Custom work

A client asked me to make a feeling that represents 'new beginnings'. The old skin is peeling off and there is a brand new one underneath. I love how she wanted me to depict it.

Feeling wise

A while ago, Anca from Happyhangaround asked me to create a custom feeling. She has a thing for owls & loved to have one of my creations among her collection of owls. So I got to work and came up with the above. So glad she loved it. I think it turned out cute.

Fired stress/balanced

Here is the fired stress/balanced feeling. It came out of the kiln today and is looking lovely.
So happy that it worked & I hope that the recipient of this feeling will be able to balance his/her stress too!

In the mean time...

I'm working on orders and just finished one for Tokketok.I decided to make custom packaging for these custom labels...

Tiny bunny love

Custom made bunnies for a moss terrarium. I couldn't resist an inquiery to make a set of tiny bunnies like the singing birds. However cute they are, they won't be added to the assortment of my Etsy shop. :)
They make me smile, and you? Happy weekend everyone!

Feeling native

I collected these feathers last fall.
I put 'em away & knew they would serve a purpose sometime.
In the beginning of January, I got a request to make a native feeling.
When I saw the drawing, I knew the feathers would add the perfect touch.
But of course I couldn't find 'em so I had to show the example with an eucalyptus leaf.Last thursday we went for a walk in search of feathers but of course, it's not the season to find feathers. So this weekend I searched high and low and yay, I found 'em.
It looks so much better then a eucalyptus leaf.
He's called Injun Joe.
And so is his brother...
So two Injun Joe's.
They look alike but they are a bit different due to the handmade nature.
I hope they will be loved as I loved making 'em! :)

Rant

The past few months have been extremely busy with all sorts of things. Sales wise, I dont think I've ever had such a busy season before. I combined custom orders with regular sales,wrapped up orders and send 'em out, tried to keep up with the stock of the feelings and even work on a few new things in between.
I wish I could say I enjoyed it all but that would be a lie. So here's a little rant to start off the new year and kick out the negative vibes so I can leave it behind and move on...
I didn't enjoy getting home to my inbox being overly full. Half of those usually were treasury notifications from people who include my work in their treasury. Don't get me wrong, I love being included in treasuries but the amount of convo's were at times quite overwhelming.
It made me happy but also a bit stressed as sometimes I didn't had a chance to look right away and I certainly don't want to be ungrateful as I really do appreciate the inclusion in so many wonderful lists! I really, really do! Thank you! :)
The other half of the messages seemed to come from people that wanted to know when their package arrived. If I had a crystall ball, I would definately grab it and tell them.
But I don't have one so this really has been the most stressful factor of the past weeks and I think I grew more then a few grey hairs too.
Due to weather conditions and customs/security in US, lots of packages are delayed and basicly there is nothing I can do about that. As soon as a package leaves my hands, it's out of my control and I have to depend on postal services to bring it to it's destination safely.
But still some people seem to expect that they will get a home delivery the day after they order. Tsk tsk! :(

If you live in the US and you order a gift on the 13th of december in Europe and expect it to arrive before X-mas, then you have ordered too late. So when people write 3 times within the same week to ask where their package is, I really have no lines to say anymore by the 3rd reply...
It saddens me that in extremely busy times I need to deal with other people's impatience and failure to order in time. So yes, I dislike that too.

This year the last day for garantueed arrival of the packages will be the 25th of November. Order early to prevent dissapointment please!
I'm not putting myself through this stress ever again...
I have been selling online for more the 3 years and only had 2 packages lost and 2 packages damaged so far. So I think that's a pretty good statistic. I do hope that the excellent service from post companies world wide will help me keep these statistics this way. *knock on wood*
And whatever goes wrong, there is always a solution if there is communication! I've never failed in giving good customer service so people just have to trust me on that.

Another thing that bugged me were some custom orders. Customers inquire a certain thing and then when you get to work and have a few questions regarding the order, they are not responding to you. Clay is a medium that dries and I like to finish it off in a timely matter because that just makes it easier. No response prevented that. It annoyed me as it kept creeping around on my to do list. So, GRRR to that too!

I feel like I kind of start this new year with a very low energy level and the pile of work I look upon is still very large. And don't get me wrong: I love selling on line but it has it's perks and I just wanted to share that it's not always roses and sunshine.
Besides, I'm only human too you know... and most of the time I love it all!
Thank goodness!
Now that the rant is over, I feel I can start fresh and get on with the job.
Aahhh, feels good! :)