Create for Life Cafepress Shop open for business!

A sneak peek of my designs - there are 4 to choose from at present!

OK - so I didn't get round to taking the photos of my bags and apron for my 'made-it' shop, but I have managed to upload some designs to my Cafepress shop, so go on over and have a look.  Cafepress offers lots of designs which can be printed onto items of your choice from mugs to clocks, t-shirts to water bottles.  You could get stuck on there for hours!!  (Make sure you visit my shop first though!!)

Busy, busy ...

My guardian doll face lying on some gorgeous fabric I bought from ebay - received today - I'm going to make a bag with it.

An amazingly productive day today! I was lined up for a creativity class, but it was a no-show; however, I did not despair and sat and produced a wonderful mindmap on a piece of A1 paper with ideas for marketing, products and workshops. If you read yesterday's post you'll know that I've begun to make a website (although I am having problems getting the domain name I want, due to purchasing rather than it not being available!) So it's not doom and gloom at all, perhaps it's just not the right time for the class, and I know I need to work on my marketing techniques. It will happen though!

After making my mind map, I made a face for my guardian doll out of air drying material. I needed to do it before anyone came home and distracted me - which would happen very easily because I've been dreading making the face! No excuses, and I sat down with the clay and my modelling tools and just started to fashion the face. And I'm so pleased with the result. It's supposed to look like a mother looking at her child with love - it does look a bit strange with no colour and no hair, but trust me, it's going to look brilliant!

Then ... I managed to do some more painting of my Celtic knots. It takes quite a while and I need to do it in the daytime, because it's hard to see how the paint is going on when it's nighttime, and we don't really have suitable lighting for night painting. Add to that it's also time for chores and feeding the family, I don't get much opportunity to paint. Can't be an artist all day I suppose. So today has been spent working on the business and in the business. It's been lots of fun, I want to do this job full-time!

Creative Overload? Never!

Today was the opposite of yesterday! Then I was sitting and calmly cutting and piling up my hexagons - today I couldn't stop creating! As you can see from the photo above I've been painting some of my spirit dolls, getting them ready to sell in my Etsy store. I love the purple and orange smaller dolls, but there's more work to be done on the green doll. It's funny how our tastes are though, because my husband came in from work, and said 'hey, I like that doll'. They're just not my usual colours I work with that's all, but it's good to break out of my colour comfort zone, and not everyone is going to like orange and purple as much as me! I also painted another part of the larger canvas I shared with you a few weeks ago, and designed a bag that I will be able to produce quickly and then paint, again to sell on Etsy.

After this flurry of activity I made kumara (sweet potato) soup, and a lovely scrummy lemon meringue pie. I feel tired now! But that comforting sort of tired you get when you've worked/studied hard and feel you've had a good result!

Nearly forgot to mention having time to muck about and take photos of myself wearing my NZ necklace I bought in Raglan. Then editing them to give more attention to the necklace rather than the laughter lines on my face!! Quite a good arty photo though, and I like my smile! I was trying not to laugh a lot of the time, because my sister takes photos like this and we always end up with huge heads, or candid shots of our nostrils!

Now I'm going to sit down and watch an old episode of the UK series 'Teachers', whilst trying to needlefelt some heart shapes for an idea I've had about my creativity class on Thursday. I suppose you could call it work, but I love it so much ... I'll post the results tomorrow if it works. Hey I'll even post it if it goes terribly wrong, it's good to have a laugh!

Rainy day musings ...

Today it's been raining! Yay! So I went outside this evening with my youngest and we planted our baby strawberry plants a friend had given us yesterday. Now the plants will all get watered by nature and hopefully last a bit longer!

When we went into the village today we saw that someone had been creative in the car park. The asphalt had broken up over the months in one place, so this clever creative had picked up some of the pieces and laid a path of stones and built a tiny village with the asphalt pieces. I was gutted that I didn't have my camera with me - it was definitely worthy of being posted on the net. Hopefully it will be left alone over night and I'll get a photo of it tomorrow.

I've been feeling a bit frustrated today. A friend has been encouraging me to 'step up to the mark' with my art and visions of having my own creative business, and just reach out and take it. The thing is, I don't know what to do first! I have lots of paintings to paint, lots of dolls to create and ideas for workshops, but don't have much sense of direction or focus. Is it time to put a business plan down on paper properly rather than keep it in my scruffy notebook and as ideas in my head? A business plan doesn't really feel that arty, but I guess we do have to live in the real world! And a sense of direction always helps you to get where you want to go!

Lessons in business

My lovely 'aura-soma' cuff!

Last week I chose an Aura-Soma colour of light blue and magenta, and when I went to the shops a couple of days later, I saw some ribbon in the same hues so of course had to buy it, especially as I had in mind to make a cuff. Now the aura-soma colour I chose related to creativity and wanting to share it with everyone, e.g. by teaching! Which was very appropriate as I am going to be doing some creativity lessons at Creative Seeds very soon. If you check out their website you can also get some information on Aura-Soma.

I sat down with my ribbon, some felt and my sewing box, and just started to make the cuff. I took notes at the same time for future reference, because I'm thinking of selling these cuffs on Etsy - everyone needs some colour in their lives, and this is a good way of making it portable but visible at the same time. I sewed the ribbon to the felt, which I'd measured to go round my wrist to just touch ends. I used embroidery threads in the same tones, and whip stitched gold thread through the running stitch. One of the things I found out is that the gold thread I used for the 'whipping' stitch did not like being pushed through the felt and fell apart! You're OK if you use short lengths though and are very gentle ... The final touch was to add a pretty sparkly button on one side, and a small elastic hoop on the other side to make the closure. I want to make another cuff using velcro for the closure to see which works best.

But, it did take quite a while to make and I don't think I would make heaps of money by selling them - I've got to think of ways to make it more economical. Being the typical artist I would quite happily sit for hours and make a few and sell them for not very much. It was pointed out to me however, that if I want to run a business I have to think of profit margins, something I think a lot of artists and creative people have a problem with. It's not enough to do it all just for love if you want to buy groceries! (Shame though!) It's quite a learning curve trying to combine doing what you love with making money at it - I wonder if it's possible?

Oh well, at least I have a lovely colourful cuff to wear and remind me of my creative aspirations - keep following the dream!