Pithy Art Blog

Saturday, September 5, 2015

the Pithy Art Blog has moved!

I've packed up all my toys and relocated to a shiny new home.
This site has been good to me, but I've consolidated my web presence into one location. Controlling and building the brand!

The Pithy Art Blog continues at http://www.lauramedeiros.com/blog

These posts will stay here, Im not deleting anything, just no more posts at this location.

Remeber to visit and book mark the new location! See you there!

Monday, August 10, 2015

Head Banging

Death metal band Asphyx headbanging during a performance. CC-by 3.0

Its serious head banging time! And I don't mean to music, its what I basically call what I do when I have to fight tech to get it to do what I need it to do. Basically just imagine that Im banging my head against my desk or key board repeatedly.

Hours and hours just to get a simple table to line up properly--aaarrrggg.
CSS fights the CMS, and if it would just let me code it and stop trying to "think" for me....aaarrrggg.

Yeah, thats exactly why Im switching to CMS website, so things like this will be easier int he long run. In the mean time Im getting everything set up!

Hopefully by the end of the week I will be inviting everyone to come check out my updated website.

Monday, August 3, 2015

Marketing Monday!


totally random image that came up when I search Pexels for "marketing." Nice arts banana shot

Yay Marketing Monday is on its way. Ive updated the Linked In page. I am now officially listed as a coloring book artist!
Also learned some great info about WordPress! So I will be starting the redesign of my webpage this after noon.

Also learning how to balance all the tasks that need doing. Marketing, drawing, making jewelry, and life.

Its interesting how starting over takes a whole lot of learning, its also really exciting and a little bit intimidating!

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Vending

Right now my 2015 vending dates look like:

September 19
Murfreesboro TN
Art Along the Green Way

October 10
Two Rivers Park Nashville
Pagan Pride Day

October 24-25
Alabama Renassance Faire
Florence AL

December ???
Solstice Market
Lowe Mill
Huntsville AL

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Laura Learns Marketing

I think Marketing Monday, as I have decided to call it since its my day set aside to learn all about this was a fail.
I didn't do anything.
I worked on deadlines. Meeting deadlines is good.
Then again so is learning marketing. Im a creative, marketing is not a natural process for me.

I'm reading Platform by Michael Hyatt, so far I recommend it if you need marketing help in this world of social media and Web 2.0 products.

I watched a lot of podcasts from Self-Publishing school. Also good information, and time well spent.

Learn learn learn, so I can implement implement implement.

Oh and just found out about the whole new microchip on credit card thing!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-small-business/wp/2015/07/24/a-big-legal-burden-awaits-small-businesses-and-most-arent-aware-of-it/?postshare=5131437973853512

So time to order a new Square reader. :(

Monday, July 20, 2015

Restructuring the website!

Im re building and redesigning my website.

Using post-it notes is a trick I learned back in the 1990s. You put 1 page and its contents on 1 post-it note. Allsub pages get their own note. If page contents becomes its own page, it gets its own note.

You can rearrange as spyou need to to. Then when organization and order is final, I tape them onto a big piece of paper.

They I either write it down in outline form if I need to share it, or draw it up.

Its a bit of an old school trick, but it works.

Monday, July 13, 2015

Things, they are a-changing!

Ganesh, remover of obstacles, god of wisdom, knowledge and new beginnings. I think its appropriate to have him on this post.

I'm working with a fantabulous woman who is becoming my marketing training mentor (I will drop names later).
I have a stack of of homework that includes updating my website. A complete overhaul.
This blog will be effected, but it will continue.
Add portfolios to places, and I have to read some books.

First book up:
Platform Get Noticed in a Noisy World by Michael Hyatt

I will be keeping everyone posted on my progress!

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Under construction!

Updating a few things, sorry about the mess!

Photo by Daniel Oines https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0

Thursday, June 18, 2015

My coloring book is now available!!

I've been working on an octopus themed coloring book, and I am excited to announce it is now available on Amazon!

http://www.amazon.com/When-Octopods-Dream-coloring-everyone/dp/1514271389

Thursday, April 23, 2015

So, what I've been up to

I really dropped the ball on this blog. Sorry folks.

Things I've been doing and not telling you about obsessively:

I started writing in August of last year. I'm at the point where I need to start shopping my manuscript out to agents and publishers. Its kind of intimidating to have actually gotten this far, but I wrote a complete book.
Actually Ive written more than one! I have two complete manuscripts, and expect to finish a third one in the next few weeks.

In November I joined and completed the 50 thousand word challenge that is NaNoWriMo.

I've continued to market and sell my jewelry. Sales and my marketing are helping to improve online sales, but I still need to find a day job.

The never ending story that is the on going job hunt since I earned that second masters in distance education. I have started taking on more and more freelance design, and have even expanded my job search to include design again (my first degree. first career). Im only including it because of how much work is actually involved in filling out online job application after job application.

Most recently I've started to create coloring pages. My first two are available on Etsy
https://www.etsy.com/listing/230795465/octopus-mandala-digital-download
and
https://www.etsy.com/listing/230610870/octopus-eight-card-digital-download

I need to get more hands on with the creating, and drawing has been really cathartic that way.

Thanks for checking in!

Monday, January 5, 2015

Oops, I forgot to blog for 5 months

Sorry I just disappeared.
I could have been blogging about all the art shows I did over the fall.
Or the ads my work appeared in, or anything. Heck I could have even blogged over the hazards of maintaining a clean work space.
But I didnt.
Sorry about that.

I get frustrated and the passion flees.
I love creating and being creative, and I do it even if I dont have an audience.
But I need an audience to survive financially. When that doesn't happen I pout. I tend to pout in very self destructive ways. I stop doing what makes me happy, I start doing things that are bad for me (eating wheat and corn, drinking too much soda).

Unfortunately this blog has been a victim of that.

I don't have any grand resolutions for this year, and nothing profound regarding 2014 in retrospect.

I just know Im gonna keep on doing this, and I will remember to share, and maybe someday I will figure this all out. Until then, happy crafting!

Thursday, August 7, 2014

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

Monday, July 28, 2014

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.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

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

Thursday, July 10, 2014

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.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

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/

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

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: