Harlan Simon of Oakland runs a small Oakland-based craft business, making artisanal glass and jewelry. Harlan says the economy has hurt all artisans. “People have less disposable income these days, if they are lucky to have any, yet quality work with quality components is ever more expensive to produce.”
Making a bead provides almost instantaneous satisfaction, says Harlan. It reaffirms a person's intrinsic abilities and capacities for mastery. The essence of being human is creativity, says Harlan, and the ancient artform of flamework is mesmerizingly fun and therapeutic. "This has always been important," he says, and is especially so now, where underemployment really knocks us off balance, not just financially, but emotionally.
Harlan loves teaching his beadmaking skills to others. In teaching, Harlan feels he fulfills a public service by providing a creative outlet. In teaching more, Harlan derives supplementary income, keeps busy, and he continues growing as a glassmaker."Teaching forces me to develop new techniques,” Harlan declares. He presently teaches flamework glass beadmaking at Oakland's historic Studio One Art Center (next workshops Sept. 23 and 24), where he learned his craft more than a decade ago.
As for on-line sales and getting on the technology bandwagon, Harlan's website - harlanbeads.com - still lacks a sales platform, but Harlan believes his crucial next step will be to ratchet up his “virtual presence” and increase website sales functionality. He now has a Harlan Glass Facebook page, a website, a twitter link, a shopping cart, and a blog. Each social media type, Harlan says, displays and sells product, showcases his upcoming glassmaking workshops, or attempts to give Harlan the more modern edge that struggling small business owners are working so hard to achieve in order to survive.
On the show schedule front, Harlan now focuses more on local events to save on gas and show fees. He says his new strategy places him more squarely with "his people" - neighbors, families, and friends. In this vein, the Oakland Farmers Market at Lake Merritt on Saturdays has been a good venue. Harlan will also be at a wonderful neighborhood festival, Out And About in Rockridge, on College Avenue, in Oakland, Sunday September 26th. Readers are encouraged to check out harlanbeads.com to see where Harlan will be on any given weekend, and to support our local artists.
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