Where oh Where

My lovely Deanie and I did a Sami Show in Belton last weekend.  A few sales but not a lot going on.  I heard from a couple other vendors that it was slow.  Perhaps it was from the shootings at Fort Hood nearby.

Meeting other vendors is one of the joys of doing arts and craft shows.  You can meet some really nice people.  It is also fun to meet the same vendors from time to time.  There were some that we had run into from previous Sami shows and one couple from Art Outside.

This weekend is a Saturday only event up in Georgetown.

Mariposa Web Site Design

I redesigned Deanie's Mariposa web site using a template from FreeCSSTemplates.  The base template for this blog is from there.  The designer does some great work.

I am not sold on Mecca Hosting but Deanie choose them because they said they supported the Mac web publishing programs.

I will say that I hate their site builder program.  The templates they have are difficult to customize and for the most part, not that attractive.  I also noticed that they seem to load slowly.

I had to rewrite two pages in html.  Luckily the program does allow imbeded HTML code into the templates.

The last straw was that the contact template page it generated had two glaring faults.  One, it just didn't work.  No email arrived at the destination even though i tested the address multiple times in a different program.  Two, the "thank you" screen after the submit came up with the default options and the not the customization I had done.  Instead of butterflies it came up with smiling couples.  We are not running a dating service!  There was no way to customize this Thank you page.

So I junked the site builder pages all together and rewrote the whole thing.

Frame the Greeting Cards!

Over the weekend Deanie suggested that I might think of making larger framed versions.  There are some possibilities there. 

The files would not make more the a decent 5"x7".  There a couple reasons for that.  One is that they are setup to print at 300 dpi as a 4"x5".  I wasn't trimming anything except a small amount on the horizontal.  So adding the little back in, we are still looking at 150 dpi.  Not as high as quality.  Will have to print a couple to see how they come out.  An 8"x10" would be 75 dpi.  Not acceptable at all.

The program I am using for the original source files is limited to the file size it will generate, a rectangular 1600x1200.  Of course if I wanted to do a square image I can go as big as 4096x4096.

Still, 5"x7" might work.  Framed and/or matted.  Also matting a couple together like mini sets might work.  Something to look into.

I need to start making different imagery.

The last Sami Show

I didn't take my cards to The Sami Show.  Instead concentrated on helping Deanie sell her butterflies.  I know, I am not going to sell them if I don't have them out there for people to buy.  True.  So True.

Time Flies and another Sammi Show

It doesn't feel like it has been 10 days since the last time I posted here.  Went to D.C. for a week and now back home.  This weekend my lovely Deanie and I will be at another Sami Show in Roundrock, Tx. at the Dell Diamond.  I am more serious about helping her with her butterflies then I am with my own greeting cards right now but I will have my box of cards with me.

After Art Outside 2009

We enjoyed the time we spent at Art Outside 2009.  Both of us made a couple sales so that part could have been better.  But we met some great folks like Luke Brown (amazing artist) and saw some wonderful art and creative installations.  Strangely we didn't listen to much music.  There was a wonderful vibe through out.  I can only think it would have been better without the heavy rain on Friday and if it had been a bit closer to Austin.

Art Outside 2009, Way Outside

Art Outside is a 3 day outdoor wonderland of visual artists, music acts and other performers. It's Oct 9th, 10th and 11th. Last year it was held at the Enchanted Forest at Oltorf and Lamar. But the city shut the Forest down due to local complaints. This year it is at Apache Pass near Belton which is about 60 or so miles outside of Austin.

My lovely Deanie and I will be there enjoying the sights and sounds. Hopefully having a chance to sell some butterflies and cards.

Some text from their Art Outside 2009 Last.FM radio page. (I'm on last.fm...you?)

"High-tech wizardry. Make-and-take craft tables. Fire dancing. Eco-chic fashion. Film shorts by creators such as Don Hertzfeldt, Run Wrake, and Andy Gately of Austin Underground Film Festival. With 50+ concerts on three different stages. Whatever your artistic want is, we’ve got it! And to get it, all you have to do is step outside."

Tickets are now available online!

Blue Genie - Nope

I had applied to Blue Genie for their 2009 Art Bazaar.  But received a nice little email stating that they didn't accept me.  I have to admit it bummed me a little.  It was not all bad news.  Deanie was accepted, we were both happy about that.  It really give her the opportunity to have her butterflies available to a larger group without her needing to be there.

Sammi's show in Round Rock

Well, it didn't go so well for my debut.  Deanie did really well selling a couple dozen butterflies. I shared a table with her.  Between some ladies that did glass fused crosses and a guy selling sauces and jellies. He also did really well.  Myself?  I only sold 2 cards. It is a slow start, but it is a start.  Defintely room for improvement.

Ready / Not Ready

I am not completely ready for tomorrow. I have three boxes of Christmas cards (10 cards each) and about 50-60 individually bagged cards of all types. Deanie thinks I should have focused on making more boxes. She's right.

Her butterflies will do great, lets hope I can make a similar showing.

