New Bracelets

These bracelets are coming to my Etsy shop this week.

They combine polymer clay and gemstones: Baltic amber, goldstone (which is actually a man-made material, I know), imperial jasper, blue kiwi, and Russian amazonite.

I've been playing with the new photo prompts for these pictures, too. The saucer in the second picture, for example, was found on a garage sale last week. The lady who sold it, kept explaining to me how easy would it be to clean this thing. I said: “Thank you, I am not going to clean it – I want to use it just as it is!” She kept insisting that all I need to do is scrub it with some baking soda...

Another Treasury!



This one is by Barbara handy of BarbiesBest.etsy.com. Barb included all kinds of polymer clay beads and pendants, a raw polymer clay cane, and my tutorial (Thank you, Barbara!). I love the idea behind this treasury!

And here is the link so that you could look at all the featured shops closer:
www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=69038

My Work in a New Treasury


Linda Riopel (www.nkdesigns.etsy.com) featured my red orchid bead in her new treasury, Call 911... PCAGOE is on fire.

I really appreciate it, especially since creating a treasury, as well as securing a spot for it on etsy.com, is a very time-consuming process. I also love the titles that Linda comes up with for her treasuries.

Follow this link: http://http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=59164
to see all the beautiful polymer clay works in this treasury and to visit the shops of the featured artists.

New Tutorial, Bracelet

I finished the new tutorial today and quickly listed it in my Etsy shop, just in time before the weekend.

Placing it on my web site will take a bit longer, but I shall have it there no later than Monday.

Happy claying!

Perfect Gifts

for a Perfect Sister

My big sister turns 50 tomorrow. She lives in Moscow, we see each other very seldom, and I miss her...

My sister was born in Siberian city, Krasnoyarsk. When she was about a year old, our parents moved to Ukraine, and somehow she never visited her place of birth again. She wanted to go there this year, but again some family business kept her away from this trip.

My sister loves to travel. She's been in many places in Europe, in Egypt, Japan, America, and a few times in Australia. From her trips, she always brings back a decorative plate with a view of the place she visited. An entire wall in her kitchen is covered with these plates.

So, since she could not go to Krasnoyarsk, I decided to make her a plate with a view of this city. I shifted through quite a few pictures, but neither one touched my heart. There were a few interesting buildings and bridges, but I had no idea whether they were there 50 years ago or not. Then I remembered about the place near the city called Krasnoyarsk Columns. They are not mountains, but rather huge rocks, partially covered with trees. I found a picture of two of them that look like heads of some fantastic giants and used it to make a photo transfer onto white polymer clay. This is the first time I've ever done anything in this technique, so I am rather proud of myself. I used black and white picture and antiqued the finished plate for a weathered look. I hope my sister will love it. I think she can honestly place it with her other travel souvenirs – her birth certificate proves that she' s actually been to this city.


My second gift for her is a set of earrings and a pendant. I remember our mom telling us about some small Siberian flowers, called “zharki”. The root of this word, “zhar”, means “heat” in Russian. She said they were incredibly bright-colored, and the entire tundra looked like it was on fire when they were in bloom. The sculpted flowers for this set is my artistic interpretation of this memory...

Work in Progress,
New Tutorial

I am working on a step-by-step tutorial for this fantastic bangle bracelet.

The design combines polymer clay (of course!) with some gems, and looks wildly exotic.

I hope to have this tutorial in my shop by the end of the month.

My Work is in a New Treasury

Katherine from KatherineJewelry.etsy.com featured my heart pendant form Forgotten Map series in her
new treasury.

All works in these collection are polymer clay hearts. Isn't it amazing how different they are?!

My Work Is in Etsy Treasury

Linda Riopel of NKDesigns.etsy.com included my sea urchin vase tutorial along with the works of eleven other PCAGOE artists in her new treasury, I Can Sea Clearly Now:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=65922

Thank you, Linda!

