Notes on Practice and Pricing
Letting the notes find their way
Dear Reader,
I have never had an online quilt shop because I thought if I had an online quilt shop I would hate making quilts. I have a BFA in Dance but I’ve barely made any money dancing in the last twenty years because I think a part of me so desparately wants to protect how much I love to dance that to monetize it would be to risk losing the sacred nature of its form.
Here I am, five days away from my first solo art show, and I will indeed have quilts for sale. When I was going to price them I felt stuck like, should they each be a few hundred dollars, a few thousand dollars, or a million dollars? A friend suggested thinking about the hours I spent on them. But what about the hours pouring over the quilt books in the back of John King or the hours dreaming of color combinations. How do you factor in seeing quilts in every crack in every sidewalk?
I bring all of this to my journal. My morning pages journal always the same, the cover appearing in different shades of kraft or pastels or this time a bright pink. Always the same size just shy of 5.5 by 8.5 - enough to fill a page triumphantly but not get tired.
I bring it to the page because this is where the answers come, the clarity emerges. The price emerges. $750. $2000. $355. I price to sell. Not because I do not think I am worthy of more, but because I want these blankets on a white wall to find their homes on a bed.
Last semester in grad school I worked on two pieces of writing that will appear in the show catalogue for The Quilt As Archive which you can purchase for $15 here. It includes a long form poem, essay about the AIDS Memorial quilt and group quilts, a bibliography of my personal quilt library that will be in the gallery, and images of each quilt.
The show opens this Saturday July 12 at Cedar North from 5-8pm and I am hosting free drop in community sewing hours starting today through Friday from 1-3pm (sewing machines and fabric provided)
If you find yourself on the way to beach, come by. I continue to find tracking our hours is not just about the making but about the deep reverence, the practice, the time it takes to become.
Quilts hold time in this way, in each stitch a memory or a fact or a certainty of faith. A soft archive, holding steady when everything else seems to fail so easily.
We keep going, patiently, letting the work become part of us as we become part of it.
A question to my readers : What is an integral part of your practice that you do not monetize? Why is this so? Are you pleased by this decision? Reply to this email and let me know, I’d truly love to hear from you!
Things of Note :
I released my first FREE Pilates warm up video. You can download it here. Just practicing.
There are only THREE spots left in my QUILT CAMP retreat with guest teacher saylem m celeste September 5-8 in Cedar, MI. Sunset swims, radical quilt lectures, new friends, and more!
I loved this episode of Off The Grid with Jen Carrington - very few people talk about self employment and being chronically ill the way Jen does and Amelia continues to run one of the greatest podcasts of our time
I have a survey open right now about your small business TECH STACK if you’d like to fill it out. Everyone who fills it out will have access to the results by Friday. Over 150 responses so far!
Two of my coolect friends Holly Whitaker and J Wortham talk on Holly’s new podcast about how to stay present during collapse
Three books I picked out and skimmed while eating at Hexenbelle the other evening - would recommend them all - especially Moral Abdication
CLASSIFIEDS : Crafted over seven years of drawing, writing, and wandering Pacific Northwest trails, Magic Flowers is a plant poetry oracle deck made just for you. Somatic business & social media support to find your peace. Book a free call to explore 1:1 or join the Gentle Momentum Group Do you know how to tell your story? This season on Thinking on Thinking we’re sharing the secrets of making and telling the story you want told. Watch now on Spotify OPT OUT: How to Quit Meta, Google, or Amazon with Ease — Craft a softer, surveillance-free life online with Amelia of Off the Grid podcast ⟡ July 15-17 on Zoom ⟡ Take $10 off with code MONDAYMONDAY Designers, crafters & color lovers: meet your new fave tool! Palette Scout is a deck of cards with 180 colors, here to help you build color palettes with ease. More color, more joy!
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Are.na
Email : info@codycookparrott.com
Website : https://www.codycookparrott.com
Writing Group : Landscapes
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