convincing others of this). She has a few fans now who come in just for some golden therapy. Occasionally I'll be with a customer and there will be a squeal of delight. Next thing I know, Margo is at their side. She's a pretty smart cookie. She doesn't come out for every customer interaction, but if she does, she'll sit right at the entryway to the back, smiling and wiggling her whole self. If there's a squeal of delight or someone calls for her she will go to them. If not, she's been doing a good job staying right at the entryway. Occasionally, she comes and sits in the entryway without me noticing. I'm always so tickled when I hear that squeal of delight before I even register Margo is there.
