Show Season

It's that crazy part of the year with only 52 days left till Christmas.

There are three big shows coming up in the next short while. Prince Edward Island Crafts Council show in Charlottetown 13-15 November, and the Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council Show 20-22 November. Back to back weekends away.

There is the potential of a fashion show on the 28th and there are classes to teach in the midst of all this.

December brings the Ottawa Originals Show for 10 glorious days of Christmas shopping from the 10th -20th. Just remember that show is closed on the 14th.

I am looking forward to seeing friends and regular clients at the shows and hopefully having a bit of time to catch up with a few of the denizens we count as dear friends in each of the cities.

--

Summer Show in Halifax, etc...

I'm getting ready to hit the road again: this time for Halifax.

The Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council's Summer Market is fast approaching with the opening on Friday at noon. The show returned to its original location at the corners of Spring Garden and Queen last year after being very downtown at the waterfront for a short time and then a year of non-existence. This year the show has grown again and boasts 32 attending artisans.

I have made several new pieces for this show, not that I have photographed them all, have to take the camera and grab snapshots of the pieces on display, just so that there is a visual record of the work before it sells (now there is some optimistic thinking).

My postcard invites went out last week and my email invites went out yesterday. The more inexpensive pre-show promotion that we can do the better. This little bit of work on my part has the potential to add between 40 and 80 visitors to the event that might otherwise not become aware of it. And the moral of this tale boys & girls is that the more artisans that create a client list of thier supporters and interested persons and use it, there are going to be more people aware of the event and in turn, the more there is for all of us. It's a win-win idea. I invite my clients, you invite yours and we share. Not to shabby, eh?

In other news: I am enjoying the social life provided by my partnership in the "Garrison Studio" in the Garrison District on Queen in Fredericton. The sign for the shop was painted and installed yesterday. Big cheer there as that meant that the weather was finally dry enough for the city's summer students to get it done. It also doesn't hurt my feelings that there have been some decent sales from the effort and I've only been brusque with one person so far this summer... "No, I don't make this in Mexico." Sorry dude, I know it's a legit question, but when you add that you are super familiar with the differences in jewellery styles, it strikes me as an odd question and I was obviously in an odd mood. Ooops, now you all know how to get me riled up;)

Went to a meeting for the Fredericton Arts Alliance Art Trek last night. The question is wether or not the open studio tours for 2009 can be pulled together as there was significant decrease in funding for the coordination and operations of this growing event. One brainstorming session later, it is looking a lot more positive, but the committees involved are going to be one very busy bunch for the next short while. As it stands, dates for the event are the 17 & 18 of October with a gala opening on the evening of the 16th.

Anyway, we hit the road on Thursday morning, drive through and find our flop-house in H'fax, check-in and then do the set-up for the show. On our way back after tear-down, we stop in Moncton and deliver some finished work to a colleague at midnight or so. Looking forward to this weekend and then getting back, grabbing a nap and getting ready for company that is arriving mid-week.

Cheers
--

Show Season update

We have been enjoying the rush and excitement of the Christmas Arts/Crafts Shows in the region for the past couple of weekends.

The Prince Edward Island Crafts Council provided and exceptional show at the Confederation Centre in Charlottetown. The entire team, all PEICC members, that worked on the show were very warm and welcoming. It was a delight to back on the island after not having been there for several years.

In Halifax, we had an outstanding show at Pier 23, the home of the Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council's Christmas Market, again, beautifully organized and produced with outstanding results.

Thanks to everyone, including our regular and new clients who helped make these enjoyable events.

BTW, the music was relatively good both places.

We have three smaller one day events coming up, a 'men's night' at Viktor's Blue Rose Salon in Woodstock on Thursday, a sale at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre on Saturday and then back to Viktor's on the 6th, whereupon we will depart for Ottawa and The Originals Show for the 11th-21st of December. I am looking forward to Ottawa this year. The booth location is in the first isle towards the upper end. Our new booth design which we tested in the spring and has worked well for us at the Council shows should be ideal for this venue. We are also looking forward to reconnecting with old friends in the area and remeeting so many of the fabulous folks from last year's shows.

