100 day challenge

I have a few goals to accomplish in the next 100 days. By the end of this challenge I will be getting ready to head back t work and will have way less time to commit to my work.

1. I want to improve the quality of pictures that I take. Right now I must use my iPhone and take a quick picture when something comes out of the kiln. I'd like to have better quality images. I believe that could help me sell more online

2. I want to take more risks. Right now I'm worried about items turning out perfect after each firing. I want to wrk on projects that will push my creativity and will take multiple trips to the kiln to get it just right. After I get my Christmas stock done I will commentate on more technical and creative projects. 

3. Build more of a client base. I'm not sure how to really go about this other then continue to go to markets. I am thinking of attending a market at the end of Sept. and have applied for three Christmas markets, which I have been accepted to. I have also been asked if I want a spot in a little shop by Edmonton. I'd have to commit to 3 months and pay about 60$ a month for my spot. I'd also be responsible to upkeep and check on my items which could be difficult as the shop is a 90 minutes drive. I think I should look for a similar shop closer to home. I would love to see my pieces in a store or gallery. I guess I need to get some confidence and try approaching a gallery.... Eek! 

I'm starting to get a few Christmas orders, so if there is something g specific you'd like let me know so I can either put it aside or find time to work on it!

Lovin pot melts!

This past week I have tried my first pot melts! So. much. Fun! I love putting the colours in the kiln and having no idea how they'll come out! I'm going to run out of scrap glass fast! 

I just ordered a metal ring so I can make circle pot melts to use and slump as bowls. I'm pretty excited! 

I'm gearing up to start Xmas ornaments and they create a lot of scrap so  more pt melts to come! Here is my set up 

My first few melts I was worried about the glass leaking out of the dam, so I had extra protection. Here are my first few pot melts

Now I just need to decide what todo with them. Ideas?

Tent

I was at Costco this weekend buying plants and. Came across the tents that pretty much every vendor uses. After some discussion with my husband I decided to buy one. This will make it less stressful when the weather is back and it's an outdoor market.

We tried setting it up last night, took way longer than I thought it would and as of right now there is no way I can set it up on my own. 

It has walls as well so when it windy it'll keep my glass from blowing over! I'm happy I bought it and see many uses for it 

I'm trying out the Sylvan market again this week! Come check it out, 4-7:30. 

First market and busy cleaning

 I feel that my first market of the year went over pretty good. I was pretty much the only vendor at the market that did t have a tent. It was a beautiful evening so I didn't need one, but I  am in search of one so that wind and rain don't put me off. I had a lot of interest at my booth it not many sales. I did make friends with a few vendors around me. That all gave so e good tips and positive feed back. 

I was tole the locals don't tend to spend much on trinkets early in the market season. But once July August hit the Sylvan tourists goes trinket crazy. So I want to get more market experience in the for those months.

The owner of the food truck beside me also said it took a few markets before the locals started buying from her, many vendors found that they needed tube at a few markets to build their " reputation" before the locals took too much interest. She also said she wished vendor with crafty items had a way of showing their process. She loved my glass work but really had no idea what goes Into making it. I think that's a great idea. Many customers have no idea the time and the creative process behind my work. I have a digital photo frame, that I'm thinking of bringing to my next market. I will rotate pictures with short descriptions about my work.  I think it will draw interest towards my work as well. I also hope it explains some of the price points I have.

This week I have been working in cleaning up my studio. I have plans in the next few weeks of adding some more shelving and a built in counter for my fusing. I NEED more storage! My Hubby has agreed to help out! 

Here are all the scraps I tidied up 

 I have been wanting a few items for my shop for a while and have been searching for a canadian source to purchase them. No luck. So I broke down and just bought them for the States. Am surprised how much cheaper so e of the items are. And shipping  isn't that bad either. I bought three new molds. One is a bowl

The second is a retro serving bowl

And lastly a mold to form hair clips.

I also bought a pack of hand polishers since I don't have a lap saw. These will help me polish the edges of certain pieces and take off any rough edges that I can't get with my grinder. I hope my oder doesn't take long to arrive! 

I also have a surprise in the kiln......and you say argyll anyone?.......:) 

Market tomorrow

First farmer's market of the season is tomorrow. Hopefully I have everything ready to go! I am very curious to see what items sell. At the past markets I've done I have had too much interest. I guess many people go to a market looking for veggies and fresh food type goods. I am hoping I can convince enough people to stop at my table and at least take a look and a card.

