Featured Seller: Me

I have declared myself to be the Etsy Featured Seller for today.  It will be a hot day in January (I love Tanya Tucker) before I ever was officially picked so I have taken matters into my own hands.

1.  Give your name, location, affiliations, and personal information.
My name is Pauline.  I live in Kelowna, BC, Canada.  It is the main city in the Okanagan Valley, a gorgeous spot with lakes, sun, orchards, vineyards, and fabulous people.  I have lived here for 26 years, in three different houses, all within a couple of miles of each other.

I am poorly traveled, having been to Europe once, the States twice, and Alberta a couple of times (sadly, the only other Canadian province I have been to).

I live with my husband, Mike.  He's an equipment operator. We've been married forever. We have 2 dogs and 2 cats and 2 horses.  Mike says that means he should have 2 wives.  Just as long as I am not the cooking-cleaning wife!

2.  Apart from creating things, what do you do?
Alot of people wonder that since it appears that I do very little.  I can actually sit and watch grass grow or paint dry.  I drink beer, I drink coffee.  I read the newspaper.  I watch cake-making shows on TV.  I watch hunting shows on TV (they are quiet and have nice scenery and manly men).  I spend a good deal of time avoiding things I should be doing.

3.  What first made you want to become an artist?
Really, I'm not an artist.  I'm a technician, but more on that later.  I come from a long line of non-artists.  I do not have a great-grandfather who carved animals out of scraps of wood, no grandmother who made quilts from old clothes.  I do have grandparents who survived the Depression, fought in wars, pioneered on the Praires.  In doing those things, I'm sure they created things they needed.  My grandmother could lay out a spread for a threshing crew.

I guess I have always had a hankering to be artsy.  I really want to be a hippy.  I tried singing, but the lady teaching me declared me to be "her first failure".  I wanted to paint, which I did, but mostly abstract since I can't draw.  I did do tole painting (or decorative painting) for awhile because each project came with a set of instructions!  Hallelujah.

I don't think I really answered that question.

4.  Describe your creative process: how, when, materials, etc.
I make glass beads.  I have a studio (it is really just a corner in the basement, but I like to call it my studio) with a Mini CC dual-fuel torch, an oxygen concentrator, and a kiln.  And lots and lots of glass.  I use mainly Effetre glass from Italy because it is the cheapest.  I have just started to experiment with Double Helix glass, a silver-laden glass from the States.  It is expensive and is forcing me to think about selling price of the finished bead(s).  I do not make focals - lots of beadmakers only do focals.  I like repetition, there is something Zen about doing the same thing again and again.

I have a fulltime day job, so most of my beadmaking is done at night or on the weekend.  I usually work for about 3 hours or so at a session.

As for creativity, that is my weak spot.  I am not creative.  Glass is a wonderful medium as it is creative.  The glass looks after the creativity and I am simply the technician.  I can make a balanced bead with puckered ends (I am very insistent on puckered ends) and the glass does the rest.

5.  What handmade possession do you most cherish?
I panicked at this question.  I am not a stuff person.  I do not cherish (a strong word) things.  If pressured I would say recipes my daughter copied out when she was in grade 1, a sofa table my son made.

6.  Top 5 books, movies, music, websites.
Books:  I have read practically everything Nora Roberts has written (stop rolling your eyes!), essay-type books like The Last Lecture and David Sedaris.  Recently I am getting into crime novels and I am starting to like short books.

Movies:  I am not a movie person.  I cannot concentrate that long; I usually wander away.  But I guess Brokeback Mountain, Le Chocolat, Lord of the Ring series (except the one that is all about Gollum).

Music:  Country, like Sugarland, Steve Earle, Brad Paisley, Eric Church

Websites:  etsy of course, craftgawker, foodgawker (I only look at the photos, I never actually make anything), facebook, Pioneer Woman, Glass by Sarah, Beads by Laura.  I love the internet!

