Faire Season

Deutsch (will be available at Second Renaissance this week)

A lot of exciting things coming up in the next few months for us here in little Sparta, Tennessee. Here's the Renaissance Faire and Craft Fair schedule:

April 25-26 Dragon Days Renaissance Faire at Hidden Hollow, Cookeville, TN
May 2 Bobby Ray Elementary Spring Fling Arts & Craft Show, McMinnville, TN
May 8 White County Middle School Renaissance Festival Sparta, TN
May 23 Liberty Square Festival, Sparta, TN

As a result, I've been busily creating Renfaire-appropriate goodies mostly in maille. If you're local stop by one of the above shows and see us.

In other news, Fragrant Mushroom here in Sparta is opening a local art gallery and You've Got Maille will be participating with gallery display, classes, and more. More info on that as I receive it, but it's an opportunity to promote local artisanship that I'm really excited about. Besides, networking with other artists in a richly creative atmosphere is one of the most wonderful things in life.

Wait, it's 2009? - Carnival

Okay, so I'm a little slow coming to this resolution/goal thing. I know the month is half over. For one thing, I'm a little resistant to resolution (it's the nonconformist streak in me... I refuse to resolve to lose those lbs. along with a million other people, and then fail with them). But I do have goals for the shop, and even if I bore you with them, it's good to have them out there in the public eye if only to remind me throughout the year. Besides, the alternative was talking about taxes, and you don't want that, it'd be a whiny post. So here goes.

1) New techniques, new materials. I'm not bored with chainmaille. I keep coming back to it. But wire intrigues me. I have a box of cabochons that beg wrapping. I have new books and tools. So these will include:

• Lots more cab wrapping using new techniques
• More precious metals for the new shop
• Viking weave
• Braided and woven wire
• Soldered wire filigree
• Bezel making
  
• Branching into some metalsmithing
• Peyote and other bead weaving
• Maybe some micro-macrame

It's a lot of directions, in some ways, and I fear I will never have that distinctive "style" that lets you look at something and know it was made by me. I think I've decided that's okay. I'll never enjoy making lots of the same or even very similar items. It has to be done sometimes, though.

2) Craft shows. I'd like to go to some bigger/more expensive ones and work on building an inventory for the 2010 Renaissance Faire.

3) Website. It needs work. It needs to be easier to order from. And maybe a new look entirely. By the same token, I intend to increase my web presence and make better use of social networking sites. You like my social networking avatar?

4) Time management. This is the big one. I want to get my "real" work done in some sort of time that lets me create in those normal off-time hours most people have at the end of the day. People have those, right?

5) Manage inventory and "the books" better. You might be getting the idea that I'm not that great at this "management" thing. You'd be right.

6) Develop some leads on local distributors.

7) By the end of the year, I'd like to have the business where it makes (even a very small) profit, rather than costing the family money. I'm making significant strides here.

There, I committed!

Interlude [EB Carnival]

The question: How are you going to prepare your business for the holiday rush?

The short answer: I'm not. Not really.

The long answer:

So far, I've done four craft shows in the past three months (two of them "holiday" shows), all with moderately pleasing success but nothing to write home about. Sales both online and at fairs have definitely picked up since the onset of the holiday season, which is great because it means I can afford more materials.

On the other hand, it has also meant cranking out massive amounts of the same thing, something I do not particularly enjoy and that turns art into drudgery. The last thing I want. This is still a hobby before it's a business and I'm honestly not sure I want that to change.

I really wanted to do this Dickens of a Christmas Victorian show in "historic Franklin Tennessee" thing, but I'm too late to apply for it. Besides that, the booth fee was $165, it's a drive, and if it decided to have a blizzard on December 14, 2008 in Franklin, Tennessee... well, sorry, no refund.

That's a bit scary.

But I have decided that it's time to prepare myself for bigger shows with bigger advertising, bigger attendance and therefore bigger booth fees, so that is the direction my business has decided to take. I think for the most part, unless one comes up and bites me like it did last week, I'll skip most of the upcoming Christmas craft shows. I also am considering setting my sights on Middle Tennessee Renaissance Faire and will need to work on some themed things for that.

One thing I HAVE done is prepare a custom item catalog where you can pick a design, pick your colors, choose a focal pendant or your beads, and I make your design to specs. More info about that on my website: http://www.youvegotmaille.net The great thing about that is that there's no stress of building up a stock. I love doing custom orders, too.

Reason two: I'm suffering a little burnout. I have wanted very much to try some new techniques, new stuff, new designs, and have had to back burner everything to make sure I had enough stock for craft shows. So the near future holds for me some experiments in macrame, peyote bead weaving, wire wrapping, polymer clay, wire tree making, and a wacky idea I had "Christmas Ornaments for Geeks." I used to paint Warhammer miniatures and I have half a closetful (well not quite) and I thought they might make cute and amusing Christmas tree ornaments if adapted. They will show up on Etsy, maybe even in time for Christmas decorating. A lot of the above may get integrated with my first love, chainmaille. I love the way wire wrapping looks but doing it is stress for me (especially when, as with the pendant above, the results are nothing like the picture in my head), whereas weaving maille is like needlework: mostly mindless and relaxing, once I know the weave well.

But I've decided not to stress about ANYTHING related to the holidays, because that takes the fun out of them for me, so I am going to have a chat with my inner child, sit down at my workbench and play instead of working. The results of that are usually better, anyway.

First Craft Show

Well, Saturday was my first craft show, at Liberty Square Festival here in Sparta. Not bad for a first run, really. The item above sold (although it's on my custom item catalog and can be reproduced), along with MANY stretchy bracelets and keychains, and distributed many of our custom item brochures. I'm pretty happy with the results. Our Renaissance group, LLORE, also performed, with a few glitches :)

In other news, our website is live! Check it out: http://www.youvegotmaille.net It's mainly for creating custom items, with galleries of our one of a kind items, too.

We'll be at Sandbar Arts Craft Festival at Rock Island State Park this weekend Saturday and Sunday (if I survive till Sunday!) sharing a booth with Delavande, so if you're in Tennessee come on by! LLORE will be there, as well.