(emma tries to ignore the fact she hasn’t posted in 5 months…..) 

So anyway  I wonder how many wonderful business ideas have fallen by the wayside due to the fact it takes so bloomin’ long to get going. Seems there’s a hundred things to do and just li’l ol’ me to do them all. 

Nonetheless, I have been very busy developing designs, sourcing supplies, talking to people, doing market research. I have sold some chandeliers via a local gallery and the Art Tour was hard work and not particularly profitable but worth doing for the experience. I am learning heaps from each exposure, each conversation – so it is good.  But I will admit it is hard at times. All I want to do is make lovely things, the business side feels a bit like a neccessary evil. Dozens of ideas milling round my head but practical matters prevailed. So, I’ve knuckled down, got my website up taadaa!   and have opened a shop online with Bigcartel. The next few days will be adding stock details, taking pictures and…gulp….starting to promote myself.  Scary, so nice comments would be appreaciated

Elizabeth Gilbert on creativity

I’ve watched this a couple of times now of Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat,Love,Pray) and love what she says about the creative process. Somedays it seems like there are so many gremlins determined to trip you up as you try and create, I’m posting this so I can revisit it whenever I need a lift. 

So I’ve now got two shows scheduled – the first is to take part in the inaugural Woodhorn Art Fair at the end of May. The venue for the Art Tour in the summer has now been confirmed, I am taking part in a group show at Alnwick Gardens. There will be six or seven other artists taking part and it’s a great venue. All exciting stuff so I’ve got a lot of work to do.

Back to the studio I go…..

Have just seen the flyer for this craft fair in Selvedges newsletter. Applications need to be in by 1st of May.

Hmmm…..

How To Age Silver…..

You learn something new everyday!

The design is coming together and I’m pleased with how it’s going, one problem I have though is the silver components I am using are a bit of a mishmash of colours. Some are old pieces and some are new, but these are too perfect looking, too shiny – so I put a few bits in some vinegar for a couple of days thinking that would tarnish them, making them look aged. It didn’t work, so I turned to trusty old google and found out that if you expose silver to sulphur it will oxidise and make it look vintage.  One  way involves getting some liver of sulphur from a supplier, donning safety masks and goggles & performing alchemy in the back garden until the desired effect is achieved. Or you can do it the easy way. This involves taking a hard boiled egg (yep!), removing the shell, break the egg up into an airtight container, add the jewellery bits, put the lid on, shake about for a bit & leave for 10 mins or so. Rinse under the tap, dry & you have perectly aged silver. Voilà!

Deadlines……

I wasn’t going to do the Art Tour in June this year for various reasons; I didn’t want to hold it in my home again, it was pretty tiring doing it by myself and given my current painters block, I wasn’t confident about committing myself to it. However, the chance has come up to take part in a group show at a fantastic venue.  It’ll be fun doing it with other people and it would be fab if it comes off – it’s not 100% certain yet so I won’t say anymore. But I am all excited again, already I’ve got ideas on the format I want to take and what I want to show. I may do some paintings but it will be a great start to ‘My Little Chandeliers’ which will be ready by then. I forget how having a deadline motivates me and gives me a structure to work towards (note to self……create more deadlines!). Also, I was chatting to the owner of a local gallery and he’s interested in seeing MLC’s, so I have arranged to go in next week with some samples. Ooerr…it’s all go!

Apparently a recession is a good time to start a business…

……it says so on the BBC – so it must be true!

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7848437.stm

I think one of the hardest things about starting a business is not the practical stuff – product design, finances or time management – it is keeping your enthusiasm and  focus when you get tired or bored or scared or disillusioned. It’s especially difficult when every news bulletin is predicting the very end of capitalism itself!  So, little reminders, like the article above,  I find are helpful. Building anything – a business, a piece of art, a house, is just a sequence of steps taken, one after the other. You have to keep the big picture in mind – the goal of what you’re trying to achieve, but day by day just take one step, one action, at a time. 

One action I think I’ll take today is to stop watching news bulletins

Getting knotted!

Just had another fishing net tutorial from Willie as I got a bit confused when left to my own devices. We sit there, me practicing whilst he tells me all these amazing tales from his fishing days and his life during the war – it’s such a treat – all these stories of triumph and tragedy (tho’ mostly tragedy I have to say).  

Afterwards I was looking online and found a pattern here for making a string bag (like the shopping bags we used when I was small).  What I’m experimenting with is a combination of the fishing net and the string bag. It will make sense eventually I promise

Spending too long staring at a computer screen

Just spent too long searching the web for components. I started with one of the Bead Fair sites http://www.beadwork.net, then looked for a list of exhibitors, then searched each of those. Still can’t find a decent selection of jewellery chains but did find some hanging crystal suppliers. 

www.thesouthamptonbeadshop.co.uk

www.empirebeads.co.uk

www.crystalwear.co.uk

www.gems-n-sparkles.co.uk

Eyes hurt now

Ray Mears would be proud of me!

Spent 2 hours yesterday learning how to knit a fishing net with Willie, the 73yr old fisherman. It took a while, and I think I wore him out, but it was easypeasy once you get the hang of it. There was something about knowing you can catch your own supper  that seemed to bring out the Neanderthal in me – I was quite proud of myself……….all I need to do now is learn to build a boat, navigate by the stars and how to gut an antelope and I’ll be well away!

Then Willie left and I tried doing a net from scratch and made a right dogs breakfast of it.

keep practicing……