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 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

American Made

Hello,

As some of you may have notice I am applying to Martha Stewart American Made 2013. This is a online contest and the "only" thing I will need is 5,000 votes. Yeah, right! Where on Earth am I going to find 5,000 people who will vote for me!

Anyway, the contest is free and I will give it a shot, I can not imagine any bad scenarios coming from this, so why not, right and maybe, just maybe I can gin the money and I now exactly how to use that money :) A potter's wheel, a wedging table, some glazes. The beginning of my studio, maybe only the floor and some screen in the garden, but its a start, don't you think?

So, please vote for me, there is no money involve, just a click, perhaps there will be the option to vote everyday during the 19 days of the competition, I don't know, the clicking features on the "American Made" website will be open on Monday. Competition starts Monday, August 26th  through Thursday September 19th.

Here is the link, ah, by the way if you click on the like button as well, that will be awesome too :)

Thanks a lot,

Monica

Here is the link, you can also just click on the badge of American Made in the column on your right.

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

Inca Waves

Here are two more plates, they are the same size and design, but different colors... its fascinating how little details can make big differences. This a Peruvian pattern, its very old but still very much in use in specially in textiles. You can also see it in reproductions of Inca Pottery among many things. I like the Inca designs, I believe they work wonderfully with fused glass, perhaps because its precision and geometric forms, perhaps because it keep me connected with my country... don't know exactly.

This year I have been focus on the wheel so much that I have not done much in glass. Also, the glass company where we used to buy our materials is closed down, so I have to find a new place to buy glass.

The photos are again from Annette Batista, isn't she wonderful! Feel free to leave any comments, it will be nice to know who reads my thoughts :) 

Blue and White Tocapu Plates

You may remember this plates , I did them last year with the hope to make a set of 4 for Christmas Dinner. The fourth plate was very complicated and I was never happy with it, so I made pendants and bracelets with it.... well, the bracelet is still a work in progress.

Anyway, a friend of mine a wonderful photographer named Annette Batista took photos of many of pieces, they came of incredible!!! I will be posting them by series one at a time. I hope you like these photos as much as I did.   

You can read the previous post clicking Tocapus 1, Tocapus 2,

Made by Hand Show

So I did it, I finally did my really first show. It was this past Saturday, November 17th. We were asked to be there by 6:30 but I couldn't I arrived at 7:30, but it was OK, the show started at 9 am. I should explain for the ones who don't know me that I am part of a long traditions of Peruvians who are always late and even when I try to change it seems that will not happen, I will never be like my Germans friends always on time, like my dear friend Katalin it was so common for her to say on the phone: I will see you moni in 13 minutes, not 10 or 15 but exact 13!!! and she was always able to manage her time and arrived at the exact time she said she will be!! But I digress from my story.

I was sharing the booth with a fellow classmate the wonderful Kathie King, she makes incredible glass flowers and now she is making fairy houses, kids, specially little girls come to the booth magnetized by them.

So we set our tables in a uncommon Florida cold morning, it look nice everybody working on their booths trying to display their art pieces in the best possible way. We already had a workshop about how to display our stuff how to talk to the people, etc. Things in theory easy to do. . . in theory.

So at 9 am everybody were ready to make a lot of sales, art pieces nicely display coffee or hot cocoa, big smiles ready to welcome the first costumer and we wait, and we wait and we wait. Couple hours later people start coming, not many but some enough to make us feel better. It is something fascinated how people always come in groups without being conscious of that, people come like waves suddenly bug groups of people and then nothing... how that can happen, they don't know each other so how they can do it is like a symphony ( I am just copying my dear friend Erika's way to describe the cars on the highway).

Many people came to our booth and compliment our work but they didn't buy anything. I was next to a booth who was selling pottery and glass as well but way cheaper than us. At some point I was wondering that maybe my stuff was overprice but then I think again, my bowls for example are very unique, there are not 2 exactly alike, I tried real hard to make sets and decorated one by one fallowing a theme that initially is only in my head. Would be much easier to just glazed them in one unique color, less work, less thinking, less material, probably less expensive, but I will not be happy with them. I like my bowls, I only sell the ones that are "perfect" for me, even when I am the only one who can see the mistakes, a different tone of the glaze on the bottom, a scratch when it was on greenware that was cover by the glaze but I can still see it, or a shape that according to me is not for the design I have in my head, those bowls or pots are reserved to be given away, some of my relatives are happy with my craziness, they always get pots.

