MEGAN AUMAN

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heidi lowe gallery

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On the way home from the beach, I stopped by Heidi Lowe Gallery in Rehoboth Beach, DE to check out the Earring Show.  Heidi runs such an adorable gallery that carries really innovative art jewelry.  I’ve been lucky enough to be represented by her for the last few years.  (Heidi and I also teach together in the Metals + Jewelry and Interdisciplinary Object Design department at Towson Univeristy – but we almost never see each other, because we’re always there on different days!)
Heidi changes the displays for every show – and the results are always fresh and fun.  If you’re heading towards the beach in Delaware or Maryland this summer, I highly recommend stopping by.  The Earring Show just came down, but I’m guessing Jim Charles solo show will be worth checking out too.  (And be sure to browse the drawers for all Heidi’s represented artists, including yours truly.)

free FREE

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I’ve been anxiously awaiting the release of Chris Anderson’s Free: The Future of a Radical Price for months.  Since it came out on Tuesday, while we were still at the beach, I reserved a copy at the local bookstore so I could be sure to have it right away.
Imagine my surprise when I got home from the beach to find a Free copy waiting for me.  (Ok, I shouldn’t have been too surprised, since I did request it.)  The good news for you, my wonderful readers, is that I’ve now got an extra copy and I’m giving it away!  (Sorry though, I’m keeping the copy signed by the author – blogger’s privilege.) 
All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, and on Monday afternoon, I’ll pick a winner.  
And in case you’re wondering, I’m about 3/4 of the way through the book, and so far, its excellent.  It’s really got me thinking about new ways to approach my business.  (I’ll post a full review here once I’m done reading.)
Good luck!

what I’m reading: the pine island paradox

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After seeing The Pine Island Paradox mentioned on Laura’s blog, I promptly added it to my “on the beach” reading list. In the book, author Kathleen Dean Moore writes about her connection to nature, and most importantly what it means to love a place.
For most of my adult life, I’ve felt more connected to the beach than anywhere else. I worked there for 4 summers during college, and inevitably at some point during the summer, I find myself wishing I was there. But as I sat on the beach reading Moore’s description of what it means to love a place, I found myself wishing I was somewhere else – home.
Other than the 7 years I was in college and grad school, I’ve lived my whole life in a small town in Pennsylvania. And I was never really happy there. Until I started bicycling last year. Suddenly, I was exposed to all the natural beauty that comes with living in a rural place. As I’ve ridden my bike along the base of the mountains, through rolling farmland, and into sun-drenched valleys, I’ve realized how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place.
Today while riding, another rider came up behind me and asked for directions. As we talked, he told me he lived in San Francisco, but had grown up in the area and was thinking of moving back because it was “just so beautiful here.” It made me laugh, because on our trips to San Francisco (especially when we were north of the bridge in Marin County), Joe and I marveled at how beautiful it is there, and how we’d like to move. But as I’ve put more miles on my bike here at home, I’ve grown so attached to the natural world around me.
Reading The Pine Island Paradox really reminded me of our human need to be connected to nature. It also strengthened my desire to help more people get on bikes. I’ve lived in this area for 20 years, but I only felt connected to it when I started experiencing it by bike. If more people felt that connection to the natural world around them, imagine what a better world we’d live in.

what I’m reading: business and the buddha

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what I'm reading: business and the buddha

Since I’m thinking more about the kind of business I want to have, and the importance of creating value (and not just making money), I pulled Business and the Buddha from my stack of “to be read” books.

I didn’t really find most of the ideas in the book earth shattering (though perhaps they would be if I was the CEO of GM or some other company like that).  Instead, they reinforced what I’ve already been thinking about.  Author Lloyd Field stresses that the primary goal of any business should be to “Cause No Harm,” whether it be to the environment, employees, or customers.  Field then goes through Buddhist principals to help clarify how a business can “Cause No Harm” and “Create a Better Society.”

One of the most important ideas I took from the book was my need to create a value statement.  Its clear to me that in my business, my goal isn’t just to create profit, but I really need to clarify my values and communicate those to my customers as well.  

create (value) every day

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As some of you may have noticed, I did not attend this year’s SNAG conference.  But I did have one of my friends pick up some information from the Professional Development Seminar for me.  I was curious to know how the information was similar or different from what I had presented the previous year.

