From Maker to Making a Living, class #1: same problem, different boats.

Wow! What a great start to a month of learning! I know for sure that signing up for this workshop series was a great idea. Jacqueline is even more amazing in real life than she is on paper (or web page) and I am looking forward to taking in all her words of wisdom and learning from her experiences. 

There are ten business owners participating, including myself. Tonight was about getting to know a little about everyone's businesses and history, and determining the key issues we all have in making successes of them. I don't know why (ego, maybe?) but I figured that I would here similar stories to my own. Boy, I couldn't have been more off. The areas of craft were wide spread, from weaving to jewellery, furniture making to ceramics. Though everyone had a different perspective on their issues, there were definitely a few common threads. I'm looking forward to seeing the progression of my fellow classmates, and myself.

My first homework assignment was to breathe (lots of information in one night), and then write down what I see my dream business to be. So I started jotting down ideas, and really thinking about it. At the end of the day, my dream business is along the lines of one of my favourite illustrators, Susie Ghahremani of Boy Girl Party. Look to your right and you'll see the permanent link to her site. She's really got it all. She sells stationary and such that gets produced by a third party, necklaces, bags, etc., all featuring her amazing characters. In addition she sells prints of her work, and original paintings. In addition to all of this she's able to participate in art shows AND she's an active illustrator. I like to read her personal blog too, as she is honest about the issues a creative business owner has. Plus, she's funny. Hopefully if I share this with Jacqueline she'll have a better idea of my goals.


So, homework done for the night. I'm a bit of a keener. Now this keener is going to try to read more of her book club book that needs to be done by Thursday. Class number 2 tomorrow!

Back to school.

That's right, kids. I'm about to start some learning. Tomorrow night I start an eight class workshop called From Maker to Making a Living put on by the ever wonderful Ontario Craft Council. The lectures are being led by the very successful Jacqueline Sava of Soak, a money-making crafter extrordinaire. From Maker to Making a Living is a series of classes designed to guide craftspeople through the process of understanding, designing and building their individual businesses. Obviously, if you've read even a few posts on my blog, this has been my pursuit and dream since forever. You would also notice that I've not had amazing results as of yet. I am conceptualizing a whole new plan of action for my handiwork and am hoping that these classes will not only get my plan off the ground, but allow me to keep up a momentum. I will be posting a little bit about each class after I've attended it, starting with tomorrow night. I'm actually really excited to interact not only with a business mentor, but to meet people who are in the same ship as me. 

Stay tuned tomorrow! Off to get ready for class!

Catch up.

Well, hello there. 
It's now officially fall. Here in Toronto it couldn't be more beautiful. The Sunnyside Pavilion art show was a wonderful weekend. The three day show was full of lots of friendly guests, live musical performances, and hot weather. The Toronto waterfront is a totally awesome place to throw an art show, so kudos to the organizers for picking such a dream venue. 

This time I thought I would invest in my own tent. 

The decision was definitely cost effective one, but the blueness of the tent made everything under it dark, and, well, a little blue. Next year I plan on either splurging on a white tent and sending this one to the land of kijiji or attempting to make a white one myself. We'll see which option is the most cost effective. 

 

I was able to get a few new pieces completed for the event. I've posted them up on my website, but here are a few shots for you to oogle right here and now. 

Copyright Claire Manning

Copyright Claire Manning

Copyright Claire Manning

Copyright Claire Manning

I'm pretty happy with the work that I was able to complete, especially considering August just wasn't my month. I was able to sell a few paintings, but am now thinking that I need to get back into a craft mode and see if I can make more money if I sell screen printed versions of my art on tea towels (not handmade by me this time) and work on some custom embroidered decorative pillows for the upcoming Christmas craft season. In my next post I'll tell you about the workshop classes I'm taking to help make sure the third time really is the charm when it comes to my crafty endeavors. In the meantime, head over to clairemanning.com to see the rest of the art from the show.

C'mon down to the lake!

I have been a busy bee preparing to show my wares at the upcoming Sunnyside Juried Art Show this weekend and I am getting excited thinking it's only a few days away! Of course, if you are in Toronto, or near Toronto, or have friends that like art in Toronto, I would love to see as many people as possible. I love visiting and chatting with people, especially since I've all but shut myself off from the social world for the past few weeks, going cross-eyed making beautiful new paintings. I know I'll be feeling talkative. Anyway, a re-cap on the info.

