What a joke. . .

 Sometimes I get these super ridiculous messages on instagram, they are just spammy sales pitches, sometimes in comments, sometimes via actual private messages. 

ceooftheceoOMG 😱 YASSSSS!!! 😍🔥 I love your feed your business and everything about it! We work for The 7 Figure Ceo & you would be so PERFECT for our $1 Million in 12 months course 💰💰📈 Your business growth potential is HUGE 😍 P.s there is currently 50% off too 🙊 If you are up for a crazy 12 months of intense business growth & Sales explosion click the link in our bio on our main account the7figureceo

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P.s here are a few # to boost your next posts

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#bossbabequotes
#manifestationbabe
#femaleentrepreneur⁠
#motivationalquotes
#bossbabesociete
#buildyourempire
#bossbabequote
#poshgirlsclub
#empoweringquotes
#femaleempowerment
#lovemyselffirst
#girlbosstribe
#girlsbuildingempires
#lifecoach
#womanpower
#girlpreneur
#buildinganempire
#empoweredwomen
#thefemalehustlers
#thebossbabesociete
#womeninbusiness
#bosschicks
#herbusiness
#onlinebusiness
#hersuccess
#girlbosslife
#femaleboss
#businessmindset
#bossladymindset

While I kind of appreciate the # suggestions I probably won't use any of them because I prefer to use things art related or chainmaille related.  I do not want to make my business ALL about me being a "woman business" I feel like there is some inherently sexist basis for that, like it's extra impressive if I'm successful because I'm just a silly little woman.  Or worse I should push that I'm a woman and people can buy stuff out of pity to support the little woman who tries so hard. 😞  

Maybe it's just me but it doesn't feel right, it feels disingenuous and almost like mockery.  Perhaps it's left-over annoyance from my teen years in archery where misogyny was a huge problem and I regularly had to prove that I was just as good a bow-tech as the "guys" (and I made better arrows). I fought that for years and it pissed me off nearly every day. 😕😣  

So let's set aside the "bossbabe" and "girlboss" BS which just rankles and to me is demeaning because the only one who should call me Babe is my husband and I have not been a "girl" in decades. 😐

I love emojis, I really do but that message is barely legible for pity sake, between the excessive emojis, the incomplete incoherent sentences, random capitalizations, multiple P.s.'s which by the way proper would be P.S. (as it stands for Post Script). That paragraph of mumbo-jumbo is basically everything I hate about "modern communication". 😕

However, the biggest issue I have with things like this is they are total BS, there is no way I can sell a Million dollars worth of handmade stuff in a year.  Mathematically it is not possible, most of what I sell has a price point between $20-$50 so I would have to sell some 30-50 Thousand items, which is impossible because there is absolutely no way I could even make that many handmade pieces in a year.  Seriously, I've been making wire trees for over 3 years and I've made about 200 of them, I've been painting for a couple years off and on and I've painted about 120 canvases I think.  My business model of actual handmade 100% by me simply does not allow for mass-production or reprints of my art, so I will never make a million dollars in 12 months unless I hit the lotto, which I do not play. 😏

Pinterest. . .

 I have become very annoyed with Pinterest lately and some of the changes they are making.  😕

I made the mistake of changing my page to have a "cover photo" and now I cannot get rid of it.  Literally there is no way to delete it and just be without one and there is no way to revert back to the previous format with pin photos.  I miss the collage effect and the continuous updating when adding new pins.

The stale stagnant cover photo concept stinks. Worse is I have tried 15 different versions and NONE of them fit right. 😟  When I open pinterest it loads funny on the screen, cutting the cover photo in half.

Now I'm stuck wondering does it do this to everyone or just me? 

Also, in spite of changing it multiple times and trying several different sizes, no matter what I upload it takes up a whole screen and opens weird. 😒  Now the basic buttons have changed, I used to be able to look at "boards" or pins, now it defaults to pins with "created" "saved" and "tried" not really helpful for my Business account perspective when I just want to know which board I last posted on.  It is made worse by the fact that there is a delay and an apparent selective memory in what pins it even shows me. 

And to rub inconvenience salt in the wound there is no button for "boards" anymore that I can find and I have clicked everywhere. I even went searching the help section where it claims you can select "featured boards" but the directions are bogus because when I tried the entire "featured" option in settings does not exist on my account.

