A brief lesson in marketing

A tongue-in-cheek-comparison of 'Marketing Speak' and 'Reality'

What you see on the artist's website:



The Graffiti series



Here we see myriad dichotomies assert themselves in a cacophony of symbolism; the battle between the natural, represented by soft aquatic blues, and the urban, rendered as stark, crude graffiti is played out on the surface of the bead; whilst the inherent human urge to simultaneously beautify and desecrate their surroundings comes through as we consider how the artistic savagery of these industrial, tribal scrawls is both a rebellion against the concrete confines of the city and the state, and the expression of a longing for something more aesthetically substantial, a wild, tribalistic echo of the beauty of the natural world. And in the end, we find ourselves drawn into these continual tentative states of negotiation, and discover the wildness inside us all.

What you didn't see:

Oh boy, time to lampwork. Working on stringer work today, oh yeah. Gonna be a goooood session.
Right, I've got a nice flat surface on my bead, perfect for stringer work. Got my stringer, ready to go into the flame and start making stringer magic! Starting with a spiral...come on spiral...nice and round...or square, yeah, okay, we're drawing a square instead...good, good..Whoa, slow down stringer...not so fast...phew, hands getting a bit hot...let's draw another square now...or a rhombus, yeah, fine, making a rhombus...with a strange appendage..oh dear, I hope no-one reads anything into that shape....hands getting a lot hot...Oh my God, where's the stringer going?! It's melting too fast...it's out of control...argh, argh, it's stuck to the mandrel! Now it's flopping around! Quick, quick, stick it back on the bead...argh, I dropped it...Oh my God, it's in my shoe!!! It's burning my shoe!!! Get it, get it...not with that hand, that's the one with the molten bead on it you idiot! Put that down first!!!


Huh. Well, that went a lot better than I expected.

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(extra points to you if you can comprehend that BS up there, because I sure can't *G*)

The obligatory 'summing up' post

For the first time, I've been feeling like writing a summing-up-looking-forward post about 2011 and 2012, so here it is, in brief bullet-point form (because bullet-points make things both important and impressive)

Things I learned in 2011:

• I can take professional rejection and not enter a fugue state. In fact, I found I'm not bothered much, and can pick myself up and carry on (personal rejection on the other hand, is still very ouchy!)
• It is a bad idea to contact people you have fond memories of from school, because they probably won't remember you. At all. (even if they did go to your house all the time, and you went to their farm...again, ouchy)
• I'm not good enough to get on Polymer Clay Daily (hee, I know, who do I think I am trying to get on there...but I did have a hidden, tiny hope that has now been squashed)

Arty-crafty things I got done in 2011 :

• Had 3 magazine tutorials published
• Worked on the FHFTeam blog with a great group of people
• Became better at lampworking (...comparatively)
• Made jewellery out of my own lampwork beads (eeeee! that was exciting)
• Made a lot of polymer clay beads that I, dare I say, liked
• Set up a website and online shop for my beads

Things I have decided for 2012

• I will just stop reading sites and blogs that annoy me, instead of wishing I could say something ranty about them. Reading them with suppressed irritation doesn't do me any good, and saying something would just inject bad vibes into places other people like (which isn't fair, because it's my problem not theirs!)
• I will makes what I like. So there *G*
• I will try again to improve my photography skills
• I will get a proper storage system for my polymer clay

Other news since I last blogged: I got a lentil press as a present - and I'm unreasonably excited about it, especially as I also received Nelli Rees lampworking book, which is lovely.

You can win a prize from me, by commenting anywhere on the FHFTeam blog and becoming a follower - here's a picture:

Or you can choose to have a gift voucher from Continuum Designs instead, if you don't care for bracelets. We'll be doing a giveaway every month this year, and the team blog is getting full with hints, articles and a *lot* of eye-candy. Seriously, there's a heap of gorgeous pictures (and there are mine too! *G*)

Pre-Christmas sale on art beads *G*

Yep, I'm having a pre-Christmas sale on my beads It's partly in the spirit of the holidays, partly as a preparation for the new year - many of the beads on both my Etsy store and main site will be taken down after the sale, so if there's anything that's caught your fancy, now would be a good time to take the plunge and buy *G*

So, how does the sale work? Just put the code FESTIVE in the coupon box at either site, and you'll get 25% off the total :)

Lampwork Mood Swings

Yay, I love lampworking - I'll go do some! :D :D :D

Boo, it's cold in the shed :(

Yay, the torch has made it all toasty now!

Boo, all glass hates me :(

Yay, that last bead looks good!

Boo, now I have to wait 13 hours for the kiln to finish :(

Yay, beads are ready!

Boo, cleaning beads sucks :(

Yay, I can watch Smallville while I'm cleaning!

Boo, Smallville still sucks :(

Yay, Lex is on screen!

Boo, I stabbed myself with the reamer :(

Yay, cleaning's finished!

Boo, all my cleaned beads are ugly :(

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Being a lampworker is a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Sigh.

Challenge Necklace - Art Bead Scene

I had to get in on the Art Bead Scene Challenge this month - the painting was stunning, and had a mass of green-gold tones, which I adore:

Plus, painted by a woman, featuring a woman (and not in the 'woman as object' pose that often permeates, well, everything) - it was the perfect painting to make me join in *G*.





The greens are more olive really - I still suck at photos :(

I have some gunmetal findings which I thought would echo the darker tones very well, and I brightened them up a little with some of my polymer clay beads made specifically for this challenge in lovely green and golds, with lighter leaf and vine motifs. The deep brown carved coconut flowers hint at the darkness within the orb, and I finished the necklace off with a polymer flower, again in muted green, which is a nod to the flower decorations on the central character's hair.

