I'm really not very good at online shop managment. I do have a fatal tendency to spend overly long periods of time working on one little thing (that's also a one-off, by the way) that isn't going to make heaps of money for me. Not that
that outcome was ever on the cards in the choice of artist as a career! Remember the old matchbook cover advertisements 'Become an artist - make 10 -50 $ a week!'? It spoke truth....oh , yes.
With this in mind and also the need to have some things in my shop that don't require
new and individual listings every single time (could it be that I will actually get to use the relist function on Etsy and leave behind the hodge-podge of copy and paste?), I've designed some beads that are a little less labour intensive than the hollow ones. These are more along the lines of the 'meat and potato' spacer type of bead, rather than the focal type. I like these as they are a great opportunity for trying out new surfaces without a huge commitment.
I've fallen in love with cutters (great production tool) and recently purchased the entire set of Kemper cutters (55) carried by
the Clay Factory (owned by Marie Segal and her husband). Just by the way, this is a great deal and saves a lot over buying the individual sets. These will be amazing not only for my new line, but also for the tiled hollow beads! I'm also going to buy this tutorial on Craftedu, on how to make your own minicutters - heck, it's only 12$ - see
here! What fun and a great use for soft drink cans...
It started with just layering up cut pieces of polymer and realizing that I like the possibilities of the side edges as much as I liked the 'top' and 'bottom' sides of the resulting bead, which I covered with a transfer. I also realized that I liked the beads when the layers were not stacked too neatly as this accentuated the 'strata' effect, particularly when distressed with various finishes. And also, once made, the bead could be interestingly manipulated away from the cutter shape to be a little 'off'. Which, naturally, made it a little more fun to my eye, as it shows some movement and gesture which always livens things up! Once I got the other cutters, I tried some other shapes - some worked and some need work.
These were the originals which used a transfer created on Photoshop from some of my artwork. Rocklike. Cubic...
Then little drums..
Triangles, naturally...bird feet black and white, and transfers -
Not so sure about these transfers, it's harder than one would think to pick an image that looks good tranferred!
Some black and whites with eyes, but not sure about the ovals - tricky shape, unless it's cleanly cut!
Teardrops with alcohol inks that morphed into commas...
Battered hearts, the only kind, really..
And my favourite ones so far (metallic, of course) because I really like the sides of these -
Yup, like all my work, more work required. One wonders if it will all come together in a glorious whole at some future time.
Some of these sets will be finding their way into my
shop in the next couple of days, while I continue to work on new ones. And new pods....
I'm holding my draw tommorow for the Bead Chest gift certificate - don't forget to enter by commenting
HERE! Bye all...
