(Crossposted from my blogger blog.)

I figured in the spirit of a bunch of my teams and guilds doing Thanksgiving/Harvest-y things, I'd make a list of what I'm most thankful for. :) Here's my list:

 

That's an old picture, but it was taken right after he proposed two years ago so it's special. Josh is the most wonderful guy I could ever ask for- he's funny, he's sweet, he's artistic, he's intelligent, and he's so patient and supportive of me. I know he's always there for me and loves me as much as I love him. :) I love having a fiancé who can debate literature with me, knows about art supplies, and likes the same kinds of things I do. It really does help to be in a relationship with one of your best friends (and he was a good friend before we started dating). And he's cute! Have I mentioned how adorable he is? ;)

 

That's a picture of me and my best friend Care. I loves her; for the past decade she's been my "Probably Evil" (haha, OotS reference) twin and the Pippin to my Merry. Seriously. Look:

She's like my sidekick (or I'm her sidekick- either one works, lol) and let's just say that seventy years from now, we're going to still be best friends, probably trying to cause chaos at the retirement home and running people over with our scooters. ;) She knows me better than anyone else and is always there for me- we also share a lot of the same interests, so we can be geeky together. It's always good to have someone who is always up for dressing in costumes with you. ;)

The other friend I want to mention is one who hasn't been in my life all that long (only a few months) but I consider her one of my closest friends and I can't imagine her not in my life now- that's Ruthie. She's my best online friend and my elf-sister, and she is always there for me with support, a sympathetic ear, and is a wonderful person to bounce ideas off of. We have so much in common and we can relate to each other so well; she's the one person I can really talk about my health problems with because she understands and, while hers are different, can definitely relate. That just means so much to me, to have someone who is not only sympathetic and caring (Josh, my sister, and Care fit that bill, too), but who also understands.

I'm also really thankful for my other friends, of course, including my Plurk buddies, FAE friends, and street team friends because those guys keep me sane in a time when I don't get much social interaction outside the house. Thank goodness for the internet!

 

My parents may not be very supportive of me, but my little sister is. She's so sweet and she's always been my best friend. Seriously, even as kids we never fought, although I did used to torment her by shutting the basement door on her and turning out the light. But what older sibling doesn't pick on their little sibling sometimes? ;) Really, we've always gotten along great and I love her very very much.

 

I love my kitty so much! She's always so affectionate and ready to give me headbumps and purrs when I need them (or when she wants to give me them, of course, but she's a cat so I know she has her own schedule, lol). I love her even though she thinks kitty bonding time is whenever I'm in the bathroom (since that's where her food bowl is, it's her favorite place). She's so silly!

 

Art keeps me sane and (generally, hopefully) lets me pay my bills while I can't work. I don't know how I would have been able to take this much time off from work to recover if I didn't have my art, Josh, and my parents (granted that one's kinda begrudgingly, but hey, at least I have a roof over my head and food to eat) supporting me. I don't always feel up to making things, but when I do it really does help me feel better. :) I want to always make things, and I love that selling things means I get to share it with people. I think it's so cool that there are people all over the world who have some of my art! :D

(Crossposted from my blogger blog.)

 

I'm really happy with how this new style of cartilage chain earrings came out- amazingly what was in my head worked in practice! ;) Instead of just having the one chain connecting the lobe to the cartilage, this one has two:

I'm really loving this one- the colors, the shape, the size. :) I wanted a way to expand on my cartilage earrings (since they're one of the main things I make), so I thought a "deluxe" or more intricate version would be cool. Hopefully people will like these ones, too.

 

I do have a question for you guys- what do you think of the orbs in the photo? Since it's colder now I'm going to be taking pictures indoors, and I found a great spot in my sister's room (and her walls match my mannequin, lol) with good light in the early afternoon. When I got pictures that day the light was coming in at just the right level to give me orbs and I think it's neat and all faerie-ish. However, I'm not sure if it makes the picture look professional and like something someone would want to buy. What do you guys think?

 

I'm using that photo as the main one on the Artfire listing because my sister said she liked that photo best, but on Etsy I'm using the plain photo with no orbs.

 

I'm just trying to come up with good ideas to make my photos look unique. I noticed this week as I was going through older listings for earrings to remake that my photo quality from '08 was terrible. They're so much better (and so much clearer!) now, but I'm still no photographer, so I'm trying to think of prop ideas and things to give my photos a unique, fantasy look. Orbs may help with this (and since I have Paintshop, I can edit some in on the days the light doesn't give me them naturally).

