Viewing Etsy Purchases by Seller -- Why is This Not an Option?

Little side-gripe here, but I think a long overdue request of Etsy.  I think that buyers should be able to pull up purchases, by seller.  Why is this not a thing?  I can go into my purchases and do a search,  but not by seller, only by keyword in the item's listing title.  Big help.

Being a designer/artist who uses tons of imagery and illustration who has been purchasing artwork for over 15 years, the amount purchased is huge.  This means that I have indeed bought images twice, and even three times without realizing it.  To ask buyers to scroll through 150 pages of purchases is cruel.

Now when I find something I like, I have to go to my purchases tab and do a search using a keyword from the description/title of the art I am considering buying to make sure I haven't bought it before.  WHY???

Or, how about this, you add it to your cart and the software tells you you have purchased it before and when you did so.  How's that for a novel idea? 

Come on Etsy. Be a help to your buyers!

The Annoyance of AI Art

 Where to begin?  Okay, I cannot stand AI art.

It's just 'off'.

Being a jewelry designer and artist, the bulk of the items I make my pieces with use beautiful old images and illustrations from eras gone by or new beautiful artwork of living artists.  I showcase their work and give them credit in the listing or buy licenses in order to use it in items in my Etsy store (just so you know).

Then along came AI.  I cannot seem to get away from it.  Even artists that I have been buying from for years have seemingly succumbed to the attraction of letting the computer fill in the holes, or worse, let the computer do it all!  LOL

I am going to show some of the images so that you can understand what I'm talking about in case you don't already see it yourself.

At first this image looked beautiful to me.  I loved the colors, the details on the bird and of course, the flowers.  But look closer.

Look at the bird's feet, or lack thereof.  look at the leaves on the bush, take a long look at the petals on the flowers.  They are nothing more than suggestions of things.  Like they have been put into a blender and then haphazardly blotted onto the picture, just to give us the vibe of what the artist wanted to get across.  I cannot stand it, and it is everywhere.  For me, it's a deal-killer.  It's a deal-killer because I make jewelry and jewelry components highlighting the beautiful imagery.  I want people to look at the images as focal pieces because they are so pretty.  But this....no.  The more I look at the image above, the more I dislike it.

The pretty teacup stack!  Or at least I thought so initially.  And like a fool, I bought the clipart before taking a really close look at it.

I love the seemingly pretty detail on the teacups above, but again look closely.  Look at those cup handles!  Are you kidding me?  How could this be used as the focus for anything without making somebody think something is wrong.  Ugh.

And lastly in this discussion.  The headless fish...

This is a legit sample.  How did this ever pass muster with this artist?  I have bought quite a bit of her artwork to used and loved it.  I do suspect there was some AI involvement in the other stuff I purchased, but the work was very well polished and pretty.  What happened?  Sigh.

So, I guess the purpose of this post is to let people know, beware of what you are buying, look at it very closely before pushing that purchase button.   Maybe by lack of sales these folks will get the hint.

I do wish that there would have to be a disclaimer from sites like Etsy that require sellers to disclose that AI was used in the creation of the piece.  Sure would save me bunches of time and not even click on the image in the first place.

It certainly makes me appreciate the older vintage stuff that is out there.

PS I guess the clap-back response would be to say, make your own, but it's a bad defense for poorly made artwork that is put up for sale and like I said, I love showcasing nice artwork in my jewelry.  Also, in a nod to the people peddling this stuff, they are not being misleading, there are many images that show the errors.  Hence my suggestion to look very closely before buying any of it.

Hello Again!

Hold on, this a long post made up from several drafts that were never published.  There is so much to unpack!

In late 2022 I sold my house in Texas.  I had been wanting to do it for some time, but never took the plunge.  I finally got up the nerve to contact a realtor and let it go.  It sold in a week.  The market was still really hot down there thankfully and I got much more than I thought I would.  The big part is invested, the smaller has gone to some small fix-it type stuff that was put on hold.  That doesn't mean mama didn't get a goodie!  I took the big step forward and purchased......a......large 60 Watt Aeon Mira 7 CO2 laser.  OMG.  I still can't believe I did it!  It was supposed to arrive in January 2023 until I got hurt (as detailed in my next paragraph).

