the joy of art. . .

When I first took up painting it was just for fun, a bit a of a lark really, just something I always wanted to try, a curiosity thing.  One day I spotted a going out of business sign on an art store window and went in just to look around, again just basically curiosity.  I found this portable fold-able easel and it was just so marked down and I had the money so. . .I bought it just because I could. 😏

When we were living in New York I started playing with paints. I have no formal training, nothing past basic art classes in junior high and high school so I was learning by doing just swirling paint on canvas until I liked the way it looked. 😄  It was fun. I didn't really take it too seriously, but I posted a few photos and they got really positive response so after a lot of mental debate I decided to list some in my etsy and lo and behold a couple sold. I was shocked, thrilled but shocked. 😇 Life stuff happened and we ended up packing up and moving across country. It wasn't a happy move exactly, the company we hired subcontracted out to some half ass people who damaged and lost a lot of our stuff.  It's was a depression trigger and I didn't unpack everything, specifically I didn't unpack my painting stuff for months.  The other day I decided to go ahead and unpack and set up my easel.

I got out a canvas and decided to try painting again. My first piece back I decided to try something different, when it was done and I looked at it drying I actually cried tears of joy.    

I didn't realize how much joy painting added to my life, I didn't realize just how much I missed it.  I am so glad I finally unpacked, it feels great to be painting again. 

New things, Research and development. . .

I found barrette blank bases at the craft store and decided to make some chainmaille hair accessories.  😍  I spent several hours on several days testing different combinations of chain patterns in different sized rings to find ones that fit just so on the clips.  Research and development, it's a process. 😄

I really wanted the chainmaille segments to just fit on the clips so I wouldn't have to use any kind of glue or anything when mounting the chain to the clips just rings.  😏 

I have succeeded for the most part. 😉 I have found several combinations that work really well but I have decided against using certain patterns/combos that don't fit so well.  I know many chain patterns but I will not be making barrettes with all of them because some of them I just don't like the way the chain lays and some of them don't fit the clips and I don't want to use glue all the time. 

So far I have only used glue on 1 and although it worked well and I do like the finished piece, I would prefer not to become reliant on adhesives for the attachment.  I don't know if I trust glue. 😖

This triple flower is the only one with glue, the center just wanted to droop, I just couldn't get it to fit tight enough to stay where I wanted it.  😩  So I used some adhesive to make it stay where I wanted and just put rings on the ends as reinforcement. 😊

All of the styles in this blog post are listed for sale in the shop.

Etsy forums. . .

Etsy has ruined the forums.  😖 Totally ruined, they outsourced it and the layout, functionality, everything is wrecked. 😕

It is butt-ugly. 
It is impossible to sort out and find things.
The pictograph icons for sections just look retarded. 

I could go on but what's the point? I hate it and I will no longer even bother to look at it.  The old format had some issues and it was said that only a small percentage of Etsy users used the forums but I would bet money that that small percent just got a lot smaller. 😒

Re-stocking . . .

While many of the things I sell are in fact "one of a kind" there are a few that I re-make regularly.  Chainmaille is easy to remake, let's face it as long as I can get the same rings I can re-create anything I've made but I don't do it all that often because I like to make things different. 😉 

The wire tree sculptures where meant to be one of a kind things but I have made an exception for the rainbow&stars version because it is so popular and being a bit simple it's easy to re-create, although, even with the same colors and the same number of wires and the same number of stars, no two actually look alike. 

I've sold almost a dozen of these between the 2 sizes in the last 3 years. 😮  After the first set sold so fast at an event I remade them so I could post them online and they sold out again, at that point it became obvious that as much as I like doing "one of a kind" things I need to keep these little babies in stock.  😉  So I try to do just that and I usually make them in sets, making 2-3 at a time.  I keep the 5" inch size made in both silver and gold base hoops. Originally I have only made the 3" inch size in the silver hoop but I am now adding a gold hoop version of it too.  😊  I'll have to shoot new listing photos and update the listing with a the new "variation" tomorrow, but it is laying on my work-bench. 

Happy New Year. . .new listings

Well it's now 2019 and as a new year begins I find myself re-editing and updating a ton of listings. 😏  

I have learned over the years that seasonal tags can be highly effective to improve views and sales but that means that they need to be changed ya' know "seasonally".  As the holiday season expired I have begun changing over my holidays and tags from "Christmas" to Valentine's and Mother's day.  I am simultaneously adjusting my shipping prices because in a couple of weeks the postal rates will go up as they do annually.  😖  

I am also updating some of my listings with new photos, as some of my listings have really old original photos taken on non-standard backgrounds and I'm trying to get them all on white or black and eliminate the wood grain.  I have shot hundreds of photos in the last week and spent hours and hours editing, cropping, and adjusting them.  I have re-made the Japanese Lace Bubbles bracelets that had sold out and even made the gold on gold version and renewed the listing with all new photos.  😇  I shot photos with the rosettes necklace, bracelet, and earrings in a set and made a new listing in sets.  I also edited up some of the rosette photos into a new Valentine's sale banner. 

I made a new bracelet with a variation of the Japanese Lace pattern and I LOVE it, so much that I am still debating on if I'm going to list it or not.  There is a part of me that really wants to keep it. 

It's totally gorgeous and

 It does fit me perfectly, after all 😉

Although it took so many rings that I am practically out of the small 4 mm size and had to order more.  I did a quick count and there are nearly 500 rings in this bracelet, so if I decide to list it for sale it will not be cheap. 😉 

I'm a winner !!

No seriously, I was one of the winners in Etsy's Holiday Free Shipping drawing.  I was totally shocked by the email stating I had won, mainly because I only set up "free shipping" for orders over a set $amount and had very few orders qualify for free shipping. 😏  

In spite of the limit and the few qualifying orders some how I won. 😲  That's the astonished face 😲 as I never "win" anything. ~LOL~

I did not win the $25,000 top prize but I am not complaining about the $250 I did win, that will supply advertising budget for the next year. 😊

Etsy 2018 Year in Review . . .

Ok so Etsy did a "year in review" thing for my shop. 😊 It's a bit like the Facebook "your year on facebook" memories thing. Etsy's version is not a video though it's a really long scrolling page with some cute graphics and shop statistics and other stuff. 

These are just a few screen shots of my "year in review" there was a lot of other stuff in there like total $$$ sales, some info on other things my buyers searched for and bought, general shopping trends, info and articles on new shop tools, SEO, links to see the TV commercials, etc.

Thanks Etsy