Trusty Juki

Here is the ongoing progress on Key Search. It's taking a long time! It's quilted in a fun way that I make up as I go, it's very unique. I was making it for sale, but I like it so I may keep this one for my own bed!
I have not worked on it very much because I have spent a lot of time on the computer, working on the website. That is also slow going since I am teaching myself html, the hard way. I think quilters tend to do everything the hard way.
This quilt will be in the Piecemakers Quilting Guild of Southern Alameda County Legacies of Love Quilt Show on May 6th and 7th. Entry deadline in next Tuesday for forms and photos, the actual quilts must be in by the 13th! Can I make it? Big question!
I just finished up making a gallery on my website. You should check it out. My online artist group, Folk-of-Art-friends, had a challenge called All Creatures Great and Small. It was simple, sort of. Each artist picked an animal, limit of 2 people per animal, and made that animal. Most are listed for sale on eBay. I made a gallery page on my site that you can click to from the first page. It's Pretty obvious where to click.

design wall

This is what I have on my design wall right now. These are for wearable fabric collages. I will post them as I finish them.

I want to have them done in time to sell at the Country Store at our quilting guild show in Hayward on May 6th and 7th. It's at Centenial Hall. That's Hayward, California.

The Capucin with Biscotti will be in the show. I'm trying to finish Key Search for that show too.


Folk of Art Friends is finishing up a challenge called All Creatures Great and Small. I'm working on making a gallery on my website to show off all the pieces. I'm adding them as I can. You can go to Doublecat Batik and click on the link to the gallery so see the ones I've got so far. Just click on the little orangey-yellow banner thing under here:

Ruben

Thanks Ruben, for the beta test. I'm fixing the link from website to Blog. Then I'm checking on the email link. After that, I have to decide if I should first persue the graphics changes of see about the message board.
Thanks Bunches and Bunches.
C

Drippy

Formerly Stuff Forever and Ever

I fell drippy,
Oh, so drippy.......

Not exactly wallowing is success. I've decided not to continue as an artist on Folk-of-Art.com. I've been on it since November of '05, which isn't exactly a long time. I've been paying monthly to have three items featured. More experienced people tell me it takes time, but after 5 months, I have not sold anything from there, and have only recieved one email. It was not even an inquiry, just somebody warning me about the dangers of breathing wax fumes. My site stats show that I am not even getting lots of hits to my site from the Folk-of-art site. After five months, I should at least see an upward trend! I don't think that's happening.

I have been informed that I have to sell stuff cheap at first, but that doesn't work. Pricing below cost doesn't seem to do it. Maybe pricing higher will make it worth more?

But my web site isn't wallowing in success either. I haven't done much to drive traffic to it. I have spent much of the time learning about making a site. My site has improved vastly in 6 months. I'm learning new things all the time. There is only so much time I can spend each day, and I want some time left over for actually DOING art. If it's not done by 7am, it's not gonna happen. The rest of the day starts and when it finally ends, I'm pooped. Last night is ended at 9:00pm.

I just changed the name of my blog and it's URL to better reflect my site name.

I want to make a better feedback, or maybe a forum. Any opinions? Even "Hi, I read your blog, it sucks scissors" would help!

my new eBay listing, these look great!

Comming Out

Here he is! He has clothes, so he can come out. If you had hair like that, you'd need clothes too. His vest is reversable. His shorts are not. He won't share his biscotti.

Done, but naked

I finished the capucin monkey, but I need to make clothes for him. No naked pictures!

Fartful Prose

Joseph wanted a book from the Mountain View library, so we had it sent to the Milpitas library and I went to pick it up. At the desk, the librarian said

"You have a book overdue." I asked

"Which one?" She checked her computer screen again and mumbled

"I don't know." This is odd. She turned her computer screen artound so I could see.

"Zombie Butts from Uranus." She just couldn't SAY it. I renewed it.

Joe read it himself, I didn't. I read the preqel out loud, The Day My Butt Went Psycho, also by Andy Griffiths. It was terrible writing, but for little boys, artful prose means how many times you can work in the words 'butt' and 'fart' and still have a narrative.

Machismo and Poop Stains

Bedtime is difficult for kids. The end of the day, the part with no school, is over. Also, they seem to become frenzied right before they are ready to drop off. This frenzie includes dancing around in their underwear and ignoring orders to "Go brush your teeth" and "Get your jams on."
And I say, from across the room:
"Is that a poop stain? I don't have my glasses on." Dad says
"Yes. That's disgusting! Go fix that!" Joe jumps up on the bed to look in the mirror. He gives his best Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka "eeew" and bolts to his room, singing.....
"Macho Macho Man.....I've got to be...a macho man...!"