So, most of my self-promises regarding my new downstairs crafts room turned into not happening.  Laugh out loud!  But, I get back up on that horse and keep on going.  Shortly after the first paragraph of this post, I stepped onto my granddaughters Mermaid Barbie car (while my hands were full of boxes and I did not see it), and slammed onto my knee.  I was positive it was broken, but hey!  it wasn't.  I was out of work for 2.5 weeks recovering with a giant hematoma underneath my knee cap.  To this day, it is still there, slowly, very slowly resorbing and with luck it will be completely gone in another year or so.

So finally, in April 2023, my beautiful Aeon Mira 7 arrived.  And boy did that take some planning.  I had to hire 2 Men and a Truck for an hour to move it into the house, it weighed about 400 pounds!  She, "Jaxonista", is a beaut.

Fast-forward to today, May 2024 and I've been using my laser for over a year.  The thing is absolutely amazing and I feel as though every time I use it, I discover something else I can do with it.  Along with the  laser I bought a T-shirt press, dye sublimation printer, oodles and oodles of acrylic, leather, wood, rubber, mylar stencil material, the list goes on and on.  I have made so much and I get giddy just thinking about all of the new things I can make with it.  Obviously there are some things that cannot be cut with a CO2 laser.  Craft foam, anything PVC, including shrink plastic, and vinyl to name a few.  So the electronic die-cutter, my KNK Max Air, is used to cut those.  But, I find that I RARELY use it and the couple of times I went upstairs to cut some shrink plastic, I had to remember how I did it!  Scary!   Especially considering I had used that thing constantly since 2012.

I really cut off a lot of the detail from the original drafts I had typed because the time sequences and verb tenses were off and would have required too much editing.  

I have made tons of wood jewelry, acrylic jewelry, polymer clay jewelry (using stamps I cut from rubber), you name it.  It's so damned cool! 

I really hope I can do more to keep this blog going with more consistent updates.  Ta ta for now.

Happy 2023!

 Where has the time gone?  To the past, that's where!  My hope is that 2023 brings new opportunities and much happiness for all of us, for the world in general.  It's what we need.

In hindsight, 2022 wasn't such a great year.  My creativity sat at an all-time low along with my motivation and that is just plain sad.  In my last post, dated 7/2022, I mentioned how stagnant things had become and how I felt like I was trying to do too much and that was pretty much right on target.  I feel like that at the onset of the pandemic, and an influx of extra money, I spent feverishly (stimulating the economy which was the goal), buying so many things that I had put off purchasing, so much so that it was overwhelming, and still is.  I joined multiple monthly bead subscriptions, clay subscriptions, Skillshare, etc.  It got to where all I'd do is unpack stuff and put it up to use sometime later, which to be frank never happened.  Or watch videos on how-to while never putting the how-to to work in practice.  What a freaking waste!  My answer was to cancel the monthly subscriptions and take stock.  That lasted for over a year.  I pared down to one clay subscription, while still keeping Skillshare (which I have found to be such a welcome and useful resource and I highly recommend to any who seek training in many subjects).  But even Skillshare, with the classes I signed up for, took a ton of time to complete and I was signing up for so many of them! But, what happened is I filled up my little 12x12 crafts room.  Everything is in tubs/containers, but they are stacked, double-stacked, etc.  It's really become quite an unbearable situation and I find that when I go there, I get mind-blocked and can't wait to leave.  Seriously, things were so much easier when my only medium was shrink plastic and that was my sole focus; I was a truly well-oiled machine.  Design, print, cut, bake, assemble, list, sell, mail, do it all over again!  I dabble in everything now, which is great, but accessing my supplies has become arduous and limiting.  I walk away constantly.

The past 2-3 years, I have not made any resolutions (or I prefer to call them self-promises).  This year, I did.  I began a healthy eating plan in August and have removed 23 pounds since then, that promise will be carried into the New Year with hopes that by April, another 23 pounds will be gone.

