How I Got Started - The SMFA Sidewalk Sale, 2008

Ah, the SMFA Sidewalk Sale of 2008.

As my first art sale, it was kind of a disaster. I sat at a table for two days, 10-5, and sold two things. Do you know what it's like to sell two things in 15 hours?

Yeah, not fun :(

I had put out some great bags that I embroidered from me & my mom's business - They're being featured in an associate's, Cindy Cheever-Nichols who owns Mermaids at Duxbury Bay Boutique. We've sold a bunch, and I'll be sure to get some images up ASAP.

So I was selling those, some prints from a color photo class, and lastly some images I created using pointillism. Pointillism is a technique involving the buildup of dots of ink to create depth and perspective. I took this great Film Noir class, and I got so inspired with the stark contrasts of lights in dark with the imagery of the movies, and I set up a few images to reflect this (one of my images, above) I got a ton of positive feedback, and so I priced them and put them out to sell.

And I continued to get a ton of positive feedback, but just no sales. And I could not lower the price because of the nature of the technique; the dots take a long time to build up. It sounds crazy to do, but it's actually quite a meditative process. I fell in love with it in high school, and I also picked it up again in tribute to my art teacher. Yeah, AWHS!

Anyway, back on track -

So as I was sitting there, watching everyone else making sales, my brain started concocting things. There was a diverse set of things being sold at this sale, by a great deal of talented people - like jewelry, and fun unique things that were different. So, I kind of started thinking how to make embroidery into jewelry.

Without revealing too much, that is how I came up with my signature product, the embroidered necklace!! They're really edgy, have a dinstinctive look, and I have a lot of flexibility in terms of what I can embroider on them. I recycled fabric from quilters, braided rope for the necklace, and sewed patches onto custom made-backs.

So there you are! I sold a great deal of them at this year's Sidewalk Sale, and plan to continue to :) My big selling categories are horoscope signs, the peace signs, and the "green" design. Check them out on my etsy site!