Luna's Baublebilities

Another excellent reason to be in Love with ArtFire.

My Sweet Lily earrings were included in a collection of several sellers using the same lily beads to create different variations on the floral earring theme.  That collection hit the Front Page this morning! 

Here's a link to the Treasury so you can go take a peek:




Over on Etsy, I made the FP once, many years ago before admin began "curating" the FP and the blatant favoritism started.  With new, member curated collections being the basis for ArtFire's Front Pages, everyone have a better chance to Land in that oh so valuable promotional spot. 

I'm finding that making collections is quick, fun and easy, is a great way to get to know other members of ArtFire and engage in some friendly "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" promotional relationships.  It's wonderful.  A great way to start out my week!

The theme for the next blogfire carnival is candy.  I don't have too much to say about candy.  If there is chocolate in the house, I will eat it.  Hard candy is easier to resist.  But these pretty things, even the ones that aren't edible, make my mouth water!








Have I mentioned how much I love ArtFire?

Earlier this week there was a rather serious security breach at Etsy related to a programming goof on some new tool.  (Sellers' full legal names instead of shop names were listed in Treasuries for about 45 minutes)  Etsy Bitch and the Forums exploded in panic begging Etsy to get sellers' private information hidden and, later, in rage and frustration at Etsy's perceived slow response and initially dismissive attitude about dealing with the problem. 

Etsy has offered apologies and claims to be beefing up security but they aren't saying anything about implementing better methods and procedures for rolling out changes to code.   This particular "glitch" would have been averted if Etsy had bothered to roll out the change internally for some testing before sending it out live to the world.   This is one of the major problem over at Etsy lately.  They have been rolling out new features and tweaks to old features for months and many many bugs keep popping up.  They have 60 engineers.  Dop you think they might take some time every week to review their work together, maybe help each other proof read a bit?  Have one or two other employees who know the site sit down to test the changes before making them live?  Apparently not.

That's a problem.  But the even bigger problem is their response to one (previously) very successful seller who posted her concerns about the breach in the forums somewhat stridently.  Today, her main shop has been shut down plus her other account and her husband's shop have been forum muted.  Admin have refused to help her or answer any of her questions.  They just kept closing down threads that she and friends started in forums asking Admin to please contact her.  Their responses are all run along the same line of  'we can't talk about private accounts here in the forums.  Why don't you contact live help, etc . . . this thread is closed.'
It sounds a lot like "We're going to take you to a secure location.  Where you'll be safe." 

Yes.  Their response makes me feel very reassured.  About this woman's ability to continue to conduct her business.  About the security of My own information which Etsy still has, even though my shop is on vacation and I don't intend to re-open it.  About Etsy's concern for seller well being.

It makes my blood boil.

Which is not hard today, what with me being estrogen poisoned again.  I'm exhausted.  My productivity in the house and studio is at an all time low.  The studio problem is probably best explained by the illustrations here and above.  It's just not there yet.  I keep hoping that the storage issue will resolve when we get the workbench turned back into a dyeing table and I have that under counter  and shelving storage available.  There's a plan to take out the closed grey door (which you can't see - in either photo, it would be just to the left.) and install 'pass through' type shelves there in the door frame.  That should help.

Maxx has been a handful.  He was sick all last week with a cold (Tuesday through Friday) watched too much TV and has been sullen and surly just about every waking minute for the last week or so.  He generously shared his virus with Bryan and I so that we could be stiff, headachey and miserable for a few days.  Now that he's well enough to go back , he is being particularly troublesome about getting ready for school.  He would rather play in his new tree house. 

(Can I blame him?  Not really.) 

His little surly act is getting very old very fast.  He has also been having a LOT of potty accidents.  Right now I'm chalking it up to an hour ride each direction every day to school and back and trying to re-adjust after summer vacation.  If it persists for more than another week or two, we may have to go see the doctor about it.  Doing laundry is a problem - we still have no washer over here so pissy laundry on a daily basis is really wearing me out.

I was supposed to take THIS in today to get it fixed before it produces more just like it.  We used to have 3 cat carriers.  Could we find any?    Go ahead - guess. 

No carrier.  No fix.  Maybe next week.

