Announcing Give Away Winner

Xanthe, of the Etsy business oddstuffbyXanthe, is the winner of the Fine Silver Focal bead from the give away contest offered in my Wist-Etsy Moo Crew blog feature in July.

Congratulations!!

Give Away Update!

It just got a lot easier - I am closing my shop for vacation, and I didn't realize you would not be able to see my items.... so just leave a comment on the WIST Etsy Moo Crew Blog, under my feature. Winner will be randomly drawn. Way easier! Good luck.

Silver Focal Bead Give Away to WIST Etsy Moo Crew Readers

Ok, so here's the deal. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to the WIST-Etsy's Moo Crew Blog and read the Tuesday, July 21 Feature Interview ... featuring me! If you arrived here from there, and want to enter the free bead drawing, then go on. Time to jump through a few hoops. Gotta make you work a little for something free!

1. Visit my shop on Etsy, (you can get there from the ETSY mini on this page) and decide which is your favorite item. I would really appreciate the feedback to help me decide what people like! You can include anything from the sold items section, too.

2. Visit my Thousand Dreams Designs Facebook Fan page, here, and leave a comment telling me which of my items is your favorite and why. Become a fan, too, if you like, but this is not required.

and

3. To get entered into the drawing, go back to the Moo Crew Blog and post a comment, making sure to leave your name. A name will be randomly drawn from those who have completed the contest rules! Good luck!

Your prize will be mailed in mid-August .... as I am going on vacation until then.

Add an ETSY Mini to your blog!

(I wrote this blog entry for the WIST-Etsy Seller's Moo Crew blog where it will be running today. I am also posting it here.)

To help let people who read my blog know about my Etsy site, I have been loading my pictures in from Flickr, and putting a link to my Etsy site from the sidebar of my blog. The problem with this is that the photos don't accurately reflect what is actually for sale on my site. I started noticing that other people have an actual square of images that show items that are currently for sale on their sites. So I decided .... time to learn about how they do this. I thought I would follow my quest for our latest Tutorial Tuesday.

Whenever I want to learn something new now, I start with a search on Google. I found out that I am looking to add what's called an Etsy Mini to my blog. The search first returned some utube how-to videos, but my style of learning just isn't into videos ... and they always take longer to load than I have patience for. The other results were from the Etsy knowledge base, so I decided to go there. (At this point, I think about not needing to do this tutorial, but a few steps into the process I find they don't explain the whole process. You can find out here how to set up the mini, but not how to make it show up in your blog.)

So... I go to Etsy Storque (the place where you learn how to do all things Etsy) .... and they have.... a video. The purpose then for this tutorial is to help someone learn how to do an Etsy Mini without having to watch a video how-to. I guess I probably will have to watch the video first though, in order to find out how to do this. The video is by Timothy Adams. If you think that watching a video is the best way for you to learn, then simply click here, and go to Timothy's video...

If you'd rather read and do, then continue on.

Step I.: Log into your Etsy, then click on Your Etsy.




Step 2: Scroll down, and on the bottem left, click on Etsy Mini, at the bottom.






Step 3: Time to build your own Etsy Mini. This is fairly self-explanatory, if you follow the directions. If you are a seller, you can showcase from your own shop. If you are an Etsy user, you can showcase from your favorites from any Etsy sellers. So check your preference here. For this Tutorial, we are checking Items from my Shop.

Step 4: Next, choose your layout ... how many columns and rows you would like. I chose to two columns (for a blog, this is probably your choice. Three columns don't fit.) and three rows.

Step 5: After you approve of your layout, you need to scroll a little further down the page and choose the appropriate box to check for where you will be posting your mini. I am going to add my Etsy to my blog, so I will use box number 1. Box number 2 is for MySpace and social networking sites. I am assuming that means Facebook as well, but for this tutorial, I am only testing usage for blogs. So, go to Box number 1, and using your computer commands (on Mac, it is Command, C) copy the code. Just copy what is inside the white box, but make sure you get it all!





Step 6: You need to go to your blog now. (I, like manym use Blogger, and from hereon in, these directions are specific for Blogger. For a different Blog Host, look for the similar functions.) From your tab choices in Blogger, choose the Layout tab.

Step 7: Once, in Layout, on the right hand side, go to Add A Gadget.








Once you get into this area, then look for the section labeled HTML/JavaScript , and click on the blue plus sign.


Add a title. I simply titled mine, Visit my Etsy Shop, and then paste the code into the white box.
SAVE. And that's it .... go to your blog, and you should see your Etsy shop items! To see how it looks, you can visit my blog here. Look on the right, at the top!

New Firing

for the copper. This time I fired it at 1650 for 3.5 hours - well, actually three hours and 50 minutes - I set up the kiln outside in bright light, and it is hard to read. Luckily, it was only twenty minutes longer than I intended and I think no harm was done.

The copper was still pitted. I fired the pieces vertically this time, thinking that if the carbon didn't sit right on top of the surface, then maybe.... still happened. No better, no worse.

So .... I need two mirror surfaces on at least two of these lotus leave pendants. Time to find out how deep the pits are. Hand sanding, even with rough paper didn't have much of an impact. Now I'm trying to grind of off with an attachment I found for my rotary tool, which if anyone is intersted, I can post a picture of it. I don't know what it is called. Seems to be working, or at least much improved. The photo posted here is after several passes with this, and I now I have to do some hand sanding and finishing.

Copper Clay is the Pits!

Just kidding. I love it ... but I did have a problem today, twofold with a batch of lotus leave pendants that I fired.

