hooray, the weekend!

I've been really busy this week getting quite a few little creations made!  I'm very happy its the weekend though, I can use some downtime ^_^

 My little gooberzilla monster stacks have been flowing out, they are so fun to make and create. I've noticed that several of the new ones are more expressive in their faces, its making me laugh quite a lot when I'm sculpting them.

 I wanted to share a few of the new gooberzilla's I have on my Etsy store with you, and a sneak peak at some bunnyzilla's coming soon!

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Cheers,

HMB

Etsy Treasury fun!!!

I've been so excited about the treasury feature that Etsy has, where you can make a grouping of items that you love and share it with everyone.  There are so many gorgeous treasuries, I get lost for hours sometimes just browsing through the rich colors and interesting art that so many creative people make.

I recently came across a great site, Craft Cult, that has a tool that makes this script allowing you to embed the treasury into a blog post, so now I'm super duper excited because I can finally share some of the ones that I've made here on my blog!!!

The first one I wanted to share, was of some very talented illustrators over at Etsy, who really capture the magic of childhood and the whimsical imagination of that time:





this other one is for the April Poetry Month, its based on a poem by Mary Oliver titled "Sleeping in the Forest"





those are the ones that I have made above, I do have the great honor of being featured in some treasuries made by others too! This is a most recent one, for spring that my Bunny Yeti was included in ^_^





Cheers, HMB

Gooberzilla's

I'm pretty excited, I've got 8 little creatures completed and ready for some furring which means:  New Monsters this week !!!  Somehow my idea of taking 2 days off last week turned into "this is nice, let's take six days off!"  and so, things slowed down quite a bit.   I've been working and planning on this fun Etsy store for about 3 months before I opened in March, without really any days off in that time frame.  I think once the pressure eased at launch, I finally felt my exhaustion and needed a little bit of downtime.

Creativity though, happens whether you are on vacay or not, so I did make several monsters and I'm really excited to complete them and share them with everyone.

I am going to be offering another monster sculpture to the tribe at Etsy, that will be a regular item. They are a trio of "Gooberzilla's" that are stacked on top of each other who enjoy the squashy companionship!   They won't be furred, but they will have texture details on some and others will not.  I love making these and they are a great in-between monster to sculpt if I am not ready to fur something, and don't have time to make a full monster.   I think they are really silly.

Here is the first one I am sharing, that I listed on Etsy today:

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Cheers,
HMB

oh Spring, stay stay stay!!!

My ideal scenario:  two weeks of sunshine, with each day gradually getting more and more warm!!!

Right now, spring seems to be a bit moody with blue skies one day and grey skies another.   Perhaps I just long for some consistency so I can catch a bit of wind beneath my creative wings!

I've been making some creations lately that are making me pretty happy.  I think I am developing a style that I didn't expect with some of the face sculpting, so the creatures are varying quite immensely at the moment.  I like that though, each one is a unique and original creation - no molds, no copying....just like us human's  ^_^

I've been featured in a few treasuries lately that are whimsical, I'm so pleased to be included in those.  My shop has also gotten a lot more favoriting this past week - that is really great.  Everything is going according to my idea of how I hoped this would unfold, nice and slow with a gradual following of folks.

If I was sold out of everything it would be rad, but I'd be scrambling to catch up and make things which would be incredibly stressful.  For me, I want it to be a fun profitable experience but mostly about having a space to create and share my art.....I'm going against the business mind here a bit, because I do value the experience rather than the outcome of it.

Good stuff !!    I saw today on Etsy's facebook page, that they are doing a celebration of April being poetry month.  They were asking folks to make a treasury based on a poem that they liked.  Of course, Mary Oliver's incredible poetry comes to mind immediately !!!  I was so excited, I made my treasury quickly and I'm so pleased with how it came out.

Here is a link to the treasury:  http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d9e2208dbbd8eef75191098/sleeping-in-the-forest-by-mary-oliver

and here is the poem I chose,  "sleeping in the forest"

I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
breathing around me, the insects,
and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.


Cheers,
HMB

Sunshine, THANK YOU!

Things in monsterville are chilling out for the moment.  I'm slightly past my halfway milestone marker,  I have 29 little creatures that I can say are now done.  I'm currently furring several ones to be posted up in the next few days, I'm happy that I've gotten as far as I have.

