Athena Dreams Design

October 2011 .:. Biz Goals

 

After doing extensive research and polling influential marketers (i.e. sending mock-ups to good friends for feedback) I have a card for my jewelry pieces. Artful Jewelry Constructions is what I'm calling my pieces, I came up with it while thinking about something completely else, so often the way things happen, and I'm really happy with it... and so, here's my card!

And so September was:

1. Finish out the 2 remaining design projects over the next month and a half. - almost done!
2. Make room for lots of jewelery design. - making room everyday
3. Design 3 covers for journal series I want to produce on my own. - OOO need to move this to Oct.
4. Start flower painting series for licensing. 12 images. Seasonal. Pen & Ink and Paint. - October
5. Allow myself to re-schedule something when I am on a roll with something else. Remember to remember that going where the fire is and re-scheduleing (if possible) is where my best work is going to come from. Oh this has been my motto for the month.
6. With whatever free time is left, make things that make me happy, and don't think past that. Love this one, keeping it for Oct.
7. Take out The Money Book again, and do a thorough read, and thorough note taking/plan for the "new" year/financial assessment - Add to October
8. Get some Long walks in this month. Many short ones, need some really long ones, we're moving this to Oct too!

And October will be:

1. Jewelry
2. Journal Covers X3
3. Get Holiday cards into Etsy shop
4. Flower painting series
5. Start making contact with potential licensors - at least 3 contact this month.
6. The Money Book
7. Incorporate #5, #6 and #8 from September back into October.

OK, I think I'm ready! The first "winter" storm is on it's way in from somewhere across the Pacific, and it's gray and gloomy and verging on chilly here, perfect weather to be inside and DOing. Hope you all have an amazing October.

It's the 4th quarter of 2011, and there's no time like the present, so let's do this!

Going with What's Happening

Much of September has been about throwing away the daily to-do list and going with what is happening for me. I have some deadlines. I have some contract jobs. And then I have the rest of my time. Time that is spent on what I choose to spend it on.

Until this month, I have been blocking out chunks of my days: 2 hours for design time, 3 hours for painting, 1 hour for a walk, etc. Well, this month I changed all that, and opted to experiment a bit with my time and my schedule. I have my larger to-do list, but the day to day one: gone.

I have been spending the time that is not taken up with a deadline or a client, doing what I am excited about in that moment, on that day. So today, I had planned to paint, but, today, I am way into printing miniature images of my paintings and setting them into various and sundry bezels and flats, and pouring resin.

Today, the only brush I am using is the one that's coated with matte medium to seal the ink on my prints, and then it's mixing and pouring the resin, and hovering, waiting for the air bubbles to form and rise to the surface so I can get rid of them. It's what I MOST want to do with the time that is mine today.

I think I might be onto something with this experiment in how I use my time. It's just a bit past 11am and I count 20 something pendants poured and setting.

 

Do those Things . . .

My new-est bracelet idea, with minature art pendants and beads, and chain and wire. Wrap it 4x, wrap it 5x and clasp it shut... it shines and shimmers, and tinkles and clinks, and there's always something different to look at....

* * * * * * *

Do those things that make you happy.

Do those things that make you want to get up and do a little happy dance.

Do those things that make you feel 5 years old all over again. Remember bringing home a drawing that you spent an afternoon making in kindergarten, a drawing you loved making from start to finish, to give it to your Mum.

Do those things that make you grin so wide, that your eyes get squinty and your face feels a little stretched out afterwards.

Do those things that you put at the bottom of your list, because there's more important things like: balancing the check book or picking up the dry-cleaning, sweeping the kitchen floor or meeting a deadline. Turn the list upside down, and do the *fun* things that might be at the bottom of yours too.

Do those things that you wake up thinking about.

Do all of those things because they feed every other little thing you could possibly have on your list of must-do's, to-do's and need-to-do's.

Do those things that you are moved to do because they feed your soul, your imagination your spirit and your chi.

Just do those things . . .

 

The Worry Game

Along with my brown eyes, 2 slightly tipped eye teeth, a button nose, and an inclination to go barefoot most all the time, I inherited the worry gene from my mother. There have been times when it has taken over my life, and other times it is running quietly in the background. It is almost always there.

In the midst of changes in my working life, the worry bug has been visiting me lately and so rather than blindly giving into that voice, I've been searching for ways to take its power away, to render it speechless, to pull it's metaphorical plug.

