6 Ways to Make a Successful Exhibition

I attended an opening of an art exhibition last week, one of many I have been to but this particular exhibition was a noteworthy event. It was very successful with red dots appearing on many of the pieces, regardless of the varying prices. When I asked myself the question, why the success, the answers came very easily, so I'm going to share my thoughts with you.



1. Keep your costs down - An exhibition can be costly when renting the space. I have looked at the costs of this particular venue and have calculated the space rented was approx. 33 metres with a charge of $450.00. The solution in making this affordable was to have three exhibitors in different mediums, to share the costs.


2. Work to a theme - The three artists chose the theme of 'changing landscape' which they each interpreted into their work of oil paintings, kiln formed glass murals and ceramics, which really connected the three mediums well.


3. Choose the opening speaker who can relate to the theme - The artists chose a Geologist to officially open the exhibition. He spoke so passionately about the work and what the changing landscape meant to him it compelled the audience to listen with a genuine interest. Which in turn made viewing the artworks much more enjoyable having an understanding of the meaning of each piece.


4. Send out many invitations - Another main advantage of having three seperate exhibitors is that they each have their own contingency of friends and acquaintences, giving a much wider and diverse audience.


5. Location of exhibition - This needs to be considered in a way that it is reasonably central and easy to find. The particular venue for this exhibition was a centre run by the Local Government, which gave the added advantage of a piece being purchased on behalf of the council (which did occur on the opening night).


6. And last but certainly not least - Present your best pieces of art - If a piece you have created doesn't 'quite make the grade' by your standards, then don't include it in the exhibition. If you are not sure have someone who's opinion you value to give their honest thoughts.



I hope the above points have been of an interest to you, and if you have any of your own advice to add, please do so in the comments.

The Results of My Silver and Woven Necklace

I've finished my necklace with the 'Cambodian Culture' theme, and have named it 'River Flow'.








Hopefully I have achieved the water feel with the colour selection, which was my main focus.


I'm currently adding all my latest pieces to my website and should have it ready to view by this evening.

Bead Competition Winner Announced........

I have a winner from my 'Give Away - Your Choice of Lampwork Beads' posting .......drum roll.........Congratulations to Crystal 'Krysmh'!

Your lampwork beads will be fresh out of the kiln on Monday and sent off to you.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the competition!

New Necklace and Lampwork Beads in Progress

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was planning to follow a weekly challenge list chosen by a jewellery forum. I am not joining in the challenge on the forum but am doing my 'own' thing. Last week's challenge was 'Cambodian Culture', and as we all are aware the internet is a wonderful research tool. I discovered that each year in Cambodia the Water Festival is celebrated in either October or November at the time of the full moon. The festival celebrates the flow of the Tonle Sap River and gives thanks to Mekong River for the supply of fish and irrigation of their land. Taking all that into account I have worked on the 'water theme' in my new project in progress.


Firstly, I wanted to start with a sterling silver chain section depicting ponds of water. I found in 'Silver Wire Jewelry' book a tutorial for Webwork, which inspired my thinking process. With some alteration these pieces could become my ponds. I wanted a more freeform shape than in the book, they made their shapes by coiling the wire and pulling it out then forming the shape and joining them by hooks. I instead formed the 1.2mm (16g) sterling silver wires into rings, soldered them, then using my round nose pliers I free formed the curves. The webwork is then accomplished by using 0.5mm (24g) of fine silver and wire wrapped on the shaped piece and woven through. Instead of this I used 0.5mm sterling silver, wire wrapped to the shape and just placed one piece across and before wire wrapping the other end added an aqua crackle glass bead to represent the colour and texture of water.






I desired my centre piece to be very reminiscent of a sparkling pool, and have made this focal lampwork bead adding a sparkling aventurine green glass and silver foil which shimmers through a translucent teal.






Reverse Side

Of course it wouldn't be complete without some more of my water themed lampwork beads to add to my usual bubbling over feel. These will all become a part of a woven finish to my piece.





So stay tuned for the completion, I'll have photos for you next week.

Need a Soothing Experience?

An amazing animation titled 'Plantage' created by Jakub Dvorsky of Amanita Design as a music video for the Danish band - Under Byen .

This beautiful video of animation art would have to be the best stress relief tool I have encountered. It is truly worth watching! Relaxing music by Under Byen and divine focals of Henriette Sennenvaldt, whose voice can easily be mistaken for Bjork. A tranquil forest setting that magically draws you in.

Enjoy! I hope it has a similar affect on you as I experienced.

Latest Woven Necklace

This lampwork focal bead I had created some time ago, and it's been for sale on my lampwork website for way too long. I decided it was meant to be for one of my creations, so I chose the seedbeads, gemstones and complimenting lampwork beads in a colour combination that I felt worked well with the focal. I've chosen turquoise, dyed fossil beads, jade and sodalite gemstones to blend through this piece along with Japanese seedbeads, bone beads and of course my lampwork beads. The choice of colours and design of the focal screams out for this piece to be titled 'Horizon'.















I hope you like my latest!

Take Your Jewellery Photos to Print

I was reading a forum discussion recently regarding designing a jewellery portfolio at Blurb where the book is printed with a cover of your choice and then shipped to you.

A post was added from Dianne Baron who had created a book with Blurb, and seemed happy with the results. There is an added feature where you are able to add your book to the Blurb Bookstore for sale which is what Dianne has done, so you are able to view a sample of her book.

There are also reviews added to Mike DelGaudio's blog. If you read the comments there are a lot of conflicting reviews, and a suggestion that the quality may have been downgraded since the review was first written in 2007.
On the other hand, this thread gives a review of all the types of books available and just received in the past week.

After researching the subject there are a numerous amount of sites available offering this service, such as Lulu; Shutterfly and MyPublisher

I have been very inspired by the availability of this service and the reason for Dianne Baron's printed book. Dianne is a member of a forum who organizes a weekly challenge for their members. They are given a theme and have a week to create a jewellery piece with the theme in mind as inspiration. Dianne participates in these challenges, hence the book covering her year of work of jewellery challenge themes. I'm hoping to take on these themes as a challenge to myself, I'll let you know of my progress.