Loan approved!

My SEED business loan was approved! I am so excited. My loan papers are in the mail and will hopefully arrive sometime this week. Then I will take them into the bank and start getting all the supplies ready to get my business off the ground.

I'm really happy about this, it took weeks and weeks of putting it together, usually spending several hours a day researching, rethinking, and working out the problems.

I've been making a lot of jewelry while I wait to get my mirror making machine, but now it's really pulled me back towards what I really love doing, which is the jewelry. So I'm doing even more rethinking, it is so hard to choose which direction I want to go in.

Next time I go home to visit my family I might bring some jewelry into the market and see if the jewelry shop there would be interested in carrying it. I went there once before, when I was probably 16ish, and brought in some jewelry. It was pretty junky at the time, cheap wire, lots of spirals, ugly beads. But I was proud of it. They didn't accept it at the time, but I did sell a ton of it at school.

So that's pretty much how I've been spending my summer break thus far, making and listing jewelry. Oh, and I've also set up a new design blog that I've been spending a lot of time finding interesting things to feature. It is HERE if you want to take a peek. I might change up the layout on this blog to something similar to that one, now that I think of it..

Have a great day!

Rain.

Sometimes I stop and think to myself, you know, you haven't sold very much really, for the work you've put into your shop, promoting, etc.

And then on days like this, I just feel wonderful. I haven't sold anything, been added to favorites, or garnered much interest at all. But I did finish up a batch of jewelry, and as I was photographing them, I realized how very much I love the process of creating.

I go through bouts where I don't do very much at all creatively, and in those times, I don't really feel like something's missing. But then, when I get into a creativity spree, where the ideas are just flowing through my brain at 100 miles an hour, I can't imagine doing anything else with my life.

All my jewelry turned out way better than I had hoped. And when I photographed it, I couldn't help but be filled with pride that I had managed to make things that actually express who I am, and the feelings I have about life itself. I know that doesn't make much sense, it's just jewelry after all, not some high form of art, but to me it's such a freeing experience.

So I really don't care if no one ever buys a piece of my work; I have gotten all the satisfaction and fulfillment I need out of just making it.

Thank you for reading,

Monica

Now on Myspace!

As you can see from the above screenshot, I have started up a myspace page. I'll be putting lots of photos there, some news in the Paper Pattern Silk business, and maybe even some special deals for myspace friends. I spent the better part of the day fiddling around with it trying to make it look pretty, and adding Etsy users who've posted in the MASSIVELY HUGE (we're talking like 119 pages here) thread in the Etsy forums with their links. It's going to take a while, I think I'm on page 37 or so now. I'd love it if you'd add me to your myspace, my page is http://myspace.com/paperpatternsilk

The rest of the day I spent making some jewelry. I'm oxidizing them right now as I type so I can photograph and list them tomorrow. I am so in love with oxidized silver. I love it's high contrast and organic feel. It's really hard to not just oxidize it all since I like the look so much, but I'm trying to appeal to different tastes in my shop, so I've got to restrain myself. At least a bit, I'm thinking there is going to be quite a bit of oxidization going on.

Oh well.

Silk overload

Having steamed and rinsed out my silk, it is now ready to show itself off to the world.

I can't help but just look at at, figuring out where the best pocket mirrors would come from, admiring little areas where certain colour combinations have turned up. I've got splatters and speckles and lines, abstract flowers, dots and my personal favorite, tiny little leaves. There are only a select few of them though, so those mirrors will be extra special.

I've also finished up that scarf I was working on, it is now listed HERE. I'm pretty excited about how it turned out, the colours are so intriguing.

With that being said, it's time for an exorbitant and hugely excessive amount of photos to show off some of my favorite parts of my silks:



First up is the City Line scarf. I love the little windows I masked off, they're pretty neat.

Next we have a sampling of random spots where I played with colour mixing.

Color + Texture collide - Contemporary Gifts

I think I've forgotten to mention it, but I have started up a new etsy shop here:

Paper Pattern Silk

I'm going to put my jewelry, accessories, pocket mirrors, etc on it. Right now there are a few pieces of jewelry, many more are in the process of being photographed and listed. So, it would be really nice if you could check it out, let me know what you think. The avatar and banner are works in progress, they will be changed to match my website when I can get my boyfriend to code it for me. It's all designed and the photoshop files are sitting sadly and somewhat impatiently on my computer waiting for him to work his graphic design student knowledge on. I hope he will be able to get it up and running soon, I am so excited to have it on there.

