le$$son learned

I sold a painting to a lady in the Netherlands on etsy. My shipping profile wasn't as accurate as I'd thought, and I'd charged only $2 for "Everywhere else" shipping. I looked up the cost for sending via FedEx ($56) UPS ($55) and USPS ($27). Oh, $hit. I was already in the hole because I no longer had the painting she'd purchased (didn't update etsy after a First Thursday. My bad, but it happens) but she'd favorited another painting that I still had for a higher price. I offered to either paint her a fresh piece in the same colors as the one she'd bought, with the addition of custom graffiti; or I'd send her the more expensive piece for no additional charge. She chose the other piece. No prob- it was my goof. But oh, deah Lahdy when I saw the shipping charges, and knew I'd already taken a 28% discount on the piece, my head started to ache. I thought that I'd have a profit margin of $15 on this stupid thing. I have NO IDEA how it penciled out, but the cost to send this (thankfully small, unframed & light) piece thousands of miles through the post office was less than $5. Hunh? Well, I wasn't going to argue! That made my day! When I got home I emailed the buyer and gave her the ETA, with relief.

At the end of it all, I learned a valuable le$$on in generic shipping profile charges, came out unscathed, and still have the pride of mailing my lil' bit o'art to Holland :-)

math homework

I think I may just take my computer, calculator & notepad to my local ciderhouse. Cost analysis of producing magnets (most of which will be given away) might be less like math homework if I had a tasty beverage.

what?

Alas, my theory that gessoing cotton before stretching it would make it stronger & easier to stretch has been disproved. It makes a stiff fabric that can't get anything near taut, and leaves you with a lumpy, loose surface. This will not do. I did have a nice chunk of thick, lightly stretchy fabric- sort of a brocade, but not as fancy. This stretched beautifully over the frame & sounds like a drum. THIS I can work with.

So I just spent the last hour or so messing with one failure & one success, and my hands are sore from the staple gun. My ears are also ringing from the repeated blasts- sometimes I had to hit it 4 times before a staple came out. Next time: ear plugs. You what, now?

burn, baby, burn!

I have an idea for a project... it's just not ready to be... born. It's a combination of a phoenix/sculpture/assemblage/with a light/lamp thing, and a desire I've been having to burn things. We have a chiminea in our yard, and I like the smell of woodsmoke. The best is throwing in dried trimmings from our bay laurel- it's like outdoor incense.

The idea is to take a birdcage- I haven't decided on metal or bamboo- and burn something in it. This will either char the metal or burn through the bamboo. I'll scatter some red/orange/yellow feathers on the bottom of the cage, and voila! The implied phoenix has burned itself out and is on to reinvent itself. This is a direct representation of quitting the grey cubicle job and going to being a full time artist. I want to convey a sense of freedom, and having the door open would do that nicely. But the point is that the bird burned out- it didn't fly out. If I use a bamboo cage, the fire will burn through the top, and leave a hole. That's what I'll do. :-)

At first I was thinking of using a regular sized cage, then I was faced with "where do I put it?" I figure I'll do a smaller one- I should be able to find many a size of birdcage, as they're so often used for decor. eBay, here I come!

takin' care o'business

It's a good week- I got the acceptance letter from CAP, I'm delivering 2 pieces to Lunar Boy tomorrow, and I just submitted my app for this years PDX Open Studios. Next on the list- consolidate my mileage for taxes, and add paintings to my etsy site. I need some income!

what does THIS button do?

I'm having SO MUCH FUN discovering what happens when I try something new. This whole past week has been full of technique treasures. Not to mention VERY productive.

a different kind of basket case

I'm making a basket- my crafty neighbor Ava showed me how. Cotton clothesline and strips of a checkerboard body pillow cover salvaged from The Bins. This is the first serious use of the glorious new sewing machine I got for my birthday (thanks, Mom!) I even refilled the bobbin and solved a thread tension problem- yeay, me!

progress

Yeay! Just finished the background of the piece for this year's CAP piece (due on the 22nd) . That sounds a little more accomplished and decisive than the full truth: I painted the foreground for the 3rd or 4th time, and I finally like it =D I got a sky I liked yesterday. This bad boy is 93 square inches- looooong & narrow.I think I'll ask $265 for it- there will be A LOT of detail.

i'm a happy basket case

<-- Oscar helped me with this entry. For some it's spring cleaning, but I've been obsessed with organizing for days. The garage & basement worthy Ikea shelves I got last year were a good start, but now I have little piles of things that fall over. Some of that was helped by the bookends my mom gave me for Xmas. I saw that Michael's was having a 40% of all basket sale, so I grabbed Mom & went. I had a list of 5-6 containers I needed for miscellaneous things, bits, collections, and projects. I got the 4 most important- everything fits perfectly, and was on sale- whoopee! I scored an extra one- long, shallow & narrow- a beautiful green, 70% off because it was "Christmas." I'll have that thing overloaded in no time. Now that I have twice as much horizontal space as I did last week, I can get my butt in gear & paint something for the CAP Art (For Life) Evening & Auction. I'm pretty pleased- I got a letter not long ago basically saying "gee, we really hope you can donate again this year." Freakin' rad. I'm so happy to have my work accepted by them for 2 years, and that both pieces sold for more than the value I place on them- now they're back for more because my works sells! How do ya like them apples!?

what do you do with a painting...

that hasn't sold after being shown a bunch of times in a year & hasn't sold? OK, not just 1- a series totaling 21? There are 2 that I quite like & will keep for myself, and 5 that I just don't like & will paint over. Secondarily- do I rename them, or use the same numbers with the new faces?

All are series- monochromatic red, blue, brown & green. I never really liked the red, so those will get erased. The rest are generally paintings I'm happy with- they've just had no hits. Here's a possible cause: they're most expensive than usual for their size because they have about 10 layers forming their collage background & therefore have many more hours of labor.

Should I reduce the prices to what's now standard for me for that size? Retire them? Experiment with the surfaces? Paint over & rename? Paint over & keep the name?