Petition re: Austin Hamilton beads

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/872722428

"A request that Minek INC state in all their advertisements, auctions and sales listings the country of manufacture of the beads sold by Minek and all subsidiary companies such as Austin Hamilton."

This is to request that the company use "truth in advertising"-- that is, to identify the country of origin (China), rather than imply that they are made by small-studio artisans in Canada. Petition is to be sent to beading magazines that carry advertizing for the company.

ATTN: any US military vets/spouses of vets

http://www.firstgov.gov/veteransinfo.shtml

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has recently learned that an employee, a data analyst, took home electronic data from the VA, which he was not authorized to do. This behavior was in violation of VA policies. This data contained identifying information including names, social security numbers, and dates of birth for up to 26.5 million veterans and some spouses, as well as some disability ratings. Importantly, the affected data did not include any of VA's electronic health records nor any financial information. The employee's home was burglarized and this data was stolen. The employee has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

Museum Shop Sales....

About 6 weeks ago, I joined the San Diego Art Institute >>www.sandiego-art.org<< as an "associate member", and about a month ago, brought in some of my crochet work for the gift shop. This past week, I found two of the items had sold-- a shrug and one of my bead-crocheted purses. Two more shrugs went in Thursday... by request of the shop director.

It's rather high-priced as a venue... 45% commission + 3 hrs volunteer work/month for members to have items in the gift shop. I also found out (when I got my check), they take out fees for credit card purchases from the artist share of the purchace price. Kinda explains why the prices in the gallery are so high....

Oh, well, I joined for other reasons, really. So far, I've attended 3 of the classes they sponsored-- two on the business side of art (copyright and tax stuff) and one on digital image printing. The next few aren't of much interest, but there is one on framing I plan to attend this Fall. I'll also be entering a piece in a gallery event in June-- they call it a "C-Note Sale". Any "elegible" piece priced at $100, $200 or $300... and sales are split 50/50 with the artist. "Elegible" means it has to be "fine art", which essentially means, it has to be framed to hang on the wall, or mounted to stand on a table.... All their gallery shows are juried, so it'll be wait & see whether I even get in. I am framing a beaded crystal cluster-- it was going to be a brooch or a collar style necklace center, but it's really too big to do either well.