a little housecleaning

we’ve moved. yep. finally. still in a rough form, but this is where we live now: Conduit Press!

snow day (minus the snow)

i desperately don’t want to do any work today. My fingers are dry from folding paper all night and though those signatures are now begging for me to poke holes in them and bind them, it’s just not going to happen. So, instead, I’ve just been perusing Etsy for all the things I want, and can’t have. This is a great sticker for your iPhone. It mimics the ‘old fashioned’ Holga film cameras and aside from all of the Gameboy and other geeky ones they have (evidently only geeky boys own iPhones) this is by far my FAVORITE! And, only $6.

I’ve also been listening to Pandora all afternoon (whilst the baby naps, because otherwise I’d be listening to Laurie Berkner or some such) and unfortunately haven’t been overly pleased with the choice in my station. See, I created a Pandora acct eons ago and haven’t really updated anything. I don’t listen to music too much (BLASPHEMY!) that isn’t kid/radio related, so, my stations are a bit dated. I have a Tori Amos station, a Bjork station, a Daft Punk and BT station (all the hubby there) and an Ani Difranco station. So, since I didn’t want to listen to a bunch of melancholy ‘sweet sad girls’ (that’s what my mother-in-laws calls them) I added a few different artists to the Tori station- which, in reality just made them more sweet sad girls. Ugh. Thus far this morning my station has mostly consisted of Vienna Teng, Colbie Callait, Lori McKenna, Aimee Mann, Adele, Bjork, Howie Day, Sufjan Stevens, Ani, Kris Delmhorst…do you see where I’m going with this? Not exactly uplifting music here. And now, Jason Mraz is playing. I need help.

Suggest new music. Now! please and thank you.

Bad Publicity

I did not make this (mine would have been carved in the actual shape of the gun and been missing all those jagged paper edges).

Jim heard the radio dj this morning talking about a man who mailed his own Glock from CA to IN in a hollowed out book. The package, as luck would have it, broke open in transit and now the man has a criminal probe by the postal inspector.

Lesson learned: don’t mail firearms. It’s illegal.

Glue

I hate glue. This is no surprise to the people that know me, or have lived with me, or live with me now. I get it EVERYWHERE. No matter how hard I try, it just ends up everywhere, except where it’s supposed to be. This hatred of glue is exactly why I started making long stitch leather covered journals as opposed to coptic stitch hard covers. They require NO glue!

Then I got the bright idea to start making hollow books, and they’ve been a hit, and I Love making them because they’re versatile in a way I’ve never thought possible. But, do you know how MUCH DAMNED GLUE they use? Seriously.

Anyway, using glue on hollow books is a necessary evil that I accept. It’s no big deal if I get it everywhere because it’s easy to clean it up off these books. No biggie. However, I’ve taken to finishing a large batch of baby books I began, oh, 3 months ago, and using glue on these books is not exactly forgiving.

I use PVA, before anyone starts to tell me not to use ‘glue’, I just say glue because it’s easier. PVA is archival, white, clear, all that good stuff. Anywho, gluing the fronts of the covers of these books is no big deal. Easy enough. Take two boards and cover them. Then, attaching the book cloth spine. Got it. No problem. (I’ll work on posting pictures later). The problem arises when I then have to cover the back of the covers. That’s what I lose it. Glue starts drying before I get half the paper on, the paper is crooked. I have air bubbles that my bone folder left behind and without a doubt, without fail, somewhere I’ve missed a spot in the middle of the cover and it just sits there, not glued and me not being able to get to it. Agh. These books are the bane of my existence.

And yet, I continue to make them. Why? Because, omigoodness, they’re so bloody cute when they’re done! Now, granted, I should probably charge over $100 for the amount of materials and labor put into them, but I don’t. I can’t. That’s another post. But, I think this will definitely be my last batch of glued books in awhile. My fingers are tired of being sticky.

Customer Service & Feedback

I’ve always sort of prided myself on customer service; even before I considered this thing called ‘art’ my job. I always have (felt like I’ve) gone the extra mile to make my customer happy, be it including small tokens in with their package, or gift wrapping, including a personal thank you note or simply by sending them an email letting them know their package was on its way. I usually do all of these things and more when I get a package ready to ship. It’s the fun part of the job. Communicating with the customer. I’m a pretty good communicator.

And so, when I purchase from someone else out there in this world of art, I kind of expect the same thing back. I expect communication. I expect an answer, of some kind, in some form, in a timely manner. I expect packaging that protects the item I purchased. I expect courteous business-like behavior. I expect timeliness. Unfortunately, more times than not these days, I’ve been let down.

What is going on in this business of art where a person cannot answer an email in three days and counting? What is going on in this business of art where a person can’t ship a package within a week of purchase? What, simply, is going on?

And then, to top all of that off- I feel superbly guilty even thinking about giving neutral (or Lord forbid negative) feedback to any of these people. Why? Why should I feel guilty about being honest? About giving sellers feedback they deserve? I don’t know, but I’m not the only one. I posted on the boards of a team I’m on about a certain situation that I felt certainly needed negative feedback and I was guided toward just leaving it be and never shopping their again. I understand this point of view, but as a seller myself, I believe I would rather someone give me constructive criticism about my work than to never shop with me again. Maybe that’s just the beauty of having a background in writing workshops as both a student and a teacher, I don’t know, but I feel like I’m alone in this venture.

This, of course, all comes after I’ve received my first neutral feedback from a customer. I contacted the customer and asked why, because I want to learn from my mistakes and see if they are in fact founded. And they were. I was very happy that this customer left me neutral feedback because the truth of the matter was that they weren’t happy with the product they purchased from me and for me to grow as an artist I need(ed) to know why. Thank goodness she told me and now I feel like I have in fact grown from that transaction. If we never give other sellers negative or neutral feedback, are they growing? If the seller already has 1000+ sales it barely even affects their percentage in the first place, but I feel like someone needs to nudge them off their high horse once in a while. . . or is that just me?

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I apologize for the soap-boxedness of this post, but I’m still hung up on not receiving a convo back from a seller I contacted three and counting days ago. I answer convos same day, but then again, I only get 10, so maybe that’s why it’s easy for me, but I believe if it became not easy for me to answer convos the same day, I would hire someone else to do it. At least, I think I would;)