I am part of an online vendor group, some advice they gave me:

1. Don't over dress, be approachable.

2. Stand as much as you can and smile.

3. Wear or model an item or two

4. Make sure to make friends with vendor around you.

5. Display items at different eye levels.

6. Have helpful items on hand like tape, scissors, pen, note pad. 

7. Set up an email list for interested customers.

8. Have a bin of "sale" items for customers to look through. 

9. display a show stoping piece or two but be prepared to sell mostly items below 10$

10. When making conversation tell customers about how your product is made, what inspires you

Any other tips?

What items or theme( Father's Day, grad, deck decor etc) would like to see at a market?

What is the main reason you go to a market?

 

Bugs!

I've been having more fun with my scrap glass. I have a huge pile of it. I ordered a very large glass order about a month ago and haven't had to use any of it yet. I've only been using up the leftovers from other projects. These bugs were pretty fun to make. I made them very colourful to match the spring flowers I put together. These bug will make fun additions to flower pots and other spring/ summer decor!

April showers bring May flowers! And Mother's Day flowers

I have been trying t figure out a few items that I could sell for under 10$ and has a spring theme. Here are my Spring flowers! Some are plant stakes for the garden, others are magnet with a clip to hold lists or notes. I am trying to build a small inventory for the Sylvan Lake Market.  These are also awesome for Mother's Day! 

My fridge is full of colour!

Plant/garden stakes

I am also getting ready for the market. I haven't had a serious display, so as I'm marketing items for the market, I am trying to find motivation for a fun, attractive display! Any ideas? Or other types of items for Spring/Summer? 

Spring flowers!

Here are a bunch of spring flowers. I used a bunch of scrap glass to make these. Now I need some input on what to do with them! Magnets? Garden stakes? Wind chimes? A few could be pendants. What other creative ideas? I would love some input!

Spring things

During the Christmas season I had a lot if success with my snowman ornaments. I've been trying to find something like those to make for the spring/summer. So far I have been trying garden and plant stakes. I think the ornaments did so well because they were small and under 10$. I need to come up with something that I can sell for about the same price point. I have some owls in the kiln now that I think I should sell for 5-10$. The ones I have finished now are a bit bigger so ill have to a joust the price. 

The glass labels can easily go for 5$ each. I hope to use up some scrap glass getting these items done.  I also hope to make some wind chimes. I need to plan some out that are again, not too pricy. 

Owls that just need to be glues onto stakes. 

Photo paper

I'm trying something new! I bought paper that will fuse an image into glass. The only problem is I'm suppose to use a black and white only printer. I'm trying the one I have. I doesn't seem to be working like it should, so I might have to buy a cheap black only printer. 

Here is the first image I'm going to try and fuse. 

The image will be more of a brown colour. So I'm not sure how it'll show up on this yellow scrap of glass. 

a ton of new images and items

Please check out my Facebook page for a ton of newly posted pictures. I will update my pages here soon too!  The link is at the top of the blog.

Many strips

My crate of glass should be sent soon. I am looking forward to seeing the colours I get. In the mean time I am still trying to sneak down to my studio when I have a chance. I am trying two strip projects even though I don't have a good strip cutter, so my strips are not even or straight, but I wanted to try these projects anyways. 

I cut over 100 strips for these two projects. They are both in the kiln and will be ready tomorrow, hopefully before I leave for the rest of the weekend.

Waiting...

I ordered my biggest shipment of glass ever. Over 80sq ft. I will be getting 12-15 different colours. So not a huge variety of colours but this is the best way to build my supply. I hope I get lots of transparent colours. They are my favourite!

I have some projects I want to try so I am impatiently waiting this shipment. Because of how heavy it is, the crate has to be shipped by truck. Not sure if this will take longer then normal. I hope not!
I also bought a strip cutter( I hope it works as well as t did in the youtube video I watched)

I also wanted a smaller item I could make, other then platters and coasters. So I bought a candle holder mold. I'm hoping to make a few,

http://www.pattymelts.net/Products.aspx?cat=Glass#PM-0100 ( this is were I got this image) 

Anyone what to order one? Hehehehe

It's done

Here are a few picture of the final project. The edges turned out ok with just a simple fire polish. I do want to get some cold working tools that will make the edges look more tidy. 

