A day at the Crafters Market.

A friend and I went out for a little stroll around one of the local craft shows today. It was put on by a Fredericton based group who are pretty new as far as getting shows together and the whole thing was very casual and very wonderful. In fact, I knew most of the vendors there and had great conversations with many of them. I may consider becoming part of this group in the future - as I had mentioned before, selling some of my work at retail prices would be a really positive thing for me.

One thing that was said to me that has stayed on my mind was a comment made by Denise MacLean (a fellow potter) who said something about "working smarter, not harder". This really struck me because I have been working so darn hard these past few months and since all of my sales have been through wholesale orders that means I'm only getting paid half of what each pot is valued at. If I started to do some more retail, then I would only need to sell half the work to make the same amount of money. Half the work means less time, although overall more productive time in the studio. And since time is something that I hardly have an abundance of, I think that would fall under the umbrella of 'working smarter'. An ideal scenario though, would be to find a balance between wholesale and retail.

There it is again, that ever elusive balance I am always striving for.

Oh, and I bought myself some fabulous handmade soaps and a new journal. I am very excited about these. I just hope I can gather up the courage to write something in the journal soon - I am someone who is absolutely terrified of writing on a new, blank page in fear of ruining it. A silly thing I know but I've had a sketchbook for over a year now that is just perfect and I have yet to put a single mark in it. I keep telling myself that the right time will come...