GridStream Productions

Some of you will be aware that before I got sick I was a classically trained jeweller and that since I got sick due to a lack of funds and not having access to proper tools or the space to use them I've been trying to make a living and failing by what can best be discribed as misc art ventures.
Well while puttering with clay and paint has kept me from becoming a homicidal maniac it hasn't paid a single bill. I'm too much of an artistic temperment which is to say I start doing, forget to eat for three days then ruin the project by over working it while fatigued and sick.
To while away time while I built up strength for the next attempt I'd spend hours and hours and hours in AO.

Ultimately this has been a destructive process. However things are changing. For one thing I have looked in the mirror and said to myself that which needed saying. I am far to arrogant and proud for my own good and I need to "Get over myself and get on with making a living."

One of my problems was that I refused to do anything by what I considered easy and cheap methods. No twisted wire jewellery because any monkey can twist bits of wire. No beads, bangles and other easily made items because that wasn't art. Art has your soul and fiber poured into it.

"Condecending bullshit."

With my newfound realization that I can't be uppity, arrogant and hold myself to a higher standard without also being a royal ass and starving to death comes the hope that I can forge a better person out of the wreakage that is myself.

So what am I doing. Well for one thing I'm going back to my roots. Jewellery. I'm setting my sights on selling. Which means dealing with people in the Real World which is someting I've tried to avoid all my life.
I have a few projects in mind that will produce a line of salable items I hope to have ready for next summer when the tourists once again hit the local sidewalks.

Beads, Fimo, wire and anything that I can get my hands on. I even have a plan for a net business.

So what am I saying...

Some of you will have noticed that I haven't been online very much lately. Truth is I'm in AO almost as much as I was before but like the rest of my life I'm trying to use my time in AO to be more focused and goal oriented. I'm using AO to help train myself to be a better person by setting goals and not giving up on them till I get what I want.

Ultimately success at anything is hard work. Even in a game. People talk about the economy of Morpegs as being a true free market economy. I'm not silly enough to think AO's economy is a model that can be applied to RL. But I know that the one lesson that I learned from AO's economy is that while no single action usually has a recognisable reward. Persistant and repeated actions will lead to some form of reward. Even if it's not a tangible thing.

Anyways been AWOL on you guys and felt you had a right to know why.

GSP is family. A large extended and dysfunctional family of perverted cousins maybe but I love you all.

Legal addendum: Please note that any confusion created by this post is unintentional. Any resemblence to persons living or dead is highly suspect and that no Leets were harmed or served on wheat thins as snack food items during the writing of this post. The author takes no responcibility for the contents of this post and the views presented in this post while solely the thoughts and opinions of the author do not represent the thoughts and opions of the author save at the moment of writing. This post protected under international Copyleft laws and is thus subject to fair use. Use it and any material within it at will so long as it's not used to make a profit in which case tha author wants payment by certified check.

Edit because I can't spell. Will further edit as I notice things maybe.

Fishi3 wrote:no Leets were harmed or served on wheat thins as snack food items during the writing of this post.

>< That seemed awfully specific.

*narrows eyes at Fishi3 and slowly picks up a wheat thin and prods the topping...*

brb?!


*hugs* It's great to hear a little about your career and talents... and go you for deciding to take control of the situation. ...........You realize, of course, that you have to make some fishies....

Fishi! Best of luck with your venture! I hope that we will get to see samples of your work!

bah... AO hasnt been a destruction of time... just file your taxes and write the account fees off as artistic supplies as a main source of inspiration any well trained, or moraless tax preparer can do that for you

and *awes at classically trained* I had done some jewlery in highschool but just with copper and amber (german coastline beach combing!). lost wax, two/three/ four part castings... did alot of 70's style bracelets and earrings and a few cocktail rings (gaudy ftw!) but since playing Ao I could just imagine some of the work id do (think clanner style) if I still had the facilities to do so *looks at hubby and snears*

ValliKat wrote:Fishi! Best of luck with your venture! I hope that we will get to see samples of your work!

Ditto! And I can give you some business if you need! I am looking for something to wear with my wedding dress in April. Simple, but pretty and me.. Let me know if you have any ideas, and if you want I can send you pics of the dress and veil (cause the veil has detailing that I would want to work around)

I'm picky and so I am having a hard time finding something at the stores

oh perhaps talk to tarryk or such and see if you could use the gsp logo and do a few production peices for the gsp store... since there is still no "I <3 MY DYNA" stickers *glances around and finds nobody paying attention * hey Id even suggest finding a few works you've done and posting pics of them here and some scans of sketches of other designs with a few price ranges depending on materials or such.

I'm going to write fast as I'm headed to bed. Tomorrow is a big day and I'll be buying supplies to make things with. Set up time after that is going to be fairly short and my first planned project is a choker, bracelet and ear ring set for my 6 year old Niece for Christmas. So with luck I'll have pics of that for you in a week.

In other news I have a partner. A friend of mine wants to be part of the business. It's a zero sum entry as at this point if she buys her own supplies and we share profits thats acceptable.

I'm not at the sales stage as I need to make a body of work to present before I can put anything up for sale.

At this time I have no plans to do the GSP logo. If people want it I wouldn't be adverse to producing it in some form assuming an arrangement could be made with the artist who owns the art.

I'm not going to commit to taking a commision for making pieces to match a wedding dress just yet. Mostly because I'm doing a ease into it sort of startup due to budget limits and the fact that I don't stay healthy if I stress myself overly.

Thank you all for the encouragement.

Not a problem! Family encourages each other!

If you change your mind, let me know! And buy the way... its nothing fancy we are getting married in Vegas And its not til April... so again.. just let me know if you change your mind!

