17 October

Will Make Art For Kudos


Yes, it’s all about the process, but I’ll take a side order of Kudos anytime. I’ve read Blogs where artists who sell their work on ETSY have been selected as a Featured Seller or their work was highlighted on the opening ETSY page. What a wonderful feeling to get your work recognized, selected out of hundreds of others. Those little affirmations can be uplifting and be just the thing that keeps us working artists creating and moving forward. I’m not an ETSY artist but I am an Artful Home & Guild Artist and one of my new Leaf sculptures was selected to appear on their opening Blog page, The Artful Life! “Autumn Pond Leaves II” is in the upper right hand corner under the heading “Great New Piece!” At first when I linked to the Artful Home Blog page I thought maybe it was just my browser that popped my work in the upper right hand corner –weird thinking, I know.  But I sincerely wondered if they had really picked one of MY sculptures for the page! It caught me by surprise

that my work would get selected from the hundreds of very talented artists, and I admit being selected MADE MY WEEK –Yippee! That confirmation, affirmation,positive reinforcement, along with those grateful customers, appreciative Galleries, or being selected into a juried show or better yet, selling a big fat piece, I admit can go a long way for me to continue working as a full time artist.  Kudos can offset those times of waiting for a check in the mail, dry spells of inspiration, fussy critical customers, lagging Gallery sales, late night or early morning show set-ups, pricing, tagging, accounting, packaging and shipping, long days in the Studio or just plain lack of artistic confidence. Sales are the ultimate sustainer but recognition also works for me. The timing of the Artful Home recognition was good because I have a full weekend of production scheduled and needed a little morale boost!I’m going to be doing repetitive task production of hand beading and tagging my Good Fortune Pea Pods and Happy Halibut Ornaments for the upcoming Bad Girls Show.  I don’t do very well with repetitive tasks but I have had multiple requests for the Pea Pods and Halibut (Orna‘Butts) to be at Bad Girls so I’m getting after it. 
I love both items when their finished, it’s just making so many multiples of anything is hard for me. I’ve created a cool story tag that goes with the Pea Pods and bought some lovely sheer ribbon to use as ties. I’m looking forward to having a box filled with the ornaments because I’ll feel rich with all of the inventory being ready for the Show. I like it when my coffers are full! The good news is my hands are properly callused to do all the hand work as the last of the huge Birch trees dropped their leaves I finally raked the entire Anchorage yard yesterday. Daddy-O was impressed when he got home, gave me a squeeze and poured me my favorite cold beverage, again just enough recognition to sustain me.

9 comments:

Orion Designs said...

Congratulations Cindy! The recognition is richly deserved. We all need that kind of boost once in a while.

Linda Starr said...

You're really on a roll, congratulations, the story line and illustration is wonderful, how creative you are.

Patricia Griffin Ceramics said...

Bravo Cindy! That's a big deal! Love the pea pods too!

cookingwithgas said...

well deserved!
I am digging the pea pods. You work..... we need to figure out how to get you over to the East Coast!

ang design said...

oh what a treat cindy yippee.... i got some similar encouragement this afternoon from a gallery in town, so nice to get good news!

Gary's third pottery blog said...

omigosh, really? :)

cindy shake said...

Yay for Ang and the good Gallery news!! Uplifting isn't it? I've never been to the East Coat Meredith...I always wanted to attend RISD and it's been a long-time goal to go to Penland.

Thanks for reading and leaving a post everyone. I LOVE to see when there are comments. It's so fun to share with such a talented group of artists, it means a lot to me. The Blog has been a great place to learn and especially share with artists all over the world. Amazing to me.

Peter said...

Really lovely to read about good things, and even nicer when they happen to you! The photo of your work on the opening page of Artful Home & Guild was well deserved! Congratulations, it is a wonderful moral boost for you! I really like the story tag that you have done, it looks beautiful and fun at the same time. Something like that must help with marketing too, but a great way to do so as it actually adds to the pleasure of the buyer and the receiver of the gift.

cindy shake said...

Hi Peter- Yes, the tags have been wonderful for sales. Most of these items this time of year are given as gifts and the tags are special for the giver as a little something extra in the gift and it explains who. what where etc. sounds basic but you are exactly right, it's the little touches it seems my customers really appreciate.

LOVED your images of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof!!