My next promise is to stop spending so much money on things I'm not going to use any time soon and to spend more time SAVING it.  I think the pandemic spurred fear into all of us with supply chain issues and everyone camped at home looking for something to do with all of their free time; buying up every bottle of paint and brick of polymer clay.  LOL. Only recently have polymer clay supplies returned to their former abundance.  It has also created an entire population of polymer clay jewelry designers who, for those who have worked with polymer clay for a long time (I am not a long-time polymer clay artist so I think I'm included in the newbie classification), is not all that welcome.  I never really gave it much thought, but I have seen several posts by seasoned, long-term artists who lament the influx of quickie earring and necklace makers who don't spend much time making their designs...  I guess I would be considered one of the new comers...

Promise three is to seriously knuckle-under and get my crafts room squared away.  My daughter would call me hoarder of sorts.  But really it's in the crafts vein, and that would be true.  It is also a multi-pronged issue.  There are several things working that are keeping me from moving forward.  Number one, the room I wish to move everything into is full of junk.  We live in a very big house where all of the rooms are not used.  As a result, they have turned into storage areas for this and that.  So the room I wish to move into, is full of this and that and it needs to be cleared out before I can even begin to move it.  This leads into a long list of things that must be done BEFORE I can use the room, and it is going to take time.  My hope is that by June, I'll be in the room.  It may not be completely finished, but it will be functional.  The room is great for crafts because it has only one door and one window, leaving me lots of wall space.  Our downstairs has 9 foot ceilings and allows for cabinets that are taller than normal.  my hope is to have at least two of the walls equipped with tall cabinets (second hand cupboards) to hold so much of my stuff and keep it dust-free at the same time.  I'm not sure about the under cabinets.  I love the popular drawer units at Ikea for their quality and versatility, but I would also love to have base cupboards like you'd see in a kitchen.  I know that I want the 'counters' in the room to be 30" deep which allows room to have items sitting at the wall while still allowing enough table top work space.  I may upload my diagram as a rough-in of what I want.  I'll go more into that later.

Promise four is to stop complaining so much.  I have tuned into a lamenting complainer and it's grating.  How did I ever become such a griper?  Does this come with age? It's energy sapping and negative and just plain bad.  I have already put turning this around into practice and when I find myself drifting to that, I consciously stop myself and turn my thoughts to something positive.  It is going to take time to turn the trend of being so critical, but I know it can be accomplished.  Looking on the bright side feels good and it's uplifting, why is it so easy to do the opposite?

Promise five, pare down into reasonable chunks the things I'd like to do/learn.  I have overwhelmed myself with 'all of the things I'm going to do' and it has been debilitating and fruitless.  Too much of everything and in the end, nothing is accomplished.  This leads to promise six...

Promise six and this is not a MUST but a TRY TO.  Learn how to use my Olympus Pen camera I bought during the pandemic.  LOL. It's a nifty little digital SLR and I need to give it the attention it deserves.

Okay, so that's it.  Have a happy new year.  365 opportunities for something better.

The Grip of Artistic Block

I’m not really sure what has happened in the past year, but my motivation and lack of focus has brought this locomotive to a near-standstill.  I could site multiple reasons for this:  New grand baby in the house, a small health scare, overly cramped crafts room, COVID-19, being fed-up with poor quality shrink plastic, dismay with Etsy, etc.  But I’ve never gone so long in-between making items and getting them listed.  Initially, I blamed the photography, because that is what I thought it was, but it clearly is not the picture taking.  I have been in this holding pattern for a year, no, closer to two years.  This year, my sales on Etsy have topped $190.  That is what I used to net in a week!  LOL. And the thing is, I don’t seem to care.  What does that mean?  Am I out of love with making jewelry?  Am I trying to do too many different types of media? Has my motor died?  I just don’t understand it.  It’s bewildering and I miss just making stuff and getting it listed for any who might like it.  My idle time was spent feverishly sketching ideas on paper and giving it a go when the opportunity arose to sit and make it.  I think possibly it may be that I have branched out into trying new media like polymer clay, recycled tin, and cardboard, but even then I don’t know.  I feel like I make something and then don’t list it because I feel like nobody will like it.  Isn’t that weird?  I never used to care; just list it and keep on creating!

