Time Flies

Miss Mica is asleep in her swing giving mommy a much needed break from chasing her around the livingroom. My baby girl is walking. She still sits down and crawls if she wants to get somewhere but she takes 2-5 steps at a time unassisted and unsupported. My mother and I took her yesterday to get her bangs trimmed because her hair was always in her eyes. The haircut was not her favorite experience. She kept trying to fend off the comb, scissors and the hands of the women wielding them.

I can't believe that it has been a week and a half since the Louisville Show. I should probably post a quick recap before I move on to plans for the next show. We were located, as I said in my last entry, we were just inside the entrance to the show. This was great exposure but I'm afraid that it didn't do wonderful things for sales. Most people stopped and looked at the table on their way in, but didn't want to buy until they'd seen more of the show. By the time that they got back to us, most of them seemed to have exceeded their budgets. Everyone was very complimentary but our work was so different from anything else in the show and I'm not sure that anyone knew quite what they wanted to do with it.

I had one very interesting development. A while back I wrote about my feelings about funerary art and the idea that I could make vessels as reliquaries for crematory remains. During the Louisville show, a gentleman was looking at my vessels and commented to his wife that they would be good for ashes. The two of us ended up in a conversation about the possibilities of pendant vessels for pet cremains. He works for a pet cemetery and thinks that their clients might be very interested. It was just an interesting piece of coincidence.

I spent some time over the last week trying to figure out what I need to make in anticipation of the Dayton Show. One of the popular trends in bead arts right now is beaded art dolls. I saw very little in Louisville aimed at that market. Jane, from Jane's Fiber and Beads had a few ceramic faces by Keith O'Connor. (I don't really have anything against his beads, they're just a radically different style from my own. They tend a little toward the primitive or rustic.)

JJ's polymer and ceramic faces were a big hit and the mask pendants that I had were well received. People really want to see faces right now. So I'm spending some time focusing on making faces for the Dayton show. I plan on making the faces as both cabs (suitable for dolls, jewelry, or embellishments on other artforms) and as pendants with loops on the back.

So far, I have about 13 skull masks made. I have sketches of 18 styles of masks in my notebook as a springboard for ideas. Even if I spend my studio time replicating the faces in my sketchbook, I should be able to create quite a stock of finished pieces to put on the table at the show.

I'm debating now whether I want to try to get some doll bodies made (either buy them from someone who makes them, or maybe commission a friend of mine who sews to make them) to sell at the show with the faces. I want to display finished dolls or dolls in progress at the show to show off the faces in use.

Filed in: Louisville Dayton Bead_Shows Reliquaries Art_Dolls Faces Masks