Sharing one's talents

The past two weeks in Hart County have been exciting with the Civil War Days in Munfordville, KY and the Horse Cave Heritage Festival.

Both events were excellent places for artists to give demonstrations of their works and talents and Avalon Stained Glass School & Creativity Center took advantage of both opportunities.

At Civil War Days we were so busy with the people at our booth that I did not have a chance to see who the other demonstrators were. However, at the Horse Cave Heritage Festival it was different as we were all in one place on the lawn of the Thomas House. Being in one place made it seem more like art demonstrations than being scattered and the planners had a big sign made by Kenny’s Signs saying Art Demonstrations here which allowed people to easily find us.

There was a wonderful variety of talent there with Donna Seymour demonstrating the making of her wonderful dolls, Karen McGinn of Heritage Art Gallery and Donut shop doing demonstrations of spinning and weaving wool, Douglas and Vennie Rich demonstrated the art of hand crafting white oak baskets, Paul Wilson of Priceville had a great demonstration of pottery which the kids loved because they got to use the potters wheel and we got to see the wonderful wood carving demonstration of artist, Shirley Grivas who recently moved to Linwood.

Carl Correll demonstrated all day with his stained glass equipment and created two stained glass crosses during that time. We had lots of people at that demonstration and they were constantly amazed how simple it was and that no one really needed any artistic talent to create stained glass once one knew the techniques.

I demonstrated Scratch Art creation on Claybord and it was delightful that many people realized how easy it was to create that kind of art “without knowing how to draw a straight line.”

Four demonstrators never showed up which puzzles me simply because demonstrations are an amazing way to advertise yourself, your talents and your business. It is a way to meet people, distribute flyers, coupons, give out your business cards and perhaps get new customers if you give lessons or workshops. It is a way to sell your products perhaps not there and then, but in the future. It is a way to have people sign up for your newsletter or Blog if you have one. It is a way to become the “specialist” and answer questions. It is a very inexpensive way to become known!

We personally want to thank both Civil War Days and Horse Cave Heritage Festival planners for inviting us to join their demonstrations.

So the next time you are in our neck of the woods, stop in for a visit where “Art Only is Spoken Here©” and if you have an arts and crafts questions, just email me at askarlene@scrtc.com