After a long, long..... loooong absence

Who is this person and how did she get onto my watch list???

You might have forgotten me, I haven't been around much for the last two/three years. I mean I've been around a little, every few months I've dropped by browsed through my watch list, occasionally made a Fav or a comment or submitted a deviation.... but I haven't really been here. I can't really point to any one reason. I've moved house twice, had multiple internet and phone connection problems,  and ... I guess I've just been busy. I was planning on making this comeback a little sooner. I was going to spend the new year photographing and reconnecting here and other internetty places I've been letting slide, and I was also going to sort out my very old computer, back all the files I wanted to keep (because I was starting to worry about all the unbacked-up files I had), wipe the hard-drive and start again from scratch. I was going to do that after christmas. So of course, my computer just HAD to go belly up one week BEFORE christmas! My main hard drive just died. I lost all those unbacked-up files... all my stock photos, all my records, my eBooks... itunes! It was a total disaster. Even now I'm still having sudden moments of realisation "omg! I lost such and such! Argh!". I had to buy a new computer of course. and If I'm going to have an expensive disaster I suppose Christmas is when I am most affluent. But I had plans for that money and buying a new computer wasn't one of them!

So here's a little catch up on how my life has progressed, just in case anyone's been wondering. I've started my fourth year at TAFE studying ceramics, this is the point where we start being allowed to choose what we make, instead of being given specific tasks designed to teach us various techniques. We're supposed to build up a body of work with a view to having an exhibition in a gallery at the end of the fifth year (a prospect I find rather terrifying!)  I've decided to focus on sculpture (as opposed to bowls and vases). Figurines and relief work for the most part, with a general Mythlogy/Fantasy/Sci-Fi/anything-that-gets-me-dreaming theme. This is the theme I always choose when I get to this stage of my various educational endeavours. In the past this wish has been met with various levels of dissapproval and discouragement from my various teachers (Aren't you a bit old for fairy tales dear? But that has no relevence in todays society! That's not very original, why don't you do a self portrait instead?) which I generally try to ignore as much as possible. But so far this time I'm getting a bit more encouragement to go the way I want to. Although I get the feeling they're reading a bit more 'artistic deepness' into what I'm doing than is really there. So that support may change when they realise I'm not making a subtle statement about the world, I'm just making pretty things that mean something to me!

I have also opened another Etsy shop, bringing my grand total up to four shops, although I admit TheFuzzyPhoenix , the one dedicated to crochet and soft stuff, has been stalled since not long after I opened it and has never sold a single thing. My newest shop, EnchantedFire , is dedicated to my guilty pleasure 'cheap' jewellery, crystal and glass bead jewellery, accessories, light catchers and, as of today, DIY Kits. All of these items, apart from the DIY kikts, which are too new to count, are the bread and butter of my market stall stock, they're very popular, I'll sell two dozen from that table for every piece of Sterling jewellery I sell. I find making it enormously relaxing, and not having to worry about 'wasting' materials gives me a freedom I do not have with the silver stuff. It's not fancy or valuable or challenging, but it is fun. (In case you were wondering I also sell Button Badges and Magnets at TheBusyBadger and my Sterling silver jewellery and Miscellaneous items at my first shop PhoenixDesign).

I no longer have a regular market stall, I did up until Christmas but the owners of the market have this habit of increasing the rent every year and they finally pushed it too high for me. It's a pity, because it is a very nice market. Lovely atmosphere, eclectic customers, good camaraderie among the stall holders. I didn't want to leave, in fact I stayed and absorbed a higher rent than I should have becuase I liked it there so much. But eventually I had to leave. I know I'm not the only one who gave up after the last rise, but I also know there's a waiting list for that market. So I guess greed won the day. I'm looking for a new venue at the moment, but the jewellery market is glutted, nobody wants another jewellery stall. Hence the above mentioned kits. If I can't sell the finished products I might as well try selling the supplies. At least there'll be less competition!

Anyways, that's where I am at the moment. I'll finish off this journal with a feature of some of the great works currently sitting in my watch box, and I'll do my best to be a bit more "present" in the future!

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