Last week of ACC Baltimore Show Prep
After last week’s crazy packing and shipping stress, we had a moment of victory/relief once the pallet was on the truck. And then it was on to the next wave of “to-do’s”: the paperwork. (Status update: the pallet was in PA yesterday and expected to arrive in VT tomorrow! Fingers and toes crossed!)
 pillow arrangement in the booth “mock-up” – these are currently on their way to VT Making the leap into selling wholesale
Since saying “yes” last October to exhibiting in both the retail and wholesale shows at ACC Baltimore, I’ve been learning a ton about wholesale selling. It’s worthy of a post in itself one day.
It forced me into some serious number crunching and scrutinizing everything I’m doing through the eyes of a business owner. There have been some not-so-pretty moments – like discovering that some of the prices I’ve sold some of my work for have been more like wholesale prices – and it also has helped me confirm my costs and solidify my pricing across the various work that I make. It feels good to have worked through all of that and be confident about my prices.
 100% cotton front, linen-backed one-of-a-kind hand-dyed pillows It’s been a super-steep learning curve. Over the past 3 months I’ve researched and built a list of prospective buyers and sent them postcards of my work. I’ve studied and learned and made decisions about costs, pricing, profits, wholesale terms and policies. I’ve created product “lines” that I will offer to wholesale buyers.
And this week has been devoted to creating line sheets, catalog pages, an order form, and finalizing wholesale policies – all of which are now at the printers being printed.
 100% cotton hand-dyed fabric front, linen-backed one-of-a-kind pillows Branding AynHanna.com
Besides getting some high quality postcards of my work printed, I’ve also updated my logo with a hand-written name and had 4 fabric banners made – they’ll be hung around my booth and will be re-usable for all the shows.
Making versus Marketing
I’ve heard it said (and I’m a believer) that to be successful as an artist, one needs to spend at least 50% of their time on the marketing/business tasks, maybe even more (I have one artist friend that says she spends about 80% of her time on the marketing compared to 20% on the making).
 one-of-a-kind hand-dyed 100% cotton front, linen-backed pillows I am a maker, I love making things. But I also have to be a business person. Committing to doing this big show has shone a brighter light on the business of my art. My perspective has changed, I’m making decisions and taking risks not only creatively with my work as an artist, but also more as a business owner. I’m getting a better handle on balancing my creative and business time, and developing better systems for getting things done more efficiently.
And oh ya, I’ve also made a bunch of new artwork over the past 3 months too! And, I’ve gotten much better at photographing my own work as well, thanks in part to a new camera and tripod.
 “Big City #5″, Dye Drawing (100% cotton cloth, procion mx dyes), cotton batting, stitching, gallery-wrapped (20″x20”) ©2014 Ayn Hanna I feel ready to take a big leap this year starting with this Baltimore show, putting my work way out there, excited to see how this shapes the future. And whatever the year brings, I’ll continue making things. That’s what we makers do!
Dry Run in the Living Room
With just a few weeks to go before show time, last week was all about setting up the booth and figuring out display(s) for the wholesale and retail shows, and making a list of everything we still needed (tools, tape, biz supplies, etc.) to add to our shipment.
 Booth #719 It was a little reminiscent of Kramer’s Merv Griffin TV show set (did you see that Seinfeld episode?)
 the living room transformed into and end cap booth display 
The 2 booth pictures above were taken on Saturday. And then on Sunday, the real fun began – taking everything down, organizing, packing, weighing, numbering, labeling boxes AND pallet-izing everything to be shipped truck freight to the east coast.
 same living room – one day later At about noon on Sunday, we found out that we needed to have our pallet full of booth, lights, flooring and artwork packed, stacked, shrink-wrapped and ready for pick-up by 8am Monday morning (we thought the ship day was going to be Tuesday, but due to impending snow storms across the country, our shipping company made the decision to move things up a day earlier).