I had a funny idea that I'm going to test out with my little miniature monster faces, of stacking them up as a group sculpture.  I'm going to give it a whirl next week and see how the creativity flows.  The only thing with all the warm sun, is that the temperature rises and my hands are warmer....not so bad, except it makes the clay I'm working with extra soft.  One slight misplacement of a finger or fingernail or tool and I've just lost something I sculpted. I can't tell you how many times in the beginning of doing these I lost a face shape because I wasn't paying attention to where I was holding the creature  >.<    I am much more alert when sculpting for the most part, its really critical to be constantly awake to where you are placing pressure on an unbaked creature.

The good weather has also brought upon my itching to get into spring cleaning, and I couldn't resist organizing my art area today.  I've noticed that there are key materials I keep reaching for and pockets of "dead space" in my shelf areas where I rarely venture to grab anything.  I switched everything around so that it flows better and what I'm using a lot is properly grabbable.  Just small changes but a huge improvement for flow, I'm so pleased.

I've finished this little Troll guy - to me he has a sort of sheepish and "ruh-roh" kind of look that is about to bloom.  The photoshoot was funny, my cats think I'm so strange now for putting the little creatures next to them these days.  Fun stuff!!

All is well !

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Cheers,

HMB

Grey Sky and Sun

I think its perfectly good and fine to take naps on a grey Saturday!  The weather has been so odd, we had near 90 degree weather for three days after more than a week of rain and grey, and today it is overcast again.   My whole life seemed jump with joy in those sunshine days, but here come the clouds and I'm napping!!  With so much to do !!!  >.<

The good news is that I've got 5 little wild thing creations made that just need to be furred, and one I posted up at Etsy yesterday.   I'm still working towards my goal of having 50 pieces up, and trying to be more consistent with listing one a day if not every other day.  The thing I like about furring the creations is that even if I'm weary or tired its a ball I can keep rolling down the road, unlike making the faces with takes a much steadier hand and concentration.

I also need to get back to making some more greeting cards and tags, but I've just not been able to juggle the time for that yet.  Oh ya, and networking, I've still been unable to carve out the time I need to manage all the PR tasks yet to take on.   I prioritized the making of the "the 50" before all else.....but now that I'm a few weeks into that priority I'm re-thinking this strategy.

Anyway, those are the shenanigans that I'm up to in managing all of this!!  Exciting stuff, I know.  =P

Here is the troll I posted up recently, I wish the color had come out a bit more accurately. Even with photoshop color correction I wasn't able to fully capture the hue of green that he is.   I had the most fun taking the picture with my cat Chubba.  I was giggling in between photos, which I had to calm down so I could hold the camera steady.

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Cheers,

HMB

I love the Yeti !!

I've been following a really fantastic blog for all things Yeti for a few year's now called "I Love The Yeti".  I wrote to the owner of the blog, and let him know all about the HappyMoonBelly Yeti's and was beyond thrilled because he liked my little creations and posted about it in his blog!!!!   I had a big grin on my face the whole day when I got the news.  Its just one of those things, the little idea that one day it would be rad to make something cool and be in that blog, and I am so happy that it became a reality.

^_^    

Here is the post:  http://ilovetheyeti.blogspot.com/2011/03/clark-yeti.html


Hooray for Yeti's !!!!!!!

Avant Garden Auction 2011

I'm so pleased to say that I'm going to be in an upcoming gallery showing, the "Avant Garden" !!  Its an art auction for my favorite local farm, Veggilution, a non-profit that is raising funds for its continued growth.  I've volunteered a few times on the weekends at this place, and its a wonderful awesome garden to learn and participate with.

They sent out an email to folks on their list quite a few months ago, a call for artist's who might have something to donate.  I jumped in right away, because I knew it was going to be for a good cause and a great opportunity to share some art.

The event is happening April 15th, you can read all about it at the links provided above.  I've donated a color pencil & ink drawing that I framed, titled "Nature's Friend"  and a small sculpture, appropriately titled "Veggie Monster"  ^_^

here is the Veggie Monster going up for auction:

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and here is the drawing I completed and framed for the auction  ^_^

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its started off looking like this, its the scanned in version:

and then I put in a few bits of color and it started to look like this:

and here are a few details of the bird and the girl after I finished it:

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I'm really pleased how the frame came out, I applied some painted details and leaves to it:

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I'm now diving back into making more creations, there is so much to do !!!!!  I need more hands and a clone to help me fur my creatures and pull the graveyard shift for me so I can double time it up :D

Fun stuff !!!

Cheers,

HMB

The fun of experimenting !!

