You come to a small village and stop at the local tavern.  There, a young lady entertains you, soothing your weariness with dancing and saki.  Late in the evening, she escorts you to your room where she helps you lie down.  You sink into a restful slumber as she strokes your forehead.

And you never wake up again.

According to the legend, the kunoichi were the female assassins.  They often posed as geisha and would lure their victims to sleep with entertainments and saki.  Once the victim was asleep, they would take their long hair sticks and plunge them through the eyes, into the brains.

So, naturally, I’ve been calling my hairsticks “Kunoichi fashion”.

This time, we were talking about my packaging and how I was trying to establish something that pretended to be a brand.  As I was commenting on how I had been working on making everything look kind of uniform and professional, he told me about a comment that he had heard that he had to step in and correct.

He had heard a couple of women arguing about my work.  One of them had told the other that I made everything in the booth and pointed to me (I had been working with another customer at the time).  Her friend had said that it was obvious that I imported everything – look at how slick the packaging was.

My husband, being the wonder that he is, stepped in and correct the assumption and pointed out that I spent a ton of time designing, printing and assembling the packaging.  She denied it vehemently, and he had to point out that anyone with a slight clue in graphic design could do it (and I wasn’t even all that good!).

This is a kind of a sore point.  Why is it that some people assume that if somethign is put together properly and well, that if someone spent some extra time making it more appealing visually, or tried to package it right, that it is not actually made by the artisan?  Hand made does not need to mean that it is badly made.

Hand made is just that – made by hand.  It is a mistake to think that an artisan is not making it, just because it has a professional appearance.

I explained that there was a LOT of thought that went into each one, and that he would be shocked at some of the failures.  We got to talking about what I did, and I started pointing out stuff, like how I would count the links on the chains, or how I preferred to use the dragon charm for bolder colours like red or purple, but preferred to use the moon and stars charms with softer colors like blues and lavender.  I showed him some of the stress tests I would use, and how I would use different variants on a theme when a good one was found.

It got me thinking about the things that don’t make it.  And it got me thinking about one of the more fun ways to get an idea – throwing things together until something hits you properly.  Sometimes, you just have to play with texture and color and see where it leads you.

In fact, while I didn’t tell him this, that’s actually the biggest part of finding new designs.  For every one that makes something good, there are any number of ideas that were not good or workable.  For every time that the right colors work together, there are a bunch of color combinations that just don’t work.  For every charm that I find that works perfectly, there are a ton that won’t.  For each pattern that can be used, there are a ton that just won’t make it.

And for every idea that works, there are a million that don’t.

I guess that there is no real point to this, other than to observe that when a good idea finally hits, you should run with it.

http://www.somersherwood.com/?p=126

The article itself doesn’t really state anything that is different from my personal experinece, nor does it say anything that I, myself have not heard before.  However, it is succinct, well written, and makes a valid point: There is a very different market and approach between handmade and the stuff you get in the store.

While the message is dead-on, and one that I’ve also been preaching for a while, there is one part of it that surprises the living daylights out of me: the vitriol that is exhibited by some of the posters.  There are those that apparently believe that the artist doing what she is doing is somehow ripping people off, and should be stopped.

This is an attitude that most every artist and artisan has experienced at least once (if not dozens and dozens of times).  And I’m trying to figure out why it has to happen.

Using the posters example of the hat that she made:  she charges about $150 for it, crochets it, and uses some really good materials for the base.  However, in her story, the person she talks about is disgusted by the price and is hideously rude about it.  Additionally, there are posters that are just as rude about her hat.

Now, I get that not everything is to everyone’s taste.  Honestly, that hat does not appeal to my particular sense of style, so I would not buy it for myself.  However, if it were the right thing for the right person, then it would be an option.  And, if I do not want to purchase it, THERE IS NO ONE OUT THERE FORCING ME TO DO SO.

Read that again.  If you do not wish to purchase something that someone is selling (at least in the handmade category), there is NO ONE FORCING YOU TO DO SO.

The thing that is puzzling me the most is why someone that does not like something has to take so much extra time to make sure that the artisan knows that they don’t like it.  This is not someone writing a review of something because it was bad – this is someone deliberately taking extra time to talk trash about something that he does not know about – and about something that is not hurting him in any way.

Maybe I’m being a Pollyanna.  Maybe I spent too much time writing this up.  You tell me.

Oh, and go read the post in its entirety before you flame me.  If I am going to be roasting, I would like it to be with a good reason.

All earrings from Pan-Gaia Designs are made with surgical steel hooks, so most people can enjoy wearing them.  The earrings themselves will contain a variety of materials, all balanced to create something beautiful.

One thing that I have learned is to love overcast days.  When a day is overcast, the shadows are bled out, and so pictures are easy.

The other thing is a love of the Photo Studio in a box.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=photo+studio-in-a-box&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=8038965437&ref=pd_sl_1p09abwmd2_e

One of these things was given to me by a dear friend, and it is making it so much easier to do stuff – especially taking pictures of the small stuff.

Now to learn a ton of Photoshop.

Thursday

- Rode with Bad Wolf Trading/Those Anime People/ Meauho – Sleeping baby, nice ride, rumble, rumble, rumble – What’s that smell? Eww! Emergency flashers mean we are having issues you idiot in the Lexus! Flat tire on trailer? Crap. Limp, limp, limp.  Off to side and call emergency services. An hour? OK. Apprentice looooooooves baby.  Baby eats truck. Apprentice feeds Meauho.  Trailer fixed. Off to Galveston!
- Arrive at show – where unload? OK, thanks.
- Her name is not Cheesecake.
- Unload.
- Her name is still not Cheesecake.
- Grid is annoying.  Someone give me new foot.
- Thank you, but her name is still not Cheesecake.
- ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Friday

- Holy excrement they have good coffee at the hotel! And good food! How’d that happen!
- Chinese hell of hanging things.
- More hanging things.
- Are we there yet? More hanging. Are we there yet? More hanging.
- We open in ten minutes. Craaaaaaaaaap!
- People!
- Sell, sell sell.
- See, see, see.
- Take a million pictures.  Butterfly and The Curse of the Golden Flower and Steampunks and Cosplay and SuperHeroes.
- Zatana!
- More pictures.
- We close in five minutes! About time. I’m tired!
- Quick inventory – I sold new things? Duuuude!
- FOOD DAMNIT!  And the hotel STILL has good food.  Wow!
- ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Saturday

- Gruh? Wrgraphaplip? *Coffee* English language option engaged.
- More sales. More pictures! More sales! More pictures!
- Total fangirl squee at the dragon!
- Lots of stuff happening everywhere.  Tons of pictures.
- Met peeps.  Met models.  Met an entire airship of wonderful loonies who are fun and happy peeps.  Life is good.
- Husband!
- I’m out of the new item? When did that happen?
- You know what? The intern is scary good at this.  Promote intern to apprentice.
- Pictures! Impromptu photoshoot of stuff and stuff and things and stuff. Discovery of relation of cameras to sales.  Hrmmmmmm
- Five minutes everyone!
-  ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Sunday

- I don’t wanna gedup.  Shan’t! Can’t make me…..oooooohhhh, coffee.  Well, OK.
- Sales, pictures, sales, pictures, sales, pictures.
- Pre-order booth for next year, damnit!
- Five minutes!
- Collapse into pile of human jello while husband takes down booth.
- Ride home and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Seriously, as tired as I was when it was finished, it was a brilliant and fantastic time to be had. I cannot wait until next year!