100th Etsy Sale!!!

Yesterday I reached my 100th Etsy sale! I was so excited and just had to celebrate, so my Hubby and I went to Olive Garden to celebrate! Mmmmmm Alfredo boat...I've missed you so!

Anyways! Here's what I've been up to lately! Most of September was a waste. I don't know, maybe I was worn out from preparing for that first show. So September was pretty much a loss. What a lazy bum! October was a bit better. I had several custom orders, but it always seemed as soon as I was just finishing those, I'd get more! So I didn't make as much new stuff for the show I did over Halloween weekend, which was Long Beach Comic-con. It was a pretty fun show, and we did get a lot of sales! Here's my little table setup!



It's kind of interesting going to these shows because the accepted price range is always different. Here it seemed almost no one wanted to spend over $15, with a few exceptions. While my larger dragons were constantly complimented, I only sold 3 large dragons. I sold a TON of charms though!

Some of the things I made exclusively for the con were these Dice Dragons. While I didn't sell many at the show, they have been selling surprisingly well on my etsy shop! Hurray!







There are couple more dice dragons in my etsy shop.

Now that the Halloween show is over I can start working on Christmas stuff! I've had several requests to start making some cute Christmas earrings, so that's where I will start! I'm also starting to take custom ornament orders for anyone interested. Get on the list quick! It's filling up!

Another interesting thing that I've finally come to realize, is that my "muse", is nocturnal! Basically this means I work best at all hours of the night. My bedtime lately has been anywhere from 3AM to 6AM! I've tried for years to try to make myself be a morning person, and no matter how hard I've tried, no matter when I go to sleep, it was just never meant to be! So I've finally given in, and I've become so much more productive! Only problem is it can get awfully quiet and lonesome sometimes. But at least that horrible duck outside isn't yelling it's head off, driving me insane! Yep. We have a horrible duck. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Everyone in the complex I've talked to hates that horrible duck. How can such a loud, obnoxious sound come out of such a small creature???

Anyways, everyone is tired of me ranting about the duck. It's just a constant source of irritation for me! We don't have barking dogs in this complex, instead we have DUCKS. Ugh.

Anyways, I have work to do! I've got to try to blog more regularly, and try to keep up on everyone elses blogs...

Woot! 100th sale!

So much new stuff!

Well it's definitely been a while since my last post! I was super busy getting ready for my first show. About killed myself getting prepared for it. It was a really good goal for me to do my first craft show. I want to do more now! The show itself was apparently a flop. Being new to the craft show scene I had nothing to compare it to. The other vendors were pretty irritated by the end of the day though. I made about 12 sales, and earned well over my table fee so I was pretty happy! I guess being it's first year, it wasn't very well publicized. I had a blast though! I also discovered that while my camera rocks at taking tiny product photos, it is horrible for normal pics!



After the show was over I was completely burned out for a good week or so. Then I had to photograph all the crap I made for the show that didn't sell. My Etsy shop is so full now! I made about a million little charms and pendants!

Some of the more awesome things I've made lately: Baby Unicorns!



A pink llama dragon!



Halloween kitties!



And some tiny gem dragons!



There are a ton of new dragons, charms, and random critters in my store. I'm nearing 100 listings! Wow!

It seems like business is starting to pick back up now that the holidays are just around the corner. Hurray! I love making Halloween and Christmas stuff!

August!

What? Where did July go??? Now I am starting to freak out because I have my first craft show at the end of the month! There is so much to do to get ready! I really need to buckle down and make a ton of stuff.

I am really stoked on one thing... I finally finished the Gem Dragon series! Here they are in all their colorful glory! There are close up shots of the last four too!







I really liked making this series, but was getting a little bored making fairly similar dragons over and over. They are all available in my shop and, being a collectible series, will always be in stock. They are the only thing in the shop that will be remade when one sells. Mostly because I've gotten so dang fast at making them now!

I'm still working on the little animal spirits from the last post. They are less naked now! They are still a work in progress. For some reason they need like a billion coats of paint. I'm getting a little annoyed with them, but I will finish them. Maybe I need better paint. The fox is just about done at least!



