New Booth Backdrop For the SDP Conference

As always, times have been a little rough around here lately. We are getting ready for the SDP and HOOT Conferences so that means we need to determine what we are taking to the show. We have a booth at both shows so I decided last week that I would have a professional backdrop made for the booth. Above is a picture of the backdrop which we received yesterday via FEDEX. So it looks like we will be using the booth backdrop at the SDP show. YAHOOOOOO!!!! The backdrop is actually 8 feet by 8 feet so it should fill the booth very well. Now all we have to do is get ourselves and everything else to Wichita.

I am trying to get some painting done however with everything going on right now, it has been a little difficult to get into my painting area. We are having the classroom constructed which is taking a little longer than I expected. Well we now have walls and they are painted........now that is a start. This past weekend we had 18 cans (lights) installed in the ceiling for lighting and two 42" flat screen TVs. The TVs will assist the student during class to see brushstrokes, blending, or whatever as they are hooked to the camcorder. We are getting there.

For those that do not know, we two seminars scheduled already for June. I will be the instructor for the Fusion Blending seminar and we are bringing Sandy Scales for a two day seminar. Sandy will be providing instruction for two of Maureen McNaughton's patterns. So as you can see, we are a little busy and excited at the same time.

Along with all this excitement, we had our first decorative painted piece on ceramic bisque published in the Ceramic Artist Guild's e-magazine (Cerakanvas) which is read by over 66,000 individuals worldwide. The magazine is very professional and is packed full of fun ideas and projects. Check it out at www.ceramicartistguild.com . About a month ago, I was made the Ceramic Artist Guild's Special Ambassador for Decorative Painting. Well this month, I became a SDP Ambassador as well so now I promote both decorative painting and ceramics to both organizations. What an exciting time but very busy. Which reminds me. I have got to run so I can get some things completed. Who knows, maybe I will be able to paint some today......one can only hope. Until the next post, Happy Painting!

November Event Plans Moving Right Along - Everyone is Invited

We are planning a great event this November with Special Guest David Jansen. Above is our current advertisement with all the information. Individuals can also check out our website for new information. Go to http://www.pamperedpalette.com and look under the Tab "Washington Mini-Convention. We hope to see everyone there. Do not miss this event. When is the last time David Jansen visited the Washington DC area not to mention we have very talented artists like Georgia Dawbon, Arlene Newman, Bev Scarborough that you do not want to miss. See you there!

SDP Wichita Conference - May 2010

This will be just a short post to invite everyone to stop by our booth (317) at the SDP Conference, in Wichita this May. Above is a picture of our advertisement that will run in the SDP Conference Program. Only one month to go!!!!!!! See ya there.

Until the next post, Happy Painting.

Washington DC Mini-Convention - A World of Color

I just wanted to let everyone know about the event that we are planning. Details are not totally finalized but this is what I have confirmed thus far. Now put this on your calendars............

Washington DC Mini-Convention - "A World Of Color"
Westin Tysons Corner (Rt 495 & Rt 7)
November 20 & 21, 2010 (10 am to 5 pm, both days)
Open to the Public, Admission is FREE

With Special Guest David Jansen

There will be make it and take its, demonstrations, new products, a decorative art gallery, wood and more.

Studio that I can announce right now that will be there are:

Jansen Art Studio
Pampered Palette
Dawbon Art Studio
Arlene Newman Designs
Dave's Cuts
Bev's Ceramics

Other studios and guest will be announced soon.

This is a Pampered Palette Sponsored Event - "Bringing Decorative Arts and Ceramics Back to the Mainstream"

Visit http://dacartists.ning.com/ for the latest information.

Launching of a New Social Network

I just seem to be constantly trying new things. Everyone, by now, knows of my little run in with FaceBook as they apparently have a problem with the speed that you grow your friends list. Well, this week I also realized that on FaceBook all you have to do is have some of your competitors complain against you and guess what? You are booted off their site losing all of your friends and fans. So I have decided to keep a very small presence on FaceBook which I have done by establishing a new page. However, that is not where I will place all my eggs as I have learned you cannot control or trust people (competitors) on FaceBook.

Well, after a day of thinking that I had been defeated in my attempts to grow our decorative painting and ceramics industries and trying to figure out my next steps, I had a realization. Yep, I am not going to let FaceBook get me down, not one bit. I started to search the internet on social networks and networking ideas. I thought there had to be another FaceBook type application out there on the internet world. Well I found a few like MySpace, which I still have not figured that one out. The problem I had was that the other sites did not offer me the flexibility or functionality that I wanted. Which brought me to another realization of idea. I will build my own social network. A site that is open to all artists no matter what art or craft industry they participate or what paint they use. All artists are welcome (see my reasoning here?) as you may have a person join the site that is in to scrapbooking that may decide to try painting or a person that is using a different paint line that may try Heritage. The site has to serve the communities to educate, encourage, and promote decorative painting and ceramics. So, after kicking this around a little we launched the Decorative Arts and Ceramics soical network. So far we have over 175 members located in the US, Canada, UK, Taiwan, Argentina and Australia. We have a varied membership of ceramcists, decorative artists and even members that paint on gourds and eggs. We are getting great response and lots of participation. So far our members have posted over 115 pictures of their finished pieces and 5 how to videos. For only being up for a couple of days that is great participation. The best part about this is that it is all FREE to all members and groups. Now just watch us grow.

The site is specifically for decorativing painting and ceramics. So it is those individuals that work, teach, paint, create, design or are just interested in the arts. We can even set up groups areas for SDP chapters so they can post the information, pictures, events, videos or whatever specific their organizations. I am pleased as punch at the progress we have made this week. So please that we will have a computer set up at the SDP Conference where attendees will be able to navigate the site and actually become a member right there - LIVE. The picture posted above will be a postcard that we will be handing out at the conference. We have even expanded our tables for the booth. One table will have a table throw that say "Pampered Palette" and the other will say "Decorative Arts and Ceramics". Just never a dull moment in at Pampered Palette.

