I began writing this post a few days before my episode for Make it at Market aired...
It has been an intense and emotional journey so far. I have been lucky to meet some incredible people along the way. The production team at Flabbergast Tv have been immensely supportive through the process, but it has still been a hard slog to get to this point. When I knew I was going to be on the show my first thought was wondering who my mentor would be. The stained glass world is relatively small and there were only a handful of possibilities. On the first day of filming I drove through the carpark and spotted my mentor instantly. Derek Hunt is a renowned stained glass artist and educator and an all round lovely man. I have followed his you tube channel for a while and loved his approach of teaching. I instantly knew I was in good hands!
As you will see on the show there are several creative stations and each creator is paired with someone> I was paired with Emily Smale from Beetles and Bloom, another stained glass person who specialises in glass flowers and foliage. We got along instantly and since being on this adventure have become great friends and still speak to each other daily, discussing tips and sharing things we are unsure of or have learnt.
Emilys episode aired a few days before mine. The evening it went out she sent me a whats-app video of her phone pinging with messages and orders. It was hilarious and a relief to know that our hard work would pay off.
I am now writing 3 days after my episode and I have been completely overwhelmed by the response I have received. My website pretty much sold out in an hour and a half of the show going out. I am snowed under, exhausted and incredibly emotional. I am frantically trying to get all ready to buy pieces sent out as soon as possible, which I think will take several weeks. I really should have research shipping options and the administration printing side of things as everything is taking so long. Meanwhile my phone still sounds like its malfunctioning as it continues to ping with pre-orders. I haven't even looked at the requests for commissions, so far there are over 150, which range from small pieces to lido loops to large windows. So many messages of congratulations, so many saying how inspiring it was, so many asking me about teaching courses, it is truly amazing and terribly daunting. The only slight glimmer of light is that I put a 12 to 16 weeks lead time on my pre-orders. I wasn't even going to do pre-orders! Literally the night before I thought to myself that this could be a very short lived experience, I might not even sell anything. What if no one likes me. I went into total self doubt. So to maximise on the show going out, I decided to add "Margot" the piece that I made on the show, plus two customisable designs. These have proved to be very popular and thank goodness for the long lead time, although I am still worried that I wont get them all out in time. I am over the moon that people are prepared to wait that long for a piece of my work and I am going to love making each and every one of them.
Cheers to Make it at Market Margot!!!
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