Simple little owl tutorial

This makes a cute little easy owl.

You need:

Clay: 3 colors for the body, white and black or blue for eyes , orange for beak

A roller or pasta machine

Tissue blade

Small cookie cutter: round or oval

Metal head pin to insert to hang

Marketing

Just a few days left for my super silver sale. Prices will increase on August 1st, or the piece will be removed for recycling. Nows the time to buy before prices go up, or the piece is no longer available.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/176338681/super-silver-sale-silver-and-amethyst

So this is what I cut and pasted almost 30 times today.

Why?

Because I am trying to harness the power of network marketing using social media.

Like most folks with an Etsy shop, or who sells product they make, the goal is to drive customers to the location of the sale. For me thats Etsy.

I can only post my links so many times on my facebook page, the regular "me" one and my art page-- btw you do follow me right? Laura Medeiros-Art Stuff

I need to leverage more exposure, drive more that my fans, to Etsy, and try to collect more fans.

I started by investing in a list of facebook groups I could join and post etsy link/adverts in. Yes I said invested. I purchased a PDF list someone collected. Their foot work was worth it to me.

Currently I try to post daily in all the groups Im in, and I tey to add 5 to 10 grpups each week. The numbers vary since Im still pending membership in a few of the groups. Those of course make me think about how active the moderator is, and how valuable that geoup will be for traffic generating.

Currently Im playing a numbers game. If I dont post in all those facebook groups, I will get maybe 3 to 7 organic views. Yestrday by 10 pm I had 2 views for the day. After I made my marketung post rounds, my views went up to 28, and today by 3pm I had another 34 views--those were left overs from my late night post. I post in between 19 and 26 groups currently, depending on the product Im pushing that day. Currently Im averaging 2 views per post.  What Im not tracking is how many new likes, or followers Im getting. And that number is increasing.

Im over 1500 views for this month.

Unfortunately my sales have yet to catch up with the views. Im at about a .2% return rate of sales to views. Thats the next target, how to get people who would be in the market for my stuff to do the viewing.

Im also building my Twitter and Instagram markets.

Please come follow me there. Im Zoeowyn in both places!

And Im focusing on not just posting sales or links to Etsy in those locations, but also trying to make sure I include what Im doing in my art world. Like the mini art camp Ive hosted  a few times.

I keep working on it, I keep trying to build my market.

Making mosaic tiles

Todays adventure in crafting involved 60 pounds of concrete and a lot of nail polish!

We made mosaic stones. To spice up the glass bubbles -those flat glass marble things from the floral department- we painted them with sparkly nail polish

I lack confidence in my concrete mixing skills, and the directions on the bag were vague at best. Hopefully they will dry and harden with out any problems. However I suspect that we should have used cement. 

Update: the concrete set up well. Adding more water didnt hurt the mix at all, it actually made it smoother and the tiles seemed more structurally sound- they are more solid. The damp dirt pebbles consistency -which is what the directions gave- ended up with more air holes and a rougher surface. By adding more water the concrete slop mushed itself together better, and ended up with a smoother surface texture. Not to mention it was easier to mix!

 Smoother surface

Making galaxy shirts

I really like making galaxy shirts, they are fun pretty easy and a great way to get kids to  learn about negative space (with out imposing a lesson on them).

My kids had a few friends over and we made galaxy shirts.

the basics:
start with a cotton shirt
lay out random circle objects-we used taped, lids and a frizbee
using a spray bottle spray a 50/50 mix of water and bleach
let it "develop" rinse
we then tossed the shirts into the drier on low
once dry we put in details like rings and dots of stars using a bleach gel pen
after the next round of bleach is rinsed off we washed and dried the shirts
once dry add the paint
I found a great bottle of spray white fabric paint, that really helps.
Once the paint dries remember to heat set.

These are great fun, and the kids had a terrific time. I really enjoyed watching their little customizations.  One painted in a mini Tardis- instant Doctor Who shirt; another kid made sure there were 9 planets, added a rainbow bridge  and labeled a few of the planets Asguard and Midguard--instant Thor shirt; one created cookie monster in space, and the last kid added arranged the planets for a solar system. None of these additions were guided or suggested. Its great to see how the took the concept of space and made them their own!

I plan on cutting them up to make mine into a deconstructed tank top.

Whatcha been doing?

I haven't been doing too much jewelry making lately, but Im still making art!

Im thrilled to have created some technical drawings/illustrations for the upcoming book:

The Cloth of Egypt
All About Assiut

by Dawn Devine


















You can find out more about the book here: http://www.davina.us/blog/cloth-of-egypt/

Assiut is this totally amazing mesh cloth with designs woven in using metal strips.

