"You have to make a lot of stuff."This is part of the sermon on building fluency with the materials, finding your voice, yadda yadda yadda.
Well, I practice what I preach, and I've got a whole lot of stuff. Yesterday I started looking through several boxes of samples for classes I don't expect to teach again. I need to clear some things out to make room for more samples for classes I am teaching now and ones I'm developing for the future.
What to do with all this stuff? I have plenty of other samples that more than adequately illustrate possibilities and the evolution of ideas. I don't need to keep all of this. So I started sorting it into piles.
Gifts. There are a few things I know I can give as gifts soon enough that I'll actually remember I have them stashed away to give as gifts. This wasn't a huge pile, though, because I enjoy making gifts that are really personalized.
Donations. Maybe I'm naive on this point, but I want donations to represent current work or new ideas I'm exploring. Still, I found something to donate to an event next year. It will be part of the award given for an exhibit piece made with recycled materials. Must remember what I'm donating and where I'm stashing it.
Recycle. I found a few pieces I could recycle into something for a gift or harvest for materials.
Archive. There are pieces I want to hold onto just the way they are. Some may inspire future efforts. Some will remind me not to waste more time on that idea.
That left me with a large pile of stuff I don't want to keep, give, recycle or archive. And a dilemma. This stuff doesn't represent the work I do now. But it represents hundreds of hours of time. I have no desire to go to the work of photographing it, writing descriptions, pricing it, and trying to sell it online. But it represents hundreds of hours of time. I don't want to sell it at a garage sale or donate it to a thrift shop. Did I mention it represents hundreds of hours of time?
So I slept on it last night and here's what I decided. I'm packing it up and taking it with me to a gathering at the Amana Colonies in Iowa later this month. The friend who organizes the Festival of American Basketry at Amana is hosting an event that will include demonstrations and sales to the public as well as time to share and connect among participants. I always love going to Amana, and I love this group of people. They'll understand what I'm about to do.
I'm not going to package or tag stuff (there's at least 5 hours saved). I'm going to put it on a table with a sign that says, "Pay what it's worth to you."
I don't think this will have a negative impact other people's sales at the event. In the unlikely event that there's someone selling things very similar to mine, I'll remove mine until theirs are sold. And if there's anyone at all who's uncomfortable with this scheme, I'll remove it all and just demonstrate and sell books like I planned.
But if it works, some of this stuff will have new homes by the end of the month, I'll have freed up some real estate in the studio, and maybe, just maybe, I'll have some income in a month with no teaching gigs scheduled.
What do you think. Am I nuts?
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