Thank you!!

Well, competition is finally over, thank you so much for all your love and support. We conquered the 14th place out of close to 1,000 nominees. The official number numbers are not yet on the American Made website, but the last time I looked I had 12,140 votes. That number still amazed me, thank you so much for helping me. I am a very blessed girl with many true and loyal friends, I am a winner after all!!!

Monica

10,295 votes and 4 more days to go!!!

With 10,265 votes we are ready for the 4 days left of the competition. We are number 14 from 1,000 competitors in the craft category from all the USA. The competition was open to everybody from the beginning, which means that small artist like me will be competing with big business. One, for example had 35K Likes in her FB page, before the competition started. Its kind of crazy even dreaming to compete with that, and however here we are #14. She is currently #3. Another good example is #7, she is a jeweler and her work had been selected to be display on one of the characters of Vampire Diaries Show, also her jewelry has been part of the gifts for celebrities in the Golden Globes Awards, Emmy Awards, etc. Number 9 is a well renowned basketry artist, she teaches as numerous workshops all over the US. Of of her baskets is right now property of the Smithsonian Museum. Numbers 10 to 15 are small artist like me. You can find here, soap makers, bags makers, painters,illustrators and a potter and glass artist: Me. I know it has been hard and tedious voting everyday,and the the website has been itself sometimes impossible to work with. But we have come so far, I really think that among all the top 20 I am the smallest, the one nobody will have bet on it...and here we are #14, so please, please vote again for 4 more days, share it with your friends, we can finish it in 10 place, Martha Steward and her team will have proof of what can truly and loyal friendship can achieve, making the impossible possible. I am just a girl from Lima with no connections no budget to give presents in exchange of votes (except for my mom's alfajores), no studio, no wheel... I may be just a huge dreamer who look for opportunities and hope for the best every time. Thank you for being there with me, supporting me. I don't have many things, but I do have friends, exceptionally good and amazing friends!!! Let's keep voting. To be in the top 10 is possible. Si se puede, si se puede!!! Gracias!!

http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557

7,503 votes and Only 9 more days left!!!

I don't know how many more votes I will be able to reach, and everything ends on September 22nd. Right now I am in the number 16 out of 1000 people. Amazing, isn't it?? I really, really want to get into the finals, finalist will be interview in Martha Stewart Living Magazine, and that will give so much exposure, it will really help me to start the foundation of a real business. But the competition is soooo hard!!! Right now the number 3 has 28,745 votes, how can she got all those votes??? oh, yes perhaps because she has 35K fans in her FB page! My God, this is an insane competition, why would someone like me would dare to compete with such big nominees, oh yes, I remember, because I am a dreamer! I always do that, I must be a very, very crazy girl. I don't know how many will pass to the finals, I don't quite understand if it is 6 per category, or 6 total, one per each category!

Oh, but there is hope, just the hope that someone from Martha's team would look at my artwork and decided to fallow my projects, and then maybe one day, they will need some pots for an article in the magazine and they will think: I know someone whose pieces will work perfect here....ahhh, dreams!!! What do we do for our dreams? Everything !!!

So in case you don't know much about this, just go to the link below, register and vote for me, you can vote up to 6 continuous times every 24 hours. Thank you!!

http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557

5,063 votes!!!

Yes, we have made 5,063 votes yahooo!!! I am so happy and so excited! When the competition started I though that 5,000 will be all that I will need to get into the finals, I read an article about another nominee who had that and pass into the finals, but lately I also discover that last year there were a total of 1,000 nominees, this year there are 1,000 only in my category!! This is a very stressful competition, and it is only online, I can not imagine how it would be to be a politician, fighting and begging for votes. I guess that is why they have a big campaign team, a marketing team and so on. I am doing it by myself, at home in my computer.

However, I have a huge support system, I have family and I have amazing friends, I don't have a big fan base in my FB page, because I don't have a big business, I haven't being doing for many years, I don't even have a studio. All I do has been made in the city community studio and in the little room of my house, I call it the "room of requirements" I only wish it work the same way that in the Harry Potter's books.

I am in this competition because I want a studio, I want a wheel and some tools, I am so small that I can not think of getting my business bigger I am in the getting a business stage. However, even when I am that small I am leading (at this moment, things change so fast with online voting) the Florida nominees, yupi!!! I am still processing that,that will put me in the number 20, I am 20 among 1000!!!!

