Gold Mine

The past month has been a blur!

I've been out of town for three of the past four weekends now and I am so glad to be home. It was all wonderful fun; family and sun all over Florida.

One of those weekends was spent down in Tequesta with my dear friend Megan. The show, Next Wave, was a hit and the opening night party was packed with guests. I met some superb new artists and re-met another Gainesville local who happened to win best in show!

The best part of those three days though, aside from just hanging out and catching up with Megan, was driving to the Lighthouse Art Center classrooms and packing my car full to the brim with enamel and supplies.

This isn't even all of the boxes full of enamels gifted to me by Megan and the art center. The family of a local enamelist donated every last bit of her studio to the center when she died, but her supplies were older and every last one of her enamels is leaded. This meant that keeping them at a children's art school wasn't an option, but having them at my house is just fine!

This is the new kiln. I'm pretty sure my old one can fit inside the chamber of this one.

I'm excited to get working, even if I now have to fire outside on our screened porch. See, the old-school kiln requires a 240v outlet, which we have for our dryer on the porch. The leaded enamels also carry a bit of a risk as far as our pets are concerned. I can wear a mask and wash my hands, but they can't avoid getting the fine residue dust on their feet and fur ingesting it when they groom.

So, now I wait for the heat to dial it back a few notches. Working outside at a 1500 degree kiln when it's already 100+ outside isn't very motivating. I think for now I'll try to organize and catalog the couple hundred jars of enamel that are sitting in my spare bedroom, dreaming while I do of all the new creations they'll create.
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Next Wave

My sweet friend Megan moved back home to South Florida after college here at UF a few years ago. She landed the perfect job for her not long after that and has become the Assistant Director of Education at the lovely Lighthouse Art Center, a gallery and school located in her home town of Tequesta.

'Galaxy' dish in blue

Recently Megan sent me the call-to-artists information for a new show that will open at the end of June that features artists under 35. I stalled on it since we were headed to the big cities (Boston and NYC) on vacation just a couple days later. When I returned, I was surprised to find out that the deadline for submission was two days later and got myself in gear to photograph the pieces I planned on submitting. Well, good thing I wasn't relying on creating new work for the show because I would have never had the time, and then would have never had the opportunity to be a part of this exciting exhibit.
The board of directors quickly made their decisions and I was officially notified that all three of my submitted pieces were accepted! The large galaxy dish, sea glass pendant, and sand dollar pendant will be on display from June 24 through September 1.

Collin and I are making the drive down for a two-day stop so that we can visit with Megan and also attend the opening reception for the show on the 24th. The night boasts a micro-brew tasting and an awards ceremony for the artwork in the show. It's been a long, long time since my work was exhibited in a gallery and even longer since I submitted it to a juried show with the potential for an award. I'll be crossing my fingers they fall in love with one of them and that I can go home with a new feather for my cap.
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An Atomic Holiday 2011

Last year's Atomic Holiday Bazaar was a blast and I am flattered to have been accepted once again into Sarasota's finest indie craft fair!
Adrian Lucas is the lady behind the scenes and she's fine company to be in with this crowd. She puts in tremendous effort every year to make this event happen and when she announced applications would become available mid April I was mo-ti-vated!

I spent a few afternoons taking photographs of items that didn't sell at last year's shows (I know, major slacking right?) and listing items in my etsy shop and linking to them through Facebook. Then, I sent off my application and hoped that I made a good enough impression last year for her to have me back.

Well what do you know? I did!

(source)

I'll be starting to work earlier than I did last year (hello stressball) and will hopefully be able to crank out lots of inventory to keep my shop and my shows full through the end of 2011. I have a big order list to fill with raw copper shapes, enamels, and tools I need to make sure I have plenty of supplies for the season.

I'm excited to get started soon and I'm even more excited that the room I enamel in this time, has its own air conditioner. So, in my spare time you'll probably be able to find me working at the kiln, AC on 65.
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An Atomic Holiday

Just a couple weeks ago I sent off my application to be included in the 2010 Atomic Holiday Bazaar.
Not even a week later I had an acceptance letter waiting for me when I logged into my email account first thing in the morning. AWESOME. Gotta love a prompt and enthusiastic welcoming to the show!

In it's fifth year already, I am blown away that I didn't know about this gem of an indie craft fair until last year. Maybe it's because I wasn't involved in my own business back then, but really, what excuse did I have for not knowing about it when I was living in Sarasota? I drove by this building where it is annually held every day.

Oh, I love that coastal Florida art deco architechture.

I am really optimistic that this will be the best show of the year for me and that means lots and lots of work this summer building my inventory for the Fall and Holiday rush. I have shows scheduled for November and December with one I'm wavering on for October. I've been really happy about using only profits from my artwork to pay for my needed supplies, but I think I'm going to have to give myself a little more cash to get everything I'll need to have enough work for all these shows.
It also means that I don't get to take too long off from creating while we're packing up and moving in July and August. I'll also have to get my enameling area ready for working pretty quickly even if that means leaving other (more fun?) home decorating projects aside until I feel confident that I'm not avoiding the real work to be done in the studio.

