It must be too hot to play with glass in many locales, because the blog posting has picked up. After all, it IS usually cooler sitting in front of a computer screen than in front of a torch!

The Carter Seibels feature article in Belle Armoire Jewelry’s Summer issue continues to generate reaction among the lampworkers:

• Susan Lambert takes offense at the characterization of middle-aged lampworkers and points out that the article was a put down of a very significant demographic among BAJ’s readership;
• Andrea’s scholarly analysis shows the flaws in the reasoning behind the ageist comments;
• I’m grumbling that it’s the hands, not the tools, that make the artist.

In other postings:

• Lori Greenberg has not only been busy interviewing Sarah Moran of Z-Beads, she’s been conducting more experiments of her own for Watch Me Create.
• Rachel of Inferno Glass Beads jumps into the blogosphere to try and explain the cost of artist-made lampwork beads to the rest of the world.
• Luann Udell is also blogging about the rise in prices of art along with everything else.
• At the Art Bead Scene, Jennifer Stumpf introduces us to Canary Islands artist Lina Khan.
• An anonymous Etsy Bitch reader shares why, in his opinion, having a sale in your Etsy shop is a Bad Idea (gasp!).
• Even complete flakes need to get things done. Sonia Simone has some ideas on how to make it happen for you.

Actually, since last week got away from me, this is a Best of the Fortnight post!

• Spend your time cooking glass, not cooking dinner, with five essential crockpot recipes from The Simple Dollar.
• Not all “eco-friendly ideas” are necessarily good ones. Mike Aurelius disagrees with several recent suggestions at Wet Canvas.
• Our favorite BeadNerd, Lori Greenberg, is featured in an artist profile at Jewelry and Beading.
• Mincot shares her findings about blowing shards, including reminding us to blow, not suck!
• Linda Morrison successfully takes frugality to a twisted place at Watch Me Create.
• Joel Falconer of Lifehack.org shares thirty tips to rejuvenate your creativity for lampworkers and everyone else.
• Also at Watch Me Create, Kerry Bogart turns fabric into beads, or rather, fabric design into beads.
• Sweetwater Designs interviews metal artist Kirsten Skiles.
• Lori Greenberg reminds us of the importance of good photos for selling online.
• Katie Hacker shares three resources for spring color mania.
• Lori Anderson is taking up metalsmithing — listen to what she’s learned about dapping so far.
• Finally, are you confused about starting your small business? Let Small Biz Survival’s checklist help clear up some of that confusion.

Next weekend’s edition may also be late, as Mincot, Gwacie and I will be at the Down the Street Bead Show in Smyrna for the weekend — come see us!

I’ve never worked in retail in my life.  Trying to be a salesperson in Junior Achievement was a nightmare.  I was even terrible at selling Girl Scout cookies.  However, if you’re going to do bead shows and try to sell your creations, you’re going to have to try your best to be a salesperson.

If this weekend’s show proved one thing to me, it showed that attitude makes a huge difference both in how you do at a show financially and whether or not you enjoy it.  Mincot and I are both dreadfully introverted, but we both made a concerted effort to be outgoing, friendly, and cheery non-stop from 10 a.m. until close both days. We smiled until our faces hurt; we greeted every customer that even came close to making eye contact with us; we complimented customers on their jewelry, their clothing, their taste in beads and pets and anything else we could find. By keeping an unrelentingly upbeat attitude, I really think we improved our sales and the donations we received for Good Mews.

Certainly we enjoyed the show much more than if we had just sat there and bitched and moaned about the lack of attendance, the slow sales, the bad lighting, the uncomfortable chairs, and so on.

I overheard the lampworker at the next table snap “NO!” at another vendor who asked at the end of the day Sunday if she’d had a good show.  No surprise — I had overheard her complaining about the show, about us and our “Wonkies for the Kitties,” about her lack of sales both to customers and other vendors.  It was clear from her behavior that she was not enjoying herself at all, either.

Good attitude, good experience.  Poor attitude, poor experience.  It’s all about what you choose to make of it.

Yes, good things will come to those with patience.  The show was vastly better today than yesterday.  Foot traffic was definitely higher, and people were evidently in much more of a spending mood.  We had one couple that accounted for probably over half our sales, as it turned out (though I don’t know for certain as I have not totaled up the receipts yet).  They are getting into jewelry making, targeting the RVer market, and both, but especially the gentleman, went wild for my boro sets.  Hooray!  I had been starting to think that no one loved them but me :-).

Min took some pictures of our table.  This is the right side, with my beads:

Mincot’s  necklace didn’t sell, no surprise, but it drew a LOT of attention to our work:

Lastly, here’s me at the booth:

I don’t have definite numbers yet.  I’m too brain-dead to dare run them tonight!  But things look like they ended up doing fairly well, and I’ll do a more thorough recap in a day or two.

Best lampworking blog entries for the week ending November 18, 2007:

• Watch Me Create — Rosemarie Hanus goes off-mandrel
• Jennifer Miller on beads going bad
  
• Kandice Seeber says Vetrofond must love orange
• Luann Udell does an intervention on booths gone bad
• Luann also suggests not overwhelming the customer with choices in your booth
• Deborah Gregory talks about pricing your work on eBay
• Bethany (Gwacie) Adams suggests some ways to handle lack of motivation
• Flaming Hot — Susan Sheehan talks about her studio
• Flaming Hot — Gwacie joins in the studio conversation
• Finally, ShebaMakeda (aka Evelyn) gives the lowdown on bead poop in the first episode of GlassClass 101