2010, 2011, and beyond!*

Sorry I haven't seemed to be very active lately. Truth is, I have been insanely busy offline for the last month trying to get all of my presents and crafting together for not only x-mas but for new years. I still have a lot of stuff to finish, but I at least I got most of the big stuff done. I managed to save money this year over last year by making gifts, but only to the comparative amount and demeanor that they weren't going to suck up my time and available resources. Some went over a little better than others, but that's usually how it goes when you hand-make stuff: its about a 50/50 shot that they'll even like it.

I didn't take pictures of all of my 'projects' this year around because some of them were so similar (or comparatively bizarre) that I didn't think they'd make for good photo opportunities. So, here's a small taste of 2010 x-mas loot!:

This is a ring I made for a friend. (No click-on for this one. sorry!)


I was pretty proud of myself for figuring out the mechanics to make the little owl pendant hand down straight instead of flopping around from the chain tension. click for closeups.


I had invested in some high-grade ocean chalcedony (which is basically a cyan-colored chrysophase) a while back, and never had an appropriate project to put it into. I made this necklace for my mom with lots of sterling-silver plated wire and stones. The clear stones are Quartz briolated drops. click for closeups.


My Boss/HPB assistant manager is this gal who really loves deep ocean life. (I think she studies marine biology of deep-water critters as a hobby?...) I know she already had a chain from a previous gift, so I made these little glass pendants as additional things for her collection. click for beeeg.


My BFF has a thing for Christian Bale. Because she is delightfully insane, and I love it. These are magnets, since I wasn't sure how they would translate as jewelry (plus, I'm pretty sure her fiancé would come after me).

So, yeah. not too bad for a fraction of the things I sent out. I was hoping to get out my sketchcards/ACEOs out before 2011, but they'll just have to wait for a little bit. I'm pretty sure by now the people who are getting them know that they are going to be late. I want to have them sent out by the 15th at the latest, but you never know. I also have a letter to write to my S. Korean gal. So much stuff!! I'm hinging my purchasing a copy of the latest WOW expansion on getting these two things done. That way I don't lot into the game and just get lost in the content (which, I assure you, you'll all know when happens because you won't hear from me or see art from me for another 5 months. LOL.)

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2010.
Not gonna lie: It was a real up-or-down year.

This is the year I realized that I can never allow myself to get as invested in WOW as I was, both for my own sanity and for the fact that it has this ability to both inspire your art and kill it in the same swoop -- you get all of these great RP storylines going on and then you never spend time drawing them because you're so busy either trying to catch up with the other players or writing out more story addendum. I also had a real breakthrough with finally finding Kobu/Heiwa a proper storyline in EGD. I kept (keep?) trying to shove him into all of these creative outlets when all along I think he just needed to be in his original storyline. And so I fudged it, removed it from its fan universe and made it self contained. And I think it was the best and most overdue choice I've made in the last decade as far as OC management.

In more important things, it seemed like every month there was a hurricane or earthquake. Haiti is still a wreck, Oil has fucked the equitorial eco system for, oh, 30 years out? 50? Who knows. Not to mention Obama continued his record of sharing his toys with the same people bent on getting him kicked out of the sandbox. I was really for the 'reaching across the aisle' thing for the first year and a half or so, but once it was abruptly clear that the republicans were going to throw their constituents under the bus and kill this country any way they could to make 'a point' about the "lynch the liberals" agenda, the sharing got real old real quick. Lets hope he realizes that sunshine and puppies can only get him so far, and pulls out his stetson from the closet and gives it a good shine -- I'm ready for some change that isn't so watered down.

I guess this is the part where I'm supposed to make some 2011 resolutions, but I'm not really into that since I think it's a tradition that sets people up for failure. (see last year's post... if you daaaare! */spooky*) So instead of all of the things I wanna change -- because let's face it: I'm indecisive and you don't really give a flying fuck -- here is a list of upcoming projects planned for 2011!

1. Ex Gemmae Divus Sheets - I wanna finish up the character sheets for the 6~10 main characters in the storyline. I was hoping to get the entire website up, but with as many things as I want to get done I'm going to just take it in small steps. OC sheets first, then website.
2. Mayan Oracle Card Deck - In an attempt to make sense of this, you must know two things: (1), I've been collecting tarot/oracle decks for the last 10 years or so. I'm up to almost 30 decks in my collection. (2) about 3 years ago I bought a copy of The Mayan Oracle from work without it's deck because it was cheap and had info I could use at the time for a WOW RP storyline. On my bucket list is creating my own tarot deck as both a sort of spiritual/art gauntlet and also to be able to say I did. But this will be a good start. this deck does not follow the traditional 78-card, major/minor arcana concept of other decks, so not only will it allow me more freedom in recreating the cards, but it will be just a little over half of the work.  I think I can do it!
3. Get my etsy shop running again - pretty self explanatory. I have so many cute jewelry ideas and I need to start making some revenue back on the supplies that I've invested in over the years.
4. The usual fare - sketches, penpaling, some diddling around, driving myself insane with a project load I'll never hope to troll through,... just another day in Heidiville™!
   

*(Other title that didn't win: Someone's poisoned the water hole!)