NET NEUTRALITY NO MORE? ONLY 2 DAYS LEFT TO SPEAK OUT!

First we had to deal with the "Orphaned Works Act" which steals the ownership of artists' work by stripping away the right to automatic copyright by creation/..publishing, forcing artists to either pay prohibitively enormous amounts of money to own the rights to their own work,

then the incredibly damaging "Consumer Product Safety Information Act" of last year, the vagueness of which makes it virtually impossible to buy anything except mass-produced garbage sold by the same gigantic corporations that sat in to "help draft" the bill,

and recently, the battle to put the few remaining small/sustainable/organic farms out of business so that we are forced to eat and drink the poisonous, non-nutritive crap that factory farms spew out,

(and don't even get me started on the seed industry, our total refusal to even start seriously considering alternative energy, or the uselessness of the FDA & AMA over their decades-long attacks on natural medicine and chiropractic/holistic healing, all to put more money in their pockets instead of healing people (but they will approve poison that can kill you, and feel as long as they add that microscopic disclaimer in there, it's ok).

Now our use of the internet will come under corporate control and influence as well (yes, more than it is now, and yes, you do pay for it and should have a say):

The FCC is rewriting the Net Neutrality law, which up until now, provides a built-in safeguard against corporations ( or anyone, for that matter) to tell you what to view, read or listen to, or influence it in any way. The changes will effectively leave us with the internet equivalent of "network TV' with all its pre-programmed material, brain-numbing (by design) whitewashed schlock and whatever else the sponsors want you to see (or not see), even down to what is or is not considered 'news'--all so a few behemoth-sized companies can make even more money at our expense.

Go here:
SAVE THE INTERNET NOW

and start yelling--the deadline for public input is Jan14--TWO DAYS away.

This mess was hidden from the public just like the CPSIA which didn't become well-known until people on the internet caught wind of it and spread the word, months after the original draft was written up, and it almost made it through unaltered.
Nothing less then a FLOOD of calls, e-mails and letters from concerned small businesses (just like many of ours right here) telling their legislators that the bill would literally put them out of business and cause even more unemployment as it stood. It got them to take a closer look at the bill and get a few crucial things amended.

Check it out, and remember that if we can't stop a 'Soylent green' scenario, we can at least postpone it for a while.

"As Per Your Contract", or..."The Little Dictator"

Ok, I promised in the beginning there would be the occasional rant here, and it's been a while but this one really merits writing about. Hopefully, it will make those who do craft shows pay more attention and be somewhat selective in their choice of venue.
I've been doing all kinds of shows for years: craft shows, art shows, flea markets, antiques fairs, etc etc, and like anything else, there are good ones and crappy ones. The things that distinguish one kind from another is the way your entry fee is spent (or not).

I did everything from tiny little school & church ones to giant street fairs and since the fees keep going up at all of these things, have whittled it down to only the ones that are worth it.

Anyway, I did one this past weekend that was new to me, but I knew the place had been around for a long time, so figured give it a shot. It was at St.Philip's school in Clifton, NJ, and I shared the spot with my friend Claire. It was $40, which to me is pretty high for a school show, but often this indicates an established show with a good return for the $$.

Well, usually yes, but not this time.

1. First off, we requested a wall with electricity since it's Christmastime and we needed lights. The contract came and confirmed we had a wall with electricity.

-We got there and the woman running the thing told us to go to 'table 27' which was smack in the middle of the room, no wall anywhere, no electricity. Claire told her what was on the confirmation, and she said "Well, if you don't want that space, you can go in the hall."

Oh, REALLY? You have our money and now you're playing the 'And what are you going to do about it' game? Oh my.

Now, anyone who's ever done any of these shows knows that 'the hall' is basically Purgatory; it's where customers 'might' go if they have any money left after shopping the main room, and if even then, they'd have to know that there's a hall to begin with. You end up there if you send in your money at the last minute, which we didn't.

2. The contract also said that vendors "will be asked to remove commercially made merchandise".

-There were 5 or 6 other jewelry makers besides me, and 3 of them had at least half commerically-made stuff (yes I can tell), and one vendor's merchandise was 100% out of Fire Mountain's wholesale jewelry/gift catalogue. I guess since he bought 2 spaces, that was ok with them. Had I known, I would have brought half of my vintage shop and passed it off as 'made by someone a long time ago'.
There was also a vendor with a huge display of Christmas ornaments, most of which were made by 'someone' (probably them), but other things were machine made and right out of a gift catalogue. Nothing was done about any of this.

