Speaking of Booths!

I managed to land one on Sunday, the 17th! I am utterly thrilled by this chance to display my work to the holiday shoppers. Please, if you are in the New Paltz/Stone Ridge area come stop by the Winter Gift Sale and say hello! We'll be set up from 10am to 6pm.

On the Booth, and Internet Sales

Ah, the booth. The single most nerve wracking experience a tiny business like mine can experience. It's hard enough to wrangle a space, but that's only the beginning. Is it going to be worth my time? My money? Will people notice me? Will I make back what I've spent on this space? Will I leave feeling completely unoriginal? Anxiety asks many questions.

The flip side of that is when a day goes really well, and you realize you've got nothing left. The sites need to be stocked, but there's nothing to stock them with, and of course, no time to make more! Because internet selling isn't just a matter of making the jewelry, there are still photos to be taken, touched up, and uploaded. Measurements to be taken, descriptions to be written. Not to mention the promotion that goes into it. Selling online takes a whole different kind of creativity, and patience I never knew I had.

My experience so far has been that offline my work sells quickly, online take more waiting. Whether it's the face to face conversations, the ability to pick up and try on one's purchase, or simply a higher exposure, the real world seems to work better for me. This isn't enough to make me abandon my post online, and I will never stop selling offline, so it looks like I'll be anxious forever!

Business Dilemma

To Business minor, or not to Business minor, this is the question.

I am torn. I have pretty much come to the conclusion that as an artist who intends to make a living I am going to need some business experience. If Soul of a Starving Artist is ever going to be something big I'm going to need to know what I'm doing. I refuse to be one of those spacey artists who never quite pulls it together. Lets face it, we aren't the most business minded of folk. Now here's the question. The requirements for a Business minor sound completely terrifying. I don't know what most of this stuff means. Do I need it? Do I want it...? Would I be better off just picking and choosing my courses? My advisor is one of those artists who never quite pulled it together, so she's not a hell of a lot of help.

I'm going to have to wrangle a business student and interrogate.

Cheers!

Robin Marie

New Beginning

It's been some time since I've actively participated in the blogging world. At one time the popularity of LiveJournal was thrilling, and keeping track of my high school buddies was a great excuse. LiveJournal was always a load of crap though, we all knew it, and now we've got MySpace and Facebook to do that for us, and they don't need constant attention! My little working knowledge of this system is owed entirely to the genius of the one and only J. Farber and his Intro to Web Design course that I took...a million years ago.

I'm running a small business called Soul of a Starving Artist. I make jewelry, and for the most part it pays for itself, though not much more. I am a Metals major, at SUNY New Paltz, but I'm stuck in the foundation requirement BS that apparently everyone has to go through. It hurts, let me tell you, to know that I'm paying good money for professors who haven't graduated, and don't want to be there. This is not the standard of education my prep school pampered brain is used to. My farmer's daughter work ethic isn't happy either. What am I supposed to do with my time if I don't have anything to study? This is currently my biggest gripe.

I have a great passion for art, and I am utterly impatient when something is holding me back from accomplishing my goals. I am stubborn as a mule, or my father (we are two of a kind in many ways.)

I am generally a happy person.

Cheers!

Robin Marie