A blog dedicated to the creativity and the challenges of making and designing with handmade art glass (lampwork) beads.
About This Blog
This blog reflects the thoughts, passions and struggles of a glass bead artist whose day job is manufacturing food safe rubber stamps. I share the joys and challenges of making lampwork glass beads and rubber stamping. ALL images here are copyrighted unless otherwise stated and may not be used without permission!Contact Holly
Several amazing sales venues have popped up on Facebook expressly for artisan lampwork! I always share my current sales on my fan page there. But you can usually find me on any of the following groups:
And the food safe rubber stamp shop orders are going freaking nuts! We got a WHOLE PAGE SPREAD in InStyle Magazine's September issue and have been flooded with inquiries as to custom food safe stamps. Just inquiries... but those take time to respond to and walk people through... because no one wants to READ.... sigh.
And we've also gotten a flurry of actual real paying orders from people who saw the magazine and realized someone owned the old Museum of Modern Rubber line! While this is exciting - hey, paying customers = great! - the idea of being in the hot studio indexing wood thrills me no more than striking up the torch during this heatwave... Not gonna happen!
So I find myself working splits... Up around 4 a.m. to get stuff done while it is kinda cool. 10 - 2 is shipping. 2 - 5 is nap time, 5 - 6 supper and chores, 6 - 8 hike the pup, blog for Glass Beads Daily, feed the pup. 8 - 12 - back to the shop to pack any orders, swim and bed.
It's a weird schedule but it's the only way I can work in this heat!
And since I'm so busy... Items from the trunk show have been filtering through the fan page daily specials, many at less than opening bid prices! But, I hope to be caught up and have some cleaned glass beads to list tomorrow!
I finally feel as if I'm breaking my dry spell. There really is no substitute for parking my rear behind a torch and "just doing it!" Yesterday was productive and dare I say it??? Yes! Fun! I finished two custom focal orders and got to play a bit... that weird one on the right will the be the subject of a future post!
I haven't been around much on this site and I thought I'd just give you a few Bittids* as to what's taking up my time besides trying to torch. (*One of my dyslexic brain's favorite words!)
I've been busy dealing my with about to be 90 year old mother. She lives far away and needs to move here and my sister's death has been a wake up call for both of us regarding "taking care of business."
I have TWO new websites in the works! One is live and one is still working out the kinks.
I've moved all my rubber stamping posts to the new live blog Food Safe Rubber Stamping. I realized the stamping posts were cluttering up my first love here and... there have a been a few "chefs" (quotes because they don't give a ____ if they get people sick!) spreading misinformation. So if you enjoyed those posts, you'll want to follow over there. I only anticipate one post a week...
I'm building a new beading site for glass bead makers and jewelry designers to promote one another. I'm hoping to go live with it in another week... stay tuned for details!
The taxes are FINALLY done but I need to start spring cleaning! My mess is making me nuts!
My pup is sick and needs surgery and my sales have been slow so I have 50 craft, memorabilia, collectible, Jewelry and BEAD auctions going on ebay. I will post more on that over the weekend. In the meantime, here's the link to all the auctions.
Be sure to check in tomorrow for Fashion Friday! I have a really fun color combo in the works!
I've been kinda quiet here, thanks to a "what was I thinking?" issue with my teaching schedule. Yes, folks, the gal to travels and teaches for a large part of her living managed to book herself 3 classes in 6 days! O.M.G!!!!!! It's no wonder I'm running around like a drunk chicken!
There ARE new beads... just no time to list!
Wanna take a ride on the magic carpet of my last week? Hold ON!
Wednesday - Wire Wrap I class... dashing out the door, check email. Spot an order from a customer who orders lots of fondant every year. Fondant...hmmm. OMG! FONDANT... of the truck load of supplies needed for cookie class, I have forgotten about fondant! Call vendor and place an order on the way to class. Whew! Thank you Universe!
Thursday - need to bake cookies for cookie class but enrollment keeps fluctuating. Distractions abound...phone calls from customers, emails about custom stamp plates, promoting a photo that's a finalist in a breast cancer awareness contest, monitor online contest promoting shelter adoptions. Decide to make use of ebay's last day of free listings instead of prepping for class. 71 items listed... Great.
Friday - MUST BAKE COOKIES! Bake enough for class + demo + 2 extra sets in case of walkins. Clean up and realize that Monday's class is small enough, one more batch might buy some downtime on Sunday. Land a custom bead order from repeat customer. Do the happy dance. Pack cookie kits to sell, load up all the store items, vases, silk flowers, money box, ipad, and kitchen tools. Get ready for bed. Realize there are no Hershey's kisses to make rosebuds for the cookie bouquets. Go to the grocery store in a bathrobe.
