Fall Hikes, Fall Chores

One of my favourite trails
Mount Elphinstone, Roberts Creek, BC

After many months of preparation, the 2017 Sunshine Coast Art Crawl took place last weekend, and it was the best one yet! The only real glitch is that after investing in several thousand awesome fairy lights, for the first day the power was out the entire time! It was kind of fun, getting everyone to take out their cell phones and to use their flashlights. Still, I am sure that cut down on the sales for Friday a bit. Especially Friday and Sunday, but Saturday too, were all far busier than past years (which were already super busy!). Excellent!

It is now time to unwind. Today I went on a solo hike through one of my most loved trails, above Roberts Creek on Mount Elphinstone. It was delightful taking time to stroll, breath, let nature wash over me. Really nice!

I have also already started and made good progress revamping my website. First I had to clear out over a hundred sold items-- nothing like browsing on a website where it appears everything is sold! Now it is a much nicer experience. I changed pictures on the homepage. Polished some of the language. If you have time check it out: Coast Chimes.

Tiny Mushrooms, Mount Elphinstone Fall Hike

2017 Sunshine Coast Art Crawl Starts Tomorrow, October 20

The Sunshine Coast Art Crawl 2017 Starts Tomorrow
October 20- 22 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

The 2017 Sunshine Coast Art Crawl consist of 144 locations: the Sunshine Coast rich in talent! Although I've been making my creations for about 25 years, this will be just my 3rd year participating in the art crawl, as I did not have suitable studio space before moving to our new home.

The Art Crawl is a wonderfully exciting event to participate in, with an estimated 500 people visitings my studio last year. Despite a rather gloomy weather forecast, I hope for another fun weekend this year. I have improved lighting in my studio, so cloudy skies do not concern me as much as  they would have.

Hope to see you at Coast Chimes, 535 Woodland Avenue, Gibsons, BC (map below). 604-229-5560. Be sure to pick up the Art Crawl brochure-- there are no shortage of great places to visit!

Update, Sunshine Coast Art Crawl 2017, Coast Chimes

A busy weekend preparing for the
2017 Sunshine Coast Art Crawl
Oct. 20-22
535 Woodland Avenue
Gibsons BC
Gallery no. 9

A very busy, but rewarding, weekend preparing for the 2017 Sunshine Coast Art Crawl. I finally had some success solving my long time lighting issues. Number 1 was making quite cool perforated  sheet metal shades for the bare light bulbs. Those bare bulbs have annoyed me enormously, and I am very pleased to have resolved that issue. No. 2 is the fairy lights, a few of which you see in the image above. Previously I had used strip LED lighting, but was not at all satisfied with the look. These fairly lights are a lot more interesting. The only issue with them is that they are not quite bright enough to illuminate my glass from behind, but at least they give some idea of what the glass might look like in the sunlight, and they do not throw the colors as badly as the strip LED.

There are just 4 more days to finish preparations, and I have a lengthy list. It is going to all get done, but, as usual, just barely!

Looking enormously forward to the big weekend!

Sunshine Coast Art Crawl October 20 - 22 2017

Cedar Framed Indoor or Outdoor
Suncatcher by Coast Chimes

Preparing full speed ahead for the annual Sunshine Coast Art Crawl, this year happening October 20-22. 144 artists from Langdale to Powell River take part in the awesome, fun event. This is a free event, your chance to check out all the many talented Coast artists, and their studio / galleries.

I have personally been working since the end of April preparing for the Art Crawl, knowing that if past years hold true I can possibly have over 500 visitors. Just finishing making the final works (see picture above), and about to start the massive annual clean up of my workshop, to double the display area of my home gallery.

Almost every item I have for the Art Crawl is available for pre-viewing on my website: Coast Chimes. currently over 190 large wind chimes, smaller chimes, and suncatchers. All the prices on Coast Chimes and Etsy are in US dollars, but when you come and shop in person, you get charged in Canadian dollars, saving a fair amount (ie, if the website says $50 US, you get charge $50 CA when you visit in person).

I look very forward to seeing many people at the Sunshine Coast Art Crawl!

Outdoor Natural Beach Stone Wind Chime, Copper Wind Chime

Natural Pacific Beach Stone Wind Chime
Five Copper Chimes
Beach Stone Clapper
$175 at Coast Chimes

This has been an extremely busy past few weeks, as I work hard preparing for the annual Sunshine Coast Art Crawl (October 20-22, 2017). This will be my 3rd year participating, and if past years hold true, I can expect north of 500 visitors to my studio gallery. It is very enjoyable to see people meeting my wind chimes and suncatchers face-to-face (face-to-chime?), as they typically seem to love what I do.

As I make extra stock for the art crawl, I also photograph most of it, and place them on my website (Coast Chimes), and in my Etsy Shop.

This means I will hopefully be in good shape for the Christmas rush, too, which will allow for more time to promote on line (blog, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.). The only trick is to remember to photograph each item that sells during the art crawl, so I can remove it from my online sites. I really try hard to keep things accurate, because I know how frustrating it is to invest time choosing something online, only to be told it is no longer available. Not good!

Modern Suncatcher: Artist-made Sea Glass with Driftwood

Framed Artist-made Sea Glass with Natural Driftwood
Coast Chimes

I love this framed glass piece. It took me a long time to find just the right piece of driftwood wood, but it all came together very nicely in the end.

Almost all of the works in my studio gallery are photographed and available on my website, and Etsy, but a few I hold back, including this one. I am reserving some of these for the fast approaching Sunshine Coast Art Crawl 2017, October 20-22. A few others are just too big to ship. A few are just not ready for me to say goodbye to yet.

If this framed piece does not sell during the Art Crawl, I will probably put it on my websites, and say goodbye to it pretty fast, especially with the Christmas rush soon to start, the busiest time of year.

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