The road to Clevedon Pier

So I think I have finished work on my entry for the Clevedon Pier deckchair competition. How cool to have your own design made into a deckchair! I would so love to be one of the winners and I am so amazed how many of our Arts Week visitors seem to want me to win as well. I leave it out at the exhibition so that people can see one unframed and cop a quick feel if they like. Somebody told me it should be used as the pier logo, never mind anything else, everyone who sees it wishes me well and I already have a buyer for it. I never knew I could sew a pier before but it seems I can. I wonder what else I can do that I don't know about yet. I still have to sort out a really decent high-resolution image of it to send to the pier people but here is the best I can do for the moment...



One more day of Arts Week to go tomorrow and that's it. I fear that my purpose in life will suddenly disappear and I will fall off a cliff. I have lived and breathed it for weeks now. I have adored it even if sales have not been quite as I had hoped if I am honest; I still have all the biggest ones left (maybe that could change tomorrow!) but I have sold 7 out of 21 and got a commission for another, and of course the pier is all but sold. Not bad. And it has been lovely to get such positive feedback directly from customers. Next time I must concentrate on smaller cheaper ones. I could have sold at least 10 of my small beach scenes in "windows". There could be a price threshold for impulse buys and of course the bigger ones need bigger walls. But is a mini production line of beach scenes in little white frames the place I want to be? It would be lovely to sell a biggie tomorrow but I mustn't get my hopes up...  



Success!

Well today has been a good one. Arts Week has hotted up today after a lull yesterday and I sold 4 (well alright, if I am being honest, I sold 3 and bartered one for 2 sets of earrings!). And yes today I sold two to strangers (and one of them a fellow Arts Weeker). So I am not beating myself up so much. They were not big money but it is a definite start. And a very positive day indeed. Lovely to know that people out there are reading this and appreciating and remembering it. But my high point? Today I met the great Conny Ridge. You might not have heard of her. But I have. A couple of years ago I bought some of her cards; they were prints of batiks she had made. Every time it's someone's birthday and I need an emergency card, I go to them to find one to use, and I can't bring myself to give them to anyone else. This is one of her pictures (I do hope she doesn't mind me using it):-

She did a fabulous one called "Footsteps in the sand" that I really adore, and that has quietly been a big inspiration for me. And today she came to see us! The others already know her but I didn't until today. I did get a little too gushy and felt a bit like an overexcited labrador; I hope it wasn't too obvious. She was lovely and very enthusiastic. But the best bit of all was that SHE bought some of MY cards!!!

In my spare time (!) this week I have been working hard on an entry for a competition run by Clevedon Pier. Artists have to submit an A4 photo of an artwork by email, and 24 winners will have their design printed and made into 2 deckchairs, one to be auctioned and one for the artist to keep. How cool does that sound? The end date has been extended which leads me to believe they haven't got many entries and I might have a chance. I thought one of my usual beach scenes would be great and then got persuaded to incorporate Clevedon Pier into it. A little artistic licence is needed as the beach is a little too yellow and sandy and the angle isn't quite right but I am quietly pleased with it and people who were around today for Arts Week were nicely appreciative. I told Conny about the competition and she is going to give it a go as well; wouldn't it be great if we both won? Once the ends are all sewn in I will take photos of my entry and show you. Shouldn't be long now...