"Growing Love" - A Work in Progress

I became a fan of Renee Phillips of Manhattan Arts after reading her article about Vanity Galleries in Art Calendar Magazine last year. As a result, I purchased two of her books, Presentation Power Tools for Fine Artists and Success Now! I have read both and find Renees' advice invaluable. I also subscribe to her newsletter and a couple of weeks ago, there was a Call for Artists for their juried online gallery called Celebrate HerStory 2009. I wanted to share this with all of you, as I hope you will consider entering your works too. As I read about Celebrate HerStory 2009, I knew I wanted to enter something and I had a vision of what I wanted to create.

So, here is the start of my work for this entry, which I think I will call "Growing Love". It symbolizes how our love grows during the course of our lives. The love we have for our parents, our husband/wife/significant other, our children (if we have them), our friends, our pets....well, you get the idea.

It seems that many of you enjoy seeing my work in progress and I thought I would continue with that for this piece.

The picture at the top of this post is how "Growing Love" looked after it was fused. It seems to me like this represents some of that earthy, organic look and feel my work tends to have. The straight lines sort of moved and became more wavy as the hearts fused into them. This is a bit of a fantasy of how hearts grow and what a plant or bouquet of them might look like.

This is a shot of the glass I choose, Bullseye of course, which for me has such wonderful color pallets. The top red/white streaky glass, is the one I have used for my Symbols of Love jewelry and it fuses to such a rich color. I also used white, another pink, and some pink streamers in clear.




Then its time to start cutting the strips. I decided to make them 3/8" and as so many of us love the tools of our respective trades, I couldn't resist showing my trusty Beetle Bits cutting system. A very handy tool for the glass artist. You can see how this cutting system lets me set up the width I want to cut. The yellow and orange guides to the right are positioned to hold the glass in place at the correct distance. The little 'beetle' cutting tool is at the bottom of this picture and it is set on the black guide, running a perfect score at the correct width.




The end result is an assortment of glass strips that I played with for a while until I got the color combination/layout that I wanted.







This shows all the colors arranged in a 9" square. Ultimately, I felt it was better to keep the background fairly ordered and clean to act as the proper stage for the 'heart shaped flowers'.







Next I started working on the hearts. There are three hearts, but each is made up of 5 layers of glass, each layer/heart is just a little bit smaller than the one it sits on.









And then I placed the hearts on top of the glass strip base. At first I used the green stringers like plant stems starting at the bottom of the piece, but as I looked at it...I felt it should be a little more mystical. I changed it to have the green stringers coming from the top. Like someone was holding them and the heart bouquet was coming down from an imaginary sky.




Here is a side view showing the height of everything before the fusing took place.







And the last shot is a detail view of the 'flowers' after the fusing. I added one last stringer as the center of each flower.

On to the coldworking phase, which should be minimal for this piece. I will wait for my new machine to complete that aspect of the work.


Hope you enjoyed this work in progress. And I hope all of you consider a submission to Celebrate HerStory 2009. Oh yes, I hope my piece will be accepted...if not, I sure had fun creating it. :)

Are you an Artrepreneur?

I'll preface this with the acknowledgment that I have been very pensive for the last week. After yesterday, I think I understand why and wanted to share my thoughts. I know I'm being guided along the path I'm on.

Currently, I'm reading "Success Now! for Artists" by Renee Phillips. She provides great guidance and insight for managing the business of art. Not something I think most of us artists want to deal with, but we really must if we ever want success...I think.

Even though I've worked with glass for over 20 years, I didn't start our official studio until almost 2 years ago. And the business has come a long way in that short period of time and I feel we've been very fortunate.

My husband and I realize that getting a business started takes time and there are initial start up costs. As you can imagine, we have been operating in the red since the studio started. The good news is that for the most part I have all the equipment I need (yes, there's always that dream item or two) and I have a sound glass inventory. So we are at a point where I do not believe I need much except to replace supplies as they grow low AND I have sales to justify their purchase.

Last Saturday when we were enjoying dinner after the symphony, I told Dan that my goal for 2009 was to treat Krucoff Studios in a more business like manner. Since both of us have day jobs, my 'real job' does help to support my art and the business. If our small business has the money for me to purchase something, I will. And this goes hand and hand with Renee's recommendations for the business side of being an artist. One thing that is on my wish list is a LARGE kiln (the Paragon Pearl 44....she's a beauty), but I will not buy it until the business can justify that expense.

What's ironic, I guess, is yesterday the company that my husband and I work for (you know, the real day jobs...and yes we both work for the same company) announced that effective January 1, there would be an across the board 5% pay cut. Not exactly a Christmas bonus, but we still have jobs and they are trying to insure that those of us who are employed, continue to be. We appreciate that, especially in these economic times. So to my way of thinking, things happen for a reason, and how appropriate is it that prior to yesterday's news about our steady income, I had already made the decision that I need to treat my art as a business too? This is only one of the reasons I feel like I'm being guided; listen to your inner voice, it is wise and provides great insight.

2009 will be an interesting year, as they all are. Challenges are good. Never give up your dreams and be flexible to change. I have written down my goals for Krucoff Studios for 2009 and I continue to look for ways to grow our business. I do have faith and know that things happen for a reason. Perhaps the 5% pay cut is just the "gentle" nudge needed for me to become even more determined to achieve the goals I have for our business.

Be thankful for your gifts, your talent, and the blessings you receive every day. And yes, I am becoming an Artrepreneur.

Book - "Success Now! For Artists"

I ordered this book a few weeks ago, "Success Now! For Artists" by Renee Phillips. Today I was finally able to make some time to start reading the book and it's been hard for me to put this book down.

Great advice, encouragement, support. Set goals. Have a business plan. Manage your money. Wow! Ok, obvious stuff, but sometimes I find it necessary to be reminded of those things....a good thump to the head sort of..... For any of us experiencing self-doubt or that lovely floundering feeling that comes from time to time, I think this book is a MUST READ.

I ordered this directly from Manhattanarts and Renee even autographed it!

My point is I have found a great deal of inspiration from what I've read so far and it has helped me to feel more focused about my work. Just wanted to share.