Riverfest 2011

Riverfest, our local art in the park event was Saturday. We had a great time and visited with a lot of people and sold a decent amount of jewelry ( sold the necklace on the left, a Labradorite on Hollyhock leaf). My son Sam and his band played a set and they were very good. The event was a little bittersweet for me since I got the event going, along with Nancy Ebbert on the music side and it is getting better and bigger. This was the third year and it will soon become a treasured institution in Lander if the energy can be maintained.

The reports of sales were a bit mixed. I think that the government playing chicken on the brink of default may have had some impact on sales. Also, summer we buy for ourselves, not for others which accounts for the lowered sales compared to the Art in the Afternoon Christmas sale. Also, we must admit that Lander is a small town. 7000 people is not a large basis. We are still working to develop an appreciation for the arts within a larger slice of the population. We do seem to have an inordinate amount of people making art though and that is a wonderful part of our town.

The greenhouse is going great guns (update: installed in early June) with the cukes coming on strong and maybe another week for the tomatoes. Next year we will get the tomatoes in earlier and see what we can do for early crops. Sales have been good in the first two Farmer's Markets with greens, basil and bouquets.

Back At It

Well, I resigned as Director of the Lander Art Center. The job was eating up all my mental space and keeping me up at night. Dannine Donaho, my Assistant Director has taken over and I am sure she has a whole new set of skills to put toward the Center. Good Luck, Dannine.

I am readying myself for the Holiday Sale season with new pieces and several sales. My schedule is:

November 5, 4-6 at the Dubois Headwaters Art Center

November 11-13 at the Nicolaysen Holiday Art Sale in Casper

December 5 at the Art in the Afternoon Holiday Arts & Crafts Sale in Lander at the Noble Hotel

I will teach a class on November 6th at the Lander Art Center called "Metal Clay Gifts" call the Lander Art Center at 332-5772 or go to landerartcenter.com to sign up

Ruminations in the morning

Well, got this off to a good beginning.  It shouldn't be too hard to make one thing a day, considering I have lots of components built up.  This will help me get some things done.  The bigger problem will be photographing it and getting something up here, considering that I hardly have the consistency to brush my own teeth on a daily basis.

On other subjects, I am reading "The Other Boleyn Girl" and it is delicious.  Today is my first day as Acting Director at the Lander Art Center--wish me luck.  I am sending out a grant and setting up an Altered Books show!

I am attaching a picture of a piece that I sent off as a custom order this Xmas.  I sold one like this and then I got someone asking for it so I had to make another.  They are all one of a kind.  The leaves are PMC fine silver Amur Maple leaves with 23K Keum Boo, pearls, swarovsky crystal and a PMC fine silver handmade clasp.  I charged $110 for it.  I am aware that it is too cheap, but I have a hard time asking alot for my work (more on this later).