7.  What advice would you give to artists who are new to Etsy?
Relist every day.  Use the Categories.  Make sure you have Shop Policies.  Ship everywhere and don't ask people to convo you for a quote - they won't.  Crop your photos.  Relist every day.  Relist every day.  Be nice.

8.  What are your favorite features on Etsy?
I love the Shop Local.  And the Featured Seller.  And the forums especially Business and Etc.  I love the fact that it actually exists.

What new features would you like to see?
I would like to sort Sales by buyer.  I would like to put an item into more than one category.

9.  How do you promote?
Oh dear.  I don't.  I relist.  I tell myself that my buyers are pretty specific (jewelry designers) so there is no need to pester my friends, coworkers and relatives.  I do include a few extra beads with each order and I do ship for free.  I am not on Twitter, or Flickr, and I do not have a Facebook Fan Page.  I do not even use Google Base or Analytics or whatever that tracking hits business is.  I figure I'll just put time into creating beads.

10.  In 10 years I'd like to be...
This one scares me.  My bank lady seems to think I can retire in 7 years.  But then what would I do?  I mean really DO?  I can't make beads 24/7.  I don't enjoy traveling.  Gardening is simply work.  So what, really?  I didn't really have teenage angst, but now I have "in 10 years I'd like to be" angst.  Big Time.

I have a bit of a Bucket List though.  Sell my beads, from the back of a VW van, at music festivals.  Make pendants from beer caps.  Drink the beer to get the caps.  Skate down the Rideau Canal.  Go fishing (this will help get beer caps).

I got lazy and didn't make links to books, movies, etc.  I'm sure you can figure out where to go if you're interested.  Right.

A New Plan

After much neglect, I am planning to revitalize this blog with a focus on lampwork.  I enjoy everything about soft glass and beadmaking and love to talk about it, but no one near me really gives a hoot.  With this blog, I can yammer away and if you get tired you can just simply click on the little Close window.

Brilliant.

My first plan is to declare myself the Etsy Featured Seller.  On the Etsy home page there is always an interview with a seller.  I love reading them.  I dream of being selected as a Featured Seller but since the chances of that happening are slim to none, I have taken matters into my own hands.

In the near future, read about paulinabeads, the Etsy Featured Seller, right here!

Off the face of the earth

Well, no, I haven't disappeared, but almost.  My summer resolution (a new and novel idea) is to make a blog post everyday.  I will try to focus on lampwork and beads but I can't promise anything.  And I will try to include at least one photo with every post.  Good Lord.

It is summer and sunshine and heat in the Okanagan.  This means the beach and beer so I might get sidetracked now and then.

Stay tuned.

Faucets: You Probably Don't Really Care

So, I got the bright idea to paint two of our three bathrooms. I was smart and left the third untouched so I would have a place to pee and brush my teeth. Can't put nothin' past me.

One thing followed another and if I was painting, well, it made sense to update the lighting and the hardware. And the flooring. And the shower curtains (there's 2 in one bath, but that's another story).

Fine.

Except it wasn't.

See this faucet? It was misbehaving and being rather jerky when you wanted to precisely regulate the water temperature. Obviously we needed a new one. A poor faucet shouldn't be expected to perform flawlessly for 2o years, for heaven's sake.

Off I go to the big box home improvement (ha!) store. Have you seen the price of faucets lately?

Good God. A little piddly chrome one - not fancy brushed nickel or brushed somethingorother - is $45. And only one to choose from. Everything else is $89 and up. And most have two handles - you know the kind where it takes a scientific chart and 15 minutes to get the correct temp.

I much prefer the ones with the one knob. Anyway - I purchased 2 such faucets (45x2=90). I know! Talk about expensive.

Now, it doesn't end there. Go get a cup of tea.

Anyone who knows about decor, and god knows I do, all your hardware in the bath has to match - finishwise. If the faucet is chrome then all the towelracks, the toiletpaper thingy, the showerhead, the light fixture, the mirror...need I go on?

