Special Secret project. . .finished

I started this monster on June 16th, the week after my first event weekend, it was my husband's idea that a LARGE display piece that could be seen from a distance would be a good way to get attention for the wire trees.  Now I'm not saying it was a bad idea, I'm just saying it took me weeks and caused me many hand cramps because it's hard to tell scale in photos but that thing is on a 19" hoop 😳 making it the largest wire tree I've ever made.

I have nicknamed it the "ridiculously oversized tree".  The day I found the giant hoop in the store, at first I was shocked because I had never seen a hoop that big, then I thought "wow what luck, exactly what I needed".  After I brought it home I hula-hooped with it in my office, no that's not a joke I wanted to see if it really was that big so I slipped it over my head and then over my shoulders and had a holy crap moment when the hula-hoop notion worked. 😲

All fun & games ended when I set to work on it, I ended up on the living room floor for the wire cutting portion because my bench was not big enough to accommodate 5' foot wire lengths. 

Getting the trunk twisted up and the branches separated out was a pain in my hands, unlike the small trees where I use pliers this bundle was too big and the thicker gauge wire is stiffer making it much harder. I had to actually hammer the trunk to get the flatness. 😏 

That is not only many feet of wire but many strands and due to the huge hoop very awkward to try to hold and work.  So I think it goes without saying that this is a "display" only piece and I never intend to make another this size, but just in case let me repeat that. . . This is a Display Only piece and I have Zero plans to ever make another this size.  😐

The finished monstrosity is rather impressive though and I managed to incorporate several different techniques and options, from the "Fairy door" in the trunk, to the wire bird's nest, knots in the branches, top 3-D canopy with dangling leaves, if I attach a "keepsake vial" it will be everything except a "family tree" and I am not doing it over to add a second trunk. ~LOL~ 😎

Integrity in a marketplace. . .

Many people, both buyers and sellers, have complained for years that places like ebay and etsy let anyone list anything they want with very little oversight.  One of the first things I really loved about goimagine, aside from the charity concept, was that they actually vet the sellers. 

Unlike etsy, ebay, zibbet, where ever else, on goimagine you don't just create an account and start listing things for sale.  You have to fill out an application, provide some frame of reference, some proof that you actually make the things you plan to sell, social media links, work in progress photos, shop photos, etc.  There is an approval process, yes you have to be approved to sell on goimagine, it's not automatic.  Also they are serious about enforcing the anti-infringement rules, as in do not use copyright or trademarked faces, names, etc., or your items will be removed.  

I love that goimagine.com is being run and managed by real people with integrity.  😇

Busy summer. . .

 I knew when I scheduled events every other weekend for the whole summer I was taking on a lot of work.  Not just prepping and packing and going to events, setting up, selling and breaking down, but also continuing to create and build inventory in between. 😏

Each event I do, I learn and plan better for the next one.  From adjusting the display booth itself by ordering a wall for some additional shade, to adjusting the products I take based on the audience and previous sales.  It is all about continuous improvement and trying to always do better.  😇

However, that's not actually a lot of time between events considering the massive amount of things I have to do and the amount of time somethings take. 😕  For instance I plan to make a Huge display tree that can be seen from space ~LOL~ just kidding but it will be way huge and easy to see from many feet away, the hang up is . . .well it's huge and if you consider that even a 7" inch tree can take me multiple days to finish this 19" monstrosity may take me a whole week but I'm down to 3 days before my next event.  I could try to really focus on it and finish it faster but I also have lots of other things to do.  Yesterday I cleaned up and repurposed my old barbed wire necklace board so that it can include the new selection of chainmaille pendants.  I plan to take a different selection of art but that means I have to find the time to string them all for hanging on display, it also means I need my bench clear to have the surface room to add hanging string to all those paintings. 

Currently, I have set up one of my folding tables to have more work surface to work on more stuff at once but I have to have it cleared by Friday when I need to re-pack it in my car for Saturday morning. 😎

What a weekend. . .

I survived and I didn't even get sunburned. 👍  I call that a successful event weekend considering how blazin' hot it was on Saturday.  

