New Vase

I might as well showcase my new vase that I just added to my etsy store this morning. I have a few coffee mugs in this same design, which I also mentioned on my facebook 'fan' page.

If I had more time I would also mention this on my Instagram, but alas, it is about time to head out into the studio and finish working on what I was working with yesterday afternoon.

Originally when I painted on these vines, I used a dark orange glaze for the vines and for the leaves. Over the top of the orange I applied the same 'blue jeans' color of dark blue for interest, a small dot to give 'depth'.

As it turned out, the orange completely burnt out during the firing and in its wake left a light blue mark instead, which is a completely beautiful and surreal effect, yes?  I think so. I'm very happy with how this batch of pottery fired in the kiln.  I have a few more pieces to put in my etsy store and then I'm on to something totally different.

Ironically, I was making this 'style' thinking to myself, EUREKA!  I have found my true artist self but upon reflection and a bit of time I think I have not quite arrived.  There is a lot I love about this particular line of pottery but I know I can push it further and that's what I'll be doing later.

Thanks for stopping by!  ~Natalie

New Mugs!

This morning I decided to take some photos of my newest mugs which came out of the kiln last week. I would have liked to promote and blog about these last week, but it was a busy week and I couldn't get around to it. But today is Monday, the start of a brand new week. 

.... And wouldn't you know it .... I spent 3 hours searching for my battery charger for my camera.  Three Hours!  But I did eventually find it, IN AN OUTLET with the extra battery fully charged. So yay.

I got to task and finally got this mug listed and in my Etsy store.  I think I have 3 or 4 similar shape and colors that I still need to photograph and write listings for. 

Then it is time go head out to the studio to make more fun things!  It is a beautiful time of the year to be in the studio, the leaves are beginning to turn into that lovely shade of Texas brown that is fall here in Fort Worth! 

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vacation Mode

Hi all ... I put my Etsy shop in vacation mode (once again) as I had Jury Duty this week. The case was canceled and I was dismissed as a jury and I am sorry to say that I am thrilled to not have to fulfill my civic duty. I just took it out of Vacation Mode.  I am open again!

I probably utilize Vacation Mode way too often but with my life in a perpetual 'who knows what is going to happen next' that has been this past year it is a life saver with my stress levels.  I realize that putting my shop on Vacation Mode really dips my views in google and takes quite a while to build up again, but seriously, I just don't care.  People are more important.  And if I can put my shop in Vacation Mode and put my attention where it makes a difference, I'm completely grateful, thankful, and yes, more than relieved.

Yesterday instead of serving in Jury Duty I moved my kiln back into its kiln room.  I had moved it out for the summer months as the kiln room becomes way too hot, even with the windows open and a fan blowing the hot air out. I thought I would gain boo-coos of firings but with all the rain we had going on this summer I only squeezed out a couple.  I probably should have bought a tent to go over it but I had visions of the roof of the tent bursting into flames and the burning bits blowing into the neighbor's yard and since she doesn't water her grass, her yard being set on fire .... should I go on with this scenario? You get the idea.

So now that my kiln is back in its kiln room and it is cool enough this fall to go forward with a firing, what will I be firing?  Well, some memorial bottles for my mother who passed last November.  They will all have her picture and a small genealogy printed on the side.  It's mostly for the grandkids so that they can have a record. We all know how easy it is to lose track of family.  If they want some of her ashes, a bit can go in each bottle and be sealed.  Or they can just take the bottle. Or not. It's completely their choice.

Also going into the kiln are some mugs and bowls (see pic).  Thanks for stopping by!

 ~Natalie

Gimp Update

I'm pleased to announce that after a couple of days of googling, watching You Tube Videos, and many false starts, I am now able to process multiple pictures with one click in Gimp.  I probably will be able to get more items listed in my store each day because of this leap in intellectual technology.

I had to update my gimp program and download a plugin named "BIMP".  Then I had to figure out how to save and then figure out where to find that saved settings file for the curves function. After that it was a piece of cake.

