Dressing Like an Artist

A couple of weeks ago my friend Lori Greenberg posted an interesting Wikihow article on how to dress like an artist. I never consider myself an artist, but I certainly have a artsy-farsty side that I spend alot of time indulging. From time to time I've contemplated the "dressing like an artist" issue. I'm a little schizo about my dress. On one hand I'm not the type to want to call attention to myself, and on the other hand I do like cool, fun interesting clothes. But heck, I work as a lab tech, a mostly jeans and t-shirt sort of world which suits me as I'm all about comfortable clothes. But deep down I really like the idea of dressing like an artist.

So how do I measure up to the Wikihow article? Apparently something should be different about my hair. Does the big gray streak fit the bill? I bet that's not what they have in mind! Accessories are good. Does wearing my lampwork jewelery count? Anthropologie is suggested as a great place to shop... I do love to shop there, but I never buy anything. Same for thrift and vintage shops, where I shop with my daughter, but never for myself. My favorite place to buy artsy clothes is the huge flea market where my mom lives in Florida. Many of my favorite artsy skirts have come from the flea market. I also love tye-dye. Does that make me artsy?

The one spot were I may actually pass the arty test is piercings. Apparently artist are supposed to have piercings. To be honest, I've never really been into piercings. I have nothing against them, I did let my daughter pierce her nose, but other than the standard ear piercings I've never been interested in having any others. That is, until a little over a year ago, when I needed to consult a divorce lawyer. She had an unusual piercing that caught my eye. A gentle loop that seemed to be inside her ear. I asked her about it and she told me if was called a daith. Fast forward a few months. I'm at the piercing salon with my daughter, who needed to buy a new nose ring, when I spied the black rubber sample ear that shows piercing possibilities. As I looked it over, my daughter said "Come on Mom, you know you want to", and she was right and so I did it, a single daith piercing in my left ear. I really like it!

People say that piercing is addicting. Maybe it is. A few months after my daith I notice my daughter is sporting a new piercing, one way up high on her earlobe. It turns out she did it herself. I probably should have been mad at her for self piercing, but to be honest it looked so darn cute on her I couldn't get mad. Instead I decided I needed one too, after all, she and I have the same shaped ear. So a couple months later (I wanted to wait until after my bwach vacation) I went to the piercing salon and voile, I sport another new piercing.

So now I have both ears pierced the ordinary way, and my left ear has my "divorce piercing", the daith, and my "Bond with my daughter", piercing, the upper lobe. So does this mean I can now dress like an artist?

Show time!

Well, I survived my second little jewelry show yesterday. Unfortunately, it was pretty much a bust, financially at least. I did make back my booth fee, but not much more. I guess street fairs are better if you are are selling food or perhaps something inexpensive geared to kids. I did have fun talking to my friends that stopped buy, and I had a nice time talking to some strangers.

I especially enjoy the kids. A group of boys about my daughters age stopped by, and I really wowed them by explaining how lampwork beads are made. I bring my hot head torch, some colorful rods, canes, coated mandrels and beads still on mandrels to use as audio visual aids while I explained lampwork. It's fun to have kids think what you do is really cool. I also had a lovely young girl, jr high school age I think, who claims that she's know since she's small that she wants to work glass. She was really interested in the lampwork process, and was pretty excited to find out that it is something that you can do in a home studio.

The other highlight of my day was having a little helper for a while. The girlfriend, who convinced me to participate in the street fair's, little girl. She the one "modeling" a necklace in todays picture. She's a spunky little kid and I really enjoy hanging out with her.

Selling jewelry is difficult because there are so many people selling jewelry at festivals, and it's hard to be "competitive" price-wise when you actually make your own beads. I don't think my prices are at all out of line with those of other jewelry makers, and considering each piece has one or more original handmade beads my prices are probably actually reasonable. Of course not everyone grasps or appreciates the difference between handmade lampwork and store bought components. And "reasonable in the lampwork world is rarely "cheap". I'm also the first to realize that everyone is on a budget, and jewelry is a luxury item. I know that I do much more looking and admiring than I do buying when I attend a fair. Perhaps the local street fair isn't quite the right venue for my work.

I have wondered if having a tent would have improved sales. I thought my display was attractive, but perhaps that big white canopy would have imparted a feeling of professionalism and desirability to my work. Or would it have just been a waste of a few hundred dollars all for naught. It would be nice to be able to answer that question.

My display actually received quite a bit of attention. I used a pretty cross stitched floral table cloth that I thought nicely complimented my work. I had many, many people come up and admire my table cloth. Is it better to use a plain, less noticable table covering as to not take away from your beads? Or is attention getting with booth decoration a good thing? It would be interesting to know the answers to these questions... although I suspect the answer is "it all depends" on the day and the show.

It's a good learning experience.


You can catch a glimpse of my pretty tablecloth in this picture. My sister bought the table cloth while she was in St. Thomas V.I. on her honeymoon and later gave it to me. It's all beautifully handstitched... (probably by children in a third world sweat shop, but beautiful work non-the-less!)