fatrockstar

These are the first bunny magnets made from my Craft Night molds. It's closer to the truth to say that these are the original bunny shapes used to make those molds, but why nitpick? The base shapes were baked, embelleshed, then baked again. I think for the next set I will probably only do one bake - working with Bake 'n Bond (say that 3 times fast, then get hungry) is only simple with larger pieces.

Even though I'm not talking much (if at all), my throat is feeling a bit better. I need to be able to not speak, whisper, cough, or clear my throat for an entire day or longer. Easier said than done. Making a doctor appointment is challenging enough!
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Some items have been renewed, and a couple of others are new listings. Behind the scenes I am experimenting with some new designs and wondering why I try so hard at jewelry -- I much prefer making little sculptures!

Etsy WaywardClay

I'm a little late for sharing craft night accomplishments and would probably have skipped it if not for these two items.

The keyboards are for the Devo-inspired clothespins. They turned out to be a bit too large for the dolls themselves, so I will finish up the details and add pin backings to them. My scale miscalculation won't be a total loss.

The little blue/orange guy is a chihuaua-shaped catnip toy, full of "the good stuff." Grady was happy to receive it, and pushed it across the dining room with his face for several minutes.

It is uncertain if craft night will survive the new job, but we'll see.

So far, so good. Got some help from Melody on these. Two sets of five dolls to come. Share your favorite Devo songs in the comments.

I really need a new digital camera. Maybe not NEWnew, but new enough to me. My favorite camera got all moody on me a while back and I've been using someone else's. It's great, but not always available when I have the time and inclination to get pictures taken. I still have a few more items to photograph.

Craft night tonight, with a possibility of new faces joining me. Will they clay with me or bring something with them? Hard to tell. It should be a fun evening.

( The little Flash promo under the cut )

a few weeks ago I was wandering the clearance aisle at Michael's and found these blank clothespins I can only describe as "multicultural." Honestly I'm not sure why I bought them - the craft they're intended for is not one of my favorites - I can only guess that I was inspired by the memory of clothespin dolls my mother made when I was little. I remember searching her house high and low for them after she died but not even getting close. My sister was probably hiding them from me.

So I've been sitting on this find and finally got around to figuring out what I want to do with them. I'm hoping to have my first set of four complete and ready to sell by the first of the month. I'm not too thrilled with the crappy selection of holiday fabrics out there, but will make do. So far the prototypes look very good.

Until I have a finished product, this sketch will have to do. Enjoy.
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If you were able to make my show at The Comet, you would have seen my most recent marketing idea in action: Magnets. I can't really afford to give them out for free like I can the occasional CD because in order for these to sell I have to price them at a loss. I'm working on lowering the production costs a bit with face and hair molds. If they turn out to be slow sellers I'll move the inventory to my Etsy shop.

Speaking of Etsy, I really need to list a bunch of new stuff. I'll be the first person to admit my jewelry design needs work, but stranger things have sold there.

Back to the marketing, though: I'm still coming up with more extras for the merchandise table. T-shirts are too obvious -- or are they? I like the folding can cozy screenprinted with the band logo idea, too.

In other news, I have sent enough disks as promo and sold enough that it looks like I'll need to order more soon.

There's nothing like organizing all your crap to let you know what you keep forgetting you have but buy over and over again anyway.

At this rate I will have a lot of little organizer containers left over. Maybe I'll be able to sell those - they're part of a craft organizing "system" that I never used properly to begin with.

To whoever bought me another year of LiveJournal: Thank you. This cute dragon icon was one I would have had to do without for a while if you hadn't come along!

But about the alcohol inks...

I've been checking out books from the library on polymer techniques, and a few of them use alcohol inks to create certain effects on it and other surfaces. This all looks pretty interesting and I am still trying to find my niche regarding polymer, so I bought a 3-pack of inks and attempted to use them tonight.

I have no idea what I was thinking, but I do wish I had done a little more research. The polymer books don't go into detail on this particular pigment type, only that it is used, as in "apply the alcohol ink to the surface as desired." It probably would have been a little more helpful to say "apply the alcohol ink to the surface in such a way you don't ruin two surfaces, a paintbrush, and stain your fingers."

To give you an idea of what I should have known, there's this guy:


The piece I assembled tonight was made with silver leaf over a raised design made of polymer. It looks okay for what I was attempting to learn, but now I'll have dark blue fingertips for a couple of days. Thank goodness all the paintbrushes in my arsenal are hella-cheap. Pics to come later on that one.

Someone asked me to make a bunny magnet like another in my Etsy shop, but once it went up she decided it wasn't as cute. Great. I guess that's what I get for trying to be timely and having a piece done when I said it would be.

Edmund had his challenges, so maybe he wasn't as cute as the others, but I did what I was asked to do. She didn't say "make one exactly like this other one," so I'm not sure what else to do other than modify the listing so the public can buy it. Since the refusal news, I have since stripped and re-finished him so he's a little more chocolatey-looking. New pictures will go up later today.

Another shopper asked me if I could make ten tinier versions of the bunnies, but without the magnet. I sent her my terms, and she said she wasn't going to order now. I'm fine with people asking questions, but if you decide against pursuing a custom piece it's really not necessary to give me a completely unrelated reason why. Really, it's okay. Questions don't cost anything.

I have five new pieces waiting to be uploaded to Etsy. Many of them are necklaces. On the table waiting to be finished are some fantasy-inspired amulet-looking pieces. Someone said to me a week or so ago that some World of Warcraft-inspired pieces might get some attention, so that's what I'm working on right now.

Personally, I think the black cat pieces are the best ones I've made. They keep getting better, too.