Rock Lee

I did a little experiment. I drew an anime picture of Rock Lee from Naruto, but tried to make it look real. It turned out looking great, but it's still obviously anime so I guess technically it's a failed experiment. I like it though! :) I took a picture of my little brother in this position and when I get a chance, I'm going to use that picture as a model and try again to make it look realistic. When I get a chance!

Rock Lee from Naruto. This was done purely in graphite

Drawings

I've got some awesome friends at school! I drew another picture of Briar, which turned out awesome:

Yet another picture of my puppy Briar. This one was done in graphite and a little bit of carbon.

And I was showing it off to some of my friends and one of them commissioned me to draw a picture of her two horses. I finished this one:

My friend's horse. Also graphite and carbon

And I still have one more to do. But when news got around that I was drawing my friend's horse for her, I started getting a bunch of requests. On top of horse #2, I have 4 more pictures to do: two of dogs, one of a horse, and one of a person. And those are just my friends - my horsey friend said she's been showing off her picture to her other horsey friends and a whole bunch of them want me to do their horses too. So I gave her a stack of my business cards and maybe I'll be getting a few more requests soon. Also, another friend wants me to make her daughter a piece of jewelry for her birthday. I still have a bit of time to do that so I haven't started, but I did finish a necklace for another friend (I didn't take any pictures of it though). I gave that to her today and she's been showing it off to anybody who will listen, lol. I've already got one more (tentative) request for another piece. So as far as selling goes, I'm doing same as always (nada at Wildflower Village or Etsy), but as far as requests go and making and selling those, I'm doing great! I've never had so much work before, makes me really happy :)

Busybusybusy!

I don't have any new pictures to post, since I've been busy with final exams coming up, but once those are over, I'll be able to draw and make jewelry ALL SUMMER!! -^.^- I have made a couple of things though, just haven't taken pictures. Because my friend Erica is treasurer of the UNR Rock Hounds club and they had a big mineral sale a couple weeks ago to clean out the rooms, I got in on the deal! I got really excited when she said they had raw opals and she saved them all especially for me! So I got first choice and though they were really cheap (and a few were even cut!), I ended up blowing $100 just on those, not to mention the rest of the stones I got. I plan to go all out on these pendants! -^.^- I've already done one, but I'm not putting a picture up since it's for my mom for mother's day, but once she gets it in the mail, I'll put the picture up for you guys to Ooh and Ahh. It's pretty, I hope she likes it :) I've also wire-wrapped a couple of more blown-glass beads. Again, I'll put those pictures up when I get a chance.

As far as selling goes, I've been doing pretty good! I've sold 4 items at Wildflower Village, a little store that I have a consignment with, and 3 more to a friend via Etsy. I made business cards and have been handing them out like crazy (and seemingly at random). So far, it hasn't seemed to help in sales except for my friend Susan. It turns out, she works for a tv producing company that sells jewelry on tv!! Of course, it's really high-end stuff and there's no way I'm going to ever be able to put my stuff up for sale like that, but she knows some pretty cool people and since she bought a few of my pieces, she says she'll wear them around and hand out business cards for me! Thank you Susan, you rock! :D  She also said that my pieces were waay underpriced and she sells stuff at work that looks like mine but for hundreds! I decided to raise my prices since it's probably the economy and lack of advertising that's not getting me sales, not my prices. And when I do make a sale, I might as well get some money out of it, right? :)  But you, my followers, luck out because although my prices have risen, I made a coupon code for you guys. Put in JIBUNWOSHINJITE at checkout and I'll give you 40% off! You don't have to tell me I rock, I know it :)

Denise and Baby Leia

I think these pictures keep getting better :)  It's fun to watch myself progress, especially when it's progressing picture by picture! It's fun to see how terrible my first drawing was and then compare it to my most recent drawing, which is like drawing No. 4 or something. I've put jewelry on the back burner for now and brought drawing up to the front of my stove -- I mean mind. But I just found some really cheap raw opals thanks to a good friend and I have a feeling jewelry-making is making a quick comeback :)  Anyway, this drawing was done mostly with graphite with some charcoal. I'm still not satisfied with Leia's eyes, it's just so hard to capture the emotion and pure joy in her eyes. But other than that, this is a picture I can be proud of  :)

New Works

I've done a few of new pieces in the past few days, a couple of drawings and a couple of pendants, so without further ado, here they are! -^.^-

 I call this one Yin and Yang. It's got two blown-glass heart-shaped beads, one black and gold and the other white and gold wire-wrapped in copper wire with a heart-shaped motif.