See you there!

NSDCC Summer Market

The Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council is presenting their Summer Craft Market Downtown on Friday July 25 through Sunday July 27. The market is being held at the corner of Spring Garden Road and Queen Street.

Hours are:
Friday, July 25 10 am ‐ 8 pm
Saturday, July 26 10 am ‐ 6 pm
Sunday, July 27 10 am ‐ 6 pm

As always, the quality of the show is high, even though it is much smaller than the Christmas Market, which could make this an easier show to shop.

We're hoping for a good weather weekend and that everyone has a grand time at the show.

See you there

Cynthia & David

and this just in from Julie at the NSDCC office:

The 31st Summer Craft Market will be held on the lawn and parking lot at the corner of Spring Garden and Queen, beside Dalhousie University. This is an incredible location, taking in the sites, sounds and smells of bustling Spring Garden Road, and just a stones throw from the Halifax Waterfront.

Collectors will have the opportunity to wrap themselves in clothing made from vintage fabrics, handyed silks or handwoven jackets. Find the perfect mug for early morning coffee, a handturned wooden bowl for an upcoming wedding gift or perhaps the upcoming nuptials are yours, several jewellers will be on hand, locally made gold bands would complete the day.

Craftspeople working in glass, visual art, wood, textiles, metal, clay make the NSDCC shows one of their premiere events each year.

Demonstrators will be on hand throughout the event to show their skills in handcoiling clay, stitching, basketry spinning, weaving and metalwork to name but a few. Please spread the word.

Here are the nuts and bolts...Friday, July 25 - 10am to 8pm

Saturday, July 26 - 10am to 6pm

Sunday, July 27 - 10am to 6pm

Corner of Spring Garden and Queen Streets beside the Dalhousie University Sexton Campus building.

We will be under large white tents, with a few smaller tents.

Exhibitors will include...

Serenity Images -- Anne Bastedo, visual art

Pam Frail -- PJ Crow Designs, metal/jewellery

Gail Heinze-Milne - Glass With Class, glass

Landry's Birdseye Bowls - Leonard Landry, woodturner

Constantine Designs -- Lynda Constantine, metal/jewellery

Hunter Street Silver -- Jennifer Hunter, metal/jewellery

Masterworks Jewellery, metal/jewellery

Common Threads Silk -- Margaret Boyle, textiles

La P'Tite Poterie - Suzanne Babineau - clay

Turbine - Lisa Drarer-Murphy - textiles/clothing

De Weever's Wovens -- textiles/weaving

Point of View Glass -- Katrina Fleming, glass

Bejewel , metal/jewellery

Glass by Kathryn Gordon -- Kathryn Gordon -- glass

Harding Surface Design - Chris Harding -- visual art

D Digs pottery -- Denise Jeffrey, clay

K Maclean -- metal

PriorArt -- Candice Prior - metal/jewellery

And now for something completely different....Cynthia and David Ryder --metal/jewellery

Ostrea Lake Pottery - Deb Wheeler - clay

Flight of the Eagle Jewellery Arts - Tim Finley - metal/jewellery

Non-profit booths include...- Atlantic Economuseum Network - Julie MacMillan and Tom Young -- Visual Arts Nova Scotia

Julie Rosvall, Communications Coordinator

Nova Scotia Designer Crafts

office@nsdcc.ns.ca

http://www.nsdcc.ns.ca/

902.423.3837 tel

902.422.0881 fax

Busy

Being busy helps - I find that it sooths the spirit.

The more spinning plates, the better. It means that I have to focus, that I am working towards a goal. I have less time to be frivolously distracted by fun but useless things. Busy is good.

Some people that I know don't particularly care to be busy, it bothers them and it's not necessarily because they are lazy - I am lazy - it's just that busy overwhelms them. It doesn't give them time to think and they just don't like that. I find that the less time I am left alone with my own idle mind the better.

Right now, we are working on a series of pieces for an exhibit that opens in just over a month. I have a couple of group exhibition deadlines coming up - an idea might stick & something good might get made before time runs out on them.