Saturday. 🎜. on the square. 🎝. 🎶  it was super hot, it hit 90* but some people still came, it was a smaller event but I can work with it. I think I have found the disconnect in their advertising and I think I can fix it. 😎  So I am hopeful that the Saturday version will improve with repetition.  I kind of set my booth display facing the wrong way but I will know better next time.  I have some ideas about improving my display and changing up the products I take, and getting at least 1 side wall.   

Sunday behind the church was simply amazing! The lovely Ladies who organized it did such an awesome job getting the word out with the facebook event and ads. 😲  For the very first ever event the turn out was shocking, there were people showing up before we were even supposed to open and the first 2 hours was outright crowded.  I think I need to consider a different layout for the display here too, it worked ok but there were times there were so many people that the "entrance" at my booth got a little clogged up.  

I also learned I need to set up tighter to the building to avoid that stripe of sun right on my chair area. 😅

Overall, I think I did really well considering it was my first time at each location.  I also think that with some small adjustments and additional inventory these could be really great local events for RainbowMaille.  😇

Market weekend. . .

 

The time has finally arrived, I am back to doing events. 😎

I am pretty sure I'm crazy for scheduling Saturday & Sunday of the same weekend, at least the Sunday event doesn't start as early as the Saturday version.  I have been planning for this for a month so I am fairly certain that I have thought through all the things I might need. Honestly, I'm probably overpacking and overthinking the whole thing but I should be prepared.  😇  

It took some Tetris but I got it all in there, canopy, racks, shelves tables, table covers, tote of supplies, tote of trees, tote of rings and tools, jewelry and displays, sandbags, crate of art, chair, etc.

Stop the Spam !!

 

In the last week I have had a resurgence of spammy comments on my instagram posts, literally seconds after I post I get this. . .

I find these really annoying because they are from profiles with literally no posts, no followers of their own, just spammily directing to some other profile that charges $$ to re-post and promote your stuff. 

I am all for people's freedom and whatever but in my opinion these are actually a TOS violation and I am reporting them as the spam they are.  I get it, some people have come up with a business model to make money off of other people's work and desperation. . . ok but find another sucker.   😐  I find it really rude when I get a whole wall of spammy crap comments and the assholes don't even bother to actually like the content they are too busy trying to make a buck off of me.  

I will continue to report everyone of these and if instagram doesn't act fast enough I block the accounts and delete the comments.  I do not pay for these types of promotions and never will, even if I thought it was a legit thing.  I hate paying for ads of any kind.  Many of these accounts to "promote" art/artists will post anything, literally they don't care there are no standards at all.  Some of them have a bunch of weird random stuff, gross/disturbing not my kind of art is not even the bad part, that would be the obviously crazy magical hair growth and infringement and basic snake-oil salesmen tactics. 😒  

It just makes me feel slimey and in need of a shower. 

Summer fun. . .

Ok so this is not really about summer and the fun part was kind of sarcastic. 😏  I am multiple days into working on the facebook pixel connection and setting up the facebook "shop" but in spite of following directions and doing everything right I am having doubts about it working right.  😕  I have always had the shopping template, I previously had the "shop" tab that showed to me and wanted to be set up.  However, since I created the pixel and put it in goimagine things have started changing, not at all surprising really but some of the changes like my shop tab disappearing were not what I expected. 😟 Last week before I started trying to set it up, the shop was clearly visible.

I had prompts and instructions, then I started setting things up and found it to be many steps with many built in delays

waiting for pixel. . .

waiting for updates. . .
waiting for I don't know what. . . now waiting for facebook to crawl all my items I guess

I thought I was doing it right, I thought it was going well yesterday. Then today I go to do the next step and find more delays and more waiting on ? the stars to align. 😅  And noticed that my shop tab is gone, which seemed strange since I was actually in the middle of setting it up, finally. 

After some clicking around in the commerce manager I found a shop setting and prompts to finish. It only shows 3 of the 43 products (so far) but they were all necklaces so I did the suggested "create a collection" thing.

I found a pixel setting that I think should help and speed things along, hopefully, when I found it was off so I turned it on.  Now I'll have to go back to the waiting and see what happens. 😉