Happy

I wanted to be in the Sydney Morning Herald for ages. I didn't want to chase it. I just wanted it to happen, and I was willing to wait for it. On Saturday it did! Yay, I'm so happy because it's my hometown newspaper. All good things come to those who wait - maybe so.

The publicity machine appears to be in overdrive at the moment. Perhaps I am boring you with it all? I know my kids are fairly unimpressed. I tried to show my eldest daughter some piece of publicity recently and she didn't even look up from her Simpsons viewing. When I asked her if she was at all interested in me showing her, she made the comment, "come on mum, it's not like it doesn't happen a lot !" - fair enough.

Did Christmas Start Today?

I am wondering if the Christmas period officially started today? It just seems that orders started rolling in with added intensity just today. Also the desperate pleas for stock, "whatever you have Liana!!!", came in thick and fast too.

Perhaps everyone was holding off, or was just a bit caught up with the election on Saturday. Then we all had a day to celebrate/commiserate on Sunday. Then Monday was the day to catch up on work. Then today it just seemed to have dawned on everyone that it is now actually less than a month until Christmas.

"Oh my!"

One Down, Two To Go

Our Umbrella Collective show happened last Saturday. It was a fabulous day spent with friends, old and new. I got to meet lots of new people and see many familiar faces too. This was our second Umbrella Show and judging by the success of it there is sure to be another in 2008.

Until then, there are still two market days/studio sales to get through. The first happens this Sunday at GoMA. This is the first of the design markets they are planning to hold, so it a an honour to be chosen to participate.

Here are the details:
Design Market: Sunday 25 November 9am - 5pm @ GoMA,
Gallery Store forecourt
Stanley Place
South Brisbane
PH:07 3840 7147

Just to make things super exciting for myself MoB Workspace is having a studio sale several days later!

Here are the details:
Studio Sale: Thursday 29 November - Friday 30 November 11am -4pm @ MoB Workspace
(via MoB store), Museum of Brisbane
PH:07 3403 5518

Who need sleep?!

The Age

Sunday M
11 Nov 2007

You just never know how things are going to turn out when dealing with the media. It somehow seems that when your expectations are high you end up with little or no promotion, and when they are low, things tend to turn out great. Maybe that's just how it seems.

Anyway, after discussing my rocky experiences (below) with being interviewed for last Sunday's article in The Age, it seems only fair that I show you how it all turned out. Pretty darn good! Images really are the key to fabulous exposure. They are when you make pretty things that you want people to buy, or just to help remember you.

Umbrella Show - This Saturday!!!!!

saturday 17 november 2007
9am - 2pm

delightful things direct from the artists

st francis theological college
233 milton road milton
entrance via baroona rd

parking available
cash or cheque only

umbrella collective


ARTISTS:

florence forrest
flying star toys

shannon garson
porcelain

kylie johnson
paper boat press

liana kabel
plastic girl jewellery

rebecca ward
jewellery

Oh my, this show is on this Saturday!! If you are a local Brisbanite/in Brisbane I hope you can come along. There will be loads of bargains to nab. All pieces will be below retail price for the day.

If you are there, please do come over and say "hi". I always love the opportunity to get to know those that are supporting me!!I know there are lots of you & I appreciate every one of you. There or not.

It's All Chinese & Greek To Me

I live in Brisbane, Australia. I work from my pretty unglamourous home studio in Brisbane, Australia. Yet I don't feel that I am defined by this location. It certainly is an important part of me, as is being born in Sydney to European parents. I do believe that I could pretty much live anywhere now (considering living expenses, access to materials and of course reliable Internet access!) and still operate in much the same way. I feel global.

It is always a bit of a thrill to see my name pop up within a foreign language.

Me in:
Chinese
Greek
Italian
Spanish
Japanese
Swedish

As exciting it is to build an International profile it would be great if I could get out into the actual world more often. It really has been ages since I've been anywhere more exciting than Sydney/Melbourne. A priority now is to travel. That hasn't been something I've been able to easily do for many years, but now thing have changed and I'm going to get out of here. Well, soon and only for small trips. But yay!

Jewellery Party

The first of my frantic market/meet the maker/studio sale schedule starts next Thursday. It is just one after the other from then on!