Sometimes an idea arrives and you must follow its song of creation.  Lately I've been getting all kinds of inspiration and images for dragons and cats.  I have no idea why, but its a challenge for me to creatively pursue in how I could express the idea in my imagination.

What I see inside is a dragon with multicolored scales, and lots of mixed media elements for the fur.  For this first try, I've used a polymer clay base and polymer scale applied onto it, with green tufted fur and multi colored wool.  It was a lot of fun to experiment with, and I think I now have an idea for what I'm going to do in a smaller sized version.  This dragon here is about 2.5 inches in height, not very tall but bigger than what I'm aiming for in my ideal version.

For my cat, I'm still playing around.  I wanted to do a mom cat and her kitten(s) and I also wanted to work with the dark brown polymer clay that I have.  I'm not sure if the face is looking like how I see it in my minds eye, so I'm going to hold onto this cat for awhile and make another few to see what develops.  I used wool fiber that I applied by hand in clumps of different colors.  ^_^

I did complete one item though, that I'm really pleased with how it came out.  Its a Wild Thing Troll Monster that I posted up on Etsy for sale today.  I am so pleased with how it came out, it was exactly what I was seeing in my mind with what I wanted to do, and I love the ears especially.   

Cheers

HMB

idea's and idea's and more idea's!

Lately I've been having so many ideas, now I just need sit down and make them!  I kept getting this idea for a little dragon so I'm starting to work on him, and then I have all the mother's day monster projects....and the goal to get 50 items up on my page ^_^   It all seems like a lot of work, and it is, but every day is one day closer to these ideas becoming reality in little creations.

I didn't fully realize what having the Etsy store might entail until it was happening, and there is a balance I need to find with promoting my work and networking, and making sure I spend that creative energy making my art.

I thought I had done a lot of research, but I wasn't aware you could join some of the Etsy information teams prior to setting up your store on your own.  Now I know, that those groups are available to anyone interested in an Etsy store (launched or not) and they are full of really invaluable information from veteran sellers.

One thing I learned is the importance of having 50-100 items in your store regularly.  Due to the high volume of hits the site gets in searches and visitors, your inventory and creations can get easily lost without a strong foundation of goods.  I launched with 20 items, which I thought was a lot for just starting, but it truly was not enough.

I had developed a business plan but I need to re-adjust that now and my expectations and timeline.  For myself,  I want this store to be the seed planted for future harvesting, so I am not going to get super stressed out about how things *have* to be right now.   Everything is an opportunity to learn and grow, including mistakes in starting out on your own!

My longterm goals are to have an established identity and place online with my sculpture work and to begin to attend some craft fairs for exposure.  I definitely see this all being a 5yr plan to reach full blossom, and that is a great girth of room to fill in!

For now I really love my bunny yeti and want to share it !!  I think its turned out better than I had hoped, it makes me laugh every time I see how cute and silly it is.   The ears I created with wool using a needle felting technique:

Cheers

HMB

the waters of march...

I have been making some new little creatures, and learning a few new things about sculpting along the way. Sometimes its funny how you might be puzzling on how to change something and then all of a sudden it just hits you how whatever it is can be improved or done differently.  I love that about creativity and the process of art.

I'm trying to also figure out how to get my drawings on Etsy, what will be the best way to capture them digitally.  I've scanned in a few images and I've taken photos of them, but I'm not happy with the quality of it all yet so I'm going to delay putting a few up on Etsy for another few days until I can sort it out.

I also had quite a few new ideas spring into life in my imagination the last couple of days involving dragons, cats and door ledge wild things!

haha!  fun stuff  (""(  ^____^ )"")

I posted these two creatures up on the Etsy site for sale today:

And my song for getting by these rainy days is "The Waters of March" by  Susannah McCorkle





Cheers,
HMB

I have an Etsy Store!! Woohoo!

I'm on an adventure, and its pretty fun so far!

You know, its an interesting experience when you have been spending months working towards something, and it arrives and happens and then passes into a memory.  Now, I am living in the reality that I am an online shop owner, and that I have a responsibility and a commitment to this art path.

I feel as though I have integrated pieces of myself that were ideas of things, now its a living truth, and I am learning how I identify with being a shop owner instead of an aspiring one.  Anyway, challenging thoughts but good ones.  I feel like I am being stretched and growing!

