Demand marketing

IT WORKS!!!
Thank you everyone who went and looked, just because I said please go look.
And especially thank you those who helped in my February goal of doubling my sales!

Go buy something!

lofty goal here
I want to double my January Etsy sales this month
that means I need to sell one more lousy thing
go buy something!

http://www.zoeowyn.etsy.com

Time is an illusion

I wanna....
do this, do that, get this done, get that done, oh and take care of the family and occationally work (well not really on the work).
I have been exhausting some friends on a forum with how much I post that I do. Do I really do that much?
I decided to take a look at all I do, after all it doesnt feel like Im doing much to me: I work a few part time jobs, I sort of take care of my family (they help a lot with that), I manage to do some form of art on a daily basis, I read every day.
Yeah I guess it does seem like a lot of stuff to do, but its all little bits of stuff.I dont do things that get in the way. Frankly, I just dont have time for TV. And I have learned its not rude the do something with your hands if you are just hanging out and talking.
What does this have to do with art?
I thought I said this was an art related blog?
oh, wait. It is.
I multi task.
I keep project bags and baskets. I try when appropriate to bring something with and work on it. It may just be sketching, it may be working polymer clay, but Im doing something.
I hate "down time" when it could be productive time, like watching at swim class. I always have jewelry or clay or even canvases with me (Im just blocking them in-- no paint, not enought time).
I am constantly doing something crafty. There are no empty blocks of time, they can be filled with art.
Persistance is invloved.
Sometimes giving something up is involved. Whats sleep?
I think its safe to say some OCD is involved. Ok, a lot of OCD is involved.
So, if there is no down time how do I "read?"
Books on tape baby! (say that with an Austin Powers accent.)
Just finished some Douglas Adams stuff--yes its a repeat, but well worth it.
And the reason for the title of this post.

Octopus Rock trial blog

octopus
Originally uploaded by Zoeowyn

This is really a test.
Im participating in networking opportunities over at Flickr, and they have this cool feature that lets me post my pictures and blog from flickr to here.
Since I will have pictures over here at Flickr anyway Im thinking this is a good set up.
That and it is another opportunity to show off this cool big bead with an octopus on it

CRAYONS!

A few weeks ago a friend and I saw these nifty heart shaped ice cube trays at Target. They were cute and pink and I really had no use for them what so ever. Well the other day she says she has been thinking about making heart shaped crayons using those ice cube molds. I thought that was brilliant. Im so tired of all the candy gifts at school, why not give something else. And I really do want my kids to learn that spending money isnt the answer when it comes to gift giving.
So I said, oooh lets do that. She agreed and went in search of the mold. I say search because the ice cube molds were no longer at Target. She found some Wilton metal mini muffin molds, and thats what we used.
Crayons are a way of life at my house. We have not one, but two huge crayon buckets, so finding bits of crayons to use was not a problem.
The crayons turned out fabulous, the kids loved each crayon better than the one before.

This is what we did:

We started with all the broken crayon bits, making sure all the paper was taken off.

We broke the crayons into little bits, if the bits weren't little enought, we put the color combination into a baggie and smashed them with a small hammer.

We piled the crayon bits into the mold tray.

We melted the crayons bits into one heart shaped crayon, the melting was done in the oven at 220 degrees and took about 10 to 15 minutes

We then froze the trays to get the crayons out.


J-man and me filling the mold tray.

This is what we learned:

Different brands of crayons melt at different rates, and the cheaper crayons have more parafin in them, the parafin separates and rises, giving you a layer of solid pale color at what becomes the bottom of the crayon

If you dont want the separation, use the more expensive crayons, but hey, this is a project that uses what you have--if you dont want the parafin layer you can skim it off with a paper towel while the crayons are still melted CAREFUL its lava hot, or you can sand the layer off after everthing has cooled down.

Don't put the liquid melted crayons into the freezer to cool, they will crack and break when you remove them from the mold. Let the crayons naturally cool to room tempurature, then put the pan in the freezer so the crayons will pop out of the pan (BTW this is specific to the metal pan).

Put the glitter in when you are smashing the crayons, it then gets all over and will be spread through out the crayon.

Pile the crayons high. There is a lot of air space they need to melt into, if you make enough bits to fill the mold level you will end up with about half of the mold being filled with melted crayon.

Bake the mold on a cookie sheet with an edge to catch the spills. They wont spill going in, but if your mold is full to the top, it will spill on the way out.

The kids had enough attention span for 1 dozen crayons each.

The Nature of Inspiration.

I have a friend in California who makes these wonderful cigar boxes. She decorates the tops, paints them, lines them. They are beautiful and aptly named Bella Boxes.
Well, my kiddies had a calendar with wonderful art that is longer useful, but I like the fairy pictures. I thought I will make boxes a la my friend as gifts. (I'm allowed to, she gave me permission, but I wouldn’t for sales—that’s hers.) So I was all ready to go and invest in cigar boxes for gift making.
One day whilst trolling at my local Big Lots I found these "boxes." Lets just say I invested heavily in them. I thought "this is great, I can now decoupage my calendar pages onto these boxes, and they will be cool and groovy and inspired by Bella Boxes."
Well the box project evolved into another beast all together. Only the fact that collage and a box are involved is there any "connection" to the original inspiration.
Influence from another inspirational source also added to the box design/construction. The rim of the original box fit very tight. When the rim was painted the lid scraped the paint off. To correct this problem I doctored a lip into the rim of the box. I was looking for a way to finish this cut lip. For some reason, soldering kept entering my mind, a nice shiny silver edge. I don’t solder-I don’t need another hobby, but lets face it, that book "Pretty Little Things" entered into my subconscious.
Well, I got my nice shiny silver edge thanks to foil origami papers. The pictured boxes are just a few of the ideas I have planned for these boxes. The purple fairy box is probably the most directly influenced by Bella Boxes, it’s a great leap off point. Once I have tried a few samples, I will have them available at my Etsy store. I also plan on using these boxes as bases for mini shrines and dimensional Milagros.