Glass Bead Miscellany

Welp, that open ended teaching job??? It now has an end date and that's looking like end of school. I've loved the assignment and the boys (it's an ED class of only boys) seem to like and respond to me. Instead of going through sub after sub, the school felt it best to provide some consistency to these guys. What does that have to do with glass beads?? Very little... as in that's how many beads I'll get to make in the coming months. But, a steady paycheck for a few months is a good thing, even though steady work sucks the creativity out of my bones! And I'm hoping that will lead to a productive summer...if I don't get back on the surgery track.

That being said, I've been cleaning out all my many bead boxes and making sure I have a better organization system for photos and beads for sale.  I have found every original photo for every thing I sell and placed all in one master folder organized into subfolders like focals, sets, necklaces, bracelets, etc... I still have to work on my website but my Facebook / Etsy crap is done!

And I wanted to share a bead I made for me. I've always wanted a rottweiler I made myself. I made this at the end of a Judy Carlson workshop. Very difficult as the mahogany goes black in the flame and you can't tell the two glasses apart!

Cross Pollination of Skills: Cake and Beads

As a life long crafter and even a producer of craft television shows, I've tried almost every craft on the planet. Even entertained several quite seriously. One of those was cake decorating. Another was rubber stamping. It seemed like kismet that I would end up working for, then owning the only food safe rubber stamp company!

But more interesting to me is how the skills I pick up in one area...seem to migrate into another. Silk screening and printing skills helped me easily grasp the manufacturing of wood mounted rubber stamps. Crochet lead me to bead crochet which lead to kumihimo. Rubber stamping lead to carving my own images which developed an interest in wood turning and now, laser carving...on glass! See??? One thing leads to another.

Red Velvet XL Cupcake Glass Bead

But one of my best tricks as a bead maker is... cake decorating!  It's no secret that I love making pastries in glass. But I'm talking about decorating a basic bead... you can get some FABULOUS pointers from cake decorators that can easily be adapted in glass.

For instance: This spider web video. When she's dragging the icing, you realize that you would do the dragging as you lay the line down in glass.


Here's another web where she makes the spider... except for saving the legs for last - in glass they go on first - there are some great shaping techniques!



Here's another fun one on leopard prints...which is an ever-popular bead design!




Because both mediums are two dimensional, the shape work and layering is basically the same! Find a few cake decorators you like on YouTube and follow them! Their work is often season, like ours and you will certainly pick up some great ideas that translate to glass!

Fresh Glass 3.21 | Bittids

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!

Google Footprint

Do you know what your google footprint is? It's the first 10 - 40  items someone sees when they google your business name. Why is this important??? It's the best way to control the virtual impression your business makes.

Think about it... For the sake of example, let's say your business name is AXZ Sewing. And you google your business and maybe your etsy and twitter account come up. But let's say you had a problem with a customer and they've taken to the web saying AXZ Sewing SUCKS and that is in the top 10. And let's say, you're business is fairly successful and someone is trying to ride on your coat-tails and they's started an AXZ Sewing blog... that has NOTHING to do with you or your business... but it will mislead and frustrate YOUR customers. Just what are you supposed to DO about all that??? Well, controlling your google footprint can help!

Let's take a look at my google footprint for some ideas - This is 1-5.

#4 is ALSO facebook so I cropped that out. This is #5-9

#10 was Facebook - again!

Let's break it down:

1. My website... with a nice layout to the most popular pages on my site. I maintain and extensive site for this reason.
2. My Etsy... when I concentrated more on Artfire... that was #2.
3. Facebook fan page
4. Fan page again
5. My blog
6. My blog... I wrote a tutorial for free... and posted it on a site listing tutorials for other glassers. It gets me TONS of traffic, boosts my ad revenue and...now, another toe in my google footprint!
7. A site geared toward glass people. I get a free listing there. I RARELY update my profile or pics there (I should!) but... look...that site gets so much traffic, it adds to my google footrpint.
8. My twitter
9. Widgetbox - an app that allows me to put a slideshow of my current work on my main blog page. 
10. Fan page again.

The bottom line here: ME...ME MEME and ME! I control my google footprint by spreading my name around. In other words... I don't care HOW you find me but find ME. Not an angry customer and not someone trying to make money off my name... find ME.

Here are a few obvious ways to spread your name around:

Yourbusiness.com. - having your own website may seem pointless if you sell on Etsy / Artfire but there are a several  good reasons to have one. It can serve as a anchor with links any selling venue, online or in person. It gives you control over your image... suppose you have thousands of business cards printed with your Etsy shop and Etsy goes belly up???  Train your customers to start at your site FIRST, someplace you control .

And let's go back to the scenario in the beginning... what IF you become wildly successful??? I love the Daily Coyote blog... but when her writing career took off and it became obvious she needed a new website... DailyCoyote.com was taken. The domain has since been sold... I pray to the rightful owner but that's just one example of how a web scammer will try to make money off of a successful business name.

For around 12 bucks a year, you can and should own your own dot com...whether or not you use it! Protect your name! If you do launch a website... update it often! Google hates static!!!

Facebook FanPage / Google + Pages: A great free way to get your name out there as well was an amazing way to communicate with people who are already clearly interested in your work!  I frequently post pictures of new work to my fan page and often sell it before I can bother listing it elsewhere! This is a win /win all around in my book!

Blogging - For footprint purposes... it's really bad form to blog on your own dot com. A number of web hosting companies toss in a free blogging template. But this does nothing to add to your footprint. Additionally, blogs on their own dot com never seem to aggregate properly. My experience starting the blog for the Fire Divas taught me this... Our Diva blog lists our individual blogs with the most recent published on top. Divas that published on their own sites would never go to the top.

It's much better to go with the grandaddies... Blogger (a google product!) or Wordpress. You pick up more followers there as well. Wordpress is so amazing that I utilize their inner workings as a template for my main website. It gives me the power of a blog with rss feeds shooting out to twitter and my fan page with the flexibility allowing a shopping cart.

Don't think you have anything to say??? Hogwash! I haven't met a creative type that couldn't talk about their work for ages.  Focus on new items (again, sell before you list!), holidays, other sellers who make complimentary items. Write a tutorial and share the link! Wordless Wednesday is a popular blog tag around the net. Who can't take a great pic and put it up one Wednesday??  Try to blog just twice a week to keep your blogging footprint active.And sign up for blogger in your business name whether you ever blog or not! Protect your name!

Arts Organizations - There are three free handmade glass art organizations online and yep, I'm a member of all! There's also one expensive one.... and no, I'm not a member of that one.

Try and find one geared toward your art form. If you can't find one... consider starting one.... The ad revenue alone should make it worthwhile!

Twitter -  Many people are twitter resistant. I use twitterfeed.com to feed all my shop feeds and my blog feeds to my twitter. I don't go on there and get political or personal... I just try to keep my feed active. And that keeps my google footprint bigger!

Now... back to that angry customer... eventually, he will fade away. Why??? Because YOU are working to keep your name in the top of the google search! You have inundated google with legitimate and current methods to find you and the angry customer's post is getting older and dying a sad google death!

Feel free to ask questions!

Next week, I'll focus on some other ways to increase your footprint.

Amazing Tutorials on EVERY BEADY SUBJECT!

I am really out of sorts today with my sinuses and... Mabel took off after a coyote while hiking last night and came home with a big ol' cactus  stuck in her thigh! It took two of us over half an hour to get them all out. Today, she's being a total dork baby and not wanting to be more than 2" from me! Imagine trying to torch like that! So everything I had planned is out the door... UGH!

So I thought I would share  the most amazing set of beading tutorials I've seen in ONE place ever! Check out just some of the tuts on the Fusion Beads Website:

 

Now don't go shopping for your glass beads there... Chinese made, not annealed, rarely properly cleaned. Remember you get what you pay for... ;-)

Always buy your glass beads from artists!! Right??? Right!  Carry on!

Bead Bowl - The Most Perfect Hollow & LAUGHTER

I'm having a really strange week and running behind prepping for class this Thursday. Let's see...this week it's stolen credit cards, a humongous stamp order that requires access to some files I no longer have the software for and and "almost" broken printer which turned out to be a power outage in the shop! And that was just MONDAY!