Saturday - Leave for class at 8:15 - Unload, set up store items, kitchen work area, flower arranging work area and painting area. Teach and sell. Clean up / load up and home. Beg the dog for a night off... No luck... maybe the hike will make the back pain stop screaming. No, it doesn't. Collapse in a puddle on the sofa. The phone rings. Can't move. It rings again and again. Look at caller i.d. IT'S A CUSTOMER. At 9 pm on a Saturday. WTH? Check messages...nothing urgent. Reprogram call forwarding.
Sunday - Back pain dominates. Breakfast with the bestie who's been out of town. Major exciting household finds at the thrift shop afterwards! Lunch with the hiking buddy. Feeling guilty, make the beads for the custom order. Check emails and messages and find that the same customer has now called about her non urgent issues a total of 12 times in less than 24 hours, leaving an actual message 7 times. On a Sunday! Decide to put her on the back burner until Monday.
Monday - Repack sold items in store kits. Call anxious customer. She adds LOTS of items to the order going out. Fell guilty for not responding on Sunday. Get angry for feeling guilty for wanting a little quiet time. Find out my photo won the contest! Pack orders, pick up assistant (the bestie), unload and realize 30 minutes before class on box of crucial items is missing - still in the driveway. So is the ipad... can't take credit cards. Race home - get to class 10 minutes late. UGH! Home by 10 - glad all classes went well!
Tuesday - Try to pack the anxious one's order, realize one item is out of stock. Call local-ish vendor to verify their stock. On the way out the door, the bestie calls - tickets to Dancing with the Stars TONIGHT! Spend an hour and a half running errands toward the vendor. Realize vendor doesn't have item you need and curse the whole drive home. Electrical contractor who has promised to show up for two weeks is at the shop... asking questions, needing input. Can't press rubber...he's in the way. No orders can ship and the studio call is now an hour earlier than expected! Race to get dressed in decent clothes and realize there was no lunch! Enjoy the show, dinner with friends. Home exhausted and ready for bed at 8pm.
This is the photo of my sister that won the Archipelago Botanicals Contest! So excited... she will be getting all kinds of goodies from them!
Today, shipping MUST resume in the shop! There's rubber to press... did I mention - I've manage to run out of rubber??? OY!
I hope to come up for air in a day or two... that is after shipping 10 packages of dog prizes from the Creekhiker blog and dealing with those 71 listings on ebay! Er - Maybe it'll be another week....
Mark you calendars! The Fall Virtual Rubber Stamp Convention will be held over on Rubber Stamp Chat Forum from October 25th - 29th!! If you into rubber stamping at all, you should be a member over there! Lots of discounts and specials!
Sweet Stampen will be offering 10% over there with an additional 5% if you are our fan page members! We also being offering discounts on select limited supply wood mounts ONLY on the RSC site. And... we will offer a sale for the first time EVER on select Museum of Modern Rubber images!
NOTE: In an effort to pay more attention to my day job, I'm starting a new Friday Series called Inside the Rubber Room. The subject matter will be rubber stamping but, I'm hoping my crafty audience will follow along!
For more years than I can count, I have sold two sets of 12 stamps each geared toward artists making jewelry using rubber stamps. These 24 stamps are the very first I ever designed myself. I created them after becoming certified to teach PMC on a lark and hating the rubber stamps used in class! I knew I could do better!
Blacker images are darker and not as deeply etched as images with more white in them.
After having them tested by many of the professional stampers, polyclay and PMC artisans I know from my Carol Duvall days, I pursued the PMC Corporation as a customer. I could land the account BUT, the sheets had to be in one piece. This would make it easier to hang and display in stores! What I didn't learn about packaging and presentation in those early days!
And manufacturing! Cranking out thousands of dollars of rubber stamps from a 3 man factory! OY! What an education! And no, those sheets didn't always come off my vulcanizer in one pretty sheet. But my mom is a child of the Great Depression. I simply couldn't throw those slightly imperfect stamp sheets out! I started cutting out the damaged images and saving the rest. Before I knew it, I had several complete sets of the 12 images. I would sell these as 2nds... because the sheet was not whole. The images were just fine!
Darker images still stamp beautifully!