I have realized a few cool things about Etsy that I didn't really know that much about now that I am participating with the site more.  First, they have a truly remarkable community!  Lots of neat "teams" of people who are there to connect with and talk about the experience with.  Veterans of the game so to speak, who have gone through the ropes and learned a few tricks.  That's a great resource and I am grateful to have found them.

The other thing is this amazing treasury type deal....its like a collage you can make of items you find on Etsy and make a personal bookmark "collection" for them.  You can be random, or you can make themes or color storyboards!  I had a tremendously huge amount of fun making mine!  I adore my Gypsy treasury and the pinks and celadon hued ones I made too.

I've also really learned some things about photography after going through so many listings of items in search of treasury things.  The primary image of your item, that is on the main pages, should really be more of a hero art shot than a literal representation of the item.   The other photos can represent size and direct view - but you need something funny to lure someone in, and that is a good shot for the treasury listings too with color etc.

Another neat thing I've learned is to browse the favorites of my favorite artists.  They have some amazing things bookmarked in their lists, and its a way to get exposed to more of Etsy without doing a basic search. I love it !!

I've listed a few more items with new pictures, and I'm so happy with the new stuff I've got brewing on my art table soon to be listed this week!  good times!  OH !! and I get to ship all the new stuff that was purchased on Monday so I'm really excited about my first "shipments"

good fun stuff !!  (""(   ^____^  )"")

zomg Etsy Store launch!!

wow!!      I have an Etsy store.

Once I finish going through the nerves I'm feeling, I think I'm going to be completely thrilled about it all.  Its so hard to be subjective to your own work sometimes, but I'm fairly pleased with how things are turning out.  I am still tweaking some photos a bit, I'm not 100% thrilled with how a few look but its a learning curve and I'm a'learnin!

I've joined several networking groups and Etsy Teams, which is ever so wonderful and helpful.  I really am excited to participate and get to know/support everyone who takes up this journey.  My newest thing is I have a Facebook page for my business!  That was super fun to make and figure out.  Facebook makes it pretty easy so that's really great.

There is still so much work I need to do, lots and lots of stuff.  I thought it was a lot of work to get to this point, but to improve and to share all the ideas I have I know there is so much to still do.  I like this current of energy I have right now though, I'm curious to see where it leads to.

Another thing though, is that I need to slow down.  I think in my haste to make the deadline that I've not fully experienced some things that I would like to process and think about.  Although an idea comes to me around 2am, I need to go slowly in the crafting of it more....that's where I'm meandering to in my thoughts.

I'm starving, I haven't eaten yet and I'm so tired but happy.  I'm going to forage out there in the wild for something yummy as a treat !!

Almost !!

Well, its almost time for the Etsy store launch and I'm faced with nerves, joy and curiosity about it all.  Holding this idea and dream for so long and then manifesting it with an actual happening is fun and challenging all at once.  Sometimes when I've had a goal that's taken hard work and effort and a long time to achieve crossing the finish line, the days that follow can be a surreal experience.

I suppose its akin to an idea finally merging from thought into your true life as an action and a tangible thing....creation itself!  What an interesting thing life can be!  I've had fun preparing and creating, and I look forward to finding out what lies around the bend on the next part of this journey.

Who knew!?

It seems so long ago that I decided to commit to getting my Etsy store up and running and dive deeply into my creativity and art.   I had no clue when I set out on this journey that it would take as long as it has, or require the kind of focus and energy it truly needs.  I had an idea mind you, of what it could be like, but the actual experience is far more demanding than I imagined it was.

First off, I realized that the work patterns and behavior I have in my regular 9-5 do flow into my work behavior when its for my own business.  That is a truly funny thing to see and to grow with!!  Who knew that I had such funny little habits ingrained my work behavior :-)   I've been having fun learning and challenging myself to do things differently with creating this art stuff.

Stumping me lately is figuring out pricing for my little creatures.  There is such a wide variety of thoughts I'm having about it all, but what it boils down to for me, is wanting to create art that is accessible and purchasable by a wide variety of incomes.  A lot of the times I go to Etsy and I fall in love with so many incredible and wonderful creations only to run against a price that I just can't afford or commit to buying.

I completely understand the art price, because making something by hand does take a significant amount of time.  In order to also survive financially and for collector respect, its justifiable that art pieces range anywhere from $40 - $300+.....however there is another experience I feel, having been in the shopper lane for so long, is that not a lot of people can afford that much on an original art item.  On the other side of the fence, my experience of those who can pay whatever the amount it is, they pay it...but there is a frugal nature to them that recognizes and celebrates a low price in whatever they are buying too.

