slow going. . .

The adding art listings to the etsy shop is a slow process for me and rather frustrating if I'm honest. 😕  Photography is not among my strongest skills, and some of these paintings are particularly challenging. 

Oh don't get me wrong, I love painting and I generally love the art I create (with a few exceptions) but between the metallic paints, the iridescent mixer and the gloss varnish finishes it is VERY hard to get clear, color accurate, good photos to make listings. 😣

I like to use all 10 photo slots when creating a listing and often in order to get 10 good use-able photos I end up taking dozens of each painting.  Yesterday I photographed 3 paintings, took over 80 photos and by the time I deleted the fuzzy, mis-focused, off colored, badly shadowed, etc. I only ended up creating 2 listings this morning.  This is a recurring thing for me sadly. 

I just keep trying and if I take enough photos eventually I end up with use-able photos or at least passable photos. 😏

Listing art on Etsy . . .

Since I started painting again I have not listed any of the new art on my etsy shop RainbowMaille I need to, I want to but I have been limited by a computer issue.  However, my laptop is now fixed ~yay~ and I do plan to start the process of photographing and listing, although, not today as it's rainy and grey and the lighting sucks. 😔  I am not sure if I will actually list all of the new art as I don't even like all of them myself, but you never know maybe someone else will really like the ones I don't.  😏  

In the meantime I still have to continue to make and list wire trees and fresh chainmaille too. I'm feeling a bit scattered and unfocused.

Mental. . .yes I am

To me a blank canvas is both exciting and frightening. I guess exhilarating would be a good word, as one never knows what will appear.  I know many artists that have a set style, they have formal training and there is a certain similarity, continuity to their works. I have no formal training and I have noticed that the more I try to plan what a piece will look like the less I like the finished product. 😕  I cannot make two things alike and the harder I try the worse the result.

 So setting a blank new canvas on the easel is always a bit scary.😨  Will I like what I make? Will I f*ck it all up?  Will anyone else like it when it's done?  Honestly, I never know these answers going in. I paint mostly on instinct and emotion, I think that's why when I try to plan or achieve a certain thing I overthink and it just ruins it.  It's so weird. ~LOL~  

After not painting for 9 months I started again and I decided to try something I have never done before. The very first piece was striking and amazing and actually caused me tears of joy. Then I started overthinking and didn't like the second attempt, the third has a nice look but it is nothing like the first of the series. 😫 As a matter of fact it was 8 canvases later before I hit one that is truly similar to the first of the series, there is no continuity it is a progressive series.  Looking at them I can see the thought process from the first one to the ones that followed, and I think that thinking is my downfall. 😵

The more I "try" the less I like them.  So I guess I have to just go back to not thinking and work from instinct and emotion. 😉

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.