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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Dogwood Arts Festival | April is for art. And wind. And rain.

This year marks my seventh year participating in the Dogwood Arts Festival Market Square Art Fair. The event runs over the weekend of April 25 through 27 and takes place in Downtown Knoxville. There is a wide variety of art as well great food, think funnels cakes and corndogs, as well as lots of entertainment. Preceding the Art Fair is the Dogwood Art DeTour which is a self-guided tour of Knoxville area artist studios open to the public on April 12 and 13. This is a great opportunity for you to come and watch me work. Or just chat. I usually do a lot more talking than working during the DeTour. Don't miss either event!

April is for art. And wind. And rain.
What's most interesting about this being my seventh year is that my first year was almost my last. The weather was crazy and my tent exploded in a downdraft. I refer to the explosion as the 'tent incident' and share the tale with other artists setting up for the Dogwood Arts Festival Art Fair for the first time. I don't do it to scare, just to educate on the dangers of wind. An article appropriately titled, 'Festival faces twists and turns', appeared in the Knoxville News Sentinel on Saturday, April 12 2008 in which I said "Yeah, the weather's bad, but we've been able to work with it." and as if in spite of this comment my tent incident occurred late Saturday afternoon. The tent incident prompted my husband, Allan, to go into research mode to find out what sort of tent would withstand the crazy weather in East Tennessee. This research resulted in us obtaining what I now refer to as the "mondo artist tent" shown below. We asked the guys picking up the trash if they would take the busted up tent away and they did! We did; however, keep the broom sticks we used to hold the busted tent together.


It's certainly a sturdy tent. And it is pretty too. And it is very good at keeping the rain out. Like in 2011 when it rained really hard and everyone left early, except for me and Allan. Because we were the only ones who stuck around, we got on the WATE news that night. You wouldn't believe how many friends saw the report and texted me that evening. And the next day people searched me out just to say they saw me on the news. The moral here is to never leave early. Unless there is a hurricane warning and then it is probably a good idea to vacate.

Back to the wind. There was another year when the wind was a problem for Sassy Glass Studio. Take a peek at this fantastic post from Moxley-Carmichael's 'The Blue Streak' back in 2010 about how the Dogwood Arts Festival has improved and has real art. {A side note: it really was bad for a few years. Shew!} Anyway, shortly after Cynthia Moxley photographed the gorgeous blue art panel in the photo above, it blew over onto the ground and broke. Crazy wind strikes again!

This is the last wind story I promise. The first few years I exhibited at the Dogwood Festival Art Fair people would ask why I didn't have anything with dogwoods. So after years of being asked, I finally made some fused glass vases, plates and pendants. I should have known there was trouble brewing when I created these pieces. First of all it was difficult to figure out how to make a realistic looking dogwood from glass and second, I wondered if they would actually sell. Well, they didn't sell. But only because they never had a chance. I had a great display right at the front of my booth so everyone would see the pieces. This was also the perfect place for the wind to catch the table, lift it off the ground and slam it down. Yes, the glass broke. I lost most of the dogwood pieces. And that was the end of creating fused glass dogwood art for me.



 




So, as you can see, April is a month filled with art and wind and rain. But don't let the weather keep you from coming out to the Dogwood Art Festival events this year and checking out all of the fabulous art. We artists are a hardy bunch and we'll be there rain or shine. Or wind.

ON A SIDE NOTE:
There are still a few more days to celebrate!
March is National Craft Month and there are three ways you can celebrate in Sassy Style! Find our more in this post. This is the only opportunity this year to save on fused glass classes!
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Monday, March 24, 2014

Social Media Marketing | Sharing the Love!


Last week I had the opportunity to speak to other artists and creatives about Social Media Marketing on behalf of the Art & Culture Alliance of Knoxville. I was thrilled to see so many creative business people come out during the middle of the day to learn how they could use social media to grow their businesses. It made me so happy! So did this quote below from the son of one of the attendees.
"You've inspired folks! Even J who is 11 said "I know about FB, twitter, tumbler, and sharing the love, but it was good!" For an 11 year old to say that, it really was a good session! "
Teaching. Speaking. These are two things I would never have thought I would be doing 15 years ago, before I moved to Knoxville and changed my whole life. I have been teaching fused glass classes for many years, but teaching creative business people, such as photographers, artists and graphic designers about social media is one of my passions. One reason I love sharing my passion for social media is because most artists have a difficult time promoting themselves and the other is because it is a relatively low-cost way to spread the word. And there are lots of ways to incorporate images, which can be so incredibly important when you are an artist. I also love to speak about turning your artistic passion into a successful creative business.

So, I wanted to share over here on my Sassy Glass Studio blog about what is going on over on the Creative Business Learning Center blog. I've created a page to share the presentation and I'm working on a document that will include some additional information and tips that I didn't have time to include in a 60 minute presentation. If you are interested, you can view it here. The Creative Business Mentor Program has also been retooled a bit, and you can check that out here. I'll also be answering some of the questions I am receiving from attendees on the other blog.

I would love to share my passions with your creative group, class or business! Contact me for availability and rates at lisa@kittyfantastic.com.

#ShareTheLove {social media is all about sharing not only about you but others as well}
#BeAwesome

{ON A SIDE NOTE}
Don't miss out on the fun of  celebrating National Craft Month in Sassy Style! There are still a few days in March to enjoy the crafty awesomeness! This will be the only time this year that Fused Glass Classes will be discounted!
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Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Fresh Fused Glass Goodness | New blog series


It's been a busy month in the studio between the reorganization and redesign and creating new pieces for upcoming shows. I love sharing photos of the new pieces I create, often with some background on how it was created and the creative thought process behind it, and decided to create a series "Fresh fused glass goodness" that will appear on a regular basis on the blog. This will be a great way for me to share the process of creating some of my work. This is the first post in the series featuring some of the pieces I have created over the last month or so. The glass studio doesn't have a heating/cooling system so I have to fire up the space heater when I am going to work out there, which means I don't get as much studio time when it is very cold. But Spring is on its way and I'll be creating more fused glass goodness in preparation of the Dogwood Art DeTour and Dogwood Arts Festival Market Square Art Fair in April.

These pieces below have been created using what I refer to as "remainder glass". This is the glass that is leftover when I cut squares and circles. I stacked the pieces into circles and squares to create "new" pieces of clear glass and then I added additional glass embellishments and accents. The pieces were them full fused and then slumped or draped into or over molds. I love how thick and heavy these pieces are! Let me know what you think of this new process. I love getting feedback!
fused glass vase, one of a kind fused glass art, sassy glass studio

fused glass plate, one of a kind fused glass art, sassy glass studio

fused glass vase, one of a kind fused glass art, sassy glass studio

fused glass plate, one of a kind fused glass art, sassy glass studio

fused glass platter, one of a kind fused glass art, sassy glass studio

fused glass platter, one of a kind fused glass art, sassy glass studio

ON A SIDE NOTE:
Sassy Glass Studio will be at the Ironwood Art Fair on Friday, March 14th from 5pm to ?? and Saturday, March 15th from 10am to 4pm. Find out more information here.

March is National Craft Month and there are three ways you can celebrate in Sassy Style! Find our more in this post.
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