The Fire is Warming

Summer is our slow season, but this year it's been an eventful and busy summer for us. We have completed several large stained glass windows and we've been on the road visiting galleries, art shows and artist workshops. June began with a trip to the Chapman Cultural Arts Center in Spartanburg, SC to attend Artist U. Thank you SC Arts Commission, we are grateful for the opportunity to learn about professional development strategies and how we can make our lives as artists successful.

Also, this summer we rolled out our brand new website. Amazingly, we were prepared for the process. Last fall and winter I spent a lot of time photographing and documenting our glass blowing sessions and studio work. I feel it is very important to document our life as artists. If you are an artist, personal photos of the process - you creating your work - will build interest in your final creations and give your collectors a personal connection to your work. Furthermore, it gives your customers a better understanding of what you do - a glimpse into your life. 

I organized hundreds of photos and several narratives - bits and pieces from the previous six months into categories; work in process, glass blowing demonstrations, stained glass windows, blown glass and studio renovations.  From there, adding content and photos to the website went pretty smooth. The big payoff is that we now have visual elements for future art show submissions, marketing and publicity opportunities.

 Posting photos to Facebook is a great way of collecting feedback from friends and followers - a virtual sounding board - for marketing and product development ideas. It can also give you a visual calendar of your studio work. We love our Facebook community and value their input! Each month we post photos of work to our Conway Glass Facebook Page - documenting the most notable and ordinary, the functional and dysfunctional.

Right now, BIG projects are looming on the horizon! Our studio and hot shop are under major renovations and the Conway Open Studio Project fires up October, 4th with the First Saturday Glass Blowing Demos.

"The Conway Open Studio Project is funded in part by the South Carolina Arts Commission which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts."