Back at the beginning of August I was able to attend the World's Longest Yard Sale. This year was the first time that I'd been able to attend the sale, in years past something has always come up that got in the way. I should have been in the studio working but I really needed a break so I went with my friend Susan, armed with a cooler of snacks, water, and some extra TP-just in case.

On the way out of town we hit up Doughdaddy's donuts in Versailles. (Susan and I have slowly been making our way through the Kentucky Donut Trail) Sadly, since having donuts from North Lime coffee and Donuts, well, these just kind of tasted like moosh. I was so unimpressed that I---wait for it---didn't eat the donuts.  (note the plural?) WHAAA? Yep. True Story. 

After that bitter disappointment we drove to Frankfort to hit 127 with the intentions of working our way down to Danville but we didn't really make it much further! In fact, we only hit up 4 spots the entire day! Thankfully the spots we did stop at had a ton of vendors! Here's a look of some awesome and crazy things that we found: 

And the award for Thing I Should Have Bought But Put Back and Now I'm Kicking Myself goes to......these metal gas station numbers! The guy wanted $5 each but there was one number missing to complete our house number. Heath was even totally on board with this idea (whaaa?) so I was even more bummed. Since passing them up I've come to find that these can go for up to $30 each. Dangit!! Oh Why didn't I just buy them and then search for the missing digit??

What I did score were several Golden Books for Ruby, a bin of giant Duplo block (which she's played with for a whole 2 minutes and then moved on. What is with this kid and not liking toys??), a sweet vintage necklace and ring, a few vintage My Little Pony, and an old school Booby Trap board game. I definitely plan on going again next year. After all,  I have yet to find my Holy Grail of thrifting finds, a card catalog. One day it will be mine. Oh, yes. It will be mine. 

In 4 months she'll be three. Seriously?? Here's what going on with her right now:

• She is not potty trained yet, and although she has shown interest in the past, she is not currently caring. That's okay with me because, honestly, I don't really care either. I've been dreading potty training, simply dreading it. I've said before that if I had the money to pay someone to do it I totally would. It's not that I haven't tried but I don't care enough to have the patience to deal with the whole thing right now. In time the stars will align all of three of us will be ready to tag team the hell out of some potty training. Until then I'm not stressing about it. 
• I know a lot of other kids her age that are sleeping in the "big kid" bed but not Ruby. We did attempt this in early July things did not work out so well. H insisted on her sleeping in the bed without a rail (the one that I had bought did not work with her convertible crib) and although it allowed me to get these shots...

Friday: On Friday morning I experienced my first bit of anxiety since I was pregnant. I popped a (probably expired) anxiety pill and pressed on. Set up started at noon so the plan was to get to the park and then head somewhere for lunch. Instead, once I got there my anxiety went away and was replaced with adrenaline. We had the tent up and ready in an hour and a half. 50% less time than the trail run on Thursday. After lunch, where I discovered that anxiety is fabulous for my diet-I barely ate anything-we set up the walls, the process expedited greatly by my friends husband, another art fair pro. Lastly the work and signing was hung. All in all it took about 6 hours to do everything. 

Saturday: Woke up feeling anxious again but found that getting to the fairgrounds and making sure that absolutely everything was ready to go made me feel a lot better. I grabbed some breakfast that was provided, chatted with a few people, and looked at other people's work as I passed by back to my tent. People started trickling in just before ten and there wasn't a break all day. There were SO many people! I made my first sale at around 11:30. People continued to come in droves, asking about my work, telling my how cool, unique, different that it was. I heard a lot of "I would have to buy the whole wall!" Saw lots of friends, college classmates, Target co-workers, Facebook friends I'd never met, and cool people in general. I'd been on my feet all day, hadn't been to the bathroom all day (which is pretty much unheard of for me), and barely ate anything but that didn't bother me until the moment my ass hit the seat in the car on the way home. All at once my feet were throbbing, I was exhausted, starving, and really needed a restroom. After grabbing dinner my aunt and I went home and watched Game of Thrones. 

Sunday: Not all anxious that morning. Was ready to go to the fair early for the artist award breakfast. I joked that I was glad I didn't win an award because the angle in which they were taking the photos was from below (horribly unflattering), and would have added about 8 chins, hahaha.  The weather forecast was all over the place with early predictions of rain about halfway through the day. It got cloudy at one point but never actually rained, but I was told that just a few miles away it poured. We got lucky! Traffic though my tent was again awesome and I made a large sale that totally flattered and amazed me. More friends came through to show support and I actually had a bit of time to inhale a delicious gyro for lunch. Once 5pm rolled around we started taking down everything. The whole process was fast because I was lucky to have several people helping me. Heath even rolled in from Indianapolis just in time to take the tent down. I was at home, van unloaded, sitting on my butt, starving, with a headache (probably should have drank more water) by 7:30pm. 

Needless to say it was a great weekend. The weather could not have been better, my spot was perfection, and it was just awesome. I will definitely be applying to fairs for next year! Thank you to everyone who came out, shared photos and posts on Facebook, took cells off to a new home, and helped me during set-up and takedown. I appreciate you all!

As you are reading this post I am more than likely loading a Uhaul cargo van and getting ready to head to the fair grounds. It is finally time! My aunt and I spent a good chunk of yesterday putting up the tent in the driveway and setting up the walls inside just to get some practice. I cursed a lot, got very frustrated, and at one point it turned into a mini sob fest whereas my inability to put up the tent quickly and efficiently turned into OMG I am going to fail so hard this weekend. Yes, I put a lot of pressure on myself. 

Even though I'm stressing a little right now, I don't think that this weekend is going to be a total bust. I'm dreading set-up a little bit tomorrow but other than that I am really excited for this opportunity to share my work with new people.

If you are heading to the fair I'd love to see you! My booth is #39 and it is located by the baseball field. I'll check back in early next week with the name of the winner of the little purple cell (enter by clicking HERE and 'liking' my artist page) and hopefully lots of pictures! 

Back in '09 I traveled to Minneapolis to attend a wedding photography workshop ran by Erin Johnson. Besides providing the most amazing Baked Potato pizza from Pizza Luce, OMGeee was it good, she provided all of the attendants with a complete listing of all her expenses, income, etc. It was incredibly eye-opening, to see every. little. thing. that was involved in her business. It was then that I realized that I did not want to be a full-time wedding photographer. Second shooting and random portraits throughout the year is a-okay with me. 

Fast forward to now where, perhaps against my better judgement, I'm working on the whole small business thing anyway. I think most of my blog readers understand the cost associated with being an artist, but just in case I thought I'd share some of the costs associated with my work and the cost of being in an art fair. This is not intended to guilt anyone into purchasing my work, but rather to inform. Artwork IS work, and it usually isn't cheap to do. 

There's the stuff I use every day to create: 
Kiln: $600. I was lucky to score mine for that price (it's 20yo). To buy a new one would cost around $2500 so I'm hoping mine still has a few more years left in it!
Firing: $7-$10/load, depending on whether it's a bisque or glaze firing.
Glaze, Clay, brushes, kiln shelves, etc. etc: $993.27 (you have no idea how terrified I was to tally the amount I've spent as Kentucky Mudworks this year...But hey, SUPPORT LOCAL! Right?)
Material for packaging: $110, for bags and boxes. Thankfully I've been able to score FREE bubble wrap and from Target AND did you know that you can get super cheap paper roll ends from the newspaper? I picked mine up in Georgetown. They are only like $3/roll, depending on the size of the roll, and it makes great packing material.
Business materials: $76 (business cards)
Time: This is a little harder to put in a dollar amount. Each cell take about an hour to make (depending on the size) but there is also time loading/unloading the kiln, getting supplies, driving to the studio, packing them, taking inventory, etc. For my time I currently am charging what I make at Target, which I can't share per company policy. 

Then there are costs associated with the fair: 
Tent-$800 (and this was used. I couldn't bring myself to buy a (much cheaper) EZ-Up tent after some of the horror stories I've heard about how they (don't) hold up in the wind and rain. I do NOT want to be responsible for destroying another artists hard work because my tent got caught in the wind)
Application fees: $35
Booth Fee: $350 (Woodland has a reasonable booth fee, it is not uncommon to pay $750+ at other fairs)
Pro Panels display panels for inside of the tent: $2650
Signing: $250
Stickers: $40 (stickers) They are super cute. You can have one if you visit my booth this weekend!

Thankfully the costs of my materials really do go a long way in making a lot of little cells (which only matters is they actually sell) and most of the costs associated with the fair are on things that can be used over and over again. IF I get into another fair that is. But we won't think of how much of a total bummer that would be if I never got into any fair ever again!

You may be wondering how I get started making my work. Well,  a long, long time ago back in 2008 (at least it feels like a long, long time ago) I was in my first fiber arts class at UK. I sat in my studio facing a huge pile of hand-dyed wool and the deadline  for my final project looming just a week away. Very randomly I started cutting out circle and this is what took shape:

I loved that piece. Still love it. The next semester I took my first ceramics class where I was introduced to the work of Virginia Scotchie. For the final project I decided to do a wall installation inspired by her large-scale installations. While it may have looked cool, the spheres were a hot mess! Some of the larger ones probably weighed about five pounds and could have easily been classified as weapons. They were hung on the wall by nails but at this point I wasn't using the key-hole carved out of the back so it was just a giant gaping hole. During critique in my head I was like please don't fall off the wall, please don't fall off the wall! Thankfully they didn't and there were lots of "balls" jokes thrown around, always funny. 

The next semester I learned the glorious skill of making molds. The spheres were much, much faster to make and no longer weighed enough to kill a person. *insert angels singing* I also starting making cells, inspired by medical images. For whatever reason I was very against glazing that semester so all of these bad boys are painted. 

And then for my final semester and my BFA show the cells evolved into what they are today. Now they are even lighter (under 1lb each), there are more sizes and generally there is more texture. 

I've been asked what drives me to create these guys and well, my first reaction to that question is because they make me happy. Shouldn't that be the very best reason to make art? As much as I hate to admit I tend to gravitate a little more towards the 'glass half-empty' camp and I need something around me fun and cheery. Plus, usually people's reaction to them is also very positive so I feel like each and every little cell that I create puts a bit of happiness out into the world. Not to sound too terribly cheesy. 

Also, I enjoy interracting with people, seeing how they react to seeing them for the first and starting conversation with them about what they think they are and what kinds of things they see in them. Their responses are so varied and interesting. Kids especially are very good at coming up with things I'd never thought of or noticed in them. The cells give me the opportunity to connect with people, which, as a social person who doesn't always get out as often as I'd like, I enjoy immensely. 

Lastly, they are just very relaxing to make. When I create these guys I go to my happy spot. I have my music on, I'm singing, I probably have an iced coffee by my side. It's all very zen for me.

Sheesh.  The time is flying by. Just 2 weeks until Woodland. I wish I could say that I was ready to go but I'm not. More than likely I'll be working right up until the day before but hey, I work really well with a deadline looming so I'm not too concerned. I am busy but it's an "I'm accomplishing something" busy rather than a "I'm just trying to keep my head above water" busy which is nice for a change. 

I'd also love to say that I've been able to spend every possible moment in the studio creating but unfortunately that just isn't realistic. Ruby duties, appointments with tax lawyers, ordering packaging and signing, working on pricing (ugh), random appointments, grocery shopping, cooking, 30 Day Shred-ing, and collapsing exhausted on the couch to watch Project Runway are all in there too. 

Time in the studio has been spent making spiky cells, prepping for mass glazing, and firings. I feel like this week was a 'make it or break it' week and I needed to get as much stuff done as possible.  Thankfully, I had help in the studio which helped tremendously. 

This part of the process, applying underglaze to enhance the texture, took ALL DAY and they were not all finished. Of course I know how many cells I've made but until you see them all together and are physically working with them it's hard to wrap your mind around just how many that is (about 175 in case you're wondering). Yes, I was very grateful for my help today. 

I am going to try and update a couple more times before the fair but I might end up just posting updates on my artist page (click here to 'like'). I will be doing some sort of giveaway so stay tuned on Facebook to hear the details!