Artist: Jen Evenhus

Click on the link so you can see the large version of this beautiful beautiful beautiful pastel painting by Jen Evenhus.

So cute: Big Things!

Easy idea for cute home decor or gifts: Blow up stuff! Not like in an action flick, this "blowing up" uses a scanner! I must try this. I am sure there's an old movie ticket stub in the bottom of my purse!
Cathe Holden has a lot of good stuff on her blog, Just Something I Made! I just became her 4,790th follower so I guess I'm a little late to the party! Better late than never!

I think the first thing I have to blow up is a stink bug. Those darn things are everywhere. One is on my ceiling right now.

Project Runway: If you love Tim Gunn...

If you love Tim Gunn and Project Runway, and you haven't watched any of Tim's video reports about the behind-the-scenes happenings, you must watch! He does a recap after each episode and this week, the story is a good one. He doesn't pull any punches!
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1581452785374#!/TimGunn

Beads: Weekend projects

 

The round one above is my little homage to the Bead Master SCDiva!

 

I think the only way to get on the Etsy front page is to have an acorn in your shop. So, darn it, if that's what it takes, I'll make an acorn! This one is plain but I have an idea in mind to make one that's more me...

Virtual Paintout: Manhattan

It's been a few months since I dug into the pastels. But since Bill Guffey chose Manhattan as the source city for VirtualPaintout, and I'm going on vacation there next month, I forced myself to give the clay a rest long enough to make a picture.

It's not very good but I did achieve my goal of being more deliberate, deciding where to make a mark, make it, then move on. No blending with my fingers and I only had to brush a tiny area off three times when I made a mark that was totally off the mark!

The man up front is probably too tall, and the people in my painting don't look like the people in the Street View image, but they do look like people. Instead of the soup line that it is, it seems more like moms and kids on a field trip!


Paste the address below into Google Maps, zoom in, click on the map marker, and click on "Street View."
392 W 28th St, New York, NY

I really like this tiny section of my painting:

Beads: an all-nighter with the vivid primaries

I stayed up all night making beads, as I sometimes like to do. I watch netflix streaming movies while I'm claying...last night's double feature was "Zombieland" (which ran a zillion ads on TV) and "TiMER" (which you've probably never heard of.). Both were entertaining and didn't require much attention to follow along so they were perfect. Here's what I made; all are in the etsy shop now.

 
and these little guys...

New Fish: Restocking the Lake!

My fishie was featured yesterday on PolymerClayDaily.com and naturally, I had no fish on hand to put in my etsy shop. So I made these. Will be in the shop later tonight..

Big Day: I was on Polymer Clay Daily!!

I knew something was up this morning when I had 4 new flickr contacts before 8 a.m.. Right then two people emailed me to clue me in -- I was on Polymer Clay Daily! It was very exciting to see my little fishie featured on Cynthia Tinapple's popular site.  Being included with the many, many talented people on her pages is an honor and I had a smile on my face all day!  A big thank you to Christine Damm for pointing Cynthia my way.

What a difference being seen on Polymer Clay Daily makes! Google Analytics shows my blog usually gets about 10-20 views a day; today I had 410 unique visitors! Wow! The Feedjit view was clicking every minute or so all day long. Thanks for stopping by and come back again!

Tips: Flickr Cross-Pollination

Many artists who sell on etsy also post photos on flickr.com. (If you don't already, you should.) Post your photos in a variety of groups to bring more eyeballs to your work. I personally bought a set of glass beads because I saw the item on flickr first, then immediately flipped over to etsy to purchase.

However, are you taking advantage of ALL the groups on flickr to bring new "not-necessarily-your-own-category" people to your work? Branch out! If you are also a gardener, post images in a flower group; if you have a cute puppy, post his photo in a dog group; if you love cooking, post your pictures in a food group, if you draw, post images of that work in a drawing group, etc, etc!

If people like your images, they'll pop over to see what else you have. Maybe those people don't ever search flickr for jewelry because it's not their focus, but they could be potential customers once they know you exist! They can find your shop listing in your profile, you can put a blog link in the photo description, and they can always google your name. Make it as easy as possible for people to find you!

These are some of the photos I posted to "cross-pollinate" into various flickr groups -- pastels, hydrangeas, cute cats, home decor...

Tutorial: Sun-Dappled Wall Paint Treatment

I posted instructions for an interesting wall treatment that I figured out how to do. (I don't have steps for the process because I did it back in 1995 when I put a sunroom addition on the house.) But, the process is very easy and looks pretty cool.