Speaking of foxes, and completely off topic, I'm attempting to make a needle felted fox. It's HARD. And I stab myself constantly with that horrible little needle... agggggh my fingertips... BUT it has been an interesting little project. My fox isn't really looking like the picture on the kit. Mine has this massive head, you see:



For anyone who doesn't know, needle-felting is basically a way to SCULPT wool. It's ridiculously time consuming and I really admire anyone patient enough to do it as their hobby or craft. It consists of rolling loose wool very tightly into basic shapes and stabbing the crap out of it with a needle to embed the fibers and retain said shape. Then you make more shapes to attach to those shapes and after HOURS of work, you have a cute little critter.

I'm gonna finish this guy eventually. I got the kit from http://www.woolpets.com/

They are on etsy as well. They have all kinds of kits with excellent instructions. They do take some time, but make for a fun little side project when you need a break, or need to take some anger out on some lumps of wool.

Back to work!

It is complete!

Placing every piece of hair individually took forever! I really love how this guy came out. He's made completely out of colored Premo Sculpey clay. I wanted to varnish him. I varnish everything. Sculptures look so nice when they're all shiny! Anyways, I have no idea if the varnish I use is flammable or not, so I figured I'd play it safe. It'd be sooo sad if he caught fire!

Alrighty, now that I've got him posted I gotta get to work on some more critters! I have a ton of little dudes just waiting to be painted. Lookit em, bein all nekkid!



They are going to be animal spirit totems!

I can do this...I think.

Alright! After much self doubt and moping, I have renewed drive to make this etsy thing work!

Throughout July I have been beating myself up. I've only had a couple sales all month and have let it become an excuse to be depressed and not create. Hey stupid! No one is gonna buy anything if you don't make it! I have made a few things, but nothing close to what I should have to show for an entire months worth of time. Without further ado, here are some of my July critters!

My favorite, a zebra-corn!


Some random charms...


And a cutesy pink dragon that I was testing out blending on.


I made a couple more gem dragons as well! Just four more colors and the set will be complete! Of course, that will make it a set of 13. Is that bad luck?




Phew! That's a lot of pictures! I'm going to try and stay motivated so I can post more often, and not just about my own products. I am working on a really cool looking asian dragon tealight holder. I think I got a little overzealous making him. You'll see what I mean when I post him!

2 Year Anniversary!

It's my 2 year wedding anniversary this weekend! In honor of it, I thought I'd show one of the most insane projects I've ever undertaken: sculpting a bazillion video game characters as wedding favors. For my own wedding. It's an understatement to say I was stressed out after I realized just what I'd gotten myself into. Planning a wedding and making your own intricate favors is not something I recommend. While it added a very special touch and made for some of the most unique and awesome favors ever, NEVER AGAIN!!!

Sadly, several figures had already been spirited away when this photo was taken. I'm still beating myself up for not taking my own pictures of them!




I didn't touch polymer clay for about a year after making all of these! The thought of it just made me cringe. Luckily, that didn't last too long!

Well, the two of us are off to enjoy a quiet, relaxing weekend. It will be so nice to get away from the apartment and spend some time with my sweet hubby!

Virus of Doom!

For the last couple days my hubby has been waging war against a mighty virus that was running rampant on my poor computer! It was a really nasty bugger. It wouldn't let me do ANYTHING! Luckily my hubby knew just enough about computers to eventually kill the monster virus. So far everything is working normally, but I'm on alert for anything weird...

Well I've been working on a new sculpture but since it's not quite finished yet, I thought I'd show some cute dumbo eared dragons I made a little while ago. I think I would like to make more of them eventually.


I find myself having a hard time concentrating on sculpting lately. I think it's because I don't really have a direction at the moment. I'm kind of all over the place. I also don't really like our apartment. It's like a cave. I've moved my work station several times and nothing has really felt right. We are planning on moving next spring, but that's soooo far away!

I got some books in the mail the other day! They both have some interesting tips and useful techniques I'd like to try out in the future.

The first one: Creating Life-Like Animals in Polymer Clay by Katherine Dewey. This one has a lot of tips on building armatures and reinforcing your sculptures. There are step by step instructions with detailed pictures. There are also tips on painting your finished figures.
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The second book: The Polymer Clay Techniques Book by Sue Heaser. This one has all kinds of different projects in it. It's amazing the things people can do with polymer clay! This book has definitely given me some ideas for future projects, and shown me some interesting ways of using the clay that I wouldn't have thought of.


Both of these are great! I want more books though. The local Barnes & Noble is somewhat lacking in polymer clay books, unless you want to make beads. Which I don't. I would love any recommendations!

