Making Headway!

Christmas has been good to my family.  We received and gave a lot of cool stuff this year.
My christmas salvation came a bit early in the form of a Nikon L840.  In RED.

So not only have I finished the photography for my rose kanashi, but I am mostly finished with the bira bira tutorial as well.  Amazing things happen when you have the right tools.  I already owned a camera stand from when I used an old Canon AE-1 35mm.  But shooting on film is just not practical or as efficient as a new digital camera I could move on a stand and focus on macro shots.

I did a lot of other things, too.  I must have made a bajillion bookmarks out of washi chyirogami.  Plust the custom ornaments for my sister and sister in law.  I've been very busy behind the scenes.

Bookmarks are going to become part of the store.  I have discovered that Michaels has the best selection of origami and washi paper.  So I wil be couponing there for a while.  I also want to start to look up some different patterns for those, since the bookmarks are generally 7.5 inches and paper is only 6 inches at most usually.

I also want to pick up some kumihimo.  I have had the interest for a while, maybe making it from pieces of thin habotai silk ribbons, or something like that.  I have the supplies to be sure, since it will take anything from embroidery thread to perle thread to satin cording.  It's just something to try besides ornaments that I might be able to take with me in a carline.

I have another bout of severe medical problems up ahead of me. Just a warning.  I will probably shut off custom orders from February to June.   There is too much going on with the kickstarter book campaign and the tutorials for it and having time for family and personal things.  I am shooting for a major medical procedure that would really help, but because of my age it is not generally performed.  Still I am hoping I can work out something soon, and hopefully sometime before the summer.

I have started the kickstarter rewards and they are going well.  The book compiler/Author Ariel really likes them!  Hopefully this thing will get me though some pretty tough times ahead.

Project Updates

I've hit more than a few snags with this tutorial project. First, my camera sucks, cause I am using my phone. Second, my hands shake terribly. It's a side effect of one of my medications called "tremors". 

So between my hands shaking from holding the camera and hands shaking holding petals or whatnot, I couldn't get a clear shot of anything. Let's not even go into what a pain in the ass macro shots are. So i may end up re-doing the rose.  

My hormones have been terribly bad as well. Anxiety is a common enemy, but my arch nemesis at the moment.  But my doctors have news for me which I find out Wednesday.  Honestly I know I have endometriosis again,  despite the surgery in September.  That's really holding me back. But at least it is no longer procrastination, and just plain being sick.

I have opted to supply a large number of small kanzashi to the kickstarter for the tutorial book. That's my main goal for next year.  In the summer I will be moving so keep an eye out for a special sale in the spring!  

But that is honestly the worst of it.  I have had my friend Elizabeth Comer driving me on, and a new camera in my hands, an extension on my deadline, and a holiday bonus from my husband's job. I have just a few christmas things to wrap up and I'll have that off my plate, too.

And I just went through my inventory again and reorganized every thing to boxes. I needed the space since I have had so much new inventory.  But in January I have plans for a big fabric order to cover the pieces i have to make for the kickstarter.  I'm hoping for a few new fabrics in there.  I would love some different pinks and greens and yellows.  

Procrastination

Ok so I have signed up to do this tutorial.  My pictures for the entiere assembly is due tomorrow.  I have 5 pictures out of 100 or more. 
So instead of working on that last night and the night before like I was supposed to, I put up ornament balls on Etsy.  12 of them, precisely.  A bunch of new ones, a couple of remakes, and some holiday ones.  This will be the last batch I do this year, as I have this tutorial project I have been avoiding.

And why avoid it? For no other reason than fear.  I am afraid of this taking longer than it should and not finishing in time to be included.  I am afraid of failure so I'm barely even trying. I swear I am going to work on it tonight, and hopefully I will just turn half my work in late for the rough draft deadline.  But I am having terrible anxiety, since I really only have ONE CHANCE to get this right.  I only have so much of the coral pink color I am using, and that means only ONE FLOWER.  But I have to include photos for each and every step, which means taking a shot, transferring it immediatly to my computer, and checking it before moving on or repeating the process.  Not to mention the time frame I have to work in falls between 8pm and midnight if I'm lucky. Its become a painstaking, tedious process.  Not sure how many of these I am looking to do.  I'm not enjoying the photography part.

But the tutorial will finish in december, and I will do a couple of christmas gifts and probably start making plans for next year. I have promised a supply of hairsticks and bobby pins for the kickstarter campaign for the book, 30 of each.  It's going to be another big project.  But dedicaiton will have to come through, since they are all goign to be the same, and thats a pain when I like to be creative.
I have also offered a $100 custom order, which is substantial for me.  Gotta be top tier to get that reward, lol.

 January is usualy restock time with colors going on clearance for satin and brocade.  I also need a new order of foam bases, since i am down to my last 4 from 30.  Thats a lot of balls, lol.  Ribbons could use a restock as well, and maybe some new bells on christmas clearance. 

And this isn't even everything!

Here i have my supply shot, and unfortunately I am probably goign to have to do it agian, since there are a few things I left out.  But as you can see, kanzashi is a very involved process with a wide vareity of tools and supplies.  My piece is going to be mainly pumpkin orange with a coral pink highligh and a goldenrod yellow throat, accented with tea green leaves.  Not picutred is the cardboard needed for the leaves, a glue board, and I am not sure if I am going to wrap my bira bira tutorial into this or not.  If I do this supply list is going to get WAY more involved. I have been asked to do both, but doing it all as once piece is possible.  I may have to ask the publisher on that one. 

