Glass Storage In Progress

Scott is busy building a glass storage unit for our studio (aka the garage). It seems huge right now -- about six feet long and roughly seven feet tall. But I have no doubt it won't take long for us to feel like there's not enough storage!

The bottom area will have 20 sections for storing sheet glass on edge. On top of that will be a shelf roughly six inches tall for storing slumping molds. Above that will be two more shelves, roughly 10 inches tall.

Tomorrow, we're heading to Ikea to see if they have something we can adapt to use as a workbench. I'm thinking that something they have for their kitchen furniture might be perfect since we want it to be roughly kitchen counter height for cutting glass without hurting our backs by making us bend over too much.

If all goes well, we may be playing with glass later in the week!!

Is It Getting Hot In Here?

The kiln has power! Woohoo!

Exciting developments Chez Foster's Beauties!

This week, we had an electrician out to do some re-wiring of what was once a three-car garage and is now officially a combined woodworking and glassworking studio. :)

It's been many, many years since the garage was used to park cars, and it's the second time we've had this electrician do some additional wiring for us. This time, we were warned, we've maxed out the residential power  allotment and if we expand farther, it will require a new power meter and other expensive goodies.

Of course, once you add a new media to a studio, suddenly you realize you need new storage and work surfaces!

The kiln is in the garage's third bay. The woodworking tools are (mostly) in the two-car bay on the other side of the shelves behind the kiln .

Scott immediately leapt into plans for glass storage, if only because we've got too many sheets of glass and slumping molds and other glassworking items blocking access to his woodworking tools. So glass storage is Priority #1. (Ok, and true confession time: He only leapt into plans for glass storage after we made another trip to Bullseye Glass to buy additional sheet glass and other supplies.)

The original sketch and calculations for needed supplies. Now that he's actually working on the storage unit, he has tweaked his design a bit.

This weekend, we hope to head to Ikea to buy something we can use for a glass workbench. Scott could make something, of course, (and it would be nicer than anything we could buy at Ikea) but that takes time and would mean it would be longer before we could start playing with the kiln and/or he could get back to his lathe and start his next segmented wood project.

And to think this all started last fall when I was looking for an interesting place to hold Ellie's 8th birthday party and spotted a Groupon for Live Laugh Love Glass in Tigard! Clearly, that Groupon was the gateway drug to an addicting and expensive (but fun!) new hobby. :)

Potential New Products?

I just love my kanzashi dragonflies.

I can't even explain why, but the magnets continue to make me happy to look at every time I see them. :)

Ellie likes to snitch her favorites from my production and puts them "temporarily" on our fridge so we can admire them every time we go to open the refrigerator door or even walk past.

Ellie and some actual customers have long suggested I make brooches or hair clips with the dragonflies on them. I was a bit hesitant for two reasons: The glitterboard I use as a base for the dragonflies to perch upon would not be waterproof; and because the dragonfly bodies are attached to their wings with less than a quarter-inch of contact they can be fragile to be handled.

Well, I think I've solved the first problem!

Instead of glitterboard, these dragonflies will be perched on felt. (I used some stabilizer sandwiched between two circles of felt that I hand-sewed together.

I started out with small circles of felt no bigger than the glitterboard circles I used, but after making a prototype, I discovered that it was smaller than the brooch pin I wanted to mount it on and too much metal showed.

But I didn't like the plain felt circle base when I enlarged it, either.

My solution?

I added some beading to 'prettify' the bases. And I think it looks much better that way!

What do you think?

Now, Ellie and I will test these prototypes to figure out if the dragonflies are too fragile to wear or not.

If they are, I can try some other kanzashi wing shapes that would offer more contact surface between the body and the wings. But I'm really hoping these will work!

And either way, I'll let you know as the experiments progress.

What Would You Call It?

I love this little beauty! It's spalted maple burl, 5 inches from rim edge to rim edge and roughly 2 inches deep.

I envision it as a pretty thing to sit on a side table or nightstand or similar place, where you could safely put down a piece of jewelry or some other bits-and-bobs. I know I've seen those kinds of dishes and bowls (although not nearly as beautiful as this one!) (Yes, I'm a little biased, aren't I?) but I have no idea how/what to label it.

Mother Nature did an outstanding job on this piece of wood, didn't she?

So what would you use a pretty little bowl like this for? And what would you call it when you described it to someone else?

And if you're interested, you can find it here in our Etsy shop!

Star Saleswoman



Ellianna is a finger-knitting whiz! She wants to sell these as bookmarks. Would you buy one? And she's not just a maker and a salesperson, she's also modeling one of my favorite kanzashi flowers!

The star of our craft fair was our 8-year-old sales charmer.

Ellianna is the daughter of two geeky introverts and she swings between being shy around unfamiliar people and circumstances and being effervescent with friends and family. But put her in a sales position, and she really shines!