Etsy Treasury

Craving Chocolate

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about Etsy treasuries – both about making them and getting my works in them. They are quite time consuming, and I seriously doubt their effectiveness as a marketing tool. I realized that my works were featured in a few treasuries recently, and I did not even post about it in my blog, which is not nice and probably not wise either. Now that I have more time I promise to do better.

Think about this treasury as a little collection made for fun and simple pleasure of seeing beautiful works of art. I hope you get the symbolism here, especially if you are a chocogolic, like myself.

Here is the link to this treasury on Etsy: http://http//www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=65068.

Leave me a note there if you like it, and please make sure to click on each picture (again, from Etsy web site) to see more works of these talented artists.

My Article in Polymer Cafe

I just received my contributor's copies of the August issue of Polymer Cafe magazine. My article, Steampunk Business Card Case, is published!

Click on the picture above for a larger version of it.

One Lovely Blog Award

I received the One Lovely Blog award from Tracey of TKDesigns. I hope you will take a moment to visit Tracey's blog, where she writes about her jewelry designs and her inspiration. I am sure you will enjoy her recent story about a bear visit to her backyard, complete with pictures!

Now it's my turn to pass this award on to some other blogs.

Here are the rules:
*Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
*Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.
*Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

...And here are my 15 newly-discovered lovely blogs (not in any particular order):

alicestroppel.wordpress.com
lulubugjewelry.blogspot.com
www.njdminiatures.blogspot.com
swoondimples.blogspot.com
deserttalismans.blogspot.com
harrisonhollowdesigns.blogspot.com
campcactus.blogspot.com
humblebeads.blogspot.com
jibbyandjunablog.blogspot.com
beadcomber.blogspot.com
creagerstudios.blogspot.com
sharonsjewelrygarden.blogspot.com
thecolorofdreams.blogspot.com
livingwithwalls.blogspot.com
elementalforrest.blogspot.com

Behind each of these blogs, there is a talented person, whose work I admire. Some of them were recently featured in my Polymer Clay Chameleon blog.

Giveaway Results

I would like to thank everybody who commented on my previous post.

Judging by your comments, the bracelet tutorial would be the most interesting and the vase one – the least interesting for most people. I am a bit surprised by this result and very glad I asked for your opinion. Thanks to your comments, I now know how to better concentrate my efforts.

And now the results of this giveaway... I did a random drawing, and the lucky winner is... Dziga! She will receive one of my tutorials at her choice.

Dziga, please contact me by e-mail to claim your prize.

Giveaway

I am starting a new giveaway! The prize this time is one of my tutorials (again!), and the winner will be randomly chosen on June, 10. To participate, please answer these questions.

I am currently working on three new tutorials. One will be for a set of polymer clay bracelets (each with its own design). Another tutorial is for tree pendants, all created with a simple and clever hand-made tool, but each with its own design. The last tutorial is for a new vase, similar to this one.



So, which of these tutorials would you be the most interested in? And which you think is the least interesting?

Please post your answers as comments to this post.

Custom Order

Two vases in earth tones, 7 ¾ “ by 2 1/4” each, polymer clay over glass, fresh-water pearls, and acrylic paint.

New Technique for Reducing Irregularly Shaped Polymer Clay Canes

I love when people think outside the box.

Here is a new and clever idea I just read about at Polymer Clay Daily. Idit Fischer Katz (Idit Zoota) developed this technique, and Naama Zamir translated it to English.

Many polymer clay artists create complex flower canes, which are really difficult to reduce. Usually such a cane is wrapped in a layer of translucent polymer clay to obtain a cylindrical shape, which is then reduced easily. However, the layer of translucent clay presents a new challenge when the cane slices are assembled into a final piece. The translucent parts have to be made nearly invisible, which is not easy. It shows up on your design if the slices are too thick, if the backing temperature is not just right, if the finished piece is not sanded hard enough, and also for no particular reason as well... In other words, this step is tricky and requires a lot of practice, patience, and luck.

Idit took a completely different approach. Instead of fighting the translucent clay, she replaced it with Play-Doh. She says, Play-Doh works well during the cane reduction step, and then it can be simply peeled off and washed away. The cane slices used for the final design are nice and clean! No more fuzzing around the translucent clay in your final design! Wonderful idea, isn't it?!

Naama's post gives step by step instructions for this new technique.

While this idea is being discussed on the Internet, people with Celiacs Desiase remind us that they are sensitive to wheat in any form, even when they touch it. Play-Doh contains wheat. Here is a recipe for a home-made wheat-free equivalent:

Ingredients:
½ cup rice flour
½ cup cornstarch
½ cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon cooking oil

Thank you, Kate from Organic Odysseys for sharing the recipe.

Treasury 05-20-09

My red steampunk butterfly necklace is in the treasury that Linda Riopel from NKDesigns.etsy.com put together. Cool name and cool company. Thank you, Linda!

Giveaway Winner

We have the winner! I've asked my daughter to give me a random number and she said twelve. Under this number were comments from... Holly. Congratulations, Holly! You may now choose one of my tutorials as your prize!

New Tutorial, Sea Urchin Vase

Just finished a new tutorial! This one is for a polymer-clay covered vase decorated with fresh-water pearls. The vase is shaped like a sea urchin and looks great both with flowers and on its own. The tutorial is currently listed in my Etsy shop.

Recent Publication

A picture of one of my necklaces was published in the last issue of Polymer Cafe.

This is Synergy, a style that combines my faux cloisonne techinque, sculpted orchids, and wire-wrapping.

Click on the picture for its larger version.

Giveaway

Ready to play again? Here are the rules:

- This Giveaway is open to my Newsletter subscribers only (but you can join any moment - see the form on the right?);

- To participate, you need to look at my polymer clay tutorials and tell me which one you like the most (no need to purchase anything!);

- Post your comments here;

- The winner will be chosen randomly from all the entries (one entry per person, please) on May 15, 2009;

- The winner will receive one of my tutorials of his/her choice (not necessarily the one he or she commented about).

Good luck!

Added on May 4, 2009
Here is how to leave your comments:

- Go to the bottom of this post - you will see something like this:
Posted by Eugena at 11:18 AM 5 comments Links to this post.

- Click on the text with # of comments, and you will be taken to a new screen with a window in which you can type your comment.

- You may then add your name, link to your web site, blog, etc.

- When done, click on "Publish Your Comment" button.

- You should then see a message "Your comment has been saved.
It may take a moment for your comment to appear on the site at the original post".

- To reduce spam, I approve all my comments before publishing, but I usually do it within hours of receiving your submitted comment.

New E-book – Encyclopedia of Millefiori Polymer Clay Leaves

I just finished this new tutorial. It is huge! Thirty three pages, eighty six pictures. I have it in my Etsy shop and will list it on my web site by tomorrow.

Here is the list of topics covered in this e-book:

- Materials, Tools, Pasta Machine Settings,
- Basic Skinner Blend (Two Colors),
- Skinner Blend with Three (and More) Colors,
- Bull's Eye Canes,
- Skinner Blend Block,
- Reducing a Skinner Blend Sheet,
- Shaded Leaf Cane 1,
- Reducing a Leaf Cane,
- Using a Leaf Cane for Flat Designs,
- Using a Leaf Cane for 3-Dimensional Designs,
- Shaded Leaf Cane 2,
- Basic Lace Leaf Cane,
- Detailed Lace Leaf Cane,
- Leaf Cane with Shaded Veins,
- Reversed Leaf Cane with Shaded Veins,
- Leaf Cane with Alternating Shaded Areas,
- Ikat Leaf Cane,
- Feather Leaf Cane,
- Spotted Leaf Cane,
- Long Striped Leaf Cane,
- Short Striped Leaf Cane,
- Water-Lily Leaf Cane,
- Monsterra Leaf,
- Oak Leaf Cane,
- Maple Leaf Cane

Added: This tutorial is now available at my web site.

New Tutorial Coming Soon


I am working on a new polymer clay tutorial. Actually, even two – one for millefiori leaves and another for surface leaf designs.

I wanted to make one tutorial first, but there are so many pictures that it would be way too big. I am even concerned that the my millefiori tutorial may need to be broken into parts for sending it by e-mail...

So far I am planning to show how to make TEN or so different leaf canes that may be used both in flat and 3D designs. This is going to be the biggest tutorial I wrote so far. I think it will also have the most generic use, because it will teach not a particular project or even a technique, but some elements that may be adopted as a part of many different styles and techniques.

I hope to have it finished by the end of the month.

Scarlet Sails
Finished!

I am done! The Scarlet Sails faux cloisonne wall piece is finished, framed, and shipped to the customer. I think it was my biggest, most challenging, and probably the best piece so far.

See my previous posts for work-in-progress pictures. Here is the finished piece (click on the picture for a larger version):

The faux cloisonne part is 4 1/2” by 6 ½ “, the size of the the whole picture with frame is 11 1/4” by 13 1/4”. The faux cloisonne part has domed edges showcased by mounting the piece on top of the two mats within the frame, not behind them, as it is usually done for flat artwork.

Taking a photograph of this piece turned out to be an extremely daunting task. Due to its size, I could not fit it in my light box and tried to photograph it by simply hanging on the wall in my studio. I immediately realized that due to its shiny surface (two layers of clear resin), the piece works as a mirror. Well, not a perfect mirror, but a good one enough to reflect me and my camera when I tried to photograph it. Yes, and also all my windows... When placed away from the windows, it did not have enough light, but still acted as a mirror. After a number of unsuccessful shots, I was finally able to capture the one you see here. The trick? I had my kids hold a solid-colored piece of fabric in front of the camera. I made a hole in the middle of this screen just big enough to point my camera through it. I also used two of my OttLite lamps on both sides of the picture, but not in front of it.

I am ready for a new challenge!

Two Etsy Treasuries

I just joined the wonderful team of polymer clay artists on Etsy.com, and right away my work was featured in two treasuries:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=49477
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=50354




I am really looking forward to getting to know more the people in this group, although I am already acquainted with some of them or at least their works.

I am so happy to join such a creative, energetic, and supportive team!

Work in Progress
Scarlet Sails, Day 6

Final version of the wire work:



And now with color:

Work in Progress
Scarlet Sails, Day 5

The wire work on my commissioned wall piece is almost done. I need to decide whether to have the sun behind the ship or not. I had it on my sketch, but then my customer said that it may interfere with the ship, which is the most important element of the composition. He left the final decision up to me.

Right now I stopped at the moment when everything is done, except the sun. I formed the wire pieces for it and took a picture with them in place, but they are not attached. I can still remove the sun without any trace.

Note to Alan: Alan, I still cannot contact you by e-mail, but I've got your message. No sun.

Work in Progress
Scarlet Sails, Day 4

Work in Progress
Scarlet Sails, Day 3

Work in Progress
Scarlet Sails, Day 2

Here is my progress so far. I am happy with how my Assol turned out, and so the most difficult part of this project is over.

When working on a multi-object composition, like this one, I prefer to start with one of the main figures. The biggest challenge in this technique is to accurately transfer the drawing into the wire lines. For simple designs, such as abstract swirls, it is quite easy, but human faces are among the most difficult transfers to do, because the slightest shift of line may sometimes significantly change the face expression...

Work In Progress
Scarlet Sails

I am starting to work on a commissioned piece based on an old Russian movie, Scarlet Sails.

I am very excited about this project. The movie is an adaptation of a very romantic and beautiful story by Alexander Grin. It is about a poor peasant girl Assol (pronounced ah-SO-lee), who was told by a traveling storyteller that one day a prince on a ship under scarlet sails would come for her. She kept dreaming about this beautiful ship despite being constantly laughed at and teased by everybody in her village. One day Captain Grey saw her sleeping by the sea shore and learned about her story. Taken by the girl's beauty and her kind and romantic character, he ordered to make sails for his ship out of the brightest red silk he could find, and then he came for her, just as it was predicted.

This is going to be a framed wall piece, about 5” by 7”, in my faux cloisonne technique. The person, who asked me to make this piece, saw my Scarlet Sails necklace made about two years ago. The necklace was inspired by the book, so my Assol looked different. This time I am trying to actually portray the actress who played Assol in the movie, and I am using the ship and scenery from the movie as well.

Below is the sketch I prepared already, and I will post pictures of my work in progress from time to time. I think it is interesting to see how such an elaborate piece is developing.

Wish me luck and lots of patience.

Giveaway Results

Thank you, everybody who participated in my GIVEAWAY.

And the winner of a $25 gift certificate is... Mona! Congratulations!

I am planning to run giveaways regularly, and the next one will start in about two weeks. Come and check my blog for the exact dates or subscribe to my newsletter (see the form on the right?) to be notified about the next giveaway, my new tutorials, and other developments.

Thanks again!

Custom Order

These are hand-sculpted leaves and orchids for a bridal version of my lariat necklace.

The original version was made in silver/gray/black tones and named "Les Fleurs des Fer", which means "Iron Flowers" in French. The veins on leaves and petals were applied by hand and then highlighted with silver acrylic paint, heat-sealed for durability. This particular necklace won the third place in polymer clay category in the 2008 designer contest sponsored by Fire Mountain Gems, and can be seen on FMG web site.

Shannon, the person, who ordered the white orchids, found a picture of my necklace on FMG web site, and from there she found my contact information. Oh, the power of the modern technology!

The orchids in this new version are completely white, and covered with mica powders for a gentle shimmering effect. The mica powders on the leaves make them look either white or very light green, depending on the angle of the light. The flowers and leaves are protected with the heat-sealed glaze.

The original necklace is available in my Etsy shop, and I am willing to make a custom variation of this design in any color.

Etsy Treasury

My polymer clay Steampunk butterfly necklace, "Dwellers of the Mechanical Garden, Red"was featured in a treasury!

Thank you, amandamonkey!

Student's Work

This amazing faux cloisonne interpretation of one of Mucha's Art Nouveau pieces was done by Andy Pan, who learned this technique from my tutorial. The finished piece is 6” by 8” and the wire work alone took at least 10 or 12 hours. I am extremely proud and amazed by Andy's patience and precision. Just beautiful!

Click on the picture to see its biger version.

Adventures of an On-Line Seller
Continued: Selling Through On-Line Malls, Personal Experience

To find my previous posts in this series, please use a search box on the right side of this blog. Your keyword is "Adventures".
Adventure is by definition an undertaking of a questionable nature, and finding the right on-line venue for your product is definitely a questionable thing, with no guaranteed success. There is no recipe that would fit every seller and his product either. Some people manage to maintain accounts at all kinds of possible sites, others stick with one favorite place.

I guess, my approach is somewhere in the middle. I am a quick learner, but it takes time for me to find out all the bells and whistles of the on-line mall and figure out the best strategy to make it work for me. I am not even talking about figuring out what buttons to push (although this may be tricky at times as well); I am talking about a general strategy that would allow my jewelry and tutorials to be at least found on the particular site. I know, I can promote my shop, give out business cards, and in many other ways let people know the address of my shop in the on-line mall. This, however, is not the point of joining such malls. I can promote my own web site in the same way, and probably get even better results, because people who visit it would not be distracted by the other (competing!) sellers. The only reason to join an on-line mall, I think, is to take advantage of the existing traffic to that particular mall. And then comes the next question: how can I make my shop visible to the presumably numerous visitors of the site.

I already mentioned eBay and JustBeads.com in my previous posts. Enough said about eBay elsewhere, so I will not waste time repeating it here. JustBeads was a lovely site, with reasonable prices, good traffic, but with a small enough community of sellers that allowed everybody to be found relatively easy. I would love to see this site re-launch in the nearest future and hope they will regain their strength once the site is up an running again.

My other endeavor (and rather unsuccessful one) was RubyLane.com. This is the place where I totally failed the task of being found within the site, I think. They have a good traffic, and I know a number of happy RubyLane sellers, but it did not work out for me. It is quite sad to admit, especially because I was cautious about joining this site to begin with due to their fees. I did manage to sell enough to just about cover my fees, however the time spent setting the shop there and taking it down a few month later is lost.

My current shop is set up with Etsy.com. I am quite happy with it, although I know for a fact that it does not work for everybody. I registered my shop there in 2006, but did not give it enough attention until more than a year later. Since then, I am working on my shop there almost every day, and still learn a lot. There is a number of ways to get noticed within this site, but my advice to any new sellers would be to visit Etsy forum and look for threads about marketing. They offer a lot of information, and everybody can pick and choose the ideas that may work better for them. Again – different things work for different people.

Right now I am trying out two sites, ArtFire.com and 1000markets.com. Being new, both of these sites lack in traffic (and the second one is not even officially launched yet), but they allow listing your products for free, which is very appealing.

My Work in a Book

I've just got the most exciting news this morning: pictures of my work had been published in the new book by Shirley Rufener by Krause Publications Polymer Clay Mixed Media Jewelry.

Shirley says that unfortunately quite a few contributers were cut by the editor, but I am lucky, and my work was included. I understand that the editor has his own reasons, but it is just too bad that the author does not have the final word and after all her hard work now has to delivery the bad news to those who were cut... On a positive note, as I told Shirley, she can now use the left-over pictures as the foundation for her new book.

Any way, I am extremely excited. Although my work had been published in different magazines before, this is my first publication in a book.

Thank you, Shirley! I cannot wait to actually the book!

Etsy Treasury

My Amber Orchid polymer clay sculpted pendant was featured in Etsy treasury!

Giveaway

You can win a $25 gift certificate to use in my Etsy shop!

There are many nice items in my shop, and I will be adding some new ones every day.

Rules: The winner will be randomly chosen from all entries. You may have up to four entries per person:

- For the first entry, all you need to do is visit my Etsy shop and choose your favorite item, then come back to this blog, post a comment, and leave a link to the item you've chosen;

- For the second entry, subscribe to my mailing list and then leave a comment in this blog to let me know that you did it for your second entry (if you already a subscriber to my mailing list, you can still participate - just leave a comment in my blog about it);

- To qualify for the third entry, mention my blog, web site, or my shop in your own blog (please leave a comment with a link to your post);

- For the fourth entry, buy anything from my Etsy shop, then come back to this blog and leave me a comment.

Deadline: The winner will be announced here in two weeks, on March 21, 2009.

Small Print: You do not need to have a blog or even a Google account to participate, but you do need to have an E-mail address. Please specify your E-mail address in every comment to this post (and please use the same E-mail address for multiple comments!). Your E-mail address will not be published and will not be shared with any third party, I promise.

Adventures of an On-Line Seller

Continued: On-Line Shopping Malls

Find my previous posts in this series here, here, here, here, and here.

There are two ways of approaching the task of selling your art and craft on-line. Most crafters are dealing with both of them.

The first one is when you already have a group of royal customers – people who bought from you in person, usually at craft shows. These people already know your product. All you need to do is to let them know where they can find it in between your shows. Almost any on-line selling space (whether it is your own web site or a place at some on-line shop) would work for this group, as long as this place has a convenient check-out process and you provide a good customer service. This one is easy to master – just make sure to pass on your business card with your web site address at every opportunity and remind your customers about yourself every so often.

The second way is a so-called “cold turkey approach”. This is when you are using your on-line selling place to find new customers. This one is much more difficult. This is when you need to think about such things as SEO (search engine optimization), advertising, key words, transfer ratio (number of visitors to number of actual sales), traffic sources, bounce rate (how soon a visitor leaves your shop), and many other highly-educational topics, each of which brings you pages of information when searched for in Google.

