As I had hoped, this past week I have been able to spend a fair amount of time taking it easy and working on painting projects.
That seven-day "dead period" between Christmas and New Year's has always been a good time for me, both for reflection, as well as for productivity.
2025 really wasn't much of a year for us, in large part because a couple of events we normally attend did not happen at all; one event that is "by invitation only" did not invite us, and another event just didn't have a good vibe about it last time we went so we decided to give it a pass.
On the upside, the last two events of the holiday season went somewhat better than expected so at least that's a positive!
I don't have any particular plans set up for 2026, but the main "big item" on our schedule for the year is finishing the consolidation of all the online venues into just the single sales venue on the Etsy shop.
We got a fair ways into that before taking a break in early December because holiday sales means stock changes quickly, and there's little point in photographing and describing something for a listing... if it's just going to be gone again a few days later.
In sorting out everything after we came home from the last event in mid-December, there are also a lot of things to be caught up with in terms of updating printed materials, getting a new round of business cards printed, and refilling general supplies we use for the presentation — both for mail orders as well as for in-person events.
One of the things I learned many years ago when I had an art gallery is that a large part of the success of artists whose works sold fairly well is importance of having good presentation of the merchandise, including an "artist statement" and maybe a little brochure about technique, inspiration and history, and some kind of packaging other than a used egg carton!
And yes, that really did happen with the jeweler who brought me her (rather expensive) handcrafted jewelry packaged in an old egg carton!
Of course I have to admit that I have the advantage over many artists in that my background is partially in marketing and merchandizing, and I have been in sales for many many years.
On the upside, our booth set-up and take down has really become quite a smooth operation and we're very organized to the point where we can go to an event and have a booth fully set up in a matter of about 45 minutes with about a similar time for take-down at the end.
This is important from the perspective of being able to attend events that have very short vendor time at the front and back end, which some of these places do because they're renting expensive space from civic centers or conference centers and they only have so much time available.
Another thing I noticed this past year is that — in spite of the somewhat dodgy economy — the majority of our increase in sales at each event seemed to come from selling not the really cheap stuff but moderately priced $30-$50 items. I see that as a positive development because frankly it bores me to spend all my time making little "$5 tourist trinkets" all the time!
We still need to go on a major beach combing expedition out to the Pacific Coast beaches, preferably sooner rather than later because I am starting to run very low on paintable stones. It's rather a harsh trip if we go here in the middle of the winter but I'm not sure I have enough material to last me till spring.
I guess I will try to make do with local beach pickings for a few months... we'll see.
And with that, I'd like to wish everybody a Happy New Year and we look forward to continuing this journey next year, both on Hive and off!
Thank You!
If you enjoy painted rocks, do check out The Hive Rocks Project and help spread the word about Hive, while also being creative!
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2025.12.31 AS-TXT-353/323