Meaning in order to look at my preferred "boards" view I literally have to type in the URL and force it. 😕  I'm going to have to create another "bookmark" in my browser just to get to something that used to be a button right on the main page. I don't know whose idea this was but it's pretty stupid if you ask me. 

Feeling disillusioned . . . .

I find myself feeling rather disillusioned these days.

There are a few reasons for these feelings and it's rather personal. I know many people will not understand or care but I feel the need to express why I am feeling the way I am and some possible changes.

First, I have to say again, I never liked facebook.  I have written many times about how I don't like facebook but I don't usually go off on long involved rants about the manipulative Orwellian nature of social media. This being my "business" blog afterall, I don't normally talk about politics or the pandemic or my depression, but I am not just an artist and small business owner I am a whole person with many facets.  One of those facets is the fact that I have never trusted the concept of social media, before facebook even existed or became such a huge problem I'm talking back in the days when the daughter wanted to be on MySpace.  I have always had concerns about the use of social media, I have always had concerns about the manipulative and addictive nature, I have always had concerns about the depression triggers of one's self esteem and self worth being tied to a positive response of virtual strangers.  

Blame it on my IQ or my psychology and sociology classes I have always known the dangers and I resisted.  I watched as our daughter struggled in high school and I tried to limit the exposure and damage but I think I failed her. I resisted joining facebook for Years. I still refuse to join or even read Twitter or Reddit. These big tech companies are all about knowing you better than you know yourself so that they can manipulate you by manipulating the content you see in order to manipulate your thoughts and desires.  I for one have never been on board with signing away my free will and independence of thought.

"If you are not paying for the product, then you are the product."

I caved a few years back and finally joined facebook and created the business page and I have fought the controlling manipulative nature of the beast ever since.  I very rarely enjoy my use of facebook and the new format they are pushing, well I refuse to use.  It has been forced on my screen and each time it shows itself my brain rejects it, that may sound strange but it is true. There are subliminal psychological manipulative triggers built in and although I cannot fully identify them, as I am not in on what they are trying to do. I know they are there and my mind is resisting them because trying to use the new screen gives me a migraine-y headache in less than 10 minutes. Now you may be thinking "she's crazy I don't have that problem". I'm sure most people don't, the overwhelming majority of people will never realize what is happening to/in their brains, in fact, facebook is counting on that.  I am aware that this probably sounds paranoid and slightly insane but it is what it is and I am not wrong.  

I have tried for years to warn friends and family about facebook use, the dangers of oversharing, the data collection from what you think is innocuous comments that actually lead to identity theft, the loss of the concept of privacy.  No one listens, often they get defensive and take it personally like my attempting to warn them is somehow insulting their intelligence, even though if they were truly intelligent they would not need to be warned that publicly sharing everything with the entire globe is not really safe.  People who really should know better often revert to the child-like "everybody does it" defense, that my Momma always responded to with "if all your friends jumped off a bridge would you?"  

This is a fundamental personality trait you are either a jumper or a thinker and in the last couple of decades I have watched as our society has shifted proportionally to be more jumpers than thinkers.  I have watched as people I thought I knew have changed on a fundamental level from thinkers to jumpers and I find it really sad and hard to accept.  To be blunt and perfectly honest I don't want to play anymore, but our society has become so tech ingrained and dependent that there is virtually no escape.

The fact that the concept of a "social media cleanse"even exists should tip you off about the addictive and destructive nature of social media.  Think about it, if it were not addictive, manipulative, and destructive then you wouldn't need to "cleanse" which is like detoxing from heroine.  The problem is social media is not only as addictive as a dangerous drug, the real problem is people do not realize it and that makes it even more dangerous. If you knew a friend was addicted to a deadly drug you would want to get them help, you would want them to quit but with social media no one wants you to quit, everyone encourages you to not give up. 

I have had these growing concerns for a decade and I see the problems only getting worse. If you think this is purely paranoia maybe you should watch the Netflix show /the social dilemma_ where the founders and creators of these manipulations confess the true nature of what they created and how they have lost control. 

I plan to dramatically reduce my use of facebook and other social media.  I am aware that it will likely dramatically and negatively impact my business. Face it what is an online business without social media to promote it?  

Back to chainmaille. . .

