New Members' Show

Hiya friends!  To anyone who is in or around the Winston-Salem area in the next month, I have some brand new pieces in the New Members' Show at the Piedmont Craftsmen Gallery in Winston's Downtown Arts District, right now through March 28!  We have quite a lovely arts district, worth checking out for the variety of galleries and shops as well as neat restaurants and bars if you happen to find yourself coming this way!

Unfortunately, due to an ice storm, our opening scheduled for this past Friday at the First Friday Gallery Hop was canceled... however, I will be doing a demo and artist talk for "How2Night," one of PCI's programs for educating the public about all that goes into making fine craft.  That takes place this Thursday, March 13, 6-7pm at Piedmont Craftsmen.  Open and free to the public, and a great chance to see the New Members' Show, which features the work of the 19 newest craftsmen accepted into the guild.

I'll be demonstrating how I form my "SeaPods" pieces from flat copper sheet into pod form with hammers and stakes and then how I apply the enamel to the interior of each piece.  Should be a fun time!

The Reasons Behind My Recent MIA Status

First of all, let me start out with apologies to my followers who have been waiting with baited breath for my next post since May.  Hopefully you have not given up on me completely.  Colossal slacking on my part when it came to sitting down at the ol' computer to write a few words.  Not only has my blogging suffered, but I have also fallen way behind on my research and marketing, and pretty much anything that didn't involve a quick check of email and facebook (shameless plug, but please visit and "like" me!). 

It's been a pretty intense summer.  Where did it go, by the way?  Here it is August 5, and it seems like it should still be June.  Here are some highlights of what I've been up to since my last post:

May
- My delightful parents came to visit, and we had a great time showing them all the lovely things Richmond has to offer - including this mural by Jeff Soto painted at the RVA Street Art Festival.

- Taught a workshop at Sawtooth School for Visual Art, Using the Hydraulic Press in the Jewelry Studio.  That was really fun, and I had a great group of students.  Sadly, I have no photos from that one, as we were crazy busy up till the very end.  (If that sounds interesting, I'll be teaching a Part 2 of that workshop this October 20-21.  Stay tuned!)

June
- Mark and I traveled to Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks of NC for the Ocrafolk Festival.  It was a small two-day festival all about art, music, and story-telling.  Both CopperTide and CopperDog Studio were represented.  We had a great time, and will do that one again next year.  (Maaaaaaaajor improvement over the disasterous Watermelon Festival of last year.)

My booth

- Took an amazing Glass Fusing workshop at VisArts with Jude Shlotzhauer.  I learned so much, and I can't wait to make more pieces (albeit smaller pieces) in my own kiln!

This is a close-up of a fused/slumped bowl I made, about 10" diameter.

No, it's not spinning, that pattern is created with a technique called a "pot melt."

Detail of a fused/slumped glass tray I made, about 11"x7".

- Taught an evening Enameling class at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond.  Also a great class!

- Had more visits from fabulous friends and family.

 3 Generations of Annelles!

- Traveled to Winston-Salem, NC to look for a new residence... more on that later.

July
- Celebrated the Fourth with our marvelous neighbors and some fireworks, RVA style.  (I also became slightly obsessed with taking Instagram photos.)

- Taught a Micro Raising workshop at VisArts.  Another great time - I hope to see some of those students again for Micro Forming in Floyd, VA in November!

- Started work on a new neckpiece from the "Sea Pods" series.  (Haven't been able to finish just yet.)

- Thennnnnnn, we packed up our house, studio, and pets, and moved it all to Winston-Salem, NC!  Amazing how much stuff you have to fit into boxes when you're moving both your home and your business(es)!

Gabardine was very helpful in the packing process.

Winston-Salem is our hometown, and while we loved Richmond, this is just the place to be right now.  We have family and friends and lots of new opportunities, so here we are!  We finally got everything done with the wretched moving process (with a lot of help from awesome friends and family) and became Winstoners once again as of last Monday.  Last week consisted of mostly arranging and unpacking, along with a few much-needed naps, and I plan to get back to work full-time again this week.  So stay tuned - new adventures to come!

My new studio space!  Woot woot!

Pinterest

Well, I have found a new way to waste some hours - Pinterest! 

I shouldn't say waste... it's not all a waste of time... but it sure can get addictive easily.

Pinterest is a relatively new social media site based on visual communication and sharing photos.  I first heard of it when my sister showed me the "pinboard" she was making with all sorts of ideas for her wedding.  Man, I wish Pinterest had existed when I was planing my wedding - what a neat way to gather ideas in one place and share them easily with your mom, sister, etc.  Ok, so that example is particularly girly, but it's not just for the ladies.  It's wide open.

Pretty much any photo you find online (that's not copy protected) can be "pinned" to this site and shared with anyone who cares to look, who can, in turn, "repin" the photo to their board, and on and on.  Pinned photos are organized into categories called boards, and you can have as many boards as you please.  People can also "like" and comment on your pins as well as their own.  It's also cleverly hooked in with facebook so that you can find your friends and "follow" their pins, so that every time you sign on, all your friends' pins pop up on your home page, kind of like the home page feed on facebook - but less talk, more pretty pictures! 

Sounds pretty interesting, right?  Something you might check out just for fun if you have some free time one afternoon.  That's what I thought, and that's how I got hooked.  I had about an hour to kill one afternoon waiting for Mark to get home so we could leave on a trip.  I pulled it up.... and ended up creating like twelve boards.  I'm a fan of organizing with lists, you see, and when I can put ideas and pretty pictures into fun lists all in one place... well, I get a little carried away. 

Here are a few of my boards: (I warn you, these links may not work unless you are logged in to Pinterest, so I'll leave that up to you...)
Artistic Inspiration
Best.Tools.Ever.
Art & Design
Art Jewelry

So there's already some art up there.  And I started thinking that Pinterest could be a pretty good marketing tool.  But then there's the copyright issue. 

Now if you start looking, you can find article after article both praising and condemning sharing your work on Pinterest.  I follow Art Biz Blog, and they have posted several articles on this very problem.  I'm not going to go into both sides of the argument here, but suffice it to say, I was a little concerned about putting my own work up to be shared.  So I polled my facebook friends to see what their takes on it were.  Here are a few of their responses:

E.B. (photographer) : I say do it. You run the risk but you always run the risk, and I think it's probably a solid marketing tool.

J.C. (metalsmith) : do it. everyone copies everyone and if you limit how many people can see it you limit your customer base.

N.W. (painter) : Is it any different from putting your stuff out on Etsy or anywhere else really?

A.K. (metalsmith) : Recent article in ny times about several instances of litigation against those posting. Pinterest only protects themselves not their users. I decided not to go there...


All of this got me thinking of everywhere I post my work online.  My website, hosted through Other People's Pixels, does now allow photos to be downloaded.  But I have work posted on my personal facebook page, my facebook fan page, my Etsy page, as well as my blog.  And to be honest, none of these images are safe. 

So what to do?  I agree with most of my friends in that Pinterest could be a pretty solid marketing tool.  However, I believe that any art posted on Pinterest, or anywhere else for that matter, needs be properly cited with credit given to the maker.  That said, if you're pinning someone else's art, make sure it links back to the original source, ideally the artist's website.  And I always make sure that if the artist's name doesn't appear in the label, I trace it back, find the artist, and include their name in my label.  If I can't find the artist, I don't post it. 

My solution for my own work: adding a watermark right in the image.  So even if the pinner doesn't credit me, my image does. 

Subtle, so as not to detract, but there should there ever be any question.  Now, just to add this to all the images I have online.  Fun.  But necessary.

I will be posting a tutorial on how to quickly make a watermark using Photoshop later on.

So how do you feel about Pinterest?  What are your thoughts on the copyright issue?  Please leave comments and suggestions for others as well!  And please follow me on Pinterest, too!  It's pretty fun... and addictive...

The Year in Pictures

January First.  Beginning of a New Year. 

And you know what?  I GOT this.  I am all over it. 

2011 was crazy and scary and amazing.  I worked my ass off, and I feel like I am finally moving in the right direction.  Yay!

I took the last few days off to work on some personal projects that I just haven't had time for with everything else going on.  I spent hours this past week going through all the photos I have taken this year, editing and cropping, and just loving reliving all those moments.  Now, I am my mother's daughter, so I pretty much always have a camera glued to my hand.  And I'm a sucker for sunsets and oceans and clouds.   But I'll try not to get tooo carried away.....

January:  I sent in my portfolio for my graduate school application.

Then Mark and I moved to Richmond.  This is the first day of setting up the new studio! 



February: Buster came into our lives and we all enjoyed exploring Richmond together.

March : I revamped the look of my jewelry business, CopperTide.

April: Worked on tool designs and Micro Raising Workshop development with NC Black Co.

May: Chuck and I taught our first Micro Raising Workshop

at Sawtooth School for Visual Art in Winston-Salem, NC.

Then I went to the SNAG conference in Seattle and worked the 

NC Black vendor booth with Andrea and Les.

June:  I launched my new Reef Jewelry line.

July : Traveled to Colorado with NC Black to do a vendor booth at the CoMA Conference.

August : My first outdoor "craft show," the Watermelon Festival in Carytown.



Then took a little time off for the beach, and got to see a hurricane pass by the SC coast.  Amazing.

September : Mark and I launched our new business, CopperDog Studio.

October: Taught my first enameling workshop at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond.

November : Started teaching an evening course at The Visual Arts Center, then got some more beach time for Thanksgiving.



December : Made lots of jewelry, dog tags, and festive confectionery delights!

So here's to 2011!  It was a hell of a year! 

2012 : BRING.IT.ON.