Jewelry Artist Magazine
I was one of the featured artists in the March issue. See my blog for the full article.
Awards
I'm having a good season for awards this year! In May I won First in Jewelry at the Renaissance Fine Arts Festival. Considering the wonderful jewelry that was there, I felt very honored to have won.
Last week in the mail
I received an Honorable Mention ribbon from the Hinsdale Fine Arts Festival in Illinois. Strange to get it after the show but I appreciate the award!
The big award
came at the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair/State Street where I won Best in Show! It came with a beautiful big blue ribbon and put an even bigger grin on my face for the whole show! What fun and what an honor!
Etsy
Looking for somewhere online to buy my jewelry? I've just set up an Etsy site at: www.BonnieBlandford.etsy.com! What is "for sale" will be changing regularly and should be quite a mix of things. There will be those things that I made while "playing" in the studio that don't match anything else. It might be something I'm discontinuing or it might be my very latest design that I want to try out! The photographs won't be professional, just shots from the studio but it should be fun. Plus it's available 24/7 for you to see!
Jewelry Artist Magazine
I'm being featured in the March issue! I'll post more later.
Jewelry News
Last year I started a new line of jewelry that I dubbed Black Gold. Its blackened sterling and 22k gold and has a very calm, serene feeling with a little bit of fun thrown in. You may view this new work now and I will be adding more soon...
My line of 14k gold earrings has gone green! All the metal has been refined, recycled and made new without having to use any newly mined gold. I’m extremely pleased to be able to announce this.
Blogging
After many years of people telling me I should be blogging, I finally started. My plan was to chronicle what it’s like to make a living this way but it’s turned into all aspects of life. I’m not a writer but it’s been fun so far! BonnieBlandford.blogspot.com/
Jurying
One thing that many people don’t know about me is that I’ve done a lot of jurying around the country, primarily of art fairs. With the advent of digital jurying, it’s made the job both easier and more challenging.
Recently I’ve juried the Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts using the ZAPP system, the Fourth Street Festival of the Arts and Crafts using the Juried Art Services system and Boston Mills ArtFest who used slides for the last time. Although the digital systems are similar, they both have their own unique ways of doing things and I have great things to say about both.
Some of the other jurying I’ve done recently:
American Craft Retailers Expo – A new wholesale trade show
Wholesale Crafts.com – for their website
National Polymer Clay Guild – a special show
Art Fair Source Book – I’m a juror for their Virtual Jury service
The NAIA (National Association of Independent Artists)
After over 4 years on the Board, I've finally retired my position. That doesn't mean I'm not still really involved since I'm still on committees and working on the membership duties. We want to be the collective voice of art show artists as we try to make things better for people who make their living doing art shows.
Two significant things have been done recently. Dick Carner and Sarah Rishel authored a survey Trends Among Artists: The Changing Artistic Landscape which I feel is a “must read” for all artists and show directors. The second is a Survey of Sales at the Coconut Grove Arts Festival brought about by concerns voiced by our members that the sales figures reported to the media were grossly inflated. This was a very personal project.
If you’re an artist doing art fair, consider joining with us!
The Garage Sale Art Fair
Always held the last Saturday in February, the 2009 will be our 13th annual show and with lots of new artists and artwork, it should be another great success! See our website at GarageSaleArtFair.com for pictures and information.
The Crafts Report magazine
I was one of the people interviewed for an article on the NAIA for the May 2008 issue entitled; National Association of Independent Artists Organization – Presents Collective Voice. The author, Richelle Tremaine did a wonderful job!
The Crafts Report is doing an upcoming article on health insurance that I was interviewed for as well.
Presentations
“What I wish I knew my first two years of business” was the title of my topic for the two table topics presentations that I did for C.R.A.F.T. (Craft Retailers Association for Tomorrow) in Las Vegas and Philadelphia. Many thanks to my friends who contributed their thoughts on the subject to help make my presentation great!
|