So then I think that my prices were right even if I sold only one, to recuperated my expenses I will be happy, at the end I sold 2 bowls and a couple of more things, so I think it was ok. Some of the vendors sold a lot and made a lot of money and I am happy for them, specially for the ones who were congruent and loyal with their true self and respect themselves as an artist. Another friend who was at the show was Andrees, he is an sculptor and made wonderful pieces hand build, he uses raku glazes and his pieces are incredible, I still can not afford to buy his pieces but I hope I can one day. He was not making any sells for hours and then suddenly one lady bought one of his big ones, he made $450 on one sell!!! So I guess one just need to wait for the right person.

I have been accepted in another show, Art in the Park in Ybor City so I guess I will try again. I already have the fabric and all the little things to display my art so why not.

My wonderful boyfriend took some photos of the event, feel free to make any comment or suggestion about my display... it is still a work in progress.

Bugs invasion!! Part. 2

Here is the final product of the coasters' bugs. What do you think?

You can see the process of these coasters here: Bugs invasion!!

Just Blue

Here is the blue version of one of my Tocapu plates.

Blue & White Tocapu Plates. Part 2

Design #2

Blue & White Tocapu Plate. Part 1

I was thinking of doing a set of 6 plates but I ended up with 4. Each plate is different, but keeping the Tocapu theme. I also made one in blue, maybe I should do more of that design in different colors.

It's "Tocapu" time!

It's time to work again and cut some glass. I had cut some green and purple squares, and the plan is to do coasters. Once again I am using the Inca's tocapus as an inspiration for my designs. I think I should start working on series or collections, but I get distracted so easily and fast that I can never accomplish that. Maybe that should be the 2012 resolution. Concentrate and Focus!

These will be a set of 6 coasters anew I am playing again with 2 colors and 3 designs.

Tocapus again

Christmas is coming, Christmas is coming... and I am not ready (!!!) Well, I am not ready because I am just crazy enough to try to make projects in the busiest time of the year. I just had this vision of us having a Christmas dinner on really nice Tocapus plates, wouldn't it be nice, to have an unique table, then no matter how the food taste at least it will look good hahahhahaa!!

And to make things worse, I want the six plates to be different, something must be really wrong in me, will be so much easy to make all the 6 plates with the same design....

So far I have made 3, so I need to get out of the computer and start cutting glass.

Here are 2 designs, one was on the kiln at the time,and yes I only want to use blue and white on a clear glass :)

More Fused Glass Snowflakes

Here is a new model of snowflake, I guess all is possible to do all kinds of snowflakes.... let's think more ways to play with glass.

Snowflakes....part 2

Here they are, the finished product... i made them blue but i am making some green ones that are waiting to be fused. Glass gives so many possibilities, I will be making new designs soon, just have to cut some more glass : S. Here are the snowflakes as ornaments, but I am thinking of making another mobile as well, endless ways to use them.

Aqui estan, este es el producto termninado... las hice azules pero tengo otras verdes que estan esperando para ser fundidas en el horno. El vidrio da un sinfin de posibilidades, pronto estare haciendo nuevos disenos, solo tengo que cortar mas vidrio :S. Aqui los copos de nieve estan como ornamentos, pero pienso hacer moviles tmabien, un sinfin de maneras de usar el vidrio. 

Snowflakes.... part 1

I was surfing on the internet the other day, and found instructions on how to make your own fused glass snowflake, i was so happy because since i did some clay snowflakes last year i was wondering how to make their glass version. Well here it is, a very good friend of mine took the photos and said that will be nice to share the process with you, my friends from Lima, here and somewhere out there :)

As you can see is not so hard, just take time, more than i wish, but the result pays for it... in the next post i will post the finished product.

Estaba surfeando la internet el otro dia, cuando encontre una pagina que daba instrucciones en como hacer copos de nieve en vitrofusion, lo cual me super alegro porque justo estaba pensando en como hacer su version de vidrio, dado que hice copos de nieve de arcilla el anio pasado. Bueno aqui esta, una buena amiga mia tomo estas fotos, y me dijo que lo postee asi mis amigos de Lima, de aqui y de donde sea que esten, puedan ver el proceso.

Como se daran cuenta, no es tan dificil, solo toma tiempo, mas de lo que desearia, pero al ver los copos de nieve, me siento recompensada. En el proximo post pongo las fotos de los copos de nieve terminados.

 ii