It's Like Selling Your Children

Ok, so it isn't that dramatic, but do you sometimes feel that way when you sell something you put your heart and soul into? I am slowly listing some original art in my Etsy shop and as I start to list some of them, this debate starts in my head (and heart) about whether or not I really want to sell them because I love them so much. They may not be fine art but they are fun art and they come from my heart. However, I remind myself that if someone buys it, they must really like it too, and it will go to a good home. I'd love for you to come over and take a peek when you have time. The one pictured above is one of my favorites, so I won't be heartbroken if it doesn't sell. ;)

I don't have this one (below) listed yet, but it will be up over the weekend. I used the little ironstone piece as the model for my painting. The blue roses aren't realistic but I love the color!

Here's another one I really like, although it's darker, I love the colors:

This tall painting of yellow roses was the last one I painted for the Lavender Festival and was one of the first ones to sell. I loved it as well but was happy to hear it was going to decorate a young lady's new apartment.

If you want to read about the goings on behind the scenes, come over to my facebook page. I think I scared a few folks away yesterday when I posted pics of the snake that was peering in the living room window. Oh, well... I do live in the country. :)

Happy Friday, Happy Summer, and Happy Longest Day of the Year! :)
Lana

Lavender Festival & Two Dollar Shutter Easels

Saturday was the perfect day for a festival! It was sunny and warm, but not hot, and there was a light breeze blowing every now and then. My booth layout was a little different than I had planned. I didn't get to use my full 10 x 10 space so I didn't use all the props I normally use and I had to leave out 1 of my tables. I also had to make other adjustments and put my shutter easels closer together to make room for customers to cut across a corner of my space to go into the shop door beside my booth. Hopefully next year it'll be different because I sure could have used that 3rd table that I usually have set up.

I covered my two tables with cheap canvas drop cloths from Big Lots. They were perfect for an art booth!
Since I wasn't using Honeysuckle Lane as my business name, I didn't have a banner so I improvised and used clothes pins to clip my used, disposable art palettes to the front of the table. What do you think? People walking by commented on it and said it was a fun way to decorate an art booth.

And if you remember, I had to change what I was making for the festival. Because of arthritis pain in my fingers, I couldn't embroider so I painted instead. I didn't have any prop displays for art and I put the word out that I was looking for old used shutters. I had plantation shutters in mind, but these board and batten shutters were offered to me and I used them to make my easels.

We didn't see customers walking by with bags and bags of purchases... maybe they were enjoying the nice weather, food, music, and walking their dogs? However I did have sales and customers bought original art, prints, pillows (some I had made in the past and that had been in the shop behind my booth), and flower pins!

Now that the Lavender Festival is over and I am going to take the summer off, I am listing remaining items in my Etsy shop. For now, I have listed silk ribbon pillows and a few original paintings, but check back through the month of June for the rest of the original artworks and prints to be listed.

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Let's back-track a little now and I'll show you how I made the shutter easels. They cost me just over $2 each... can you believe that??? My sister's former boss had the shutters and I was going to buy them from him, but he surprised us and brought them to her and said to give them to me... free of charge! I thought that was really sweet of him. :) So, shutters: FREE. I needed paint... and I already had some on hand from a previous project so I considered that FREE as well. I needed slats to nail on the shutters to stand the artwork on and I found them in my husband's scrap pile... FREE. The only cost I had was hinge sets and I got them at Walmart for $1.97 plus tax per set. I made 5 shutter easels so I guess you could say it cost me $10 plus tax which I thought was pretty good!

Here are the (somewhat) step by step pics:

1: shutters in original state

2: cutting slats with the bandsaw (one of the few power saws I'm not chicken to use)

3: nail slats on shutters (forgot to take a photo)

4: paint shutters while being thankful that I can use my husband's workshop for this :)

5: screw hinges on shutters --- why measure when you can eyeball it? ;)

6: finished shutters

I made these on Thursday and had to go set up on Friday. I only did one coat of paint because it was so humid and I was afraid a second coat wouldn't dry in time. I am quite pleased with how they turned out. They weren't perfect, but they had a cottage look to them that I liked!


Thanks for stopping by... I'll share some paintings later this week.

Take care & God bless,
Lana

Getting Down to the Wire

Hi there! I'm still here but I don't have much time to post anything right now. The Lavender Festival is less than 2 weeks away and I'm painting as much as possible!

I planned on using pairs of old shutters hinged at the top as easels for my artwork, but I only have one pair so far. If anyone is near Rugby, TN and has some wooden shutters to get rid of, please contact me. Thanks!

I'll check back in later this week. :)

Lana