We went along like this for YEARS. Until some wiseacre bought a set of seconds off our site and then wanted a refund as if it were a perfect set. She claimed she cut them apart... like we couldn't tell from the discounted price! So as a result of that lovely customer, we moved all 2nds to Etsy. And all was well for YEARS.
How the seconds arrive...
Until a few weeks ago when a glasser I know bought some of them. She took one look at them and declared them inferior! And wanted a full refund including shipping. I gladly offer refunds on actual items but unless I made some grave error - like packing the wrong set - I rarely offer shipping refunds. As a business person, it's near impossible to offer a refund on money the post office has taken!
Samples of PMC using the stamps!
After a week of emails, I finally begged / pleaded / cajoled her to try them! She wrote to say I was right... they worked on clay but they didn't on paper. And she sent me a picture. I could tell from the heavily inked lines through her images that either her pad was getting dry or newly inked. It was the later. She ended up keeping the stamps but suggested " you offer a refund with postage to those of us who are
unfamiliar ."
It left me banging my head against that rubber wall... My customer is an idiot who has no idea how black and white line drawings translate into rubber and I'm supposed to offer a refund with POSTAGE??? OY! It's days like these I want to chuck it all and get a real job...if only I could find one!
So last week, I sat down and wrote disclaimers for all my seconds on Etsy.
ABOUT THESE STAMPS: I manufacture and sell full uncut sheets to
retail outlets. Sometimes the sheets do not come off the vulcanizer in
ONE full sheet. Any damaged images are THROWN AWAY and the remaining
GOOD IMAGES are kept and sold at a discount here. You will receive all
12 PERFECT images but most will be cut apart in the 2" squares.
Because they are not a perfect 7 x 9 sheet, they are called "seconds" on
your receipt reflecting the discounted price you have received. PHOTO 3
shows an uncut 1/2 sheet of rubber.
PHOTO 4: is most likely how your stamps will arrive. 12 PERFECT images, cut apart. Questions? Just ask!
Hopefully this will hold for a few years until I run across another idiot!
I feel like my blogging has been rather lax lately. Truth be told... I haven't had a whole day off to do what I want since sometime in July. My rubber stamp shop has been jumping... our busiest fall in five years... still not great but better than the last few years for certain! Add in my crazy teaching schedule and my sister's illness (a sever mental distraction for sure) and I feel like I'm just running from one thing to the next.
I turned on the torch last week for the first time in ages! I LOVED being there... just creating and not in my own head. If you are not an artist... skip this part, cause you'll think I'm nuts... My inner critic... that voice in my head that is never happy just shuts up and retreats to... who-cares-where! Creating really is my happy quiet time!
Crazy Bird (coming later this week!)
And, I need to make the effort more often. Sure I'm creative in lots of areas... but those always feel like "have-tos." I "have to" get new artwork to the engraver. I have to make another kumihimo bracelet for class.... For the most part... when I torch, it's just for me. And while it's SO nice if it sells, in many ways, the piece has already served it's purpose.
Just the same, I always do hope my beads find a new owner. So... I've also been trying to photograph some older bead with my newer camera to help them get adopted. Cause finding a new home is always good!
Whew! What an absolutely nutty week last week was! I was busy and creating every day...just not always with beads!
I had a large wholesale wood mounted stamp order that took THREE 12 - 18 hours days.
This was interrupted by a product rollout at the restaurant chain that I make food safe rubber stamps for. Every day last week, my work -day was interrupted by overnight rush orders.
My personal favorite head - shaker of the week: Shipping a $4 item overnight at a cost of 25 bucks! And I had shipped an overnight order to the same location the day before! If you wonder why corporate America is in the toilet... I would say it's lack of foresight and planning!
Taught a crazy kumihimo class! I love watching people "get it!" Photos on that next week!
Had a cookie class cancel and suddenly rebook when more people signed up. Had to cram three days of prep into ONE!
In all the crazy hours I worked last week, I still got in one torch session...but only made boobies to fill custom orders... sigh!
Since I have nothing beady to show... Here's a pic of my work table:
I often forget that many of you don't realize I have a "day" job... Not that I do well financially at either profession but... both are creative and that suits me well.
I make food safe rubber stamps that allow people to create intricately decorated cookies, cakes and candy. Back to school through Valentine's is our really busy season followed by another pop around Easter. After that, no one wants to be in the kitchen! I also have a number of bakeries that use this technique... and this is their busy season as well...meaning they are ordering rubber and food coloring from me.
Black Widow Spider handstamped and painted cookie - a demo from my last class.