Thank goodness I can laugh! I actually force laughter breaks sometimes and last night I was enjoying a favorite website that had me laughing so HARD, I thought I was going to pass out! And all night long, everytime I woke up all I had to do was say the key phrase from the funny post which was "Horse Whisperer" and I would get wide awake with laughter! And all this led to a funny dream. I was teaching a cookie bouquet class and I was saying to my student, "You know what would go perfectly with this??" (I was pointing to a cookie in my dream.)

The student looked to me waiting for an answer. And I said, "PANTS!" Like... what do pants and cookies have in common??? So half the time I woke up saying "pants" and laughing and the other times it was "horse whisperer." Either way, I'm in need of some sleep!

Laughter puts me in a great mood and gives me ideas... and I have no time to torch. UGH!

And I don't have time to blog so, I dug through my bead bowl for something interesting and decided to show off the most perfect hollow I've ever made... DON'T LAUGH, ok???!!!

I made this in a Heather Trimlett class at the Mandrel. I LOVE this bead because it is SO perfect... the ends are puckered beautifully, it's perfectly round and hollow... but... How would you know??? It's NOT made of transparent glass. You want to make hollows from transparent to show off their hollowness... and this is black and orange and opaque gray!

I have an excuse. It was the end of the day and I was hot and tired and on total mental overload from all that Heather had inspired. I watched her demo and I sat there... debating going outside to cool off. But Heather walked by and told me to "Make a bead, try the hollow technique!"  Feeling lazy and drained, I decided to make one but... the only glass that I had long rods of in front of me were the ones you see.

At the time, I thought, "I don't care about the color... I just want to try Heather's method..." and her method turned out to be the best ever!  And so... I'm the very proud owner of one opaque hollow!

Twitter - Timely Advice

I guess I just petered out on the blog last Friday. I was exhausted from my night class Thursday and just didn't have much to say! (How rare!)

I wanted to share my new twitter strategy with you. I've often written about folks that follow you only to get you to follow them and then they quit following you. I ain't got time for such games! Geesh! So I play one of my own!

I log in and follow back TWICE A MONTH now! I don't worry a bit about all those "xyz is following you" emails  I get.  No, I just delete them. And every few weeks, I go look at my followers. And you know what?  I'm often following the first person on the list...which means all those dozens of followers from all those emails weren't interested in following ME.

The last time I logged in to check, I had two new followers that had stuck with me. And I would rather have two new people genuinely interested in me and my work and dozens of scammers any day of the week!

Do you twitter? Do you have any advice to share???

The Engineer's Tool Box

I stumbled over a website that I just LOVE the other night and just had to share it! It's called The Engineering Toolbox.

I love engineers! I love the way they think and how they see the world so differently; I love that they see possibilities everywhere. They are truly artists in their own right.  I think that if I had understood what an engineer does back in the dark ages when I went to college, I would have become one!

So what on earth would a jewelry designer find useful on a website geared toward engineers??? For me, it started with this necklace:

It's a beauty, right??? No, I didn't make it. It was made about 50 years ago back when my best friend's little brother was born. He was the fourth child so we all find it somewhat remarkable that Grandma was given this beautiful Swarovski necklace and bracelet set for giving birth to him. Even more remarkable: this baby boy would father the only girl in the family. And that girl is getting married. Since it's the only wedding my best friend, her sister or myself will ever get to plan...we are over the moon!

Naturally, grandma wanted to pass this necklace down to her only granddaughter. Only...the length is about an inch or so too short for the neckline of the chosen dress. Since back part is wired loops (not even wrapped) and I have a stash of AB crystal Swarkies... it's easy enough to fix. But what gauge wire????

I took out my calipers and determined the diameter of the wire to .5 MM. That's great but now what??? So I googled MM of wire gauges... and found THE MOST AMAZING CHART!!! It's something every wire jewelry artist will want at their disposal. I've printed and laminated one!

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Marketing on the Web

You're making beads or jewelry or quilts or... whatever. You hang out your little web-shingle and ... you wait. You've built it. But they don't come.

There's lots of reasons for that... so I thought I would share a little bit of what I've learned the hard way.

Google Limits
What any web vendor wants is a decent Google Rank. And there are any number of ways to work on that. The most important of which is using keywords. That is a topic that I could write about every day from now til Christmas and still not be done... But your keywords are important.

But let's say you ARE using your keywords well. Even if you doing EVERYTHING right on your site, as a general rule, Google will only give you the TWO listings  per website in any search. There are exceptions but as a marketing person who wants to control your public image, how do you maximize your hit potential and dominate the other listings on the search page? How do you prevent those listings from going to your detractors (think Regretsy)?

Diversify
Have you ever wondered why Ford or Pepsi owns several websites? Have you ever clicked on any of their other sites? They often lead you to the same place. But let's face it...websites cost money. Maybe not a lot of money but...we're starving artists, right?  But you can still diversify. Here's some solutions:

• Blogging - NOT on your own dot com - legitimizes your own website to the web spiders and it gives you one more address in those Google rankings.
• Tweet - Twitter under your business name - yet another address for Google to find you.
• Sell on other venues - not just on your own website. I sell my older designs on Artfire and Etsy - two more web addresses.
• Don't count out Ebay - Use your business name for every thing you sell on Ebay whether it's related to your business or not. Ebay consistently comes up high in google rankings.  So whether you are getting rid of old inventory or cleaning our your closet, it's one more way they can find you! 
• Facebook - This powerhouse is the ONLY website Google is afraid of and they should be! Be sure to start a fan page for your business there and check it often. And again, this is one more piece of web real estate with your company name on it.
• Blog Networks - Feed your blog to other sites but be sure they give you proper credit. Or be sure to build links to your actual blog into the first few sentences. Networked blogs app on Facebook, Blogher (for female bloggers), and BlogCatalog are all legit and give you credit for your work without looking to simply steal your content to make money.
• Guest blog - If you are a good writer, write articles for other (more heavily trafficked)  blogs than your own. They often mention your business and link back to you.
• Network Specifically - I network on boards devoted to glass bead making and I use my business name as my i.d. Find Social media groups geared toward your business and create even a small presence there. Even if you only post once a month, it's one more time your business name is out there.
 

By using these tips, I have Google links 1-10 all pointing to me or one of my other venues. In creating a web presence, you cannot care HOW they found you. And you can't HOPE they will find you on their own. You have to leave breadcrumbs everywhere.

Which leads to the question "Do I need my own website at all?" Yes! You do! Even if you don't sell there, it can be the jumping off point for the places you do sell.  Think of it as the central hub with all your other venues, sales or information, rotating around it.  Your own dot com is vital to your web presence too!


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If you found this tutorial helpful, please consider making a donation to the artist. Thank you!

Playing Catchup!

Boy am I stressed today! Losing yesterday did NOT help at all and I can't seem to get caught up on all I need to do! So today's post is full of announcements!

My first place winner wanted the green heart, so Jennifer is getting the pink one.

I held my $50 FREE GLASS BEADS drawing - over due from the 24th but the site was down. So, If you voted between the 21st and yesterday, your votes count for July and August! Michelle won and chose this beauty:

And finally, now that I have one website behaving... another breaks! The Sweet Stampen rubber stamp site is having some MAJOR issues. If you are ordering stamps and can't get the website to work, please let me know!!!

And to help Beads of Courage, I'm hosting ANOTHER GIVEAWAY ON CREEKHIKER... TWO MORE HEARTS UP FOR GRABS! 

Sidetracked by Torture!

Oh my! It's SO not like me to disappear on you...especially NOT with a contest ending! I had an EARLY morning dental appointment - simple really - a final fitting on that cap from my root canal misadventures of a few weeks ago. I really thought I would be home by lunch at the latest! But I got there and not only was the cap MUCH darker than requested, it didn't fit right on the horizontal and was WAY too long. (I've been accused of being long in the tooth but not because I had a long tooth!)

My dentist insisted on a new impression, which meant packing cord around my gum line...something I hate more than a root canal! Between that and my deep cleaning and the fact that I see one of those big chain (i.e. cheap) dentists that see me while working on five others... I was there four hours and had a pain shooting out the top of my head when I left. I ran a few quick errands for cookie class this weekend and came home and collapsed into bed!