With the help of several friends, we had our 22 boxes, 750lbs of art show stacked and shrink-wrapped – an 8 ft. tall obelisk in the driveway. We set the pallet on 4 wheelie roller thingies, and loaded the first “layer” of it in the garage (it’s a wee bit cold this week), then rolled it out onto the driveway to load the “top” layer (wouldn’t have had enough clearance to stack it completely inside the garage), and ultimately, wrap it.
Ready, set, wait
The truck never made it on Monday. It got stuck on some ice somewhere, needed a tow and never arrived. And we knew the snow was coming. We also knew that we are cutting it close timing-wise to get our shipment to VT by 2/11.
Yes, the show is in Baltimore, but we’re using a shipping service called Art in Motion, located in VT, which handles all the logistics of getting booths delivered to the show and placed in front of one’s booth space, picking it back up after the show, storing it in their warehouse in VT between shows, and then will bring it to my next ACC show in St. Paul in April.
So, this pallet needs to get to VT first by 2/11 and will be put on a truck from there and delivered to Baltimore on 2/17. We covered our obelisk with a tarp and hoped for a better day on Tuesday.
Approaching base camp on stress-mountain
Sure enough, the snow came and continued all day. We kept the driveway cleared in anticipation. We weren’t sure if the truck would come – It was late afternoon when I saw the semi inching it’s way down the street.
When the driver opened his door, he said, “This isn’t going to work. My pallet jack won’t work on this snowy road.” He obviously didn’t realize what crazed women he was dealing with – there was no way we were going to to let him leave without our obelisk!
We pulled out masonite and plywood, told him we would make our own ramp to his lift gate AND we had the pallet sitting on these wheelie thingies so we could push it down the drive way to our make shift ramp and between the 3 of us, muscle that pallet onto the lift gate.
And so we did,
leaving an array of debris in our path. We broke one of those wheelie thingie’s clean in half and one half of it was still lodged under the pallet as Joe shoved his pallet jack under it once he had it on the truck so he could move it in place for it’s ride down to Denver. We’re wondering if it will still be lodged there when we are reunited with our pallet on the show floor in Baltimore!
 “pallet dance drawing” – marks made as we rolled, turned, and muscled the pallet onto the lift gate What a relief it is on it’s way. Sending out all good energies to the weather and travel Gods for a expedient safe journey to VT!
The snow is still falling and temperatures freezing. The dye pot deck area is a blanket of white.
And I am dreaming of spring, warmer days, the greening up of things, the smell of walnuts simmering in the pot.
Dates have now been confirmed for my next Eco-Dye Playshop.
We’ll be gathering on May 17 & 18 in Fort Collins to play with nature’s colors and fabric, exploring the wonders of dyeing and mark-making with plants. Should you wish to join the festivities, you’ll find all the particulars here.
Happy February and Go Broncos!
 “Big City” (6 stitched deconstructed dye drawings stretched and mounted around 20″x20″ canvas panels) ©2014 Ayn Hanna T-3 weeks ’till showtime – Booth #719 at ACC Baltimore!
The booth is fully consuming the living room, the sewing machines are whirring along, more boxes keep arriving daily with stuff we’re going to need to make this booth a rockin’ bad ass display, everything that’s being shipped to Baltimore has to be finished, packed up, and shipped out by early next week (at last count we’re at 23 large boxes….7 of which are the booth along) the banners are being printed, the new logo-d hang tags will arrive tomorrow and my stomach is doing the loop-de-lou on a daily basis now.
Excited yes, for the show experience and overwhelmed with all the preparation and planning at the same time. I know it’s going to all work out and be fine. And I keep moving through my list of “to-do”s day-by-day, crossing things off as “done” one after the other. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…..it helps to sing to myself sometimes.
The Wonderful World of Wholesale
Besides making the ART to show at the show, I’ve been drinking from the fire hose of Wholesale Show Prep 101. This will be my first foray into selling whole sale (I’ll be offering my pillows, scarves, and stretched dye drawings to the wholesale buyers), so I’ve been doing web research to find and build a list of fine craft shops that I think might be a good fit for my work.
I also hired some design professionals to create really nice postcards of my work (and some banners for my booth), and my wonderful partner designed the awesome sticker above which we have stuck to my postcards and sent out as some initial “pre-show” marketing to my newly created list of potential fine craft shops and galleries.