Please visit the website link above for additional information, or stay up to date through the show's facebook page.  I will be located on the upper level of the pavilion in booth #2. Come by and you can pick up one of my brand spankin' new business cards! 

I just received them in the mail yesterday and I love them! I needed to update my card in a huge way. Big thanks to Richard Meneely at USB cards out of New Jersey for the beautiful job and the extremely fast turnaround. I love the letter press and it's so fitting that it's on chip board. Richard offers a number of natural surfaces on which to have your cards pressed. He's also known for printing on recycled cereal boxes. Not really my thing, but cool nonetheless.  


Please don't forget to stop by the Sunnyside pavilion for a visit this weekend if you are in Toronto. I will likely blog on location, for those who want a play by play but can't be there in person. 


Now, back to work! G'night!

Before and after.

Here I am, a week before the big Sunnyside Art Show weekend. It's also the first week of September. It's been the fastest summer on record for me. I say this mostly because I lost August for the most part. I thought I would concentrate on the beginning of the month and the end, and less about the nasty middle.

So, Ronaldo and I ended up going to New York City for the first weekend of August. It was incredible. Great food, lots of sightseeing and walking, and a visit to Fishes Eddy! I was so excited and bought a few things. If I were independently wealthy and came on the plane with more than carry on luggage I would have bought more. 

 

The after has been very busy, as I simply did not plan to lose a month. I have been able to do quite a bit of painting and have some more time to work on some additional pieces in the upcoming week. 

I have a week because I am transitioning into another position with a new company. This company is not only very close to home, but it's smaller with a more boutique feel to it. I'm actually pretty excited to see where it takes me. I'm thankful for the extra time to prepare. I will update with information about next weekend's show on Monday. Be then I should know where my booth location is.

Enjoy your weekend!

Claire DOES NOT Love... rashes.

Well, here I am, over a week since my last post, with another sad post. I have been fighting a bacterial infection called cellulitis in my leg that sent me to the hospital for three days last week. This infection is accompanied my a painful, swollen rash. I have been taking antibiotics and taking it easy for a week and things were starting to look up for me. That is, until this morning when I woke up with an itchy head-to-toe rash. Yes, another rash. This one is a reaction to a drug that I was taking to get rid of the other one. Sigh. I'm stuck with this one for two weeks. The good news is that it isn't going to change my recovery from the cellulitis, it's not contagious, and it's not dangerous to me.  I'm lucky enough to have a great group of friends that have been taking care of me and watching out for me. These are some flowers from a couple of them, Raquel and Ryan. I am incredibly grateful for all of my friends.

With that in mind I am pushing through and working when I can. I am prepping for the show coming up in a few weeks and hoping I'll have more than a few new pieces to show off. I'm still trying to find the balance between working and recovering. The last thing I need to do is make myself more sick and rashy by not taking care of myself. 

As Ronaldo has so kindly quoted, "no more rashes". I consider it my new mantra.

Taking the good with a healthy dose of bad.

Hello folks! 
It's been a while, no? Well, I have apologize for that. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. I was fortunate enough to return to the Printsource show with my day job at the beginning of the week. Ronaldo and I opted to add Saturday and Sunday to my Monday and Tuesday work schedule. The whole experience was great. I was at the airport in New York ready to head home when I got the message that my Grandpa had passed in his sleep that morning. I swooped from a pretty big high to a very low low. It was a total shock. I had only seen him a week and a half ago and he was doing well. I have to say, in the midst of this bad news, that I couldn't have been luckier to grow up with two sets of amazing grand parents. As much as I miss them now some folks don't get the chance to know their grand parents at all. My low got even lower at I contracted a deep tissue infection in my right leg that made me so physically ill that I was unable to attend my Grandpa's funeral. I'm now pretty much lower than low at this point. I will be digging deep to continue working on artwork for an upcoming art show. 

Have I forgotten to tell you about this art show? Let me fill you in!

 It's the Sunnyside Beach Juried Art Show & Sale. It's happening at the Sunnyside pavilion off of Lakeshore West in Toronto during the second weekend of September. Please visit the show's facebook page for more information. 

For tonight I've got a date with my rashy leg, Ramona, my couch and some netflix. Hopefully tomorrow brings a bit of goodness.