Anyway, I went through all the entries... I counted new fans (8!!) since the contest began even though not all signed in here. I kept track of emails / comments and numbered the entries and went to random.org and my winners are Barbara (Miss Anonymous emailed her identity) and Jennifer. 
Please get in touch via email (on my profile or on one of my 87 dozen websites)  with your addys so I can mail the heart necklaces.


----------------Re: the Holly's Folly Glass Bead Website ------

Yes, I'm aware it is down. My web host had a hardware problem and is moving all sites associated with a particular batch of servers. My bead sites are hosted differently than the stamp sites and Sweet Stampen should not be affected. All should be back to normal in a few days and I will deal with the free beads drawing there tomorrow.

A Great Big THANK YOU!

Dear Fans & Voters,

Yes, I've been sooooo discombobulated with my computer changeover...I'm still finding files and teaching myself Windows 7... and I haven't been focused on much of anything. Certainly not my Glass Beads website. And certainly not my Free Glass Beads monthly giveaway!

I honestly forgot to have the drawing... not once but TWICE! And you sweet folks kept voting ANYWAY! THANK YOU!

So, I got busy and had two drawings, using all the voters in both. If was the only fair thing to do. The two winners are posted on the voting page. And there will be another drawing this month. Hopefully, I'm getting back into my pre-computer breakdown schedule.

Thank you all for your continued support and THANK YOU FOR VOTING!!!

So, What's Your Name???

Naming your studio has to be one of the most difficult decisions an artist has to make because it's also an important decision. The logical choice may be to use your name like some of my friends do. Janel Dudley Beads - That says it all.  So does Lutrick, Lara Lutrick's studio name.

But you may get hung up on "who knows me??" Or the privacy issue...It can be intimidating to put your name "out there" on the Internet. So the next logical choice may be something that reflects your name like LA Jewelry Designs ( studio name of fellow Fire Divas admin, Lea Avroch) or Tease Beads (Another Divas admin, Theresa Ehlers. This is a play on her first name: "T's Beads"). Yet another idea is to name it after someone. Artist Lori Bergmann named her studio, Ashlyn Designs after her daughter Ashley.

Another option is to name your studio after a place near and dear to your heart. Dorset Hill Beads and Rivers Edge Glass are two such examples. I thought long and hard about naming my studio after the mountains or town I live in but Verdugo and Sunland really didn't say much. I also thought about the river I hike near daily...but no one outside of this area can even pronounce Tujunga. Why think small and local when your market could be bead lovers anywhere, right?


But this brings up yet another issue. Many artists like the anonymity of the Internet and having a studio not related to your own name provides some level of that. But after a while, it becomes obvious that customer and fellow glassers want to know who YOU are. I've literally seen posts in the Etsy threads that go like this:

"Lauren, cute snowman! Lisa - love your new set. XYZ - That's a really pretty focal."

People don't know who they are talking too and have a hard time putting your name with your studio when it gives no hint of your own name. Of course you can always close posts with your name so people start to associate the person and studio together.

In the end, am I happy with my studio name? Yes and no! Yes in that it's part of my name and I don't keep people guessing. No in that I should have taken my own advice. When I work as a marketing consultant on a product launch, I insist on Internet name searches and if the company is big enough, we do a legal name search as well. I did neither. I liked the name and the rhyme and went with it. When I first launched my glass bead website, I wondered why I had so many very short visits for folks looking for Holly Folly instead of Holly's Folly. Holly Folly is a popular gay pride holiday festival. I always feel like those folks must be a little disappointed when they find my beads instead!

Making the Social Media Nightmare a Little Easier

I must say that being without a computer for the last few weeks has been rather eye opening. I've been reassessing EVERYTHING I do online and realizing what a time suck it is. I'm 46. I'm over halfway done with life. Do I REALLY want to spend this much time online, especially if is does absolutely nothing for my glass bead sales??

Hmm... thoughts to ponder for sure!

And so I've been looking into things that will make my online life a little easier. One thing that I've tried and LOVE is Qwitter. Let's face it... everyone on Twitter has something to promote. I have serious doubts as to whether or not ANY customers use twitter at all. And unless I find someone's website offensive or they are in a business I care NOTHING about (like all the wigmakers that follow me... OY! I have enough hair for me and three other people. I doubt a wig is something I will EVER need!), I will follow anyone that follows me.

