I’ve started my newest Etsy shop. It’s for my new little sea glass inventions.

I’m fortunate to live in an area with some amazing beaches, and this new venture is forcing me to visit them more often. I am not a beach, tan or sunshine fan (the fact that some people actually “lay out” in the sun is astonishing to me.), so I usually go in the early mornings. This works out, because the tides have rolled out a whole blanket of untouched treasures in the dawn to early afternoon hours. I’ve always enjoyed scouring the beach, but now that I have actually found a little art form to project on my finds, it’s giving me more of an impetus to get out there.

I love sea glass and sea pottery. They are like little gifts from the ocean. Scouring the shore for perfectly smoothed shards of glass, china, pottery and who-knows-what is such a meditative practice. Not to mention, I have such a huge love of all things old, worn and ancient…as well as the “treasure hunting” aspect of the process. Last week I found a HUGE pottery shard with a fairytale looking wolf carved into it. Judging from the design and pottery, it’s probably from the 1920s. When I finally get around to learning wirewrapping, it’s going to make a really stunning piece of jewelry.

I also love this process because with the near extinction of glass bottles, sea glass is a dying breed. I like being able to take something that is washed ashore and to give it new life. I’ve mainly been experimenting with these ghostly images of vintage women, because I like the effect that is achieved. They look like little ghosts of the ocean trapped in glass.

The ones I am posting here are the transparent ones. They tend to look very three dimensional in person because of the nature of the glass and the dimensional finish that I use on the front and back. I have other ones that are opaque, or part opaque and part transparent. I am just experimenting with different textures and images.

One thing I want to change is the hanging process. I don’t like that the bail can be seen through the glass. This week I hope to practice drilling, this way I can have a drilled hole with an attachment rather than a n adhesive bail.

The Sea Glasserie is at http://www.seaglasserie.etsy.com !

I must have some sort of creative disorder, and it’s only getting worse as I get older. I find that lately, it is at it’s full boil, and I have been taking on more projects than I could ever possibly follow through to completion. I just have all of these ideas in my head, and I throw myself full force into so many of them at once, that I find myself ridden with anxiety and stress of my own making. I end up dropping things and picking new things up so frequently that nothing can move ahead. In order to fixate on the creative-whim-of-the-moment, I end up dropping all of the other projects that I’ve worked so hard to build up. I want to channel all of my passion into one outlet, but I have always found it very difficult to do this. As a result, I have never really been able to stick with something long enough to develop it into a permanent fixture in my life. I want to do everything, but I am only one person. I am perpetually possessed by a bunch of different muses who all want to do different things, and it’s impossible to tell them no. It’s always been this way, except that now there are more of them.

For the past few months, I have completely abandoned my self portrait work. This makes me mad, because it was such a passion of mine, and I was really starting to get the work appreciated and accepted into and by some really wonderful situations. But when I turn my energy and passion away from something, it ends immediately. There have been few opportunities and acknowledgments of my work lately, because I turned of the switch. I stopped putting energy on it and it ended. I’ve totally forgotten about it. I want to go back and turn the switch on again, but there are too many other inspirations pulling me in other directions.

Last week, I was completely obsessed with craft-related projects, and was particularly stuck on making Scrabble tile pendants. I must have made 200 or more of them. I thought it was something I would continue to do, but now it is completely out of my system and I have no desire to make any more. Thank God for Etsy, where I will just keep them listed for 6 months or so and just hope that at least half of them sell (hell, if I can sell 20 I’ll be happy). Now, I am hung up on making these ghostly images out of sea glass, and I have been making these day and night since Friday. On top of this, I am trying to learn to wire wrap jewelry, and I want to make theatrical masks out of paper mache. I also am trying to compile a small book of poetry. Not to mention, I find something nearly every day that I want to make, learn, or start. I need to STOP. I have terrible sleeping issues because of all of this. Lately, I have been sleeping about 2 hours a day, and often I will go 24 hours or more without sleep. Since Sunday, I have been a total craft zombie…even though I have been suffering the flu.

Obviously I have some weird obsessive creative/art karma. However, thinking back I realize that this sort of thing also runs in my family. My grandfather was an insomniac because of his inspirations, and I remember that he would often stay up for days on end composing and recording music and writing stories. Sometimes he would record an entire album in one night. He was also fond of inventing things, and this also contributed to many of his creativity-induced insomniatic sprees.

I feel like maybe I should just drop everything and force myself back into conceptual photography mode. Or at least limit myself to the photography and one other thing….like the sea glass project, for example. Oh, then there’s the faux desserts. I might stick with them too, just because they are a good niche and can be developed for more income. I’ve just realized that I’m spinning out of control and getting unreasonable. I cannot possibly do all of the things I am compulsively pulled to do and keep my sanity in order. Lately, I just do not feel big enough to house the impulses and inspirations that bombard me. I know that I am swimming through an illusion (temporal existence), and the water around me sometimes looks so beautiful I can drown trying to taste it thoroughly. I cannot possibly learn, do, or create every single thing that I feel passionate about.

This week I have been salivating over so many of the deliciously brilliant handmade items on Etsy. So far, I think I have spent everything I’ve made on Etsy ON Etsy. I’ve made myself a promise to try and buy handmade wherever possible, and this won’t be hard to do with all of the incredible handmade offerings out there…from clothing and decor to soap and tea and everything in between. Buying handmade is just another way for me to drop out of the loop of my big box consumer society and support independent sellers who are trying to make a living off their craft. There is no reason for me to drop money in the machine, when I can get BETTER quality clothing and supplies from actual human beings. What I love about Etsy is the absolutely eclectic selection of offerings. My tastes lean toward the unusual, and I have found so many things lately that I could not find anywhere else.

Here are some recent finds, that I’ve fallen in love with:

Elegant Victorian inspired black lace neck corset

by kvodesign

(visit her shop for more breathtaking designs)

Victorian-Civil War-Goth-Riding Top Hat

TopsyTurvyDesign is my absolute FAVORITE seller, and I am gearing up to buy one of her hats

And I am head over heels for Gobbolino hats. I am especially mad about this one…

AMERICAN INDIAN FAUX FUR GOBBOLINO HAT

I recently placed an order with Lollibomb, and her products are great. She started off small, and her products are HUGE now.

I bought this last week from sweetheartsinner. I love her jewelry.

I REALLY am in love with this skirt, even though it is out of my affordable range at the moment. This designer does amazing work. Click to visit her shop.

Jabberwocky — patchwork skirt

THIS is fantastic…

Chai Tea Kit

from purposedesign

(and her whole shop is awesome)

I love altered art, and there are some wonderfully unique pieces to be found. Some of my favorites…

FORGET ME NOT Altered Tin Keepsake Box SHRINE

by glimmeringprize

Altered Art Treasure Box Roses ACEO collage

by bohemiart

I will end with one of my FAVORITE ARTISTS, artandghosts. I first discovered her work on Flickr, and recently saw that she has a shop on Etsy. I am madly in love with every single one of her images.

Penny Farthing by artandghosts

Miette (first version) by artandghosts

**** A note to my dear friend Sibyllae (if you are reading): You would knock every aromatics and mystical wares seller right off the map with your magickal creations (hint, hint). ****

I had no idea when I started making these upcycled game piece pendants that they were the hottest thing on Etsy right now. People are making them by the truckloads and uploading heaps of them every second. I am doing some different things with mine though..using primarily vintage ephemera and obscure designs. I should be uploading a bunch of the new line next week, but I wanted to share these two specifically. I eventually want to do a set of most of the primary Gods in the Hindu pantheon. This Krishna and Radha were both taken from copies of vintage ephemera.

See more at EclecticJungle….and have a nice weekend!

I’ve been in an absolute freeze when it comes to shooting my self-portraits (not to mention, promoting and trying to get my work seen…I’ve essentially dropped myself off of the art map lately), so I thought I would ride out the slump by doing things that fall more under the “craft” category. I’ve discovered the joys of Etsy, and now I am hooked. I’ve recently opened two Etsy stores.

The first shop is for these faux cupcake creations I’ve been obsessed with creating lately. Realistic, kitschy, silly, fun little fake desserts. My shop is new, so I haven’t sold any yet, but I have had a lot of positive feedback on them….

The second shop is for all of the lovely vintage things that I find in my travels, but primarily it will feature my handmade jewelry. I’ve just started making antique style art pendants from recycled Scrabble tiles and various ephemera….

I have other, more intricate jewelry pieces I am working on, and I hope to add at least 10 new pieces to my Etsy shop every day. I want to start making more $$, so I am hoping one or the other of these ventures will be a success.

The link to the faux desserts shop is http://www.frostedfakes.com

My jewelry/craft shop, which I hope to update frequently is http://www.eclecticjungle.etsy.com

So, here I sit in the middle of heaps of fabric, vintage clippings, scrabble tiles, faux frosting, cupcake pans, 50 kinds of glue and glaze, photo props, photo backdrops etc….and I am happy that I am creating, but at the same time, I feel like there needs to be three of me in order to complete all of these projects that I have going on at once. I am constantly frustrated with the ratio between creative ideas and hours in the day (not to mention, essentials like sleep, which does not come often).

I really need to get back into shooting photos, but that particular muse just isn’t with me right now. I have absolutely no control over inspiration, and it can never be willed, despite all of my protesting. I suppose I am so frustrated with that part because it takes persistent marketing and “showing” to make any sort of progress with my art, and when I have these lapses, I feel like I am “set back.”

For now, I am in crafty mode. I have Etsy fever, and a mild obsession with tiny wooden tiles…