Mostly Art

Thursday, March 31

Some Miniature Pottery Work in Progress

Today I decided to show a few pictures on the process of making miniature pottery items. The first picture is of some of my frequently used tools and some pieces in their first stage of "raw" clay blanks and the begining sculpting.

Next is glazing day. I decide how I want to glaze each piece first, then make a page with drawings and which glaze is going to be used, which order of the different color glaze coats, or other particulars. This way, I have a record of what I did when something turns out fantastic, or the other way too, if it wasn't so good, I know not to repeat the same glaze combination.

This third picture is a mix of pieces. Some are still in their bisque stage (after the first firing but before the glaze), and some are now finished.

The last picture is some upcycling going on. These rabbits were made in Peru as beads. I am altering them to make them into miniature sculpture rabbits in honor of the Year of the Rabbit. Just a fun idea, it amuses me :)

Monday, March 28

Fresh Start with Creative Breakroom

As many discussion forum people know, we've all felt scattered, uneasy, and even homeless since the Etsy Discussion Forums closed down. At first, we all had a great alternative board called UEF (unofficial etsy forums), and it was a great new community growing to almost 3000 members in just a couple of months! It disappeared (lots of drama) a few days ago, and the founders of the UEF board created a fabulous new place that is open to every seller from every venue (buyers too of course!) to gather in a break room setting.

This new board is called Creative Breakroom, and it is very fitting for what it is. I'm really excited about how something so good can come from the "bad" of losing our original home board. Especially with the welcoming of people from all venues to come together in a new community setting! ♥

Hope to see you there!

Friday, February 11

Change in Direction for Miniatures

I have been fretting over this situation for the past few months, and finally came to a decision to just go for it...

The shop Mostly Art on Etsy will be for all of the non-miniature items, and my miniatures will be moving to my ArtFire Studio.

The decision for me, personally, means I will have my own online studio that has many great features.

•On ArtFire, the studios have a blog right inside the studio, where you can show tutorials, works in progress, or anything you want really.

•ArtFire manages to get your items into google searches, so people from all over the world can do a search for miniature items, and my items will show up for them on google.

•Buyers do not have to sign up to make a purchase, and they can pay in ways other than PayPal, (Google Checkout and Amazon Payments too).

•ArtFire has member curated Collections that have the chance of being featured on the front page of ArtFire... (I had one of the collections I curated on the front page recently).

•The studio itself looks beautiful! The items are all shown in a gallery list format with large pictures.

•ArtFire has a program to apply for a "Certified Handmade Artisan" status which shows that you have indeed passed a jury panel with your work in progress, showing you really do make the items you sell. I have already begun this process, and will have this "award" to show people who didn't previously know my work.

•There are Guilds to join for people in your same medium of work, or other support networking. These Guilds are being updated to be more useful over the next couple of months.

•The discussion forums on ArtFire are very friendly and helpful. The owner of ArtFire himself spends time answering questions and explaining all of the things his team is doing to improve ArtFire. He is open, honest, and a very hard worker himself. He is working every day to make ArtFire the best site for handmade (vintage and supplies too), and the personal touch of him being accessible, (even by phone), is very comforting.

What is good about this move to the collectors of my work?

All of the above points ♥ And remember... you don't even have to sign up to be a member of ArtFire to buy things.

This move will be taking me a little bit of time to finish. I am working on new miniature items that will be listed in the ArtFire Studio starting over the next few days. The miniatures that are still in my Etsy Shop will stay there until sold or expired. After that, the Mostly Art at Etsy will be for everything else I make... ArtFire Studio for miniatures and possibly a few ornaments.

I will also still do preview pictures of my work before it's listed for people who like to have a peek at what's coming in the next few days. I'll be using flickr and my CDHM Gallery for the previews, just like before.

Thank you!

Hope to see you on ArtFire for Miniatures! ♥