But many people will follow hundreds of people trying to get follow-back suckers like myself and then go around and unfollow us. Qwitter sends you an email within a few days of someone unfollowing you! Why follow those people??? It's a great service; just minutes to sign up and has both free and premium options. I use the free one and love it!!

And... YES, I NEVER look at my twitter cause it's so full of junk I care nothing about.  It's a jumble of ads...other tweeters just self promoting. It difficult to find the stuff I'm interested in - say my friends, fellow designers or those amazing choreographers from Dancing with the Stars - vs. the stuff I'm not - say, uh, wigs.


But right before my crash, I found HootSuite. From the dashboard, I can tweet, schedule tweets, read all tweets and direct messages and mentions and... I can create lists. It even picks up the lists I created within twitter and I can add other beadmakers on the spot. I can also follow and unfollow. HootSuite is the interface you WISH Twitter was! It's also fairly easy to search. Wow!

Click to see larger image.

I hope these time savers help you reclaim some of your life as well! And THANK YOU for spending part of that time with ME! See you next week here on the bead blog.

FREE Beads...or Not

Since I hung my little shingle out on the web three years ago, I've had a "FREE beads" page on my site. I did this to create links back to my site from other lampworking "list sites" which, in turn, made my new website look legitimate to the web spiders. Getting fans to vote for me, lifted me in the rankings and got me lots of hits and views from curious lampwork lovers.


At first, I struggled to make something new every week. It was so difficult to guess what would get people out to vote. A glass bead I didn't like would garner me lots of traffic. One that I thought was a sure hit brought little or no traffic.

It became such a chore to guess that I finally decided I would let the winners choose. I started giving away $50 Gift Certificates once a month. It seemed like a win - win. $50 was generous enough to allow for a full set + shipping and maybe even a sale page bead. Or a focal...

And over the years, it's worked for me and my customers. It was nothing for me to get over 400 votes in one month. I had one very dedicated voter that voted every single day in 2008. I was so overwhelmed with gratitude, I gifted her a $100 gift certificate over the holidays that year (She had also won several times during the year as well.) She cashed it in and never returned. Odd... was it something I said?

But other dedicated voters stepped up to fill her shoes and so it went. Until about six months ago. All of my voters just evaporated into thin air! Seriously...last month I had ZERO voters! And for the first time since it's inception, my $50 gift certificate went unclaimed! And this month? I've had ONE vote! ONE!

I'm not really sure why this has happened? Are there just too many promotions out there on the web??? Do people hate my beads? Are people just too busy?

I have no answers...It's a mystery to me. But if you are so inclined, vote and email, will you? You might just win something pretty!

Glassy Stuff - Here's L@@king at You!

O.K. I promised glassy goodness today and I'm here to deliver...just not my own! LOL!
Truth be told, between my elbow / fingers being numb and the time consuming new website project, I'm just not torching as much as I would like.

So let's look at some beads I like to look at...only these beauties are looking right back!

My fellow Fire Diva Janel is always working with high silver glasses and gets stunning results but her hand - pulled eyeball murrini's are a thing of wonder! I've seen them in person and WOW!


This beauty is up for grabs in her Etsy Shop:

This necklace is in a customer's private collection, but... I'm sure you could talk Janel into making another! Isn't it amazing???

And finally, Janel is giving one away over on her blog... tomorrow! Go! Check it out!!!

Hall of Flame

I've neglected to mention a lovely honor I've received. I've been named to the California Flame Surfers Hall of Flame!


The Flame Surfers are my 'real life' bead group. We meet quarterly at various glass venues here in So. Cal. and the Surfers are an official chapter of the ISGB. We have some really talented members. Take a look around the Hall of Flame and you'll see some of Southern California's best!

And if you are in Southern California, stop by our next meeting at Pacific Artglass on December 5th.

Have I Finally Arrived???

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

Doodle-riffic

We've all been there... creatively blocked, bored at work, stuck on the phone with a long winded vendor. Jacksonpollock.org is one of my favorite outlets.

Go...Doodle...Let your mind race. You can save your images by hitting "print screen" and pasting them into your favorite photo editing program.


So...what have you doodled today???