Does My Bum Look Big in This?

Well if you're reading this only to find out the answer, I'm sorry to disappoint you. It's not actually the size of my bottom, or there lack of, that we'll be discussing here. When a woman asks 'does my bottom look big in this', does she really want the honest truth to that question or does she want to hear that she is beautiful just the way she is? It's actually the concept of asking that question, and fearing the answer, that we went through this week with etsy members.

You see on etsy there are 100's of forums and groups that you can join, and one of those forums are all about 'shop critique'. The idea is that you can join a discussion group were you can critique others shops and they intern can critique your shop.....but only if you ask for it. We thought it was a great idea, so we chose to join the 'Sassy Critique' team and then asked the dreaded question...'does my bum look big in this'.....well actually we wrote, please come view Red Haven Studios and let us know what improvements we can make. As soon as we sent out the request we thought (well actually I thought ) ...oh no what if 'our bum does look big in this? It doesn't make sense I know but mind works in quirky ways.

So as usual we sent out the request at 2am then went to bed wondering what kind of responses we were going to get from the other side of the world.........The next morning we went straight to the critique forum with baited breath. We were hoping for at least 5-10 responses but we were disappointed that only 2 people bothered to make the effort......but 2 is better than none at all. Now before reading their comments we thought they were going to mention our prices or shipping costs etc. but to our surprise they were not mentioned all. What was mentioned was what we were most proud of....our pictures! Here we thought we had great professional looking pictures and different from everyone else’s. But both of the ladies said that the black background was too harsh and that the pieces should be photographed on a lighter back ground. WHAT THE! We spent ages photographing them all and now we were faced with either ignoring the critique or be mature and business like about it and take on board what 2 total strangers had suggested.

We decided to check out everyone else's jewellery pictures and realised that not one person had shot it with a black background. We were still not convinced but we decided to give it a go and reshoot each piece once just for the cover shot.....and leave the other pictures with the black background. Well Steve went into the forge to create lovely new hooks to add onto the etsy site, I spent the day shooting close ups of the jewelry on a lovely earthy river rock that I found in Thora, it was balancing on a branch 1 metre high up that was placed there after our local flooding. As I was shooting the new pictures I started warming to the fact that the photos did have more life to them, so I was very chuffed with my efforts. But my heart just sank when I showed my days work of reshooting the pieces to Steve and the first thing he said was.....'it looks as though an old woman with a cracked and crusty chest is wearing the jewelry'. Aaaaarrrrrrrgggghh! My bum does look big in this!!! The shocking thing was not his comment but the fact that as soon as he said it I too could see what he meant. Bugger bugger bugger!

Well too bad! We decided to upload them anyway, at least just to see if the shop page looks nicer and less harsh by adding the new 'crusty chest look'. Bit by bit as we started to upload all the pictures we realised that our shop front did have a warmer look about it, even though our earrings still need to be updated with the new look. It you want to check out the new look and give us your opinion, please go to www.etsy.com/shop/RedHavenStudios . We would love to know if we are heading in the right direction.

So back to the question of...'does my bum look big in this' concept. We learnt that there comes a point in time with what ever we create, in which if we want an honest opinion about our work we should realise that it is not a personal attack. We might not like what we hear or read, but a true friend or critique will tell you the truth only because they want what's best for you. It's up to the individual to hear the critique and view the comments with fresh eyes and an open heart, and in that way hopefully we will grow bigger and better.

And to answer the first question...........I wish I did have more luggage in the back of my truck! xo

Excitement V's Fear

Well it's now day 2 of our new blogging life, and even though we finally went to sleep at 3am after trying to make sense of how to track down fellow jeweller bloggers to follow (with no success at all), we were once again struck with the question of how on earth do we get noticed? We went to bed a tad disheartened realizing that it will be a long and lonely 'webbed' road ahead of us, until we finally do get noticed. With all the side reading that we're doing on self promotion, we did post a link to our personal Facebook account letting everyone know that we are now blogging.......I guess posting at 2am wasn't the wisest of choices, considering that by the time our loved ones got up (in Australia at least) our new post would be buried as old news under newer posts..........

But somehow we did get through! You should have seen how chuffed we were when we saw on our blog page this morning that we now have one follower!! Hahahahaha, I know you professional bloggers are saying big deal, well actually you're not even reading this....yet! But thanks to you dear sweet Alison, you gave us that extra oomph that we so needed. We also got a message from lovely Kim saying how great our work was and enjoyed our blog, plus she gave us some helpful tips in regards to social networking. So now we don't feel so alone and silly just blogging away, and we promise to not just get this ball rolling only to then run off in the opposite direction. We're in this for the long hall.

Well!
Now that we know you are really out there reading this we're feeling a bit self conscious! Hahahaha!
But at the same time we don't want to hold back and be prissy about our new life and venture together. For instance today is Sunday and Steve is continuing with the building of this shed that we are slowing transforming into a temporary home, and then one day it will solely be used for my future studio.......and I'm of course here writing this....but in my P.J's!!! Bet you didn't see that one coming! In regards to this new business venture of ours, a lot of our friends and family don't realise that we are still in the very early stages of building while living in our 'American Barn' style shed. Most people would think it crazy being in a new relationship, building a home and starting a new business together all within a year or so of each other. True that it can be daunting at times when we realize how much we've bitten off, but at the end of the day we each can't think of a better soul mate to go through these challenges with than with each other.

Our shed is not fully insulated yet, and this winter has been nippy to say the least, and the only running water (cold only) we have in the house comes from a hose connected from the laundry tap, weaving across to the bath tub. We've been cooking from a gas BBQ for the past year and a half, we only have tank/rain water, and our electricity comes only from solar panels. Life is pretty primitive at the moment.....hence I'm still in my p.j's! But we wouldn't have it any other way......unless we won tattslotto of course. In regards to this shed/house/studio......we live on 6.2 acres and plan to build our dream home in a few years, but in the mean time we have been living in this shed which will one day will be my 9m x 10m kick ass studio, where I will paint, sculpt, create jewelry and textile work. Steve has his own studio/forge opposite mine, but unfortunately he can barely use a quarter of it due to it holding all of our household items. It is the whole chicken and egg way of life at the moment......we need to work to earn money to be able to build, but we can't earn that much due to our studios not running at 100% because of unfinished building work......AAAAAAARRRGGHH!   Aaaaahhhhh I feel so much better now.

Well my mission for today is to start our Red Haven Studios Facebook page. I'm trying to do it in such a way that if......I mean when people go to see it, they will see another side to us from that of when they go to www.etsy.com/shop/RedHavenStudios . Steve last night found past blacksmithing photos that he'd done and exhibition pieces as well, so he will create an album of those pieces. I want to create an album that shows my stages of drawing a jewelry piece, to being carved in wax, then getting it back from the foundary all dull and bitsy, to the final polished piece. Unfortunately though I don't think that I've taken pictures of all those stages with all my pieces. We also might add pictures of the building of our shed/studios......although I must admit I do get totally embarressed about our living conditions at times. Especially when I go back to Melbourne to visit friends and see how 'the other half' are living.......I use to be part of the other half......in my previous life.

Well I guess it's time to say cheerio and start our Facebook page.......and of course I will add a link once it's up and running. xox

First day as a blogger.

What on earth is blogging?
We really have no idea but from what we've read it's basically someones open diary in a way.....so here we go!


The main reason we've started this blog page was because for the past week we've been trying to find ways of getting our new business Red Haven Studios 'out there' on the web. Through all of our readings this concept of blogging kept on appearing. We then started thinking to ourselves, well what on earth should we blog about? Who on earth would want to read about our rantings? We then realized that it would be good for us to write about our journey as metal artisans and our new adventure of starting Red Haven Studios. In the end it occurred to us that this blog would be great for us as an inspirational view of our journey and all our ups and downs.....something we can look back on and appreciate how far we had come.


Now it's hard to think about where exactly to begin with this story, because we met in 1989 at Monash Uni in Melbourne, Australia studying Sculpture together. But do we really want to go back that far??? Well we guess we can weave my way back and forth, especially since no one is really reading this at the moment, but hopefully one day 'you' out there will stumble upon our blog and ask us more about our past and how we got to this stage in our life together again.


Back to the present though I guess. As we said before we are in the early stages of Red Haven Studios, and with that comes a lot of worries and insecurities. We know we both have artistic talent, as do millions of others out there. Which makes you wonder how do some people get discovered, while others who are probably brilliant at what they do, are complete unknowns. We've just started making silver, bronze and forged jewelry. We would love to post some pictures of our work but as you now know...We haven't a clue how to do that just yet! Well anyway we excitedly got a range of jewelry together and created a shop on etsy.......hang on lets copy the link...
www.etsy.com/shop/RedHavenStudios


Well we were very proud and chuffed with ourselves about it all and our Facebook family and friends were very happy for us. We started getting views and likes about our pieces but with each passing day we started getting more disheartened about no sales  8-(          At the moment we are fiercely reading up on what to improve on, and all this talk about tagging and making distinct item titles so that the SEO (search engine.....O...I always forget what that one stands for!) can track us down in amongst every other jeweller out there. Actually come to think of it and looking at the time, we really should get back to correcting our titles and tags.......but before we go..........blogging, do we understand the concept yet? Not really, but we must admit that it has been a tad theraputic to 'put pen to paper' so to speak. So if anyone does happen to read this, thank you for taking the time to do so, and please let us know about it, because it would  encourage us to let you know more about how our journey is going. Till next time.......