St. John Sea Glass

I recently started making and selling sea glass jewelry, and people seem to really like it. I just returned from a trip to St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands to scuba dive, photograph and hunt sea glass. I had a very successful hunting trip, and came back with a bag full of good quality seaglass. Here's a photo of my "loot":

Unfortunately, the trip didn't yield any rare colors like cobalt blue or red, only common green, brown and white, but it was mostly good quality.

Upcoming Art Shows

I am going to be really busy the next few weeks. This Saturday, I will be at the Cedar Park High School Holiday Festival. The Saturday after Thanksgiving I will be at the Vespaio Market on South Congress. During the first two weeks in December, I have two home shows and I will be selling my wildflower paintings at the Wild Ideas Holiday event at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center December 5 and 6.

Austin Handmade Market, Saturday, Noon-6

This Saturday I will be selling my ocean inspired jewelry at Austin Handmade Market, 2009 South First Street, noon to 6pm. Come out and see my latest designs and a variety of handmade items from Team Etsy Austin members.

Milking The Cash Cow - An Update

This week, I have been communicating with half a dozen artists/crafters who have been doing a certain local arts and crafts show for several years. Most of them are getting rejection emails saying they wanted to try new vendors this year. It appears that this is yet another show that has adopted the Zapp business model, a result of the show becoming so popular that they are getting large numbers of applications.

How it works, is they rarely ever let the same artist in two years in a row. They charge a high non-refundable jury fee ($25-$45), and rotate the artists. So artists keep thinking they have a chance of getting in the next year and keep on applying and feeding the machine. Art City Austin (Austin Fine Arts Festival) uses Zapp. They get 800-1000 applications at $45 each for the non-refundable jury fee. They let in 200 artists, so they pocket $36,000 from artists who don't get in!

It's a shrewd way of doing business, and more and more shows are getting wise and jumping on board the model. In my opinion it exploits artists (it's our own fault for continuing to feed the machine). I will not apply to any Zapp shows, and I will only apply once to non-Zapp shows who use this model, and if I don't get in, I don't give them any more money. Artist friends, please think about this before you say "I didn't get in, oh well, maybe next year".

Four Days of Art Shows Coming Up

I'm getting ready for four days of Central Texas art shows - First Thursday on South Congress at Hill Country Weavers, then Buda Fine Arts Festival Friday - Sunday.

UPDATE: I won't be at First Thursday tonight, Hill Country Weavers didn't renew their permit in time :(

Old Pecan Street Festival, Austin, Texas

I'm ready! For this weekend's Old Pecan Street Festival, that is. I will be in booth 92, between Trinity and Neches across from the Library Bar (they will be televising the game on their big screen tv's). Stop by and see my new jewelry and giclee prints on canvas!

Genuine, Handmade Sea Glass Jewelry

I just uploaded 15 new sea glass pieces to my Etsy store:
http://coralreefdreams.etsy.com.

What is GENUINE sea glass? Sea glass (also called beach glass or mermaid's tears) is tumbled by sea sand and waves until smooth and frosted. It is NOT recycled glass that has been frosted in a rock tumbler. It is NOT frosted glass purchased at a craft store. Each and every piece of my sea glass jewelry is created from genuine sea glass which I find on Caribbean beaches during my scuba diving trips.

So you ask why my sea glass jewelry costs as much as my other jewelry if the glass was free? Well, it's not exactly free. Sea glass is not common, and I spend many hours searching for it. Then, after returning home, the glass is sorted and only the most perfect pieces are chosen for jewelry. Earrings are especially time consuming because I spend a lot of time matching up the pieces to make pairs. Drilling holes in sea glass is a skill that I have mastered only after considerable practice. It is done using a high speed drill mounted in a drill press with a diamond drill bit. The glass must be drilled in a pan of water to keep the bit from getting too hot and breaking. And, great care must be used during the drilling process because the glass breaks easily.

It is important to note that genuine sea glass is mostly irregular in shape and will almost always have some imperfections. It's made by mother nature and it's supposed to be that way, that's how you tell it's the real thing!