Saturday, November 26, 2011

Day Two Was great at the JACC

 

 

image 2011-11-26 0002

Day one was great, too.  Something about the Public Market, much like the Alaska Folk Festival – it gets people out and meeting up.  There is is still tomorrow and I expect it will be another fun day of friends, looking at interesting wares and just enjoying the fact that people are taking some of their holiday weekend time to look at my creations.

What made Day Two so  special ?  It started with Bill helping me out with getting ready as I scrambled to pull everything together and to finish one more pin to take in and add to the selection.  (I just couldn’t help it!)  He drove me downtown so I would not have to worry about parking, What a gift! (and this leaves more space for the attendees!)  (He later made another trip to bring me my forgotten phone – oops.)

I was about ten minutes late, which is not really like me at all, but fortunately it does not take long to set up my booth.  As I got to it I noticed an elderly Tlingit gentleman had come over to my booth.  He had a look at my stuff as I was setting up and made some kind comments.  Then he reached in his pocket  and brought out  a postcard-sized print of a beautiful drawing of a raven feathers and a Raven, very graphic and lovely.  I really loved it. I handed it back to him but he insisted that I keep it.  I wish I could post it here, but I do not know whether he would want that or not.  I wish I could tell him how much that made my day. I will treasure it.

The rest of the day was really delightful as well.  I met a fellow-bead embroiderer who stopped by and was very encouraging and  inspiring.  She gave me an idea of a gallery to look into and gave me some very generous advice. 

My friend Amy joined me for part of the day (as she did the day before) – which meant not only did I get a little chance to stroll around and look at things and just get out of the building for a bit, but when we were sitting together she made it much more fun.  She has a gift for drawing people in and is not shy about pointing out the features of the individual pieces. Everyone should have a great advocate like her at their booth!  It is not just great for selling, but also that her interactions allowed me to hear some great feedback which I will of course keep in mind for future work…including tonight.  I came home and made the pin that is above and will add it to the selection.  (If you click it it will enlarge.)  It is a little more whimsical than my usual imagery, but I’m really happy with doing something a little different and with using the recycled kimono silk a different way (couched around the image.)

On another topic, I’ve decided to join the Bead Journal Project for 2012.  This is a great project in which you agree to make one beaded piece per month.  I signed up for the year 2010 and found it very inspiring and interesting, getting to know the other bead artists who were participating.  Unfortunately life derailed me a bit early in 2010, and while I continued to bead I didn’t finish the challenge that year and I didn’t join in in 2011.  I feel ready to join in again for 2012 and am already thinking about what I’m going to assign myself to create for the monthly pieces!

On a closing note – 2 fortune cookies I got today:

#1 was “Trust your intuition today.  You’re right on.”

#2 was  “Your dream will come true when you least expect it.”

Until next time…

1 comment:

  1. Love the pin! I agree that you are lucky to have a friend that will talk up your work at the booth. It's so hard to do that yourself.

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