Okay then.

I've given it a couple of days now, and based on the combined experiences of my first art festival and the previous blog post here, I at least have an iron-clad response when people squee at me "you should SELL your stuff!" -- not only can I not sell anything, I can't give the shit away.

Heart It Forward

Now that I'm almost caught up after the last couple of weeks, I can finally post about this.

A couple of weeks ago, awesome plexi artist Tonia Davenport made a Heart It Forward post on her blog. This is her take on feeding a circle of kindness and giving, wherein she makes available an object she has made, free for the taking to the first person who pledges to do the same. My near-obsessive RSSing paid off, and I was the first to lay claim to this fantastic "bliss" bracelet.

In less than a week, it arrived at my door, packaged almost as beautifully as the bracelet itself. I am always taken by such great attention to detail. I've worn the bracelet a few times already, and it's absolutely weightless. It's already become one of my favorite things.

Now it's my turn to play my part in this hopeful little cycle. I initially wanted to make something as beautiful as Tonia's, but I'm just a person without all that much pretty in her. So instead, I'll go the SFLAG way.

This bracelet is a duplicate of one I made for myself during the (slightly frazzled) weeks I was producing necklaces for my first-ever attempt at selling. I put mine on more than a week ago and haven't removed it once since. It's clunky, contrasty, a bit noisy, and seemingly indestructible -- in other words... me.

I will happily pass along the spotless and new rendition of this bracelet to the first person who comments -- publicly, as if -- on this post and agrees to heart something forward him- or herself. That would be, of course, anything your little heart desires.

The PAF has been postponed...

The People's Art Festival at the Russell has been postponed due to weather. The new date is Sunday September 21 -- that's next week, people. Another week for me to stress out. Woo!

More deets on the People's Art Festival.

I was at work from 9am to 2.30am yesterday, then I got right back at it at 9am this morning. It wasn't until just now that I could finally eat a sammich and relax for a second... which gave me the opportunity, of course, to stress out again about the art festival this Saturday. Well, stress probably isn't exactly the right term. Let's just say nerve up. I'm a little nervous, just because I've never done this before. But I've been to thousands of similar events and I have no doubt that the people I'm sharing space with are going to be fun and friendly and excellent and all that good stuff.

Here's the official website for the People's Art Fair.

We are going to be in booth 74, which looks like a pretty good location, if anyone wants to come say hello. I'm planning on getting there at set up time (10am), but I am probably going to leave by 2pm (or whenever I sell out, whichever happens first -- lookit me, I'm an optimist!). I'm very happy to say I just got a pair of tickets for the big PBR event in Grand Rapids, which is also on Saturday, including VIP party passes. Yes, I'm serious, stop laughing! Unfortunately, I don't have time to make a dress out of this fabric. Wait, maybe that's a good thing.

People's Art Festival

I'm abnormally busy lately, but if I don't post this now, I won't do it until after the Festival.

I was invited to participate in the People's Art Festival at the Russell Industrial Center this Saturday. This Saturday! The 13th!

I've never participated in anything like this. I never sell my stuff. But really, it was an offer I'd be stupid to refuse. So I did something else I almost never do -- I produced en masse. That's not entirely accurate because ultimately almost every one of these necklaces is different in some way, but there is an undeniable theme. A theme that doesn't photograph well, clearly. They are large, colorful, chunky necklaces that I really like -- the whole series started off as a green and black deal I made for myself. I've test driven a couple of them and have gotten very positive (unsolicited) responses to them every time.

I wish I had time to take more/better photographs, and hopefully I will before I go to the festival itself. If nothing else, anything that doesn't sell will, I'm sure, get a loving photo session on its own (to go straight to etsy). There is one other picture in my flickr stream that I can't fiddle with to post right now. More later.