I’ve gone to SNAG and met a lot of wonderful artisans who make
beautiful jewelry.
I am a business owner - I’ve had a gallery for about 5 years - and
we are still in business.
I have a business background. I’m also an artist - and have that
background too.
I don’t understand why there should be TWO conferences - other than
for pleasure of competition - which I don’t think is necessary in
this case. We are all making jewelry, we all strive to sell our
work, and to, perhaps, make a profit?!?
I want to buy stuff that will help me be more creative and will
entice people to buy my stuff. I understand that CLASP had nothing
for sale. I wonder why?
I think CLASP and SNAG should combine so that we don’t have to make
a choice as to WHICH conference we want to go to. I don’t think the
split is a good thing. Wouldn’t a conference of thousands be better
than one with only hundreds attending?
Art is creativity. Art can be conceptual. Art can be beautiful, it
can be ugly! As they say, “to each their own.”
The other thing I need to mention is that “today, going to any
conference is VERY, VERY expensive and there aren’t many 'ARTISTS’
who can afford to go to even one conference, let alone two!”
I’m sorry that so many have to miss out on either or both!
(Karen, this is not addressed to you directly, it’s addressed to
all!)
Having different conferences in different areas of the country
allows MORE people to get something out of the experience. I went to
the Bench Jewelers conference in Atlanta last year. It was so
wonderful to be with a large group of people who do the same thing I
do. There are not a whole lot of people in our every day lives that
even have a clue about what we do. The experience was great and I got
so much out of it. I personally will go to any of them that is going
down in the south. The more the merrier!
For a Clasp contact at Rio Grande, email Emily Rivera. eriveria@tbg.riogrande.com If she is not the correct individual, she
will get it to the correct place.
As someone involved in both SNAG and Clasp, I think they’re apples
and oranges. They each exist to enhance and advance your work and
career, taking different approaches. Frankly I’d rather they not
become too much more like each other since they each fill a distinct
place in the field.
SNAG’s conference focuses primarily on the artist, the work, the
muse, the inspiration, the “why,” while providing fun opportunities
for networking, community and connections to your peers and
colleagues. We feature a dozen presentations and six to ten
concurrent exhibitions around the city. Then we throw a dash of
"business" thrown into the mix.
As others have eloquently described, the first Clasp delivered
concrete about method and business with creativity thrown
into the mix. I’d be hard pressed to presume which one is more
"relevant"—technique doesn’t exist without inspiration, beautiful
work can’t be sold without knowing more about business. They’re
interwoven and complementary.
minor postscript: SNAG has never offered a DVD of its conferences.
It’s inspired of Rio Grande to do this as value-added to the Clasp
conferees.
I’m coming, I’m coming, just tell me where and when!!! So, much
positive wordage regarding Clasp, it makes me sorry I didn’t go. But
going to Tennessee from CA was just too much this year for me.
You have spoken for all of us. that is how, each year, I feel in
Tucson. The camaraderie that has developed at The annual Orchid
Dinner, is beyond wonderful. Deep friendships have formed where
there was only Orchid Forum posting knowledge of one another.
Rio Grande’s Catalogue in Motion does similar. The mystery of the
usefulness of a tool one is mulling over buying, is solved by the
easy hands on demonstrations, be it a new thread for beading, or a
laser. The free demonstrations offered every day are a great value
to all.
I know finances are a very important consideration, they always are
for me. Many a year, I slept in my car parked on one of the hotel
lots, cleaning up and changing in the lobby rest room, showering in
a friends room.
When a conference such as Clasp, is not in your immediate
geographical area, keep an eye out for heavily discounted air fares.
Sharing hotel rooms can be fun, three of us shared in Nashville.
Look to how to make it happen, I doubt you will be sorry.
I would agree that SNAG and Clasp both have different things to
offer. I also feel that combining the 2 would not, in the long run,
truly benefit either. Although I feel that there needs to be a more
fluid, grounded and non-contentious relationship between what I
consider to be the two poles of the field, I think that trying to get
everything into one place dilutes the whole thing. (This all has been
discussed in some form and at some length already on this forum and I
have no wish to revisit the dialogue…)
Someone had posted a comment with what I took to be the implication
that staging one large conference would yield the added benefit of
attracting a larger audience and a physically larger attendance.
As a long time attendee of SNAG conferences I must say that from my
personal experience and inclination, bigger is not always better.
While the most recent SNAG conference this past May in Chicago was
one of my favorites (and the largest, I think, to date with 900 or so
attendees) the smaller conferences have their own charm and intimacy.
I’m not sure that trending larger is necessarily the best
evolutionary goal.
Another interesting facet, since SNAG San Francisco, of the
conferences has been the Professional Development Seminar (PDS).
This program, offered pre-conference in the afternoon before the Pin
Swap and at the hotel, has, so far, been free and in the future will
cost $10.00. This is for 4 hours of presentations targeting more of
the nuts and bolts issues of marketing, building and sustaining a
career in metals, insurance, employment options, vanity publishing,
safety, etc. this very useful and a nice counter point
and balance to the at times more academic sensibility of the main
conference. Check out the SNAG website at www.snagmetalsmith.org. I
believe that the PDS really rounds out the conference. Check it out.
Andy Cooperman
PDS commmittee member (in the interest of full disclosure)