Since then i have been playing Catch-Up.  I have finished the table & mirror for Kit and Caboodle in Newburgh, Fife.  I don’t have a pic for the table (how negligent of me) but here is the mirror. 

Kitch 70's Mirror

And also a sign for Ellie’s friend’s mum – a ‘thank you’ pressie for having Ellie in Tiree

For the Tiree house

On another tack, Ellie (16yo daughter) has been accepted on a school trip to Malawi, taking place at the end of 2012.  As a group of 12 girls, they have to raise £18,000 to do this… so my fundraising drive has started! 

Thanks to Janet of JMD Designs who has allowed me to use one of her patterns to make Jaspar cats to sell as part of the fundraising.  Totally recycled materials, in my usual style of shabby chic…  email me on katy@galvelmore.co.uk if you want to commission one for an Xmas present!  This is the first one finished:

Visit the girls Facebook page for info about what they are up to…

So i reckon that i have been doing the blog for a couple of years, certainly when i was getting totally frustrated with Craft Fairs and not selling stuff… so here is when i have to bang my head against a wall, and shout WHY ARE YOU DOING IT ALL AGAIN?

Next Saturday is the start of the Perthshire Open Studios – 9 days of my workshop being open to the public.  I did it last year, and it worked well, beyond that i would be caught out doing the cleaning of my B&B rooms, see someone go down the garden, and have to leg it quick!  This year, i hope to be a bit more organised.  And then i am filling my diary in November and December with a few craft/christmas fairs/markets… duh! why?

This is me posing for the shot!and the gable end, under the Acer (Japanese maple) tree

And for now, in anticipation of the POS, i am working like a madman (woman).  I have pieces of half finished work all over the place, a lack of hanging or display space, but that will change by Thursday, boxes and boxes of broken bits that are just too good to throw away, shelves of tiles which are all tipped over, as i search for the one colour from the most inaccessible part of the shelf, oh boy have i got into a guddle!

And it is back to the main question, should i be making small things that i know that will sell, or should i be working on exhibition pieces that need to be done and really showcase what i can do, or work on pieces for the shops that i supply (Kit and Caboodle in Newburgh, Fife and An Cnoc in Crieff). 

Made originally for the Forest Exhibition at the Opus Gallery in Exeter, but now 'back home'

And as i am already booked in for Xmas events, my head is rattling with ideas for that.  I am playing with words for some things, then using tempered glass (broken car windows) but have run out of the clear stuff – cars having tinted windows these days – pah! and little mini mosaics, and, and, and.

What a butterfly i am…

So here is my invitation to you:

But the fastest sale ever – my small heart mosaic

 When Mandy, the owner of An Cnoc posted it on facebook, it sold within 5 minutes, unseen… and she said she could have sold it at least 6 times…

So commissions? as i use recycled materials, i could never replicate it perfectly…

David thought i was daft. That it made no sense.  That i sounded silly and immature.  That it didn’t reflect the quality of work that i can produce.  And i duly ignored all his comments.

Only last week, i hit that change in attitude.  I had a friend, Kona, around for a working lunch to help me sort out my priorities with social networking & mosaic.  Kona is a poet, who tweets & uses blogs & facebook & gets herself out there.  It was GREAT!  Over lunch, i had to identify the three key aims which i want to achieve with doing mosaic; what social networking i currently used; what other strategies for achieving my aims and how much time i spend on each different social networking site.

One of my key aims (and definitely the most important for me) was to be recognised as a ‘artist’ so that i have the opportunity to participate in exhibitions and galleries, and respected amongst my peer groups.

The two key results from this were:

a) to change my website home page from Recycle Me Mosaics to ‘Katy Galbraith – Mosaic Artist’ clearly stating what i am about

and

b) to keep working at, and enjoying, the communication with other mosaic artists around the world using forums (MAO and Flickr); the CMA site and BAMM (British Assoc for Modern Mosaic).

Of course, i haven’t yet told David that he was right…

ps – i don’t do Etsy any more -mosaics are just not that easy to post!

and true to form, i couldn’t get the Youtube video to directly connect with my blog, so resorting to cutting and pasting!

i just don’t have enough time in the day, and the morning passes in just trying to promote myself.

I have finally succumbed to Facebook.  It started out because someone wanted to have my mosaics in their shop, but they only had a Facebook page, not a website… so i have to sign up to be able to view it.  And before you knew it, i have a profile and ‘friends’ and i spend time searching old boyfriends, and how addictive it is!

I have also started doing my Facebook  ’mosaic’ page, so when it is up and running, i believe that i ‘like’ it, and so the page ripples through facebook , and i should get commissions, galleries wanting to stock my work etc etc… and i will be so busy fielding all these emails and posting photos etc, that i won’t have any time in the workshop!

I am under KatyGalbraith and Recycle Me Mosaics

Flickr, i have finally learnt, is great for sharing images of mosaics with people around the world.  Great for inspiration.  Great for networking with ‘virtual friends’ around the world.  But there are a lot of ‘that’s nice’ comments, when sometimes you want something truly constructive in the way of comments.

Forums – MAO is GREAT, a real resource, and i cannot believe that there are so many experienced mosaicists out there who are so happy to share their knowledge, when each time they post advice must take precious time out of their day.  I do try and contribute my advice from time to time, but often feel that i don’t yet have the technical experience… and some of the words between US and UK are different, and i don’t want to add confusion into the mix.

And as for this blog, i am maybe where i was at the beginning – do i have enough to say to make anyone read it?  Do you need a big ego to be reassured that someone out there is actually reading it.  For me, it is a good bit of air space, as my husband has probably had enough of what i spout out!

And Twitter – i still haven’t got that one yet!  Switching off, changing into play clothes and off to the shed

Definitions:

Craft: an activity involving skill in making things by hand

Art: the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power…

source, online Oxford Dictionaries.

So where does mosaic sit – somewhere between the two? or being both sometimes?

The Arts and Crafts movement brings up images of the early 20th Century; tiffany, Rennie Mackintosh and all that – and stylistically that is different, but i guess the thought process behind it is the same.  That craft can be art or IS art, at whatever level of technical ability it is.  All in the eye of the beholder and all that.

My current problem is the concept of the ‘craft fayre‘ – note ye olde englishe spelling – where (and i catch myself doing it too) people only go with a limited amount of money, expecting a bargain price, totally undervalued financially… and so the artist gets probably around £5 an hour, or less!  And so how to determine which ‘craft fayres’ attract buyers with realistic expectations and appropriate levels of money in their pocket.  Or alternatively, to find galleries (with their clientele) who are open to the idea that mosaic fits their remit.  More of the hmmm going on in my head.

I have been asked about the possibility of a stepping stone for a landscape designer – and whilst it may not happen, i am making one anyway!  Having sourced precast, but unwanted, stepping stones at a local building merchants, and got the design in my head – so done a lot of the work, i thought i would just do it.  A Work in Progress is going on the flickr site.

So how much to quote?  I have already determined that i have under-quoted, so far i have done 4 1/2 hours, and not yet finished the laying out of tiles on paper.  hmm. 

I wouldn’t usually time it, as it does take away a lot of the fun, but i have also been asked to do a community project over a few evenings, and thought the stepping stones would be a good one to do – all the recycling and using landfill stuff – so the timing bit would allow me to work on what they could achieve in one evening.  So this is my second ‘possible’.

My third is that i have submitted for a community arts project, subbing out the teaching bit to Jan Kilpatrick of WildTiles.  It would be great to get it, if not just for the local cudos, as it is at the new community campus in my home town of Crieff, but in reality i don’t think i will.  But i am learning by just going through the processes anyway.

And still building up towards the Open Studios in September.  Trying to get advise as a newbie at these things, working out what to have for sale, how to demonstrate that i can do ‘big and ambitious’ things too, and that it is more than ‘craft’ that i am an artist!  Their website isn’t up and running yet, but they do have a blog – so i will aim to get something on there soon: http://perthshireopenstudios.blogspot.com.  But i must spend less time at the computer and more in the workshop, so logging off now!