The holidays are coming! Part 2

Birdbath Mosaic
Originally uploaded by mornindew2822

My poor, dear Maggie has been holding this blog together for us all month. As I struggle with eBay and website and got 2 of my 3 boys into school (jr high and preschool, a first for both!) I often found myself superbly overwhelmed this September. And so, on the final day of the month, I impress myself with the fact that I have actually gotten some of my holiday goals well underway.

I am about 65% finished with my first birdbath; not the 3 I had planned to be working on, but one successful birdbath is a good start to a 100% new project. I've also learned throughout this process some good and some not so good ways of working with stained glass, concrete and mosaics in general:

- mix concrete for small projects in small batches.
- Press hard with your glass cutting tool, it won't shatter your glass, but a weak score line will cause your glass to not break away cleanly.
- set your design on fiberglass mesh (either self stick or use a glue like Weldbond). Not doing this means you essentially have to lay your pattern twice. (Learned that one the hard way!)
- Start your project with plenty of time before your "due date". Unless you do this for a living and can easily carve out time in your day to work on it, be ready for life to get in the way!
- Don't be afraid to try! At the start of this project, I had never mixed so much as one cup of conrete before muchless used a mold to create a birdbath. I had never touched a sheet of stained glass nor used a glass cutter or tile nippers, both of which have proven to be very cool tools to play around with!
- Aim for fun and cool, not perfection and professional and you'll likely find that your project turns out to be much better than you ever thought you could do on your first attempt!

I'll post some photos of my other holiday crafts soon!

365 Project- More than 10% Done

365 Project- More than 10% Done
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

I can't decide if it feels like we started this project of artful exploration eons ago or just yesterday. I was catching up on uploading pictures to our group, and as I typed day 37/365, I thought "Wow, 10% done." Part of me thinks I should put an "only" in there. Part of me thinks it is a good accomplishment.

It is most certainly a testimony to my crafting ADD. If you look at my pictures, I made books, embroidered on felt leaves, made thread buttons, glued buttons to bobby pin blanks, and sewed bags. I made more than a few earrings, but I also think I made much less than I would in an average month.

There were some reorganization days in there, where I sorted supplies and attempted to bring order to the mayhem. I need to do that some more- I need to sort my fabric stash and I need to reorganize the basement to try to set up an area for using a torch.

I also want to stretch my artistic wings more as time goes on, and try to strike that balance between making the items that will sustain my current business while trying to change it into what it needs to be in the future.

Keep your eyes on this space- you never know what we might be up to!

A light at the end of the tunnel

Well, tonight was the big clear out night in my basement. I got downstairs around 9pm and just went to it. I knew I'd been down there a while but had no idea exactly how long. When I finally came upstairs and looked at the clock it was 12:51am. I finished up what I was doing and am sitting down at the computer at 1:30am. The dungeon is looking remarkably more like a decent work space.

I don't know why I procrastinated this as long as I did. Even before I intended to use the space for crafts, I intended to have things neatly stored and organized just for the sake of keeping inventory of my shells and things for my stores. I think somehow I talked myself into believing I just had too much stuff down there and no place to put it all. Well TOTALLY not true. It is so bare in there compared to what it was you'd think I threw away 80% of my stock! There were so many cupboards, closets and built-ins that I wasn't taking advantage of and even one I didn't know was there!

Almost all of my inventory is now out of the cardboard boxes they've been sitting in since shipped to me and it is about 75% sorted by specimen into plastic storage totes. LOL, just in time for me to decide I don't want to sell half of it anymore! Well, at least selling it off will be easier!

For more photos of the progress I'm making on this project, check out my Flickr photoset Studio Remodel. (And I apologize for the terrible quality of some of the pictures, the flash and lighting were not cooperating at all tonight!)

-Tara

Forcing myself to be productive

Sometimes motivation eludes me and my friend Maggie tells me that sometimes I get cranky by the use of the word "motivated"- it's just so hard to find inspiration sometimes. But I am working at it. As my business model changes from mainly eBay to one of free standing online website and brick and mortar stores, I thought it wise to start holding myself accountable, even when I don't feel like it.


I make sea glass jewelry and dabble in other crafty stuff- I make hand painted wine glasses, wreaths and recently bought a giant bird bath mold and 40 sq. feet of stain glass to start making mosaic bird baths. Can you say "scattered"? Anyway, I'll use this blog to chronicle my journey from stay at home mom who sometimes sells some handmade stuff to successful artist and jewelry designer who works for herself (or lands herself a really fab job at some design studio!)

-Tara