There are 2 back-to-back shows in Halifax over the next 2 weekends. Ones a regular show and the other we haven't done in a couple of years so we are looking forward to going back. Those shows will give us the opportunity to fine tune the booth & see what we need & what we forgot.

There are a couple of board & committee meetings for the area chamber of commerce in the next short while too. Being on the committee & board has been good for me. It reminds me that I have very little patience for some processes & it teaches me to let go and let it happen in its own good time, it will work even if it looks funny. The platypus was designed by committee.

There are other seminars and gallery openings on the event calendar for the next couple of weeks and I am looking forward to all of it.

We are currently finishing up designs on a wholesale - limited production - line of jewelry. Have to have it 'juried' in 2 weeks and then be ready to go for wholesale in 3 months, and in between, build a lot more one-of-a-kinds for the Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council show in 3 weeks and the Ottawa Originals in December.

The benefit of busy is the focus. It makes elimination of non-productive habits and time very easy. It just seems to highlight what is truly important to me as an artisan/business. I appreciate that.

Cheers,
Cynthia

Good news after taking a plunge

Like many folks, I like good news, especially when it is a good surprise too.

We received a call from a colleague in the Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council and of the Metal Arts Guild on Sunday evening. My initial reaction to someone calling is often "what did I do now?" as compared to "what did I do right?" and I usually do not hesitate to ask.

It turns out that what we did right was submit a piece to an upcoming gallery exhibition called The New Cartography of Craft at the Mary E. Black Gallery in Halifax, opening on October 25th. The jury passed and accepted the piece to the show. She was calling to tell us the good news.

What we really did right overall was be adventurous enough to stretch just a little bit, make an unusual piece that isn't really the norm for us, and get off our butts and toss it in the ring and risk the possible rejection of the item as not being 'suitable' for the exhibition. It's wonderful that "A Connected Necklace" is good enough. (I'll be able to post pictures of it after the gallery opening so be patient)

There were several things required in the call for entry for this piece, excellence, a relevance to theme both in regards to the idea of New Cartography, and for the Neocraft conference that this exhibit runs in conjunction with, a deadline, an artists' statement, and a return envelope. Some if the bits were easy to do, some took a bit of effort, and actually putting the postage on the envelope to send it took the most effort. The work paid off. This also met another of our goals for this year: participating in more than one group exhibition opportunities.

There are lots of opportunities out there for all of us in the arts/fine crafts field. Some are handed to us when we are approached by a store owner who is genuinely interested in carrying our work, some come to us through our affiliations with various arts/crafts groups that we can join, and others are posted in the backs of magazines or on online forums. Sometimes we have to dig for the opportunities. Sometimes we have to dig within ourselves to find the inspiration and the nerve to move on the opportunity and that can be the hardest dig of all.

Other good news from the past week includes having an image of one of our pendants included on the Fredericton Arts Alliance Art Trek poster, coming up on the 13th & 14th of October; and our colleague from Sunday evening's call also told us that "it would be very worthwhile" (that's code for you may have won something but I can't tell you what) to come to the opening of the Metal Arts Guild annual exhibit and competition at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax on the 2nd of October.

As an artist/fine crafts person who is working to build a positive reputation and identity in metal and stone, I have to tell you that it involves a lot of risks. It would be very easy to sit at the benches and work away making things all day, every day and to never leave that space and face the 'real' world. The real world involves everyday issues of marketing and commerce, and inevitably that means some form of judgement, whether it is someone making a decision to purchase a piece of work, a gallery prospect deciding if the work is the "right fit" for their clientele, a juror deciding if your images of your work or your actual work itself is "good enough" for the show or exhibit... Every time we put ourselves or our work out there we are at risk of a judgement.

I have been finding that learning to live with and coming to love the risk makes the time that I spend making my jewelry far more valuable than it would be otherwise. It's one thing to make it, and to do it well, but it is so much more rewarding to know that I am not the only person enjoying it.

There is joy in sharing,

Cynthia

Too much coffee

I had way too much coffee today. It’s past 4 am, I know that I have been awake for over 2hours. My mind is spinning with things I need to do and things that I could do nothing about. I decided that since meditation wasn’t working and breathing exercises had failed that the only solution was to get up and do something. Anything!

