My gallery party report & Happy New Year!

Happy new year everyone! I took a couple of days off while I visited with a friend of mine this weekend, played with my camera, and worked on my photography skills.

The gallery party on Friday night was wonderful, and the set I wore (my new Champagne Bubbles set I finished just in time!) got compliments from every person I talked with. It was fun because they seemed to already like the pieces, but when I told them the name of it, people "got it" - that the center looked just like real champagne bubbles - and they just went nuts! LOL

I'm not sure how many pieces sold...I know one was put in layaway and I think at least 2 more sold, but I haven't heard for sure yet on the final number and which pieces. The Bluebird in the Holly, which is the subject of my free demonstration download was quite popular - he got a lot of comments. One lady was wearing a rhinestone peacock brooch and now I'm thinking of creating a fun peacock design because it looked lovely on her lapel!

At the end of the evening, I ended up back by the food (of course! LOL!) talking to a lady I'd never met. She starts telling me about a couple pieces of jewelry she'd bought from the gallery. She said she'd bought one of the fused glass pieces up on the counter, and then she said "And I got the most wonderful pendant by that other artist Jai Johnson who has the case up front, and I just LOVE IT!" (we had never formally met...she didn't know I was me...Rachel introduced us at that point) She went on then to tell me how much she loves the pendant she bought (she got Cherry Bee) and how she wears it all the time and it's so comfortable, etc. That was cool to hear all that - I suddenly FELT the appreciation for the work, and it was very exciting.

I spent some time educating consumers on polymer clay - most people think when they see my pieces that they are "painted with paint" and I explain it's NOT paint...it's ALL clay and they think that's the neatest thing!

It's interesting to me to see what people are drawn to. I had brought some of my newer, cloisonne pieces down there, and those were well liked - it was clear in their reactions they were looking at those as being a "finer jewelry" and I was happy to see that reaction as that's my intent with those pieces. People seemed to really like the animal pendants as well, and some people told me they would be contacting me about custom orders featuring their pets.

All in all, it was a great evening, and of course I invited them all to the jewelry show next month, so I hope to see many of them again!

Oh, and I was worried about the Champagne Bubbles earrings being heavy, since they are larger dangles. I'm happy to report I wore them ALL DAY on Friday and they were completely comfortable and didn't bother my ears at all. Polymer clay is just TOO COOL! Once again, I'm just thrilled I found this medium to work in!

Jai