Sunday, February 20, 2011

Ruminating II - what's in a name?

today's cow picture courtesy of the local newspaper

moo two!

seriously though, one of the email lists I belong to has had an ongoing discussion about blogs and websites and businesses and what name you should use

this is a subject I've spent some time thinking about

back in the early 1980s when I first needed to register for a sales tax license there really wasn't anyone to discuss this with --- I liked the sound of the name Esmerldas (it was part of a John Denver song lyric), no one else had registered it in the jurisdiction I was registering it in, so I took it

because it isn't specific in terms of what the "product" is, it has been easy to use it for all the many art adventures we've been involved in -- mohair bears, jewelry, clothing, web design, art quilts -- just about everything

it has also been nice to be able to put the work that both the DH and I do under one "brand" instead of having two and the attendant duplicate paperwork

one of the discussion topics on that email list has been the idea of using your own name because people will be able to find you by putting in your name

that's a good idea perhaps, but I'm forever having to SPELL my name to people because they want to spell it with an "e" and 2 "r"s

what's the difference if I'm spelling my name or my business name to folks?

so there you go

guess I'll be keeping the name -- which means I really, REALLY, need to do something about the content on that website

and another thought -- perhaps its time to create an Etsy shop that carries the same name too

I feel the onset of more ruminating

Sunday, February 13, 2011

ruminating

I know -- "moooooo"

every now and then its a good idea to step back and try to figure out where we're going

I tend to get the cart before the horse sometimes - it kind of fits with my style -- as in "let's learn to play the piano with Moonlight Sonata"

and I think in some ways the pressure of finances sometimes makes me want to jump into the "lets see if we can sell this stuff" stage before I've had time to fine tune the process

so I'm trying to be patient and do this art quilt thing the right way

keep creating things, trying new techniques, learning how to use new mediums in them and entering shows or competitions with them to get feedback

and put a few of the better ones on Etsy -- especially the smaller ones, just to see if there is any interest

just keep doing the work and maybe, just maybe, there will be someone that finds it

I've been distracted by the idea of maybe selling a pattern or two, but putting those together takes time away from the other work that I want to be doing, so I will be listing those patterns that I've already put together, but probably won't do any more, at least for now

and I want to be part of SAQA's Visioning Project -- which means I need to set a goal that is defined enough to actually be doable

yup, need to chew on this cud a while longer

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

will I ever figure this out?

one of these pieces of jewelry is my work, priced at $50, available on my website for sale

the other piece was done by someone else, priced at $400 (!) available through a catalog that I received in the mail a couple of days ago

ok, it's not that my designs are so far off the wall that they aren't good enough for a catalog to the general public

sure wish I could figure this one out