 
During my web research, I found several shops that I felt such synergy with the owners’ philosophies and curated work they carry that I couldn’t help but think if we lived in the same town we’d be fast friends. These are the people I sent my postcards to.
And one of the things I’m most excited about and looking forward to is hopefully meeting some of these store owners at the show! How great will that be to see them in person after finding them on the web and get a chance to talk with them.
As I continue finishing new work and knocking things off the prep list, envisioning how great the booth is going to look and getting to meet all these new people in the art world is what fuels my energy and excitement for the show.
More photos, show prep insights, and a new eco-dye workshop announcement coming soon!
 Detail of one of my newest Dye Drawings on cotton fabric ©2013 Ayn Hanna Space reserved and Contract signed? √
Booth, floor, and lighting ordered? √
Pre-marketing Post cards designed and ordered? √
Holidays? What Holidays? (Just kidding.) Actually, we had a very nice quiet family Christmas Day and fun New Year’s Day tucked between the flurry of “to-do” items that had to be done in December to start the prep for my upcoming American Craft Council Show, Feb 19-23 in Baltimore.
And from an art business perspective, 2013 ended on a very high note with the sell of several of my large textile paintings to a wonderful and very generous new collector.
 our living room has been over taken by “the booth”, in 2 parts Ahhh, the Glamours of Show Prep
Yep, that’s my new booth set up in the living room – it’s so big it won’t fit in one piece, hence the 2-part construction. It arrived last week so now we’ll be doing a dry run booth display/design this month, figuring out arrangement of everything from artwork to lighting in hopes it will make the real deal set up go smoothly once we’re on the show floor in Baltimore.
Lucky for me I have an uber-organized Partner that’s making all these ordering,curating, and logistics decisions happen – not that I’m not organized, but umm, Momma needs to get busy making some more Art to put IN the booth, you know what I mean?
 Various raw materials and works in progress around the studio. Come late January, we’ll be carefully packing up this booth, the lighting, the bee-uuu-tiful flooring (faux wood grain anti-fatigue mat puzzle pieces anyone?), all of my artwork, and various other sundry supplies and shipping the whole shebang off to the East Coast where we fully expect to be reunited with all of it again on Feb 17th, piled high on a palette in front of booth space #719 in the Baltimore Convention Center. (I’m putting those good intentions out there into the Universe…please feel free to join me in setting that intention – thanks!).
 Emma’s wondering, what’s the deal with all these carpeted walls invading her living room? It’s all a bit unsettling, but it’s the excellent adventure we’re signed up for and by golly, we’re going to enjoy every bit of it. Working our way through the list of big important “to-do’s” one step at a time, learning the hows, whys, and wherefores of each new item gets us that much closer to being ready for the big show and more knowledgeable and prepared for the next time (yes, there will be more….in fact, I’ve got 2 more ACC shows beyond this one already planned for this year).
And now, it’s back to my favorite part of preparation – the making.
Thanks for joining me in this journey,
Our 4th ever annual Hanna-Gilhooly Holiday Open House was another big fun festive event with a steady stream of visitors throughout the day and into the night. The cherry on top was that almost all of my students from my Oct. Eco-Dye Playshop came by and each brought samples of their wonderful dyed fabric results to show and tell about.
 Some of my Hanna-Dyed scarves on one wall of my studio. Per usual, we forgot to line someone up to take some photos of the frivolity during the party so all I’ve got to share here are some of the “before” shots.
 Some of Barbara Gilhooly’s paintings, folk art furniture, and “bloomer” pillows. (© 2013 Barbara Gilhooly) This event gets bigger and better every year and truly is lots of fun for us to get to show our appreciation for our wonderful friends, family, collectors, and colleagues. Thanks to everyone that was able to stop by – it was great to see and visit with each of you!
 Our holiday tree (made from a tree by Barbara Gilhooly) and hung with my Hanna-Dyed holiday ornaments. A Big Announcement and Big Plans for 2014
2013 has been a big year of shows for me (6 including my solo show at The Dairy Center). 2014 is looking like an even bigger year as I already have 4 big shows on the calendar.