I have a new calling which suddenly has several responsibilities landing in my lap.  I can delegate but even that takes some energy and planning - you know, I'd have to actually think about it.

We ran out of construction money and need to send the bank a packet of receipts and a progress report/estimate for finishing up stuff.  That requires thought, too.

Oh and to top it all off - I need a trip to the dentist.  I haven't been in a veeerrrry long time.  We do not have family dental.  I am askeered.

And - yes.  that cat DOES have that much attitude.  She's very sweet about it but really.  She is the queen.  Or goddess.  Or something else infinitely better than me.

So - this is a group set of jewelry I've been working on.  This is a final design sketch awaiting approval.  




It has been a bit challenging in that the set contains colors that I don't normally work with together and because I am trying to make similar but different pieces using the same components. 

Note that the Swarovski colors will be darker in real life than in this rendering.  :)

Now I have to go figure out why mu fridge stinks.  Maybe I should take the Dirk Gently route and just go order a new one.



. . . .

Why am I always the sucker?

This little guy spent an hour or so with me this morning.  He had been wandering around for several hours when I decided that I needed to check his temperment and lure him in before he got hit in the road.

He proved to be very sweet but skittish and likes to pee in the house.   So we waited in Zig-wiggy's yard for the animal control officer.  She said he is a blue heeler and he is being taken to the Potsdam Humane Society.

He must have been lost or a drop off.   When we leashed him, he flipped out - cried and yelped and snarled a bit and did not want to get in the truck.  He looks young and fairly healthy and well fed - he will need a good home with someone gentle and patient.  Hope he finds one.

I need a Fire Azxe for Blogger Today.  Wghat a tremendous pain it is being.  New colors from left to right and that's it.  I keep trying to insert more photos and it just gets all twisted up.  Sigh..Changeling Oak, Firey Maple, Sugar Bush, Sunlit Gold, Autumn Storm, September Sky, Concord Grape, Thistle.  Maybe we'll have better luick with blogger later.  I think it's this Zemanta Garbage that I installed and now awant to get rid of but can't fiigure out how.,  What a pian.

 

Here are a few quick photos of things I've been working on recently


I got these wonderful bead caps a month or so ago and they just didn't work for any of the beads I have in stock.  Too shallow for my briolettes, too wide for any of my rounds, too small for some of the bigger beads I have . . .   But they make great tassel tops!

I've got another project in the works with coral beads and flaming red silk thread but that will have to wait a few more days.   Hand dyeing the silk thread was fun, too and I was a bit dismayed to discover how much thread I needed to use to make a fat enough tassel for thislittle bead cap.



And here are some alchemy scarves I did up as a custom wholesale order.  My customer wanted autumn colors so I dyed up some flaming warms, some thistley & plummy purples and some vibrant skies.  I'll be ironing and edging these later today and have them ready to ship tomorrow.  I've really been enjoying making this custom order, experimenting with new colors and combinations to capture some of the colors of autumn.  I'll post finished photos later this week so you can see the color shifts a little better, the wrinkling and crinkling  disguises the depth of color in each scarf.

Every time I log into ArtFire lately there is some new tool.  The awesome thing is that the new tools are not only shiny but also functional and wonderful.  This is a big, happy surprise for me after the trauma of etsy.



Recently they created a collection tool, much like an Etsy Treasury, ArtFire members can make a collection of their favorite things to show off in the ArtFire collection section.  I never got to make an Etsy Treasury - it was so complicated and for most of my time on Etsy, the opportunity to make a treasury was based on a first come first served basis so you had to find out when an old treasury was expiring and hover near your computer trying to grab that spot as soon as it was available.  Sorry.  My time is too valuable for that.
The tool I found yesterday is the collection widget.  ArtFire's front page will soon  be made up of member curated collections so they are encouraging members to create collections of our favorite things to be considered for the Front Page exposure.  How exciting!!!


They have also created a widget tool that allows us to create a widget for our blogs with three little button clicks so we can easily share them with the world in a way that allows readers to click right through to ArtFire shops.


How cool!

There's one here in my sidebar now that I will update frequently and let's see if I can put on right here in this post . . . .