A Glimpse of the Bigger Picture

I try to keep this blog mostly jewelry focused. But this resonated with me:

"may you always remember that obstacles in the path are not obstacles, they ARE the path."

Wise words, from a someone who apparently had many wise words to share. The quote is from a Seattle woman who recently wrote her own obituary. She died from cancer on July 18th. But before she did, she shared herself, one last time, and quite beautifully, with the world.

The rest of the obit is HERE. It brought tears to my eyes.


What would we say, if we were to write our own goodbye, I wonder?  

What a shame that she is gone too soon. But what wonderful love and memories she must have left with those fortunate enough to know her...I think of my friend Kathleen, who died suddenly earlier this year, and of how she meant so much to everyone she encountered. And I strive to do better myself. The obstacles are the path. The path is the journey. We make our choices every day.

Thank you, Jane Lotter, for being an example. And condolences to all who must be missing you so dearly right now.

Back in the Saddle (Old Horse, New Tricks)

One of the things they tell people who have never been on a horse before, is that you have to maintain control. If you don't, the horse will sense that and take every possible advantage of you. Sounds...sound, right? But if it's your first time (no matter what age) on the back of a horse, it's not quite that easy to put into practice...

It took me much longer than I expected to recover from the Ruidoso art festival in New Mexico. Last week my energy was nearly zero, and then I spent a busy weekend (my only "down" weekend this month) housecleaning and catching up on things. And I'm still trying to regain some equilibrium.

I think part of the issue was not just the physical tiredness and pain, but the mental side. I'm in an ego business - we artists have to be "approved" / "accepted" into art festivals, we have to pay for the privilege to just be looked over, with no guarantee of being granted permission to show up, then if we do get to show up (and pay for that privilege as well), we spend several days having our egos (and wallets, hopefully) either stroked or ignored by the public. And if you're not making the money you hope / need to make, you're going to (at least occasionally), feel a little bad about yourself...at least some of the time.

I know the rational reasons why I had a tough show. But the emotions are not so easily managed. At most festivals, I have what I would consider realistic expectations. But for whatever reason, I really let my expectations rise for this festival: I got called off the wait list! I won a blue ribbon! I have a great corner booth! I am doing some of the best work of my career so far! etc, etc...I felt like everything was sort of converging in my favor. So what do I know...apparently not. ~wry smile~

So. What does a sensitive artiste do when she's feeling low? She tackles something new, something she has no practice in, something that is a bit beyond her reach. Okay...no, most people would work on something simple and easy...stepping slowly into the harder stuff. Not moi. I went into the studio on Monday and decided that it was time to make rings. Big rings. With lots of soldered pieces on them. Soldering to CURVED surfaces...ha! Because when you're feeling down, you should set yourself what seems to be an insurmountable task! I can sort of laugh about it now, but on Monday night I was ready to toss my entire workbench in the trash. Head, meet wall. Banging ensues. Repeat ad nauseum.

But I DID learn. It's coming together. Two big ol' rings are to the clean up stage, and today I'm working on some easier things (finally). Making a bunch of bezels:

Mmm...yummy. Larimar, boulder turquoise(s), more turquoise, variscite, Kingman turquoise.

And more:

Peruvian opal(s), Eudyialite, sonoran cactus, boulder turquoise.

And MORE (I can't help it, I sort of get a rhythm going when I'm bezel-ing):

Larimars, Peruvian opals, Eudyalite.

What am I going to do with them? Not sure yet. But they need bezels no matter what. And when I am ready to design with these, I'm always happier when the bezels are done and I can get straight on to designing, rather than having to make the bezel. Design. Make the bezel. Design. What can I say? I'm a batcher.  :)

Which is why I did THESE, too:

Turquoise, petrified wood (I think), boulder turquoise, Peruvian opal, Eudyalite, boulder turquoise. And then I had to stop myself. Also, I ran out of 4mm bezel wire. Pfft. And I needed to work on finishing the big rings from earlier in the week...so I guess that was enough bezel making for one day. It gets out of hand quite easily.  :)


Now I'm planning my next big project, for next week...and maybe another big ring. With a stone, this time? I'm not sure yet...but the saddle leather is getting comfortable. The horse is a challenge but you can't let the horse be in control...the rider has to maintain control. Sometimes easier said than done...but I'm getting there.  :)

Ups And Downs

I've just returned home from a trip to Ruidoso, New Mexico, where I exhibited at the Ruidoso Arts Festival. I elected (perhaps somewhat crazily, in hindsight) to drive to and from the festival (that's a 22-hour drive, folks. Each way). You *may* be thinking I'm a little worn out today. You *may* be right.  :)

Unfortunately I did not come home with bags of money...far from. The show was a not all that I'd hoped for, but I certainly learned a lot...and of course, I'm going to share those learnings.  :)

First, the positives:

- The show is BEAUTIFUL. One of the prettiest art shows I've seen, with some really lovely art, ceramics, and sculpture. Caveat - you have to love the West / Southwest, or at least like a little touch of it, to want to shop at this festival. It's VERY South/Western. It's also indoors, in an excellent setting (the Ruidoso Convention Center). Very Southwestern / Lodge feel. There were several bronze artists there with amazing work (I love bronze sculpture).