I decided to write and deal with the past and put it to bed so that I could really concentrate on the now.

The past 2-3 months have been a bit hectic and not because of the quantity of things on the schedule but because of my own lack of good planning and a few speed bumps in the road. The speed bumps are only problems because of lack of planning.

It’s almost mid-June now and if I go back three months that puts us in mid-March, which was looking pretty good except that we had a meeting with our leaseholder in mid-February that took it’s toll on my good nature. So I’ll start there with a smidgen of background.

We used to rent a working studio space and retail space from a local corporate entity. It was open to the public and situated near the entrance of a beautiful historical 1850’s style park. Lots of tourists in the area for the summer months and it looked like a good idea when we took up space 2 years previous. It didn’t quite measure up and there were various and sundry small issues that arose periodically because of the age of the building and because there are now 3 general managers for the same institution in as few years. This will inevitably cause a certain amount of loss of continuity in planning. It was this lack of continuity that became the thorn in my side in February.

Under a previous GM we were making move to increase our corporate identity in relation to the space, our “corporate” colour and signs. We really wanted to increase our visibility in the space as we felt that the tourists to the area were obviously missing us, especially when there were folks commenting that they couldn’t find us when we were talking to them later at some other event in some other part of the region. To cut this short, we feel that we essentially got told that our identity had to go, including our colour, and that we were in all effects competing with the gift shops run by the leaseholder which is the historical park next door. Their gift shops carry a lovely assortment of items purchased at larger wholesale trade shows and sport a wide selection of extremely affordable goods not made in North America, let alone Canada.

The good news of all this is that locally handcrafted goods can prove to be enough competition to be considered problematic to marketers of mass-manufactured and third world wage import products. Enough of a problem as to call you competition and enough that they would seriously discourage the building of your own marketing identity for your handcrafts.

After this February meeting I got very vitriolic. My husband, David, who is extremely patient with me, asked if we wanted to give notice at that time, but after investing a small fortune (in my mind) in the joint through rent already paid, new props bought for the place in January and being big on commitment and/or the flogging dead horses, I determined that I had the fortitude to last out another 135 day work week, or the summer season as the park delicately calls it.

My fortitude began to weaken during and after the open studio weekend at the end of March. It was a disaster. There were more visitors present at that event than ever before. One of the managers for the lease holding park decide that a craft fair in their building would be a good idea. After getting nailed as competition, they decide they want more of it, I have to wonder. Our visitor ratio was down, as were our sales for the weekend over the past 2 years. Not insurmountable by any stretch except that after the event we once again got told “We couldn’t find you” or “We had no idea you were there” by folks that we encountered at different business events and ironically at a seminar on marketing and promotion. This didn’t bode well.

The good news is that everything is still on schedule for this time of year. The big show applications had been mailed and I hadn’t missed a deadline for anything, so it all looked manageable from there.

April is the cruelest month. I missed a deadline for a group exhibit called “Achieving Beauty” at a metal arts gallery out west. The only thing of beauty that I had was my muse and I think that it went west. I totally botched my daily calendar and missed a business seminar too. I was getting a bit distracted by the “to do” list for the studio and the fact that the place is not heated in the off season and the weather was crappy and too cold to work in the place to redo the interior and get things tidied up to start the summer. So all I did was make some ordinary jewelry and muddle along until the end of the month when we got an email from the lease holder to indicate that there would be more changes, over and above what was discussed in February.

Being that I hate surprises but love change, I excitedly asked what it was. The answer was a 15% increase in rent because the brand new, just appointed GM wanted one. So in the excitement over this, another group exhibit opportunity got missed. Instead of dropping off the item that I made for it to the appropriate locale, I went to the leaseholder’s meeting with David, my very patient and extremely diplomatic husband (someone has to be and it’s rarely me) and the co-tenant of the building, a potter.

It didn’t go very well. There were a lot of issues discussed. There was little determined to be negotiation points and since we were told, “the lease has already expired, so we aren’t bound by past agreements” we took that as an indicator that we weren’t either. I hate numbers, but I went home after this and “crunched numbers”. I didn’t like the answer. I did it again. The answer was the same. It was grim, 15% at that place, with the drops in tourism that the area has had, the lack of visibility for the place… we were screwed.