What colours should I try next?

First checker and strip project progress

Here is how my project is progressing
First her is my plan for the project. This step really helped me know how many pieces I needed and how big to cut each one,

Next I cut all the pieces and washed each one. 

I put the first layer in the order that I wanted, then flipped all the pattern pieces face down, To help keep the line straight I have to fire the top of the patter face down. I will have to fire polish it after. This project will most likely have to go in the kiln 3-4 times. 

After the first layer, I put a layer of clear followed by a layer of white and one more layer of clear. There are a a few square that I used tranparent blue for all the layers. I hope to have light filter through those areas.  I find that I quite like the combination of colours! 

 This piece is going to be about 1/2 an inch thick. Way thicker than all my other projects. So far I have only done two layers of glass. This will be 4. I will have to slow down my kiln schedule and add time to the holds and annealing time. This will take about 14 hours in the kiln the first time around. I hope to have a finished project some time on Monday. Right now I have kiln primer drying on the kiln shelf. In the tutorial I am using for inspiration, Steve used kiln posts to dam his project. I do not have any kiln posts. Something I am putting on my wish list. I will be using fibre paper and other molds to stop the glass from spreading. Also, Steve using a lap sander to get the edges polished and even. Again I don't have that equipment, so I will be researching how I can achieve a similar look without  that equipement.

I can see the benefits of a good strip cutter. My squares are not perfect, so they  do not line up all that great. That is another item I have added to my wish list. I am thinking of using some of my earning from the sales of my Christmas ornaments to buy a strip cutter and over 80 square feet of glass.  I am also trying to decide what bowl mold I want to buy. The web site I normally order my supplies from doesn't have the mold I am looking for. I might have to take a trip to Edmonton and look in a few shops. 

Hopefully I will have some postive progress on this project to post! 

Complicated project

I have always admired the fused glass creations by Steve Immerman, check out his work at Clearwater Glass Studio. He is also a kind artist, as he has many tutorials on his site. He shares a ton of information about his projects and even how to recreate them.
I really like this bowl that he made. 

At the bottom of this page, Steve shares how he created this piece. Of course I will not copy this bowl but I plan on using it to inspire a small platter or plate. I have never done anything so complicated or detailed. This project will take some time to plan and draw out. I usually just go down to my studio and randomly put pieces of glass together and see what happens. This bowl is rather large at 20 inches. I don't have a mould that large, but some day would love to create pieces at that size. ( a similar mould is on my wish list)

Over the next few days or weeks, depending on how long it takes me, I will be posting my progress on my own project.

Any colour combination requests?

Finding time with baby

Baby is now 5 weeks old. I am starting to figure out his routine, or lack of one. I have only been able to find a bit of time here and there to make it down to my studio. I have been playing with my new circle cutter. I currently have a project in my kiln. I've had to play with temperatures to get the circles to fuse as I want. I should have a finished piece in the next couple of days.
I do plan of getting some spring type projects on the go soon. I also hope to get back to lampwork. Maybe I'll ask my hubby to watch the little boy for a bit so I can get some uninterrupted time.

I have also started a new blog that will focus on being a mommy and getting back in shape, I was very nervous making this blog as it's very personal. I decided to keep my glass blog and personal more separate. There is a link at the top of this page.


What spring items would you like to see? Sun catchers? Certain colour combinations? Let me know!!

Generating ideas

My mat leave officially starts on Monday but I'm already trying to come up with activities that will keep me busy until baby arrives.
I will keep working on my glass fish and hopefully I will get my circle glass cutter for my bday next week. I an also hopeful that I will get a bowl mold. That will be fun to play with! This is a neat bowl.

On the personal front, I think I'm really getting into the nesting stage. I have a hard time sitting still if I think there is something that should be cleaned or needs to be ready for baby. I still have a week until baby's due date. Ummm, maybe I should make a sun catcher for baby's room. Here is a butterfly I could do, maybe an owl

I have also been looking over ideas to,help get back into pre baby shape. Most information I've read so far says that exercise should be started slowly and maybe not even until 6weeks post baby. Exercise has always been my main ways to stay in shape so I'll have to focus on nutrition. I have found some pretty motivating mommy blogs. Check this one out.

I figure I will be posting more about life with baby and getting back into shape along with my glass work. Now I think it's time to try an apple chip recipe I found on Pinterest.