- I had a GREAT booth. I didn't ask for (or pay for) a corner, but as it turned out, I ended up with one anyway. Which is always nice.  :)   Here's a booth shot:

The shot's taken from the direct corner angle, so that's my tent pole you see right in the center. I changed some things for this festival - mainly the new photos (hanging from the back walls) and the black fronts for the abstracta displays. The black panels look so clean and crisp and it just felt more polished overall. Plus my "inside" curtains (from when I used to do wholesale shows) almost exactly match my "outside" curtains (for retail festivals), which I used to wrap the top of my tent (unseen in this shot) and the side poles for a more polished look. I got lucky on the carpeting - it was provided by the convention center.

Here's a shot without the black panels for my display cases:

MUCH cleaner looking with the inserts.  :)


- I won first place in the jewelry category!! What a nice surprise. I'd submitted three pieces for judging, and this one won:

So a little "yay me". The blue ribbon was a nice attention-getter / conversation starter all weekend.

Now, the negatives:

- Foot traffic was exceptionally light, all three days. Most festivals are a numbers game; to make your necessary expenses and some profit, you have to have a LOT of potential customers coming to the event. Because what's the old phrase? "One yes for every seven no's"? I'd say it's more like every fifteen no's...so light foot traffic means it's that much harder to get to "yes" because you have a lot less customers to interact with in the first place.

- Apparently Ruidoso is where half of Texas goes to "summer" each year. Okay, I exaggerate a wee bit; Ruidoso, a town of (normally) 10,000, can't possibly accommodate half of TEXAS. But there were a LOT of Texans. And y'know what I found out about Texans? They have decided preferences. It *is* Texas, after all. This should surprise no one:

1. Bigger IS Better.

2. I Want My Bling

3. Bigger is Better, I Want My Bling, AND I don't want to "stand out" too much. I just want to "show off."

What that meant for me was:

1. The designs were too small. The newest pieces with the brightly colored stones got a lot of attention. But they were not bold enough for the Texas ladies.

2. The designs were not bling-y enough. I don't use faceted stones, I don't use crystals...see where I'm going with this? There was a jewelry booth at the end of my row, with very high end work - white gold, yellow gold, big fat blue topaz, tourmaline, etc. They had tons of customers all day long. It wasn't the most *creative* work...usually when working in gold the designs tend to be more conservative - but it WAS bling-y.

3. The designs were too weird. The mosaic metal pieces got a lot of attention, especially with the blue ribbon placed prominently next to my winning necklace, but I think they were a little too edgy for the crowd. Also, I'd run an ad in a local paper, and several people mentioned the ad. But what they said was, "Oh, I thought it would be BIGGER!".

*sigh*

Apparently - several exhibitors told  me - this show can totally tank in sales or it can be phenomenal. Unfortunately I can't afford to take the time / spend the money each year on that much of a gamble. I had a lot of expenses, coming all the way from Georgia, and the driving was hard on my body. So I won't be going back...but I now know that if I get into any Texas shows, I need a different product line.  :)

Additional positives (silver linings, kids!) were parts of the drive - I've said a million times how much I love the West, and driving through New Mexico was awesome. On my drive out, there were huge, huge stretches of land (for hours on end) that were just uninhabited. I love that wilderness; it makes me feel small (in a good way) and makes me so aware of the rest of the world. I drove through a lot of that space in silence, no phone, iPod off, working out things in my head. It was good for me.  :)

A lot of my NM driving looked like this. Except all flat; no mountains. This was closer to Ruidoso than, say...Clovis. :)

I also made a new friend. You know how you meet someone, and everything just clicks? That's exactly what happened with this girl. We had plenty of time to talk (unfortunately!) during the festival, and we went to dinner each night as well. It's amazing when you encounter someone who immediately "gets" you and you "get" them. Such an unexpected and wonderful bonus.

Also...being in New Mexico last weekend caused me to miss out on one of my staple gem shows, so I made a little side trip to Albuquerque, where one of my suppliers has a big warehouse. And I spend two hours picking out some new play toys.  :)  Here's just a little of what I purchased:

Turquoise pairs for earrings. I have quite a few turquoise pendants in my stock, but am low on earrings. The stones in the center are Peruvian opal, but the rest are turquoise.

I have the opposite situation with Larimar: lots of earring stones but few pendants. So these are a few of the pendant-sized stones I bought (The top two are for earrings; they had such a pretty pattern I couldn't resist).

More to come...I got some more fancy turquoise cuts and I'll show them to you soon, I promise. For now...more unpacking and a day of (mostly) resting after the long trip. Back into the studio tomorrow!  :)