Forgive me if I’ve bellowed about this in any of my other posts, I’m just really quite out of sorts right now and trying to find some direction.  Putting it in writing might help me get there.

Perhaps I should force my own hand and make myself list at least one new item on Etsy by the end of next week.  Just because.  Even if it is a simple pair of shrink plastic earrings or a simple cuff bracelet.

We shall see!

Polymer Clay, There is So Much to Learn

So, I have been making shrink plastic jewelry for decades now.  I'm a master of the craft, self-taught.  I can make just about anything I put my mind to with regards to that medium.  But now I've found recycled tin, cardboard, and polymer clay...  Unfortunately, I have not been able to dedicate the time to these new mediums like I did the plastic.  I have a new granddaughter who lives with me so much of my after-work and weekend hours are spent around her.  Which I love, don't get me wrong, but it really puts a kink into spending as much time as is needed to learn new mediums and to continue to develop skills.

To be fair, the tin is pretty much done.  I can place the images of my choosing onto it, and I can cut it and shape it so that's a done deal, same goes for the recycled paper stuff.  Both of these mediums can be very tricky and following the processes to the letter is an absolute requirement in order to have the results I am looking for, but are so worth the time involved.  However, the clay, that is a whole new ballgame.

Polymer clay is so insanely versatile that you never ever stop learning or thinking of things to do with it.  You simply do not.  There are so many techniques, styles, etc.  It seems every day I see something new that I'd like to try.  I have come across some absolutely stellar tutorials provided by clay artists and they have been worth every single penny spent to get them, which can get pricey.  If you are really lucky you may even have the opportunity to take a class with an artist in-person.  Because each time I buy one of these tutorials, there are one or two nuggets of knowledge that are worth their weight in gold.  Unfortunately, some of the tutorials I've bought are super rudimentary and not worth even the $5 or $10 spent to get them, but I guess how many brilliant nuggets are you going to get for next to nothing?  And if you are just starting out, even these 'beginner tutorials' might have some value.

I've noticed something though, it seems that polymer clay has sort of slowed down.  Many of the tutorials I've purchased are older (by years and even a decade or two), or the publications I've purchased are almost 10 years old and I've purchased them in print used or in digital format because the magazines are no longer in print or even in business anymore.  Another thing I've noticed is that Sculpey is having a very hard time getting their clay made since the beginning of the pandemic.  In fact, it's gotten steadily worse and I think it is due to hoarding by clay artists and enthusiasts.  I can hardly find Premo! or Souffle anywhere.  When I do find it, it is in colors that I can't use.  Sparkle, opal, glow in the dark, etc.  Seriously, man, it's getting really bad.  In a way, I wish Sculpey would just produce black, white, ecru, translucent, ultramarine, cadmium red, and cadmium yellow and produce a mixing chart so that you could make any color in the rainbow from scratch.  Oh yeah, add to that bronze, 14 K gold, and gold.  I'm not kidding.  I go to JoAnns and find 4 bars of white and ecru and pumpkin in the souffle.  Then I go to Hobby Lobby and find poppy seed in Souffle and 3 unusable colors in the Premo!  Meanwhile, Sculpey III is fully stocked which any jewelry maker knows won't work for jewelry making.  Even the new kid on the block, Papa's clay has dwindling supplies.  Although I got lucky and bought about $60 worth at an online retailer that apparently had not yet been discovered.  Score one for me!

I've watched multiple videos of people using Papa's Clay and it reminds me of Kato Clay, which I've had mixed results using.  Oh btw, Kato and Fimo seem to both be a little easier to get.  Anyway, Papa's Clay is crumbly.  You need to hold it in your palms for a minute to warm it up and then you can run it through your pasta machine without the crumbles, or so that is what I have seen in the videos.  It makes me wonder if that would work for Kato as well.  I have had Kato Clay, and even after running through my pasta machine no less than 20 times, it is still crumbly!  I have thrown it away before because of that.  The good news is Kato now sells, in one pound chunks, a new clay softener AND, drumroll, please.....A super-black clay to turn all of your scraps into usable black clay.  No more muddy and unusable leftovers with weird colors! Fimo I don't care for because if you get it wet, it starts to get pasty and gross whereas the Premo! is truly water repellant and takes image transfers well.

Speaking of image transfers, there are many image transfer papers that work that I've tried.  There are some at PolymerclayTV for a reasonable price and there are some others that use T-shirt transfer paper that works well.  You can even use nail decals that can be purchased for pennies on Wish.  I love working with images so these are a big one for me.  You can also do transfers using water or heat, just do a search online and you'll find multiple videos for both.

I've really been trying to concentrate more on textures and surface techniques with the goal to make the charm look like it is kiln-fired clay or porcelain with glaze, and these are not so easy to come across.    Well, I guess the textures are, but the surface techniques using paint, ink, alcohol, waxes, sealers, etc are not easily found, and let me tell you, some of the clay I have seen is crazy amazing and leaves me wondering:  How'd they do that?  Apparently, sadly,  nobody wants to share what they've learned (because they have worked hard to figure it out).  Can you blame them?  No.  So I keep looking for clues and keys and any hints of how the spectacular surface effects are procured.  This is where my time constraints and lack of available clay seriously hinder me.

So here is my advice.  If you see a result in any medium you like, dig, dig deep, and maybe even ask a question of the artist to see if they can help or steer you in the right direction.  Watch videos, read articles, purchase tutorials, and purchase books and magazines.  Take notes.  Take a chance, buy some things you think *might* work, and give them a try.  Use things you already have and see what happens.  Truly some of the best techniques were discovered through happenstance and giving something a go.  This is most likely where I'm headed for the kiln-fired look I've seen on some pieces.  Some of it is simply amazing and looks like kiln-fired clay.  Don't ask me why I'm stuck on that look.  Most likely because it is what I would wear and that is the best place to start.  Make jewelry you yourself would wear.  That way, if you don't sell it you can still wear it!

Inkjet Printers and Ink Refills with Almost No Ink in Them

 Waaaay back in the day (late 1980s and 1990s), when you bought a new inkjet printer, it came with ink cartridges that were full, there was no such thing as a 'starter' ink cartridge.  They were full cartridges and generally, they lasted a good long while before you needed to buy a new replacement set.  Unfortunately, in the late 80's and early 90's, the color cartridges were combined, so that if one color: cyan, magenta, or yellow, ran low, you would have to replace them all.  But in the mid 90's to mid-2000's or is that the mid-2010s?, they finally got smart and started making color inkjet printers with individual color cartridges.  This meant you weren't wasting ink, AND, each individual refill cartridge was much cheaper (back in the 90's it was about $9 for an individual brand-name cartridge).  These cartridges were also full, at first.  There was no "regular" size and "XXL" size.  Just one size that was full.  Fast-forward to the later 2000's to the present day, and the printers come with cartridges with almost no ink in them.  I am not kidding.  I don't even think they are 1/8 full.  What's worse, the 'regular' size replacement cartridges, are probably only 1/2 full when purchased.  If you want a cartridge completely filled, you must buy the XXL size and they are very pricey.  I have a Canon inkjet and I love it, I have used Canon printers for a very long time.  But, the inks don't last and replacements are ridiculous.  A regular size ink set will set you back $60 which wouldn't be so bad if the ink lasted, but I can print 10-15 color pages and the ink is GONE.  Being fed up with it I finally bought some after-market cartridges.  Two FULL XXL sets for $55.  And the cartridges are CLEAR so that you can actually see how much ink is in them (they are full to the brim).  Now I know why Canon's name-brand cartridges are black.  So that you cannot see a thing.

Epson has some awesome Ecotank printers.  You pour an entire bottle of ink for each color and can print until the print head falls off!  I think there is another brand that has done something similar.

I bought my ink yesterday from Amazon and it was delivered today.  The brand is EZink and their reviews were over 1100 5 stars so the ink has got to be decent.  I hope it is and I hope it lasts longer than 2 weeks.

That's it for today's gripe.

In other news, I have been digging into polymer clay the past few months and have completely ignored my Etsy store.  I have made less than $500 so far this year compared to $4500 by this time last year and right now I don't care.  I am not liking Etsy much and don't feel like giving them 20% of my profits.

-Peace-out