There does seem to be a bit of pinkish tinge in the photos as far as the background goes, BUT the background is mostly white AND the beads seem true to color, at least on MY monitor and so hopefully it will on your monitor, too.

I suppose I could have made this change quite a few years ago because that BIMP plugin has been available for a number of years. Whoosh .... well, live and learn. Thanks for stopping by.

Delicate Scroll Textures and Other Important Photography and Etsy Facts

 A few months back Etsy kindly gave all its artists the ability to post up to 10 photos of our artistic endeavors.

Previously it had been five, which I thought was a bit excessive, but I complied because the All Knowing Algorithm determines whether or not my product shows up in 'search'.

Since then I've been doing my best to get 10 pictures up of new listings.  Going back and adding to hundreds of items already listed will take years of work, and frankly it took a long time just to get the 200 or so listings on Etsy.

What usually happens is that I take 10 or so photos and as I'm processing them (I use Picasa and Gimp) I find one or two that are blurry or where the bead has rolled out of the picture frame.

Basically SOMETHING happens and I end up with 6 or 8 photos, but 10 has been difficult. I mean, when you've spent years doing 5 photos .....

So to photograph one bead, I arrange the photos like this:  TOP and UNDERSIDE (so you can clearly view the holes) and then three views of the side, which if lined up properly shows the entire bead. But 10? 

I have to figure out how to get 5 more unique photos. Etsy suggests, "Hold the item". However, I'm at the age where I have these ugly huge age spots on the back of my hands and my fingers retrain water ....it's not an attractive hand for holding beads and I don't know anyone I can drag over here for hours just to hold my bead(s) in their hands.

Come to think of it my daughter is always coming over ...wait ... no .... not nice to drag her into the studio and use her a prop.

I suppose I could put in the proverbial coin ...or put the bead on pretty paper ... I don't know. I suppose if I thought hard enough about it I could get that bead uniquely photographed 10 times instead of 5.  I am not usually so quick to give up so easily.  I'll give it some more thought. In the meantime, I have the entire photo processing process.

Picture this (ha ha) : I am sitting at my desk with Picasa open and photos imported:  click (crop, arrange), click (save) click (export) ....open Gimp, import photos ... click (curves) click (apply so the background isn't so dark) .... click (sharpen, because pictures always need a bit of that) click (save) click (close) ...repeat 9 more times.

click (crop, arrange), click (save) click (export) ....open Gimp, import photos ... click (curves) click (apply so the background isn't so dark) .... click (sharpen, because pictures always need a bit of that) click (save) click (close)

click (crop, arrange), click (save) click (export) ....open Gimp, import photos ... click (curves) click (apply so the background isn't so dark) .... click (sharpen, because pictures always need a bit of that) click (save) click (close)

click (crop, arrange), click (save) click (export) ....open Gimp, import photos ... click (curves) click (apply so the background isn't so dark) .... click (sharpen, because pictures always need a bit of that) click (save) click (close)

click (crop, arrange), click (save) click (export) ....open Gimp, import photos ... click (curves) click (apply so the background isn't so dark) .... click (sharpen, because pictures always need a bit of that) click (save) click (close)

click (crop, arrange), click (save) click (export) ....open Gimp, import photos ... click (curves) click (apply so the background isn't so dark) .... click (sharpen, because pictures always need a bit of that) click (save) click (close)

click (crop, arrange), click (save) click (export) ....open Gimp, import photos ... click (curves) click (apply so the background isn't so dark) .... click (sharpen, because pictures always need a bit of that) click (save) click (close)

click (crop, arrange), click (save) click (export) ....open Gimp, import photos ... click (curves) click (apply so the background isn't so dark) .... click (sharpen, because pictures always need a bit of that) click (save) click (close)

click (crop, arrange), click (save) click (export) ....open Gimp, import photos ... click (curves) click (apply so the background isn't so dark) .... click (sharpen, because pictures always need a bit of that) click (save) click (close)

click (crop, arrange), click (save) click (export) ....open Gimp, import photos ... click (curves) click (apply so the background isn't so dark) .... click (sharpen, because pictures always need a bit of that) click (save) click (close) 

Then list 4 more items, that's 40 pics to systematically click click click click click .....No ... I won't repeat that 40 more times.  You get the idea ... yes?

