Getting back in the swing of things

Wow, it's been more than three months since I posted a blog. And what changes have occured since!

For starters, I quite my job at SeaWorld. Being in a city were I knew very little people, being forced to live with strangers as roommates because I couldn't afford my own place, and being limited on the amount I was allowed to make was really getting me down. Something I've learned in this life is that no job is worth the deteoriation of your mental state. But that is in the past.

Now I find myself in a little apartment in Houston, Tx with my long-time friend and a new start staring me in the face. I'm going back to school to finally get my costume design degree.  We kinda just picked up and moved on the last few paychecks I had from SeaWorld. I start a new job at Target soon! Yes, it's only part-time but I love part-time. It means I can still work on my crafts and still have time to focus on getting my homework done.

We are four weeks in the semester already. I have to be honest I find myself a little bored but only because I'm having to take courses on things I already know about like Fashion History and Beginner Sewing. I have to take them in order to enroll in the more advanced classes. So I'm just whizzing through all the homework and assignments and have lots of free time.

Which brings me back to my crafting. I closed down my Artfire shop indefinitely and move to the Handmade Artist's Shop. You can check out what I have in there right now by clicking on the AlchemyAtelier Handmade tab or going to directing there by clicking HERE. I'm still working on getting my better pieces listed and making new. Now, I'm focusing on getting Spring together and ready by March.

Biggest pet peeves in the WORLD...

I have a pet peeve. As a seamstress and costume technician, sewing is my job. I know what it takes to make just about anything. And what it costs to do it. So my peeve is this: When people post an add on a free site to remain nameless at this time begging for someone to make an inlaborate costume for them but not waiting to spend oh let's say $50 on it. These days that can't even pay for the fabric, let alone the labor. So I laugh and more on reading down the wait ads. But I know it has a lot to do with consumer additudes.

Why are people so keen to spend $800 on brand new technology that will be obsolete in six months but cringe at spend that much for a custom designed and hand crafted gown? Because chains stores have moved into the territory of once dominated by department stores and boutiques. You can go to Walmart and buy a cheap, foreign made coat for $60. But it you went to a seamstress with a specific coat in made that was similiar but made to your specifications it might set you back $300-400.

My point is that there is no value put on craftsmanship anymore. Sewing is a dying artform. I should know. I work in a costume shop everyday. And the number of qualified applications that end up on my desk is about once every four months. Most of the time I can't even hire them because they have never sewn apparel. (Another pet peeve, for a later date.) They don't even teach home economics in high school anymore. So how do consumers even know how to price something as complicated as a costume?

They don't. And honestly I am not going to waste my time even responding to ads as ridiculous as the ones I've seen for costume requests. I just needed to get it off my chest because this time of year I am always getting requests for stupid costumes ideas that they want on the cheap and last minute. My advice is if your that desparate...go to your local Spirit Halloween.

Short Status update

It's been for ages since I've been on blogger or updated any of my sites. I started a new job at SeaWorld San Antonio in July and have been working my behind off. Haven't had much chance to create new things or post stuff that is finished by not listed.

I've been considering my options, taking into account the dissappointing sales of my Christmas in July clearance. I want to do more complicated pieces, not just simple earrings and other jewelry I've assembled. I want to sell things I've designed and fabricated, not just from bits purchased.

It's hard because I am having to rent a room instead of having my own place here in San Antonio. I don't have a lot of space and I can't really do much metal or glass work. I've been playing around with bead crotchet when i'm not totally exhausted from work. But that is the extent of my creative outlet for the time being.

I don't think I'm going to shut down my Artfire just yet. I think I'll wait until the end of the year and see how Christmas goes. I don't expect much, only hope I can make more that $20 in one month during the Holidays.

On a more positive note, I've been changed from a part-timer to full-time. Now I can work a full 40 hour week without having to worry about making up those hours. And benefits! I get health insurance again! And dental. I really need dental. And hopefully the extra money I make I can afford to get my own place.

We'll see.

HAForum: A great place to be a part of

There's a wonderful place online known as the Handmade Artists Forum. It is a place without pretension, that welcomes all into the circle with out judgement. It's like a sanctuary online for artisans of handmade goods to come to for friendly discussions, help, and networking. I am particularly fond of the networking aspect of the forum. They have rotating lists of blog, twitter, and facebook fan page rings that members can participate in to help promote themselves and their fellow artisans. It's a proactive approach to getting word out into the internet about what is going on in the crafting world. They also have lots of fun things going on like challenges that you can submit your work in for great prizes. Participation and membership is totally free. So check them out at Handmade Artists Forum.
If you are looking for an affordable place to sell your goods, HAForums also has it's own online marketplace that only cost only $5 a months.  No listing fees, no commissions. For more information about selling, check out the Handmade Artists Shop

If you are an artist of the handmade variety, no matter what it is that you make or level of experience, being a member of HAForums is a must.

Places I've been, Part 1: Taiwan **EDITED**

This time last year I was in Taiwan. That's right TAIWAN. It was just as hot there as it is here in Texas, but for some reason it didn't feel nearly as bad. Taiwan is an island so it's always 100% humidity. I'm not complaining, I was in a place I had never been before and would very much like to go back to. So in remimencing about the six weeks I spent there, I thought I would share some of my photos from that time.




This was just tucked away in an alley between two large high
rise apartment buildings in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.



Me, stuffing my face with authentic street meat
in Kaohsiung. It was tasty and I didn't regret it
the next morning at all!





In Taipei there's this little shopping center a few blocks
from Taipei 101. It has Dunkin Donuts, McDonald's,
and Starbucks right on the ground floor. No wonder
there is a silver Lady Liberty outside on the main corner.

 This lovely fish were a series of statues randomly set out 

in a square that doubled as an outdoor market. 

I love the bright colors and bizarre surrealism of them.

There was a lot of places I went, like the Taipei Jade and Flower Markets that I couldn't take photos. Some of the vendors in these places would snatch the camera right out of your hand if you tried. I wish I could have had photos of all the tables of jade beads as well as the rows and rows of exotic orchids as the flower market. I spent some time too as the night market. I swear I can still smell the aroma of stinky tofu being fried. I think the one smell I'd love to forget is the citrusy rotten meat smell of the Durian Fruit. Just walking into Taipei 101 or just about any street market, I'd immediately get smacked in the face by that smell. In the hotels we stayed at there was always a big sign in the lobby that read "No Durian". No wonder why from me or my group. My friend Dia tried to get us to try it. Uh-huh I said. Then he chased me around the parking lot until my legs got tried and I hid in the building away from the smell.

I would love to go back to Taiwan, but especially Taipei. It's beautiful, the people are friendly and very accommodating to English speaking tourists. I met a lot of people who were just too happy to talk to me just so they could practice their English. This was much more predominate in the more rural cities we visited rather than the huge International hub that Taipei is. There was so much westernization but every once in a while you would be lucky and come across a local artist or craftsperson sitting by them lonesome, carving out a meager living by selling their wares on the street. I think that's the best part about traveling. Creation is universal. As humans, we all have the need to use our hands. It quietly unites us, in a diverse but unilateral quest to make something.

**EDIT**

I realized several days after posting this that I never mentioned that I actually bought a fair amount of candy jade beads while I was in Taipei. And have since made a few pieces of jewelry from them that is in my shop now.  So I thought I would share them here as well, in memory of my time in Taiwan.

Modern Bohemian - Spring Leaf Earrings with Fuchsia Candy Jade

Victorian-inspired Fuchsia Chandlier Earrings

Coming Soon to my Artfire!

Happy Pickled July 4th!

We interrupt this beading blog for an ordinary diversion:

Hope everyone is having a safe and happy 4th of July! Down here in Texas, our country officials have banned the use of fireworks and even sparklers, but I'm still having good holiday.

LOL My sister and I made refrigerator pickles from the cucumbers grown in our garden. We managed to fill a two gallon jar! We even discovered that one plant produced a single hybrid of cantelope and cucumber, thanks to cross pollination by my sister's honeybees. It tasted like a honeydew melon and was pale green on the outside and orange around the seeds. Since the seeds were fully mature, my sister saved them and is going to try to plant it in the next growing season. Maybe we can make pickled melumbers come this winter.

We also managed to pull up our first harvesting of beets, which I also made a simple pickle and threw in some hard-boiled eggs. Mmmm. I know they aren't to everyone's taste, but I love pickled eggs. I just don't get to eat them very often because of my allergy to eggs. So this will be a special treat!

Well, tonight my family and I are going to BBQ a brisket and have potato salad as we watch the fireworks on TV. It sure beats being outside in this 100+ degree heat.

Also, AlchemyAtelier has gone global! I managed to have my first international sell this weekend! I am excited  because now I know how to handle international shipping, with the custom forms and the postage. It's a lot easier to just go straight to the post office instead of using Paypal shipping, which is much more expensive.

Has anyone else out there in blogland ever had an International sale? And where did you have to ship it too?

Happy Independence Day!

Moving News & Beady Projects

So it turns out that I now have to change my plans in moving in my parents rental place.

As of Friday I received a job offer in San Antonio and of course I accepted it. It's a pay cut compared to what I made when I toured, but that doesn't really matter to me right now. Right now all I want is a stable place of my own, that I don't have to pack up and leave just to make a paycheck.

I'm looking at renting a room for a few months until I get settled into my new job. I have every intention of taking my crafting supplies, since all the jewelry and felting stuff can fit into my wooden chest. Hopefully the online business will pick up come Christmas.

Speaking of crafting..I've been playing around with the idea of adding seed beads to my work. I started first with beading some typewriter keys I bought a while back from the now defunct "Got to Bead" shop in town.

Inspired by an article on "Beadpunk" jewelry featured in Bead & Button magazine.

You can the article on their website here.

I've also experimented with the ruffled beaded bead technique designed by Pascal Pinther in this month's B&B to add some detail to a wirewrapped pearl ring. Though I feel like something is missing. Maybe I should take out a few rows of the grey line seed beads and replace them with with seed beads of higher contrast.

I could use some input. I've been staring at that ring for hours as I beaded the ruffly circle

around the base of the pearl. It just seems so plain now that I look at the photos of it.

Thanks for stopping by!