My Little Sephiroth Pony...

It's all gloomy grey outside today! The weather here really throws me off sometimes. Whenever it got a little grey in Utah there was sure to be rain, if not snow. Here, NOTHING happens! Silly California.

I've made a lot of charms lately, but I can't seem to get very good photos of them! There is a local workshop later this month that teaches people how to photograph their 3D artwork, so I think I might check it out. I can use all the help I can get!

I finished this little black unicorn over the weekend.

My husband nicknamed him "Sephiroth Pony" because of the ridiculously long silver tail. Horse legs are a pain, I've decided. I'm slowly getting better at sculpting them, but they are so knobbly! Is that even a word? I'm working on a zebra-unicorn right now, and I feel like the anatomy is already improving. I know these guys are kinda cutesy and they aren't supposed to be crazy realistic or anything, but I think you create a better sculpt overall if you understand the anatomy. Practice, practice, practice!

Sigh...

Ugh. I'm feeling kind of down today. I've been really missing my family back in Utah. My husband and I moved to Southern California a little over a year ago when he was offered a wicked awesome, once in a lifetime job. I've never been away from my family, so I have definitely had some rough days. Luckily I have my sweet husband to keep me sane and happy.

I never realized just how sheltered I had been in Utah. My parents are amazing people, but they did just about everything for me. Not that I am a lazy person (well sometimes I kind of am), but anything that was in the "grown up" range of responsibility, they took care of. I took a lot for granted living there. I feel like I have done a lot of growing up in the past year. Which is really silly as I am 26 now! My dad told me just about every day while I was growing up, to "never grow up". I think I really tried to do just that. Dad didn't want to let his little girl go, and being the naive girl that I was, I allowed it. It has been a difficult separation for both of us, but it has definitely been for the better.

I really miss them all. I have a lot of fun with my family, and enjoy their company very much. I really love it here in sunny California, but days like this are hard. I guess I will try to bury myself in some sculpting projects.

Sorry for the non-art sob story. I'll be back to normal tomorrow I'm sure. It's kind of therapeutic writing out my troubles. Don't worry, I won't be making a habit of it! In the meantime, here are a couple commissions I've worked on lately:

Well here I am again! It's been a while since my first post! I think I obsess too much over how pretty other people's blogs are, and then just don't work on my own. I really am a total noob at this! Well, until I figure out what I am doing I will just do what I can.

Last time I posted about making sport monkeys. I finished them a while ago, and even sold a couple for Father's Day!




I've been pretty busy this past month, and am starting to think I can actually succeed at this! I've had several custom orders and have sold quite a few of my original creations. It's a lot of work getting your art seen, and I'm still kind of clumsy at it, but I am learning as I go. At the moment, I am working on a series of Gem Dragons. There are only 6 in the series so far, but I plan to make every color of gemstone.



I'm planning to make a mini series of the Gem Dragons as well, in charm form.

I've made a lot of new stuff but just haven't thought to blog about it! I really need to get in the habit of blogging regularly. I'd love to work up to being like the other wonderful blogs I've been following. I'll have to compile a list of some of my favorites. As soon as I figure out how to add links here, I'll post them!

Man I feel ridiculous not understanding blogging. I'm on the computer all the time, I follow numerous blogs, but actually doing the blogging is a whole new game for me!

Alrighty, back to work! Wonder what I'll make today...

Well, here goes nothing!

Hello everyone out there in blog-land! This is officially my first post! Now, I am fairly new to the blogging thing, so please bear with me while I figure out what I am doing.

I recently quit my job to start building my own little Etsy store. I thought it'd be good to have somewhere to write out my thoughts, maybe get some feedback on my work, and hopefully be able to offer something of use to anyone who might be reading. So, to start, I thought I'd show some of my work.

I have a great affinity for dragons. I have been obsessed with them since I was a kid. I drew them on everything, and still do! I found the act of putting pencil to paper unsatisfying at some point, and discovered my medium of choice to be polymer clay. It's so versatile and I never get tired of playing with it.

One thing that has turned out to be a big hit are my tiny dragons. They come in all colors and are only a half inch tall! They are super fun to make.



You can check them out and see some of my other work at my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/DragonsAndBeasties

I will post more pics of my work later. At the moment I am busy making sport monkeys! That's right. Sport monkeys. They're gonna be awesome!