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!  Shortly after announcing this new and wonderful policy, designed to get customers more interested in clicking about my Etsy store and staying there longer, looking at my 10 (instead of 5) beautiful photographs, Etsy decided that it was time to raise our rates on each item sold from 3.5% to 5%.

 I suppose they need more server space now that they are having us work twice as hard just to get our items into our store and ONTO their search algorithms.

About this same time, Etsy also decided it sure would be nice if their sellers offered free shipping. In order to facilitate that idea, Etsy decided that if they ALSO charged 5% on all shipping charges that sellers would decide to offer free shipping.

Now ...if I sell one bead for $6 .... it costs me about $3.50 to send it pretty much anywhere in the United States (that includes envelope and shipping materials, like soft fleece to keep the beads from chipping during shipping).  I figured out that Etsy is going to be charging me an additional 20 cents per $6 bead sale (that includes item sold rate as well as the extra 5% they will charge me for having the audacity to actually charge for shipping).  So I should offer free shipping and charge $9.70 for each bead?  What if a customer wants two $6 beads?  Right now that would be (with secondary shipping costs) $15.70 ..but with Etsy's policy which they want me to implement it would be $19.40. 

Don't get me wrong. I love Etsy.  I have tried to put all my beads on my own website (nkpdesigns.com) and sell them all by myself but I am not a marketing queen. I don't do a hard sell or track down interested parties and make sure they have all of my beads that they may ever want. I like making the beads and I actually enjoy photographing them (maybe not 10 times).  It's terrific having a record of most every bead I've ever made available online.  And if it were NOT for Etsy it is a fact I would not have had the success I have had.  So I am doing my very best to comply with the new 10 picture policy as best as I can.  I will do a google search and figure out that batch photo processing thing. I can do that.

As far as the shipping goes ...well, I haven't come to any hard or fast decisions about that. I did raise the secondary shipping cost of a second item from 20 to 30 cents (a 10 cent difference).


 In the meantime, have you been checking out my beautiful Cobalt Blue Delicate Scroll Slightly Nugget Shape Beads with 1 mm stringing holes throughout my entire post.  Aren't they pretty?


 Thanks for stopping by! 

This and That

It's been rough the past year or two. It started with my mother having a severe stroke, then in October of 2017 she finally passed. My father passed this last March of a stroke, also. My mother-in-law passed earlier this month, and while she did not pass away from a stroke she had lots of little ones over the past few years.  So THAT'S why my Etsy store has been opened/closed/opened/closed, etc.

 I inherited my parent's dog, who is 14 years old and probably in better health than I am. I suspect she's immortal in some way because she just keeps going on and on. Which is fine with me. My folks loved her so and this is why I have always called her 'my little sister'. Her name is actually "Aussie" because, well, it's obvious, right?

In the meantime, when I've been able to make time, I've continued puttering around with the pottery and the beads, but definitely I have slowed down on everything though I have tried new things such as pottery yarn bowls. 

I have a few of these in my shop now and because I do knit and crochet, I've been able to test these out extensively before offering them for sale. Most are small, intended for small balls of sports yarn, for knitting socks and such. Socks take so long that it is nice to keep out my yarn and display what I'm doing in such a pretty bowl.

I have been making beads, too. It seems as though I'm always doing something with my fingers and beads are great for those times when I don't feel like doing much but curling up on the couch and binge watching some British Mystery Series, especially during the long hot afternoons when its too hot to go outside or do much of anything.

On those afternoons I do find myself outside, I have one of my dad's cameras that I inherited and I snap photos of birds, squirrels, my hens, and whatever else comes into my backyard.  I took this photo of one of my hens. Her name is Stella.  I intend to paint her or maybe make it into a decal for a coffee mug, or maybe I will eventually do both.

Thanks for stopping by.  I'm hoping to begin blogging regularly again. It's been awhile and if life takes another sudden turn, maybe I won't be blogging regularly. But here's to hope!