Do I Create or Worry If It Will Sell?

It has been almost two weeks since I've posted here. I've been making items for consignment, always with the lowest possible price in my mind so that the shops will be able to sell it. It feels like production work.

You can view the inventory I left on consignment at the Chicago Illinois Artisan Shop on my flickr site. http://www.flickr.com/KRDesigns11 It is in a set which is with other sets on the right hand side as you arrive on the page. If you click on the slide show, it won't take very long to see 15 images. The items I made are well constructed and beautiful, but far from the price points needed to be an impulse purchase or gift for most women, especially in today's economy. I have been given the gift to be able to make these bracelets, yet they are no longer satisfying something inside me.

I long to create a truly one of a kind piece...the EBW Challenge is due soonish and the Muse has yet to visit me with an inkling of inspiration for it. Oh, I can see the colors...there is dark green, emerald? It's a vintage European Christmas item....

Last Christmas I asked for and received a book on micro macrame because I want to explore it further; I purchased parts to practice the techniques, but I've yet to sit down and try it. I have green ivy leaves and red round crystals for holly berries to make a micro macrame bracelet that I purchased last year...so those UFOs are haunting me, too. Speaking of UFOs, I want to set up a tray with them, displayed so that I can see them several times a day. Where do I start?

So the question of what do I offer for sale for holiday gifts goes on the back burner. The UFOs will be worked on as I can. My priority will be to learn more about micro macrame. That means I need to find the things I set aside for this activity, so cleaning my work space hopefully will clear my mind. Maybe I will find the beads for the EBW Challenge item!

Crystal Silver Night - Swarovski New Color

This is a bracelet created from Swarovski's new color, Crystal Silver Night. The crystals are connected with jet black size 13 charlottes. This silvery gray color does not have the fire of aurora borealis, but the bead does have one side more crystal clear and one side opaque. As all things Swarovski, the beads are beautiful.

I also wanted to remind you that it is time to vote in the Etsy Beadweavers monthly challenge. With a theme of "Autumn Falling of Leaves", there are more entries than last month's very popular one on Bollywood. Next month, we are to select a holiday and create something for that occasion--should be popular also.

You can either use the link I have on my blog or go to http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com and vote for your choice. The thumbnails are small, so if you click on the number/creator names listed below the mosaic photo, you will be taken to the etsy shop to view the entire write up and multiple photos. My entry is in the lower right hand corner. Enjoy!

Patience

I like to randomly select and open my books and read until I know I found the message for me right now. Today's book was The Vein of Gold, A Journey to Your Creative Heart by Julia Cameron who is the author of the Artist's Way and many other items in my possession. The chapter was "The Paydirt in Pay-tience" in the Kingdom of Attitude section. I have read this chapter so many times, if it were possible, the ink would be off the page and written in my brain!

It's about our results oriented society, of wanting to have the big sale or show to prove that we are artists. The goal of perfection in art versus the process where we work at a level, then it becomes hard, then if we continue our work is on a different level. We must learn to have patience with our imperfections. The author writes of artists whose work is only sporadically accepted by the public and admits that some of her best work was not sold while some of her worst was.

So I remember my last show where I sold little and what I did sell was 4 years old, from when I first started beading, was not the type of work (strung not beadwoven) I'd like to say I do, and realize I'm experiencing something similar to those the author was writing about. I continued my process with a beadwoven peyote cuff bracelet I entered into the Etsy Beadweavers October challenge, listed and promoted it on Facebook. I was asked where I purchased the clasp, went to that website and found "THE way I should have attached it to the bracelet" instead of the inferior, less than perfect way, I did attach it. (The website is of a well known beadweaver/author.) So the perfectionist reared it's ugly head once again.

This was the perfect way to remind me to be patient with myself. My customer did get pretty items at a good price, and the newest item is acceptable--it was an assortment of tiny beads, a needle and thread before I spent 17 hours making it be what it is, which is a small miracle. So if I didn't write this, no one would know my process. I learned, and now have ANOTHER way to attach the clasp next time I make a beadwoven peyote cuff bracelet, if I decide to try it.

Remind Me of What I Loved

Welcome new followers! I've been mentally composing posts, but not writing them--sorry! I'm trying to make items for consignment shops for fall, when my heart wants to hang on to summer. Here are a couple that won't be on Etsy any time soon, but if they have your name on them, contact me and I'll be happy to arrange their availability for purchase.

In the past, I read a lot of books by Caroline Myss, even attended a couple of workshops held locally when I could afford them. Now I'm getting her free emails. One I remember being helpful was on the topic of "Remind Me of What I Loved".

We usually love simple things, sharing ordinary parts of our lives, people who were there for us. Personally, I often find myself dwelling on things I can't change, things that are not positives for anyone. She wrote much more eloquently than I, to remember those things in the past that we loved. When I do that, my body feels so much more relaxed and peaceful. Something simple like my aunt letting me hold the bouquet of lilacs she cut to bring into the house when I was about four years old. She also told me I was "a pain in the neck". So which one do you think I loved? I can still smell those lilacs!

Care to share your loved memories?