In The Studio - Part Two

And the week ends on a good but exhausted note. It's time to take a few days off and regroup before grouting, photographing and listing more small mosaic wall hangings.

It takes a while to grout, clean, paint, get hangers on them and then get decent photos (at least 3) for listings. I often think the prep work before a mosaic is created and after it's complete takes longer than the actual artwork. When I consider this, I make sure to charge for my time and 10 years worth of experience. If you create something and want to sell it, please keep these things in mind as well. It's important to let your customers know you value your time and talent as much as they should.

Mosaic Fiestaware Peace Sign - 10 inches

Mosaic Flower Wall Hanging - 4.5 inches

Each day, in between helping my Grandson with some school activities this summer, I've managed to create something. Doing small things has been a lot of fun and quite satisfying!

Little Dude working on a word search geared towards the 2nd grade

All of these range in size between 4-6 inches. And I think they are all headed towards the online store. It's been a productive week!

There are no new ones to share just yet. I've been working on what's been done already and what needs grouting. The pile is getting smaller, which is a very good thing! I think more grouting will happen over the weekend or I just might really take a few days off and get back to it next week. Meanwhile I never know when the muse will want to play. I will share what I have when I can!

The weather here is getting cooler in the evenings and there is a just a hint of fall in the air already. Physically this is not good news ... I love the heat for my bones and sciatica especially but emotionally, I do love the colors that come with the fall and in September Little Dude and I have birthday's. That's always exciting!! I truly hope I can get some close ups of fall since I missed spring and most of summer being stuck in my room and on the 2nd floor. If I can get myself down the steps and outside to visit the trees and get some photos I would be really happy!

Have a great weekend!

Support Independent Artisans, Designers and Crafters for your gift-giving needs all throughout the year. Thank you!

Cindy

In The Studio

I'm having some fun right now In the Studio. There's a good possibility that I'll be very busy, very soon but before that happens, I'm grouting and taking photos of mosaics!

What I've got grouted so far are items I can list on Etsy. That makes me happy.

Owl

Holder

Scrap Glass Cross

I've got a square candle holder and a few small cross magnets coming soon.

I recently was given quite a few boxes of McCoy Cookie Jars and some China pieces. They range from extremely old and possibly collectible to about 20 years old that don't seem to be collectible at all. I am spending time doing the research to see if I can figure out which ones can be covered up with mosaic goodness and/or smashed and which should be saved and sold on Zibbet and Etsy.

I was asked to make 50(!) 3 x 2 inch mosaic cross ornaments for a baptism in November. Details are getting finalized now. I may be skipping a post or two as the time gets closer to ship them on their way. I'm starting to nip up a lot of blue glass. I'll keep you all posted on that and share photos as I go. Remember to check out my flickr photostream to watch the progress with me.

I was more active with the Ultimate Blog Challenge at the beginning of the month than I am now. I am writing blog posts every day but they prefer posts that aren't mostly promotional. If I'm not promoting my shop(s), I'm promoting someone else, so I thought it best to stop posting links in the group on FB. I met a few great people there and got to know their blogs too. Some I have signed up to read daily through email --- my favorite way to read blog posts. This Challenge helped get me on track with my new format and I'm very happy I participated.

I found out on Tuesday that one of my items in a Treasury made over the weekend was on the coveted Front Page on Etsy! Congrats to the Curator: MyMintMouse. This is like winning the lottery and an Oscar all wrapped up into one! If you don't use or know about Etsy very well, the first page you see when you go to the site shares a treasury chosen by those that have the decisions as to what goes there. In the last week, this one item was added as a 'favorite' 117 times. That's so amazing.

I'm particularly pleased with the item that was used in this treasury. You might all know by now this is a close up photo of one of my mosaics called Back to Basics #1. It's still one of the most popular designs in my shop both in pillow covers and now the new tote bags. Yeah buddy! I just got a sale for 2 tote bags yesterday. Woo-hoo! Check out the treasury that briefly helped this cool tote bag become center stage. Graphic

Poplin Fabric Tote Bag

Stay peaceful,

Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics