Welcome to day 70 of the 100-Day Project, which actually is a combination of days 69 and 70.
As this creative challenge moves along, one of the things I am actually most aware of is the fact that creating these daily blog posts takes another 90 minutes to two hours and — as an event approaches — I can ill afford to spend two hours a day doing something that doesn't directly support the event.
Recently finished; ready to go to the show!
That is not to say that I am not fulfilling the challenge guidelines, it just means I don't have time to talk about fulfilling the challenge guidelines!
Meanwhile, I'm also going to break my previous posting format a little bit, and I expect that will continue until we are back home and unpack from the show on Monday. Next Monday, that is.
Day 69... Sunday/Yesterday:
Yesterday was primarily about painting and starting to fill in the last possible holes in my stock before time runs uut.
Given that only Monday and half of Tuesday remain as far as the creative effort goes, I decided to use Sunday to round out painting my small $12 stones, to where I now will have thirty available at the show. That meant painting four more, yesterday.
Final few small stones, completed on Sunday
With that over and done, I decided the next most important thing to fill in for the show was heart stones because of the proximity of Mother's day, and the fact that they generally are the single most popular thing that all kinds of shows. It's a bit prosaic, but there you go!
It got kind of late in the evening as I was painting and I could feel my eyes getting tired of focusing, but I managed to get another three painted. I'd like to have a variety of sizes from the little ones that will be priced at about $8-$10 up to some fairly substantial and detailed ones that'll be in the $30-$40 range. We'll see how far I get!
Sunday's heart stones
During the day, I also managed to finish all our bag and literature organization, including making up a few new tags for gift enclosures. What remains now is completing/updating our table tags, printing them, and mounting them on foamcore board.
Another thing planned for this show is that I'm going to be improving my email Gathering capacities. Previously, we've just worked with a newsletter signup sheet in the booth, and it really hasn't been that great. This time, we'll try having a drawing for a fairly substantial stone ($60-$75 range), where people have to fill out a small form as entry in the drawing which will include their email address as "winner contact information," along with a check this box to consent to receiving email from us.
Alas, the social media part of the day continued to be a big fat zero, because I really struggle to get in that habit. I suppose it is evidence that I am a creative, not a marketer!
New spiral stone, finished on Monday
Day 70... Monday/today:
Had a nice conversation with the event organizer this morning, and he allowed as how he was still short a couple of vendors so if it turned out he wasn't able to fill the spaces by the weekend he was willing to let us have two tables for the price of one, because we are "Old Timer" returnees from the past who have been loyal to the event for many years.
He was having a bit of a nervous day... after all, this is the first time the UFO/Paranormal Summit has being held since before Covid.
From a creative standpoint, the majority of my effort for this day went into painting more heart stones.
Monday's heart stones, shown with a US dime for scale.
When I get really close to event date, I spend a lot more time every day just working on art related stuff. So the above is a picture of what I managed to create before it got dark.
I actually had to stop panting in mid-afternoon because my eyes were getting tired, and since we had a little bit of sunshine so I went out and mowed part of our rather fecund lawn. Welcome to the rainy Northwest!
Of course, it started raining again around 5:45 so I came in, took a breather and had a coffee, and then continued to work after dinner and got a few more Stones painted.
A large spiral stone. Normally this is a day's work, but not at the moment while I am painting 8-10 hours a day!
All in all, I'm pretty pleased with today's progress, and now I just have a half day tomorrow — which will mostly be given over to signing and numbering the back of the stones painted and starting the finishing process.
That's another thing that happens close to showtime: I tend to not let the stones dry and cure as long, in the name of expediency. It does mean that I have a few that end up becoming "garden stones" because the pattern "blurs," but I need to take all I can possibly get ready.
Finished the day with a larger heart stone
Right now I am at a break in between painting and moving forward with a little bit of social media announcements, so putting together this catch-up post!
As for social media, that will be scattered, aside from live announcements from the venue.
I expect I might have time for one more update before we leave on Thursday... and then a few short updates "from the road."
I appreciate you coming to visit and please do leave a comment if you feel so inclined!
Thank You!
If you enjoy painted rocks, do check out The Hive Rocks Project and help spread the word about Hive, while also being creative!
Because I am trying to make some semblance of income — a part time living, even — I now add this footer to all my posts, in the hope that someone, somewhere, might decide to take a further look at my work, and perhaps consider supporting independent art.
Thank you, in advance, for your consideration and support!
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Alchemy Stones web site and blog
Regardless, your upvotes and comments are always appreciated!
Thank you for supporting independent art!
2024.04.29 AS-TXT-258/228
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Aa constantly seen dear friend, the stones are really beautiful, and each time, I looked at your work, I am always inspired.
Including a place where people would check and include their email address is awesome, because, when they gets more emails, it will keep them remembering of your creative work.