Winter Came

Brrr, just yesterday the weather was fine, chilly, but dry, and today it's snowing non-stop! It's a full time winter landscape out there. It's so boring having snow for nearly 6 months - once it starts in November it only melts down mid-April, maybe the end of March, if lucky. You can't do as much fun coords since it's not only snowy and slippery, it's really cold here too, with an average of -17C with occasional weeks of -30C. Layer are your best friends, but no fun hair and I hate long heavy coats, make me feel boxy.

Well, you can't argue with weather, so let's get to something a lil bit more interesting. Many things and changes are planned for the winter, and I started of early with a little re-make of my store logo.

I had a hard time wit an abbreviation for it - "BS" was a "no" from the start, "BRST" is not how abbreviations work. But "BitS" cuts it really nicely, it has a nice ring of small cute things to it. I kept the skull and heart motive, making it more crisp.

As some may recall, I was planning on getting a masters degree, if I managed to get scholarship. Well, I haven't. But I found a more interesting program in the same academy - a 1-2 year long course that consists of the most essential classes for fashion design, made especially for those, who have a diploma and want to switch professions. It doesn't qualify as a second degree officially, but is basically the same program as the main fashion design course is. So, though it doesn't have scholarship, I applied. Have to work a lot more now, though, but no way I'm getting student loans. 

So, the course so far has been really interesting and I really feel that's it doing me good - I've learned the specifics of fashion illustrations, am learning about materials and construction, use of colors, styles, can analyse construction and trends a lot better, everything so far was nothing, but helpful information! I also took marketing and business planning as extras - loving every second of it.

Since I had thoughts of expanding beyond jewelry making, I find all this is really gonna pay off, it gives a lot of confidence when you actually know what you are doing. Though my basic target group is the lolita community, I'll surely be catering to it, but with some ideas, that are quite risky for such a conservative fashion. But, you can't quit until you try, right? 

Happy Halloween!

Though I don't make special items for Halloween, I'll tell you a tale today, one of the legends of my city. Yeketerinburg was founded as an industrial town, with steel mills and lots of mines - ore, granite, semi and precious stones. Many merchants and factory owners lived here, and one of the most notable ones was Rastorguev, who's mansion still stands on top of a hill not far from the city center.

The mansion was build in 1814, but no one knows for sure, who was the architect - the most comon story is that it was a french prisoner, who was bribed out of jail by the merchant, who promised to set him free when the house was finished. But he didn't go through with his word and the architect committed suicide on the way back to prison, cursing his creation and all those who lived there. Maybe this, or the fact, that the hill was a place of an ancient pagan temple - an old cemetery was recovered beneath the park pond much later -  lead to a series of deaths.

All the children of his eldest daughter died before they reached 5 months, except for 3 who where born after Rastorguev died in strange obstacles, well out a window - some say it was an accident, some say suicide, but maybe it had something to do with the fact that he found his second wife cheating on him and ordered to kill the lovers that same night.

His son-in-law, Haritonov, also contributed to the grim history of the mansion - a violent man, it's said he had chambers beneath the mansion, where all those factory workers, who went against his will were tortured. The legend says, that the spirits since then roam the mansion and the underground tunnels, that spread from it. These tunnels where After Haritonov was being exiled by the emperor for cruel treatment of the workers, no one of the family wished to live in that bloody mansion, leaving it abandoned for many years.

Though today it's restored and used, night guards and garden keepers still say they hear a lot of strange noises, as well as dog owners, who walk in the park, see strange and disturbed behavior of their pets. As if they sense something...

Happy Halloween, everybody!

 

Roses and Cozy Teddies

Since school started, it's been quite a handful to manage - though it's really interesting, I'll get back to that in another post. But, of course, neither learning, nor work don't cancel seasons changing, so I've got some brand new items - last glimpses of autumn and a warm welcome for winter. I, unlike many crafters, don't bother making specifically Halloween designs, though I really love this holiday. But, because of long shipping, I skip it - after all, it's rather strange to advertise pumpkins and ghouls in mid September. So, I spend time on more versatile ideas and making plans for Christmas inventory.

Roses are the most popular theme amongst my customers, so it's only logical I make more designs with them. This time I leaned to something rather simple in form, but that requires skill and patience, since each rose is really small. The chosen colors are dusty rose, ivory, peach (but, of course, I offer to make the design in other too), since autumn always brings out the romance in me and I start to seek warm and tender inspiration. Well, I like that all year long, but autumn is special for this.

 

Speaking of warm - "knitted" jewelry. Hearts and teddy bears, cozy and cute. Spent a lot of time matching the charms for the Vintage Treasures necklace, and there placement, but I think it turned out pretty nice. I've always liked to scavenge through closets in my grandmas house, finding some cool stuff. Too bad there never was an attic to explore, or neither do we have some nifty flea markets around here, but as a child I was satisfied with closet scavenging.

