True Tales from CHA!

Stitch and Bitch Party in Vickie Howell's room at CHA! (Pic courtesy of Vickie's blog!)

I got back from LA early this morning and we pulled into our driveway at about 3am. CHA was a great experience, and the fact that I could barely get from one event to the next without being stopped by folks wanting to talk with me made me feel like I’m actually building a name in my industry (which is after many years of hard work a very good feeling.) My first day started out rather horridly. My class attendance was smallish and there were some issues with the materials that I had to sidestep with a lot of diplomacy, which made me grateful for the small and understanding class! I arrived at my first book signing to find that we didn’t have books to sign; in fact I had three book signings without books. I went on from there to refer to them as ‘not book’ signings! Yes, it was interesting to say the least! I was more than a little thrown off my game by these concurrent events so I made a decision to go back to my hotel room, take a breather, regroup, reach down deep inside gather my Super Girlie Good Power™ before returning to the show to kick some arse and take some names-which is what I then proceeded to do. Sometimes you have to get a do-over on things to get it right.

I had a wonderful time seeing friends and colleagues at the show. Lots of evenings spent with folks with whom I rarely get to catch up. I also met some wonderful online friends, I can officially call 3-D friends. It’s such a positive industry because we’re all about creativity. Going to this show is an affirmation that I’m doing something worthwhile and it’s beginning to resonate. I needed that. Sometimes you lose perspective when you’re holed up in your studio for weeks on end in dorky striped fleece pants and ink splattered sweatshirts.

The best experiences that I had were teaching one on one with folks who either never made jewelry before or didn’t know some of the basic info you need to get it right and not have disappointing results. Although I’m impatient with myself I am incredibly patient when teaching others, I’m so driven to help people learn the right way to make jewelry that I spent a half an hour with each group making sure that by the time they finished turning 12 head pins and opening and closing 12 jump rings to make a swingy pair of earrings, they had these two basic and important skills down. I made them do it over until I knew they got it and although they worked pretty damn hard for their free earrings, everyone of them was so excited when they left! It’s my mission to make sure folks get good solid basics instructions. There are tons and tons of folks out there who’ve gotten bad information and have therefore been frustrated with jewelry making.

Unfortunately I didn’t have time to really walk the floor and explore new products. I did spend a few minutes with the brilliant Judi Watanabe of JudiKins and she’s got some amazing new items for mixed media jewelry folks. She has a powdered resin you can bake in the toaster oven and a new UV Ray cured resin that dries crystal clear under a UV light. I’m looking forward to playing with these new mediums and seeing what I can come up with. Iliana from Blue Moon Beads took me on a tour of their newest lines, and there were some awesome vintage inspired jewelry making items you’re really going to love when they reach the market.

I found out while I was at the show that both of my new books have been picked up by Michaels! That’s really fabulous news. I’m hopeful it will mean some decent royalties. I’ve had three books there for the past year, but I have no idea how they’re selling. It takes forever for royalties to start rolling in, but it’s a good feeling when they do! I’m hoping that the connections I made serendipitously at the show (and there were many) will result in some exciting new directions for my work. I also had 50 fabulous new Press Kits designed by my uber talented mother on disc that hopefully will generate some new leads. One never knows. You certainly can’t say I don’t approach it all with style, moxie and chutzpah to spare!

I didn’t have anyone to take pics of me; so I’m waiting for friends to email me some. I managed to lose my cell phone right before leaving LA yesterday, duh. Luckily we have a spare and our cell company is sending a new SIM card for free. Phew. I’m recovering from my travels and from a bit of bad news I got this morning, but I’m not letting it get me too far down. It’s just a little nudge from the universe to trust my instincts and be willing to take risks. It’s time for me to start in a new direction and I’ve got some cool new ideas brewing. We’ll see what ferments!

I’ll hopefully have some more pics to share later!

Cheers,
Madge