You will soon change careers.....

“You will soon change careers”, said the fortune cookie message Aaron opened the second night of the ACC show. Hummm? Does that mean he'll become a full time employee of Aaron Barr Studios -- or -- become an astronaut? Hard to say…

What’s not hard to say is that the ACC show was a massive success!!! We had the best time. Aaron describes it as

“A truly wonderful experience and we learned a TON! We didn't make huge sales, but definitely sold a few and get a real good idea of new things to do for marketing/pricing/other shows/etc. We also talked with many of the other artists there and some of them described the show financially as "a disaster" and "my worst show ever", though some did fine. Definitely hard selling in this economy, but we felt good for having more than made back our booth fee, which is pretty good for a first time seller. And now we have a number of leads to follow up on with galleries, other shows, catalogs, etc. and a lot of stock to be able to provide to them! Our first show is done and now there's still lots to do - funny how that happens!”


Debby was with us almost every minute. Our booth neighbors described her as "hip, with it, how lucky you are to have a supportive mom". We couldn't agree more...especially in this awesome vest!!


Moving into the show. "Ummmm, where's our space????"


This is what the display looked like. Aaron wanted it to be "classic" and "up scale".


More displays.


Aaron and Anner on opening night: "The Gala".


We had a very exciting visit from Aaron's college friend, James. The last time we saw James he had "just met a girl". This time he had "just gotten engaged to the girl". How cool is that?? Literally. They got engaged in the morning and before lunch they came to the show.

I think the excitement energized the area because as fast as they showed us Trish's ring our first pendant buyer did a b-line to our booth and immediately announced, "I love this!!!" and picked up one of Aaron's amazing pendants and bought it. Now THAT was a fun morning for all of us!



Abby visited us not once, but TWICE during the show!! It was really fun to have family stop by. As soon as Abby started pointing at pendants and being excited about them more people gathered to look. We're learning something about sales psychology and having people be excited around your product is like magic. Mitchell asked Aaron a lot of questions about "his process" and tried on a few pendants. He's adorable!

Now it's time to get back to our normal lives and work on all the follow-up items we got from the show. We are hoping we can at least attend the show in St. Paul next month. It might be a great chance to talk with more artists and learn more.

Signs, Signs..Everywhere, Signs

This morning we got up good and early to make Aaron's sign for the show. It looks great. Except for a few price tags (which Aaron's working on this very second) we're ready to go!!! This time tomorrow we'll be set-up and anxiously awaiting. We're both pretty excited.




We'll write when we can!

Evolution of the Studio

We realize we never did a blog on the studio remodel -- aside from posting a few pictures here and there. Mostly, it was due to the crazy work-load that has insued since Aaron was accepted into the ACC show. So...working backwards, here are some pics chronically the transformation.


Imagine you're Aaron.
Besides having an overwhelming appetite for brownie sundaes with sprinkles, this is your view from the bench. That would be a good blog title, wouldn't it? View From The Bench. I digress...


Here's what it’s like to ‘go to work’ every day. This is Aaron gearing up for a day in the studio. He's practically living out there these days. The goal is for him to be done today which is why I need to get this blog posted and then head out to do some cheerleading.


Here's what the studio looked like once we got everything moved in.



Aaron working in the studio. He's putting finish on 110 pairs of earings and they are drying on his homemade earring holder.


Aaron coming home from a bike ride.


Unpacking!!
We did this on New Years Eve and New Years Day.
Due to the show we didn't get to do any organzing, really. When we get home from the show we should really sort through everything, but knowing us we'll get distracted with the garden or whatever so who knows when we'll really get to it.


This is what it looks like from the outside. Note the awesome french doors. Gone is the "man door" and the garage door.


Anner climbing the ladder to the attic. We love the attic. Adam said it was "creepy but cool".


The new attic -- before we move all our junk up there. Now it's a sea of blue plastic tubs with hand-written labels.


New windows that actually open!!


The studio with lights put in and the walls painted. Painting is how we spent Christmas. It's offically called "Gold #3". I call it "Perfect Shade of Studio".


Here the new floor. It's level and everything which was a big step up from the old, slanty floor. This make it much easier to set up shelves and equipment. Before we had to shim everything and it was a bother.


Pouring the new floor.


Pouring the new floor.


No more siding. The doors came off, siding off, and let the transformation begin!


Out comes the uneven yucky floor. It was just one of those things... if we didn't re-do the floor right now when would it ever be done? We'd end up with a terrific studio all over, except under our feet. Aaron researched a ton of options, including "floor leveling" but in the end it just made sense to get rid of the old stuff and put in a nice new floor.


Ba-bye concrete. Aaron posted our concrete chunks on Craigslist and sure enough someone took it all away for us. How great is that!!?!??


We had the best construction guy ever. We'll use him again this summer when we re-do our roof (yes, conventional wisdom would say that you should do your roof and then your studio, but we just couldn't resist doing the studio. *sigh*).


Here comes the new insulation. You can see the beams on the ceiling were reinforced for the addition of the attic.


Removing the old windows. We kept them because we think we can paint them and make them into something cool for our garden. Any bets on how long it takes before we either make they Something Cool or get fed up and post them on Craigslist??


Getting everything ready for storage and starting demo. This was Thanksgiving weekend.


Before Pictures. Aaron figured out how to take the garage door off. Eventually this space was turned into french dors which make it a sunny, happy place to work (unless it's raining and then you just have to will the sunshine in your own head).


Old windows that don't open and look ugly.


A marco view of the old, unheated, poorly lit "studio" space.

Three Days and Counting

OMG -- I can't believe it!!! Tonight Aaron said, "Only three more days before we leave..." NO WAY!!! Luckily, work has been totally insane so I hardly noticed our deadline approaching. So much less stressful that way; well for one of us it's less stressful.

No worries though!!! We've had a small army of friend helping us out with all sort of things and it's made a HUGE difference. Thank you friends (you know who you are).

This weekend we'll make the last and final push to finish the last of the stock and (gasp) pack and head East. We're both really excited! Fingers crossed for a fun time, good sales, and one more thing to chalk up on the life experiences list.


A Pendant Forest


Earring Production...look out!


Aaron At Work


Ed and Brigit working on the earring line


Consultation with Anastasia