Forgetful Holly sorta forgot that all of this was impending and has orders standing in the shop with no product. So today, I have to dash South to get our special food color, hitting my silk floral supplier as I pass downtown cause I have no flowers for my next cookie bouquet class. Then it's West for a piece of glass I need for fusing and back toward home for some acrylic stock for rubber stamp handles... OY... I don't like "car days!" But the shop will be ready to rock n roll once all that is here! So... I'll be working all weekend! That's a good thing! No complaints here!
So, before I dash out the door into LA's monstrous freeway system, I wanted to share a tidbit about creativity. One of the things I love about artists is... they see the world differently. I had a most talented lady in my last class. She had chosen a sea them for her cookie bouquet. But often students pick up a rubber stamp and they aren't really sure what it is...yet they never ask. They always just seem to make it work.
This lady had picked up our speckled Easter egg and then realized... that won't exactly be right with her sea themed bouquet.
This image doesn't exactly scream "sea shore" now does it??
But look what my student "saw" in that egg:
I love that she used that egg to envision a starfish! It looked lovely in her bouquet (which Ms. Forgetful didn't get a pic of!)
So, see your world a little differently today... Look closer... or further. Look for patterns or color or repetition... Who knows what you'll see! Or what it will inspire!
In case you've been in a turkey coma for the last four days, today is the last day of my Black Friday / Cyber Monday coupons and specials going on NOW through midnight PST Monday night.
You must be a subscriber on a mailing list / fan page to get the discount. Mention this deal for your discount! If you are reading this online and are not a subscriber, no discount will apply!
The other week, I wrote this post about sculptural beads. The post started a chat on Facebook about skills from one art form being useful in another. I agree wholeheartedly.
I never really thought of myself as an artist. I viewed myself as more the crafty type. I could make just about anything I set my mind to. It was rubber stamping of all things that awakened an artist. When I got into stamping... I REALLY got into it. I was taking classes from renown teachers and yes, artists. And I was being exposed to better quality materials with each new project. Suddenly, I was not afraid to go into an art supply store to look around (as opposed to a Michael's).
But I still wouldn't call myself the A word. Not until I was working on a t.v. show...another craft show and it was my job to design many of the projects and do the step outs on all the projects, including those designed by others. (Step outs = "the magic of television" where something is magically completed and ready for another step.)
That much-needed job arrived in my lap when my childhood best friend and her family were coming for a month long visit. I was working on my back porch on both a sewing and a glass etching project when my friend said, "You were always an artist."
I balked at the comment. "I'm not an artist - I can't draw."
"What's THAT got to do with being an artist?"
"Uh... Everything!"
"NO, it doesn't... you sound just like old woman _________ (our childhood art teacher). She thought anyone who couldn't draw like Steve was hopeless. (Steve was a kid in school so talented he once got placed in all remedial high school classes because he was so bored taking yet another achievement test, he filled in all the boxes on his scantron to form a galloping horse!)
My friend continued...."Drawing is just one of many skills... skills come naturally to some but they can also be learned."
I realized she was right... I always had good ideas and never shied away from any project... as long as there was no drawing involved.
Not long after that, I found myself owning a rubber stamp company and my friend Becky twisted my arm to go along with her to become a certified PMC teacher. Immediately, I knew I hated the rubber stamps they were using to texturize the silver. By this point I had written and photographed a book, developing some crazy photoshop skills along the way. I still didn't think I could draw...but I could manipulate lines in photoshop. I came home from that class and within a month, had drawn 24 images and then sold the resulting rubber stamps to the PMC manufacturer! So much for the theory that I can't draw!
There is no question I am comfortable drawing digitally. I know I can clean anything up and make it look good in the computer. But I knew I wanted to know more about the principles of drawing. So I enrolled in a beginning class at night at my community college.
It was a challenge but it taught me more about "seeing" than I thought possible. Seeing it is the first part of doing.
I'm not exceptionally proud of these things...I would never hang them on my wall but I keep them to remind me of lessons learned.
Still life drawings teach us to see relationships in perspective and size.
An experiment in shading teaches value - seeing light and darkness.
The next two are both spatial studies... drawing the negative space around an object. By seeing the space between, you actually draw the object with a bit more accuracy because you're not all in your own head, concentrating on making the object perfect. Drawing nothing or nothingness...the space between, takes the pressure off.
So, no, I'm not going to find myself selling my sketches and paintings to gallery. But by being open to the process, I've overcome my fear of the one thing that held me back. And the skills learned in that class carry over into the art forms I do practice on a daily basis: photography and glass.
