Norway Sidewalk Art Show Recap

Now that I've had a couple days to recover from the art show it's time for a recap.

I got to the show about 8am, signed in and dropped off Odin's Runesong for judging then headed over to my spot to set up. I have to say that I hate my canopy, it takes forever to set up and it's not as sturdy as I'd like. I got two folding tables for my booth and it became very clear that I need another one next time, I just didn't have quite enough room for everything. Since I do jewelry as well as sculpture my spot was with several other jewelry artists. I had a great time talking to them and swapping ideas.

The show started at 9am and that's about when people started coming by. I have no idea how many people came through during the day but it was quite a crowd. Early in the morning I heard someone at the next jewelry booth talking about eCrater so I popped over to check it out and found out it was another eCrater seller that I know from the forums.

I brought along some little bookmarks I'd made with a rubber stamp I'd made from carving an eraser and gave those away to little kids (if you're curious the stamp is of an octopus). That was a big hit. I know a lot of kids like my sculpture (especially the animals) but how many parents are going to get their 5-year-old a $65 Perma-Pet, so the bookmarks I thought were a way to make them a little less disappointed and it worked. Another big hit was the little brochures I printed out aboout my work. I lot of people snagged those so hopefully some will then visit the website and buy something.

I didn't really sell much, just a couple of my small ornaments. Several people were very interested in my sculpture, including one person who said if he wished he had $750 in cash to buy An tEach Uisce (I made sure he left with a business card and brochure, who knows maybe he'll call to buy it).

About 1pm show volunteers went around handing out the announcements for the awards. I just about had a heart attack when I saw that I had won the Honorable Mention award for Odin! Obviously that was the highlight of my day.

About 2pm I had to go up to the gallery for picture taking. I had my picture taken with Odin for myself. For the local paper I had my picture taken with the other winners, US Senator Susan Collins, and some of the show organizers. Afterwards I brought Odin back to my booth and got a round of applause from the booths around me.

The rest of the day went pretty well, and I wrapped things up around 4pm. I'm still recovering a bit, it was a long exhausting day and I got a terrible sunburn even using plenty of sunscreen.

Here's a slide show of the photos I got.

2007 Retrospective

So now that 2007 is nearly over it's time to start reflecting on what I've accomplished. Most likely I wouldn't have thought of sharing this if not for Troy McDevitt from the Clubhouse forums who posted a thread asking everyone to cram their 2007 portfolio into one 600x400 pixel image.

Now there's still a little while to go in 2007 so I have a few small projects that I may get finished before the end of the year but nothing significant. While I was compiling this I was able to reminisce over the creation of each piece, what I learned, and the progress I've made. With everything I sculpt there's always something in the end I know could be better but even so I'm really happy with the rate at which I'm improving. As long as I keep learning and improving that's what I think is the most important thing.

Going left to right from the top: Satyr (January), Octopuppy (January), Perma-Pets (ongoing series, started February), Squid (August), Odin's Runesong (September), Lionfish Mermaid (November), Baby Rat (May), Hatching Turtle (July), Frog Ornament (November), Cthulhu's Gems (ongoing series, started June), Cephalopod Pendants (November), Gargoyles (ongoing series, started May).

Odin's Runesong Creation Video

I've been working on this video for the past couple days. I've taken photos of the creation process of Odin's Runesong and compiled them into a slideshow with an audio commentary.

What is it about hearing your own voice recorded that it sounds so different from what you hear when you speak? I sound 15 not 25 in this video. However it does explain a little why people are always underestimating my age.