A Flood of New Work

I've been working up a storm the last couple of weeks, mainly focusing on dreamcathers.

I've made dreamcatchers ever since I was a teenager. Over the years I have given many away as gifts. My favorite occasions are for a wedding or, in the original tradition of the dreamcatcher, for when a baby is born. I've also sold a few here and there - my "customizeable" dream catchers were a hit at a craft fair years ago. I had let people pick the colors they wanted and I made the dreamcatchers there on the spot. It was sort of a "dreamcatchers made while you shop" idea and it worked out well.

It wasn't until more recently, with the creation of the Studio as an entity, that I decided I'd like to sell them on a larger scale. I realized recently that I didn't have much in the way of an inventory. I had boxes and boxes of supplies, but only a couple of finished pieces. This is due to the fact that the majority of my dreamcatchers have been custom made - either as ordered, or as I made them for those special ocassions.

So, about two weeks ago I pulled out all of my supplies, popped on a movie and went to work. I've now made my way through several movies (and a couple of TV series on DVD) and I have about SIXTY brand new dreamcatchers ready to make their debut!

This is one of my favorites:







I now have quite a wide variety of dramcatchers, in sizes from two to nine inch rings, made in a rainbow of colors, and many with cool little charm and stone accents on the webbing.

Over the last couple of days I've been working on the time-consuming task of taking pictures and getting those uploaded to the store, the Studio's Facebook page, and the Studio site itself.

I foresee many more hours spent uploading photos, as I still have to repopulate the store and sites with pictures of all of my other items as well!

Hard at work!

I've been hard at work creating new things for the inventory here at the studio. I have also realized that Halloween is just around the corner. I made some wonderful Halloween themed greeting cards last year, based on a favorite card that I made for a friend many years ago. The cards feature a black cat sitting on the fence of a graveyard, with bats flying in the sky. The card is made from a mixture of cardstock, stamps, and hand drawn elements. I made up a bunch of them last year and I think I'll post them on my Facebook page and possible at my Etsy store.

I'm currently working on dreamcatchers and will have MANY of them available very soon, in a variety of colors and sizes. Stay tuned!

Where did summer go?

This spring and summer has been a crazy busy, very rough time - and the time has flown! I moved twice and had to keep ALL of my creative projects and supplies in storage for a few months. I am now unpacking everything and dusting off my inner creativity. I've been hard at work the past few days, trying to get back into the groove. I've been cranking out new projucts, primarily dreamcatchers at this time. I also have several new ideas for greeting cards and custom horses!

My websites had lapsed during all of the moving around. Today I finally reposted my websites online and now there is quite a bit of updating on those to do as well. I'm hoping to finally get my Etsy store and Facebook pages populated and "Open" for business within the next few weeks.

Moving stinks, especially when one was right in the middle of starting up a new venture!

Wow, time flies! Many Updates!

I have been so busy that I didn't realize it's been over a month since I updated this blog! Jeez...

Anyway! I finally came up with a banner for the Studio and an overall theme for the site. All that's left now is to continue taking pictures (furiously) and get them formatted and uploaded. The photo cube is working out... fairly well. I think I kinda messed up in getting a HUGE one, because I've having trouble lighting it well enough from the outside. Jeff loaned me a couple of crazy bright halogen work lights and I'm going to try them next. My little clamp on office lamps aren't quite cutting it! I have quite literally HUNDREDS of items to photograph and it's been slow going so far, trying to figure out what lighting and camera settings work best. I'm hoping once I get the details worked out, I can just start cranking out pics. It's a little touch and go right now.

The big news is that I now have TWO online stores. The first, specifically for my cross necklaces, was set up several months ago and has just been kinda sitting. The second will be my overall store linked to the Studio site and will be the location where orders can be placed from the Studio site. I'm very excited about this development as one thing that had been stalling the progress was how to set up the Studio for online sales. My html skills are still pretty basic and I'm a long way off from being able to write up a fancy sales page/shopping cart from scratch. Jeff had used a free shoopping cart software to created the cross necklace site last fall, and he just showed me how to use the software to create another store - for the Studio.

I've now actually created Facebook fan pages for both the Studio itself, and the cross site individually. Those pages aren't public quite yet as I'm still waiting on having a sufficent number of good pictures for the "Grand Opening" of the Studio site AND the Facebook pages.

For now, here is the banner!:




And a couple of the pictures I have taken, of a greeting card and a bookmark with the same designs:

Back on Track - My Hero!

The development of the studio website had been derailed due to not being able to settle on a suitable place to set up the (large) photo tent and lights to get PICTURES for the site.

Last night Jeff, my other half, swooped in to the rescue. I told him of the problems I was having and he busted out a couple of 2x4s and some tools. He built me a pretty slick little rig to clamp my lights to. The way it is set up allows me to put lights all around the sides and back of the tent. He also put in a removable vertical support on the back, to hold a light for the top of the tent. Another cool feature of the setup is that it's highly portable - it can be set up, and stored, just about anywhere.

So, now things are back in full swing! I just tested the setup by taking 100 or so pictures and they look great. I still have to format the pics and start putting them on the site!! Then I'll be taking pictures of other items!

Full speed ahead!!

Chaaaarge! ... I received the photo tent in the mail a few days ago. Then I promptly went to town and bought lights and bulbs to light up my new "toy". I've been cranking out new projects for the past week. So when the studio site has it's Grand Opening, I'll have a BUNCH of brand new items for sale. I'm excited!!

Holding Pattern

I ordered a photo tent/cube today to (hopefully) allow indoor photo shoots! I did a bit of painting this evening. I might start tinkering with page layouts for the site between tonight and tomorrow. I guess you could say I'm in a bit of a holding pattern now. I'm going to want a lot of pictures on the site, so hopefuly the photo tent works well. Stay tuned!