St. John Sea Glass
I recently started making and selling sea glass jewelry, and people seem to really like it. I just returned from a trip to St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands to scuba dive, photograph and hunt sea glass. I had a very successful hunting trip, and came back with a bag full of good quality seaglass. Here's a photo of my "loot":Unfortunately, the trip didn't yield any rare colors like cobalt blue or red, only common green, brown and white, but it was mostly good quality.

Upcoming Art Shows
I am going to be really busy the next few weeks. This Saturday, I will be at the Cedar Park High School Holiday Festival. The Saturday after Thanksgiving I will be at the Vespaio Market on South Congress. During the first two weeks in December, I have two home shows and I will be selling my wildflower paintings at the Wild Ideas Holiday event at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center December 5 and 6.

Austin Handmade Market, Saturday, Noon-6
This Saturday I will be selling my ocean inspired jewelry at Austin Handmade Market, 2009 South First Street, noon to 6pm. Come out and see my latest designs and a variety of handmade items from Team Etsy Austin members.

Milking The Cash Cow - An Update
This week, I have been communicating with half a dozen artists/crafters who have been doing a certain local arts and crafts show for several years. Most of them are getting rejection emails saying they wanted to try new vendors this year. It appears that this is yet another show that has adopted the Zapp business model, a result of the show becoming so popular that they are getting large numbers of applications.How it works, is they rarely ever let the same artist in two years in a row. They charge a high non-refundable jury fee ($25-$45), and rotate the artists. So artists keep thinking they have a chance of getting in the next year and keep on applying and feeding the machine.

Four Days of Art Shows Coming Up
I'm getting ready for four days of Central Texas art shows - First Thursday on South Congress at Hill Country Weavers, then Buda Fine Arts Festival Friday - Sunday.