Tomorrow we have get up around 4:30am to get ready and go over to the studio where we load up the car. Then it is off to Round Rock where we need to check in at 7:30am

Booth at the Sami Show Sept 26th and 27th

Mariposa and Tashi Arts will be at The Sami Show in Round Rock, Texas this weekend.  That's Sept 26th and 27th.  Show hours are Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 11-4:30

Over the Weekend

It was an interesting weekend. Deanie and I went to a concert on Saturday night at Casbeers. A beautiful little Catholic church that was "decommissioned" and turned into a restaurant and music venue. The sanctuary where the music is played is stunning. The music for the night was played by Patricia Vonne. The main purpose for our being there was to honor Terry Lowry for his birthday. He is the director and founder of the Network for Young Artists. One of the items we gave him was a box of my cards. I also delivered a box to my parents on the same evening as well.

They had some very interesting things to say about the cards. One of which is that not everyone likes blank greeting cards. They said it would be nice to have a phrase of some sort or the other in them so that the person can just sign their names and send the card on. This wasn't something I had given a lot of thought to. A phrase or greeting was especially important for themed cards such as Christmas or Valentine's Day. Adding text will be an additional cost plus time for printing on the card stock. But hopefully I can find some solution to this.

Business Cards and Ink Stamp

Received the order from Vistaprint. The business cards look great and the (free) ink stamp is nice too. Next time, my name goes on it. : )

I am glad the ink stamp came in. You can't beat free. I needed something to put on the bottom of the back to the cards. I didn't have any small stickers ready and didn't find any affordable ones. But the ink stamp will allow me to put my company name and contact info on each card.

Now I can finish the cards and put them in bags and boxes. None too soon. I am delivering a box of cards Saturday to the director of the Network for Young Artists.

Cards

I have over 20 designs. Here are four cards cards ready to go.

What craft glue?

It has been shown to me that I never said what craft glue I was using. There are all kinds of craft glue out there. I am not really sure what makes something a "craft glue" vs. other types of glue.

It's Beacon's 3 in 1 Advanced Craft Glue.

While the glue works great, stringyness does have to be watched out for. Deanie showed me out to deal with that. Move it around in circles around the spot until the string breaks or have a paper towel on the side to circle the string on. Another thing to watch out for is that while you are dealing with a string, another glob of glue may be coming out before you are ready for it. Even had some "bubble" up while it was set down off to the side while I was working on a card.

Business Cards

I designed a business card and sent it off to Vistaprint. Very nice. Chinese Coin, plus some nice font for the name. All on black. I hope to get it soon. But there is one small problem I discovered after I sent out the cards. Can you spot it? I forgot to put my personal name on there.

New Email address

I now have a email address for Tashi Arts.  You can email me at tashi.arts@yahoo.com.

Trial By Glue

Ok, Glue is important. Really important. Why? Because glue is used to attach the art images to the card stock. Well, that's obvious I hear you say. Of course it is. But there is a nasty little surprise hidden that comes back and haunts you. What does the glue do to the paper?

Yep, that can be a problem. Finding a good glue to attach the paper card stock to the photographic paper that the digital art is printed on.

When I ordered my card stock from DoubleUPaper.com I also order two glue sticks made by Elmer's. That old school standby. This was a no wrinkle glue made for paper and attaching things to scrapbooks, etc. It had a small point for precise work and a wide point for spreading. Sounds perfect. Good control, no bulges or wrinkles.

It didn't last. More to the point, when the glue dried. It did not have very good holding power. If you flexed the card stock, the images popped off. Bad.

I made the mistake of going back to the old stand by and used the original elmers white glue. That did not spread well, caused bulges, wrinkles and nasty little stains on the front of the photo. Again, not good.

For grins I tried fingernail polish but it was smelly and was hit or miss.

At first I dismissed a craft glue because it looked stringy. No one wants strands of glue everywhere on the greeting cards. But Deanie was able to show me the right way to use it and now I am set. The images are holding and there is no damage to the cards or the photographic paper.

Card Samples

Here are some samples of the work I am doing. This shows the individual packaged cards. I will be doing boxed ones as well.

Uline Delivery

My stationary boxes and sales bags came in from Uline today.

I really have to recommend Uline. They have a very extensive catalog of packaging supplies plus a whole lot more. And their delivery times are excellent. The web site is top notch. They quickly ship out the orders. I get my shipments in two days max. They are very customer oriented. I made a mistake ordering something a size too small online. We realized it immediately right after the order was placed and called them hoping they could help us. I was able to talk to a customer rep who changed my order right there on the phone. No problems or fuss. The woman who owns the company truly seems to care about people. At the end of their (thick) catalog, she has a very well written dedication page to one of her relatives who died. There is no information in there on the owner herself.

Tashi Arts, The Beginning

Tashi Arts is a art studio that will be an outlet for my creations. My first items will be Greeting Cards with fractal based imagery on them. Watch this space as things start up.

I love making art and have been doing some kind of art creation for years. My first career was a photographer. I have done paintings, some sculpture, drawings, photography and digital art.

I would like to thank my wonderful and beautiful fiancee, Deanie. It is with her encouragement and support that I start along this road.