Thursday 15 November 5-7pm @ QUT Art Museum
Jewellery Party: Just starting to think about unique Christmas gifts? Come along to the Arc Biennial Christmas Jewellery Party to score a bargain and buy works direct from the makers. Local jewellers Liana Kabel, Bibi Locke and Rebecca Ward will all be there. Drop by after work and get some Christmas shopping done while supporting local artists.

This should be a fun low key event that I hope you can come along to. Jewellery prices will start from $20 (cash & cheque only)! Plus it will give me the chance to meet you, which is something I always enjoy. Also if you haven't checked out the Arc Biennial Exhibition you'll get a chance to do that too.

Just so many reasons to come along!

Fear & Other Great Stuff

The lovely & very thoughtful Denise/Jejune posted this blog link, all about the tips, slips, stumbles, and leaps on the creative journey, in one of my earlier comment sections. She thought I may have been interested in it. She was right. I clicked on it this morning and had a good read. I thought there was so much excellent advice here that I wanted to share it also.

Fear Factor -I particularly loved this one because it was the topic of conversation with my friend yesterday, and has just sort of been on my mind lately. Once you take fear out of the decision making process you always make a better choice. As said in the post, Fear undermines us. It justifies bad behavior. It is the road to the collapse of self-respect. I can’t live my life without fear, but there are a million great reasons to make decisions and always one lousy one–I did it because I was scared. I'll also add that to not do something that you feel is right, or worthwhile, because you are afraid, is a poor decision (safe is a different matter). You just miss out that way.

In regards to fear, I am talking about my professional/creative life - underpricing, saying 'yes' all the time, etc. But this does cross over into my personal life as well. What I do is so much a part of who I am that I can't always distinguish the two. Then again, maybe I don't have to.

There is also a great quote on the blog by sufi poet and fool,Mullah Nasiruddin, who said, “Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.” Indeed!

Interview Me!

This is an unexpected follow-on to the blog post below!

I just got to redo my interview for The Age! Apparently the tape recorder with my craptastic interview failed and the reporter needed to ask those questions again. Initially I started to stumble and started wondering to myself 'Why haven't I thought about these things since last week's effort'!But the stars had aligned today and the words flowed with ease before too long - yeah! It did probably help that I was home alone and in a rather relaxed mood, plus I'd had a good night's sleep !!

The article should be in next week's Sunday edition of The Age, and this time I will be in it (hope so)!

Interview Me?

Occasionally the pretty pictures just aren't going to cut it and some writer/journo/producer, or whatever, wants to ask you to say a few words about that thing you do. I understand the need for this, and although I never like it, I'll do it, and will try my best to do it well. I have a few interviews under my belt now, including newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and even some film students project (Hi guys - I hope that camera worked OK!). For the most part I feel I have been adequate, and some times I'd even say I've been excellent, and then there are those times that just seem to haunt you in your sleep.

Last week I had one of my less than stellar interview moments. Maybe it was even my worst? Anyway I'll tell you about it. I was working away in the MoB Studio polishing my silver bits, listening to music and daydreaming about various things that I will not mention here(!) when the phone rang. It was a reporter from The Age. He wanted to discuss my work in relation to the below mentioned book (Cool Hunting Green). Maybe it was the sleep deprivation due to a having a sick child cough ALL night, or not being able to shake myself out of my daydreaming state fast enough, or the fact that there were other studio members present at the time, or perhaps it was just the unexpected nature of it. Whatever the problem was, the result was that I just couldn't manage to string two coherent words together. It wasn't like the questions were hard -"What materials do you use to create your pieces?" - "ahhhh" "ummmm". And it just didn't seem to get much better than that. The guy was nice too, as he had offered to call me back at a more convenient time from the beginning. Of course I said no because I really, really wanted to be in The Age (again - last time was far better)!

Tomorrow's edition of The Age should have an article about Cool Hunting Green. Various people got interviewed for the write-up so I'm not sure if I should be hoping for a mention in which I sound incredibly lame, or rather that I get no mention at all and feel relieved that at least I didn't sound incredibly lame in The Age ? Oh well, you win some, you lose some. At least the Houston Chronicle contacted me today, and thank goodness they just want some hi-res pretty pictures. Now that, I can do!

pictured above - necklace made from a 1969 Tupperware pastry sheet

Treehugger

I'm not even going to pretend that I don't LOVE this!