Monday 15 June 2009

Conceptualising My Art Business – part 2 What?

In an earlier post Conceptualising My Art Business – part 1 Why? I explored why I need and want to make.  This brought me to the interesting conclusion that the reason I make is not to sell but about what it intrinsically gives me and my desire to give back to others.


The conceptualising looks a little like this.

image

The second question for me here is if it is a business what is it that I want to sell.  I know that I find making to sell is some how a sell out but there has to be a balance somewhere.

Well I could make

  • lampwork glass
  • painting
  • knitting (I’ve made huge amounts of baby clothes)
  • sewing (I’ve made a wedding dress and clothes for others)
  • jewellery (I’ve done courses in making silver jewellery and my next step would be to think about a BTec)
  • hats
  • bags
  • cards

All these things I have made and sold at stages.  But what is it that I am passionate about making.  I guess the answer at one level is simple, glass and painting.

Great … that narrows it down to two huge fields.  Both of which are hugely competitive and I guess need specific focus on.

The glass thing as far as I can see, with the skills I have, breaks down into a few areas

  1. Art glass beads.  I specifically like two types of design.  Those with a very geometric feel and beads inspired by nature.  I’m wanting to create beads with a more painterly like quality.
  2. Production glass beads, which I have done and it really improved my skills but I chose to end because it stole my soul.
  3. Mini sculptures.  My beads have often ended up behind sculptural from very early on.  I have also done some off mandrel sculpture which was great fun.  My dad has a kingfisher as a consequence.
  4. Turning my glass into jewellery

I know there is way more to lampwork but not with my skill levels at the moment.

The painting thing for me is much more limited.  Or at least it feels as if it is.  What I know is that I loose myself in painting but have never produced anything that I feel is of a saleable quality.  What I do love about paint over glass is the depth of meaning I feel and see in the work.  I love the use of this medium for affirmations and the stories that can be told.

So this leads me to a question of whether there is something about combining these two areas to create something that is unique and distinctive to me.  Using glass and paint to create pieces which have meaning seems to be so very important to me and probably the best way forward. 

The draw back is that this is something completely new for me and to start with not a money making avenue… which to me seems to defeat the whole point of conceptualising a business around art.

I guess my plan to start with has to be about beginning to create daily within paint as I perceive I already have the skills within the glass to create what would be needed.  I also need to spend time creating glass beads which I love in the mean time.  Not primarily because I want to sell but because I love to make.

1 comment:

  1. Very interesting reading, I have been analysing my own work recently and the way I want to go with it. So I enjoyed reading about what you feel about your own work and where you want to head too. I believe that what happens in our lives can steer us into different or other directions. This can be a good thing because we re-assess our work, our inspirations can change and even what we want to do or that we try out new things, it makes us more fulfilled I think!!

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