Handmade VS Mass-produced

There's a restaurant down the street from me, let's call it Ronnie's for now. They have a really good breakfast deal, you can get tri-tip, ham, bacon, kielbasa sausage, 2 eggs, toast and hash browns for about $10. I know, what a deal right? It's so much food that my fiance and I split it because there's no way either of us could eat all of that alone! The restaurant is trendy, done in modern + vintage 50's style deco. The wait staff is reasonably nice and all in all, it's an ok place to get breakfast. Oh and the food is pretty good. We order, eat and leave. Nothing spectacular, we were hungry, and now we're not and we didn't spend an arm and a leg. Mission accomplished.

Further down the road about 8 miles is another 
place, let's call it The Sunny Cafe . It's small and cozy. We find ourselves to whatever table may be available and then the bus boy comes over to say hello, get our drink order and pours the coffee usually asking how we've been and seems happy to see us. He keeps our coffee fresh and hot all through breakfast. The server (who's been there for about 15 yrs) knows us by name, and has since our second time there. She pretty much knows exactly what we'll order. She makes us feel so welcome and taken care of. We get our breakfast, and sit and talk and enjoy it. We leave feeling not just full, but kind of warm inside, almost like we just had breakfast at mom's.  

Comparing these two the other day made me think of the difference between mass-produced products offered in huge quantities and low prices at the big superstores and the original, hand-crafted items offered by sites like Zahoomi. Looking at a necklace hanging on a rack in the store, at first glance may look like something similar being offered by a hand-made jewelry artisan, but is it really?



Cosmic Blue Bracelet from Jolly Stones
and Glass on Zahoomi

Do you find yourself enjoying things made by hand and heart better than things you get from the bigger restaraunts, stores and outlets? Do you sense a definate difference? If you do, what do you think that difference is? I'd love to hear your comments and perspectives on this!

Please leave comments below because this blog isn't complete without your participation! I love hearing all of the different thoughts, ideas and feedback.

Thank you!

Summer

I can't believe it is mid-August already! I hope you have all been enjoying the summer so far. As for me I really don't know where my summer went this year! It is already time for back to school shopping and starting to look for books and backpacks and pens and pencils and clothes that actually fit!

I'd love to hear from you all about where you do most of your shopping? Where do most of you go for school stuff? Is Target really cheaper than Fred-Meyer? How about clothes? I always run into the issue of too-loose-at-the-waist issue when buying pants for my son? Do you run into this too?

Would love to hear your thoughts and advice! Go ahead and let me know what you do.

In a Pinch Lightbox

In a Pinch 
-Lightbox








I wanted my photos to have that pretty, bright professional look I would see everywhere so I did a little research. I found out about "Light boxes" and I also found I could spend anywhere from$25-$200 for simple to full on kits with lots of bells and whistles! Reading about the function of a light box, I realized that most important is that it has a light matte background and that it reflects light well.  After playing around a bit with a few household items I found something that works great in a pinch! Isn't it awesome that our imaginations can be used for so much more than just making pretty things?

Basically all you need is what is pictured above in the title picture. I've used a small box about 18"x 12" x 4" here. Next, take plain paper and wrap scotch tape to make it "double-sided" and tape to back of paper so it doesn't show and lay in back of box. 

Then, do this for all sides of the box, doing your best to cover  by laying paper in ways that make neat seams. Pictures below will show you what I mean. 

Now as you can see, this is by no means perfect. BUT, with a little adjusting of the bottom paper (which I don't tape down) and of the camera angle I'm able to capture a clean, bright picture and I did it all with what I already had laying around the house!

Above is a picture taken in the box I just put together for this article. Not a seam in sight and it's got that bright look I need! I took it outside in the noonday light, but not in the direct sunlight, and snapped it in one shot. Well two, the first came out blurry. Voila!

When you have a little more time to put into making a great picture box I suggest buying foam or poster board and measuring and cutting to exact dimensions to cover the inside of your box. This way you can use boxes that are big enough or small enough for your needs. You can get different colors to use for back or bottom for accent when you like too! Below there is a link to a great video on how to make a light box from tissue paper and cardboard with a little tape for those of us who do not have access to great natural light.  

It's wonderful that with all of the information on the internet we can find ways to do things that work, without spending a lot of money! I'd much rather spend my money on MORE BEADS!! 

If you have a helpful trick or suggestion to make pictures really pop, please share your experience below! Also, let us know if you have any questions, we are here to help!! 

Link to great light box video: http://youtu.be/--wO67tpj8I

Where Are YOUR Ducks?

Where are 
YOUR ducks?

Organized...organization....what comes to mind when you hear those two words? For some, it’s just a word, something you just do so you can be the amazing and productive person you are and you hardly think about it. For others it makes our stomach clinch a little and tiny beads of sweat begin to dot our brow as, in a flash, 3 or more thoughts of areas that are in need of some serious organization flash across our minds accompanied by that ever familiar guilt. Which of the two are you or are you somewhere in the middle?


