Have you ever had that range of time when it feels like things just come together? Maybe it's a week, a day, an hour, even a fleeting moment...
I had one of those last week. On Wednesday, I ventured to Jesters Gallery Shop at the Suffolk Center here in Virginia after exchanging emails with the manager for a few weeks. They opted to take about half of what I'd taken for them to see. The manager was very happy with my pieces and prices, and really excited to see how my jewelry did there. I was really impressed with not just the gallery, but the center itself. There's a restaurant, 500 seat theatre, and art gallery with rotating exhibits. It was so much more than I was expecting.
Two days later, I stopped in Blue Skies Gallery to help the owner out and picked up my check. While the check wasn't huge, it was bigger than the previous checks, and the owner said that all of the jewelry artists had sales the previous month. While there, I helped out at the register and sold three of my pieces - two bracelets and a pair of studs. I worked the next day at the gallery, as well, and it was... well, slow. I worked a bit on a soutache piece and waited for the rain for come in. It fell, but not nearly like what we thought it would.
At BSG, we have little signs we put up that say "Meet This Artist Today." We rotate them around the gallery each day depending on who's working. When they reached my case, they asked if it was my work. I started explaining some of the work when the lady asked about my Van Gogh-inspired piece. I pulled it out of the case and we talked about our love of the artist. She complimented my work, we talked about what brought us to Virginia, and I put the piece away.
They continued on, spoke in hushed tones, and I heard, "Are you sure?" That was Saturday and I'm still riding the high of selling my Starry Night piece to someone from my home state who also appreciates the time and effort that goes into a piece like that.
So yeah, those few moments, they made me realize that I'm doing the right thing. Not every moment is great, and sometimes they come few and far between. But when they do, the feeling is unreal.