Well Darn It!

You now, when I wrote my blog post in June announcing my arrival back on to the bead blog scene I was sincere in my intentions to try and keep this up.  I opened my Esty shop, I stocked it up, did a bit of promo, even sold a couple of items!  And then it all just kinda petered off....

A lot of that had to do with work and friends and distracting men, but some of it also has to do with a lack of confidence and get-up-and-GO!  It's hard to put yourself out there when you're constantly being bedazzled by the work of others and somewhat baffled by new techniques (damn you riveting!).  I'm not the kind of person who's naturally in to self-promotion, and I'm often daunted by trying something new (yeah Irish waxed linen, you SCARE me).

These niggling problems can make your muse pack up and head off far, far away for a long, long ole vacation!

Well, She came strolling back recently, nonchalantly swaggering through the door of my mind like a cat back from a week long, panic laden (for me) week of wandering.  She sauntered in, plonked Herself in a comfortable corner and gave me a look as if to say 'Well I'm ready, what are you waiting for?'

So recently I have produced this:

And this:

And also this:

Thank you Muse!

My photos are slowly improving - I have a very limited amount of time on the weekend when I can photograph stuff at the moment, what with the dang sun going down before I get home from work!  How did that happen?  How is it the depths of autumn already??

These pictures were taken on the patio in my garden.  It's been a pretty good makeshift set up - the flagstones create an alrightish neutral background and there's plenty of natural light - but it's not ideal.  I really need to get some equipment together so I can photograph inside.  And I need to get better at taking photos that make good Etsy thumbnails - somehow I can never get images that quite fit right!

But anyway, I digress (I always digress - I have wandering brain syndrome as well as wandering muse syndrome).  The long dark nights of winter are indeed drawing in and I am becoming more and more of a hermit, which is good for jewellery related productivity! I have a goal to have thirty items in my shop by the end of October.  I'm at twenty four items at the moment, with another three awaiting for a photography session and several sawn up bits of copper waiting for the Muse to dump some inspiration on my, so I'm very much on track to beat this goal!

Keep an eye on my Etsy shop - there will be new shinys up very soon!