Bronze clay flash drive by Judi Weers, (c) 2013

Judi Weers, .a.k.a. Dr. Metal Clay made this terrific metal clay cover for a flash drive! I asked her to tell us more about how she did it.

She shares that the flash drive molds are designed by David Nemeth and sold at http://www.metalclays.com and the mold for the fish is from http://www.bestflexiblemolds.com created by Penni Jo Couch. (Her molds are also sold at Metal Clay Supply.)

See more of Judi’s jewelry, plus class information, at her website: http://www.judiweers.com

Here’s another view:

Bronze Clay Flash Drive by Judi Weers, (c) 2013

I’ve been binge-listening to Alyson Stanfield’s podcasts and in one of them — it was a December or January one — she talks about the value of pausing to take stock, to celebrate your successes, lest you lose track of them.

We’ve had some serious set backs around here, including a yucky basement flood that caused a lot of damage, including sentimental things that were beyond saving, to mention just one. I have a lot of sentimental things. Had.

I’ve had a pretty amazing 12 months, but that can be easy to forget sometimes. I want to remind myself. So I made this little collage (above) showing some of the places where I’ve given speeches this past year, or taught a workshop, been in a show, the cover of my new book and the profile on JCKonline. I just printed the pictures, cut them out, set them on a piece of card stock and laminated them. (What, you don’t have a laminator?)

Here are a couple more pictures of wonderful things from the past year or so:

Those are: the You Are Beautiful show at Flourish, featuring my giant letter E; participants last summer at the Chinese American Service League, and a photo of a train, representing my commitment to taking more photos.

What’s not shown in the pictures, but something that’s behind each image, is the relationships with the people connected to each event — the wonderful book cover designer, the photographer who took my picture that ran in JCKonline, the fellow teaching artists at Woman Made Gallery, the terrific folks at the organizations that have had me out to speak, the gallery owners. Being reminded of those relationships is a real boost too.

That reminds me — in the podcasts, she also asks, who have you mentored this past year? Who has mentored you? I’ve got both of those too!

I’ve just put these collages up at my desk, where I have assorted inspirational quotes above and around my desk. I have a collage my daughter made that says “Never Give Up,” and a pictograph list of the products I’m working on rolling out. And the mini poster “But there is this gap,” from Ira Glass.

How about you? I’d love to hear about your successes! What are you so proud of from this past year? What’s your favorite inspirational quote? What’s taped up to the wall behind your desk?

Recently I’ve discovered two wonderful podcasts and was so excited to share them with you. Then both of the turned out to be no longer in production!

They’re still worth listening to, even though there won’t be any more episodes.

The first podcast that I discovered is Art Heros by John T. Unger. John interviews experts in their fields and asks great questions. There are only about six episodes, but they’re worth listening to.

The second podcast is the Art Marketing Podcast by Alyson Stanfield. Since I started listening to them in reverse, the very first one said, “This will be the last podcast.” Oh no!

I suppose I could have caught that, had I noticed the year. There are a couple of year’s worth of podcasts to listen to from Alyson.

Both podcasts can be found on iTunes.

How about you? Do you have a favorite business podcast to recommend? Please post a comment, thanks!

Photo credit: Moi Cody on the stock xchng

This is a topic that comes up in discussion in my local group, Berwyn Makers, a group for people who are serious about their handcrafted businesses. In our various meetings and book discussions, this topic of whether or not to do custom, what boundaries to set on that work, and when to shut down a product that’s not working, for one reason or another.

June’s speaker at Berwyn Makers will be the fabulous art quilter Ebony Love and I happened upon this terrific post about how she came to decide to stop doing custom work: http://www.lovebugstudios.com

Bit of a theme going here on the blog, isn’t there? Cutting away at the non-essentials, the drains on our energy and creativity in order to be the best artists we can be.

Read about Ebony’s talk here: http://berwynmakers.wordpress.com

And if you’re in Chicagoland, come on down, you don’t want to miss this!

Photo credit: Stock Xchange user robinvanei

I almost went with a stop sign for today’s post, to be on trend with the last post’s Whoa sign, but decided to go with a green light, since saying whoa, or stop to certain things in life gives us a green light for our art.

I’m still thinking about that question, discussed in this post, about how to find/make time to make art.

Saying No Helps.

I haven’t read this book, “How to Say No Without Feeling Guilty: And Say Yes to More Time, and What Matters Most to You,” but I think the title says it all. Find it here:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Say-Without-Feeling-Guilty/dp/0767903803

This cutting back the non-essentials is an almost constant theme for me. Or maybe it’s an ebb and flow. I quit things, I pare back, but then responsibilities creep back in. For me, the biggest area I’ve been cutting back on is volunteer work. I’ve now gotten it down to this requirement: I’ll only volunteer when it’s for an activity that directly benefits my kids (and that’s limited to ones the I’m already committed to).

Women, in general, seem to have more trouble saying no and protecting their time than men do, so this post by Luann Udell, seems appropriate. It’s about how being a “good girl” may not lead to being a great artist. Read that here: http://faso.com/fineartviews/58539/masculine-feminine-part-1.

What do I think the keys are, to making time for making art?

You’ve got to want it, want it bad. Want the art making enough to make sacrifices.

You’ve got to handle your fear. Whatever holds you back, you’ve got to identify it and kill it. Slay those dragons!

That’s it.

As they say in the old iMac commercials, “There’s no step three!”

Every time I give a speech and mention the software “Freedom,” people light up, clearly indicating that they need that. Freedom allows you to block yourself from specific websites while you’re working on something where you still need access to the web (which is nearly everything, it seems.)

One of my productivity techniques is that I close my email program when I’m working on a project where I need to focus (and of course, I immediately need to access information that’s in an email, every time!).

I just heard about a new program, called “Self Control,” that allows you to block your email program AND specific websites.

Here’s how it works, from their website:

Is email a distraction? SelfControl is an OS X application which blocks access to incoming and/or outgoing mail servers and websites for a predetermined period of time.

For example, you could block access to your email, facebook, and twitter for 90 minutes, but still have access to the rest of the web. Once started, it can not be undone by the application, by deleting the application, or by restarting the computer – you must wait for the timer to run out.

Here’s the website:

http://visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol

While you’re there, check out Steve’s artwork, which is terrific.

Image credit: Agne Kveselyte, via The Stock Exchange.

My first Kindle booklet is available now on amazon! http://ow.ly/kGcqA

Here’s the description its page from amazon:

Want to take better pictures of your handcrafted jewelry? With this helpful booklet, you can do it! Jeweler and DIY photographer Elaine Luther tells you how to create a lighting set up inexpensively, what backgrounds to use and where to buy them and much, much more. Interviews with professional photographers cover topics including how to work with professional models, when to hire a professional photographer, and headshots. The resources section includes where to buy backgrounds, lights as well as links to more information, all carefully selected by the author. 8,550 words.

It’s equivalent to 30 pages, 8.5″ x 11″.

Currently for sale for the low, low price of 99 cents! Click here to buy a copy!

Cover Design: Anne M. Fiala

Copyright K. Skiles 2013 All Rights Reserved

How do you talk about your artistic process? Being able to is an important part of showing that your work is handcrafted, showing what goes in to making it. (I talk about why you should do that in this post.) I’ve been noticing lately which artists are doing a great job of sharing their creative processes.

One of those artists is, as always, Kirsten Skiles, whose photo mosaic you see above. Click through to read more about her process: http://www.kaskiles.com/2013/04/here-is-sequence-of-photos-from-flickr.html

She’s shown us the whole creative process, from start to finish. And she’s done this with a baby! If you’re a regular blog reader of hers, you also know she’s drawing regularly and maybe drew this design first. (Here’s another great post from Kirsten, showing how she does repoussé to make shamrocks.)

Chicago Faces Series, Copyright 2013 Hannah Ferhman All Rights Reserved

Another artist who does a really terrific job of sharing her creative process is photographer Hannah Fehrman, who sends out a monthly newsletter called 5 x 7 with 5 images on the 7th of every month.

Here’s a recent issue, that you can see online: 5 x 7, January 2013.

She picks out some favorites from the month and tells us the story behind each photo. Not only is this interesting, but it shows that she’s a busy and successful photographer and success attracts success, and more business.

(Here’s a post from Alyson Stanfield on why artists should publish a newsletter.)

Why should you do this? Why share your creative process? And is there a downside?

Here’s the part I struggle with: documenting my creative process as it happens, takes me out of the moment and interferes with the very thing I’m trying to achieve!

Back in junior high school, I was a subscriber to Writers Digest Magazine. (Yes, really.) And I remember an article that said,

“Don’t talk about it. Don’t talk about the book or story or article you’re writing, because that dissipates the energy of the project. Take that energy and put it in the writing.”

I remembered that (thank you, article writer from long ago) and apply that to my art. I’m very much an after the fact blogger. “Here’s what I made yesterday,” not, “here’s what I’m making right now.”

So if you’re hesitant, I’m with you, but I still hold that you can find a way to blog your process that works for you.

The benefits to you are huge. In addition to getting your message out, blogging about your creative process turns out to usually be a form of reflection. And reflection is really helpful to our creative process itself. It helps us make new art, figure out why we’re making what we’re making and what it all means.

Blogging about a couch thrown away in a dumpster evolved into my artist statement! Really! (Here’s that post.) As weird as that is, the regular practice of blogging, of thinking, reflecting and sharing (after all, I have regular readers, I can’t let you down), led to that post about the couch in the dumpster, called, “Not Inspired by Nature.” That really got me thinking and I sat down and turned that into my artist statement.

Another benefit to blogging is that you build your blog over time. It’s easy on a weekly basis, and then suddenly you look back and you have years worth of insights, photos, finished works, all neatly organized.

It doesn’t have to be blogging, a regular practice of journaling or drawing can serve the same purpose. The benefit of blogging is that there’s this potential for readers! It’s sharing, there’s accountability. It’s more public. So much of art making is private and solitary, if there’s a part of it that we can share, besides the finished product, that’s a wonderful opportunity.

Need more inspiration? Check out crafty blogger Lisa Polderman of PoldaPop Designs at her blog. She does a terrific job, with lots and lots of photos to show her works in progress, her struggles, her successes and dreams.

Want one more good reason to blog your creative process? As a hedge against unauthorized online sharing. At a recent Chicago Artists Coalition event, photographer Jessica Pierotti pointed out that more and more artists are blogging their process more than their finished product, to prevent unauthorized grabbing of images. If you don’t post the images, they can’t be taken. That brings up a bunch more issues, so we’ll tackle that in another blog post.