I have just finished packing for my return flight home from the annual Glass Craft Expo in Vegas. I can not wait for my new “toys” to be delivered and to let some ideas congeal in my brain after an intense week.
Here are some things I learned. First, regardless of your trade, find a great trade show in your industry and attend it. There is nothing more awesome than to be swimming in a sea of people just as enthused as you are about your trade.
Of course there will be deals to be found as evidenced by my need to ship multiple packages back home since I FAR exceeded my airline’s weight restrictions.
If your trade show offers workshops or lectures, be sure to attend. Both last and this year I attended as many as I could. It makes for an exhausting week but one to be sure to get the creative juices flowing.
Both years I not only attended classes specific to fused dichroic glass jewelry but also ones that touched on other aspects of glass art. On the surface this may seem like a waste of time, energy, and money, but at least for me it affords me the ability to cross-pollinate and possibly learn one thing that applies to one area of glass art and turn the idea on its head to see how it’d work for my applications.
Finally, in every class I attend, I make a new connection or learn a ” trick of the trade” that might not have had any direct connection to the class material.
It is with a fresh palate of toys and ideas that I leave Vegas and I look forward to my return at the 2010 convention.