Cold days in south Florida!

It's been chilly down here! But I love it. I relish the chance to be outdoors in 60 degree weather, wrapped in a blanket, drinking tea. It's one of my best childhood memories. I don't know why I developed the habit, but I remember many moments on the back porch, facing the trees, in the wind, in my lawnchair too far into autumn to be considered comfortable or normal by anyone but me.

Now, with my water view balcony and wild sunsets almost every night, I get to take advantage of the chill any evening I want! I dragged my poor DH out to downtown Hollywood tonight, all bundled up, just to get some fresh air. We ended up in a Turkish restaurant, having Mezzas, baklava, and a delightful fruity Rose wine. Plus I found a factory outlet for an expensive boutique and got the most beautiful top! A fun and unexpected night. DH and I had to celebrate, because he starts school tomorrow and I won't see him again until Friday. He's taking night classes, and won't be home in the evenings until I'm in bed.

But on the upside, it gives me evenings to myself in the condo, so I can get myself going again. I created a bunch of new jewelry prior to Christmas for a sales-party my friend was giving. It was nice to have a fire lit under me, so-to-speak, and I was very creative for a spurt. But I'm really reconsidering my direction lately. I love two things very much- fantasy, and digital art. Fantasy like elves and faeries, and digital art like seriously fantastic, grungy, gritty stuff. So I've been experimenting with photoshop a lot, learning new tricks with layering, patterns, brushes and such. And I found this awesome clay that doesn't have to be baked, with allows for some interesting ideas for the integration of things that can't be baked. So I'm hoping to carve out my new niche soon.

In the meantime, here's a fun link to a site I found a few days ago. Been meaning to post it....Duirwaigh

I am great at highjacking my own posts! On being an expert in my field....

A previous post spawned the thoughts in this one, so I figured I better divide and conquer!

I have some things I would like to do- this year is my year to get published. Ilysa and I are writing a book about polyclay artists around the world. It's a look into their studios and minds, and we are excited about it. After that, I plan to submit to the magazines. Here's the most important fact about the Polymer Clay World that no one will "tell" you, but everyone knows- if you're not published, you're no one. Even though I demo for my local guild once a month and everyone consistently gushes over how "talented" I am, what a "good teacher" I am, and how "knowledgeable" I am, they still say they want a "Real" polymer clay teacher. What am I, liver and onions? So, it's obviously time to sell my soul to Art Beads, Bead & Button, Belle Armoire, and PolymerCafe. Otherwise, I am obviously just an untalented hack not worth paying for my expertise :)

Is Artfire catching up to Etsy?

I really like my Artfire shop, although I havent' sold anything there yet. I admit, I haven't really been trying very hard. But, I LOVE the way Artfire is doing things. It's a snap to upload things straight out of my etsy shop, so I don't have to spend a bunch of time reposting a listing. If I really wanted to, I could import my whole etsy store straight into artfire! But, I've been seriously contemplating my future online, so I've been holding off.
Back to why I like Artfire- there's a great Bio feature, that shows a pic of me, selected Gallery pics of my work, and has space for 4 website links. So I get to say a little something about myself and direct traffic to other sites, like Polymer Clay Podcast and the PCAGOE.
Then, there's the market hub feature- this has links to EVERYTHING I do online! Etsy, here, twitter, facebook, even IndiePublic. I am thinking about switching kiraslye.com to point to my Artfire account just because of this! At this point, kiraslye.com is just a hub flashpage anyway, that points to my online doings. Now I can utilize a place where I actually attempt to sell, as a hub! All at no extra cost, since I signed on with Artfire in the beginning and my shop is only $7 a month for life as long as I don't cancel. I like how Artfire assumes that you are a working artisan, and doesn't limit you from promoting the heck out of yourself. Etsy limits you- you can't point users away from it and god-forbid that you suggest people go check you out somewhere else on the web. Plus Etsy doesn't do flat fees, so I already like Artfire's fee structure better. And with automatic listings on googlebase, that's great too! I just hope traffic catches up. Etsy is older, so it gets more traffic.