What a whirlwind spring & summer it was. I recently finished 5 straight weeks of shows, most multi-day events. It was great to be back out meeting customers, getting feedback & just enjoying the face-to-face portion of running this business.
While I was doing that I was also busy restocking my retailers so they were prepared for the summer buying season. In addition to my existing retailers I was happy to welcome a few more, thus making my jewelry more accessible to my customers.
Since returning home after July 4th, I have been busy with behind the scenes tasks. Bookkeeping, ordering supplies, cleaning my glass shop, kiln washing shelves, and beginning to fire the kiln once again to start the process of replenishing my stock.
I also hope this time is one of “regeneration”. That is my term for taking all those ideas that have been floating around in my head and letting them incubate in order to determine how to take a thought or idea and make it a reality.
To outsiders this may seem like an unproductive time for an artist. But I think it is one of the most critical elements to staying creative. This time of outwardly “non-doing” actually involves a lot of internal “doing”. It’s the time artists, regardless of their medium, work thru problems they’ve been mulling over.
I used to encounter this when I painted, and I encounter it now in my glass work. I can only hope this “downtime” allows me to come up with something new that is not only appealing to my customers but also fun for me as well.
I’ll keep you posted.