treasury this, treasury that

I made a new treasury west this evening to replace the one that I posted about before that expired: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=748

I'm also featured in this treasury west courtesy of Dawn of scarywhitegirl, which is very cool!: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=707

In other news I wore horns most of the day at work today in celebration of Halloween. They are sort of natural looking, made of I think ceramic, from a renaissance festival in Ohio when I was a kid. They are also colored in such a way that they are well hidden because they are brown and match my hair. I like to joke that I grew them overnight. My coworkers had me beat today though, going as a large blond afro-wigged disco queen and a goth chic...at least the glittery temporary tattoos were shared!

Blue birds of etsy

I'm not obsessing, really. Okay maybe I am. I grabbed a treasury spot on the treasury west today for my afore mentioned blue bird idea.

Here is the link: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=580

To my credit, it is easier to get a spot on treasury west, since it's still in an experimental stage and there's not really a link to it from the main page. Basically you have to know about it (for now) to get there. Still I'm just obsessively goofing around. Okay, back to beading!

Samples

Samples
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

Etsyrain is having a get together in a few weeks to put together a box of sample items from members of the group. These will be for sale in the shops of participants mid to late November (I'm guessing that's the ETA.) So I got really excited about the idea and I've already got most of my stuff prepared even though the get together isn't for a few weeks still. File this one under obsession?

Swing

Swing
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

So...I was trying to make this in reverse, based on the sketch from a few posts ago. At some point I realized the chain was not going to support the arc I needed in that position so I decided to reverse it. So it's a swing now. I figured it might not exactly work like I had envisioned, but I gave it a try anyway. Which I'm kind of glad about now that I have this new version of the idea. I think I will be trying the fan version too at some point. It'll require that the entire triangle like shape is wire. Which is just not quite as delicate as I had imagined in my sketch, but I still think it could turn out well. I like to try this sort of thing and find out. So right now I am appreciate the fact that you can make mistakes like this and have them turn out well in jewelry making. In architecture...well I guess you end up with the structural engineer laughing at how silly you are. :P

Treasuries

I magically happened to get a treasury on etsy this evening which can be seen here for the next few days until it expires: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=13221
I attended my first etsyrain meetup this past week (promptly after returning from LA, hence the light posting) and it was exciting and fun. I'm looking foward to doing a lot more fun stuff with the street team!

Posting Accomplished

I think I've managed to post everything I have on hand at the moment. Now I can return to just focusing on making things for a little bit. I was kind of doing both there for a while, mainly focusing on posting items. But I have several works-in-progress and ideas for things I want to do soon!

Of course I will be on vacation from the 20th to the 23rd, so the creating is going to have to wait just a little bit.

Coming Soon?

Sketch
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

Sketched out some ideas that I've had in my head for a bit quickly at work today. I don't know if I will implement them all, I would like to try! I'd really like do the one in the lower right with a tube of knit wire. This was based on a wire knitting experiment from a while ago. I think the tube was the only result I had that I was happy with. I'm not sure I can recreate it though. It's worth some practice I guess. Hopefully these sketches will turn into items in my hope soon!

Fall Colors

Fallen Leaves
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

I really like this photo we took yesterday (see my flickr description to see why this is "we") I need to start thinking a little more fall color scheme. When it's like this outside, it's pretty helpful. Today is just grey, unfortunately. Actually I do like a good rainy day, and today wasn't bad. But I miss the sun after taking this shot.

My Halloween themed necklaced "webbed" did sell. I'm very happy it will have a nice home on the appropriate holiday!

New items

I've gotten a few new items up on my site today.

Tassle1
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

Autumn Earrings Close-up2
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

I'm getting a bit cleaner with the photography. I'm really happy with the way the last set of stuff came out. I'm debating updating some of the old listings with new photos I took using the set up shown in these new ones with the vase. But then I think it starts to be too much of the same thing. I've already done it a little bit with some of the items that I didn't think you could see too clearly on the darker backgrounds. Anyway, I figure this will be something I'm constantly tinkering with and trying to improve. I feel like I'm off to a good start. Only thing I'm getting concerned about is the storage space on my computer. I'm really bad about deleting photos, so there's already a lot on it!

Poster for Etsy

Hostess or Housewarming Etsy Poster
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

Etsy has all these funny things that can totally distract someone like me. I just finished making a poster for one of their poster sketch challenges. I guess sometime after 1pm tomorrow they'll pick a few of these entries to feature on the homepage. The theme was housewarming or hostess gifts...I decided to make mine all blue. Really that was the only theme, but it's kind of interesting how you can see lesser themes sneaking their way in because they are my taste. (And I know birds are ridiculously trendy right now, but I still like them. In fact I think I'm happy they are trendy.)

Anyway, this is how etys has distracted me from my other etsy related projects. Mainly I've got about 10 things I'm supposed to be messing with photographing right now. And that all is set up and I've been doing here and there...but etsy is distracting me!

Emma's First Treasury

I've very excited about being in an etsyrain (Seattle artisans) Halloween themed treasury. I recently joined the group on meetup.com and found out they were having a creative challenge to produce items relating to Halloween. I had just finished making my webbed necklace, which I had decided I had to create right away because it seemed so Halloween-y. It took me a little bit, I still didn't have my shop set up at all at that point, but I got it done! And now there's a great treasury for us that you can see here: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=11427

Update: The treasury's time is up, it was fun while it lasted! You can still see Seattle area Halloween items by searching etsy for ETSYRAIN HALLOWEEN

Work in progress

Work in progress
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

This is an earring done with gold-filled findings, first time I've messed with those. I thought of myself as a strictly silver kinda person in general. But I bought some gold-filled chain over the weekend, thought I'd mess with it, made these earrings and now I think I've changed my mind.

