Seeking inspiration

Sometimes it is easy to work out what you want to make next, sometimes not so easy, and I feel it is often a trade of between what I want to make, and what I think will sell, because let's face it, the idea is that I sell what I make (so I can help pay for my glass obsession!)

Lately I have been concentrating on making smaller items. Small suncatcher type items usually sell quite well. I think that sometimes it's because they are relatively low price items, and they sell as impulse buys.

I think I've said before, stars seem to be popular throughout the year, and of late they have been selling well in my Etsy shop. Up until now, I've only listed clear stars, a few with irridised glass, but all wire wrapped and mostly all beaded with seed beads. They are something I enjoy making, and it is so easy to make every one different.

A few weeks ago I was asked about coloured stars, so made a few which were partly coloured and partly clear for the last Craft market I attended, just to try them out...but it wasn't a star day :(, so perhaps not quite the good idea I thought.
Never mind, they're now there as stock for online sales - as soon as I get around to photographing them!  I then had notification of another potential stall at a local makers market, during school holidays. They were looking in particular for someone who would be able to do a workshop or demonstration, as it takes place at a local museum. Time to rack the old brains then for ideas. I needed to be able to demonstrate something to do with my craft. 

Lampworking is a great draw, but you need to be very careful, and although I have insurance, I would need additional insurance to demonstrate lampworking - there is also the fact that there are likely to be lots of children milling about so the potential for something to go pear shaped increases rapidly! Lampwork was out!

Glass cutting - another 'dangerous sport' with youngsters about :(. 

Mmm, what to do? Sometimes it's not easy being glass obsessed.

Make a memory wire bracelet? Easily done, I did it a few months ago at an open studios type event with some of the lovely makers at The Bone Yard, in Cardiff.  

Emily, of Emily England Designs was organising their first event of the year, and asked if a few CAVETSY (Cardiff and Valleys Etsy team) members would do a few free workshops or show and tell things. It seemed to go down well there, and we had a few young (and not so young) ladies making bracelets.

 

Perhaps a little expensive if you've taken the children on a school holidays outing, and not really sure if it will go down well with the boys, plus the fact that I know there will be jewellers there (pretty sure they will rather be trying to sell their bracelets!)
So, it really needs to be something glassy not jewellery, preferably something a child could do something too, and take home, without cutting themselves, and which although will take some support or supervision from myself, can be demonstrated simply. 

I remember when my children were small, they used to love to go to this open air museum, and we often had to purchase the right to throw a pot... usually ending up with an unusually shaped "bowl" or two to take home with us, which they would later decorate with poster paints, and lovingly present to some unsuspecting person at a later date. No it definitely had to be something they would want, suitable for boys as well as girls.

STARS that's what! Make some smaller, transparent coloured stars they they could wrap with wire and beads, add a little ribbon, and have something to take home, and hang in their bedroom window, or keep for the Christmas tree! So I've made even more stars - purple, blue, yellow, and a few mixtures of all three - rainbow stars! I have a reel of copper wire, tubs of seed beads, and some ribbon. 

If no one wants to wrap one on the days I'm at St Fagans, well it just means I have less stock to make towards Christmas markets, so nothing ventured, nothing gained!

 

Now I'd better start thinking about making a few signs, and doing something towards advertising that I'm there!

Oh, and if you are in the area in the next few days, then St. Fagans Makers Market is on, and will be until 6th August - I'll be there on 1st and 2nd of August with my glass and stars.