A few weeks ago I had to cancel a trip that I had much looked forward to, due to some unforseen things that came up, and so was home for the weekend unexpectedly. My husband had a gig that weekend and he said there would be a will-call ticket for me if I decided to get over my grumpy disappointment and come. So I surprised my grumpy-disappointed-self and I went.

It's funny how things happen. Don't we all say that at different times for different reasons? At the show that night the woman who had put the whole thing together talked about how she had been nervous while rehearsing and putting the show together. She is a drummer, an amazing jazz drummer who is in her early 70s now, and she had focused this show around her debut as a singer. A place out of her comfort level, out of the known, out of the Safe limits of what she is used to doing on stage.

While rehearsing for the show and feeling worried sometimes, she came across a quote, couldn't remember who had said it, but she wanted to share it with the audience: Worry is the biggest misuse of imagination. And I sat there, in the dark audience, and felt she was speaking directly to me. Sure, she was speaking to all of us, but for that second, she was speaking directly to me, directly to my heart.

So, what was I to do with that but take it to heart. I have imagination in abundance (thankfully) and so each moment of worry I have attempted to actively re-direct to imagination. Each second of doubt, look to imagination. Each hour of will we be able to pay all our bills this month, well, you got it, come on in imagination, because Worry sure isn't going to pay those bills, but I have a pretty good hunch that Imagination will come up with some solutions.

I have come up with some new ideas and some new projects, and my absolute newest (and for now my most exciting) one is that phrase painted on the wall of my studio, very large, hard to miss, and always in very plain sight. A reminder to that worry voice, that there are other ways to go, and different ways to play. Worry is the biggest misuse of imagination. Mm-hmm, that's what I need to hear...

December Views .:. Day 11

 

Working on presents for Christmas, and just because. 

Cobalt blue beads are so calming and peaceful.

Choose All Possibilities and then Remember to Stay

Pendant from the talented and beautiful hands of Liz Lamoreux

o-pen [oh-puh n] adjective*

1. not closed or barred at the time, as a doorway by a door, a window by a sash, or a gateway by a gate: to leave the windows open at night.

2. having the interior immediately accessible, as a box with the lid raised or a drawer that is pulled out.

3. relatively free of obstructions to sight, movement, or internal arrangement: an open floor plan.

4. not covered or closed; with certain parts apart: open eyes; open mouth.

5. without covering, esp. a protective covering; unprotected; unenclosed.

6. accessible, as to appeal, ideas, or offers: to be open to suggestion.

7. exposed to general view or knowledge; existing, carried on, etc., without concealment: open disregard of the rules.

8. generous, liberal, or bounteous: to give with an open hand.

9. acting publicly or without concealment, as a person.

10. unreserved, candid or frank, as persons or their speech, aspect, etc.: an open manner.

Of the 86+ possible definitions 

of the word Open, 

I picked my 10 favourites. 

Now, the fun begins: 

how to put all these 

possible variations 

into practice: 

daily.

A lifetime's work: this being open

and the joy of it all is

it's subject to all

and sundry 

interpretations

as each day unfolds.

*Brave will be for another day...

Silver and Pearls

You know how life takes you in different directions .:. down different path .:. sometimes meandering, sometimes u-turns, sometimes just a slight divergence from the trail you're on? For me, making jewelery was a path I was on, and then life took me in different directions, I sold my business and "moved on".

I still have a huge amount of beads and chain and wire and silk threads, all of which I use on the shadow boxes I make (I like to call it shadow jewelery) but I very rarely make an actual piece of jewelery, you know one that someone might wear, except for a few special occasions (and always for my mum cuz she asks, and she's my mum).

Today I made a quick piece for someone who works with me occasionally, and who I wanted to give a small token of thanks to. What says a small thanks better than some silver and pearls [I ask myself]. Now that I don't have to create jewelery for piles of orders, I find I enjoy it again. The colours, the shine, the depth of a fresh water pearl, the feel of the chain, the solid feel of the tools in my hands. All things that are a pleasure again, now that it is no longer a business.

Making jewelery was one of the first (and so far only) times in my life that making a creative endeavor into a business venture, killed the joy and the spirit of what had been blossoming for me. Making money from our creativity: it can be a risky thing. It can also be the best thing you've ever done.

But for today: I loved the sun slanting into my studio this afternoon, while I wired pearls and watched the silver chain wink and gleam. For today: Taking back the act of making a piece of jewelery, for the sheer pleasure and joy. What a lovely, lovely thing.