Variety

I still don't have my light tent and its lights set up yet, so it's a little hard to list new items. With that, it's also a little hard to motivate myself to make new items or pump out bracelets and key chains when I know I can't get pictures of them yet. :D

Projects:
But, even if I'm not working on website related stuff, I still have custom neck-tie orders to work on *shudder*, and a few relatively daunting booth projects I need to get done before the convention I go to in May.
Oooo. Maybe I should look into selling at more conventions! What an idea... hmm...

Banner:
It's already been about a year since I started this project with a few months of no progress made at all. But, I know how quickly time can fly so I want to start getting it out of the way sooner than later.

Most recently I added the top halves of "CHA", so now I can finally start knocking out "SNEATH", letter by letter.
I'm partially excited to start working on the banner again, but I also dread it. Most project's have some "instant gratification" to them, like bracelets and key chains, because you can work on it for a few minutes and see noticeable progress that keeps you inspired and pressing on, but with larger projects, you can work on them for hours and only finish a small, hardly noticeable, dent.

That's where the title comes in. Variety.
It's important to create variety in your crafting. Mix it up a bit. Work on something else for a while. Or heck, browse through the work of other artists that you look up to for inspiration. Just don't burn out. I can say that all I want, but I'm the guiltiest of all. :D

So. While I don't have the light tent available I'll be blogging mostly about other related projects.

AWOL

*crickets*

Took an impromptu break just as the new year got going but I should be back to work soon!
All of my chainmaille and light-tent equipment was put away while I painted and reorganized my room. Today I finally finished building by new computer desk enough so I can use it, and other things can finally start filling back into their places.

Too bad school starts up again tomorrow :(

In the Life of Me:
Part of reorganizing my room was giving myself a separate area to do my work, because all of my maille (and packaging) in the past has been done at whatever desk was holding my computer.

See how worn out I look in that cramped messy environment?!
I needed more room to work!

So, here's the beginnings of my new set up.
Same desk. No computer.

Notice the new paint. :D

What do you think?
I'm trying to think of ideas on what to blog about besides just new items or custom orders I'm working on. Would anyone care to see basic chainmaille tutorials?

I really want to make printable tutorials that I can print out so I can sell kits for bracelets, or my caged marbles, so it would be a great learning experience to try to write and take pictures for tutorials.

New Year, New Beginnings

- Prices have been changed! (For the most part)
- I've changed all of my websites to include international shipping.
- I've printed out and started on all the forms I need to make this an actual business (FBN/EIN/etc)
- and I've also started setting up a work schedule and have been waking up earlier to "go to work".

I think my work and craft is worth it, but we'll see how well sales do with the increased prices.

New Items:
A little while ago someone wanted to necklace with marbles in it so I made a way to make a 4-sided gibbet... which was pretty hard. I eventually ended up with this mess of different types, and different ways to connect multiple marbles end to end.


My client hasn't responded yes/no/maybe yet, so I decided to try to make a single marble choker in the meantime.
But, I only got a few units into the chain when I decided I liked it better as a keychain :D



What do you guys think? I've had some people say it would also look great as a bracelet. With that in mind I made a hand-flower in brown with a jade marble... which is for another blog post.


Custom Orders:
Thanks to fieldsde for ordering these :D
UV marbles too. They turned out really well.



New Listings: