Take time to dream!

Whoa, I’ve been gone for ages and I’ve got a list of lame excuses right in front of me as I write this. I won’t bore you with the details of Excuse #1, but suffice to say that transitions aren’t always easy, and I’m right smack in the middle of one right now. Sheesh, I can hardly wait to get past this one. Not much I can do at the moment but to wait it out — and probably take time to dream of better days to come. They will. I just know it.

ATC: la chanson de la mer

I made this ATC for a beginners’ swap over at Swap-bot.com. I’ll be snail-mailing this ATC soon to my swap partner in Argentina, and I hope she likes it!

This ATC uses a vintage image from Art E-zine’s Little Darlings collection printed on iron-on transfer and, well, transfered to a piece of cheesecloth.

The image inspired me to add the torn piece of sheet music and the title, “la chanson de la mer”, or Song of the Sea. It took me some time to find the right piece of lace, though (I had wanted to use this lovely scrap that looked partly like a fish net, but it was quite unwieldy and so it ended up as the background for the photo shoot!), and it took me just as long to decide whether or not the dainty lace and ribbon would contrast too much with the rough cheesecloth (which is mounted on some handmade paper). Well, I eventually decided to push through with the dainty stuff, and I’m glad everything turned out pretty well.

BTW, I had just as much fun shooting this card as making it! But I’ll probably save that for another post…

Technology is great when it works the way you expect it to. As a crafter/artist, I’ve come to rely on technology mainly for imaging – taking digital photos, scanning precious ephemera, printing text and journaling – and for research and communication as well: tapping into vast resources online for trends, tips, and lots more images; drawing inspiration from fellow crafters and artists through their websites, and sharing my ideas and “evil experiments” with family, friends and like-minded individuals.

There’s another thing I’d like to master, though: how to use technology to boost my micro online business. Early this year I signed up for a basic (free!) shop at Artfire to sell my digital stuff. I was elated when I made my first sale ever, but I wasn’t able to leverage on that due to some really lame excuses. So now I’ve decided to get really serious with my online shop and am trying to learn about online business basics while continuing to make crafty/artsy stuff.

With this in mind, I subscribed last week to TechnoConvergingZone, a blog about “Business matters and financial views, tips and opinions mixed with eccentric flavors of articles around the globe.” At least that’s how owner MeanMissy – my college buddy – describes it.

For the most part, the blog delivers on its promises, from the numerous practical how-to’s on using tech for your biz (Your Website as a Doorstep in the World of Business – Yay! Just what I’m looking for!), down to the somewhat “eccentric flavors of articles” (Getting Rid of Bedbugs through the Herbal Way or a review of the Air Mattress. Hmm.).

Don’t laugh. I suspect that these seemingly irrelevant articles help pull in the traffic that helps pull in the dollars, and vice versa. As a matter of fact, in her post on TCZ’s first anniversary just last month, MeanMissy said that TCZ’s Google page rank went from 1/10 to 3/10 in a matter of months.

(For those of you who aren’t familiar with page rank, it’s how important a web page is in Google and how likely it is to show up at the top of the results page when you do a search. The higher the number, the better, and a rank of 3 is pretty decent: gazillions of websites and blogs don’t even have a page rank – like this one, boohoohoo! Not yet, at least. You’ll have to help me get there, hint, hint).

In short, it looks like TCZ practices what it preaches. If you can forgive the occasional off-topic post, TCZ is a good resource, and a blog to keep on your radar.

Note to self: Find time to make stuff!

I constantly need to challenge myself to “make stuff”. Otherwise I’d end up vegging my weekends away and not getting any art or crafts done. Blame it on poor time management! I envy those artists who challenge themselves to produce one piece of art on a regular basis and actually stick to it — like Randel Plowman and his Collage a Day project.

One of these days I’m going to join Sunday Postcard Art, which shouldn’t be that demanding on my schedule (I hope) since the challenge is weekly.

But given my currently hectic lifestyle (yes, I’m blaming the Day Job!), I needed something that would still challenge me to actually make something based on certain criteria, but would not be too tough on my schedule. My solution? An online craft course!

Last month I signed up for My Creative Classroom‘s free course called “Everyday Moodlings”. Every month you’re taught a fun craft or technique via video or PDF, and you have to upload a photo of your assignment to the site for grading. Since classes started last January, I’m like four assignments behind (argh!), and have lots of catching up to do! I’ve already submitted a few assignments, and I’ll post them here next time. For now, I’ve some homework to finish…

Dettmer's take on Webster's New International Dictionary, 2nd ed. Photo courtesy of Packer Schopf Gallery.

Brian Dettmer is brilliant! He’s the guy who carves old books into awesome works of art. And I mean AWESOME! Talk about altered books!

Frankly, I’ve never heard of Brian Dettmer before I read “The Cut-Up Artist” in the May/June 2008 issue of Fine Books & Collections, a copy of which I discovered in the bargain bin just last week. Oh, happy find!

Till that moment, my pathetically limited idea of altered books meant painting, tearing, and collaging pages until a book remotely resembled its former self. But to seal a book and dig out the illustrations one at a time — now that’s a real mind-blower!

Brian Dettmer’s official website is still under construction, but it links to other sites that feature his works, including Packer Schopf Gallery, Kinz + Tillou Fine Art, and Flickr. Check them out for more inspiration!