Wednesday, January 18, 2012

New Look and New Materials

At the beginning of every year, I start with lots of ambition for my little craft business... but somehow by early autumn, my dedication to my small business tends to fizzle out; hence my lack of blogging and the vacation status of my etsy shop come September.  This year is starting no different than previous years, jumping head first into making some changes to my business. 

I decided to revamp the look of my business identity.  I had been using the same logo since the mid 1990's;  here it is:


although that star pin is an item that I once loved making, I've outgrown that style.  I wanted my new look to reflect what I'm doing now, as opposed to what I did 10 years ago.  My new banner background is detail from one of the pieces of my new line of jewelry, which I physically began developing this past summer 2011.  I say "physically" because I had been "mentally" developing this line much earlier. 

In this new line of jewelry, I marry my environmentalism to my creativity, utilizing repurposed or reclaimed materials, items that would otherwise be bound for the landfill... think plastic bags, metal parts and chain harvested from other broken or discarded jewelry items, tyvek mailing envelopes, plastic food packaging and found items.  To see some of these new recycled, upcycled pieces my etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/createmyworld   

Here is one of my favorite pieces, one that has not been listed to etsy (I still haven't decided if I can part with this set): 


Since it's likely that this set will become part of my "permanent collection", I plan to make similar items to list on etsy in the near future.

I am really excited about this new direction for Create My World Designs.  And though I have this new found media passion, I still have heartstrings tied to polymer clay - which I plan to continue using as one of my main media. 

Aside from continued working on the new recycled jewelry line and bringing new ideas to life in polymer clay and fabric, I also hope to be a better blogger this year - I will try for 1 post a month.  I also hope to create some tutorials of the new recycled jewelry to list on etsy, to appeal to those who prefer DIY (do it yourself) projects.  Let's hope this year I can dedicate myself to living up to my New Year's idealism of keeping Create My World active both online and (more importantly) in the studio!

I'd love hearing your comments about my new look and the new jewelry designs.  And tell me what aspirations you have for the New Year!