O.K. So, I haven’t posted recently. Forgive Me. After all, Jim survived a BAD VIRUS – not the H1N1!. However. Just as bad for him, as it gave him vertigo. Yes. Already he has bad balance due to P.D., and then he was struck with a virus in his inner ear.

Well, all is well that ends well.After 6 weeks of staying at home to protect him and others (and me) we are out and about. He is driving again, I am (somewhat) relaxed, and life is almost back to P.D normal around the Foley household.

Big news: I  hired a web designer to re-do my website!! I am so excited,and will keep you informed as progress is made. Meanwhile, check out my new web designer here: jR customization

I’ve been filling orders, getting ready for a Thanksgiving show (Fredericksburg), and keeping up with the stock for my two galleries. (I couldn’t get this posted – however, maybe today it will work. We did go to Fredericksburg, and in spite of rather slow traffic had a nice show.)

Also, (I will blog about this later) we drove down to Houston to a special Bayou City Art Festival jury preview. We looked at 1300 entry (I am not kidding) slides from artists who applied to the spring Bayou City show. What an education!!

So, my slides, well, to put it mildly, sucked. Sorry. I did not know.

And now I do.

Better luck to me next time. I will upgrade my photos, including my booth shot. Live and learn.

So, for now, a little bit of what I have been up to between the virus and the bad slides.

Rejection Equals Determination, Part Two;

I’ve been having a difficult time getting accepted into the very best shows. I’m STILL having trouble getting into the shows I want. It’s especially frustrating, because once I do get into shows, more often than not I win prizes, such as Best of Category, or Judges Choice, whatever. So I know from my sales, and from the awards I win that my work is good.

So, what’s with the rejections? I found out one answer yesterday — my jury slides.

Bayou City Art Festival, held in Houston twice a year is one of the top rated art festivals in the U.S. I have been in that show eight times. Then, suddenly, I was not juried into either of the Bayou shows for 2009, neither spring or fall. Why not? I couldn’t figure it out. So when the show staff invited artists to attend an informal jury preview, I jumped at the chance. Jim and I drove down to Houston and along with the other artists who showed up , looked at the digital slides of over 1300 artists who applied for one of the 300 booth spaces.

My slides looked AWFUL when projected side by side in large format. They were washed out, didn’t seem perfectly focused, and the flow from slide to slide was not good. Also, the slide of my booth, which I hadn’t paid much attention to, looked awful as well. Everything looked especially bad compared to the other 250+ jewelry entries. No wonder I haven’t been getting accepted. I need better photos.

Another thing I noticed was the fact that most of the artwork was photographed on a full black background. Sometimes a gradient gray to black was used, but generally black was the background of choice. My pieces were on a white to gray scale background, and they didn’t “pop” like the other work did. They suffered in comparison.

So, it’s back to the photography workshop for me. Since I realize the importance of a good booth shot, I’ll redo that too. No more show entries until I get this problem solved. I’m determined.

Today I took a quick “re-do” photo of one of my pieces, previously photographed on white.
Here’s the comparison.

What do you think?
Does the black background work to make the jewelry pop out?

A lovely drive home from Fredericksburg today. The weather this time of year in Texas is so nice. The colors of the trees and fields are nothing like the show stopping colors of the NE (I lived in Maine for a while) – but, still, we get our little bit of splendor. The Art Festival was fun. We saw some familiar faces and customers, and met some new ones who went away happily wearing Lyn Foley creations. Now in just a few days we’ll be setting up for our show at The Gallery at Round Top. I’m planning to squeeze in some torch time before then. Lots of bead ideas popped up while I was driving today, and looking at the scenery.

I’m also working on those perfect photos I need for my Zapplication slides. Here’s a new necklace I’ve made for the process. Better photo, but not in focus at 48″ x 48″. Got to keep working on it.

My new improved website is still behind the scenes. Jerry is doing a great job – and we’ll be having an unveiling soon. Off to unpack now, and take care of after a show paperwork. And maybe kick back for the rest of today.