This is one thing that makers of any kind of craft/art have been griping about for years. It devalues the honest vendors' merchandise because people coming to a craft show want handmade, and they often can't tell what's what, if some vendors are selling things made by a 6 year old slave worker in some obscure village somewhere, and passing it off as their own work. Plus, you're supporting the very thing that today's handmade vendors are supposed to be uniting against: mass-produced, low-quality crap that profits only Big Business and exploits the poor and their children.
The customers trust us to be legit, and venues that allow mass-produced crap are making us all look like liars.

They all say 'no commercial merchandise', but they all don't enforce it, including this place. I am so sick of being told my things have to be handmade (which they always are), and then find that I'm set up next to Beanie Babies, Made-in-Somewhere cheap clothing, or fibre optic rose bouquets. It is fraud on the part of the venue, and is legitimate grounds for a refund, but try to get one without a lawyer and see what happens. Maybe we should start paying for our spaces with Monopoly money, and see how they react. ('Hey, it looks like real money, kind of, so what's the big deal?')

3-Contract Says: "vendor must not sell food of any kind".Right across from us was a table with nothing but chocolate-covered popcorn, Pringles, fruit, etc--all food.

And my favorite (it's a double, folks):

(a)Vendor "must stay for the entire show 9am-4pm or you will not be sent a contract for future craft fairs."

AND: (b)"St.Philip's PROMISES EXTENSIVE PUBLICITY"

The place was a desert, complete with tumbleweeds, and you know why? Not one single ad, flier, sign, nothing anywhere except one right in front of the building, in which case you'd have to be going down that specific street to even know the thing was happening. Even if you saw that one sign and had the time and money to stop in, you'd not know where to park or enter. There was a tiny paper sign on two doors telling you not to enter through them, and then finally you found the main door if you poked around a bit. It was like paying hide-and-seek, with a big fat 'HaHa we got your money!' on top.
Promotion is what we are paying for, and didn't get it.
We (vendors) provide the merchandise, the venue provides a space and promotion. There is way more than enough places that offer free 'community service' ad space, both online and in the 'real world' that there is NO excuse for taking vendors' money and then not doing anything for them.

So we paid $40 for this waste of time, and took in $35 between the two of us. And no, it's not that our merchandise is crap; it's not. We're both seasoned at making and selling lots of things, and price more than fairly. I can tell you personally, I've made 10 times my space fee at tons of other shows, so that's not it. No one 'made' money. The only people who were actually shopping were the other vendors and they only buy once they make some money themselves. People were talking all day about this fiasco, and how the 'Little Dictator' and Co. basically ripped us all off and laughed about it.

So now the Longest Day in History was winding down, and a lot of us started packing up at around 3:30. The show ended at 4. As soon as the woman who told us to go into the hall saw this (The L.D.), she bellowed into the microphone with the voice and attitude of a mother who's got no control over her children, "vendors are to stay until the end of the show, as per your contracts, and if you leave before then, you'll not get a contract next year."

WHAT?!?!??
You violate YOUR OWN contract, lied, cost all of us money and time (which=money), and now are pulling rank with the same contract you basically blew your nose on?

Well, that was it. Artsy/craftsy folks are by nature, a pretty mellow bunch, but this was too much. The noise level rose in the room for the first time all day, and we were glad we weren't the only ones who thought this was a great big scam.

First off, who would WANT a contract for next year??? Besides, no one was going to leave before 4; it takes time to pack a thousand things up (since nothing sold) and we'd be able to actually LEAVE at 4, and not have to hang around and watch her count the money for the school's new whatever they were raising funds for. It would have been easier to just go to our homes and ask for money for whatever it was they needed, instead of making people schlep their stuff from wherever they are, to sit there and vegetate.
Also, it had been snowing nonstop since about noon, so that was another reason to get out of there ASAP, especially since no one was going to come to a show that no one knew about to begin with.
I make good products, I am honest and a professional. I play by the Rules. I expect every venue to play by them as well, especially when it's THEIR rules.

So in closing, I say this once again:

-If you're doing any kind of show, large or small, ask questions, as many as you need to feel comfortable before writing that check out.

-Ask around if anyone you know has shopped at or sold at a show you're thinking of doing.

-Remember, more expensive is not always an indicator of quality. (This goes for anything)

-Check out Craftlister's database, called 'Eventlister', which gives you information on all kinds of shows and what they cost, venue info, attendance, etc. They also ask vendors to leave reviews of shows they've done, so people new to the show can get an idea of what to expect first-hand from a vendor's perspective. Am I going over there to review this one? Youbetcha.
Here's a link to Craftlister; you can sign up for their weekly mailer and get show info right in your inbox:
CRAFTLISTER


That's all for now. Have a wonderful and prosperous holiday season!

"Blonde Senior Moments"

(I'm going off track a bit here from the art/craft thing, but it's sometimes good to know that you're not the only one who can do something incredibly dumb or embarassing. So I offer up this little tale as a public service to those suffering from age-related foot-in-mouth disorder.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ok, so I'm not exactly 'senior' and while my hair may be 3 or 4 different colors, blonde isn't one of them. But, the 'moments' are.
I'm sort of watching this aging thing happen from the sidelines as if it's not happening to me, but to someone who looks and sounds like me. The reason for this could be one of two things: denial, or the more interesting choice: the soul watching the body. Yes, that one fits better, I think. I'm much too realistic to be in THAT much denial :-)

I always tell young people, especially the ones who think 'old people' (as in over 30) are from another solar system, "Just wait, you'll find out that no matter how old you get, you're still you. You're the same person with one exception: random body parts start hurting for absolutely no reason and it's very confusing."

I can look at anyone, no matter their age and regress them in my head. They're 70, then 40, then 20, then 12. It's something I learned to occupy myself with while on buses when I was a kid because where I lived, if you looked at someone in what they thought was the 'wrong way' you could get beat up or worse.

So I concentrated on the old folks and it worked.

Anyway, what brought all this about is something that happened the other day. I sort of take pride in the fact that there are very few times I've really put my foot in my mouth and it hasn't happened in years, until this past Thursday.

There's a great Italian deli right around the corner and I go there a couple of times a week to reinforce my 'roots'. This place is the real deal, just like the markets my grandmother brought me to when we lived in Jersey, where the owners thought I was 'too skinny' and wanted to fatten me up.

By the time I was 12, I must have eaten thousands of dollars (by today's $20 per pound standards) worth of prosciutto, roasted chick peas ('cheechee beans') and pepperoni. The owner would hand me a huge chunk of meat or cheese, or bag of chick peas and while he and Gram were chatting, I'd walk around eating and staring at the piles of homemade pasta in wooden boxes, barrels of dried beans and that strange board-like stuff called baccala.

The deli here is kind of like that: hard cheeses in ropes hanging from the ceiling, every type of salami one could ever imagine, lots of different olive oils and vinegars, fresh pasta and mozzarella made in the store, anchovies in bulk, an amazing bakery area (the real thing, not the crap you see in supermarkets), 10 kinds of espresso, loads of olives, hot pickled peppers and those weird, greyish-tan cherries in a jar that have been sitting in brandy since Mussolini was in power. About 80% of the packages are printed in Italian--this is the good stuff.

The shop is run by a bunch of guys, all 'familia' (of course), and they remember what each customer likes, who wants their sopressata cut on an angle, who doesn't want seeds on their bread and if you get there at the right time, you can taste things the second they come out of the kitchen--you get the idea.

Joe is the boss, a real nice guy; a rugged looking, sturdy, grey haired man with a gravelly voice and thick accent. I'd guess he's in his early/mid-60s or so. His is the classic New York immigrant story: born in Italy, came over as a kid, worked his butt off his entire life and will never retire because working is just 'what you do'.

So I went in there on Thursday and as usual he asked about my mother, work, whatever and we drifted into a discussion about the current situation here and in the world in general. He said even with all the nutty things that go on here in the U.S., it's still THE place to be, and he beamed with pride while talking about being a citizen. It was nice to see.

He then told me about a time when he was in the service and got stuck in France overnight, then stuck in Germany (some kind of red tape problem), and I blurted out:
"When was this Joe, World War 2?"

This no sooner came out of my mouth than my foot was firmly implanted in it. In a nanosecond I saw his face, heard my words, my brain rewound and I felt like the biggest idiot on the planet. The man is maybe only 10 or 15 years older than me! My father was in WWII and if he was still alive he'd be 94 years old, so it's not hard to figure out.

Thing is, since I don't 'feel' like I'm 51, I responded like I wasn't. He was the 'older person', not me.

So I had one of my first Blonde Senior Moments--God forbid it continues; I'll go live in a cave to spare people from dealing with it, and me.

Poor Joe. Of course, he was polite and said 'nahh, it was way after that' and laughed. That's how these people are: gracious, friendly and everybody's like 'familia'. They yell sometimes, but it's more of a way of communicating rather than out of anger. You have a problem, it ends, you laugh, and then you eat.

Ciao.

2nd Attempt, Locked in, All Systems Go

Ok, so here we go again. I WILL keep this thing up from now on.
This is what's planned so far:

-Interviews with my (and soon, your) favorite artists/craftspeople.
-Reviews of great stuff found online.
-Reports on shows, fairs and other events.
-New work and W.I.P.
-Creative riting as the urge hits me.
-Opinions, often on the curmudgeon-y side. Very often, actually.
-Etsy news from the Artsfarm shop.
and today's topic:
"Thanks to the nice people who have featured Artsfarm on their blogs"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Below are some of the blogs that have featured Artsfarm lately. Many thanks to them all, I really appreiate it!

