Thursday, July 30, 2009

More about image

along with creating new "clean" graphics for the website, I'm thinking about other places to have my things available for purchase.

For quite a while I have had a store on Etsy, which I am thinking of closing or at least changing the name of so it has the same name as my own website --- just to make things easier for anyone that might be looking for my stuff.

But there are also some new venues out there that I'm thinking might be a good match for my pieces too.

These new places have some things in common with Etsy, but some differences too.

Here are the new places I've discovered so far:

1000 Markets there are both free and fee shops on this site

Art Fire so far I haven't been able to get much information about this site because it keeps crashing my browser --- not a good sign!

Trunkt a juried site that is not accepting any new applications until August 15

So, where should I go? Where will my creations fit best?

things to think about

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Figuring out my "image"

One of the things I had thought about doing while I'm recovering from my surgery is redesigning my web site.

I do that from time to time, trying to keep it "fresh" and to add new things to it.

This time, I'm struggling with just what do I want it to look like --- partly because I've changed what I do so much, and partly because I think it's time that all of the studio's online presence had a unified, professional look (scary thought!)

A while back I created this graphic, which I have been using for a while as the banner on the current website.

Along with that main graphic I also created these and a few others to use as "buttons" on the site.

Now I'm trying to come up with a new look that still makes use of all the work that went into creating the graphics.

and I want to figure out a way to put the newest pieces of work on the front page first, no matter what area they're going to end up in eventually.

There are also several new sales venues online that I'm going to be checking out. Etsy just doesn't seem to be doing it for my stuff. Although I admit I've not done much out there lately, and I know you need to be adding stuff more often, I just don't think my stuff is the "style" that Etsy promotes, and I'm not going to start doing stuff that looks like everyone else's style just to sell stuff there.

So, what do I want my "image" to look like? I'm working on it

Monday, July 27, 2009

Stormy weather

We had a bit of a storm yesterday afternoon

For about 15 minutes it was really noisy and the rain and hail just came down like someone had opened the bottom of a dump truck

These pictures show the leaves that were all stuck to the front of the house and the car afterwards (the cottonwood leaves are from the trees across the street!)


this is the little pile of hail still sitting under a bush in our front yard about half an hour after the storm --- we got about half an inch of moisture too

so, my garden took a beating --- the corn, which had not been doing very well anyway because it's just not been like summer here this year (only 2 days over 90 degrees is just not normal), is pretty beat up

This morning the tomatoes are perking up tho', and I think the summer squash and beans survived --- not so sure about the other squash yet ----

weird, weird weather continues this week too --- our high temperatures will be in the 70s for several days --- cooler here than in Alaska

and the final insult? because folks haven't been using as much water on lawns, gardens, etc., this summer, the water company is saying they'll have to raise our rates to make up for lost revenue ----AAAACCCCKKKK!!!!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

TV Remote Roulette

This picture makes me think of an old Kay Starr song. Remember The Wheel of Fortune?

The wheel of fortune
Goes spinning around
....
While the wheel is spining, spinning, spinning

It's a good description of how we view TV programs some evenings --- if there is nothing on that we know we want to watch, the DH plays what we refer to as remote roulette ---- just flipping through all 957 channels (ok, probably not actually that many, but there are a lot of channels on cable nowdays!) until we run across something that is not

a)obnoxious (ie reality tv of any sort)

or

b)something we've seen enough times to recite the dialogue along with the actors

Twice in the past week we have won the jack pot (so to speak) as we have come across art classes being televised on the local school district's access channel.

Last week was about painting and explained some techniques that I had recently done on fabric with my friend in California. It was nice to have those reinforced and to see how the same techniques work on another surface.

Last night it was a wonderful program about doing prints --- as in the whole stamp cutting print making process that we have also been doing with fabrics.

It was pretty exciting to see other materials used, but the same techniques that we have used to produce such things as this:

a stamp cut and stamped on fabric that has been embellished with beads, embroidery, markers and applique and is now being quilted










and this stamp which has not yet been embellished






This whole print making process is considered Fine Art by those who know about such things

I'm hoping to catch more of those art lessons at random times

Yup, I can just hear Kay Starr --- spinning, spinning, spinning

Saturday, July 11, 2009

wherein my daughter declares I'm a geek

Things at work here:

1. Since I'm having surgery next Friday (July 17) and my sister (the TRAINED nurse) will be here when I come home to help take care of me, she came down yesterday and went to the pre-op doctor's appointment with me.

2. Since today (July 11) is her birthday (Happy Birthday sis!!) I invited her to stay and have dinner with us. And yes there was CAKE!!! (yummy carrot cake with real cream cheese frosting)

3. Since she was going to spend the day, she brought along her laptop and we worked on sharing information on family history.

So when my daughter called, I told her that my sister and I were sitting with our laptops back to back exchanging data on family history (I've been working on this project off and on for almost 30 years, and my sister is trying to catch up!)

My daughter said "Mom, you two are geeks!"

heh, yeah, like she should talk --- this from the child that credits me with helping to teach her to touch type --- when she was in Junior High school we'd sit in the same room and Instant Message to each other

hehe

Love it, and I'm hoping that I'll feel well enough at least part of the time my sister's here after my surgery that we can do some more "geeking"

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Just what do other folks mean by "Mixed Media"?

In the past year I have come to realize that the best description of my art work is "Mixed Media".

It defines (at least in my head) the fact that many, many of my pieces incorporate more than one kind of material and more than one technique.

How much more "mixed media" can you get?

So, when I saw a call for members of a women's mixed media art group in our little village, I thought "hey, some folks I could relate to" and sent off an email requesting some information.

Here was the response:

This group is more for "assemblage", collage or digital artists. After reviewing your website, you might want to look into people working in "crafts" as we are not jewelers or fabric artists.

Oy!

Obviously we are still stuck in the "traditional" art definitions.

While I really would like to find a group of artists locally to hobnob with, it's clear this little clique is still stuck in the junior high school era.

I guess I should consider myself lucky that it only took me one email to find out it's not a group I want to go near

geeesh