It is the task of finding the new customers that makes me looking for better on-line selling spaces. I do have my own web site, and I spend lots of time and effort refining it both for SEO purposes and for my visitor's viewing pleasure, but it is not enough. Trying to bring new people to your own web site is like mailing your advertising postcard to everybody in your town. Most people are simply not interested.

When you join some on-line mall with an established traffic, the task becomes a bit easier. You are now working with a better-targeted group (provided, you joined the right mall, and people who came there to buy something are in fact may be interested in your particular product).

Here are a few things to think about when considering an on-line place to sell other than your own web site (not necessarily in this order):

- Does it target the right group of potential customers?
- Does this site have enough traffic?
- Is it user-friendly (both for your customers and you)?
- How much time will your new shop require (learning the rules, shop set-up, approval (if any), and time for every listing)?
- How much is it going to cost you (look for shop-opening fees, listing fees, and fees per sale)?
- How visible will your product be within this site?
- How good is the technical support at this site?

And before this post gets too long, here is a list of possible on-line selling places for hand-made goods. I've tried and left some of them, I have shops in various stages of maturity at others, and some I have not even visited yet. I think I will share my personal experience with these sites next Thursday.

http://www.1000markets.com
http://www.artfire.com
http://www.artflock.com
https://www.artfulhome.com
http://www.artbyus.com
http://www.artsefest.com
http://www.blujay.com
http://bigcartel.com
http://www.buyitsellit.com
http://www.cafepress.com
http://www.canduru.com
http://www.craftersbuzz.com
http://www.craftmall.com
http://www.crowsoup.com
http://en.dawanda.com
http://www.erayo.com
http://www.ecrater.com
http://www.elsewares.com
http://www.erayo.com
http://www.farcountries.com
http://funkyfinds.us
http://www.folksy.com
http://www.girlshopspot.com
http://www.gozabo.com
http://handmadecatalog.com
http://handmadefusion.com
http://hyenacart.com
http://www.icraft.ca
http://www.imagekind.com
http://www.kinfolkcrafts.com
http://www.lollishops.com
http://lov.li
http://lunacraft.com
http://www.mintd.com
http://www.myartplot.com
http://www.mystore.com
http://www.mywares.com
http://www.notonthehighstreet.com
http://www.papernstitch.com
http://www.pinkdoodle.com
http://www.redbubble.com
http://www.rubylane.com
http://www.seekingdesigners.com
http://www.silkfair.com
http://www.shophandmade.com
http://www.shopify.com
http://www.skydowntown.com
http://www.smashingdarling.com
http://www.strictlyhandmade.com
http://supermarkethq.com
http://www.thumbtackpress.com
http://www.trunkt.org
http://veganica.com
http://www.wagglepop.com
http://www.winkelf.com
http://www.wholesalecrafts.com
http://www.wwcrafters.com
http://www.yabblebabble.com
http://www.yessy.com
http://www.yinia.com
http://youcraft.org
http://www.youcraftylot.com
http://www.zazzle.com

Our Bunny Is Back!

My husband calls our house “Snow White's Cottage”. All kinds of animals visit our backyard – squirrels, deer, chipmunks, wild ducks, not to mention hummingbirds and various other birds.

Last spring and summer a bunny lived under our gazebo. It moved in some time at the end of March, when we were in France for a couple of weeks. By the time we came back, he was quite comfortable in his new house. Our neighbor said there were a few bunnies in her yard, but her dog killed all of them. Ours was the only one that survived. We watched him grow over a few months. At first he (or she?) was really tiny and scared of every little noise. He would disappear under the gazebo in a blink of an eye. In a few weeks he was bullying even doves and blue jays that were picking some seeds spilled from the bird feeder too close to his under-gazebo entrance. After a while he's learned not to be afraid of us either, and I was able to work in the garden with a bunny sun-bathing just a couple feet away from me.