Few days after the competition started, I took the time to look to all the nominees in the craft category, there were close to 1000, perhaps 998 or something like that, and I was the number 54, a week later I look again to all those 55 again and I was the number 24. I didn't look to all of them, because there was a big gap between them and the rest, so my thinking is that they will keep running behind, I can be wrong, of course. But it is so tedious to look to all the pages, that I am just concentrating on those 55.

I have noticed that even when there are some who keep increasing the votes (the leaders) most of the people with big number are now decreasing, and I think is because even when you have a big group of fans at the beginning what you need is a loyal and constant group who vote everyday, and that is what i have, very, very loyal and caring friends, there are not hundreds, but they made their voice heard, and it is show on the constant number of votes I have every day. They are truly amazing friends!!!

I have to say that if I want to win the competition I need more people, and that its very difficult, I need people who can sit in front of the computer every day and vote, and that's a lot. I think that in order to do that I have to increase my number of fans, so my page can be show in more Facebook's news feed. But how to do that??? I really need some marketing lessons.

Anyway, if you, whoever you are, wherever you be wants to contribute with the edification of my studio please go to the link below, register and vote. You can vote up to 6 times every 24 hours until September 22nd. Thank you!!

http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557

You can also go to my FB page and click on LIKE, that way it will help me to get to more people

https://www.facebook.com/BarroyArena

Thank you for all the help!!

Monica

Almost 4,000 votes !!

Yes!  We are almost in 4,000 votes in the American Made contests sponsored by Martha Stewart. As I told you before, there are 5 categories and I am in the one named "craft" there are almost 1,000 participants and some of them are running again for the second time. It is a hard competition, a couple of them already have 16,000 votes, but there are many who will pass to the finals. For what I have read, last year were 1,000 nominees and 1000 pass to the finals, I guess that if only in the craft category are 1,000 more than a hundred will pass to the finals, so I still have a chance.

Maybe you have been wondering why I am putting myself into this stressful competition, and the answer is easy, to have more exposure, to increase my fans and to have money, of course, the prize is 10,000 dollars!! With that money I will be able to build my dream studio in the garden.

I have been collecting photos in my Pinterest account, and there is one that I really want. One surrounding by flowers, with big windows, and since it is in the garden it will allow me to go back and forth to my house in no time :). In the studio i will have shelves and a potter's wheel, that will be great since I only can use it while in the studio. If you are a potter or have you tried one you will know that there are good days, when everything runs smoothly, those day I would have been able to make more than 4 mugs or bowls, but there is no time for more. And there are the other kind of days, when nothing works, everything I tried on the wheel collapsed, too much water, to fast building the walls, bubbles... argghhh! everything that you can imagined happen, those are horrible days. Wouldn't it be nice to avoid those days and just work more hours on the good ones? With a wheel in my house I will be able to do just that :)

Here is the studio I want, you can look at more images in my pinterest board, or here

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/an-urban-chicken-coop-turned-c-134711

Don't you think it is beautiful, don't you fight for it if you have the chance, well I am doing it, and I am sure I will have it some day, if not winning the prize I will build it anyway, it will just take some years, but brick by brick I will build it.

If you like my work please vote for me, wherever you are, it is an online competition, so you just have to register with a FB account or with an email and any password, and you can vote for me up to 6 times per day everyday until the 13th. Thank you!!

Here is the link: http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557

Almost 1500 votes

As it right now 11:13 pm I have 1392 votes!!! I feel excited for the enormous support from my family and friends. I feel like a politician promising things to my followers, I have promised alfajores for my classmates if I win. Way back when I was in high-school I had a clandestine businesses. I used to sell sweet treat during school hours. My mother used to have a catering business and I sold some of her treats. My classmates looove alfajores, they were their favorite. So if I win I think I can deliver some alfajores to them :)

 Anyway, it seems that if only 18 people vote right now, I will have 1500 votes!!! If you, wherever you are, like my pottery and/ or my glass, please vote for me, you will be contributing in the construction of my studio, a place where I finally will be able to work anytime I want, I will be able to produce more and be more relaxed without the constant worry of staying longer than I should, which is my "normal" at the Hyde Park Studio in Tampa.

Please vote for me, you can vote 6 times everyday until September 13th.

Here is the link:

http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557