 

Likely the brown bear will stay in my personal jewelry bow, since he's so adorable. I like how he's a bit childish, but somewhat kidult eye-catching, but not hyper sweet. Dunno, he'll stay.

 

 

Among other ideas I had these teddies too, in classic and in sweet colors, but most likely, they won't be included in the inventory. Time showed that my sweet designs don't sell very well - I think it's because the market is overpopulated at this point and some sellers have location advantage, which reflects on the costs. I'm thinking of minimizing the impact and working more in the mori, classic and gothic fields, though I'll try to re-vamp some early sweet designs and give them a new life.

 

 

Dreamy Cupid and Sweet Poor Marie Series

It sometimes takes quite a while before an idea becomes a finished item. Many charms I make or use are left untouched for months before I come up with the right inspiration and compose them into a new piece for my store. This lovely series were heavily inspired by my visit to Europe and the lovely castles. I made a really cute cupid mold after I returned that became the main element for these necklaces, brooches, rings. I have quite a few more ideas in mind, I tied to imitate bisque and old sculptures with tender faded colors. I'm rather pleased with how it turned out especially the first necklace/chocker.

       

Some works in progress.
 

And these charms, at long last, became beautiful necklaces inspired by Marie Antoinette. They also imitate bisque and faded colors of antique items,and, most likely, I'll add new head styles in the future - it's so fun to come up with their hairstyles!

 

 

 

Oh, the Suspense!

Oh, I'm so nervous! This Monday I had my first exam for getting a scholarship for my masters degree and yesterday was the second one. Funny thing, I forgot my portfolio for the second exam and had to rush home to get it. And there's a thing I'll now remember:

 constantly make new stuff, so your portfolio remains fresh and up to date with your current level

 keep your works in one folder so you don't scavenger hunt them all over your hard drive

and finish stuff you begin! I had a ton more new pencil sketches, that I initially was planning to complete in color, than I had good recent works to show. Of course not all would be finished or good for the portfolio, but still.

Overall the exam went well -  the final results, I hope, will be in today, I simply can't wait any longer!

This will determine, whether I'll be working with graphic design (and I really want to get more things going on for me in this field), or I'll be working trice as much as I do now to afford costume design lessons that'll allow me to try out for a masters degree in a few years. And, seriously - this year they had only 6 people applying for scholarship, when graphic design had 42. Or, maybe I'll focus more on freelance illustration and jewelry designs, we'll see.

A Busy Spring and Surprise Pack Thoughts.

My life was so busy for the last 2 months, that it severely cut into my free time and blogging. I've held a luckypack sale, got a new camera, visited Prague, finished my seamstress 2-year long course and a lot of stuff in between. Unfortunately, making new designs wasn't one of them - though I got really inspired along the way and have some pretty awesome ideas in the works, I've yet to make them. But all in due time, and since a post about my trip would be too big for me to come up with at 1 a.m., I'll collect some thoughts on the Surprise Pack sale I had prior to that trip.

A lil something from Prague to lighten up the mood.

 The sale turned out with a quite larger demand, than I expected, so, unfortunately, major delays in shipping were had. And, communication - I really gotta work on that. But this is obvious, so I'll cut to the part that concerned me after several buyers received their items.

What did I consider to be a "large pack" - a pack with more expensive designs. I opted for this versus the common "bigger pack - more stuff" tactic, since I don't really have that much various cheap designs in the gothic and classic category - most of them are earrings, and not so many would be happy to get a pack with only earrings and rings in it. Though i though it'd be a good idea, so the partakers can get more expensive items and a variety (even matching sets), not everyone was pleased with the number of items. Well, it was a SP, no matter how I tried to carter to requests of items and colors, it's logical that not everyone would be happy.

So, right now, planning a potential Surprise Pack sale, what should I consider? The same tactic of "value>amount" (and state it even clearer in the sales info) or come up with simpler and cheaper designs for a good fill-up? Since I actually make-to-order these packs, as I do all my stuff, so the buyer has a lot more options and won't get stuck with some after-con leftovers - what would work better?

I have a quite busy summer schedule, so the next SP sale probably won't be up till autumn (or at least late August), so I'll have quite some time to figure things out, but I'd be really grateful if my readers would share their opinion on how they like their luckypacks to be.

Super Surprise Sale!

A sudden special offer from me! The contents of the Packs may differ from the photos, but will include items from my store. I'll try my best to combine different types of items when possible. If you'd like to order, leave a comment stating the type and size of the pack, what color you'd like as the main and a way of contacting you for an invoice (or send me a message on Tumblr or Facebook with your paypal address).