How it all started and where I am heading to...

I remember that day very well. It was in September 2004 when I was travelling to see my family at the weekend (was living and working in the capital city), I was sitting in the train and reading a library book. That book was such an influence to me, that after taking it back to the library I was searching for it in every possible bookshop. I realised it very quickly that the book was not published recently so therefore was impossible to find it in a book store. But I was not lucky to find it in second-hand book store either. I even registered on a website of an online second-hand book store and ordered the book, but never received any email from them that the book actually arrived to the shop and was available for me to buy.

I then moved to the UK but never forgot about this book ever since. The message of it is still ringing in my ears, and I think of it every day, but I feel like I haven't been taking this message seriously. Though I started a small art line awhile back but I'm not satisfied with my effort about the subject so far.

Van Gogh, Starry Night 1889 - from Wikipedia Commons

The book I'm talking about is about Vincent Van Gogh's life, not just an autobiography, but a novel which contains details of his life. It was amazing to read about his sufferings and to actually realise that he became this famous after all that... He worked really hard to get there, but at the end it was worth it. 

I don't know what exactly made me say that I wanted to be a painter, because until that day I only worked with pencils (I was drawing portraits ever since I remember) but I remember going to the art shop after finishing this book and stocked up on canvasses and paints. That time I mostly painted pictures of Van Gogh, Monet, and some others, because I still didn't find my own style, but it was perfect for me to learn how to paint. I experimented with it a lot and really enjoyed it. I was painting every day after work and during the weekends. My collagues loved what I was doing, had loads of orders from them. I even had an exhibition! : )

Then life took over... I've been facing more and more difficulties which obviously made it hard or impossible to create. And this makes me feel pain. So now, that I'm away from my home and the problems and in fact I'm with my family (where that train was taking me that day), I decided to get back to my life the way I want it to be. I'm not going let some people put me down anymore, but will focus, focus, focus!

And after this decision, while I was writing my plans how to continue with my business when I'm back home, in fact, how to improve it, so that I can reach my creative dream goals... the next morning I looked at my sister's bookshelf. I didn't want to believe what I saw! The book I've been looking for everywhere for years was right there in front of my eyes! I'm sure this was a sign, something to reassure me that my thinking was right. My dreams are about to come true soon, and from now on I'm going to do everything it takes to achive this.

Big dreams! Here I come... : )

New photos

I have been experimenting with photos recently. Have created a light-box which at first looked like a great idea, but when I started to use it I realised that I could still not achieve the results I'm after.

Today I managed to re-take some of the photos (without the light-box) and I'm quite happy with them.

Here is a before-after example for you to compare.

Before

After

Here you can find more new images from the same collection

What do you all think?



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. : )