When I ponder this subject, I have a thought that we live in a culture of high consumerism and we have a general pricing knowledge based on processed machine manufactured goods.  Another thought is that some people who are shopping just see the end result, they don't really understand the time and process of making the item that is involved so its hard to qualify the price tag. In this modern day of commercialism and things not made by hand as much,  there is a generic forgotten understanding of the hand-crafted goods cost.

Those are just musings, but as I approach the launch of my store and I'm tackling the tough decisions on pricing my creations I am thinking about the balance of worth vs. approachability to a wider pocket audience.  I'm leaning towards having my art be approachable and inviting for many diverse incomes to participate with.

This is a risky path I'm taking, I do see all the variables involved here that could negatively happen - but it could also be something with a great payoff and give me satisfaction that isn't based solely in monetary profit.  I think its more harmonious with my concept of the creative process too - I don't want my creations to be out of reach and just looked at, I want them in people's homes and on their shelves and in their office cubes making them smile or be amused.

So, interesting thoughts and new learnings are what are occupying my day's as well as getting ready for my Etsy store launch coming up on March 17th !!  Hooray!

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Cheers
HMB

Onwards!

I've been in full gear since the last time I posted, I'm pretty happy with all the fun creative projects I've been working on.  There were lots of Yeti Birthday's in February!!  Who knew that so many little creatures wanted to find homes.

I'm in the last stretch here with the Etsy store getting up and running. Right now I'm dabbling with the way I'm going to take the pictures and how I want to present it all.  Since I spend quite a bit of time on Etsy, I've noticed that the better the picture the more likely that you convey the charm of what you have made.   My biggest obstacles right now seem to be around lighting and getting the correct atmosphere for my little creatures - but I'm close to what I think my ideal is.

Here is a group shot I took today, that I am somewhat happy with, but I'll still be taking more until I feel thrilled with what I've made ^_^

More to come!

Artistic Adventures!

These last few weeks have been very busy for me, as I've been riding a creative current that has been very generous to my art.  Sometimes, its just like that!  The flow comes, and you just need to be in your art space with whatever medium you have and let it all pour forward!

I'm very pleased with the sculpture progress, I have lots of little creatures who will be looking for friends soon to adopt them! Here is a sneak peak of a few works-in-progress (there is still so much to do with them!!) :

I've also still been drawing a lot more, and have created these little ACEO art images with colored pencil & in

As always, there is more to come!  I'm so excited to see all of this start to arrive and come together, I can't wait until the Etsy store is up and I have established a nook for my art to be around to share!

Cheers

HMB

February Art Love Month!

I had some fun recently working on some drawings that I wanted to share.  My art ideas are never fully planned out in advance, I definitely enter into the art space with only a mood sometimes or a wisp of a thought about something.   Lately however, I have been trying to focus my drawings a bit more to have stories or action's occurring in them that are telling some kind of event or tale.  I can get stuck in drawing faces only or figures with ornamented outfits but nothing else really of significance in the scene.

These drawings I've done so far I'm really pleased with, I feel like I am delving into that space where I am pushed out of my ordinary lines.

The first drawing I've only just started on the girl, but she will be in a very lush and lovely garden near a stream/pond that has some koi fish.  I've always been drawn to Eastern style's so that kind of dress and costume is really fun for me to create.  Also, I'm partial to long flowy braids - however I'm still tuning my skills for drawing the "perfect braid" so to speak.

As you can see, its very bare right now:

Here is another stage, after I've added some more ornamentation to her outfit, and started the first color treatment for her skin tones:

Here is another stage, as I've begun to add some color to her outfit and the skin tone is more developed:

I'm excited to keep drawing this one, but I think its going to take me quite awhile to get it exactly the way I want it.  I'm trying to decide if I want to use some mixed media for the plants and incorporate some paint.  Right now this is just pen and colored pencil.

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Things took a dive into the water though later today, as I went into some Mermaid territory and found this sweet Mermaid sitting on a whale and having a conversation with her good fish friend:

Just getting started with some skin color applied and the fish bursting in color  - though the pictures have a yellow tinge due to my lighting...ah well !!  ^_^

A closer look at some details of her, after more color has been applied:

and here is a look at the finished ACEO (2.5x3.5) art card that I created with pen & colored pencil that I took with my camera (color isn't accurate): 

I've got 3 sculptures completed now too, that I need to get baked and furred ^_^ plus lots more ideas that are coming forward !!

Cheers