BirchBarkMosaics

In “art-blitz” mode – kicking vases and taking numbers

Getting ready for a mini-art fair in July (no, not the A2 one, but close …. Saline) – Jazz at the Mansion, from 4pm-8pm on Saturday, July 18th, in the yard of the Davenport-Curtiss historic home.

As part of a new small business owners group, I was invited to participate in a one-day art fair. Some venues have offered me a “pop-up” in their cafe or shop sometime – a temporary sales table inside an existing business that functions as a trial-run of sorts–so I’m thinking of this art-fair day as an outdoor “pop-up” and good prep for an official one.

Here is how I’m getting from an art studio to an artist’s booth: 

First, design a table display (six feet x three feet) with a representative range of popular birch bark items. Some presentation options I have on hand include hanging keychains and pendants from a cute, fake table-top birch tree (complete with mini-lights); a wooden crate my sister found that will be a perfect shelf for multi-tiered items; a folding screen for promotional images and messages; and a runner or banner with my still-evolving logo.

Next up: set an inventory of items that would fit into a few portable plastic totes, enough to fill the table plus more below-deck for restocking, if sales go well… Some of these objects were already made, but others I would need to stock up on pronto. So I assigned myself an “art blitz” – a concentrated period of time for making multiple items, operating on speed and sheer instinct after a decade of honing these skills. And yes, I set a timer, and a goal: make three similar functional art objects (in this case, three square vases) in less than an hour. I hadn’t really timed myself making my art pieces because – hey, art cannot be rushed. Well, turns out it can.

I prepped by setting up strips of birch bark on a work table that had been, as I call it, “processed.” (More on the therapeutic aspect of this step in a later blog – but basically the result is that the birch bark has been peeled into paper-thin sheets, then cut or torn into roughly the size of the item I’m decorating.) The birch pieces were arranged in roughly equal piles of different shades, from dazzling white to a peaceful beige to a rosy gold to a shade deeper than copper. 

Also on the table is a sticky medium that adheres the birch bark to the glass. My phone is nearby to run the timer and record my progress. I tried not to pay attention to the timer, as my goal was to work instinctively but efficiently. Do you think I was able to make my target time? Nailed it – three vases in 33 minutes and 45 seconds! 

I have, on my Inventory Sales list: vases, jars with decorative lids, coasters, plus keychains and pendants. Nothing too big or bulky.  I will have a few framed artwork canvases on hand for stylish elements plus representative samples of things I can create on commission. But I wanted to think of one more thing that would be portable and eye-catching….then, I remembered. 

A few years ago, everyone walking around the Ann Arbor Art Fairs had a birdhouse or an object at the end of a pole. We called it, “Art on a Stick” and it was all the rage.

A few years ago, everyone walking around the Ann Arbor Art Fairs had a birdhouse or an object at the end of a pole. We called it, “Art on a Stick” and it was all the rage. Maybe I needed to get into that act? So I took a floral accessory that had come with a grocery store bouquet. It had a cutesy saying on it, but that is not why I’d kept it on hand. I kept it for just such a moment as this.

I started by coating it in fake gold foil, to nominally disguise the existing artwork; then, piecing birch bark over it in a funky geometric pattern – voila! “Art on a Stick” – birch bark style. Now this is something I would be happy tucking into a bouquet of flowers or a potted plant, for an artsy birch embellishment.

Watch for me (and my creations) in July, in Saline!