Dawn has done an academic  Master's degree worth of research, and collected or art directed thousands of reference photographs. She has also created seemingly hundreds of examples and sample projects using this fabric for the book.



My illustrations aren't thrilling, but they are important for visually describing technique, and accompanying instructions.

I can't wait until the book comes out!

I can't make it since its in California, but there is going to be a great launch party:

Assiut Fest - Sunday Aug. 24 - Sunnyvale, CA
• Afternoon Workshop with Princess Farhana 3 hours/$40
• Evening Dance Show and Party - 3 hours/ FREE 
Join Davina and Friends as we celebrate the release of her book "The Cloth of Egypt." 
Need More Details Here? http://www.davina.us/blog/assiutfest/

SUPER DUPER SILVER SALE!!!

I am having a clean out clearance sale on my silver jewelry.

Unfortunately a good deal of it has been sitting around in my stock for too long, and its time for it to go.
If it doesn't go I will send it in for recycling.

I know I missed this big cost bubble when silver was over $50 an ounce, but its still pretty high.

Most pieces I will be selling at my cost. I use Precious Metal Clay, and so I have priced items so that I can purchase more clay. Several other pieces are just at market value of the silver.

I hate the thought of an original work getting melted down, and thus the cheap got-to-prices.

I have many pieces listed on Etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/zoeowyn

some of the items I have listed:






https://www.etsy.com/listing/8540/super-clearance-silver-and-amozonite?ref=listing-2



https://www.etsy.com/listing/22798918/super-silver-sale-small-silver-celtic?ref=listing-shop-header-1

and more that (hopefully) wont make it to Etsy, as Im trying to sell directly from my Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Laura-Medeiros-Art-stuff/147377941945717?ref=hl

Ears!

I dont think. I got a chance to show off my fairy ears, and ear wraps. I was intent on making them, I forgot to post them every place!

ATC summer swap

Its been a while since I've made ATCs. I forgot how much I enjoy them. These four sets were made for a craft group ATC swap.

Crazy Cat Lady

Words

Live Well Love Much Laugh Often

Mystic Flutterby

Finishing up some projects

Trying to finish things already started. I have too many starts lying around, or waiting in boxes taking up space!

Finished this one in 7 years

This one was probably only laying around for 3 orso years.

These bracelets were also waiting for about 3 years, maybe 4 to get finished up.

Daily art

I decided I was too unbalanced, either only doing "day job" work, or binging on art.

Actually I think grad school set me into a binge mode mentality. Binge mode for writing papers, where thats all you do. Binge mode to watch a tv series on Netflix because there is a brief two day respite in the work load before the next assignment is available, binge reading fiction because starting next week there will only be time for research.

Its not a healthy way to approach projects or life. And Im not living my life as a grad student anymore, so time to work on balance.

I felt one of the ways to do that is to make art every day, not finish a complete project every day (that supports the binge concept) but something artistic.

This is my goal for April.

I started this month with some shrinki dinks. Yesterday I assembled them into earrings, and prepared a hair stick and a fancy egg pendant ornament. Today I managed to get my art on early, and I was able to finish the hair stick and the easter egg necklace!

Little projects and little stress to have it done now.

Pintrest action!

Its very exciting to find out that other people pin my content. A blog post on basic color theory has been pinned at least 2 separate times, and repinned 9!

OMG, LOL I accidentally posted this to one of my other blogs, oops.

Blog fail!

And yet again O have failed at balancing my desired craft life with my income generating life.

The goal really is for them to be one and the same.

New project/goal starting in April is daily art. 

I will do/make something artistic every day.

And of course I will share pictures!

Anyone want to play too? We can make it into a blog hop at the end of it!

Blog fail!

And yet again I have failed at balancing my desired craft life with my income generating life.

The goal really is for them to be one and the same.

New project/goal starting in April is daily art. 

I will do/make something artistic every day.

And of course I will share pictures!

Anyone want to play too? We can make it into a blog hop at the end of it!

On Instagram!

Im on Instagram now!

Come follow me Im Zoeowyn!

My new book marks are now listed on etsy: http://zoeowyn.etsy.com

Ooh book marks.

New book marks

About a week ago a polymer clay page on facebook (the Polymer Arts) posted this image of a devise for helping you hold open your book one handed.

Along with the image was the comment of how this would be a good thing to try in polymer, so I did.

I found out these are being made in plastic, and wood, and all kinds of ways. So instead of trying out as just another thing to be lost, I decided to make it into a book mark.

So far feed back has been positive, and I will have a new product for bibliophiles in my etsy shop tomorrow!