Franken-Art . . .

YES !!!  Crazy artsy art has ensued, I'm calling it "Franken-art" because much like the fictional monster made of parts these incorporate multiple styles and techniques.  😄 I've learned a lot of craft techniques and assorted skills over the years but most of what I know about painting came from watching Bob Ross pain "happy little trees" when I was young.  In other words painting is not really a solid skill for me, I've never been that good at drawing either, there are many many things I do much better.  😉

Still I think I did pretty good as these actually turned out really close to what I was imagining.  😏  They are far from perfect and I'm pretty sure I can do better but you know what they say about practice. 

Inspiration. . .

Creative inspiration comes from all sorts of places for different people, I'm not always sure where mine comes from. Sometimes I just imagine something, a picture just pops in my head, or I'll see something interesting and then think of other ways it could be done differently. 

Lately I've been dreaming up all kinds of things I want to do, literally.  The weird thing is it's not just a new chain pattern, or a new idea for the wire sculptures, I'm actually thinking about Art.  Like art Art like painting on canvas and mixed media ideas of painting with ashes combined with ribbon embroidery incorporating jumprings.  😍  

So many ideas, I have a list of earring styles and patterns I wanted to get made up and added to the Etsy shop but I'm distracted by the swirl of other ideas.  I have tons of supplies and a variety of "skills" and I'm really dreaming up some crazy stuff.  BUT if these things turn out anywhere near as cool as they look in my head the OMG they will be fabulous. 😋

I have to go ship some orders and do some shopping but I am seriously contemplating diving into a whole new vein of crafts. 

new listings. . .

Custom orders are as finished as they can be for now, I am still looking for more bells.  😉  I have moved on to making new stuff just to add to the store, new trees, new color combinations, more Celtic wings.   I realized I only had 1 bracelet and earring set and 1 bracelet listing with multiple colors, making the Celtic wings a rather underutilized pattern.  So I have added 2 listings so far, 1 for a full rainbow anklet and a second set.  

The color combination on the new bracelet and earring set is based on the bisexual Pride flag, and I really like how it turned out.

I was thinking I should do a set in all the versions of Pride flags but I looked up a guide and got a bit overwhelmed.  Seriously depending on where you look there are anywhere from 9 to 30-ish versions. ~sigh~  😱  So while I may do more versions I will likely not do "all".  ~LOL~  

awww crap. . .

I know some Etsians have long wanted more than 5 photo slots per listing but I was never one of them.  😩  Seriously, I've often had problems using all 5 slots, how many angles can you really get on a bracelet?  Doing the EtsyRank thing it downgraded listings that didn't have all 5 photo slots filled. I had to go back through all my listings and re-shoot new photos and extra photos, it was a total pain in the you know what but I did it.  Ok, I at least tried to do it, there are a few listings where the newer photos didn't turn out well enough to use so there are still listings that don't have 5.

So I am really not among the happy people with this new roll-out of 10 photo slots. 😒

Crap do I really need to go back and re-shoot new/more photos for all my listings?!?!?  😱  Again?!?  I am well over 100 listings now so lets just think a minute on the volume of photo work that would entail.  135 active listings currently all missing at least 5 photos, not every photo is going to turn out usable so to get 675 "good" photos I'd probably have to take more than a Thousand. 😰

I think for now I'll just try to have more photos when I make new listings going forward but good grief! I feel a bit like charlie Brown, they keep moving the ball.  

I need more bells. . .

Sadly of all the bells I ordered I am disappointed in most of them, the one was a size too small, two of them are too shiny/too silver, one of them turned out to be poorly plated and discolored badly when it got wet.  😱   

So of the 5 orders I only have 1 serviceable option and those are perfect in every way but one, they were limited quantity.  😡  Go figure I spend days of online searching for bells and 1 one that works best is a vintage discontinued version I could only find in an Etsy shop.  I bought all they had but that was only 20 and I'm making anklets so I'd really like more than 10 each.

It's hard to work out the spacing it just does seem to be coming out evenly, it would be easier with even just a few more bells. ~sigh~

I'm off to scour the internets for more dark grey anodized aluminum 9 mm jingle bells.

waiting on the bells. . .

I have finished the pair of matching rainbow anklets but now I am stuck waiting on the bells I ordered.  They are supposed to go on these anklets but I'm not sure any of the ones I ordered are even going to match or work.  😳

In the meantime, since I'm at a standstill with that custom order I will go back to making new wire tree sculptures.  😇