How to convince yourself that you are good at what you are doing

First of all, would like to say sorry for not posting for ages!

Today's blogpost is a motivational one. At least is trying to be. : ) Please leave a comment with your opinion, would love to know what you all think about this.

As an artist/crafter you may be questioning your talent time to time, especially when sales are not coming in as they used to. I don't know about you, but I always blame myself for anything, I'm not going to think of the economy or such things, but think that maybe my products are not good enough. Familiar?

Here are the steps I am trying to use to avoid this feeling:

1. Find an older product you were happy with before and thought people liked it

On sale here

This style of necklace was a popular one, sold more in different colours, also similar bracelets. AND! They are actually reduced in my folksy shop right now (on my website still the original £21, so worth a look)

2. Read your feedbacks

Just one example: "Thank you for the gorgeous earrings. They are truly stunning in real life and match my necklace perfectly. Thank you so much! "
It always makes me feel amazing to receive a new feedback. I love when a customer is happy with their purchase. I think this is the best part of the job. : )

3. Finally, check your current products

Available here

Do you notice any improvement in your work? Did anything change in your working process? Do you find it any easier to complete each step? Are these improvements make you enjoy your work even more?

I would say yes to all these questions. : ) I love what I'm doing and would like to do it for looong time. : )

My plan for now is to focus on my art shop first and get it going. And in the meantime create my Summer 2012 Jewellery Collection, which is going to be exciting, sorry, can't say more just yet ; )

But not sure what to do with my reduced items in my Folksy shop, as they are as good as they were when I created them, but don't seem to get any attention.

What steps you take to motivate yourself?

Brand new Summer 2011 Collection now available!

After finally overcoming some huge obstacles in my life, I managed to focus on my jewellery shop after neglecting it for so long. The products were ready for long, but I didn't have chance to take their photographs and uploading them to my website seemed impossible until now.

Please have a look at the Iyobo Design Summer 2011 Collections at the links below:
Earrings
Bracelets

Enjoy : )
And of course let me know what you think...

Coming soon at Iyobo Design

I have been working on the new collection for a while, but had to wait to make photos as my camera is not as good (as my sister's). She came over to take some photos and I can already see the difference. Oh dear what can I do without her (camera, lol) now?

Here is one photo to make you all excited. You all are really excited now, aren't you? ; )

It will need some time to upload everything to my website. I'll definitely announce it on the blog once they are available. Until then please do let me know how you like this pair of earrings.

New paintings in my Etsy shop

I haven't written anything for awhile, I got a bit disheartened that I'm not really getting comments, like noone is reading. My followers may have followed me to see my jewellery creations, but I also would like to show some other creative things I'm doing these days, for example I'm really proud of myself to be able to style my daughter's hair now, but nobody seemed to be interested in my last post... anyway...

Here is a new painting from my Etsy shop:

She loves to love - Available in my Etsy shop

Another hairstyle

I'm finding it difficult to get back to my normal internet-routines, and even though while sorting my life and trying not to get ill again I've been working on some jewellery, I haven't got anything to show you off just yet.

It's been almost 2 weeks now when I made this new design for DD's hair, but didn't get around to post any photos about it yet. So better late than never, here:

I was quite happy with it when it was ready, but after a few days it started to show that it was still not perfect... need more practise... Next time I'll try to use a different technique, which I just seen on the net today, though have no idea if my hands would be happy with that... This thing is not easy to do at all, and really waiting for the time when I finally get it right. : )

Something new, as promised

As a jewellery designer if I show you this photo you may think my latest project is some kind of jewellery...

But it's a bit different this time. I promised something new for next week in my last post. Well, I could not wait any longer. I decided to do it today.

I would like to say a huge thank you for Katie (her blog is  http://www.keepmecurly.com/) as I found her videos on youtube and I learned a lot from her.

So here is the result (of our WHOLE afternoon)

It's not perfect yet. But I think quite good if you know the fact that this is my second time to try cornrows. The first one was a simple ponytail in cornrows, which was not tight enough as I removed them after 1,5 weeks (though it's also the excitement to try something more interesting, lol).

I'm not sure why it was not tight, if it's my fault or because my daughter's hair is very soft. Well, after some more years I'm sure I'll improve. (and she will probably at least try to keep her head one place, lol)

I'll try to blog about my hair desings if they turn out any good : ) So if you are interested feel free to follow to see some more in the future. : )

My positive girls

Sorry for not posting anything recently, was not online as much as usually. (had to take off some time because of some health issues, which seem to be sorted finally)

Started to work on some collages, which I really enjoy and listed 2 of them on Etsy today, one more to come tomorrow. Feel free to check them out and let me know what you think please.

Etsy shop

Etsy shop

I'm planning something really exciting for next week. Something I never done before. But it's high time to start it. I can't wait, I wish I could start it right now, but for some reason I can't. It's not about my work at all, but really exciting. Lol. Hope I made you all interested and will come back next week to check the result. If it's the way I plan it, I'll do regular posts about the development... ok enough teasing for now... see you all soon. : )