On dressing a craft table (with apologies)

Designing a craft fair booth can be nerve-wracking - standing out in a crowd without spending a lot is even more difficult. So, I've put together some ideas for how to draw attention with your display at a craft show (disclaimer - I do not guarantee it will be attention of the positive sort...but it should help you get noticed!)


However, there is one thing to remember, whatever method you choose - at one point, a customer will inevitably come up to your stall and attempt to buy your display items, at the same time ignoring all your actual craft work.

• Buy some inexpensive but pretty picture frames and mirrors, and hang or drape necklaces over them - just gently tack or hook the clasp/ends to the frames' backs to prevent the necklaces from slipping.

• Make dramatic, theatrical jewellery? Buy a few mini-puppet theatres (like this: Tabletop Theatre) and suspend your pieces from above. Or make a lightweight frame yourself and top it with a mesh grid, then use illusion beading wire to let your pieces 'fly through the air'.

• Or perhaps you create jewellery with a vintage, decadent feel? Kid's mini treasure chests are a funky prop, ideal to fill your table; have some of your jewellery overflowing from within them to really amp up the 'olde world' theme. (Seriously, there are some pretty cool looking ones - search 'treasure chests' in the Amazon toys section.)

• You know the rolls you get from the center of wrapping paper, kitchen rolls, and yes, toilet paper? Try taping them to your table with masking tape, in little configurations, as well as placing tightly folded towels on the table too. Then cover the whole table with a lovely piece of fabric or table cloth, and you'll end up with a 'landscape' on which you can place your items.

• Saw large holes in your display table. Bribe a few good friends to crouch under the table and stick their heads through the holes - voila, interactive mannequins to wear your jewellery. Don't forget to cut arm holes too if you have a lot of bracelets!

• Fruits and vegetables. Long cucumbers make great bracelet holders when suspended horizontally between two blocks (try using some carved taro root for the blocks). For necklaces, try hanging a few around the neck of a pineapple, and use torn lettuce leaves as earrings cards. Remember the carrots for any rings you may be selling.

• If you're like me (and if you are, you have my deepest pity) you'll have a lot of stuffed animal from childhood. Well,  I'm sure that cuddly ALF figure would look just dandy in a wirework tiara (I think I may be showing my age with that reference...), and My Little Pony hooves are just made for showing-off rings.

As a final note, it's up to you to judge how serious you think I am about any of these options - but even the most dramatic ones may spark something in your mind :D.

On the Smallville finale (in which I revel in geekiness)

I think this is my first 'fandom' related post - yep, I'm admitting it. I get 'fannish' about things.

Yesterday was the last ever episode of Smallville, and I watched eagerly, having managed to remain spoiler free - hence the embarassingly loud squeal when I saw Michael Rosenbaum's name in the credits (the Lex-love never fades once you've caught it). Out of nostalgia, I just had to blog about it :D

If you've ever watched Smallville, you'll have agood idea of what I mean when I say the finale of the series was very...Smallville. It was campy, illogical, and nonsensical, in the most adorable Smallville tradition. As I quickly discovered back when it first started, it's a lot easier to enjoy Smallville if you make yourself forget everything that happened in previous episodes and concentrate on the incredibly pretty actors - because, hey, you may as well approach the show in the same way the writers do.

I do get the feeling that the writers got carried away and forgot that the series was ending right up until they had to write the last act of the script - hence a flurry of memory erasing (delivered through what I can only describe as some sort of mind-wiping cologne...), revelations of conveniently a identical brother to replace a deceased canon character, and a random killing. It's almost as if DC Comics said,' All right, you've had your fun messing up Superman...now put everything back how you found it jerks!

Even with myriad faults though, I got a bit verklempt when the montages of Clark saving people started; he was an ass through a lot of the series, but he really started to look and act like Superman during season 10, and putting all his heroic moments together, sans moping, whining, and Lana-pininig really cememted that. Aw. There were even a few adorable clips of Clark heroically saving Lex in particular (as well as one of Lana howling like a spider monkey...not a flattering clip), and later on a few nostalgic and sad clips of their friendship when Lex started to forget everything about Clark.

Another good point was Lois. When she first joined the cast, I was a bit underwhelmed, but when I started watching the series again in season 10, after missing a few seasons, I disocvered that she was now one of my favourite characters. Erica Durance really grabbed the role and made Lois Lane as awesome as she was always meant to be. I actually found it all kinds of adorable to see her and Clark together.

Oh, and I can't forget that the writers gave us one last Clark/Lex scene - even when Lex is spouting hatred and blathering on about how he's on the dark side now, he manages to spare a few smitten looks and smirks in a certain man's direction, and to give Clark a pep talk that encourages him to have faith in himself and save the world. I don't think Lex has really got the hang of villainy after all, despite what the writers continued to tell us endlessly.

Other things of cuteness: Chloe reading a Smallville comic! Tights and the cape! The Superman theme starting up as Clark rips open his shirt! Perry White (or his voice, anyway)! Lex is president! Frankly, the entire final 15 minutes were filled with cheesy goodness and comic shout-outs, and even with the bad-writing, rushed plotlines, and weird pacing, it made me sad to see Smallville go.

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Well, that was fun - I haven't written like this for ages, and it's suprisingly easy to get back into the fannish way of things :D *cough* I will now retreat back into the realm of polymer clay and beadiness.