Ring in the New Year News!
It is a time for reflection though. On what we did and what we want to do in the new year - new chances mode has been flipped on. So even though I don't make resolutions I do make a list of what I'd like to happen in the new year with my business and art.
I made my list of SEVEN NEW THINGS and thought I would share it with you because well, you are my friends and neighbors on this art journey. I really appreciate you being there!
#1 💻 This website has been behaving badly for me lately so I'm going to tackle an update to the design and functionality right away in January. Tech stuff can be a bear to handle myself, but this time I'm going to have to figure it out. Generally I've been able to hire someone to do it so I'm hoping that the support team at Shopify will help me thru it. If you see some settings and features have changed, or dont quite line up yet then that is why.
#2 🏫 Reintroducing myself to a top Gallery in Michigan was so exciting that I felt that I needed to open another website dedicated to just my art. Both jewelry and other artwork will be available there and though most of you are artists yourself, I'm hoping that you will be interested in the stories and new designs that I create in my 'spare time'. Yeah, right - who has any spare time these days?
#3 📈 Just when you think things are rolling along well they suddenly aren't. There are several parts to having an online business that are fulfilled by different providers that are available free (rarely now) or on paid subscription. In the last 3 months almost every service provider has decided to do a massive overhaul of their platform AND charge more for the service - with less support. Some require a complete reinstall of everything. So I have been looking for better services with a lower price tag and narrowing in on how to keep all the online parts working in the manner I want.
#4 📄 There are also some features on my website that have changed and added that I will be exploring further so I can offer some new things to you in the coming year. Sometimes the website host just does these changes and then I go "what happened?" and need to research the changes and figure out how to optimize them to make your experience on my website better. Hoping the learning curve isn't too steep on these!
#5 🅿️ While everyone is either praising or crying over social media I have found that it just makes me cry all the time. It used to be a good place to connect, but not anymore. There still are some people there who look for information. HOWEVER I have decided that I will be using PINTEREST more in the future. It is really a search engine for finding information and learning and though you can connect there that isn't the primary goal of the platform. I was finally able to connect my website to them this past fall (after a year of trying!) so I'm excited to explore what else I can do there. FOLLOW my page there and you won't miss all of the new things I have in my mind to share. (Plus an enormous amount of eye candy to draw inspiration from with fewer of the crappy posts and commercial paid ads) Ahhhh…..peace!
#6 📕 Earlier in December I released a new tutorial for the holidays. That was so much FUN! My head, and binder, is full of more ideas for creating and writing and sharing with you. My plan is to release a free PDF at least once a month and develop 1-2 projects once a month that will spark some creativity in your work. (But I've got a BIG project in mind that might take longer.) I promise to have some new designs to share, new ways to work with clay and lots of tips and steps to discovering what your own voice in making professional level art. I try not to be influenced by what others are making and doing so if you want something that ISN'T available out there…let me know! I'll see what I can think up!
#7 🎥 I'm not really shy, but doing videos hasn't really been my thing. BUT I'm told that is the way to best show the tools and projects that we have here. And I agree. SO I will be recording some short tips and tricks videos and how to clips so everyone can SEE how to use our professional tools and designs to spark their creativty. This is one place where I need some tech help, so I'm engaging an expert to make over my Youtube channel to make it more useful for me AND YOU!
I don't know how much I can keep up with this year. I get easily overwhelmed with all the constant tech changes and glitches. My intentions are to do as much as I can to bring us up to par with all the other tool sites and provide the very best resources to enable you to solve any clay problems both with techniques and designs you can use. Realize that for the most part I am on my own and I LOVE to get orders so that comes first in my day. SO I WISH YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR AND GREAT 2024 ALL AROUND!
(Did you know that the number 7 is the foundation of Gods' Word? The word 'creative' is used 7 times to describe Gods creative work! And that's only a start!)