Best of luck! *hugs*

Beads...

I always took beaded jewellery for granted and tended to consider it as childrens play jewellery. I suppose thats not a totally unjustified opinion in modern society. But beads were very popular in antiquity. Since I take myself rather seriously as far as making jewellery goes I didn't buy plastic beads and while I'm not buying the beads made of semiprecious stones, ceramic beads aren't cheap.

So far I've bought four vials of beads as as usual when just starting a venture I'm antsy about investing to heavily. I'm a strong believer in quality so rather than go with the rubber string or the nylon fish line I bought the wire. Which of course requires me to use crimps rather than just tying knots. It's an extra expense. I'm at an experimental stage but when you consider that I only bought enough supplies to make thirty or so bracelets and 5 pairs of earrings I'm not sure that I can price point what I'll make cheaply enough for it to sell. And of course untill I get a decent selection of Beads going I probably won't be happy with anything I make.

My holiday Gift that I plan to make is actually to make jewelery for a teddy bear that I'm giving my niece. It's a very cute bear with moose antlers.

The Bear is complete and has a three strand bracelet for a belt and a pair of ear rings on it's ears that I made myself. I'm very proud of the bear and wanted to show it to you guys.

Enter the complication... The batteries of my digital Camera. Cheap piece of crap that it is are dead. I'll definately try to get pictures over the holiday but given the randomness of Family events I can't promise it'll happen.

In other news I've made a few sets of ear rings just to experiment with twisting wire and etc. Full blown production starts in January when I intend to invest a larger sum of cash into beads. Right now my color pallatte and bead size are limited. This too shall pass. The intent and plan is to get every color of the size I'm using then start getting both smaller and larger beads.

I have collected a few scraps of Suede to experiment with making sewn bead designs. I have some very nice tribal patterns to try out. I also have a greyscale panther that I'll try as well. The joke being that I'm going to bead my own versions of Black velvet Elvis paintings without ever actually doing Elvis. Well I might do an Elvis but It'ld have to be a commission and paid for in advance as well as the extra emotional trauma charge and the 10,000% "You gotta be kidding you want me to make what?", mark up. I like Elvis sometimes but I'm not a fan of the use of his image commercially thing.

Well my neice loved the ear rings I made her. In a very cute moment she whispered to her Mother that she would like me to make her another pair using blue beads.

My sister-in-law has asked me to make 10 pair exactly like the ones I gave my neice. This will prove problimatical as the store is out of the Maple Leaf findings I need. I've asked the owner to get me 20 of them for Feb 1st. The profit margin on those particular ear rings is low because the maple leafs are relatively expensive and since I'm selling to family the mark up is low.

The local drop in center has asked me to do a beading and jewelery making class two times a week. I get $5.00 a class for a two hour class so it's not a fortune or an income but it's money in my pocket now which helps. Keeps me in chips and soda which makes the task of beading easier. They'll buy tools and materials for the class which is very cool.

I demand pictures >.< I want to see them! I might order!

i second what Dani said, or else facethe voting of the island!!

Hey hon listen up... I have been a artsy crafty person all my life I go from project to project, I have sold things from paintings to floral arrangements to wall art and also Jewelry for hair.. I am going to pass on some advice to you I have found to make selling very profitable.. shop at yard sales flee markets swap meets second hand shops good wills consignment shops and also for some better items go to pawn shops... Believe me when I tell you there are many people out there with more money than brains and you can pick up gold and real gem pieces for a few dollars.. also beautiful glass beads and australian Crystals for 50 cents and a dollar... you will be making beautiful stuff and pay nothing compared to the value of its finished project . Give it a try even the clasp and broken gold is worth buying when you get it for a buck ..and you have the talent to create.

Been doing that type of stuff all along. I recycle as much as is possible. I also buy beads and etc for specific projects where the odds of finding the materials you need are difficult. I have a long term arguement going with my mother over the why do you collect this crap issue. I've tried to explain it but she doesn't get it. Mom is of the White Tornado school of thought. Clutter is the enemy and must die a horrible Lemon scented death.

Mom visits me every month or so and insists on cleaning no matter what I do or say... I try very hard to keep my found items in containers and out of her sight. That limits my ability to get at them when I need them. Mom is much less likely to try and toss out something that has the price tag attached which pushes me to buy more new materials and only buy found items for imediate use.

I probably sound like a teenager what with complaining that Mom cleans my room. But it derails the whole creative process to know you had something you want to use only to find out it's been junked.

Supervising her while she cleans is a major hassle as she'll pick up every item I own one by one and ask me why do you want to keep that. Half hour explaination and arguement later she'll pick up the next item. Repeat ad infinitum. Asking her not to clean and just let things be leads to a two day mope and annoying hurt puppyisms. When I get a bigger place I will solve this problem by having a dedicated art room I can lock. It should be safe if I hide the hair pins and Screw drivers.

Danyoo wrote:I demand pictures >.< I want to see them! I might order!

*COUGH*

I'm working on it. My own digital camera needs new batteries. The pictures I took over X-mass are in my brothers camera.

Yay! *sends batteries*

I know what you mean Fish.. my mom is the same way, and so is her mom.. It got lost with me some how though.

Finding new and creative ways to hide things though is always the best bet. Like a trunk that will fit at the end of the bed or in the closet.. you can also use it as a coffee table or in lots of places. Just make sure its a trunk that locks

That's one idea that I always did. I just tried to keep that orginized with the stuff they wouldn't understand why I still had it.

oooh fimo is fun. A bit tempermental, but once you get the hang of it, Bam! i made some lovely beads mostly randon patterns, but i even eeked out a peace sign bead, and one with flowers. Oversized ones are nice to, for decorating dreadlocks