So, I wisely purchased chrome everything. I had to sit down on a display of toilet wax rings (yes! a display!) when I saw the prices of brushed metal stuff. Those brushing factories must be making a mint.

I haul home my haul. $380 worth (including tax). And this did not include mirrors, nor shower taps and heads. I had to draw the line somewhere, don't you think?

WonderHusband says: "Chrome? Isn't here something nicer? We had chrome when I was a kid. What about that brushed stuff."

Three days later we (he) installed all the chrome. WH went on a shopping trip and discovered....well, discovered what I had earlier.

Oh, so why the faucet photo you ask? Because we took back the chrome faucets! We're going to parlay that money into mirrors (WH doesn't know). WH fixed the old faucets. Now, that is reusing, or recycling or regifting, well something, but I know it's green.
He cleaned out all the grime and goop and calcium and now they slide around and get the correct water mixture like they were lined with silk.

Happy. Happy. Now I need to go scrub the old/new faucet. It looks like hell.

(ps: FabDaughter: if you read this - he fixed your faucet too!)

Well darn

So you wouldn't know it was near the end of March. Spring, even.

You can see that almost all of our snow has melted so to see more coming down was not helpful. Although it doesn't seem to be sticking.

See my horse just to the left of the tree? She really blends in. Her name is Baby and she's an Appaloosa (did I spell that correctly?).

She is demonstrating what she does best. Stand out in the pasture. Using the word pasture rather loosely of course. Don't get me wrong, she is a great horse. It is just that she's 25ish or so. I keep forgetting her age and it really isn't important; just to know she is old.

I stopped riding her last year because she really stumbled a lot out on the trail and that seemed dangerous for both her and me. She does have ringbone but the vet did say easy riding would be good for her.

She has the ability to fake disabilities though. She hates arena work so she instantly goes lame and has a real hitch to her gait in an arena. Take her out of the arena and all is cured. It really is annoying because you don't know real injuries from her fakes.

It really is an admirable talent though. She reminds me of those stories of women in the "olden days" who had mysterious illnesses and spent large amounts of time in bed. Fakers too, I'll bet. All to get out of something you don't want to do.

But I digress. Snow: I dislike you when you visit in late March. Just so you know.

A Saucy Gentleman

Doesn't he seem to be saying, "Whatcha doing there?"

My daughter was there (she snapped the photo). Well, so was WonderHusband. They were up in northern British Columbia, just south of the Yukon border. They had hiked and hiked one day last summer and amazingly found themselves sitting in amongst a group of mountain goats.

This is a male. It is hard to tell the difference between males and females. The males have horns with a slightly fatter base and their horns are gently curved at the top, while the female horns have a little kink at the end.

Incidentally, do you know the difference between horns and antlers? You can guess that I do! Horns are an extension of the skull bone and don't fall off each year. Antlers are not part of the skull and they fall off each year. There you go, now you know.

Apparently there were three of these guys that hung around for about 1/2 hour but then they got bored (the goats, not the sitting hikers) and wandered off to see if they could find something else interesting in millions of square miles of wilderness.

See what I've been doing...

Remember I said that I make glass beads?

Well, now I've got proof. I've been learning this fine craft for about five years, if you can believe it. I had limited time, given that I work 40+ hours a week at a day job that tends to leave me brain-dead at the end of the day.

Also, I had to slowly buy the necessary equipment: a dual-fuel torch, an oxygen concentrator, and a kiln.

Anyway, long story short, I have just recently felt brave enough to offer some work for sale. (www.paulinabeads.etsy.com - I'll have a link up soon)

I make mainly sets, meaning beads that all "go" together. I've been making these encased swirly beads like a crazed person. they really sent me into a Zen space.

Rather than offer them just as loose beads on a ribbon, I thought I would offer them on a stretchy cord. Is it a bracelet? Is it a loose set? Either! Snip the cord (I've heard that somewhere before) and transform into something else.

Look for these on Etsy in the coming days