CHA 2007 wrap-up

Yesterday was just crazy, but in a wonderful way.  I’m still trying to absorb everything that happened!  This might be a really long post…

Allen and I had a breakfast appointment with Lisa Pavelka at 7:30.  We talked about a lot of subjects inside and outside the industry. We also took a look at my business plan.  She gave us some solid recommendations.  It did shape what I’d planned for Saturday just a bit differently than I’d originally intended, so that was good.

We were rushing to get finished with our meeting, and we dropped Lisa off at the convention center about 10:30. Allen and I had to scoot over to our hotel to get packed up and out of the room so we could be at the Amaco booth by 11, yikes.  I’d checked my email really quick before shutting the computer down, and SO glad I did – there was a message from Mary Kaye.  I’m sending wishes for a great day to you, Mary!  Enjoy the show!

Made it to the booth just two minutes before the awards ceremony started.  So wierd, because we were standing with Lynne and Tommie — again.  It seemed like everywhere we went, we were running into each other!  

Also had a chance to visit for a little bit with a wonderful friend, Sue Lee.  We hadn’t seen each other in such a long time!  (It’s not like we live an hour away from one another or anything.  Duhh.)  Well I got a chance to see some of her pretties.  Sue’s working in metal right now, and incorporating polymer clay into her soldered pieces.  Beautiful work, lots if passion going into those pieces.  I’m looking forward to seeing more of these, (hint-hint, Sue!)

So if you hadn’t already heard, Lynne and Tommie both won awards.  I’m SO proud of them and their work definitely deserves the recognition!  Lynne won for best expression of hope, and her crowned bottle with beautiful floral work is a masterpiece.   

I dunno if I mentioned this yesterday, but I wanted to smack Tommie… I’d looked through the showcase and immedately zeroed in on his piece as my favorite (yes, over my own, and even Lynne’s, thankyouverymuch).  I didn’t know it was his, at the time.  But when I found out, yep, he was gonna get it.  *grin*.  His piece was the happy Bhudda and I just SO wanted Bhudda’s head!  The expression on the face was so perfect…. I wanted to wear that disembodied head around my neck.  LOL!  Tommie won the Peoples’ Choice award, and deserved every bit of it.  Especially after what happened. 

I couldn’t tell you this yesterday, but Tommie’s sculpture had arrived broken.  The sign above the Bhudda’s head that says “hope” in Chinese had broken off in three pieces.  It had been glued back together, but the repair was an obvious one, and it did distract from the cohesive unity of the piece.  So Lynne decided to make a new sign for the Bhudda to hold, and that’s what she was working on with us at lunch on Friday.  It really did make a big difference and I think the award is partially due to the effort they made in making the repair. 

Ok, if you hadn’t heard by now, mine is the little heart-shaped teapot with sculpted canework on it.  I’m not really disappointed that I didn’t win.  A little bit, yes;  but not too bad.  I really do like the teapot and I’ll be making more of them in that style.  I hope it’s auctioned off at a good price for the charity, and that whoever receives it really treasures it.

Ok, after the reception, I went to the press room with the gals from Polymer Clay TV.  They’d emailed me the week before the show to ask if I’d be interested in being interviewed for their videocast, and of course I said yes!  Kira and Ilysa are absolutely adorable people.  We talked about canes and how I got started in polymer clay.  I hope I didn’t look stupid or too nervous!  The videocast will be aired in a couple of weeks so I’ll be anxiously watching for it. 

After me came Lynne and Tommie.  None of us had been interviewed like this before and we were a little nervous, so she’d asked me to stay for support during her interview.  But ya know what, she did’nt need it at all.  She did great.  What a personality.  Sheesh, LOL!  She didn’t look nervous at all, either.  And neither did Tommie when it was his turn.  I loved how he talked about the value of sculpture in the polymer clay community.  I envision great things for this guy in the upcoming months.

After the interview, we went by a couple of booths that I’d connected with on Friday.  With one of them, we are both doing some research in coming weeks to see if my canework will fit their needs.  The other was the Tutto booth – I wanted Allen to see the bags, and he agreed that we should look into getting one or two for the shop.

I ran into an author who I’d heard of before… I think we had met once at CHA last year.  She’s working on a new garment book, and asked me if I’d be willing to talk about making the accessories.  Absolutely!  The rest of the afternoon was spent talking to editors about magazine articles, and setting up designer endorsement projects.  I’ve got one article that is basically due out as soon as I can get the project done in the next couple of days.  Yikes!  But I know if I clear everything else out of my schedule (except my class this week), then I can meet the deadline, with the help of Fed-Ex.

Just before the end of the day, I talked to another designer about doing some canework of characters she creates for a couple lines of childrens’ fabrics.  We had to wrap that up leaving some things in the air, because of research that needs to be done (Plus the show was closing and we were going to have to get going).  But I just fell in love with her characters!  So I hope something comes of it for both of us.

We got in the car about 5:30 and I nearly fell asleep within minutes.  I didn’t realize I was so dog tired.  I guess shows like that just make me pump adrenaline, and if I stood against a wall for a minute or two, I’d fall asleep right where I was!  But I’d do it again in a heartbeat.  What a wonderful show!  I’m looking at my calendar and seeing if there’s a way I can make it to the winter show in Las Vegas in 2008.