Why Artfire?

UPDATE WRITTEN AUGUST 10 2013

I left Artfire almost 2 years ago now. The attitudes and feeling on the site changed so much I just did not want to be a part of the site anymore. I have a presence on Etsy again and while not perfect I know what to expect.

I started selling at craft fairs nearly 30 years ago. I remember the first one I sold at. I wasn't there but it was exciting anyway. My neighbor's mother was part of a church bazaar in another state and the two of us made some things to send to her. After that I started looking for shows around where I was living. Let's just say the holiday season was a very busy one for me for many years in San Diego and the in the Salt Lake City area. Actually because most of what I was doing was thread crochet Christmas ornaments I really got busy about May or June to have enough things made for the shows.

With the coming of the internet I was so excited. Ecommerce was a way out of all the lugging of displays around, packing and unpacking products and weekends away from home. I knew it would happen and I started watching. The first internet craft malls seemed too complicated and expensive and then I stumbled on a blog mention of a place called Etsy in 2005 which was right after startup. I was over the moon excited. As a concept it is still a great place but not, I have come to realize, necessarily for a more traditional crafter like me. This post isn't about that debate though. I have closed my shop on Etsy with no hard feelings because I was looking for a better fit for me at a cost structure I could sustain as a long term dedicated hobbyist.

I did go with the "don't put your eggs all in one basket" approach for awhile. Actually a couple years worth of wasting time doing a little here and a little there. I have had accounts on Shop Handmade, Ecrater, Blujay, Mintd, Lovli and Silkfair as well as the big orange E never quite finding a good fit and realizing something very important about my own way of doing things. Being in so many places even if not all at once was too distracting and everything was only half done and poorly at that. My baskets only had a couple eggs in each and what I really needed was a full, well done basket somewhere.

Along came ArtFire and I liked what I saw. I read about the background of John Jacobs, the founder, and discovered a background of understanding for crafters and the struggles to sell their goods. I hope that I have found a place to fill a basket of my goods and find folks who would like to have them.

Finally, the term handmade as a trend is on the decline. But arts and crafts, artisans, the creative entrepreneur are so much bigger than a trend. We intentionally created artfire not to be a flash in the pan trend based business. Craft shows, art fairs, and the sale of handmade goods is a strong and long-time market. My posting of the google trend is to demonstrate that the handmade trend (the resurgence of handmade as a fashion trend based concept) may not be the buoy that some think in the marketplace. There is a deeper, more longstanding, more traditional market here that is not focused on the fashion trend only. I think that makes for a more stable and long-term marketplace.

I found the above quote in the ArtFire Forums today. The discussion this is part of is generating a lot of interest as the community sorts its way through how they feel about the evolving site. For me if the focus stays on the last two sentences I am staying here and hoping that what happens for me is good. I try to make traditional, useful things that help make life cozy. As I said before I have been doing it for nearly 30 years and I don't know how and don't want to stop.

If you are a crafter, artisan or artist and this sounds like a place for you I would be honored if you would use my referral link if you sign up for an account.

It's All About the Fireworks!

With the 4th of July coming soon I thought I would share my favorite thing about this holiday. No matter what else happens on this day I always look forward to fireworks that night. We are rather lucky where we live. The local display is done at the high school just a few blocks away. There is no need for us to go anywhere. All we have to do is wait until dark and look over the back fence and I love it that way.

I have tried many times to get some great fireworks photos and many times have failed. Last year I finally found a fireworks or night time button on my camera. Can you say duh with me? They would have been so much better with a tripod but I like how some of them came out anyway.

So on to my personal fireworks show!

Summertime

To me the best part of summer is the long evenings. The light fades gently and the heat of the day begins to fade. The activities that keep you busy during the day slow down. The perfect way to spend the warm end of day for me would be on a big front porch with a cool drink watching fireflies come out and children playing. Of course I don't live in a place where that happens but maybe I will some day. When I do I will need one of these beautiful fans to help cool me off. One of them is handmade and the other vintage and both are available on Artfire.

The fan above is from the shop Vintage Intent.

I remember getting fans like this when I was a kid.
The paper always seemed to tear after a few uses.
It is amazing to me that it is all in one piece.

The fan below is from Southern Charm Soap Company.
I love the colors in this piece.
The tassel with the charms is a lovely way to complete the fan.

Feeling Good!

I think I have found a housekeeping method that will keep me sane. You would think at 53 that I would know all about how to keep a house but things have gotten out of control trying to have a craft business at home too. Let me just say that I shined my sink. If you google the phrase shine your sink you will find out what it is all about.

My hope is that using this method I can give myself permission to go to work without feeling guilty about my house. By breaking chores into small chunks and daily routines I can manage once the days tasks are done I can go to work. It is already paying off. I smile walking into my kitchen and have begun the task of decluttering and it feels good!


I used my time this afternoon to take pictures of a shawl that I have listed in my Art Fire shop. I had a helper with my photos today. This bird sat on top of his bush in the yard chirping at me while I was taking the shots. He seemed to be protesting me being in his yard and showed no fear as I moved around arranging the camera and mannequin so I took his picture too. He is the fella that you see in all my shop and blog headers.

PS- Happy Birthday Kevon! No picture for you because all of you guys seem to complain when I do that!

New on ArtFire!