We reached an executive decision later that evening, slept on it, I slept well that night. The decision still seemed sound the next morning, so we started packing our bags, boxes, and pick-up truck. We moved out, lock, stock and doorstep, since we built it. 4 days later we had stuff in the shed at home, things piled in the den, borrowed space at my mother’s work shop, and realized that we had no place to work from yet, except the same table in the den we had been using all winter, which was now buried. The potter came to the same conclusion I might add, and her mother bears the brunt of it too.

In the midst of this I missed another business seminar, a repeat session of the one I missed in April. I guess I was a little distracted.

The up side is that we have now saved a small fortune in rent and that gave us half of the money we needed to pay for the booth at the Originals show in Ottawa in December. Oh, yes, the good news is that just after we moved out of the rented space we got our contract for the show. It’s the first time doing it as we got wait-listed last year. The exciting part is that we get to go to our nation’s capitol for 2 weeks to a huge Christmas fine craft market and we currently have no working studio space except the table in the den. We also did a one-day show in Woodstock the day after we finished moving out, with the new booth set-up, and it went great. People loved our “corporate” colour. It was extremely noticeable and sales were super. It seems they could find us. They said the same thing in Nackawic at the beginning of June, which went well too.

May was blur. It was spent fretting over the possibilities of the meeting for the first week, moving the second, vegetating the third and doing housework and laundry that had been thoroughly ignored for the past one, catching up on paperwork and accounting stuff as well as writing a several page document to the GM of our former lease-holder detailing all of the ongoing issues with the premises and offering potential solutions to the same as well as explaining our decision. My parents taught me that you shouldn’t about the government unless you voted in the last election and you can’t complain for the sake of it, unless you are willing to offer a solution. It appears that it was appreciated; he sent a “Thank you” note.

By the end of May, the flurry of emails regarding the place had stopped, all the promotional work and web-links we had in place for it for 2007 had been cancelled, the phone disconnected, and a real sense of freedom had started to descend. The problem with the freedom is that I feel that I have not been using it wisely.
Fortunately, I thought, the business seminars for May had already been postponed to June. The problem with June is that it is June and we have a grade twelve student in the house that is graduating and going away for the summer. Guess what happens to his room when he leaves in another 2 weeks…

June is almost half over, but I have not missed any deadlines or meetings yet, including the board meeting for our chamber of commerce. Yes, I joined the board, and not because I feel like I can contribute a lot, but to warm a seat and drink free coffee and maybe get to the point that I have learned enough to actually be helpful and contribute to the community that gives to us.

We have gotten to the seminars, did the show in Nackawic, been to a visitation and subsequent funeral for David’s Uncle Bob, gotten tied up in grad stuff that spans 3 weekends and finally culminates in graduation on the 22nd, and went to a meeting for a community market in St. Stephen, so that I now have something to do every Friday that we are not away to a show from the 29th of June through mid-September. I also ended up repackaging every pair of earrings and every ‘cheap’ pendant that we have made because the card stock that I had made promoted the now former summer location. I just couldn’t imagine leaving the house again with this stuff and not having that 3-day job done, of printing, cutting, re-labeling and packing done. Especially since we have a contact in Nackawic who would like to carry the same in their store. I have to go see them this week – there’s still 3 days left – and get this started. I also have to finish up a couple of small custom orders.

I did remember to get our notice of intent to participate in the One-of-a-kind Showcase in November into the Nova Scotia Crafts Council before the deadline too.

In retrospect, I realize that it has been productive, busy and chaotic; that I am not as far behind as I thought earlier this morning. There has been progress and there is still a lot to do but I have to remember to look at the short term for a while instead of trying to get to far ahead of myself, which can be over-whelming.

Time to refocus on the immediate needs of the business and to take some constructive personal time too but after I get those images emailed to Heidi and the picture CD dropped off to Shasta and … I'm blaming this on the medium double from Tim's for the drive home from St. Stephen tonight.