Anyway, new ornaments look great, and I am getting better at the routine of photographing them. I have a lighting system worked out if I can just keep my autistic kid away from the lamps. but with 3 led daylight bulbs I seem to be getting some good results.  Not too hot on the shadows, though I imagine some brightness adjustments would fix that in photoshop.  But they have requested unedited photos, so they are just going to have to work it out themselves.  They have requested a particular format, not sure how long it's going to take for me to do that for every photo. 

So in the end its just a great big pile of wait and see.

Secret project

So I have been working on a to secret project. And I just got the colors of my project laid out and will begin the slow process of documenting it's creation. I have about a week to complete it.

I'm building a tutorial.  And it will be in a book. That will be published.

I am having health problems,  AGAIN. Hopefully since I had 6 vials of blood drawn at my my dr appointment Tuesdays morning, I will soon have a handle on the latest problem. I hope.  Honestly I just have my fingers crossed for no surprises. 

Meanwhile I have been sleeping like crazy and just too low on energy to get any work done after family.  I still have 8-9 ornaments sitting on my desk, and I have not started the tutorial, or anything else for that matter, in the past several days I have intended to work.  

I have made some sales, which is nice.  The EComer Fund is up to $785.  Out of 5k, that's not so great.  Considering I wasn't expecting more than $500, I'm pretty excited. 

And I can't wait till January when I get to restock my ornament fabrics and supplies.  I have worked through all but 4 or 5 of my last shipment of foam balls, which are generally ordered 30-40 at a time!  And not to mention I am completely out of red, green, purple, gold stretch, and several other stock fabrics.  I am also halfway through my latest 1/2 lb box of pins.  And ribbons.  SO far behind on my ribbon stock at the rate I keep making ornaments.  

I finally got those business cards drawn up, and boy do they look awesome!  Only problem is, my printer sucks.  Its a cheap inkjet, and didn't come up with near the quality I had hoped for. So I kinda settled on what I have. Maybe for my next event I can have some real ones printed up instead of the make-it-yourself kind.

I found a Trish Burr book at the library! It just was acquired, needle painting miniature embroidery scenes.  Probably too advanced for me, but I would love to just read it and pick up a few tricks.  When the tutorial is over.  

The tutorial project wraps up for me in December, but I also have Christmas and a sister moving back to the US from Australia to deal with.  Which is why I am not planning anything huge until January.  Like restock on after Christmas sales and such.  

Word of warning, I will be moving this summer.   I am not sure where, I might stay in the Dallas metroplex and I might not.  It will depend on my husband's job and a few other things.  Moving is a big ordeal for us, with my health problems and the autistic nature of my son.  School systems, doctors, commute time, plus proper housing in our price range all have to be considered.  I will probably be shutting down the shop during the transition, for more at least a month or more while I do some business changes.  I will have to change government forms as well.

Don't forget to donate to Elizabeth's Medical Fund and assist her in covering her medical costs!

New Ornaments are Up!

Thats 14 listings you are looking at here.

14.

Thats a lot of pictures.


But now that I have some new inventory I am going to go back through and clean out some of the stale stuff.  A friend of mine asked if I would offer some items for silent auction to benefit the McKinney animal shelter.  Which is great! I get to dump my old inventory and make room for new while getting some publicity in town and help out a good cause.  Cause I love fur babies!

Only one problem with that though, I need new business cards.  I haven't printed any with the new Emporium naming and updated informational links.  So I was up till 1am last night working on business cards. And since I actually have a color printer now I am working all kinds of professional looking things.  I have the cards, I just need some new ink and a little time. 

I have a busy week ahead with family, not sure what I am going to accomplish. Especially since now I have come down with a bad cold. 

Don't forget all sales from the shop are going to Elizabeth Comer to help her cover the costs of fighting thyroid cancer.  Click the name to donate directly!

Ornament Update

So as of right now:

49 ornaments in inventory that need re-shooting.
16 that need original photos.
5 of the ornaments in the picture I finsihed last night, the top three and the middle two from the left.

So with proper math, I have 65 ornaments to shoot, not including the ones that still need wrapping.

I still need to make more christmas version ones, right now I am pinning the opposite of the holiday one at the top right with alternating colors so they go as a set.  Then I want to do a set in silver, and in white.  But that probably won't be done till December, when I get this big Kanzashi project out of the way.

Not only that, but my husband has decided to change jobs, which may mean relocating. Not what I wanted to hear right before the holiday season starts but what the hell.

its me

Well, yes. It's me.

I don't normally come out in public like this.  I have adored my anonymity on the internet, but it is slowly fading away if I am to succeed as an artisan.

This is probably the best picture I have ever taken. LOL.

I'm done with kanzashi for the moment, I have a big kanzashi related project coming up in November I have to work on but can't really go into detail yet.

Ornaments are the main focus at the moment, trying to get some of the Christmas stock finished before I get in over my head for this project.  I also need to set up a photo shoot once again and redo all my ornaments. Lots of work. And I still have many that need trimming and many that just need photos so I can list them.  I also need a ton more ribbon and bells.  So it may be a while before I finish all of them, and probably not before the shoot.  I need a TON of ribbon.

My custom order backed out on me, so I need to reshoot that piece too.  Plus another that I missed in the previous shoot.  The red kanoko dots double sakrua still has kanzashi temple stamping....

Plus my son's birthday is this week.  It never ends.....