My goodness I cannot believe that we are on the second weekend of NEOS already.... Saturday and Sunday have now passed and its the last day, hopefully the Aberdeen holiday will bring the final NEOS visitors out to see us!Sorry, once again Platform 22 got really busy and I never managed to write my posts! It is Tuesday afternoon now! But, WOW what a fantastic NEOS week! From start to finish it has just been so busy ~ we even were visited by some fairies!!! I'll tell you more later.
We moved my long work table out of the studio for the opening night, to maximize standing room. Which was just as well really as I don't think that we had any less than 60 people at any one time. Some friends who came to the opening were very impressed that I even had a celebrity come along, Carol Baxter from television's Beech Grove Gardens! There is a picture of her right eye and forehead to prove it on some body's mobile phone!!! Ha! Ha!!
Anyway (as you can see), David had the great idea to bring the garden tables that we got for the summer cafe for outside the gallery, into the studio. It worked brilliantly and I think it really helped to tempt the foot sore culture vultures to rest their feet and regenerate their strength! It was a fantastic way to really launch the cafe to Torphins village and hopefully put us on the map.
The first weekend passed in a flash and sales were much better than last year, in fact sales for the first weekend were the same as our takings for the whole of NEOS'06! And people just kept coming. Alan Steele came and worked away in the terrible rain & cold on the Tuesday, he certainly amazed people with his skill and talent. On Friday we got the Press and Journal to come out and write an article for us. People were waiting for our doors to be opened on Saturday morning, wanting to find out more...
The picture above is showing a relatively large goblet; Alan made a couple that are only 13mm high - absolutely stunning!
As I mentioned earlier, we were even visited by fairies ... they were tempted here by the beautifully turned fairy goblets. So Platform 22 had Fairy Queen Tatiana's Autumn Garden Party at the bottom of the garden!!
But I cannot stress how fantastic NEOS is, I feel encouraged by my conversations with people and enjoyed sharing stories and exchanging ideas with artists and enthusiastic people alike. I think that one of the great things (there are many) about NEOS is that the people who take the time to visit you are keen to find out more and want to know why, how and where you make and you work. If there was one event I could recommend to any artist to promote themselves and spend their money wisely I would say North East Open Studios every time.
I had a great conversation with a customer over her cup of tea and cake, about how it is so very difficult to get the public from just around the corner to come in. This lady had a book shop and on her days off from work was touring North East Open Studios by bus! She commented how people from far and wide knew about her book shop and yet the villagers had not popped in, some of whom walked by maybe daily! So yes, my challenge (one of many) for 2007 and '08 is to get our locals involved and aware of what we offer!!
The first weekend passed in a flash and sales were much better than last year, in fact sales for the first weekend were the same as our takings for the whole of NEOS'06! And people just kept coming. Alan Steele came and worked away in the terrible rain & cold on the Tuesday, he certainly amazed people with his skill and talent. On Friday we got the Press and Journal to come out and write an article for us. People were waiting for our doors to be opened on Saturday morning, wanting to find out more...
The picture above is showing a relatively large goblet; Alan made a couple that are only 13mm high - absolutely stunning!
As I mentioned earlier, we were even visited by fairies ... they were tempted here by the beautifully turned fairy goblets. So Platform 22 had Fairy Queen Tatiana's Autumn Garden Party at the bottom of the garden!!
But I cannot stress how fantastic NEOS is, I feel encouraged by my conversations with people and enjoyed sharing stories and exchanging ideas with artists and enthusiastic people alike. I think that one of the great things (there are many) about NEOS is that the people who take the time to visit you are keen to find out more and want to know why, how and where you make and you work. If there was one event I could recommend to any artist to promote themselves and spend their money wisely I would say North East Open Studios every time.I had a great conversation with a customer over her cup of tea and cake, about how it is so very difficult to get the public from just around the corner to come in. This lady had a book shop and on her days off from work was touring North East Open Studios by bus! She commented how people from far and wide knew about her book shop and yet the villagers had not popped in, some of whom walked by maybe daily! So yes, my challenge (one of many) for 2007 and '08 is to get our locals involved and aware of what we offer!!
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