An interview I did back in May by the EtsyVintage Street Team
A Chat with Artsfarmstudios

VINTAGE INDIE (Artsfarm received the first-ever VintagePulse 'Peer Award'!)

JODISCRAFTEMPORIUM (Rose quartz heart necklace, black velvet bag)

SUNSHINE CITY LASSIE (Vintage buttons)

JUST MY CUP OF TEA (Vintage Trifari brooch)

DAILY OUTFITTING (Smoky Quartz Earrings)

THE VINTAGE ZOO (Vintage Lace Doilies Used in Darla's New Scarf)

FASHION ME FABULOUS (Glass Fruit Bracelet)

PESKY CAT DESIGNS (Vintage Vegetable Ivory Buttons)

THEN & NOW (A gallery of various artisans' work, then...and now)

SNICKER-SNACK (Vintage sellers with 'alter-egos')

PAST PRESENTS SHOP (Vintage teacup/saucer set)

INDIE GALS (Aventurine Leaf Necklace)

I think that's it, but if I find any others, I'll be sure to add them to the list.

Launching...

Well, hello.

I've been putting off starting this thing because there are so many ways to start, so many directions to go in that it makes my brain hurt. So the solution seems to be to just let it rip and see what happens. Hopefully, it will take its own care & feeding upon itself at some point, and I'll not have to deal with the 'blank white page' issue so often. The really cool thing is there is no right or wrong because, well...it's my blog he heh.

I guess I'll start at the top, literally. The title of this was originally going to be "The Starving Artist, Daily Curmudgeon, Indigo Blues from the Chrysalis". I like the rhythm of it, it has meaning and encompasses pretty much everything that I think, feel and do. (Why this is all relevant will come to light at some point--stay tuned) But there already is a blog called "The Daily Curmudgeon" (how dare they!). Plus, if I did leave it at the original version it is a bit long for practical purposes. So we'll stick with the abbreviated one.

As for the rest, I am a 'starving artist'. Not literally "starving" (I am Italian, after all), but I'm smart enough to know that as an artist I'm nowhere close to where I should be, and recognize that sacrifices have to be made to get there. This is not uncommon; if anyone ever thinks they've learned and done all there is to know and do, they're lying to themselves. I've come to the realization that I cannot (not 'won't, but really 'can't') make a living or spend the majority of my time doing something that isn't a creative expression of some kind.

Unfortunately, society as a whole hasn't caught up with that reality, and it can knock our kind around quite a bit. (More on that later--have I got some stories on 'bucking the system' and all that entails) I will however, go without all the trappings of a normal American lifestyle as a welcome tradeoff to working at what I love, and must do. You have to make a choice and figure out if you really need the little 'luxuries' that everyone seems to think are necessary. I don't, and this is a good thing. It's not hard, really, and makes for a reasonable facsimile of 'contentment' for what it's worth.

"From the Chrysalis" is the title of a poem that I wrote when I was 17 and is another thing that will come up at some point here, at another time."Indigo Blues" is the working title of a book of poetry and drawings that has been in the queue for quite a while which I hope to get it into tangible form very soon. Indigo, yes :-)

All I'll say about that right now is to direct you to these two sites:
http://indigolifecenter.wordpress.com/
http://metagifted.org/

Great organizations, great people. Check 'em out; it may save you a lot of grief.



"But artsfarm, what is the purpose of all this anyway, and why should we even read this drivel of yours?"

Well, several reasons, Bunky.

Basically, I've seen a lot and have way too much stored in this head of mine that needs somewhere to go. I like to talk, and to write. I figure if any of it can help someone along the way, all the better. It's always easier to deal with something if we know someone else has been through it. If we have to go through crap in our lives, it may as well have some value, even if not to us directly ('waste not, want not' and all that).

One thing that I hope to address is kids, young and old, who are artists and/or indigos. Being either type is hard enough, but being both and surviving takes some major work. The indigo thing is touched on above, so we'll elaborate on that later. But first-art, or rather, 'the arts'--music, writing, and all the rest, as well as the more traditional aspects like drawing, painting, etc.

There is an overwhelming number of folks who think they don't have any artistic ability at all, and the problem is that virtually everyone does, but have been 'trained' to believe otherwise by parents, siblings, teachers etc. That is a crime, plain & simple, and if I can get through to even one person the FACT that we all have innate creativity that just needs to be recognized and developed, then I've done my job.

This blog is just one of several self-indulgent ways to fix my own stuff so I can move on. So we're in this together, kids.


So that's all for now; I have to get some work done here, and will be back to continue this strange ride as soon as I can.

See ya!
-artsfarm.

*Now playing: "Easter" by Patti Smith. Get it NOW.