Changes

I've been meaning to get back to this blog layout and change it up a bit, and I finally did!  I loved that grassy version with the cute dandelion but I found it to be too generic to keep permanently.  This new layout is also very simple and plain, but I think it gives more room for my art to stand out.

I'm exploring some more personal graphics to add in, but that's going to take some time to decide and design so I'm going to wait.   There are some really great tutorials out there, I enjoy learning new things and trying out new styles.

My little monsters and I are in a creative show and tell these days.  I've been sharing with more and more friends what I'm doing so they are getting in quite a lot of travel time!!  I am on the hunt for the perfect monster carrier, so I don't have to fret so much about them getting hurt amongst all the adventuring.

In the meantime, I want to share this fun little birthdayzilla monster that I made for a favorite customer of mine as a thank you gift, I think he is ready to party - don't you?   I look forward to making some more of these guys for my Etsy store very soon!

Cheers,

HMB

the sun is out this week....

Hello!!

I've been thinking a lot lately how much I talk about the weather, but as a creative person whose moods are influenced by the weather I think its less random a topic.  I thrive on days that are bursting with sun, it motivates me and pushes me into action.  When its overcast out, I tend to be more pessimistic and indrawn for some reason.  Unless its a proper Autumn, when those days are so lovely after the dry and long heat of summer.

This little wild thing I recently made reminds me of a nice cozy cup of hot chocolate.  I think if he was made of chocolate for real, he'd be awfully yummy ^_^  I'm really happy how he turned out....

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Cheers,

HMB

On a train....

Hello!

I had a lot of fun yesterday taking a train to San Francisco, its always nice to get out of a routine of driving everywhere.  I had little memories pop up of trips I've taken to England and using the trains there, and of when I used to live up in the north bay city area.

The whole experience was so much fun, I think I'm going to do it again soon!  I've been having this little thought about taking a trip in the back of my mind and its been an slightly irritating thought making me a tiny bit antsy. The train trip yesterday soothed that for me unexpectedly and really reminded me of how much fun it is to be on an adventure!

In monster wild things news.....I got a new friend !!!  He arrived in the mail the other day, and I adore him. here he is peeking over my laptop saying hello....(great artist on Etsy made this)

So much fun!!   I also listed a new troll who has a fondness for world peace:

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I'm pretty happy with the way he turned out.  I liked mixing the (faux) fur for his coat and his little troll peace sign cracks me up all the time.  I'm going to be working on some new wild things that are pointing in directions soon - which is always helpful for folks who have a funny scene they want to set up.

Cheers,

HMB

Sneak Peeks

Funny how I go from a week of taking some time off, to a week of complete busyness and lots of fun new creations made!!  I also got a lot of new ideas for some fun things, that I'm quite excited about, I can't wait until I finish making them and get the pictures up.

I found some new photo spots to utilize near my flat, that are very magical and monster whimsical.  I re-did some of the photo's I had of existing monsters waiting for adoption. I definitely believe in going back to older pieces and freshening the view people have on them with new pictures....besides I've grown in my understanding of light and how to use my camera too.  I found some good articles about picture taking on the Etsy Success blog, things about how to correctly choose the white balance depending on where you are taking your pictures.  I am definitely in the noob zone when it comes to taking pictures!!

I've listed a new bunny and a new little monster wild thing for sale at Etsy, here is what they are:

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and for a sneak peek, here is a new monster I'm going to list this week, a new Gooberzilla monster stack, and a look at the other bunnyzilla's that I made that will also be listed very soon on Etsy::

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YAY for creativity !!!!!!

Cheers,

HMB

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.