Little Brown Sparrow

Deep in the bones

2009-07-12T00:52:00.000-07:00

I seem to feel the need to apologise almost every time I update, as I'm not around as often as I'd like. I've been in a very 'thinky' mood lately, just working and thinking and trying to figure out alot of things around me. What I'm doing with my life, my goals, my ideals, what sounds nice versus what I really want...all that malarky that never seems important till it's too late. (And it's almost always never too late.)

It's come to that time in the year again where opportunities are calling to me, things move about in the heavens and I must choose paths. Too much like a gypsy for my own good sometimes, but we must sometimes move in the direction fortune takes us.

In the meantime I keep working- the space thing shows no signs of slowing down but I am about to start working on my new collection- punk pirates in a post-apocalyptic Caribbean. We're thinking Thunderdome meets Jack Sparrow the Cannibal King, or Tank Girl taken to the 18th century.

The Bible List

2009-06-28T23:54:00.000-07:00

I've been honoured enough to receive no less than three awards recently! I'm really flattered, I never expected to be someone's favourite when I started out...though it's nice to think it happens. :D

Sayraphim and TuscanRoad both awarded me "one Lovely Blog Award", and Joan awarded me the fabulous blog award!

Part of the rules for receiving these awards is that I link to a certain number of blogs- if I added them up it would quite the list! So I've settled on 20 places I go for inspiration- these are the core places that really make me squirm for the wonderfulness they are. They're not all blogs, some are websites and some are online shops, but they are all absolute wells of inspiration to me. I guess you could call this my Bible list- when things look a bit bleak or boring or hopeless, and I don't know where to turn or what I'm doing with myself, I turn to these people. The internet wouldn't be the same without them.

In no order of importance:

:::websites:::

1. Gibbous Fashions

2. J. Morgan Puett

3. India Flint

4. Keith Lo Bue

5. Skingraft

:::Flickrs:::

1. yyellowbird

2. bruce baycroft

3. moggierocket

4. daily poetics (especially the collage set)

5. katiachausheva

:::blogs:::

1. photoshop disasters

2. red velvet

3. forestbound

4. Amy Hanna (I cry with jealousy at her trinkets!)

5. The Cart Before the Horse

:::Etsy shops:::

1. Black Spot Books

2. Rackk and Ruin

3. Fanciful Devices

4. masaoms

5. Desert Talismans

So there you go. I'm sorry for the absence on my part lately, I've been all kinds of distracted and thinky. I'm almost finished with future tribal I think, I'm nearly ready to take the core elements and move on to my next theme. I had 'organised' (as much as you can tell the muse what to do) for it to be a kind of Victorian Momento Mori kind of thing with much black and cobblestone blue...but I watched all 3 pirate movies in a row the other day, and now I'm rather immersed in the whole 'decayed 18th century with a touch of tribal' vibe.

I wonder what it will be? Dickens memori, or Dickens pirate? Maybe both! In space. In the furture. With post-apoc steampunks.

I think I'm just hell bent on making myself impossible to market. :D

Something old, something new...

2009-06-23T09:34:00.001-07:00

Creative evolution is always inspiring. It's a wonderful feeling when suddenly a door in your mind opens and everything is flooded with a new light, a new way to see. I've been moving in this direction for the past month or more now, as you've all been witness too (and have been so very supportive in).

But it's coming to the time now where I find myself at a crossroads. I don't know if what I used to make a few months ago is something I'm ever going to go back to, and the idea of letting go of it for good frightens the toast outta me. This New Age space thing I've soaked myself in shows no signs of abating- in fact it's settled in quite nicely and now has it's feet on the couch eating all my food- to speak metaphorically. Dickens is sitting at the back door, staring balefully at me with sad eyes and wondering what's it done to be pushed out into the cold like that.

Writing in my bedside journal the other night I was trying to analyse what my shop is, in the attempt to better market myself. I started listing all the usual stuff; 'Derelict Victorian, cogless steampunk, faginpunk...and then I realised these words don't really fit my shop any more. I'm not steampunk without gears anymore. I'm ancient astronauts and Future tribalists; New Age post-apocalyptic androids. Granted there's still an essence of the worn-out and the ragged, but the make do and mend of the working classes of history has become a sort of survivalist foraging of found objects, like Mad Max or Escape from LA.

There comes a time in every change where we must acknowledge and let go of the past. In order to move forward we must release the old...and that's scary. No less scary in terms of art; what I have made and sold here online in the past year has been wonderful, interesting, joyous and (to be pragmatic) popular. I've always felt it come from the heart and I've always loved and believed in it. But there are chinks in the armour.

Is my derelict Dickens something I will ever come back to? Is this space age business here for good, or will it pass just as Dickens seems to have? Even just writing that my Dickens theme seems to have passed fills me with sadness. I still love it so much, I still have ideas rolling around in my head but most of them I can't get to without some basic metalwork skills. (Semiprecious Salvage and Complete metalsmith are in the post, thank you for all your suggestions!)

Most of this is mostly just panic. The fear that comes with sweeping out the old to make way for the new. I know that some things - the important things- will stay. You don't throw the baby out with the bathwater and there are times of positive light where I feel that by going on this space trip I've actually stripped my art down to the core of what I want to do, and that I'll be able to go back to the Dickens thing with more conviction.

But there are shadow times like this, where I worry that everything is lost. I have to let go of some things and have faith that something better will come along to fill the void. It's like dumping an old boyfriend- you still love them but some thing's between you isn't working any more. And you get a feeling that...you can do better.

The Future is still to come

2009-06-19T10:49:00.001-07:00

There's a new necklace in the Etsy shop- I really love this one, I think it's probably my favourite piece in the Future Tribal series so far.

And it seems the consensus so far is that Semiprecious Salvage is indeed a brilliant thing and must be owned by all. So I shall sally forth and purchase said book! Thanks, chaps.

Expansion

2009-06-18T07:00:00.001-07:00

Elsieowl

I've made a decision that it's time I expanded my construction techniques. I'm bored with all the usual things I do and I want to explore riveting, soldering, hammering...basic metalsmithing.

The Justified Sinner

Making my own bezels, joining bits of metal to other bits of metal, being able to work with all the neat little trinkets I've collected over the years.

1 of my kind

I've come to you for help! What books do you recommend to someone starting out? I'm quick to learn, my Dad has a shed full of tools I can borrow (vices, hammers, soldering irons etc) but I don't really know where to start. I plan to head to the library tomorrow to see what they have in the way of books but I don't mind buying one or two good ones. But which ones?

New Favourites

2009-06-06T02:01:00.000-07:00

Photographer Tim Irving was kind enough to feature me on his blog this week, and I readily return the favour. I know many of you out there will appreciate the cool, pure style of Tim's as he documents his home surroundings in Southern Europe.

These are birdcages on a neighbours doorstep- I think I'd have a minor meltdown in my neighbours were that aesthetic! (Although the Italian couple across the road have painted their balcony in gelato pastel stripes, so I'm not totally without fulfilment.)

Tim also has an Etsy shop where you can buy prints of his images. Moon over pink clouds is my runaway favourite:
In my own news I have updated the Little Brown Sparrow shop with some new collages and a couple of photographic cards. I've tidied up there generally- putting all non-paper goods in the yart sale section and giving myself a new banner and avatar.

Sparrow Salvage will be updated tomorrow with the first lot of my new space tribal jewellery. That's a bit exciting, isn't it? :)

How can I forget what hasn't happened?

2009-06-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

1. IMG_6195, 2. Future now, 3. walkway, 4. BirdSkeletons1AE, 5. RedfordKatharine01, 6. Untitled, 7. Crystal 1, 8. Untitled, 9. ORUCrackedTile

Are the shaman and the artist so different?

2009-06-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

image source

Things are already coming together, paths crossing back and returning to where I left off. My obsession with space and futuristic designs shows no sign of slowing down, though it has mellowed to a point where I am able to calmly sort what comes into my head and assign it to it's rightful place in my internal thinking. Tribal elements have quickly developed as a kind of bridge between the future and the 19th century. There's a very interesting seed of thinking in the realisation I had today, that futuristic design made shabby and decayed has a very strong tribal appearance about it.

image source

When geometric shapes are smooth, white and polished they have a very Star Trek feeling. When those same shapes are dirty, roughly textured and hand-drawn they become very ancient in feel. It makes me think of all the theories that the Gods in most mythology are just extra-terrestrial beings- I read a report the other day that there is substantial evidence to suggest diamonds are formed from 'seeds' carried on crashed meteors when the world was still young, since there would not have been enough sufficiently rottend vegetation to have them form the way we think they do.

This was made all the more interesting to me when I found out that the ancient Romans believed diamonds to be star-shards or tears from the Gods. Not too far from the truth perhaps. This is coming along in my mind with the growing fixation I have for hexagons, pyramids and crystal points. I'm starting to feel like Indy!

image source

Light (years) Ahead

2009-05-28T09:34:00.000-07:00

I think I've managed to come out the other side of my artist's fever. I can actually get space from my brain now, time to think about other things in life and to make some note of what's been going on.

I've been immersed in a strange world- a kind of 1970s/early 80s Science Fiction film set with emphasis on New Age colour schemes and philosophy, but balanced with a tribal sort of elegance and heavily influenced by 1920s futurism. It's hard to explain and so remotely distant from my usual Dickensian derelict- in fact trying to think about my usual style at this point literally gives me a headache, so I haven't been able to give myself a break in discovery work at all, I've just had to wade in up to the knees and forget about coming ashore.

As you saw by the images in the last post, I started to organise my new found frenzy by first going through every box and jar I have, pulling together a big pile of trinkets in the middle of the worktable, each piece having the elements in it that have been fuelling me this week- the top five of which are crystals, hexagons/pentagons, bone, rounded corners and high-gloss surfaces.

I gathered in such seemingly unconnected elements such as clear quartz points, rat bones, bubblewrap, plastic door bead strings, Czech beads, tribal drops, sea glass, vintage lingerie fittings and art deco jewellery. I also made a list of things I wanted to have on hand but as yet did not- white chain, obsolete computer components, square beads and a home enamelling kit - the kind used for bathtub repair. Even the things I'd bought from Etsy that arrived that day fit perfectly into the scheme, even though when I bought them it was with Faginpunk very clearly in mind.

Once I had all the objects amassed, things started to come together, and I built a few 'roughs' of the kind of work I see myself producing over the coming period of time, however long that is. Days? Weeks? Years? I don't know. I know I haven't finished with the Dickensian derelict, though I can't yet be certain it will come away untarnished (pardon the pun). Honestly- I can even envision a time where they will become one thing and I'll be surfing a sort of 'Dickens in Space' wave. Imagine if a young Oliver Twist joined Starfleet!

I went to the thrift (accompanied by my house mates to ensure I didn't get lost or run over while my brain sat on auto) and bought some experimental fabrics- bags made of silver PVC (which breaks down quite easily, lending itself to the Dickens side of the tracks already), mesh embedded in clear plastic and some heavy acrylic canvas blends with little rubber dots.

I don't know how far I'm going with all this but I've started with necklaces and brooches. Familiar territory must set a foothold- I think it would capsize my mind to explore both new construction methods and new aesthetics at the same time!

One thing has become clear though- with my usual style I often feel the path is rather muddy and hard to see; I need to constantly refer to my notes or inspirational images to keep 'aligned'. On this path however I feel a genuine and certain direction.

I also feel an odd kind of compulsion; it's as if I have to do this, as if some other sentient force is requesting it from me. I know that sounds very Close Encounters and all that; the whole pile up in my brain didn't really come on suddenly, it sort of phased in over a period of days, and even then you can see an element of these works in pieces produced less than a month ago. But the things that have sparked this- the colours and shapes and themes- have snowballed in my mind as they never have, the crescendo was a fever so bad that I couldn't even dream properly, I was just seeing visions of crystals and hexagons! This is more than just artistic thought process.

I've noted a few times in my bedside journal that this is something beyond the terrestrial realm, in fact my bedside journal itself is a testament to the journey so far- it's usual neat handwriting dissolving into disjointed lists scrawling over pages and pages. This is something that is coming from another source beyond me. Some say that's where the artistic process comes from anyway, but this feels more outward than anything else ever has.

There is definitely more at work here than simple aesthetics, though I've yet to find out what it is exactly that my higher mind is focused on, what it is interested in learning- or suddenly being offered.

The Future is Now

2009-05-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

I've neglected you my readers. Apologies- I have been in other worlds.

New ideas have come to me, filling my head so that I cannot even sleep without their invasion. A new direction, a new system of thinking, a new way of seeing. Inspiration as I have not felt in a long time, yet overwhelming that I can't function on a terrestrial level. My house mates have to remind me to eat.

All sounds very dramatic, does it not?

Evolution of the mind.

Inspiration station- the past is now

2009-05-20T02:28:00.000-07:00

Skin Graft- never cease to amaze

Patched and patched and patched old blue jeans- found this on a Tumblr, originally from a place called Sea of Shoes. I might just say that Tumblr is addictive and I now have one, even though it seems to be the visual equivalent of Twitter (and that includes the bad navigation).

Antique linen, stained with age and storage

An abandoned house- again found on a Tumblr, regrettably without any kind of credit.

Studio walk

2009-05-17T08:54:00.000-07:00

Oranges and Lemons

2009-05-16T09:02:00.000-07:00

New miniature collages- I love these, so much. Made with 19th century music sheet and book scrap and inspired by thoughts of late about the layers of history, with particular regard to nostalgia and the collective social conscience. (So weighty a theory for such tiny scraps of card!)

I tried to use styles reminiscent of the Victorians and the 1960s- both stereotypical views of London for people who don't live there. I'm deep in thoughts about the frozen world that people tend to sit England in- always wanting it to be high tea and bowler hats.

The outcry over modern buildings in Tudor-soaked villages, the lost of good grammar, the modernisation -called by some the 'Americanisation'- of that Sceptred Isle. I tried to use styles reminiscent of the Victorians and the 1960s- both stereotypical 'frozen times' of London. Anyway, I'll expand on the details later...feeling too mysterious tonight.

Aries return

2009-05-15T03:26:00.000-07:00

And I'm back from holiday!

Filled with ideas and intentions for the studio table- clearing away old things to make ready for the new. Every time I take a holiday it sort of feelings like the beginning of a new phase. I had an excellent tarot reading done as well, full of advice and encouragement and fortuitous signs- so that might have something to do with it. Either way- new things ahead!

Off and Away

2009-05-08T23:35:00.000-07:00

I'm on holidays for a week- thank goodness!

There's an offer in the shop right now- if you buy something in the week that I'm away (9th to the 15th of May) you will have free shipping!

See you in a week!

Brain like a Bugatti Veyron

2009-05-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

My heartbeat was raised this morning when I saw the new post on forestbound:

I love this girl's world- her purity is so inspiring to me, a sea of calm in the most lovely derelict and muddy hues. It inspired me to go on a Google hunt for unfettered Georgian interiors.

I'm having a down day today. The last week has been a whirlwind of energy and activity, getting things done and tidied and sorted. While that is all well and good, the shadowside of manic periods is that you get these days like today- flat, lethargic and moody, while inside you're churning to do more things. Go places, see people, take photos make collages, think, write, think think think...all trapped inside the brain.

I've added the last of the jewellery related items to the old shop now- from here on in everything wearable will be in the new shop. The old shop will now become art and photography. I have some collages to upload that I finished last night- they're so fantastic I'm going to have a hard time getting rid of them! I'll show them next post.

Arg- I'm so behind on posts, I try to keep it to one a day (a headache prevented me from posting last night) but I have so much to show you and talk about. As you can see, the manic is still inside, even if the body has to rest.

All images but the first are from Princelet Street- a nearly all-original building in Spitalfields, one of my favourite areas in darling Londontown. Go to the 'information' section to find a link to hi-res versions of their images.

Tag Team of One

2009-05-05T08:05:00.000-07:00

Among the more ordinary tasks in day-to-day business there exists the surprisingly elaborate task of sorting out packaging. There is literally no end to the way you can package your stuff- it's all down to two things. The Look and The Cost.

I try to keep both of mine as humble as possible- I like the brown paper and string simplicity of 19th century merchants, it suits the salvage nature of my worn out bits. The cost I like to keep low as well, being that I don't really believe my customers should have to pay an extra dollar amount just because I want to have fancy packaging. I don't factor in the cost of my time, materials or effort into my tags (which double as business cards) and wrapping. My shipping is the actual cost of the parcel transport and the envelope, that's it. Everything else is my generosity -and just wanting things to look nice. :)

Luckily the two philosophies go together quite well and incorporate my eco-policy. Today's tag experiment turned out well- 19th century sheet music, old book pages, 1970s wedding album tissue embossed with spider's webs, vintage system cards and regular old print outs on re-claimed paper from my museum days when the printer's shop was cleaned out.

Lovely! The back tags cost 15 cents each, the rest of the materials cost too little to count. I don't have infinite supplies of these papers (and as the back tags are made in Asia they're likely to be woodchip pulp from an old-growth source so I won't be buying more, even if they are nice and old-school) but the finiteness doesn't matter. I like to change things now and then, it keeps things alive and interesting, which is a nice touch for things so often made of the worn and dusty.

And the scraps can go back in the box to use in ATCs.

Etsy Favourites

2009-05-03T10:07:00.000-07:00

Set of 3 mid-19th century tin boxes from oldohiofarmfinds - I love these SO much! The shipping is just too much between countries... *cries*
Vintage Webster's dictionary from AntiNu- this one's had quite the life!

Paris stamped tags by Creatif

Etsy Gift Guide

2009-05-02T06:06:00.001-07:00

I found out, quite by accident that I am featured in Etsy's latest nostalgic whimsy Gift Guide!

My listing image also appears in the summary for the guide in the Hot List, and even pops up on the front page regularly!

Etsy ought to have sort of notification that you're in gift guide- you just don't know unless you accidentally see it or trawl through them. They need gold stars like the treasury.

All this takes effort, you know.

2009-04-29T04:30:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in my last post about pricing- and value. I've talked about this before but in a rather mystical way. This time I want to talk about it in more practical terms.

There's a lot to say on the subject of pricing, but I want to focus on a subject that often gets left out, so let's make this first post about 'effort'. Merle and I have been back-and-forthing in my inbox about pricing and if there's (more than) one thing we agree on it's that people don't realise the effort that goes into a handmade product.

Most of us factor in price of materials and time taken to actually make the product, but what about all the driving, walking, rummaging through baskets, sifting through filthy boxes full of rusty junk, getting lost on the way to garage sales, getting up at the crack of dawn in the middle of winter to go to the car boot sales, admission prices to junk markets, food while you're out there, your partner moaning they're tired/bored/hungry, kids harassing you and touching all that delicate china that people seem to need to display within grasping distance of a 3 year old...all that is effort! Sometimes fun, but always effort.

To use an example, I'll show you a typical breakdown of what goes into every wrist cuff of mine:

1. Find vintage lace and hardware - This isn't very easy here in Australia- flea markets and antique malls are few and far between, and what there is of them is often mostly 'obvious' stuff- the kind of things that people can obviously use or admire (read: the kind of thing that's worth money). Stall holders (bless them all) don't really understand why anyone would want an old ledger that's been written in, faded funfair tickets or broken jewellery- let alone scratched buttons and rust-stained lace! So I have a few options:

+ Buy things online: Upside is there's a lot of great stuff! Downside is that due to the currency conversion and high shipping costs it can be expensive, and therefore makes my end product higher in price. There are Australian sellers on eBay but due to the rarity of this stuff here bidders come out of the woodwork (often in the last 10 seconds...grrr) so it can be a real bloodbath!

+ Out on the streets: Thrift shops are the best bet since flea markets are pretty much non-existent. You can get lucky in thrifts (a Georgian heart pendant for $1 is my greatest achievement so far, and that's mine forever!) but it's getting harder and harder to find legitimate vintage/quality jewellery (I don't use plastic or cheap 'five and dime' stuff). Junk/antique shops are the next contender; I very luckily have just found a place locally here, run by a lady who's husband restores old sewing machines so she has a lot of stuff that comes in the drawers of his acquisitions. The down side to these places is they only sell 'shiny' things- it's rare to find worn out things the way I want them.

2.Cleaning, sorting, 'harvesting' - Once I've found my bits and pieces it's time to prepare them- very rarely do I get something I can just dump on the desk ready for use. After cleaning (and some stuff can really reek!) necklaces have to be taken apart, beads un-strung, sequins un-threaded from clothing etc. In the case of finding bags of mixed goods they need to be sorted through into piles of wanted and not wanted (to go on eBay- selling off part of what you buy is a good way to recover costs!) and from there the cleaning and harvesting continues.

3. Fabric preperation - To get the unique look of my wrist cuffs I dye fabric trims and laces, often in very experimental ways using methods I've developed over time. Adding 'corruptors' to the mix, using cold water when hot is required, minimising water use so that the dye is stronger etc...all of this has been developed over time by me. Some of these processes can take up to 3 days to complete depending on the weather- one bucket actually took a week as I was experimenting with soaking fabrics in expired dye. My fabrics and laces all have tiny variations in the staining level that although it might look flat brown from first glance, closer inspection reveals purple patches, streaks where the dye didn't get under folds because I didn't stir it enough or I sat objects on the lace etc. It's these deliberate methods that give the uneven result that really makes the lace more special than an ordinary brown dyed piece.

In line with my eco policy I don't use the washer or dryer for my dyeing- it's all buckets and sunshine -and sometimes rain! Soon I'll be implementing eco dyes and that's going to take more effort than things now, but it's better for the planet. Also it's now nearly winter here and the sunshine is on low supply, so my days of dying lace are much less likely than a few months ago, and it's likely my stores will drop as the winter deepens.

After factoring in cost of dye, I have to think about this lace and fabric as an end product- not only have I found this stuff and probably stripped it from clothing, but I've just dyed it as well. I could sell it as is and still require a profit for all that work!

3a - There's a sub-plot to fabric preparation that involves the other handmade elements of my work- paper backed glass pendants, book scrap buttons, polymer clay details... (Ahh..a new element, images coming soon!) For a lot of you out there it probably means collaging for slide pendants, stamping and moulding PMC, making bezels etc. All these things that we could theoretically sell as handmade supplies, yet we make them so we can further put them in other things we make! We must be crazy.

4. Building the cuff - Now it's down to business! Laying out fabrics and laces, ripping bits off other bits, layering same or contrast colours, digging through cases and boxes and scrap containers for that 'perfect' bit. This can take hours and is surprisingly harder than one might think. I often do 4 or 5 at a time to keep my hours down (reduce labour costs) but sometimes that can hamper you if you end up losing your temper over a cuff that won't get with the program! (There's always one.)

This brings me to an element that we often omit more than effort. Talent. I'll talk about it more in another post but talent- real talent- is a rare thing. I'm talking about the ability us artists have to look at something and see it in a way that's different enough from the norm to make it our own. I'm talking about (cliché time) 'unique vision' -not just following guides in DIY books. (Though believe me, there are a lot of people that can't do that either. I could tell you a story about a woman I met a few months ago who didn't even have the skills to wrap a gravy boat in some newspaper for me, but let's leave that for the 'people are *this* dumb' posts!)

Talent is just as much a valid aspect of your pricing as materials and labour. Keep that in mind.

6.The sweat This is the bit that involves many hours of sitting around staring at the TV or the wall of the studio. This is the bit where you're tediously stitching and stitching, tangling your cotton, stabbing yourself in the finger, etc. Not just stitching together laces and fabrics, but sewing on buttons and buckles and God knows what, and backing the things and finally adding snaps or elastic loops.

7.Afterwork - No it ain't done yet! Just because your product is finished, doesn't mean time and effort is. Now you have to photograph the bugger, which means setting up your props and table and tripod and etc outside or near a window with plenty of natural light. (The flash is your enemy, I'll do a post on good photography one day!) When that's done there's always a certain amount of post-processing your images will need- colour adjustments most likely since I've never met a purple I can shoot accurately, no matter how fancy my white balance.

Don't forget - and this might seem obvious to some- to factor in the time it takes for you to list your work on Etsy (or where ever you sell), the fees that it costs to do so AND the fees it will incur once you've sold it.

8. Because one day... some obviously deranged person comes along and falls in love with your work, and lo- they pay the price you asked for it! MADNESS! But the work isn't over. Now you have to package the piece as well. This is a tricky game which deserves it's own post- packaging is just as much a part of your business as the actual item is- and it costs time and money to find a style that works for you and represents your business- and then source all the stuff!

See? By now you might have realised that there's much more work in your work than you thought. In fact even more than you thought- half of this came to me as I was writing and let me tell you, I didn't realise how much I slave for this 'art lark'! It is a very pleasurable slaving though.

But that's the thing- finding the middle ground between pricing yourself out of the market and doing it for the love is hard, but it's there, and once you find it everything else will be easier. You can say 'oh but listing it all like this makes it look like such a bother, but it's not.' And you're right- to us it's not. It's what we love, we do it every day because it's inside us and needs to come out. But to other people it would be a bother- they don't have time to put into what we create, that's why they buy it from us.

Let's sum it up- if someone wanted me to make them a wrist cuff; find the materials, clean them up, dye them, lay them together so they looked good, sew them together, photograph it, list it, process the order, pack it in an envelope and take it to the post office. And all for $50. I'd tell them where to stick their $50, and you'd do the same! But I do it now. The most expensive cuff in my shop right now is $US32, and that works out at $AU50. Considering all that above, that should be the cheapest.

As a gift to someone you love you'd gladly do it for free, but that's a gift of love, not a means of income. Because you're also running a business. Aren't you? Is that what you're in it for, in the long run? Do you eventually (if not now) need this art lark to actually pay the bills, put food on the table, clothes on your loved ones, a roof over your head? Sure there are other means of income for artists- holding workshops, publishing books, writing magazine articles and being featured in the latest issue of Artful Blogging... *cough*

Look- I know this doesn't make it any easier to price your stuff, in fact it might just make it harder. But it might also help you concrete that your stuff really is worth what you secretly want to charge. And that's the biggest hurdle of all- to convince yourself that you are worth the price. Your time, effort, materials, labour, packaging, hours spent swearing over a red hot lightbox...all these things matter but none more so than your own talent.

I can spout on about this all day (and by the length of this blog post, I feel like I have) but I have just as hard a time pricing my stuff than you have with yours. Maybe we should price each other's stuff! But see- even that would be difficult, since we don't know how much goes into the little steps. Only you know what your stuff is really worth- and you do know, deep down- and once you have the confidence to believe it there are plenty of people out there who will agree -and pay it.

Now go and raise your prices. :P

The Big Show

2009-04-27T02:36:00.000-07:00

Well- I mentioned waaaaaay back in the shadows of the past that I had some big news, but that I didn't want to tell you until it was all go. Well it's going! My darlings, my dears...I am in the Summer issue of Artful Blogging!

Sooooo exciting! I've never seen a copy of this magazine in the flesh before, they're pretty rare over here and cost rather a lot due to the currency exchange. But oh my, how soft the cover and how much treasure lies within. I'm going to enjoy reading this gorgeous magazine before bed tonight!

As a special treat, anyone who buys anything in the Little Brown Sparrow shop from today until the 3rd of May will get 50% off their purchase. Yes- 50%! All you have to do is write 'artful blogging' in the message to buyer section of the Etsy checkout and I will refund your 50% within 24 hours of your payment. Pretty nifty huh? As a little extra incentive I shall tell you that my prices are going up a wee bit when the new shop launches- I've been doing some costing exercises (which I shall share with you next post- they're excellent) and am selling myself a little short. I've made a pledge to myself to value my time and talent more, as we all should.

Now I'm off to update all the shops- I tidied my desk today and found an embarrassing amount of items that are finished and need to be listed.

Phoenix ashes

2009-04-23T03:31:00.000-07:00

Take one box of fabrics and lace, specially reserved for a certain occasion and a stack of cheap dime store canvases rescued from a friend's bin...combine and rescue.

Some of them I've done traditionally, some of them I've stretched reverse, with the intention of painting on the back of the canvas, leaving the wood stretcher as a kind of frame. I've always admired the backs of paintings especially old one, and I just couldn't resist making a focus of the lovely dottiness of the blue-black tacks against the soft vintage sheeting. The dots on the inside is a vintage chiffon scarf I layered in with the cotton.

And so it was that with a great rip, fold, sew, hammer and stretch...6 canvases were born, ready for their robes of paint. Bedsheet so faded it's pattern is all but a secret, the lining of old cushion covers, hospital pillow slips...all well worn and washed 1000 times. I especially like the ones that have mending in them, which I shall show you at a later date, along with my sketches.