Hairy

It takes a lot of time to put hair on a monkey!

Vintage Moments quilt

This is our Opportunity Quilt for this year. Each year our quilt guild, Piecemakers Quilt Guild of Southern Alameda County, makes a bed size quilt, very high quality, and we raffle it off. It's one of our biggest fund raisers. We use the money to help run our guild and to work on different projects like community quilts for the Police and Fire departments to give to people in unfortunate circumstances, preemie quilts for babies born to soon to go home from the hospital yet, and ditty bags for shelter residents who need toothbrushes and soap for their stay. We make over 200 Community Quilts each year.
We sell the tickets for $1.00 each. The drawing is May 7th. The quilt will be on display at our Legacies of Love Quilt Show at Centennial Hall in Hayward, California, on May 6th and 7th. Contact me if you would like a ticket.
Caradrouin@sbcglobal.net

Horse Butts

These are decorative horse butts. Each one is modeled after a real horse. They are on eBay this week. The listing includes a mini bio of each horse. Check 'em out!


Horse butts on eBay


That's right, and I'm still putting hair on my monkey.

and more monkey

He is currently getting hair. Dave asks if it is "The Hair Club for Monkeys" I made him some biscotti yesterday. Joe was excited until he found out it wasn't made of food.
I'm not going to be able to list this for sale on Ebay March 19th. I want to have it in our quilt show in May. There aren't usually many dolls. I dont know, IS this a doll?

more monkey

still working on it!

capucin

Project in progress. The artists in Folk-of-Art are participating in a challenge initiated by AntyMs Garden. A challenge is where a theme is declared and a deadline set, and everyone who wants to participate makes something in that theme. There are sometimes rules. For this one, the challenge is animals, the rule is that only two people may do each animal. The implied rule is that it must be suitable fro veiwing by all ages. The deadline is March 19th, when most of the animals will be listed on eBay.

I picked capucin, a new world monkey, but I'm making mine retired, so it's an old new world monkey.

To see what this group has currently available: Ebay foa items http://search.ebay.com/FOAF or click on the link on the right of this screen.

on motivation, which isnt the real problem

Joe has had the camera again!

Someone on the Folk-of-Art message board posted a question about how others get motivated. Personally, I dont need motivation, I need to be left alone long enough to get something done! This is my reply:

So common! Artists are easily distracted.
Another problem, nobody else takes our art seriously. It's something we can do 'another time.' The problem with being able to make your own schedule is that everyone thinks they should have input.
I need to work WITHOUT DISTRACTION!!

WITHOUT DISTRACITON!


WITHOUT DISTRACTION!

I think I broke my keyboard typing that!!!
My family does not realize the without distraction means with asking me a question every 5 minutes to make sure I am still available if they really need something. My son comes in and asks "Can I have a piece of candy?"
"ask Dad."
"He said to ask you."
WHAT! He was going to run interference for me!!!! Now he can't decide if Joe can have a piece of candy!!!
&@*$
"Yes, you can have a piece of candy."

I am sewing, there is a tap on the glass. I ignore it.
There is a tap on the glass. I ignore it.
There is a tap on the glass. I ignore it.
There is a tap on the glass. I look up. Dad smiles and waves. I wave back. I shout "I am sewing!"(Obviously)
He shouts "Hi"
"Why are you bothering me?"

I am sewing, there is a tap on the glass. I ignore it.
There is a tap on the glass. I ignore it.
There is a tap on the glass. I ignore it.
There is a tap on the glass. I look up. Joe smiles and waves. Dad is holding him up because he can't see through the window by himself. I wave back.

I am sewing, there is a tap on the glass. I ignore it.
There is a tap on the glass. I ignore it.
There is a tap on the glass. I ignore it.
There is a tap on the glass. I ignore it.
There is a tap on the glass. I ignore it.
There is a tap on the glass. I look up. Dad smiles and waves. He shouts "Which tree was it you wanted pruned?" This is BS. He never prunes what I want pruned. He only prunes what I want un-prunned. I shout back "You're pruning NOW?"
"Well, I might prune later." (I'll prune you!)

I go out to the living room. The TV is on, I can't use the computer because it is downlaoding some mega file from China. I go to the family room, the other TV is on. I return to the living room and turn off the TV. They come running in, "We were watching that!"
"Yeah, right! Through your fiber optic cable."
"No really. Our show is comming on in forty minutes!"( I thought you were going to prune)
"Watch it in the family room."
"It's a how-to show. We need to see it on the big TV."
Who needs to see Norm on a 61 inch screen?