I have been so busy for months now setting up the goimagine.com shop, getting to know the new platform, re-shooting photos for piles of stuff, trying out new art ideas, and on and on.  It has been pretty productive I have made lots of new art, I have nearly everything listed on goimagine that I want, but I had not made new chainmaille in months. 😕

Literally, the last new chainmaille I made was back in mid-June. 

And to be honest that didn't go exactly to plan, the centipede pattern I was trying didn't work as my rings are not the right proportion so I ended up with a variant.  

Now don't misunderstand me, I do think my variant is cool as heck, all double layered and unique, But it is not what it should be and it's not really what I had in mind. 😏 It's hard to be disappointed in something that turned out so pretty but that's where my crazy shows because I was, disappointed. 

However, even disappointing myself cannot keep me from playing with my rings forever.  Oddly it was the arrival of piles of new art supplies that turned me back to my rings. ~LOL~  I know I'm weird like that. 😇  I ordered some frames mainly because I got a good deal and I thought having the art framed might help it sell, I mean people don't always know what to do with a canvas by itself.  Unfortunately, I could only buy a few because even on super sale frames are expensive.  So I have 6 frames and literally 101 paintings to choose from. 😵  I have no idea how I'm going to decide which pieces to frame, the flag collection, the wood words collection, some of the older pieces? ?  😟  I just don't know, so I changed gears.

I ran back to my safety zone, playing with rings where RainbowMaille started.  When I was pulling out all my different colors I found a bag of odd ball larger rings that I ordered a while back.  I had wanted a slightly larger size for a pattern I wanted to try that required 3 sizes of rings, for all these years I have only had 2 sizes of anodized aluminum.  I know many are shocked when they realize I have managed to learn/make 16 patterns and variants with only 2 ring sizes.  😁  However when I ordered the "larger rings" I screwed up and bought the wrong size for what I had in mind at the time and was disappointed in myself when they arrived.  I just kind of chucked them in the drawer and sighed not knowing what to do with them as they were too big and all wrong proportionately. 

Sitting at my bench this past week, making a bracelet in a variant in new colors (I plan to gift it to someone) I started to contemplate the odd over-sized rings.

 
This is what I came up with, they remind me of quilt squares and now my brain is on fire trying to figure out what all I can do with them.  I like the idea of a single one in a diamond orientation as a pendant but I think I want it on a leather cord not a chain, as I don't like mixing chain patterns really sometimes it just looks weird. They would be great as earrings, I think they will fit on that barrette bases.

In the bracelet context I started debating whether they should be square and connected double corners, if it is then it's cuff-like and would need a sliding bar clasp.  They could be attached in a diamond orientation that makes it a bit weaker in appearance in the single attachment point but I can always triple up on the rings and it would be secure, although a narrow attachment leads me back to the standard lobster clasp, which leaves the clasp as the weak point. 

My concern there is because with 34 rings in a 1" inch square by the time you put 7-8 of them in a bracelet it could be a bit weighty, although it's anodized aluminum not steel or copper so really how heavy can it get?  Well that depends on if I actually use 7-8 in the bracelet I could always use extra rings maybe a mobius knot in between.  The design is sort of based on Helm's chain so these could be center emblems in a helms based bracelet, there are so so many possibilities.  😳

I ran from the art frames because I was having trouble making decisions and now I've landed myself right back in a pile of decision making. ~sigh~   That's life for ya' 😉

My art is . . .

 I want people to like my art. I want people to buy my art.

I do not want to make things I don't like just because people will buy it. (the definition of "selling out" in my opinion)

Sometimes being an artist is weird, or maybe I'm just a weird artist.  I make things because I had or have a picture in my head, a vision, an idea.  It has never been a goal to become rich or famous.  My art is a form of personal expression, while I hope it resonates with someone and I hope that people will like the things I make, it is not necessarily a goal. 😏 

This is where the "artist" and the "business owner" diverge. As a business owner, of course, I understand and recognize that "sales" and making money is important, for some people that is the entire goal and purpose.  But that is not really for me, I don't want to make "prints" and sell the same piece of art over and over until 100 people have the same thing.  I love making new things, I love making one of a kind things and I am happiest when I love the things I make. 😇

Art is incredibly subjective, every one likes different things, which is why generally speaking I do not create with an audience in mind. Now that may be incredibly naive and backwards to some but trying to think of what people will pay for has never been part of my creative process. 😕  I'm not sure I could that. 

Facebook. . .

 Facebook is annoying me, this is nothing new really facebook has been annoying me in various ways for years now. 😏

I have a business "page" which they said would be good for sharing and promoting a business and products. But it has never really worked that way, you only get seen if you pay for ads. I know that sounds cynical but 5 years of experience says it's just the way facebook works. My page has been building a following for years and sadly even though I have over 230 "likes" and over 240 "followers" when I post to my page my stats show an audience on average of 20 people.  So facebook does not serve my content to all my 240+ followers, which stinks considering those people took affirmative actions and clicked the like and/or follow to express their desire to see my content. 😕

I have known that for a couple of years now, as even my best friend never sees what I post on my business page even though she has both "liked" and "followed".  Now maybe she just doesn't scroll far enough in her feed or more likely facebook just doesn't put my page posts in her feed. 

Now for the last year facebook has been nagging at me via suggestions and notifications and other methods that I should start a "group" in support of my business "page". Until recently I resisted because it didn't seem to make sense, it seemed repetitive and pointless, and like a lot more work coming up with more posts, more content. However, in discussions last week someone else said something that made me re-think that. . .see when you are a member of a "group" and someone posts in the group you get a notification of the activity, most will click the notification and go to the group and see the new post, whereas when I post to my "page" no one gets an actual notification and it may or may not ever get served in their feed. 😐

So I caved and created a "group" from my business "page" RainbowMaille shows as the group creator/owner, which is cool but now I can't get anyone to join it.  Literally, facebook will not let me invite my "page" followers to join the "group" in spite of there being a button for exactly that.  

When I click the "invite" button it gives me this stupid pop up that says I have no one to invite. 

That's totally bogus, what about the hundreds of "followers" or at least the 3 friends that have achieved "top fan" badges??? Why am I not allowed to invite anyone, is this a glitch or just more of facebook being annoying on purpose?  😕

Just as annoying as that dysfunction ^ . . .when I created the group yesterday it made a post on my business page saying I had created a group but apparently that post has not been shown to ANYONE. 

So seriously how the H*LL is one supposed to get anyone to join a "Group" for a "business page" when they won't let me invite my followers and they won't even show the page post to anyone?  😠
😣😟😒😖😵😶

P.S. It took a week after reporting my issue but suddenly the "invite" button for the group let me invite people, not all 240+ people but some people, so it's a start. 😇

productively non-productive. . .

 Sometimes it's necessary to be productively non-productive.

You may be wondering what I mean by that, I know productively non-productive may sound contradictory, counter-productive and even oxymoronic. 😏

When it comes to running my business there are many productive non-productive things I do, my husband would refer to these as "value-added" or non-value-added.  I can be doing valid, even important, things but they result in no product. Marketing, this very blog post, taking photos, editing photos, verifying inventory, tool maintenance like re-dipping my pliers are all examples of me being productively non-productive.  I do lots of stuff but I have nothing new to physically show for it in the end. 😕

Some days my husband comes home and asks how was my day or what I did today and I feel silly because even if I ramble off a list of a dozen things he just looks at me like I'm crazy. 😌 

I took out the trash, ran and emptied the dishwasher, separated the mini-magnets from the wire trees into different binders, updated my art notebook, shot photos for instgram and my blog, made 5 social media posts, stripped and re-dipped 13 pair of pliers, then cooked dinner.  It just doesn't sound that impressive, there is no perspective on just how much time each thing takes.  I would say I was productive as I accomplished a lot of different things but I have no new fabulous art or jewelry to show him so it's hard for him to understand that I actually was busy All Day. 😒  I may be a "housewife" but I do not sit on my couch watching soap operas and eating bon-bons all day every day. 

Even when I do spend hours sitting still on my computer it is reading, researching, marketing, social media, testing keywords, editing listings, etc.,  Just think of the duck on a pond analogy on the surface it appears calm but below the surface his little feet are flapping like mad. 😉

So while today was too windy outside to spray more glossy finish on my painting and the lack of sunshine in these clouds means I couldn't shoot photos for all the jewelry in that pile that still needs to get listed, instead I took care of my pliers and shifted some inventory storage.