This pendant was mostly an experiment. It didn't turn out as well as I woulda liked, but I may just add to it later :) It's a sakura (cherry blossom) made from coins I brought home from Japan (they're about a nickle each) beaded together with pale pink seed beads. The Japanese adore cherry blossoms, it's even the country's national flower.

 This is a drawing I did of my best friend's sister holding my best friend's baby daughter (so the older girl is the younger girl's aunt). I think baby Leia turned out terrible, but in drawing this, I learned a lot about drawing faces and about shading, so Angy turned out much better (even though she looks much older than she actually is, lol) I drew this mostly with graphite but with charcoal for the really dark parts.

 I call this picture Baby Feet -^.^- It's another picture of baby Leia, this time held by her mother and my best friend Denise. I think Denise's thumb doesn't pop out as much as it should, but over all, I'm pretty proud of this picture, especially since I don't have much experience drawing real life. I think it turned out beautiful! -^.^-  This one is also done with graphite pencils

My attempts at selling

I've been trying to sell my jewelry for a while now using various methods. I have my jewelry in an art store where if I sell anything, they take part of my profits. Although this is the best method I've tried so far, it's not working very well. The store I found the lowest pay cut is a bit out of the way and no many people visit (as far as I know) and out of the people that do visit, my stuff is usually overlooked. People just aren't buying jewelry right now :/ So I put up an Etsy. I've had it for almost a year now and I haven't sold a thing. I even advertised on the main Etsy page and Facebook and I've gotten quite a few views, but not one purchase (and advertising on Facebook is expensive!!)
I found a store that sells local artists' jewelry, and the cool thing about this place is that they will buy it outright, not put it up and give you most of the money if it's sold. But I guess the lady that runs it didn't like my jewelry. She said it was too expensive (it's not like I can lower the price any more, gold and silver prices are really high right now!) and she didn't even try to haggle with me on price, so I'm thinking she just didn't like my work. I saw Dee again and showed her some of my stuff and she loved it! She said if anything, it's underpriced, so I know it's not the price that's causing people not to buy, it's exposure. Either that, or people just don't like my work. I'm a bit discouraged, but I'm not giving up. Jibun wo shinjiru, zutto!!
And another thing you might want to know is that I'm a bit of a tomboy. I love making jewelry, but very rarely wear it until I realized it's free advertising. So I'm wearing a piece right now, my Cold-Hearted Pendant actually, and I've noticed a couple of things about it I'm going to have to fix, things I never would've realized unless I'd worn it for a day. Like, it has a tendency to flip over and show the back instead of the front, and that the two wires I left hanging out for decoration keep catching my shirt. So when I get home (I'm at school right now. I know, fun right? :/ ) I'm going to fix those. And then tomorrow I'll wear a different piece and see how it hangs and fix anything I notice on that. I've just discovered a way to perfect my jewelry and it's been staring at me in the face the whole time! ..well, if you want to get technical, it's only staring me in the face now because I'm looking down at it, but you get my meaning :)
 I've also made some business cards that I'm going to print out later today and hand out to people who comment on the stuff I wear. Also, I'm going to give away a few pieces to friends as long as they pass out business cards to people who ask about it. I think Erica's first on my list since she got one for Christmas, and I'm sure she'll help me out if I ask. I've also asked another friend and she said she'd do it, so I think I'm on to something here :) When I talked to Dee last, she mentioned sitting on the lawn or by the river and doing my stuff with maybe a few finished pieces with me to show off to anyone who seems interested in what I'm doing. I don't know if I need a license for that, but I've got a friend who happens to be a lawyer, so I'll ask him. Dee said I don't need a license, but I wanna be sure. Don't wanna get in trouble!
My mom also recommended craft fairs. The only problem with that is that I need a lot of work to show off, not just one or two pieces. So I'm going to have to get to work! But I've found an awesome site that lists all the upcoming craft fairs in Reno, has links to the vendor registration forms, and even has profiles of the local artists' and links to their pages! As soon as I get home, I'm going to register for that.
Again, a bit discouraged. I've been at this for a while and I can count the number of pieces I've sold on the fingers of my left elbow. But I won't give up. Ever :)

My First Wire-wrapped Pendant :D

I first got into wire-wrapping in December where I took a class from an awesome lady named Dee. I made it for one of my best friends for Christmas and I just saw her wear it the other day, so I took a picture of it! She's a college student majoring in geological engineering, so I had her pick out a stone she liked, which happens to be her favorite color, and I wrapped it in sterling silver wire and decorated the top into a bail and then the wires come down into a heart-shape. I think it turned out really well for my first try, but then again I had awesome help. Thanks Dee! :D

Again, a bit blury, I only had my phone on me and it doesn't take the best quality pictures. But you can see it and I think it turned out beautiful!! I'm glad she likes it :)