I thought the idea of having three shops was going to be a nightmare for me inventory wise, but I'm really loving it. I haven't updated any of the shops for a number of days now and I do apologise for that- I'll get some done tomorrow. I just haven't found the inclination for it. I've been enjoying making things like there's no tomorrow, but the mechanics of listing has recently left me cold.

altered book I'm working on

I've been taking lots of walks in the wilderness to clear my head and move past whatever hurdle it is in my mind that keeps me wanting to do anything else but make stuff. It's fantastic to have such artistic drive again, but I need to balance it with business things too. Otherwise no one except my housemates get to see my work!

This Phoenix needs to burn. Is it my Aries way to always want the new? I seem to say these kinds of things a lot- that I'm bored, I need new things, new ways, new everything. Maybe I'm just cursed to never be content. That's not such a bad thing though.

Ghost Girls

2009-04-21T20:59:00.000-07:00

1. PB080287, 2. texture/093, 3. stitch detail, 4. Sheet Music Play, 5. Malaxa,Crete, 6. Untitled, 7. Salvaged book, 8. Removed wallpaper from walls, 9. Untitled

This post could alternatively be titled 'I used to be a painter'.

A few weeks ago I salvaged some small canvases from a friend who was going to throw them away- they're slightly smaller than A4 and currently wrapped in cheap black canvas.

Milkdrop by Emily Martin

But that's about to change- I bought some carpet tacks (so Dickensian in their cobblestone blue-grey sheen!) and I'm going to re-stretch them in some fabrics I've set aside for just such a thing.

Mark Ryden

I've been meaning to get back into painting for a very long time now, and have been eyeing my drawing archive alot. All my 'Victorian lowbrow' scribbled magic of the last 10 years sleeps quietly in a large paper bag under my desk, and in the darkness of sketchbooks hidden on the lowest shelves of my bookcase.

Mervyn Peak

Shall I wake it up?

The Wreck Stops Here

2009-04-17T09:18:00.000-07:00

The old shop is having a sale and the new shop has some items listed, with more to come this weekend. This week has been a bit of a car wreck, I'm glad it's over! Weekends hold new meaning for me now- not ever having a proper 9 to 5 job over the years has meant that Saturdays and Sundays were just another day. Now however the two day free-zone means I get a break from that small panicked voice in my head that says 'oh god, should I be going to the post office!?' :D

I've discovered Tumblr recently- it's magic! The only thing that annoys me is that many of the blogs don't have image credits, so I can't explore further or give credit when i re-post here.

If anyone knows where any of these originally came from, please oblige.

Two Hands

2009-04-16T09:27:00.001-07:00

On one hand I am feeling good- finally finished a commission piece today, also finished a project that I'm doing for someone else (not telling) and I've a few wrist cuffs nearly ready for the new shop.

On the other hand- Paypal decided to rule in favour of the buyer in a dispute I recently suffered with. I'm no bitter betty- I appreciate that the seller lost money and I don't begrudge them their dues. I even offered store credit to them instead of a refund.

What I do find offensive is that Paypal would only give me a win if I provided a photograph of the parcel, addressed to the confirmed address and stamped with the shipping companies confirmation stamp. Unfortunately here in Australia we use the Post Office to post things- they don't give you any more proof beyond a vague receipt unless you insure and track, and they don't stamp until they take your package to a big sorting warehouse. Tracking and insurance costs an extra amount that I don't like to charge everyone (but now I'm thinking I might). WHY on this EARTH would I have a photo of a parcel I sent out 2 weeks ago with Post Office processing stamps on it?!

It seems the seller never wins a dispute unless they use a US-style shipping contractor with all the receipts and sundries you can think of. I can't refuse to give a refund, so as a seller I'm robbed every time someone decides to request a refund- legit or not. Way to go, Paypal.

What I also find offensive is that Paypal told me I had 72 hours to respond to the next step (the photo of the shipping stamps). Less than 2 hours after they sent that email, they sent another to tell me the case was closed and they refunded the buyer. So I didn't even get my 72 hours of chance! What's more is that the website won't even let you appeal properly- the links are broken!! ARG.

I blog the shadows. :/