Monthly Goal Meetup – May

So, I had a large deadline  to meet, – the Red Dirt Art festival, was April 24. I was overly optimistic about all the things I wanted to get made for the show, and able to accomplish the following:

One of the things I’ve been doing this month is re-evaluating what exactly I want to accomplish with my business. I posted about this earlier this month, when I realized that I was actually beginning my 3rd year of business with this month’s Red Dirt Festival. I defined success as:

Being able to financially support my artistic endeavors, and to continue to grow as an artist.

And then promptly forgot it! At Red Dirt I did receive 2 commissions for bags, one of which needed to be done before this coming Wednesday. I was able to complete it, but really hit a wall while working on it. These complicated bags I make really take a lot of time. I AM able to save some time when I do multiples of them, but as each bag will take 4-5 hours to complete (less for the clutches) I really have to commit to a large chunk of time to make them happen, and it makes me miserable. So, DUDE, what is your goal? Making more bags does not help me grow as an artist, and although if I made more I could sell more, as long as I’m making enough $$ to support the endeavors, I need to allow myself time to make more art!

In the midst of my little nervous breakdown I had while discovering I’d left out the cell phone pocket on this commission bag, I told my husband(well, shrieked is closer to the tone, but you get the drift…) I wasn’t getting paid enough for this stress! This has led to a decision to switch my bag making efforts to commission only. It means investing time in setting up an album to show options regarding artistic style, color, and bag structure, but I really don’t want make any more bags unless I know someone really wants one. I also need to consider raising my prices…but in this economy, I’m going to hold off on that.

So, as definition of success includes artistic growth – my new goals for the month of May, both business & artistic, are:

I know not all of this will get done, but it’s a little more skewed towards making the art I need to make, rather than another 10 bags I may or may not sell!

And because no post is complete without a picture, here is a new colorway I came up with while dyeing a batch of scarves this past weekend (ironing on all but 1 still to be done!) While I was stopping by the Redlands Art Association with more scarves for sale, the member behind the desk mis-heard my name for a scarf as “Earth, Wind & Fire”, when it was actually called “Earth & Sky”. Anyway, I was taken with the name and decided to try and dye a scarf that is Earth, Wind & Fire…what do you think, did I hit the mark?