Faux Knitted Star   Woot it's almost Thanskgiving and that means Christmas is right around the corner. Black Friday has become as much as tradition as the Macy Day parade - god we have gotten so materialistic. Anyway to join in the fun - from Thanksgiving to Monday, I'll be running a 30% off sale as well as free shipping - so for great deals check out FantasyClay this year. Even after the sale, I will offer free shipping to the US, Canada and UK through out the holidays and 2.00 shipping to everywhere else.  ... » Read More

You've gotten the possible customer to your shop, now how do you convince them you do mean business and you are going to follow through and be professional. Customers are more worried about be confident in the buying experience usually than knowing your life story. Be present- on Artfire, check in at the very least, once a week. Make it easy for customers to contact you and respond quickly. And if will be away for more than a few days, let customers know or put your shop in vacation. Well written description that includes measurements and materials. Make sure a customer knows what they are buying. There is a market ... » Read More

I had wondered about them, having heard of them from othervpolymer clayes but not having much experience with power tools or the cost, I figured it wasn't worth exploring. Last week after a demo at the New Jersey Polymer Clay Guild about sanding and polishing, I got a chance to see one in action. I checked online for a price and I got one for 55 dollars(this includes shipping). It took me a bit too get set up and realized that it needed to be clamped down at 2000-7000 rpms it bounced all over. But the difference is amazing. Hand buffing and even using the dremel don't compare. I posted these faux rocks last year. I ha... » Read More

I've felt like I've been stuck and just decided to put everything aside to just smoosh around. Rather than just waste clay, I remembered how calming making river rock was. It is just some blending and smoothing and totally free flowing. Other times I'm just made up the colors and made a number of matching beads. I decided to just really play around and see how different each rock could be. I only put two restrictions on the beads- they had to be in blues and greys but all different and they had to similar in size so they could be used together. I gathered up the necessary colors- basically I'm just using black, white, transl... » Read More

    So now that Google Analytics is set up and your views are filtered out, so you are just seeing visitors data- what do you do with it all? There are lots of graphs, charts and terms you might not be familiar with. What does it all mean and what can you do with this data?   This top graph is the most common- it gives the number of visitor in a day, it updates once a day and if you mouse a dot, it gives the exact number. The default view is by day. I think everyone looks at that first, is it, is it down? You can expect highs and lows, if you ran a give-away, your views will probably rise. I've had really big... » Read More

I love polymer clay, I put aside knitting and most of my other crafts to devote time to it. Here's why I am so crazy about it: 1. Color! My very first reason for loving polymer clay- not just that it comes in so many colors but that I can mix just about every color of the rainbow myself. The better clays come in artist colors so making the colors I want is at least half the fun. You can mix colors completely or leave them marbled to create different effects that stay after baking. 2. Baking! It is easy to cure a piece, you just have to bake it in a regular oven at 230-270 degrees, no kiln needed, so you can jump right it. ... » Read More

There are lots of things you can do to drive customers away but sometimes they still actually find your shop and like your items and actually want to buy it. Don't worry there are still things you can do to prevent customers from actually purchasing anything.   If these don't work there are a couple of tweaks you can make to your description There you have it,  10 quick and easy ways to prevent people from buying from you. This horrible attack can be stopped. Even 1 or 2 of them will usually do the trick, you really just have to give it your all to sure you scare ... » Read More

Recently I found something new to play with, making mosaics using polymer clay tiles. I actually piece it all together before baking and then glue or mount it on a base. This was my first, using coppers and blue as my palette, I added texture to tiles using stamps, then added powders or mica to enhance it. I did it by first cutting all the blank tiles, trying to arrange the tiles and colors, then one by one added the texture, cutting tiles again after stamping to even them out so they would fit. Stamping tends to make the clay spread out. Sometimes I am more precise about the outer edges but for this once, it seemed to work since I let... » Read More

I'm going to go off track here and get a little philosophical. When I was young I felt I was in control of what happened to me and I decided how things would turn out. I made the decision where I went to school, what to study, and on and on. Looking back, it doesn't seem so clear cut. It seems so much more random.   I'm not saying this is a bad thing but randomness seems play a much bigger role than those decisions I thought I had made. Even the decisions seem to be based more on chance circumstances than anything else.   Just the story of how I met my husband is a total example of that. I went to an engine... » Read More

I'm usually quick to try new products but this is one I hadn't. I'll admit Sculpy Ultralight has been around for quite a while so it's not really new anymore but I just never bothered to try it, mainly because it was just in white. I wasn't looking to make floating projects (yes it floats) or the super delicate flowers they always seem to have as an example for Sculpy Ultralight. I like working with colors and was happy using foil armatures. Like I said, Sculpy Ultralight just didn't draw me in, so what happened? I bought a tutorial that called for Sculpy Ultralight to use to make molds. I never thought of this use but then I have yet to ge... » Read More

We all want to add our own special touch and beauty to our home. Adding artstic bits in functional items is a great way to add beauty and art to your house. You can do this in the simplest ways. Adding a switch plate cover that stands out as art rather than a plain white one can add a extra sparkle to your room in a quiet way especially if you want something more than ordinary but still want an extra spark. This wine cellar switch plate cover is an inexpensive way to add art. ... » Read More

Are your items trendy? Are you in the know? Are you up on the hottest styles or colors for this year? Don't know?  Do you even care to know? You can get bombarded with tips to stay trendy, keep up with all the new styles but does it even matter to a crafter? To me it often seems when I see these articles they focus on one new item that is "hot" but I've never seen. Or this is the color of the season but I don't see it anyone I meet. Maybe I just hang out with out of touch people or maybe this hot trends really aren't so "hot" or important anyway. I'm not saying never to update you styles, you don't want to look like you are s... » Read More