Keeping up with a schedule

Sculptures are moving along at a good pace which is good, because next Thursday I'm going to an art business workshop and we have to take samples of our work, and as these are for an art fair submission, I thought it'd be useful to have some expert eyes on at least one. Hoping to pick up some good tips, get feedback/critique and meet other artists and makers. The latter two being especially important as a hidden away, DIY artist. This has to change if I'm going to develop what I do further. You can't sell work if no one sees it and if you don't get feedback then you'll likely not see where you could be doing much better.

So, good stuff there. I've had to spend a bit of time arguing with my armatures these last few days. They all have very arched spines and it's become clear that the wire needs a bit more care in how I place it - to set the shape but also, when I pre-wrap before adding pulp, as I found that two of them ended up with odd bulges on the lower torso. That's happened once or twice before but now I'll remember to be much more careful for future bendy pieces.

I've been following Andy J Pizza's creative pep talks podcasts recently. Apart from being highly entertaining, Mr P approaches the business of creativity in a unique way, with a lot of delving into and consideration of the emotional and mental aspects to creating. I often end up making lots of notes and having to promise myself some time to actually think about them. Anyhow, he has a 7 step creative process - one of which, having found your niche (or nitch, as I find many Americans say), involves developing a project to offer to prospective clients who you'd like to work with.

Now, I don't have a project thought up just yet, but here's the Olympics coming round again next year and it seems like that needs some ahead-of-time thought on how I could expand a bit on what I'm doing, especially with painting, which has been left pouting in the corner up until now.

And if there's one lesson I've learned as a newbie, that is to look well ahead at the things you'd like to be part of. Bigger art fairs and open studios can have cut off days months and sometimes a whole year ahead of the event. And of course, when you are making or painting, you have to allow at least twice the amount of time you think it will take! Last minute rushing is not conducive to good quality work and a confident frame of mind. Yearly wall planners take a bow.