The Glass Slipper | Lampwork by Sarah Hornik | A blog about glass, beads and everything in between
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The Glass Slipper
Things I've been up to
I scored 668,700 points on Bejeweled Blitz this week.
Well yes, I do think this achievement is important enough to be mentioned in bold on my blog. It's freaking 668,700 points. That's like, impossible. I rock.
I have a few more things to say about computer games - but first, let's talk about some other important stuff.
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Upcoming Classes in Australia and New Zealand
I am excited to be traveling back to the southern hemisphere this April. This time I'll be teaching both in Australia and New Zealand!
I am scheduled to teach two sessions of classes at Carole Griffiths' studio in Canberra, between April 22-25 and April 28 - May 1. For more information and registration, please contact Carole at carole@handmadeglassbeads.com.au.
After that I'll be heading to New Zealand, where I'll be teaching a session at Born To Bead in Auckland between May 13-16, then at Annie Rose in Whangarei between May 20-23. Please contact the studios through their websites for more information.
Hope to see you there!
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BEADS: Production Mode
After finishing the work on Making Mandala Beads, I needed a couple of days off to recharge myself (and score many points on Bejeweled Blitz).
Then, it was time to get back to work. I tried making some off-mandrel pendants. At first I was excited that I could actually make things without a mandrel - and, potentially, without having to clean out bead release, one of my most hated tasks. There's something about off-mandrel work that makes me feel like a "real" flameworker.
Sadly, the pendants came out of the kiln looking unbelievably crappy - not even photo-worthy. I did go through an interesting thought process though.
I have recently taken a marble making class and a Lucio class. They were both fun. I learned a lot. But I was - and still am, I guess - having some trouble figuring out what I am supposed to do with what I learned. It's that creative block thing, the stressful kind, the preachy inner voice that keeps nagging and asking you what's the point in taking classes if you're just going to keep on making the same things. Many ideas went through my mind... I could make little abstract sculptures, or I could try making marbles with soft glass, or I could practice sculpting the human figure, or something. Whatever.
But even if I could accomplish any of that successfully, what would I do with all that stuff? Who needs a bunch of useless glass knickknacks lying around?
Yes, I know, this sounds like a very weird way of looking at things.
I think I realized something important about myself and my work. It's not that I've been making beads all this time because I didn't know how to make anything else. Anything "more advanced", or whatever. It's not that I can "only make beads" because of my dependency on mandrels. I mean, yeah, I pretty much depend on mandrels at this point, but does this have to be a bad thing? I realized that I make beads because I like beads. I like making stuff that can be used for something. I like making stuff that people can wear. I am more attracted to making functional things than things that just sit on a shelf. Not that I don't appreciate the stuff that sits on shelves - I do, trust me - but I don't think it's what I want to make. Not at this point in time, in any case. When it's time for me to make other stuff, then I will.
So, anyway, after these profound realizations, I decided to put myself in "production mode" and just sit at the torch for a few days and make a big bunch of beads. Beads, just beads. So I did. I made LOTS of beads.
It was fun. And delightfully non-stressful. These are kind of all over the place as far as style is concerned, but I'm hoping there will be something for everyone. Or at least something for someone. Or anything for anyone? Check them out on my Etsy.
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Now, back to those computer games.
My incredible talent for swapping colored exploding jewels aside (uh, just so we're clear, this refers to the Bejeweled Blitz thing, not my latest mini-sets - they don't explode), I've been obsessing over a different kind of computer game lately. I think you may have heard of it. It's called Etsy.
A couple of months ago, in an effort to boost my sales, I decided to play the Etsy game. That is, do all the stuff you're supposed to do to boost your sales on Etsy. Improve your photos. Renew your items every day. Make treasuries. Get people to click on the treasuries. Join a team. Participate on the Etsy forums.
I did all this stuff. I changed all my photos to make them fit nicely into the annoying-not-quite-square Etsy shop format. I joined a team. I've been posting messages - most of them just pointless "here I am" messages - on the forums. Some of the discussions there are quite interesting, actually - yay, more time spent in front of the computer reading stuff - but I can't really get too involved; I have too many other forums and social networks to be overly involved with at this point. And I've been renewing stuff. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the game, "renewing" is when you pay $0.20 to relist an item, usually long before its expiration date. This pushes your item to the top of the search results for about a millisecond, thus supposedly boosting your sales. It seems unfair, doesn't it? Like, why should you have to keep paying and paying to relist the same items? I mean, if you do it once a day, you pay $6 a month - not a big deal. But I have learned that some people renew things 15-20 times a day. I've been doing it in moderation - 2 or 3 times a day, or so. I can confidently say that this does absolutely nothing for my sales and I am just pointlessly donating money to Etsy. I should really stop that. But don't take my word for it - some people say that renewing works wonders for them.
And then, there's the treasuries. Treasuries work in a weird way. You can open a new one when the number of treasuries drops below 333. Then, there is a 5-second time slot to "grab" it, and if you can do that, you get this sense of achievement. Yay, I GOT it! Once you become obsessed with making treasuries (who, me?), you can follow the Treasure Clock to check when they're scheduled to open up and the Treasure Hunt to see if anyone put any of your items in their treasuries. Then, at some point, you find your daily schedule revolving around the treasury. Uh, no, I can't sit at the torch right now, because the treasury is opening up in 3 hours and I don't want to miss it. Then you're supposed to promote the treasuries, because the more people click and comment on them, the more popular they get, and if they get really popular, there's a small chance they might appear on Etsy's front page, which is supposed to be really cool and stuff.
Seriously, Etsy somehow has its sellers donating time and money to them, working really hard for free and rarely complaining about it. It's kind of amazing. Someone should research this psychological phenomenon and figure out why the hell this is working for them.
Why am I doing all this stuff? It's not boosting my sales. The things that do boost my sales are my blog, my newsletter and occasionally Facebook. The Etsy games aren't really working for me. But they are fun to play. Making treasuries and/or appearing in them doesn't really do much for promotion. I kind of knew this already, long before this obsession started. I've always said that the only people browsing the treasuries are other sellers, not buyers, and I'm pretty sure this is true.
And yet, I am obsessed with the idea of making it to Etsy's front page. So my life must revolve around treasuries. It's like playing the same computer game over and over and over again. If you don't win, you just start over. Even if the prize isn't worth as much as you think it might be.
Hey, you probably have a better chance at scoring 668,700 points in Bejeweled Blitz.
Drawing Winners
Elaine H.
Anne-Marij V.
Mari W.
Congratulations!
The winners will be notified by e-mail.
Many thanks to everyone who purchased the E-book so far.
Your support is much appreciated!
It's Ready!
Yay! I made it in time!
All the pre-ordered copies have been sent out, and I will be announcing the winners of the drawing tomorrow!
If you have ordered a copy and you haven't received it yet, please check your junk mail folder - if it's not in there, e-mail me at sarah.hornik@gmail.com.
Progress Report
Ugh. I'm becoming one of those people who uses their blog for nothing but shameless self-promotion. I hope I'm not losing your interest here. It's just that the constant obnoxious marketing has been necessary lately (bead, anyone?). Making ends meet has become a struggle, so I can't put as much time into thinking about humorous, infuriating or even remotely interesting non-marketing-related things to blog about - and I am pretty sure no one wants to read about my dark and twisted thoughts on the current economy again (bead? anyone?). I know we're all in the same boat here, so please forgive me? I promise to be interesting again, or at least make you laugh at my troubles, once I get my new E-book out on the virtual shelves.
Anyway, I wanted to tell you some more about Making Mandala Beads. I've been working like crazy all week, stressing myself out about possibly not meeting the deadline and stuff. But now, I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing, and confident that I am going to have it finished in time. I still need to re-shoot a couple of the tutorials (thanks to Indi for being so patient with me and, as always, doing such a fantastic job on the tutorial photography), but aside from that, almost everything is ready. I'm up to 60 pages already, not including those two tutorials, so imagine how huge this one is going to be!
I am including tons of information, alongside the tutorial section. If you've never worked with Bullseye glass before, or if you've tried it once or twice and put it away, all frustrated and vowing never to use it again - like me at first - you're going to love this E-book. We've got pros and cons, tips and tricks galore, lots of 'ideas and inspiration' and 11 pages of suggested color combinations.
$18 is a great price for this E-book, if I do say so myself!
If you haven't ordered your copy yet, you should!
Don't forget: the price goes up to $24 on February 1st.
Okay, it's back to work now for me. See you soon!
A New E-book is Coming! SPECIAL PRE-ORDER SALE!
I've been working like crazy all week, and my new E-book is almost ready!
This one is called Making Mandala Beads, and the ETA is February 1st, 2010!
In the meantime, I've decided to have a little pre-order sale:
Order your copy now, and receive a 25% discount!
If you buy your copy before February 1st, here's what you get:
Buy the E-book for a price of only $18.00, instead of $24.00!
Be the one of the first to receive a copy as soon as the E-book is ready - before everybody else!
And wait, there's more...
I will enter your name in a raffle for a free Mandala bead - there will be three lucky winners!
The winners will be announced on February 2nd.
But first, you would probably like some more information about the E-book. Right?
This E-book focuses on one of my latest favorite bead styles - Mandalas!
My Mandala beads incorporate different types of complex cane, and they are great for improving your heat control, dot placement, gravity control and other technical abilities, providing you with lots of new and exciting possibilities!
The E-book will include six full step-by-step tutorials - three different types of cane and three different Mandala-style focal disk beads:
1. Making wig-wag cane
2. Making spiral murrini
3. Making ribbon cane
4. Making a wig-wag mandala
5. Making a ribbon cane mandala
6. Making a spiral murrini mandala
These are examples of the beads we'll be making:
(The beads in the tutorials will be slightly different, but the techniques used are the same.)
I will be demonstrating the beads in this E-book using Bullseye glass. You can definitely accomplish the same techniques in COE-104 glass, but I find that working in Bullseye makes life a bit easier - and besides, the colors rock (as I may have mentioned once or twice).
Since Bullseye may be unfamiliar to some readers, the E-book will include lots of tips and tricks for working with this glass, ideas to spark your imagination and a collection of at least a dozen (possibly more, because the list keeps growing) of my favorite Bullseye color combinations, code numbers and all!
As usual, the E-book will be in PDF format. It is going to be at least 60 pages long (probably more!) and will contain lots and lots of high-quality photos!
If I have you convinced that this one is worth waiting for... I hope I have... you can pre-order your copy today, for only $18.00!
A download link will be sent to your e-mail address as soon as the E-book is ready, by February 1st.
(I will send it to your Paypal e-mail address by default - if you'd like it sent to a different e-mail, please specify so in the "instructions to seller" on Paypal).
And, as previously mentioned, you'll be entered in the drawing to win one of three free mandala beads!
This pre-order sale will run till February 1st! Once the sale is over, the price of the E-book will be $24.00.
(Once more, just so we're clear: as this is a pre-order sale, you will not be receiving your copy of the file immediately - it will be sent to you by February 1st, 2010.)
UPDATE: The sale has ended.
Thanks everyone!
You can now buy Making Mandala Beads at http://www.glassbysarah.com/ebooks/mandala.
Studies in Black and White
And other colors...
Now on Etsy!
Check my eBay for a couple of square sets, ending today... and some revisiting butterflies!
And in other news...
Due to popular (I hope) demand, I'm working on a new E-book! Details to come soon.
If you're in Israel: The fabulous Melanie Moertel will be teaching a 2-day class at GilRaphal here in Tel Aviv this March. I can't wait to meet her! The dates of the class are Sun.-Mon., March 7-8, 10:00-18:00.
The class will include basic stringer work in different diameters and application of tiny lines. Besides that, Melanie will teach striped murrini and a few of her signature styles: Indian Elephant beads, penguins and fairies. This should be fun!
There is a limited number of spots left. For more info and registration, please contact GilRaphal at 03-5603113.
More New Stuff on Etsy
I don't do black and white very often, but these past few days I've been kind of intrigued with how they contrast with other colors.
The focals in my 'Mystical' series are pretty cool - and in attempt to make more affordable stuff, they are just $22 a piece.
And, a new retro-ish mini-set called 'Wallflowers':
New Obsession #395,781
Squares!
Squares are cool.
I've been playing around with my tile press from Maria Louisa in The Netherlands... I actually got this from her the first time I taught there, many years ago, but never got around to using it till now. I like it a lot, as you can see - it's really easy to use. I will have to check out some more of her presses once the economy gets better (if I'm still into presses whenever that happens).
Anyway, squares - crazy stringer ones:
This is kind of a new style for me - strangely minimalistic, relatively speaking, but fun. I have some more in the kiln right now, so stay tuned.
Pink ones... there always have to be pink ones.
I'm so obsessed with squares that I even devoted a treasury to them! Your clicks are much appreciated.
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Oh, before I forget... I'm offering an E-book sale on Etsy right now: all three for a bundle price, $55.00 instead of $61.50.
Click here, or visit my shop - I'll list more bundles if they "sell out". I'm listing them one at a time for now, because that seems to be the way to do things on Etsy. I'm slowly getting the hang of it, sigh.
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In other news - all squares aside - I made a marble! It's almost round! Look!
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These photos are crappy, I should take better ones.
But anyway, this is so cool... I've always wanted to make a marble. I'm not sure if I'll be making more though, because perfectly round stuff stresses me out, and besides, I'm too obsessed with squares at the moment. Maybe at some point in the future.
Well, actually, I'll probably be making another one on Friday... part two of a marble class I'm taking with Michal Menachem.
After that... well, we'll see.