I got nothing today... I'm in the middle of unpacking from my big wire wrap extravaganza this past weekend and starting prep for my cookie classes this coming one....
But I did manage to get a few things up on Artfire:
And... I should mention also have up all the rubber stamp images designed for jewelry making. They have always been available on my rubber stamp site but I put them in both Artfire and Etsy for convenience. This is one of the sets of ladies for domino art:
I'm a bit under the weather with a stomach bug and doing well to sit at the 'puter. I was very surprised to received an email from another artist telling me that I have been featured in Ugly's Fraud Blog.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Me??? I'm finally big enough, known enough, am somebody enough to get on her radar??? Really? Wow!
Well, I guess I DID sort of ask for it... I've done my damnedest to feature those same artists right here and send them a little love and positive reinforcement. Life is hard enough without being a target of a psycho!
I don't know where Ugly gets her info and her post about me has NO information in it! (Couldn't she have at least linked to one of my stores like she did the others????)
So here are the facts for anyone interested:
1) Holly Dare is my "pen name" and what I sell my art under. It is not my legal name but PART of my legal name.
2) I do have a business license with my county / state under my business name, Sweet Stampen AND added my pen name to my license this year. I've had the Sweet Stampen license since October 2004, when I bought the company I was working for. Prior to that I was employed as an independent contractor by Sweet Stampen and several other out of state companies.
3) I have never accepted a payment under Holly Dare until this year. I always requested payment to my business name of Sweet Stampen.
4) I have also worked as an independent contractor- mostly in film production or as a writer - since 1986. I have filed my taxes as an independent contractor and reported all income earned. I keep tax files for 13 years as proof. (Why 13 years? I have several acquiantances who work for the IRS. They told me that yes, you can be audited for 1o years prior, BUT, IF they find something wrong, they can audit within three years of the problem year in either direction. So, if a problem is found ten years ago, they can request three additional years.
As I haven't cleaned out my attic since 2000, I have tax files there from 1987 on.
5) In 2002, when the state "cracked down" on independent contractors, deciding we were "running a business" when in reality, I worked for a lot of out of town companies. They made us start reporting all income January 30 of every year....No biggie, I report everything anyway but usually don't deal with bookkeeping for months after January!
Despite the fact that I think this is extremely unfair - what kind of government taxes without consideration of expenses a business incurs? Before a business takes into account its losses for the year? In my book, this is just one more reason California is the most unfriendly state to do business in.
This is really a formality that makes no real impact on my life. As I work in an "artistic profession," I don't owe business taxes in the years I make less than $300,000. So I've NEVER had to pay one red cent! But I do file my paperwork every January 30.
6) I did purchase on ebay prior to 2004. I rarely sold on ebay and then it was usually household goods I had tired of. I never sold my jewelry online until after acquiring a buisness license.
7) When I have traveled out of state, I've always gotten a temporary license to sell in that state and written a check to the tax authority before leaving town.
So, there you have it. As you can see, I've done my very best to be up and up with my government. But I guess that makes a fraud in somebody's universe
See, I disappeared and now, Ta Dah! I'm back! So much for my efforts of blogging here every day!
I had to deal with the "day job" a bit. I had new image plates going in to my two engravers (We require deeper etched rubber stamps for the restaurant chain client.) and it was obvious to me that it was just time to run some new images for the company.
And while I inherited enough artwork to keep the company in new images for a decade, there always seems to be something I need to draw. Plus it takes TIME to clean the art files for digital layout for the engraver.
So, I will get back to my beady chat but I thought I would show you the one image I drew last week for the stamp line that I'm most proud of....
This is my godson sleeping when he was about a year old. (He's about to be 19 in a month!) He had the longest eyelashes as a baby...they were dreamy! What I loved about drawing this image was that he was sleeping on his side and it wasn't until after I finished my first draft that I realized his whole face was skewed (drooping) left. So, I had to redraw the left side of his face to make it more even. Then, when I went to size the image - most of our stamp line is sized to fit on a cookie - I realized that my boy has such a wide face...he didn't fit on a cookie! So I had to cut it apart and paste it back together with the eyes much closer.
So, if you are into stamping on cookies, Sweet Stampen will have a whole new line of baby faces and Jack 0 lanterns ready to go in another week.
And I promise, I will be back tomorrow at http://hollysfollybeads.blogspot.com with a beady post tomorrow.
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