Day 52 of the 100-Day Project, and moving right along!
Aside from having this challenge to keep me going, the fact that we have shows (and other beneficial events) on the horizon has always served to prodding me into action, particular in the aspect of "house cleaning" our processes.
Center of the large "Sun Stone"
Couple of thoughts for today:
I've always spent a lot of time mired down in how to best present our "low end" of Alchemy Stones. These are still fully hand made, gift bagged and have historically been between $3 and $10. They help us send as many people as possible home with something when we do shows.
On the plus side, they can generate a fair amount of income from lots of little impulse and "add on" sales at events. On the negative side, I think we have had too many choices, in our effort to chase after that "impulse dollar," even if it often ends up funding our vendor fees and expenses. People end up feeling a little overwhelmed by the possibilities and don't make a choice, at all.
One of my favorites from this last batch
So, today my wife and I had a conversation about this (she's generally the "ideas" and marketing person) and have narrowed things down to the tiniest of stones which will continue to be $5; a slightly larger size that will be $6 each (or 4 for $20) and a bit larger/more complex stone that will be $12 each (or 4 for $40).
When we consider the time and effort involved in set-up and take down from events, the best way we can help ourselves is to have as much as possible "pre-merchandized" from home, already in nice baskets, allowing us to just pop up the tables, add the covers and risers, and set out the baskets without needing to spend significant time on design and set-up.
Basket set-up from a fairly recent show
As the years have progressed, this has become more and more of smooth process that allows us to set up our vendor booth in less than an hour and it still looks like we spent a long time on it... which we did, except we spent that time at home.
Second thought for the day relates mainly to the 100-Day Project, itself... and the way it is actually becoming something I had intended to do many years ago... having a daily "Art Journal" to track my process and progress over time, note down ideas and inspiration, and generally keep track of work, shows and more.
My personality has always worked best with actually knowing what is going on and what actually happened, vs. relying on "some vague feeling and memory" about what took place. And having a blog/journal is definitely a big help, in that sense.
We'll see how I feel at the end of 100 days, but maybe this will just become the segue into actually keeping an art journal!
One of the new spiral designs
Day 52 Stone Painting:
With the first large batch of stones now finished and ready to be priced/listed online, and the "Retreat Stone" project drawing to a close, it's time for me to start looking at the numbers and gaps on the big inventory sheet I started the other day.
In the meantime, I start today's painting with stone no. 28 for the Retreat Stones — only two more to go.
Today's Retreat Stone
That out of the way, I'm going to turn to working on this new "$12 size" stone we're going to pre-bag and keep permanently in a basket. Actually makes me happy to not have to individually price small stones any more!
You might wonder how I can know which stones are which... and it's all in the serial number on the back, which is all "coded" in such a way that we know — at a glance — whether anyone is trying to pull a switcheroo at an event to get a better deal.
Two smaller stones for our $12 gift bags
And yes, that does really happen! SHAME on those people!
Day 52 Summary and Social Media Bits:
Not a bad day, all told: finished another Retreat Stone, and an additional two smaller stones. Got some behind-the-scenes work done, as well!
Daily Twitter/X post: Check. Beauty of nature post!
Daily Facebook Page post: Pass. Past my bedtime.
Daily Instagram post: Check. Picture of a new spiral stone.
Other Stuff: As usual, this Hive post; fair creative output, nice to get some new inspiration added to our events setup; Daily shoutout to @gillianpearce!
Day 52 completed; just grateful for this day. Have our son staying again over the weekend, so likely I will have less time for this for a couple of days, but so it goes... life.
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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!
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2024.04.11 AS-TXT-243/213