One of the handouts was basically an advertisement for services the speaker’s company provided.  One of the those services was a kind of social media set-up – basically the company would build you a Facebook or MySpace page and then spend 2-3 hours teaching you “best practices.”  The cost for this service – $750!
My first reaction was, “I’ve got to get in on that. I could make bank!”  And in fact, I’ve toyed with the idea of doing web and social media consulting before, particularly after I presented at the PDS in Savannah.  But, at this point in my life, I can’t decide if its something that I would want to do.  
You see, I’ve become increasingly concerned about what I do providing value to the world around me.  Its taken me a while to get there, but I think I’ve come to appreciate that the things I make and design do add value to people’s lives.  (At least I hope they do.)  And I certainly believe that all my bike advocacy and education activities help improve the community around me.  (If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be doing them.)  But setting up someone’s Facebook page?  I just don’t see the value in that.  As a friend recently pointed out to me, apparently this makes me “an entrepreneur, but not a capitalist.”  
I couldn’t agree more that I’m an entrepreneur.  I come up with a new business idea practically every week.  (And I swear I’m going to do a better job of writing them down.)  But most of them have a greater purpose than just to make as much money as humanly possible.  I just don’t believe that is the be all, end all in life.
On Thursday, I went to Ignite Baltimore and one of the speakers was Jim Kucher, who heads the Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Baltimore.  Jim spoke about businesses that fall under the rough banner of Social Entrepreneurship.  For-profit companies that are using their profits to generate real change.  These businesses are the future of activism in America.  In fact, Jim went so far as to say that “charity cannot fund systemic change”.  I was truly inspired by his talk.
So, where am I going with all of this?  Well, while riding my bike today, I was thinking about the best ways to help encourage more people to bike.  In the past, I’ve always thought about starting a non-profit of my own.  But today I wondered, why does it have to be a non-profit?  Why can’t I create programs or services that help fund other programs and services?  What if I became a bicycle consultant?  (For lack of a better term – and I seriously need to come up with a better term.)  Perhaps I couldn’t charge $750.  But for certain things (say, services to other businesses) maybe I could.  The point is that I’d be doing something I believe in.  I’m not quite sure what any of this would look like yet, but I think its an idea worth pursuing further.  Any suggestions?
Oh, and if you’re still reading at this point in the post, the little journal (which I’m planning on using to write down more of my business ideas) is from Compendium Incorporated.  They were giving them away at the National Stationary Show.  Which, in my mind, is a pretty good way to create a fan for life.

5 bowls

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My summer class is over – but I think I managed to make some good progress.  Here are the 5 bowls I completed.  
But I’m still not done with my raising exploration – I’m planning on spending some more time in the studio at school this summer.  After we get back from the beach, that is!

Sunday afternoon eye candy, courtesy of my students

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For my summer session class, I assigned my students a paper (its actually a University mandate for 100-level art electives).  I decided to have my students choose one artist from Klimt02 and discuss their work.  I had a lot of fun reading their papers and gaining insight into some jewelers I don’t usually look at.  Here are some of their finds:



Ela Bauer – 



tri, tri again

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This morning I did my second triathlon of 2009.  This one certainly had some advantages over the last one – it was women only (which is just cool), the field was much smaller (200 vs 750), and it was a pool swim (no freezing cold lake).  I’m not totally happy with my time – I had a really rough run.  I developed a horrible side stitch just past mile 1, and it took me a mile to work it out.  
But I’m trying to focus on the positives.  Even though my bike time was a little slower than I would have liked, I was pleased with how the bike went.  I didn’t get passed by a single rider, and spent the bike just focusing on the next person in front of me, picking people off one by one.  Then, part way through the ride, two guys out for their Sunday ride turned onto a road just as I was turning.  One of the guys told me I had a really, really cool bike and wished me luck in the race.  The two guys got a little ahead of me on the downhill, but I managed to hang with them on the next uphill and pass them on the uphill after that.  How’s that for a confidence boost?
Now I’ve got to find a fall tri to do!

ornament prototypes

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After getting everyone’s feedback on the ornament (both here and on Twitter), I was able to step back and really think about my collection and what I wanted to do.  I also thought about some of my goals when designing the new collection, including the major goal of developing things I didn’t have to make.  And yet as much as I love the new collection, I realize that the price point is a little high for many people, especially right now.
So it seems only fitting to develop a line of laser cut ornaments using the patterns in my new collection.  They could function as a much more affordable version of my line.  (Hopefully – I have sent the designs to my laser cutter for a quote yet.)  
These are just the prototypes that I hand pierced to get a feel for the designs.  What do you think?  I still haven’t settled on how to hang them yet.