CAS PROJECT
Creative Rock Painting + Marketing + Selling for Glimz and Glamz
Overview
During one of the holidays, I got into the interest of rock paintings. I got inspired by the creative pictures I would see on my social media pages. For example, I would see people creating inspirational rocks, cartoon character rocks, aesthetically pleasing rocks, and so much more. Rock painting is limitless as there is a vast array of new ideas that can be formed. I enjoy painting rocks because I feel a sense of relief when I do so. There are no rules, you follow what you feel is right. After making over twenty rocks, I started thinking about selling them and giving 100% of the proceeds to a donation that I like to work with. Initially, I would promote my rocks on my personal social media accounts. However, it was clear that I wasn’t able to attract a large crowd as I was limited by how many people could view my posts. Thus, I started to think of other potential ways I could increase my customer radius…….
As my mom's jewelry line, Glimz and Glamz, was getting more and more popular, she started putting on more and more exhibitions. My mom allowed me to display my rock paintings at her exhibitions. I've attended well over a dozen exhibitions now, where I have sold my rocks.
Along with selling these rocks at my mom's start up business, I began to take an interest in the business. I started to play a large role in Glimz and Glamz. I marketed the products through an instagram account that I created and made numerous sales.
Therefore, this CAS project will focus on my involvement in the start up business, highlighting my role in the business, and how I was able to integrate the rock paintings into it.
CAS Learning Outcomes:
2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
Under the Action section
3. Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.
Under the Preparation section
Investigation
This project started with my interest in painting. Although I didn't choose to take any creative art subjects in school, it has always been a fond hobby of mine. My interest and talent in the arts, especially in creative painting, started in Grade 6 in my art class when we had no rules on one of the assignments. I was able to create whatever I wanted with no limitations. I could be as creative as I wanted. I ended up creating a bunch of rock paintings of all the characters from SpongeBob. This is what enlightened the idea of one part of my CAS project. Now that I am older, I am able to expand my horizons and try new things. So from only creating characters that I like, I started working on creative inspirational quotes with funky backgrounds to enhance the look. I got new ideas such as the inspirational quotes from my social media pages. I connected this hobby of mine to my mom’s start up business so I could extend the scope of my rock paintings. More about the relation to Glimz and Glamz, my mom’s start-up, is below.
Preparation
Focusing specifically on the creation of the rocks, I started creating them all a month before the first exhibition in which they were going to be displayed. This way, I would have enough time to buy/collect all the supplies (paint, brushes, rocks, etc), as well as create as many rock designs as I wanted. During this time frame, I also advertised each of the rocks on my personal social media accounts.
Focusing specifically on Glimz and Glamz, I currently manage the instagram page that I created over 4 years ago. I have also attended all of the exhibitions, where I helped make sales. In regards to the instagram page, there wasn’t much preparation needed as I already had the experience of using this app with my personal account. The main skill I had to master was time management. This is because my goal was to post a picture of our items at least once a week to keep all the followers updated. Some of the pictures that I posted are actually of my hand. I would be the hand model sometimes so the followers would get an idea of what the rings would look like on their hands. My other goal was also to post people wearing our products on our instagram’s story to keep everyone in the circle and feel a part of the journey. In regards to making the sales, this skill was mainly acquired through the process. The more I did it, the better I became at it. All my practice came from the different exhibitions we held up. For the sales section, the main resources were the jewelries and pouches for the jewelries, and of course, my self-painted rocks!
Action
The creation of the rocks were all original, they all depict whatever I was feeling the day I made them. If I was feeling more empowered, I would make more inspirational rocks than the character based rocks. And if I was in more of a jolly mood, it would be vise versa.
Once the time came to start making the rocks, I would begin by setting up my station. This aided me in being organized with the different shapes of rocks, colors, types of brushes, etc. This idea of organizing my station came up after my first attempt at painting a rock. Everything was very messy the first time. In fact, there were times when I mixed up the brushes and therefore used the wrong color by mistake, ruining the art of the rock. From then on, I realized the importance of organization. This was a problem that I was able to solve to make my next attempt more successful.
Moving on to Glimz and Glamz, we started off by unpacking all of our items at the place of the exhibition. We then laid down everything on our respective tables and organized them in a way that would attract more attention. We then took part in the hard labour of waiting for people to be interested. Once someone was interested, we would tell them more about the jewelry, such as its price. If we were able to make the sale, the next step would be to pack it up in it’s corresponding bag and then receive the money for the sold item.
A problem that arose during the sales of the Glimz and Glamz items was that I used the wrong bags sometimes. This meant that there were less amounts of the correct bags for the specific type of items. The solution to these recurring silly mistakes was the same thing, organization. After I separated the different types of bags out and put each close to their corresponding jewelry, I did not make any more silly mistakes regarding the bags.
Connecting Glimz and Glamz to the rock paintings, when a customer would purchase an item from Glimz and Glamz I would ask them if they would like to purchase a homemade rock painting. If the customers seemed interested in the rocks that I was selling next to the jewelry, I would inform them about my interest in rock painting and the fact that 100% of the proceeds would be donated. When selling a rock painting, the process of handing it over to the customers was the same as for the jewelry. The rock paintings would be packed in their corresponding bags.
Reflection
Everytime I sold something during the exhibition, I got so excited. If I sold my personally created rocks, I would be the happiest. The feeling of having someone appreciate something that you put time and effort into really means a lot. Knowing that there are people who are actually interested in the rocks I created and are willing to purchase it for a price really shows what a small act can do. To elucidate, the small act of me creating a rock painting and then someone buying it, could have helped a child get his/her lunch. This is because all the proceeds from the selling of the rocks went directly to the Kiiran care foundation.
Everytime someone bought something, I wanted to return the gesture by thanking them in a way that they could keep with them forever. I wanted them to remember our brand. Therefore, we designed new pouches to put the sold items in. These new pouches have our logo on it, as a special gesture of appreciation.
I have definitely grown from this whole experience as now I am skilled in talking to new people, being organized, managing my time, and more.
Demonstration
The pictures above depict everything that I have learned and all my accomplishments with this project.
The first three rocks I made for this project and some of the supplies needed for the creation of the rock paintings.
Some of the modeling work that I did for Glimz and Glamz with my own hands.
The Glimz and Glamz Instagram page that I created and currently manage.
Pictures of my mom and I at 2 of the most recent exhibitions.
The rocks at the exhibition.
The new designed Glimz and Glamz pouch.
*All proceeds from the rock paintings when to the Kiiran Care Foundation