I was finishing it off this morning before I headed off to an 8am meeting, took the photo then too. This means I must be getting really obsessed because I am definitely not a morning person!

Out it goes

Shipment
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

I had a funny little moment today of making it down to the mailbox just in time to see the mailman heading toward his van. We exchanged glances, he seemed to be indicating that he would accept my package if I got it over to him quickly. So I sort of ran a little bit, thanked him and I think I said "Awesome." I dunno, it just sort of slipped out, I was happy. Happy about the sale, happy to catch the mailman just in time. Happy cause I had a yummy lunch. I suppose three uses of the word happy means I should label this post "happiness" again, huh. Happy!

Something happy happened!

I sold my little red and black necklace today! I hardly knew it. I just made it Sunday and today I'm ready to ship it off to the buyer! Which is really exciting and made my day. I stared at my the one little black flower bead wondering what I could do with just the one bead. Then when I went to bed I came up with the necklace as I was falling asleep. I guess if there's only one bead it's going to be asymmetrical. Anyway, I was really happy with that design and it's so cool that someone else is too.

I've posted!

More than one item! Not as many as I was hoping to get online this weekend, but that's okay. I'm glad to have somethings up, and the fact that it's taking me a while will just help me spread out my posting. I did spend some time on making jewelry too on saturday, rather than finalizing what I have for posting. And there was the various weekend fun excursions. I guess since etsying wasn't really my primary focus this weekend, I'm not doing too bad getting stuff online today. I even managed to get photos of me wearing stuff that I felt okay about.

Floral
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

Getting Sleepy

Webbed Necklace
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

Parentheses
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

I must've stayed up a little too late last night working on the Halloween necklace. It was an effort to get myself to figure out how to photograph this one, but I really wanted to tonight.

I'm debating posting a few things. I was thinking it's helpful to see what the necklaces look like on, and I've been dreading doing a photoshoot like that. It's one thing when they're on the table, I picky enough about that. But now were talking pictures of me and I dunno. I may convince myself the table is good enough.

But, come to think of it, I'm pretty sleepy and not in the mindset to describe anything really well anyway. So I can think about what I want to say a bit more and if I really need to take more pictures.

We also photographed parentheses on the graph paper, it seems to work. I've had these V-beads forever. Even so, now I can't help but think of the song by The Blow.

Cleaned my desk!

I thought I was working on a new necklace but now somehow it's almost 8pm and all I've done is clean off my desk. Well...it's nice to have a clean desk anyway.

I have the sense this evening that I ought to be doing something other than what I've been doing. But I had an idea for a Halloween necklace. Mainly just that it's going to be all black and looks pretty goth (in my mind.) I figured that I should make sure I make this one this month and get it posted if I'm going to. I should be making a push to photograph the rest of my stuff and post it, but I haven't done any beading yet this week. That's not healthy.

Update: I accomplished making the halloween necklace, but no time for pictures last night. Maybe tonight!

First Go at Packaging

First Go at Packaging
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

First Go at Packaging
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

I made my first real attempt at cute packaging. Okay, so in the photo I wasn't quite ready to seal it off with the sticker yet, but the plain paper draft of the sticker made a fine stand in. I can see where there's room to improve, but overall I'm content. I originally wanted the blue folder to wrap all the way around to the front, but I don't really want to have to bump up to a larger paper size to accomplish that. A little bit of the brown peaking out isn't too bad. But I won't mind if I manage to come up with a clever way to do what I wanted.

Chuck & I also took some nice pictures of what I think is one of my more geeky architect style necklaces. This time I thought up the backdrop, a page from David Byrne's Arboretum. The next idea I have for a backdrop is graph paper...or is that going too far? I think it'll work.

Branches
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

Starting to feel promising

I posted one item last night that was for a friend. It should help me make sure I've got all my paypal info and everything set up right. She lives across the country too, so I will really see how much shipping will cost!

It was really exciting to post something finally. Posting the rest of what I've prepared really doesn't feel too far off now. I will have it up by the end of the week. Charles, my boyfriend was really helpful and pulled out one of his old drawings from architecture school as a backdrop. It really worked with the piece I posted last night. I'm not sure it will work for too many of my other pieces, but I hope the two of us can keep coming up with that kind of fun idea!

In the meantime I keep forgetting that I am also still trying to get settled in my fairly new apartment. We moved in August. I finally got a start on really setting up my workspace. I had to buy a nice big desk for myself, which was a start. I bought bulletin boards over the weekend. It still needs something more to make it feel really useful and I have to figure out what that is. I also haven't figured out curtains for the whole apartment yet. It's starting to feel cold, and like curtains are important. But for this week at least my shop is my priority...maybe I will have time this weekend.

Primary
Originally uploaded by emmakat79

Okay, so I didn't meet my deadline

I knew I was being kind of ridiculously hopefully thinking I'd be ready to post items today. I guess it was the kind of weekend where you want to be able to do so much stuff that you know you can't possibly accomplish it all so you end up playing a stupid computer game (civcity rome in this case) instead.

So it still remains to photograph my pieces. And most of the rest of the things I had on my list. I did manage to buy the last of the materials I will need. So I think tonight I will make one more necklace, try to figure out photography and check again that my paypal account and shipping info are set up right. I'll also try to squeeze in designing my stickers for my packaging and refining my business card. But for now, those aren't officially in my plan for the evening because I don't want to overwhelm myself again. I'll just try to do as much as I can. I'm really looking foward to posting my stuff, but it still seems at least several days off if I think realistically.