If you’re marketing an item that you create with your own hands, chances are you're a pretty creative person. There’s also a good chance that organization may not come naturally to you. Of course there are exceptions to every rule. I acknowledge this with not just a little envy of those who are blessed with the organization gene AND the artistic gene. You are my heroes! As for the other artistic types, this is not the case. Many of us right-brains don’t naturally fall into a prelabelled, color coded box easily. We usually go out of necessity mixed with a little desperation, side-tracked all along the way by all the pretty sparkly stuff! Am I painting a realistic picture for any of you? 

I have a weird dichotomy. When I used to work in an office, I was very organized. I was known for my ability to streamline workflows and develop processes and policies to handle all the information coming in and going out (I was the lead Data Analyst in the IT Department of a local hospital). The day would end, I’d go home...and that is where this uber organized side of me would just *poof*, disappear. I’ve discovered I suffer from a couple of maladies that while, sadly, are incurable, can be put into a sort of daily remission if I take my “Medicine”. They are as follows:

Calendar Clutter:
Calendar Clutter is that sense that I know I have a lot to do, I’m just not sure what or when or with who and I am sure I will miss something at some point because I am suffering an attack of Calendar Clutter.
My Medicine: Use my personal email program and my calendar app on my phone to keep me on track. It is visual (“YAY!” says my right-brain) and organizational (“DOUBLE YAY!!” says my left-brain). I can put appointments, to do lists and reminders into this and it does the rest. My biggest struggle with this is REMEMBERING to use it! I have no cure for the forgetful flu as of yet folks, sorry. If I do run across one, I will do my best to remember to tell you about it!

Disaster Desk:
I work on a large glass top, nearly indestructible desk.  Most mornings, when I first sit down, my coffee cup has to fight with the beading mat, bead tubes,

tools and thread to find a place for itself. It's usually a longggg expanse of items that tell a story of all the things I did yesterday at this desk. It's almost forensic in nature! It's also unnerving. 
My Medicine: Resist the urge to run. Resist the urge to “work around” The Disaster. Begin with the easiest thing to put away and then the next...and next until I can begin my workday with a fresh and clean start. I've found it is very hard for me to find a peaceful place to let inspiration grow in the middle of chaos. Following through with this directive in the morning FIRST, makes all the difference on how the rest of the day will unfold. 

That’s it. Yep...it’s simple and small. When I wander away from doing one or both of these things for any extended period of time, I find myself 

swimming in deep waters of dread (that I’m going to inevitably miss something important), frustration and anxiety. The medicine, when I’ve come down with the Disorganization Disease is not too far away and not too hard to swallow. It is from this framework that all else flows. I have the boxes and containers and files and compartments. I have the shelves and spaces and places. On a good day, if the basics are in place, I can find myself free enough from Clutter Crisis to embark on a more detailed journey into the realms of Organization, sifting through Czech glass and Swarovski crystals and cabochons and bead tubes. I can label and color code, sort and separate with the best of them! At some point, this all seems to eventually deteriorate into a jumble and I find myself once again reaching for my two trusted Cures. They are good starting points to a day, and to a fresh start when things have gone awry. 

Today, I am at the tail end of a spiral into Chaos. Sitting here, writing I am inspired to begin again. I will open my calendar and sort through my mental disarray and get it ironed out into something tangible. I can see my starting point on my desk. I'll start with the bead tubes. Things will come back together into some kind of coherent framework. It’s progress, not perfection and having a sure way to begin makes all the difference.

Where do you fall in the scale of the Organized/Disorganized? 

What are your tried and true habits that keep you sane? Do you 

struggle with this or is being organized a cakewalk for you? Where are YOUR ducks and how do they fare? For today, my ducks will live! I'll round em up and start anew.

We’d love to hear your experience, suggestions or wisdom or even just a funny story about your own victories and/or disasters regarding organization. Your comments complete this blog so please, feel free to share your answers below! I cannot tell you how much I look forward to learning from YOU! 

Thank you for reading and have a good and prosperous day! There is joy in the Journey :)

A Journey - Not a Destination

A Journey - Not a Destination

It is better to travel well than to arrive.
Buddha

I began beading on a whim. I was in a time of rough seas and unknown destinations. All I knew was where I was going was going to be better than where I had been, I just wasn’t sure how yet. Sitting at a table with a friend my eye was drawn to his ring. It was a little blue beaded ring. I asked him to take it off so I could look at it. It looked so simple as I examined it. The thread obviously goes in here and comes out there into that little tiny bead and it goes on and on until you’re done! “I can do that” I thought. I decided right then, holding that little beaded ring of my friend’s that I was going to do this too. Besides it looked so easy! (I can hear snickers from the crowd…)

Not long after, I came across a local bead shop. I wandered up to it and discovered they gave Peyote Stitch lessons for $20. I sat down and made my first little strip of peyote stitch and to this day I can recall the colors I used and the design. It was diagonal stripes in a dusty rose and champagne. She was happy with how fast I caught on, I wasn’t. My friend’s little ring looked so simple but as I fumbled with the teeny tiny beads and the thread and the needle and trying to “pay attention to the tension”  and all of a sudden it felt as though I had 20 fingers instead of 10 I had become appropriately humbled. It was not “so easy”. I was beginning to feel a respect for this craft.

I left the shop with my little bag of supplies, my first beaded strip of dusty rose and champagne and a fire of motivation. The nice lady told me to go home, finish the strip and return to learn how to finish it and how to put a clasp on. I never went back. I wanted to figure it out myself. For the next 7 years drawers and boxes held tiny strips of beads in simple patterns. I only ever completed 2 bracelets. One that kept falling apart because I hadn’t finished it right and the other was lost. About a year ago I decided to use the internet to look up a tutorial on how to finish a bracelet correctly.  Amazing what you can learn when you decide to be a student!


I now believe the 7 years of seemingly pointless beading were not so pointless after all. It was, first of all, a way for me to release myself creatively and to bring myself into a zone of calm. I was, along the way, developing my technique and becoming very connected with the process of beading. I learned about how different colors look when used as opposed to in the tube. I finally got the feel for “tension” and things stopped looking stretched out and crooked. I learned the language the needle and beads speak to make certain patterns. None of this could’ve happened overnight. I'm very grateful for that small beading shop that has since gone out of business for putting my feet on this road and for all the steps thereafter. 

First completed piece!

The lesson as I see it is that there are no shortcuts to learn or perfect this or any craft. It is a journey fraught with knotted thread, ugly attempts, frustration, mistakes and finally something something wonderful happens.  I'm sure you know the wonder and humble joy over looking at something your own hands have fashioned. It's one of the purest joys in life isn't it? Then to be able to share it with another person is even more fabulous still! 

I still remember the first piece that I completed that I knew crossed over from “a little beaded strip” to an actual fully realized creation. It’s been quite a journey and the road doesn't end here. From my vantage point, it still stretches on and on, to unknown destinations. I'm not sure where it's headed but I can relax and enjoy the ride because I'm sure it gets even better still!

Enough about my journey! It would be wonderful to hear how your journey into perfecting your craft has unfolded. When did you “KNOW” you had found your niche or are you still searching? What makes your experience priceless in this field? 


Thank you fellow Zahoomians for stopping by! I always eagerly anticipate your comments and perspectives!     


Lightbulb and road pictures courtesy of http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
All photos used with permission by myself and other owners.

ClicksbyKaren on Zahoomi

ClicksbyKaren

The Inner Kindergartner - An Artist Within Us All

“No matter what your age or your life path, whether making art is your career or your hobby or your dream, it is not too late or too egotistical or too selfish or too silly to work on your creativity.”
― Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

When I was younger I was told I was creative, mostly by my mother. Underneath my pride at her compliments, I felt a vague unease that whispered “Mom’s always think their children are potential Picasso’s”.  I had similar thoughts whenever anyone else paid me similar compliments. There was always a small voice that immediately discounted my own inner artist and its abilities and talent. The idea that we are to grow up and be doctors and lawyers and nurses and accountants and policemen and business people further reinforced the idea that creativity and art is a secondary function of a person, if at all. Those who are artists by trade, able to earn and make their existence with their craft in whatever field they choose are like rare birds to observe from afar while going about the real and serious business of  being a responsible and successful adult in the more conventional ways.

Over the last few years I have begun to have a shift in my beliefs of what art and creativity actually is. Who are the true artists? What is creativity? Is it really some “other-world” that exists parallel to but not over-lapping of our daily existence in general? I don’t think so. I think it permeates everyone and can be a part of everything if we let it.

My definition of art is the ability of someone to infuse something they create with a part of themselves in such a way it is translated to another. Creativity, to me, is the ability of the human race to approach things from unique ways and to carry out tasks and ideas with individual flair. In this way, I believe everyone has an inner artist from the painter to the accountant at any and every age and on every economic and educational level.  We all have the ability to do something “our way” and to encode it with our unique touch…and to have it communicate that essence to another human being.

I always have to tell myself  “Whatever you do, do it with your heart. Infuse it with your spirit. Make it your art.” This is what turns a job into a creation, a vocation into a craft. Listen to that inner Kindergartner that loved getting their hands wrist deep in mud to build a pie with leaf icing! Remember them? I try to invite that inner mud-pie, Fruit Loop picture maker into every day to offer their unfettered artistic inclinations to all I make.   Whether you are an artisan or an accountant, a sculptor or a surgeon there is only one YOU and only you can do what you do with your unique touch. This is art.  To give ourselves permission to tap into our inner reservoirs and let the creativity overflow it’s banks into our everyday lives. How it does so is part of the adventure. Let life become our canvas! 

I'd love to hear how you've reached past your inner critic to tap into your inner artist? Did you struggle or was it a natural progression? What is your favorite creative memory as a child?

Thank you for reading and sharing your artistic selves in the Zahoomi Community! On with the adventure!