First problem, all of the bails fell off! I think I know why. I fired the copper at the schedule for up to six cards thick, with a hold of two hours, because they were only 4 cards thick. But .... I forgot that the bail is another 3 cards, folded in half, so six cards in and of itself. Added to the pendant, makes .. 10 cards thick. So I should have used the longer firing schedule, with a hold of 3.5 hours.

Also the surfaces were pitted. I took such pains when rolling the clay to get it smooth - with no air bubbles. After the clay was dry, I sanded the surface to a very smooth polish, before firing, with no blemishes. But after firing ... pit marks that can't be sanded out, as they are too deep. The pieces pictured have already been worked on somewhat - that's why so shiny (see photo at left. The one in the center, on right has carved lined in it that I put there before firing, but on all the others, the pit marks are still there. Hmmmm. Not sure what to do about that. The marks seems to be on both sides, so it won't work to just flip the piece over. It obviously has to do with the charcoal on the surface of the clay as it fires. I can't think of any way not to have this happen.

I did a search on line. Didn't find any helpful info yet.

Help! If you can, I'm listening.

Back to it!

I need to Get Back to work! Tomorrow! Studio hours 8-12 = then I can go play. I have been playing daily for the last couple of weeks, like I am on vacation or something. Time to get motivated!!!! And, a real Vacation IS coming up in two weeks.

Not been totally sitting on my butt - ran a 10K Saturday, we got our entryway tiled, and took a 25 mile bike ride today.

Reading lots .... presently half through a great book, Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Biafra's struggle to establish independence from Nigeria in the 1960's is told through the lives and interactions of several interconnected characters with differing nationalities, lifestyles and stations in life.



Before that, Little Bee, by Chris Cleave, told mostly through the eyes of Little Bee, a Nigerian refugee, who lands into the house of a British woman with whom she had a shared experience on a beach in Nigeria while the woman was on holiday with her now deceased husband.

Try it! Artist Trading Cards to stimulate creativity...

Inspiration. Tapping hidden creativity. Getting over an artistic block. Try creating some Artist Trading Cards (ATCs). I became interested in this idea and I wanted to find out more. I decided to learn about them for this week's tutorial and to gather links to further information, photos and galleries. Come along for the artistic fun of it!

I recently bought a book that caught my eye in a thrift store. I picked it purely for inspirational purposes because I liked it and - ok, it was cheap.. The book (also sold by some of Amzaon's used book sellers), Kaleidoscope: Ideas and Projects to Stimulate Creatvity by Suzanne Simanatis mentions mailing art to friends and even to yourself. It reminded of Artist Trading Cards that I had seen in other articles and so I decided to go to the web to find out a little more.

I visited a site called Artist Trading Cards where I learned that Artist Trading Cards are essentially a version of the traditional trading cards that many of us first remember as sport cards. I certainly remember my brother's collecting baseball cards when we were kids, and my own kids collected basketball cards. I noticed school kids in recent years collecting Pokemon and such.

Artist trading cards, however, are not mass produced, but each is an original work of art. Some artists created with one media, and other use mixed media. The basic concept behind cards for many people is to trade the cards. Trades can be made in person by finding an event or by mail. And this being the 21st century, some trading is done electronically. You can find groups on Yahoo by doing a search. I did a search and came up with 335 choices, including a group called Artist Trading Card World.

So, on to creating theATC.

Step 1: The SIZE of the card is what makes it a trading card. It must - and according to many sources, this is the ONLY rule, conform to the size of 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches ( on 64 by 89 mm.) Any other decisions are to be made by the artist. The card can be made of any material, but the artist wants to consider the effect of the choice, as well as the eventual thickness of the card.

Step 2: Gather and set out any materials you may want to use. If you are using one media, that's easy. Or, go on search mission after you get your card cut and ready. Round up some magazines, papers, glues, scissors, stickers, photographs, and whatever else comes into mind or view while gathering. Then sit down and have a go. You do need to think about where to leave room for the address.

Step 3: The good news is next: there are no steps to follow, because that's the whole purpose ... let go and let your mind wander. Create. Try something new. Experiment.

Step 4: Decide what to do with your card. You may decide to post it somewhere you can see it. Or tape it into your design notebook or journal. Put it on your mirror so you see your card each time you see yourself. Maybe you want to mail it to yourself. Or perhaps you'll decide to get involved in an ATC group and trade cards with another artist. The rule (so I guess this makes two rules!) is that they are never to be sold.

I challenged myself to try this for this entry. My first attempt at a card is shown at left. The other two colorful cards shown, the elephant and the butterfly, were created by one of our Wist-Etsy Moo'ers Jamie Gamache, owner of Etsy Store JLW Products.

Give it a try yourself! For more information and inspiration visit the following web sites:

http://www.artist-trading-cards.ch/
http://www.artist-trading-cards.ch/gallery.html
http://www.cedarseed.com/air/atc.html Cedar Seed
http://www.atcsforall.com/
http://www.moderngypsy.com/atc/ Artist site of Artist Trading Cards
http://www.mailartist.com/kiyotei/ATC.html Mailart
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ATC_World/ Email discussion group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alteredbooks/ Email discussion group
http://www.nitaleland.com Nita Leland Website


This article was written by me for the Tutorial Tuesday feature of the Wisconsin Street Team's The Moo Crew Blog and it also appears there today. The Wisconsin Street Team is a group of Wisconsin sellers on Etsy.com. Thanks to Jamie Gamache, of JLW Products, for contributing cards.