Well that is the news this week. Until next time..........HAPPY PAINTING!

A Really Strange Week Indeed

Have you ever wondered why some people find it necessary to be nasty, intrusive, or just plain backstabbing? They seem to feel justified in getting into your business. It is like they are afraid of fair competition or something. Well, that is just what happened to me this week. We had grown our FaceBook friends to over 2450 people and had over 1450 people following Pampered Palette page. Out of the blue last Monday, FaceBook turned off my account (disabled it with no reason given). I know some people would not tell that little tidbit but I really do not care nor do I have anything to hide so I will publicly discuss it. I had no idea why they account was disabled when I received their email so I shot an email to the powers to be at FaceBook. You know, it took FaceBook over a week to respond to my message and their response kind of surprised me. As a person and a businessman, I always operate in everything that I do with respect to all individuals. I am not harsh with people (however, do not get on my bad side....lol.), I do not slam people, point fingers or call names. I just try to be rah rah, uplifting, and responsive to encourage existing painters and painters that would like to try painting for the first time to pick up a brush and just paint something. I do not care what they paint, just paint something. So what happened?

Well, FaceBook finally responded yesterday to tell me that they had received a complaint about me concerning what they called harassing behavior (translated, I requested friends too fast or something). So the complaint centered around me requesting people to be friends or fans too fast. Well isn't that a crock? I thought that was the whole purpose of FaceBook to find friends to build your social network. I evidently became too RAH RAH, grew too fast, and my take on the whole subject is that it appears I have ruffled the feathers of some of our competition. I now know that competitors can lodge a complaint, get your account disabled and their is absolutely nothing you can do about it. In fact, FaceBook will not even tell you who complained, what the complaints was or any other information besides a general "your account has been disabled". Oh, they do tell you their decision is FINAL!

So in response to the whole situation, this week we launched the Decorative Arts and Ceramics social network which actually provides us more functionality than FaceBook. In a matter of days we have grown the site to about 135 people with more people joining everyday. So we are on our way to BIG things. The good part about the DAC Artists network is that it is FREE to all artists. I do not care what you paint or what field you are in, all artists are welcome. We can even set up groups for local decorative painting associations so they can post their own information, events, news, etc. Also, each individual that joins can establish their own page to promote their business, post pictures, provide news, or whatever. It is very flexible. And the good part? FaceBook cannot shut it down. As the site grows, I can expand the storage capacity and increase our bandwidth (that part will cost some money but not a lot, which I fund). So I am very pleased with the progress thus far.

As of this morning, we have members in Canada, US, Taiwan, Australia, Argentina, and a few others that are posting their own pictures on their personal/business pages. The system picks up those pictures and runs a slide show on the main DAC page. We have some great art pictures running through the slide show with about 95 pictures randomly being displayed. Now we are working on providing content so that the site becomes, not only informative but educational. In fact, Georgia Dawbon has already posted 3 videos. Way to go Georgia.

Finally, I would like to thank our very supportive friends at CAG (Ceramic Artist Guild) who have supported me as their Ambassador to Decorative Painting/SDP as well as the establishment of the new DAC Artist site 200%. What a great group of people. If you have not visited their website, go over to http://www.ceramicartistguild.com/ and take a look.

As you can see there is never a dull moment in the lives of Pampered Palette or myself. So until the next post, HAPPY PAINTING!!!!!!! And do not get too many friends as the unsocial network FACEBOOK will not like that.......................hmmmmmmmmmmmm.

SDP Wichita Seminar

The other weekend (February 26, 27, & 28), Mark and I hopped on a plane flying to Wichita Kansas to attend the SDP Maureen McNaughton seminar. We painted three different Maureen McNaughton patterns over the three day period. We did not get them completely finished but we gave it our best shot. I think this time the hardest part of the seminar for most of us was sitting in the same chair for three solid days. By the time the seminar was over, there was not one part of my body that did not hurt (from the chairs) While there we met a lot very nice people, exchange ideas, tips, jokes, laughter, etc. and of course I did some shameless marketing. I handed out business cards and Pampered Palette ink pens. Well, we made til the end of the seminar and was very pleased with our projects. The pictures above are from the seminar and of course one of the pictures is my completed piece. The other two pieces I have not completed yet............mainly because since the seminar, I have been on travel to Germany and Santa Fe. Seems a little hectic at the moment.

Now let's talk about Germany a little. We woke up Saturday morning (in Germany) to SNOW. I just about dropped my teeth as the weather was not calling for any snow. Evidently, it was an unexpected snowfall that caused many accidents throughout the area. After having over 42 inches of snow this year in DC, snow was not something that I wanted to see. Once we got over the shock of snow falling, we spent the day walking around Frankfurt, shopping, and of course eating. We returned just in time for me to hop my next flight (for work) to Santa Fe. What a busy few weeks.........to much travel for me as I am feeling a little exhausted not knowing what time zone I am in..................................

Well, now I am home and my plans are to paint one of Maureen's patterns on a ceramic bisque (a plate). I think this will really look quite nice on the plate......hopefully I can stay off of planes long enough to paint.........lol.

Looking for information on decorative painting or ceramics? Need to apply for membership? Need to renew your membership? You can join either organization today!!!!!! Visit http://www.ceramicartistguild.com/ for ceramics and http://www.decorativepainters.org/ for decorative painting. JOIN TODAY!!!!!!

See us at the Wichita SDP Conference in May 2010 at booth #317..........See ya there. Until Next Time, Happy Painting.