 

I think I also might want to get some further away photos, so you can see how they look with more than just the ear closeup. :)

 

And as I'm typing this my sister's best friend mentioned that it would be cool if I put a feather in my mannequin's hair because feathers are popular now. I have feathers (I collect them whenever I can find them), so that sounds like a great idea!

Hooray! Time for another interview with one of my favorite artists! :) This interview is with AJ of Erthe Fae Designs; she's one of my FAE friends (as in one of the regulars in the Fantasy Artists of Etsy team thread in the Etsy forums), and she's also the only elven bellydancer I know. ;) She makes lovely jewelry, so definitely check out her shop!

 

What's your name?
AJ Reardon

Where can you be found on the internet? (Website, Twitter, shops, blog, etc)
http://erthefae.etsy.com
http://erthefae.blogspot.com
http://www.erthefae.net

Describe yourself in five words.
Quiet and unassuming, unless dancing.

If you were a color, what would you be?
Green.

If you were a "Dungeons and Dragons"/fantasy character or creature, what would you be? (Can be a specific character, or something general like "elven bard", "centaur", etc).
I think I'd be a dryad, and whenever adventurers came to me for help with something in my forest, they'd have to pay me in beads.

If you could live anywhere (or anywhen), where/when would it be?
Right where I am. Arizona suits me well. I like the weather, I like the annual gem shows, and I like the friends I have here.

What is your greatest dream or goal?
To be Tucson's foremost teacher of Tribal-Style Belly Dance. It's a very specific goal, and one I'm actively working towards. There's no better feeling than being on the path to achieving your dreams.

What was your very first piece of art? How long have you been an artist?
My first piece of jewelry that I remember making was a two-strand necklace made with beads from cheap kiddie necklaces I'd cut up. I was probably 8-10 at the time. But I didn't start beading seriously until 11 years ago.

If you sell your art, how did you get started?
I was 16, the holidays were around the corner, and I knew my allowance wouldn't be enough to buy nice presents for my family and boyfriend. I'd been trying to find a job, even temporary Christmas retail work, for months, and no one wanted me. There was a store at the mall who had beads for good prices, so I decided to make a few necklaces to sell on eBay. Within months, I was totally hooked on beading, and what was supposed to tide me over until I had a "real job" became my main focus. I've still never held down a day job.

What is the strangest thing you've ever made?
Definitely Cthulhu, In All His Hideous Glory. He's a 7" plush Toy Vault Cthulhu, heavily embroidered with seed beads.

Pick your favorite project/artwork- what is it and what inspired you on it? If you'd like to share, tell a little about the process you used from inspiration to completion of that project.
Same as above! He's weird, but he's my favorite. Years ago, when looking at the beaded dolls of other artists, I had the idea that it would be fun to bead my plush Cthulhu. But I naturally shy away from projects that large, so it stayed in the back of my mind until this Summer, when it was announced that the Bead Retreat I was attending was going to host an Ugly Beaded Project contest.

Now, I have a natural aversion to the idea of wasting my time making something ugly on purpose, so I wasn't going to participate. But then I thought "Hey, Cthulhu is ugly, and I've always wanted to bead him..."

Cthulhu is largely inspired by the beaded Beanie Babies created by my friend Dot Lewallen (http://speediebeadie.blogspot.com/). I studied pictures of her Beanies, then started work on mine. I picked out the beads along the way, based on what tickled my fancy at the moment. I started out with very few ideas as to exactly what I'd do where, with the exception of the details on the wings.

I spent approximately 2 months on Cthulhu, beading almost every day. He's done entirely in beaded backstitch, using Japanese and Czech seed beads in several sizes, Japanese bugle beads, and Czech pressed glass.

What kind of advice would you give to other artists?
Make what you love. Don't go chasing after the latest trend on Etsy. Choose your niche and try to be the best in it. Others will be drawn to your originality, creativity, and love for what you make.

What is your favorite:
Color? Green.
Quote? It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Book? American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
Character? (book or whatever) I don't think I could even narrow it down to a Top 10.
TV show and/or movie? Babylon 5 and MirrorMask.
Season? February and March, when Winter gives way to Spring. It's a wonderful time in Arizona. Gem show, Ren Faire, and wild flowers in bloom.
Food? Really depends on my mood, but usually something involving chocolate.
Animal? Pembroke Welsh Corgis.
Art medium and/or supply? Beads! Probably a tossup between size 11 Japanese seed beads and 4mm Swarovski bicone crystals. I use a lot of both.


I hope you enjoyed this Talented Tuesday post. Thanks, AJ, for letting me interview you! :)

(Crossposted from my blogger blog.)

Time to share the stuff I've been working on this week. :)

First, the cat dolls I'm making for a trade with one of my POEST teammates:

I'll get a better picture of them when I'm done the third doll (a mermaid) I'm making for her, but I wanted to share these two first. :) They're based on her two cats; one is slightly larger and a bat-cat, and the slightly smaller one is a devil-cat. I really really like how these came out (I'm still fiddling with the cat pattern I created, but I think I've almost got it to where I want it to be), and I think when I'm done with all the dolls I have to make for Christmas and trades, I'm going to make a line of cats in different costumes for my shops. I know I want to make an Egyptian cat first, but I'll have to think of other ones I want to do. Do you guys have good ideas for costumed cats?

 

The other thing I made this week was this custom earring:

I'll have to find more of these fairy charms; they're the perfect size for my cartilage chain earrings.

Speaking of cartilage chain earrings, I've been coming up with a new design, but I haven't finished those yet, so those'll probably be in the next update. ;)

 

And last, my most recently listed item are these Dryad horns:

They're here in my Etsy shop and here on Artfire.

They started out on a whim- I just wanted to mix together some of my new Pearl-Ex powders on a pair of clay horns (I think they started off just black clay), so I grabbed a couple powders (red, orange, and gold, I think) that ended up merging really well into a coppery-color. Then I added the spiral and thought "Hmm... this part would look good green", and when I showed them to Josh, he said how they looked all tree-like and I should paint ridges on them. Unfortunately, you can't see the ridges so well in the photos, but they look like bark now. :) Next time I'll have to scratch some lines into them, too, to make them look even more tree-like.

Man, I love making fantasy things! :D

 

Next up are lots of dolls- that mermaid for that trade, my friend wants a Luigi (from Mario Bros) and some sort of princess for her grandkids, then I think I'm doing a trade where I'm making two Pokemon, then a kobold for Josh from his webcomic, and I have a few more dolls to make as gifts, as well as something for the swap my FAE team friends are doing. I still have to figure out what I want to make for that, though- I have a bunch of ideas and I don't know which to go with!

 (Crossposted to my blogger blog.)

 

Time for the weekly interview with one of my favorite artists! Niere is special in that I don't know her through Etsy or Artfire; I met her years ago on Gaia. (We're both regulars in the LotR subforum, specifically the long-running [and rather bizarrely themed] Bakshi Legolas fan thread.) Niere (yes yes, I've known her real name for a long time, but I can't think of her as anything but "Niere") is so incredibly talented at drawing people. I love her art style, which is probably why I've asked her to draw me a bunch of things over the years. ;)

 

What's your name?
Melissa Hughes. Online, I usually go by Niere.

Where can you be found on the internet? (Website, Twitter, shops, blog, etc)
I have a few:
My deviantART account - http://nieregreenleaf.deviantart.com
Art blog, "An Artist's Muse" - http://niere.blogspot.com
Sims blog, "Simoirs of a Geek" - http://simoirs.blogspot.com

Describe yourself in five words.
Eccentric, artistic, lazy, procrastinator, sarcastic (Ok. Some of those made me sound like a horrible person...)

If you were a color, what would you be?
Hmm. That's one of those questions I never knew how to answer. Blue, maybe. It reminds me of water. Though I can't really explain why I feel I'm like water sometimes. Perhaps because it can go anywhere and you never know where it's going to end up? It's kinda confusing... like me. Heh. Ok. I'm just rambling now.

If you were a "Dungeons and Dragons"/fantasy character or creature, what would you be? (Can be a specific character, or something general like "elven bard", "centaur", etc).
Hm. I've never played D&D, but I suppose an elf of some kind. I'd probably find some way to be my elven persona, Niere.

If you could live anywhere (or anywhen), where/when would it be?
It's fictional, but probably Middle-earth. It's such an interesting world and seems to have a lot of beautiful places. Of course, I probably wouldn't want to be there while the whole One Ring thing was going on. That might not be so pleasant.

What is your greatest dream or goal?
To actually be able to do something with my art. I really wish I could improve enough to actually be able to make art a career. Illustration sounds like a lot of fun, but my skills aren't quite up to par yet. Maybe one of these days...

What was your very first piece of art? How long have you been an artist?
Some random scribble I did as a child, I assume. But seriously, I've been drawing since I was a little kid. Mind you, I never said I was good when I was little. Far from it. I loved to draw, but as my parents could tell you, my "art" was pretty bad. My dad told me he was surprised that I actually ended up drawing pretty well considering. I started getting "good" around the end of high school and throughout college. I'm mostly self taught.