"I'm going to the coffee shop."
"Will you be back for dinner?"(What are you going to cook us for dinner?)
"I don't know."
"Call us and tell us."
They turn the TV back on and run outside.

My time has no value, it is free time.

long time no see

It has been too long!
The watercolor episode in the fourth grade class was crazy but priceless!
There is a really odd break in achool for Milpitas Unified School District, so shorty has been home. Employment stuff has been odd for Dave, so he has been home a lot. It has seemed like Saturday here all week! Can't wait for Monday!
We went to Sacramento for two days, that was fun.

I'm trying to figure out what will sell on ebay, and trying to decide how important that is. My return per hour on what does sell is low. I am telling myself that the listing cost is the cost of being out there, and that's OK. Better to let that go than sell stuff for less than materials cost.

What I don't want to do is compromise on my art and produce crafts because I can make a little money at that. I want to make art. I don't want to get stuck in the craft trap, where I make tons of knick knacks for minimal profit and it feels more like cottage manufacter. I can't compete with the low grade knick knacks avasilabel at Wal*Mart and Target for nearlty nothing, produced overseas by people who get paid pennies per hour.

I have to remember, eBay is merely a facet to use, not to be steered by.

I got my Folk-of-Art items in for March. This is the 5th or 6th month I have been in it. I have not sold anything.

I have had my website for about a month longer, and I have not sold anything there either. The site improves as my programming skill improve. I know it needs more time, but if I sold at least ONE thing?

It bothers me that I send more time on the computer doing this stuff than making stuff. The thing that bothers me most is that this takes lowest priority in my life. Everybody thinks that I can do it anytime, so it isnt a problem to do something with/for them right now. Ruben gave me a hard time becuase I was trying to figure out a way to do something without having to drive to Wal*Mart. Like driving to Wal*Mart would ruin my life. He was not buying the idea that I spend too many hours a week on little tasks that don't increase revenue and that I am seriously trying to reduce that.

There is a tack swap/craft fair comming in May. I have done so poorly at the last three that I don't really want to do it again. I suppose I must.

The Peacemakers Quilt Guild quilt show is also in May. I have always done well in the Country Store associated with that.

Spring is here, but more rain comming.

Skeleton keys

Tracy,
Try here. I have not looked at this site in a while. I dont know about prices.

http://www.deabath.com/Keys/keys.htm

Bart Simpson's Nostrils

I have been so busy. I have been working very hard on my website. I am partly through a major revamp. When I get done, it wont be very different in appearance to anybody who looks, but it should load faster and navigate better on a variety of monitors.
My son's 4th grade teacher asked me to teach one of their "centers" on watercolor because she says she is not artistic. Considering my experience with watercolors, this is challenging. She has chosen dandelions as the subject, which is a good choice because it is simple. The center lasts 15 minutes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I get the whole class each day, broken into groups of 12.
I decided on mixed media, since I can break it into three easy steps that they can get done within the correct time. For the first day, I am going to have them rough in their dandelion, and use white crayon to "color" the seed head. I will borrow hub's dremel tool and make plastic templates so the can outline the flower and the seedhead and a couple leaves without having to worry about size.
For the second day they will add watercolor. They only need two colors; yellow and blue. I will have them paint the sky pale blue, then add streaks of darker blue. The seed head will pop out from the wax resist they put down the day before. The flower will be yellow, sprinkled with table salt for texture. The leaves will be green, made from yellow with a bit of blue. They can add bits of blue to the green while it is wet and let it bleed out into the green.
The third day they will add black colored pencil to partly outline the flowers and leaves, and to show the stems.
I made four of these to check out how it would go. They went very fast, less than 10 minutes total for each one. I think I can lead this in 45 minutes. This weekend I have to outline what I will say on each day.
Did you know Bart Simpson doesn't have nostrils? How does that dude breath? You don't have to show every detail to make a good picture.

Crazy Horse

This guy is on ebay this week. Pretty fancy! I like him so much I havent sold him, but I cant keep everything under the sun! Find the listing by going here:
my listings
to see all my listings. All TWO of them!

Folk-of-Art 1 has the new Feb stuff starting today, I think. I haven't looked yet. FOA

oh rats!

Well, one of them worked retroactively, Now I just have to figure out why it did, but none of the others.

I figured it out! Sort of. It was really hit and miss. But I monkeyed and monkeyed with the posts I made yesterday until I finally got it. There are really many more tries that show up here.

and now........another experiment