I will be participating in three American Craft Council Shows in 2014, starting with the largest show (including ~675 artists), the ACC Show in Baltimore, Feb. 19-23. At the Baltimore ACC Show, I’ll be in Booth #719, doing both the wholesale and retail shows, exhibiting my textile paintings, dye drawings, and Hanna-Dyed scarves and pillows.
 Hanna-Dyed Silk Scarves This is going to be a year of discovery and learning for me as this will be my first big trade show and whole sale selling experiences.
I’m approaching it with lots of preparation, open-ness to learning, and few expectations. I imagine I’ll meet a bunch of new friends and colleagues in the art world, learn a lot about the business of art, and get clearer on where I most want to focus my energies and art business going forward.
It’s my excellent adventure and I’m going to enjoy the ride. I hope you’ll come along with me as I share my experience and learnings here on my blog.
This Saturday, December 7th from 12-7pm, all snowy roads lead to our Hanna-Gilhooly Holiday Open House….
 Our home is our gallery and studio spaces combined. We’re bustling about getting our works arranged just so….
I’ll have several new textile paintings & Hanna-Dyed pillows and scarves….
Barbara has created some funky folk art style furniture and has some new paintings to share too…
We’ll be here all day with lots of goodies for all your senses and your tummies, too. You’re invited to stop by and share some warmth and good holiday cheer.
Hope to see you Saturday!
There’s still time to see my “LineScapes” show at The Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder, CO. This show of 14 of my textile paintings will be on exhibit through this coming Sunday, December 1st. The piece below, LineScape #29 (Tent Rocks Blocks) is included in the show and is my most recently completed piece in the series.
 LineScape #29 (Tent Rocks Blocks), 25″x44″ (cotton fabrics, hand-dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton stitching) ©2013 Ayn Hanna When I started this textile painting, I didn’t know what it was going to be about. I was intuitively cutting and layering shapes and colors and then decided to add another layer of line drawing with fabric paint as I wanted another different quality of mark.
The forms began to develop within the space and then I added another layer of fabric behind so I could cut into the background and make the patterns there. I also added some hand-stitching to give it greater interest and another different quality of mark.
 LineScape #29 (Tent Rocks Blocks), detail ©2013 Ayn Hanna Somewhere along the way as I continued working on this, I came to realize that it was about a special place that I visited some years ago: Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico. I began purposefully adding machine stitched imagery, lines, and shapes of my memories of this place, resonating with the feelings of being there, bathed in the sunlight, surrounded by these sacred sentinels, and wandering through the winding pathway.
 LineScape #29 (Tent Rocks Blocks), detail ©2013 Ayn Hanna It was cold, during this late year holiday time, and I was actually pretty sick that day, probably shouldn’t have been out there on a hike. But my memories of that time are all good.
And when I sit quietly and close my eyes – or now, look at this piece – I can feel the sacred quiet embrace, the soft sand, the light wind of Tent Rocks, NM. And in this moment, everything is just right.
Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!
A few months ago, I had assembled a group of dye drawings on 13 large silk screen frames and spent a day printing these out on cloth, sharing a few photos of that work in process in a previous post.
Below are some of the fruits from that day of printing in the studio:
 Dye Drawing on Cloth (work in progress) © Ayn Hanna As I tend to do with works in progress, I’ve had some of these art cloth pieces hanging on the walls around my studio for awhile now, contemplating next steps. It helps me to “see” these on a regular basis while not looking hard at them and trying to figure out what to do, what to do. Letting the imagery seep into my sub-conscious allows the next steps to reveal themselves to me as I’m ready.
 Dye Drawing on Cloth (work in process) © Ayn Hanna At least that’s how my process usually works.
But with this group, I’ve reached a place of not knowing. And, been wrestling with my decisions. What more do these need? Should I develop them with stitch into “finished” textile paintings? Should I leave them “as is”, allow them to “just” be beautiful pieces of art cloth? Cut them up and make pillows?
Several artist friends have already weighed in on this decision – the prevailing thought is to try stretching some of these over stretcher frames and allowing them to be “finished” pieces.
 Dye Drawing on Cloth (work in process) © Ayn Hanna While the over-achiever in me has had a hard time believing that these could be considered “done” (what, you mean without putting X more hours into layering and stitching, etc. etc?). I’m realizing that this is all part of my learning process, actually part of my UN-learning: Achievement is not measured by amount of HARD work.
Somewhere in my upbringing it was imprinted on me that unless you’ve had to struggle and work hard, the achievement wasn’t as valued, that hard work was the way to success/achievement, even happiness?
So that is something I am in the process of Un-learning….that hard work is NOT the path to well-being. Feeling good is the path to well-being.
I am thankful for the insight of friends and that making ART is a vehicle for greater self-awareness and personal growth.
As author Jerry Sternin wrote,
“It’s easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than think your way into a new way of acting.”
I’ll be ordering some stretcher bars and trying on the idea that some of these pieces are fine and wonderful just as they are. And I’ll also take some further with layering and stitch too. What do you think?
My LineScapes Show at The Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder, CO opened on October 25th.
On opening night, I gave an artist talk in the gallery space to about 50 people. Every time I get a chance to talk about my work, I get a little bit clearer in my own understanding of my inspirations and intentions.
Standing there in front of the audience, I felt surprisingly calm (or maybe it was just exhausted from having worked right up until the last minute to finish the final piece for the show). Not having had a chance to “prepare” my talk, I thought about how this series had come about and just told the story.
About 3 years ago, I was doing some web research for a piece I was making to honor a good friend, Captain Bill Catlett, a former Navy Test Pilot. During my research I came across some beautiful aerial photos of abandoned Navy airfields and was struck by the lines, compositions, the textures and the sense of history of place created as the land was reclaiming it’s space through the deterioration of the forgotten asphalt and concrete.
I was also reminded of how much I enjoyed the quiet meditative thinking time and the views, staring out the airplane windows during my all-too-numerous flights back and forth from Denver to the Bay area during my corporate road warrior days of the early 2000’s.
At the same time I came across the airfield photos, I had been experimenting with finding ways of bringing more of my printmaking background to the textile medium. I was using impermanent silk screen printing techniques, printing with dyes on fabrics, enjoying the loss of control and the “happy accidents” of various beautiful lines, marks that resulted from these processes.
 LineScape #1, 19″ x 20.5″, (Textile Painting) © Ayn Hanna And this was how my LineScape series was born. With obvious reference to landscape and homage to the importance of line in every drawing that I make. Each piece celebrates a particular “scape”, whether it be a real place with personal story or an imagined scape from my intuition and dreams.
Just Keep Swimming…LineScape #21 (Pelican Lake)
 LineScape #21 (Pelican Lake), 38″ x 48″ (Textile Painting) © Ayn Hanna A real place with special significance, LineScape #21 is site of the Pelican Fest Triathlon, held each year during Memorial weekend in Windsor, CO. A few years ago, I spent 8-12 hours every week, training around this area with a group of tri-athletes and then racing in this event. It became my favorite local triathlon course.
Swimming has never been my strong suit – the best part about the swim leg of the race is that my bike is waiting for me when I make it out of the water and that’s where I make up lots of lost time, on my bike.
 LineScape #21 (detail) © Ayn Hanna During races, I’d always find myself swimming alone at the back of the pack so to keep my cadence and keep myself going I practiced a lot of positive self-talk and singing in my head. That writing that runs across the lake in the piece is all that stuff I used to sing to myself during the swim:
“Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, one two three, stroke stroke breathe….My bike is waiting, bike is next, yay, just keep swimming….” There’s more, but it’s enjoyable to discover it in person, so I’m hoping you’ll drop by The Dairy Center to see this piece and the rest of the show.
My LineScapes will be on exhibit through December 2nd and the Gallery is free and open to the public seven days a week during the following hours: Monday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday – Friday 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 1:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Just keep swimming, Just keep stitching….
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