My goal for the summer is to work more consistently. I can't exactly keep a schedule because I like to plan studio time around when Collin will be working in the evenings too. This lets us at least have a couple nights a week to relax, cook, and eat dinner together. I need those nights. So, on nights when he is out I like to enamel, or photograph, or edit photos, or post them online. Right now I've been doing a whole lot of nothing because I have a larger stock of inventory. I don't want to let that lull me into a sense of security though.
Ideally I would make time for myself to enamel, photograph, edit and post items online once a week each. Maybe I can keep myself accountable by fitting in a blog post about new pieces and progress on here?
For now these sound like nice goals. I'm just glad people are reasonable here and no one really schedules art festivals in the middle of the oppressive Florida summers - I would be too tempted to sell and I need to pace myself to keep from getting burned out. Read more...

sickness

That's where I've been.
Sick.

Allergies.
Oak pollen coating everything in fine dust - turning the city to a giant tennis ball.

Oh, and work. Can't stop working now just because you are sick! Not when there are new instruments to finish setting up to get them running!

Really though, I was sick last weekend. Thursday night I woke up twice to change my sweat-soaked shirt and my fever didn't back down until overnight Sunday. So I did actually get to spend my already-a-day-off Friday and then my made-it-a-day-off Monday on the couch. That's also where I wound up each night after waking, again, so incredibly hot that I couldn't even lay next to Collin. Or the cat.
My only symptoms were the ridiculous fever and the constant coughing that kept the both of us up all night.


I started feeling better, minus the bruised rib I caused from coughing nonstop, but working full (or longer) days the rest of this week has wiped me out.

Other things that have been keeping me tired:
Filling custom enameling orders Monday and Tuesday night. I love love love waking up to new orders, whether they're from friends or strangers. Okay, especially from strangers! It really makes my day.

Wednesday I went out with Kara and Anna for dinner at Bistro1245. Nommmm those portabello sandwiches. Ugh. I could eat there everyday. It had been way too long since we've gone down to mid town for food and I need to be willing to drive more than 5 minutes sometimes to savor my old favorites. In town for just a couple days, Kara is home to Florida from NYC for Easter weekend and I am so glad she stopped in Gainesville. I say it all the time that one of our biggest reasons for staying in town is that everyone loves to come visit you. No one moves away and hates this place, so to be the ones who host visitors instead of the ones who travel to their friends is perfect for us!

Thursday wasn't anything fun, but I had to come all the way back into work to read samples that arrived late Wednesday night. It was the longest most drama-filled day ever for our sampler and I'm thankful my backup analyst had a flexible night so that I didn't have to miss dinner with my girls. I rewarded myself for driving all the way out there by getting chick-fil-a on the way home (since both of the ones in town are so far from us). I freaking love their chicken. Forever. But it's hard to keep from eating like all of it on my drive home. Stop lights just make you want a fry.

Now I'm here, working on Friday and pretty set in my decision to leave early as usual on a Friday to hang out at home for the afternoon with the family. I might go by the grocery store to pick up the rest of the sale items for the week I want to buy. I might go by El Indio and pick up mexican food to satisfly the craving I have for it already this morning at 9:15. Damn. 2PM can't come fast enough.

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Valentine's Sale

Saturday was a ton of fun and I can't for the next show. My table looked gorgeous and was set up super fast thanks to all my pre-show preparations and that amazing husband of mine who helped me lug heavy stuff and set it all up.


"i loved this stuff and she was sooo nice" - written on a facebook photo post of my table!!

It was busier than I expected and I sold a lot as well as traded for a few amazing items from other artists at the show.
check out mooncat:


and the coolest dogs at the bbq:


I also got three pairs of beautiful earrings from other sellers who were also at GLAM last fall. One whom I bought a necklace from (one of two things I bought that day) and the other two from the same woman Collin had found those sweet pink skull earrings at. She ended up as my table neighbor and it was great to talk with her about shows and local craft fairs. She's done the Atomic Holiday Bazaar since the beginning so it will be great to see a friendly face there if I should make it into the show. She also encouraged me to do the O'Connell Center holiday sale - a two day mega sale in the UF basketball stadium. It's an expensive entry fee but could be really really worth it if I work all summer to build an inventory for the holiday shows that are all back-to-back-to-back.
So far it looks like it's gonna be a killer year.
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North Florida Winter

More images from my neighborhood during the coldest week since the 1960's.
I'm happy to have a burst of Winter here in Florida - especially when our coldest cold is still warmer than the rest of the country.

It's been about 5 years since I last saw anything near 17 degrees (what it was this Monday morning when I woke up to get ready for work). Somehow though, the roses are holding up and our own flowers just might make it through. I'll credit Collin with that one as he's the one who braved the cold to lay out towels over our poor plants.

winter white roses

these were once little black berries

redberries

Here's to the warming sun and the potential for temperatures to hit the 70's this weekend. I'm hoping for a moderate rest of the season with a long drawn out spring. It can happen, right?

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proof

That I was once a high school cheerleader.

Came across this on the sidebar slideshow (say that 5 times fast, eh?) and had to reminisce for a moment. Ahh the bruises and sunburn and fabulous arm muscles.
I actually wore that uniform to school on many an occasion. And I'm pretty sure the skirt came to just below my ass. How can you respect a dress code after walking the halls in things like this?

Truth is, I quit cheerleading at the start of football season after it was revealed to us that because of 9/11 we weren't allowed to fly to Dallas for the national competition we'd won a bid for at cheer camp that summer (sidenote: that was the first time I ever went to Gainesville!). What a bummer. I was definitely not in it for the football or social implications. The cheerleaders weren't really at the top of the totem pole as far as popularity went at VHS.
We had a great football team (State Champs '00) and still do actually - whatup Trey Burton. That's just not what I loved about the sport.

So goodbye tiny skirt and bloody noses.
I went back to the world of ballet and blisters.
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