We watched him wandering further and further away from the safety of his gazebo home, until at some point in September or October we realized that we have not seen our bunny for a few weeks. I reassured the kids that the bunny would be back, but with a healthy population of turkey vultures in the nearby woods I was not sure myself...

This morning I woke up to an excited chatter of my kids in the kitchen. “The bunny is back!” - was my good morning greeting. We cannot decide whether it is our little bunny from the last year, his wiser mama-rabbit moving her nest to a safer location, or a completely un-related and new one, who just stumbled upon our vacant spacious rabbit burrow. In ether case, I think our lawn will be feeding an entire family of bunnies this year.

Here is the footage I shot this morning.

Chocolate Cake, Anybody?

We've celebrated my daughter's 11-th birthday this weekend.

This year she asked me to bake a plain cake – not a castle, a princess, a pirate's chest, not even a cat or a hedgehog – just a plain round chocolate cake. I take this as yet another sign of her growing (sigh...)


The cake, however, was wonderful. Being a humble person, I cannot guarantee you that this would be the best cake you ever tasted, but I think it could come pretty close. Here is the recipe:

Triple-Chocolate Torte

For the Cake:
1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate morsels,
2/3 cups butter,
1 ¼ cups water,
1 tsp vanilla extract,
1 tsp salt,
3 eggs,
1 cup sugar,
¼ tsp baking powder,
1 tsp baking soda,
2 cups of all-purpose flour

Place chocolate and butter in top of a double boiler and bring water to boil. Stir chocolate and butter until everything melts. Transfer the mixture into a mixing boil and let it cool. Add all remaining ingredients in the order they are listed, beating the batter for about 2 minutes after each addition.

Pour the batter into 4 greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans. Bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake layers on wire racks completely.

For the Frosting:
24 ounces of cream cheese (3 packs, 8 oz. each),
1 container of Nutella (hazelnut and chocolate spread; look for it in most grocery stores next to peanut butter),
1 Tbsp orange concentrate

Mix well all three ingredients.

For the Glaze:
½ cup of semi-sweet chocolate morsels,
5 Tbsp butter,
¾ cups of powdered sugar,
2 Tbsp water,
1 egg,
1 egg yolk


Place chocolate and butter in top of a double boiler and bring water to boil. Stir chocolate and butter until they melt. Add all other ingredients, mixing well after each addition. Cook for about two minutes after adding the eggs. Remove the glaze from heat and let cool.

Spread each layer of the cake with frosting and arrange the cake. Spread the top layer and sides of the cake with the chocolate glaze. Refrigerate for a few hours before serving.

Bonn appetite!

Adventures of an On-Line Seller
Continued: Blogs

I started my blog in July, 2006.

To be honest with you, I did not know what to do with it for a while. I understood that a blog has a great business potential, and that was my main reason for starting it. After all, the fact that Google likes fresh content while blogs provide the freshest content possible is really easy to grasp. What I did not understand is how to make my blog interesting for real people, not just some search engines. I am not a chatty person by nature, and coming from the academic and industrial sectors, I believed that mixing personal and professional stuff is never a good idea. Turns out, I was completely wrong on that...

Anyway, I've compiled a list of blog ideas for artists, not in any particular order (I am using this list myself and happy to share it with anybody interested):

- Pictures of your new works;
- Pictures of your studio;
- Stories about work in progress;
- Cool tools and supplies;
- Stories and pictures from your customers;
- How-to about anything and everything related to your craft, business, or anything else you care about;
- Your thoughts on any topic related to your area of interest;
- Promotions of fellow artists;
- A giveaway (both for fun and for business promotion);
- A place for advertisement (see my Project Wonderful spots on the right);
- Stories about places you visited – from walk in the neighborhood to a trip abroad;
- Favorite recipes;
- Things that affected you personally and that may or may not influence your art;
- Posts about family, pets;
- Reviews of your favorite books and movies.

More ideas?