If you sell your art, how did you get started?
Oh, I've only ever sold a few pieces of art and that was to friends. One of my college friends bought one of my prints from my senior art show for $15. I remember back in high school, one of my "friends" bought a copy of one of my fanarts off me for $2. Heck, I feel like I ripped him off. It wasn't really a very good quality print job and I think I even got a waterspot on it. He offered to buy it though. Oh, I've also done commissions on Gaia Online, but that was for virtual currency, so I don't know if that really counts.

What is the strangest thing you've ever made?
Oh dear. Strangest thing? Let's see, I've had a lot of strange fanart concepts. Like, one time I was listening to my Mp3 player and YMCA came on and I started drawing the female characters of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic doing the YMCA. Heck, I think most of my silly KotOR fanart is the strangest art I've done.

Pick your favorite project/artwork- what is it and what inspired you on it? If you'd like to share, tell a little about the process you used from inspiration to completion of that project.
I'd have to say that my painting of my elf character Arthalion reading on the beach is my favorite piece of artwork. The character himself was inspired by Lord of the Rings. He was originally a fan character for LotR, but I took him out of that world and into one of my own creations. He's the scholarly type, so the reading was a given. The beach setting has some sort of background story to it. The reason my "story" mainly takes place by the sea (and thus the beach setting) is because of one of my main inspirations - the song "Into the West" from Return of the King. It talks about sailing into the West. So, that's sailing across the sea. Also, the line, "All will turn to silver glass" has always stood out to me. Well, silver glass reminded me of sea glass which you find washed up on beaches. Yeah. I have weird thought processes. This particular painting was one in a series of paintings. I also painted one of Niere (Arthalion's wife) and another one of Losse and Orien (Arthalion and Niere's kids) also on the beach.

It's kinda weird that I chose a painting as my favorite seeing as how painting is not my forte at all. It just turned out so peaceful looking and perfect for hanging on my wall. Plus I think I have a crush on my own character...

What kind of advice would you give to other artists?
Oh wow. I'm totally the wrong person to get advice from. Hmm. Well, make what YOU want to make. Or rather, what you're comfortable making. I can't count the number of times I ended up dreading drawing for people who had commissioned me simply because the subject was something I had no desire to draw or was uncomfortable with doing.

What is your favorite:
Color? Definitely purple. I prefer it either dark or really light. Does that make sense? I'm not too fond of bright purple.
Quote? "He's dead, Jim." Sorry, I have no profound quotes. And yes, I have been watching far too much Star Trek.
Book? Memoirs of a Geisha
Character? (book or whatever) Current top three favorite characters (from tv shows since I haven't been reading much lately) are Lorne from Stargate Atlantis, Dr. McCoy from Star Trek, and Danno from Hawaii Five-O. Yes. I have weird taste.
TV show and/or movie? Currently my favorite TV shows are Star Trek and Hawaii Five-O. That'll probably change in a month or so. As for movie, the LotR movies and Memoirs of a Geisha. I don't care that some people say the book is better than the movie and that you should therefore not see the Memoirs of a Geisha movie. It's a good movie and I still say it follows the book pretty well.
Season? Fall. I like the somewhat moderate temperatures and the trees are really pretty. This fall, however, has been kinda sucky.
Food? Pepper steak. Well, at least the way my mom makes it. I've had a different kind before (which was also good), but I'm especially found of the way she makes it.
Animal? Cats. Definitely cats. Sadly, I haven't had one in a while because mine died semi-recently and my mom doesn't want to get another one.
Art medium and/or supply? I deal mostly in pencil, so pencil. I mostly use mechanical pencils. I know it's rather unprofessional, but I never could get the hang of art pencils. I always felt like I was wasting them when I did use them. I also like using Adobe Photoshop Elements for coloring my pictures. I would use colored pencil more often, but it's harder for me to correct mistakes. Another "medium" I enjoy is Sims. Yeah. I make a lot of Sims for the game Sims 2 (some of which you can see at my Sims blog). I consider it art because I do a lot of editing on custom content - clothing, hair, etc. It really is a lot of hard work and sometimes it could go unappreciated.

Style: Since I was first inspired to really start drawing after watching Sailor Moon in junior high, anime has had a huge influence on my art. I have since tried to develop my own style that is somewhere inbetween anime/manga and western cartoon with a dash of realism. My chibis are mostly anime inspired though.

Bit of semi-random information: I have a series of characters based on several of my electronics. I personified them. It started with my first Mp3 player (which sadly broke recently) that I named Akiimei. I've since named and made characters of my old cellphone (Kikite), my new cellphone (Motoko), my Nintendo DS Lite (Drei), my digital camera (Sasa), my tower fan (Beamos, he's a robot), and my new Mp3 player (Fuu).


That wraps it up for this week's interview. Thanks for letting me feature you, Niere! :)