Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Reflecting on a year in Wellydog Studio

Another Bank Holiday just past with another rainy day.  Its been the theme for the last year.  Since I passed my 1st year milestone, I have been reflecting on the successes and failures of my studio and the wash out year has made me realise what a good move it was to change to the larger studio in January.  It may seen counter intuitive to say that expanding in a bad year was good, but really it was the best move  I could have made.  I can't compare like for like sales yet but generally they appear similar to last year , but the use of a larger studio to teach has increased my actual income enormously.  I have paid all my capital expenditure off as well as making a profit.  I am starting to realise the full potential of what could be achieved.  It wont set the world on fire but has exceeded my expectations and targets. 

Of course the winter is coming and sales will drop but I am preparing for that and I am running 2 x 6 week beginners courses. The first of the 2 courses has filled up nicely and starts on Saturday and if I can do the same on the November one I will sail through the winter months. 


My drop in sessions have been a huge success, my Wednesday group is full and Saturday Mornings not far behind.  I will be encouraging people onto the Thursday sessions and try and fill that up now.  But this success does come with its problems.  By the time I do paperwork, promotion, tidy/clean and maintain the studio,  I have less time to paint myself.  But the flip side to that is that as the teaching is doing so well, I don't feel the pressure to produce Artwork that I feel may sell.  I was warned by a previous artist at the centre that as sales become a focus, then you start to just produce work  that you think will be popular rather than develop your own art practice in your own time.  I have been fortunate recently as I have spend my 'free' time experimenting with various techniques and I have not pushed myself to produce finished work.  I spent the last few weeks playing with various paints and  last week just drawing.  I loved it,  I very rarely put any pencil lines down when I paint and so I felt my drawing had started to get a bit neglected.  I have really enjoyed playing again. I have no plans about where it will go,  I am just enjoying the process. I think it became obvious I needed to do this when I lost my Mojo a few months ago. This has fired me up again and I excited about my future work.


On a practical side,  I finally got round to marking all my paint brushes with a blob of pink nail varnish.  Students usually use there own but borrow mine if they have a specific need.  They would say at the end of the session,  "is this your brush or mine?" and I honestly wouldn't know,  so it just makes life easier.


I also am always striving to get more people into my studio.  I know I have increased the number of people who actually come in rather than just loiter outside but there is still about 10% of visitors who don't come through the door,  so more signs and flowers round the door.  I am slightly worried I may have over done it ,  but only time will tell and I like it anyway.

I did a special exhibition of work based on my year at the craft centre.  Its been great.  I did cheat slightly and included my 'lens' painting, even though it didn't strictly fit in,  but,  shhhh!! if you don't tell anyone,  then no one will ever know


This week is exciting as on Friday we have the private viewing of my student exhibition.  I am so proud of the work that has been produced in the last year and it will be amazing to see it all up.  The Students did a free workshop last week to talk about framing and to try cutting a mount themselves.  It was fun.  Most students of course then went and bought ready made mounts, as I think it showed them how hard it is to cut a really good mount and its nearly as cheap to buy one ready cut.  Work has been arriving all week and I have set Thursday aside to hang it all.  The exhibition will run for the whole of September and I hope it will be an inspiration to my new and prospective students.  I am so excited for them all, to see their work up and displayed for the very first time.

I would also like to thank everyone who has supported me in the last year.  Everyone from the  Folksy and Etsy forums and all my blog followers you are great,  your comments and advice have been invaluable and my cries for help always answered.  My students have also been loyal and very supportive.       Thanks x

16 comments:

  1. Congratulations Janice on the year round and in doing so well. You deserve it after all the hard work and having the courage to take the leap of faith.
    Well done.

    Linda

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    1. thankyou Lynda your support has been great though out the year with including my work on your blog x

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  2. Congratulations on all your successes, you've worked really hard for this so it's great to see it all working out for you. Good luck with the students exhibition, your students are so lucky to have you to learn from. Best of luck for the coming year too!

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    1. Thankyou Margaret, you have always been a great support x

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  3. Well done Janice, you are an inspiration to us all!

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  4. Wow, a whole year has gone! Well done Janice, so glad things are going so well, and I STILL wish I lived near enough to be in one of those classes.

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    1. Thanks Linda, You never know one day, you are doing so well with your own art development anyway, well done x

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  5. Well done Janice. It's tough out there, but you've kept with it. There's no better advice to an artist than not to make sales a priority over development – I definitely concur.

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  6. Congratulations on your first year Janice! It has been inspiring seeing what can be achieved in such a short time. Would love to see images of your exhibition, it must be so exciting for you, I'm sure it will be a hit. :)

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    1. Thanks Dawn, i have just put up pictures on the blog. but you can check out the student work on my website at www.wellydog.co.uk

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  7. Ah, well done! I'd love to visit your studio. I love all your signs:) It's been really interesting following your journey. I should comment more often, I know! Vic x

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    1. I didn't recognise you Vic you've changed your name, what happened to Careford creations??

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    2. Ha ha! I changed the blog and Folksy shop earlier this year but just changed my shop back again. I decided the blog could be different as it's not just for craft. Wanted a more exciting shop name but seeing as can't change Facebook, thought I'd better stick with Careford Creations!

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  8. Sounds like you are doing well, that is the trouble with teaching, it brings in good money, but then you have to balance it against loss of time to paint. I have found for the first time in 3 years numbers are down in my classes, but hopefully it is just a blip! Paul is right, times are tough out there, I feel like I am going into battle most days :-)The recession has to end sometime, right?!

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  9. I think starting out in a recession was a plus as I had nothing to go on from past experience so everything was a bonus and as I expected it to be bad, everything extra was a surprise.

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