Monday, January 25, 2016

My Journey As A Scroll Saw Pattern Designer #1685: Christmas in January?!?

I had a truly wonderful and productive weekend. while most of the eastern part of the United States was getting pounded with a blizzard, oddly enough Nova Scotia escaped its wrath. In fact, tomorrow (Tuesday) and Wednesday it is supposed to be 7 and 6 degrees Celsius respectively. What an odd winter we are having… 



But living where we do, it didn’t hurt to ‘be prepared’ for the storm, just in case it decided to change its path. It has been known to happen. We got all of our errands done on Friday and I planned to stay in the entire weekend and get some serious work done.  It is a win/win strategy, I think. 



On Saturday, I spent the majority of the day (what else?) cutting ornaments. I have cut over 100 dozen ornaments since the beginning of the month, and I am certain you are all tired of seeing the piles of them as photos here. I am very pleased for the work, but I must admit that I am happy that things are slowing down a bit. I haven’t had much time to design or do anything else really (like embroider or paint or cook!) But I have been doing this long enough to know that things would even out, and it seems that they have. My ultimate goal for my business is to cut one or two days a week to keep up with orders, and then be able to design and do other things the rest of the days. While we are rarely able to dictate our schedules in this way, it would be nice if it were 'somewhat’ possible. I can try anyway, right?



We are coming to the last week of the first month of the year. For me that means that some deadlines are quickly approaching. Some are self-imposed and others are commitments that I made for designing. I know that I need to spend this week working on them all if I am to reach them. Failure to do so is not an option for me. 



One goal for designing is that I am honored to be on the Design Team for Toletown – an online painting community. Those of you who read often know that I have been working with them for a while, and it is something that I love to do. It is a great place for all levels of painters to learn and enjoy and the cost to join is very minimal. (Please check out the link to see all they have to offer. I don’t think you will be disappointed!)  



Each month Toletown has two full video classes and a shorter “Quick Paint” pattern. Each is contributed by a talented artist, so there is always a nice variety of styles and subjects and levels of painting. The videos are really nice because they always teach new techniques and help even newer painters grasp the concepts of painting. I am always happy to contribute. For the month of February, I am one of the featured artists and will be providing a project which will include an instructional video. That is what is on my agenda for this week. I want to get it to Lorrie – the owner and coordinator of Toletown – as soon as I can. 



That is what I will be working on today and the rest of the week … 



As for the weekend, as I mentioned, I cut ornaments and kits on Saturday. I am pleased to say I got everything done that I needed to do and even a couple of extras. That left Sunday open for 'my own’ creating. I was truly excited about that. 



Earlier this month, I mentioned a project that I am doing for several people that were on my Christmas list. I am painting them the full set of 12 ornaments from Lynne Andrews’ Christmas Blessings book. I gave “Day 1” to the five recipients on Christmas, and I planned on painting one “Day” per month and sending them all through the year. 



For me it would be impossible to do six sets of 12 ornaments all at once – especially when they are so beautifully detailed, front and back as shown above. (One set is for ME!)



So doing six ornaments a month is much more workable for me, and I goal I feel I can achieve. That means that “Day 2” needs to ship out next Monday, February 1st. Time is a-ticking … 



I had based the ornaments in between my mad frenzy of cutting and designing that I have been doing this month. Believe it or not, I found the time. I decided that yesterday I would devote much of the day to working on Day 2 and getting the ball rolling again. I think I made great progress. 



Here is a picture of ONE of the ornaments with the main design finished:





Obviously it is the “Two Turtle Doves” from the book. I think it is coming out beautiful! 



Here is a different angle where you can see the JoSonja Opal Dust that I added over the design to look like 'snow’. (All of the ornaments will have this)



I also added the white snow 'dots’ in the above shot. I think it is beautiful and I am once again excited about getting them done! 



I still have a little way to go, but I am well on my way and I do believe that my goal can be reached. I think it will be wonderful for all the recipients to get a new ornament each month, and it will 'Keep Christmas in their hearts all year!“



Here is my group of six:

It will be fun to see them all being done. 



So for today, I am turning into another direction completely. I have some fun experimentation to work on using paint on some fabric for my Toletown project. I think it is going to be something that will make a wonderful project. 



I hope you are all safe and sound and that those of you who got a lot of snow are alright. Last year we were pounded with so much snow that even I was tired of it. I know we are not done yet, but we dodged the bullet this time. 



I look forward to a fun and productive week ahead. It is bright and sunny here today and looks to be a beautiful day. It is time for me to get moving … 



Happy Monday to you all!  I wish you a great week too! 



via Tumblr http://davidpires578.tumblr.com/post/138018685434

No comments:

Post a Comment