So much going on, So little time...

Remember how I said this week was really busy?

Well, here's round 2 of blogging!


In my first post, I rambled a bit about the joys of creation. This post gets down to the grittier aspects of the week.

First off... this whole month has been very expensive for me.

Truck registration had to be renewed. Spent some time down at the Scottish festival. Had to cut back hours at work in order to spend more time at my studio. Haven't really sold anything recently, but have been buying up supplies because I need to craft a ton of things in a very short amount of time. Had bills to pay.

In short... I ended up broke, really quick.



I tell you what... nothing ruins a week faster then realizing your broke and needing money and knowing you're S.O.L. until the next paycheck rolls in.

As fate would have it though... my aunt sent me a down payment on a big project she wants me to do. Thank god for good timing! Woo! Now I was finally able to sort out the expenses that had been hanging over my head.

I made sure to stash part of the payment into savings, but the rest went towards paying for that art festival and the torch kit. It's going to be months before I can get to her project... and in the mean time, my business has to make money, which means grabbing up opportunities to do just that. Like festivals. And markets.

I also need equipment. In this case... a new oxyacetylene torch kit! This has been on my 'Must Have' list for quite a while, and I finally had an opportunity to get it!

I am now lined up to attend the 4th of July, Sugar House Street Festival! It's a one day event where local artists and crafters gather to hock their wares. I did pretty good last year if I recall... and I'm hoping to do even better this year. Especially now that I have a better idea of what I'm doing. I just hope I can put together enough of an inventory for this, in the week or so I have left.

Despite the need to be at my shop, part of my business is networking. I have to talk to people. I have to make connections. I have to find places to show and sell my work locally. And I'm the only to do it. 

So part of my week was spent chatting with a local nursery called Growing Wild which features some of my art. I hadn't talked with the owner much since last year, so I was telling him what I was up to and what I'd been working on. In particular, I told him about how I was putting together animals out of tools, and that I'd been having a hard time finding things like shovels, rakes, etc... at which point he walks over to his shed and says "Oh, I have a ton of broken shovels. I don't know what to do with them, so I've just been sticking them in this bucket. You're welcome to have them."

...No way... Really!?

In 2 months of scrounging on my own, I'd only been able to turn up 2 shovels and a pitch fork. And now, in the span of a 10min conversation, I had a dozen of them, all set and ready to go!
That just made my day. I will have to make him a nice beetle or something out of one of those shovels.



Now, this was just the start of my week. I still had to swing over to the steel yard to pick up some more items I needed for a current commission, as well as some other supplies from Home Depot, and I had that Barn owl order to ship out. And once I had all this done, it was back to the shop.

I have a commission for a pet urn I've been working on, on and off, for a while now, and it's nearly done. It's proven to be more difficult and time consuming then I anticipated, and I've had to push it back a few times in order to complete orders for things on a deadline. But finally I'm nearly done and should be wrapping that up pretty quick and getting it out of my hair.

 I also finally sat down and completed the other half of the above commission, which are a set of paws to go on a mailbox. These were surprisingly time consuming to craft, but all in all, turned out very well. They're big paws too, with the largest being around 8in, and the smaller ones around 5 1/2in.

I'd say the biggest accomplishment of this week was finally creating a GOOD sign for my shop! Or rather... my booth I should say.

I've never really had a decent sign for my shop for when I was out attending markets and festivals and fairs. The old one was this super simple, ugly looking thing about the size of a dinner plate. Just a metal filter with a simple cut out over the top of it. It was meant only to be a placeholder until I crafted a good sign... which I never seemed to get around to... for like... the last year...

But with an art festival coming up, and new markets to try out, I decided it was time I made me a GOOD sign. One that properly represented my studio, my art, and my capabilities.

The Iron Phoenix. It is the name of my studio... it is the first design I ever created and built... it is my mascot... and thus, it seems appropriate that I should have an Iron Phoenix to hold my sign!

At 6ft tall, and 2ft across, this is definitely going to catch peoples attention, and its a unique and interesting way to display my studio and my work.

Since I have to set up / tear down my stands by myself fairly often, and everything has to fit in my truck, I made sure this whole thing could come apart, so that it could be transported easily.

This also gave me the perfect opportunity to try out my new toy! The biggest reason I picked up the torch kit was so I could create the beautiful rainbow heat coloring across my sculptures. And what better subject for its maiden voyage then my Iron Phoenix? After all... that's how I colored the original as well.

The week wrapped up with me dropping off this and my Punk Monkey (as seen above) at the Lehi Round Up art show. I'll know the results of that later this week.

I then had the pleasure of exploring the Utah Arts Festival! I dragged my bro and cousin up there and we looked around at all the vendors. I had to say hi to my former boss and another local artist, Fred Conlon of the Sugarpost. This was one of the art festival I had applied to, and had been rejected. Looking at it now, I'm glad I didn't make it in... I'm not sure I would've had anything to sell! Not with how swamped I've been. But I'm glad I went... it was cool seeing all the different varieties of art. But even more importantly... I realized that all the things I was seeing... weren't exactly incredible pieces of art. Yea, they were nice... but they weren't absolutely amazing. It helped me realize that my work was going to fit in just fine. And that was a nice confidence booster that I needed.