Here is the hand knotted fringe on the Warm Cream Shawl I put up for sale today in my ArtFire shop. It joins the Warm Fog Shawl that is already in the shop. Do you notice a trend in names here? It may not be very imaginative but I have decided to name all my heavier shawls starting with the word warm.

If you live in a part of the country where winter is hanging on or in a place where you just need to keep the chill off your shoulders you may want to take a look at these. I have a couple more in different colors that will be joining them soon!

EditI am so excited! I just discovered that you can make purchases on Art Fire without needing an account there. This makes shopping so much easier. Of course if you are a regular handmade buyer you may want an account so that your shipping information is saved to make future purchases easier. For all the information you need about this new feature you can click here.

I Did It!

I am the world's worst when it comes to procrastination even to my own detriment. I can meet the deadlines of others with no problem but I cheat on myself. If I tell you for example that I will do something for you on Tuesday it will be done. I get distracted by the little details that can make things perfect rather than just going for it.

I have got my first listing up in my Art Fire shop. The intention was to list two or three things each week starting the first of January. You see what I mean about personal procrastination? I am behind.
The first listing is a shawl I named Warm Fog. Strange name, I know but it has colors of rusty orange and gray in it. The pictures are just okay and I know it. The colors are fairly true at least on my monitor but I want the shots to be better. I got to thinking about how I could take those lovely pictures where the backgrounds are blurred and softened and the product stands out against it and to get the best light of course I need to be outside. I really don't want the back fence to show so sharply. So after camera manual reading, online searches and hours of practicing in changing the depth of field I am closing in on the kind of product images I want for my things.
I plan the shawl above to be my second listing on Art Fire. I was pleased to get this shot late in the afternoon yesterday and then I ran out of light before I could pose it in different ways. The background is gently blurred and the shawl stands out. That is what I was looking for!

Practice and Learning

One of the things I am determined to do this year is make better use of our camera. We have a couple point and shoots that are light and easy to carry when traveling but I am not talking about those. We own a Nikon D70. Jim bought it for himself a few years ago. It can take stunning images if you know what you are doing with it. I believe that it is the best camera we own for taking product images for my shops but I have barely scratched to surface on how to use it to my advantage.


The technique I have been working on the past couple days is using depth of field to show off an item. The shot above is inside and badly lit I know. What I was pleased with was that the little vase it the star and the background it softly out of focus. I love to read but you have no idea how long it took with a strange new vocabulary in the camera manual to make this happen. FStops, aperature, focal points and so on until I just got the camera and started taking pictures. The little vase was even taken without a tripod so I am surprised at how clear it is.

However the real problem started when I didn't want a picture of an itty bitty thing sitting on a coffee table. Using our regular lens for the larger things like my shawls just wasn't happening. The background just wouldn't fade away like I wanted it to. I may have been able to stick with it but instead I decided to try something else. Looking online about how to get this type of image I saw different lenses mentioned and I knew we had another lens that Jim always told me was for landscape shots. So I figured out how to change the lens without breaking anything, put a shawl on Miss Molly, got out the tripod, set up the mannequin on the patio and backed up about 15 feet. I am so excited! This is the kind of image I have been looking for and trying to learn!

Take a look and let me know what you think. Today after practicing some more and getting some different poses this shawl will be my second item listed on Art Fire.

Support for Artists

If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination in the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.

-Yann Martel-

While I don't have any illusions about being an artist or for that matter an artisan ( call myself a crafter who does needlework) I have a presence on several sites that are filled with artists. Most of them would tell you that they are driven to create whether you buy their items or not. But my question to you is, why miss out?

Looking around our home the other night Jim and I noticed that our favorite things are those that come from someone's hands. We have a couple pieces of pottery bought on trips. I have a beautiful quilt bought in Pennsylvania. We have glass hand blown after the artist listened to our ideas on color and general shape. We have prints of watercolors from places we have been done by local artists. All of these mean so much more to us than doodads and knickknacks that were mass produced and fill our lives with maybe useful but intended to be disposable stuff.

If you are looking for handmade in any form to fill your holidays there are 4 sites I would recommend you take a look at.

• Etsy - the biggest marketplace there is. It can be overwhelming but the things available in all types of arts at all kinds of price ranges are amazing.
• Silkfair - not just handmade but a crafts section is there with the work of some folks that is worth a look.
• Shop Handmade - a fairly new site. This site has some ties to green projects like planting trees. The magnifying feature makes it easier than on some sites to examine what you are condidering for purchase.
• Art Fire - just getting started. It looks as if many artists that were on or are on Etsy are represented here. Because of the smaller size which I don't expect to continue much longer, getting to feel like you can see it all is part of the fun.

Consider handmade for the holidays and afterwords in your everyday life. It will make you feel good, kind of like having this shawl wrapped around your shoulders on a snowy night at home. Trust me on this.

My Work

A Slide Show of Some of my Work.
I was just playing around with my Windows Live Space and made a slide show. Do you think that there will ever come a day when you like all things in one place. With blogs some features I like here on blogger and I like some of the features of Live Spaces.
It is the same with my shops. Each site has something I like and something I don't. I will say right now that the places with the administration the listens to its customers the most are Art Fire and Silkfair.
But of course that is one silly old woman's opinion.

For Your Tree

I always wanted to have a tree full of this type of ornament. They are so beautiful. I found a shop on Art Fire that has about a dozen different ones. If you like them like I do you will want to take a look at Dancing Wind Designs.