In other news, some Etsy orders are starting to wander into my mailbox. Today I recieved the first of three pocket mirrors I ordered. I got one each in 2.25, 3, and3.5 inches so that I can see first hand which size I want to go with. The 3.5 arrived today and is really nice, but feels a bit too awkward to hold. It's a bit big, but the 3.5 machine gives me the option to make coasters as well. I'm not sure if there is a big market for coasters though. As nice as they are, I don't know that I would drop $16 - 20 on a set of them for my place, so I'm uncertain my target market would either.

Tomorrow I am going to apply for a job at a local bakery. My plan is, if I can get a weekday job I will be able to afford a smart phone or pda, and can then work on my business while at work on my breaks. It would be nice to have some sort of certainty when it comes to my summer income, but I do really want to make my summer SEED business work too. So we'll see if I am able to manage both, but I think I will be. I get bored if I'm not doing anything anyways, so at least they will keep me on my toes.

Black backgrounds

Today I experimented with using a textured somewhat shiny black background for my photos, and I actually quite like how they turned out. I like the charcoal with the light gradient going through it, and think I will stick to this for a while.

It's kind of annoyingly ironic that I like this, after spending so much time and effort trying to get more and more elaborate set ups. I've painted trees, scoured bookstores looking for white books, made a light tent, bought all kinds of different coloured paper and taken hundreds and hundreds of photos, spending hours in Photoshop trying to make them just right. And now I've found a black binder lying around, and took these with natural light. What a slap in the face.

But I still like the black.

Figuring things out.

I am still in the process of deciding exactly how I want my website. Here is a potential logo, but I don't know. I think it falls a little flat. The placement is off and the font isn't quite right. I'm almost certain I'm going with the stemmies though. I just love them. Here they are for a different part of the website. I think they're versitile enough that I can adjust the length, colour, and quantity of them to suit the website, logo, business cards, ads, etc. I would love some feedback though, so feel free to let me know the good and the bad.

Field and Sea Paper

I've been a fan of Field and Sea Paper on Etsy for a long time, and tonight I've gotten to order this custom set of absolutely scrumptious papers from her. They are going to make the nicest pocket mirrors, I just can't wait for them to get here.

Check out her shops http://fieldandsea.etsy.com and http://fieldandseapaper.etsy.com.

Her stuff is just so lovely, I wish I could buy it all. I'm thinking I'll pick up some of her paper beads sometime soon as well.

Silk sneak peek!

Here's a little preview of some freshly painted silk. I still need to steam and iron the wax off it, but I just love the colours, The gorgeous limey yellow and deep fushia is a scarf and the multicoloured pool of random patterns is going to be some rather lovely pocket mirrors if I do say so myself.

Paper Pattern Silk

Today has been a rather exciting day. I finally dropped off my SEED loan application, after a couple months of work. I really hope they approve my business idea and I can start getting things in motion. The SEED loan is a student entrepreneurship loan that lends money to students to start up their own summer (or longer term, as I am aiming for) business.

So, unable to patiently wait to hear back, I've begun designing my site. The image above is a draft of what the About page might look like. I am really loving that chartreuse colour, and the little stems that are based off a wallpaper I designed a little bit ago for class.

It's already 4:30 am, and I am still up brainstorming the website, which is a bit ridiculous considering I have to get up in the morning and spend the entire day at school finishing up my silk painting final projects.

With that, I wish you all a good night, (morning?)

-Monica

Negative me

I put a sheet of large format negatives taken last year in my scanner, and I like how it turned out. Click on it to see it a bit larger, I like the way my eye turned out in the properly inverted one. Ghostly like vintage photographs.

On a side note, I sold a copy of my photo, Wind, and I am thrilled. That is one of my favorite photos I've ever taken and I am so glad someone else likes it too.

Have a good day everyone,

-Monica

Treasury list

I made a treasury, and I quite like it. I think these items go together rather well. Here's hoping it makes it to Etsy's front page. I'm not even sure if treasury west's make it to the front page at all.

Click here to see my list. :)

EDIT: Well that was quite the stroke of good luck, my treasury made it to the front page! Cheers.