At last December's craft show, Ellie worked our table for a couple hours after setup and then her favorite babysitter came and took her off for the afternoon to have fun. This time around, I decided to keep Ellie at the show for the whole day, partly as a way to teach her that it takes time and effort to earn money. (An ongoing lesson for an 8-year-old to learn.)

I was a little worried that it would be a long day and hard for her to get through, but she was quite the trooper! She didn't complain about being bored or annoy our neighboring vendors. Whenever someone came to browse our offerings, she was right there to tell them about her notecards or my flowers.

Sunset Over the Ocean, a watercolor, made its notecard debut at the craft fair. It will soon be available for sale in our Etsy store.

And my child, who hides when someone wants to shake her hand, actually shook hands with two customers who bought her notecards! Without being pressured to take their outstretched hands, which is just huge! (Actually, the pressure never works anyway. So I'm glad I didn't even try when she hesitated before shaking the first customer's hand.)

It was heartwarming to see Ellie come out of her shell and bubble with enthusiasm as she interacted with potential customers. And it was a rare one who could resist her pitch! Ellie's notecards don't get a lot of interest (yet) in our online shop, but they are the most popular item we've had at our two craft fairs so far.

We may not have broken even at this most recent craft fair, but it was definitely a positive experience for all of us.

Post-Show Analysis

We did our second craft fair last weekend, and it wasn't what anyone would call a financial success.

The sole success was simply the experience of having a mediocre show. And now that we have that out of the way, we don't ever have to have another one, right? :)

But the highlight of the show was meeting some truly fabulous artists and actually having time to get to know them a bit!

Apologies for the mediocre photography; despite plenty of opportunities, we somehow neglected to get any table photos without someone in the frame! And the photos of other booths were taken on an iPod and therefore didn't have the best photo quality.

We had two 6-foot-long tables placed in an L shape, with Scott's woodworking in the more visible section.

Ooh, and you can see part of our banner, a new addition!

Ellie's art cards were located in the junction between my work and Scott's work:

Ellie also fingerknitted some long chains that she hoped to sell as bookmarks. I think they need some additional finishing to make them saleable, but we'll see.

What I didn't think out well was that putting my work on the last part is that people who stood looking at Scott's work would only see the backs of my framed brooch displays. And not everyone made it around the corner to see what else we had on that part of the table.

Like my little signs? I was kind of proud of them, if only because it took three or four tries (including running upstairs to the printer, bringing them downstairs where I was using a papercutter and then deciding the font size or spacing wasn't good enough and doing it all over again!). :)

So why wasn't the show a big success? Primarily because traffic was very, very low.

Weather was certainly a factor since most Portlanders were eager to take advantage of the 90-degree sunshine, which is a rare event so early in May. Research I've done suggests that spring shows are an iffy proposition and more prone to looky-loos than the potentially highly profitable holiday shows, and that seemed accurate based on what we saw on Sunday. Those people who did buy items from us made small purchases. The largest sale was $15.

On the upside, since there were so few customers, there were plenty of opportunities to chat with other vendors.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

Shawn's display was fabulous, including black riser boxes that her woodworking husband made and antique scales she had collected. Lovely! You can find her work in her Etsy shop.

 

Debbie of Melting Pot Studios does the most amazing beadwork, much of it incorporating work from other artists.



Debbie showcasing a gorgeous piece she made on a spalted maple bowl by a local woodworker. (I need to get her working with Scott!) The bottom of the bowl is signed by both the woodworker and Debbie!

Somehow, I missed getting a photo of Cheshire Whimsey's glassware booth as a whole, but owner artist Karen shared her source for some inexpensive cardboard risers that flatten for storage but are very sturdy and strong. I plan to order some for Scott's woodworking. Draped in fabric, you'd never know the risers were made of cardboard!

(I ordered a trio of martini glasses similar to the ones on the bottom right, but in blue and with different stems. :)

The other main benefit to come from the craft show was that we successfully used a Square to swipe two credit cards for sales! I had one available for our show last December, but nobody asked to use a credit card then. It's nice to have used it and have a little more confidence in our ability to take credit cards.

My conclusion? I think we'll stick to our original plan of aiming for four to six shows between September and Christmas when everyone is in more of a buying frame of mind.

Meanwhile, the holiday season will be here before we know it, so it's time to make product!

Working Wednesday: Counting Down To Craft Show

There's just so much to do as we get ready for the craft show coming up on May 5!

Scott is putting finishing touches (literally, since it's the final coats of finish!) on more than a dozen wood bowls.

And I've been organizing Ellie's and my inventory, making sure quantities match what my spreadsheets say they should be and getting everything tagged with inventory numbers and prices.

So much to do!

Meanwhile, I decided it wasn't fair that only people who come to the show can get the social networking discount, so I decided to give those who aren't local the opportunity to save money in our Etsy store!

Through midnight Saturday, May 4, you can use the coupon code SHOW10 to save 10 percent on everything in the store.

Happy shopping!