So, I am doing The 100-Day Project Challenge again; my second attempt at this creativity "habit building" exercise. You can read more at the above link; or just choose "a creative thing" to pursue for 100 consecutive days... and then use #the100dayproject as one of your first three tags so others on Hive and other social media can find you!
Today is Day 13.
Today's painting effort
So, I managed to find a light bulb that fits my work lamp at one of our local hardware stores — they only had one in stock — so now business is open for painting again!
Granted, we live in a part of the world where winters are rather dark and there's not a lot of daylight, but having my light burn out did make me ponder how artists managed to get by in days of old where all they had was either daylight or candles.
I suppose I could have found an east facing window and set up a temporary table facing out and done some work for a few hours, but it didn't really fit my schedule so I didn't bother.
Which, in turn, makes me realize just how privileged we are in this day and age!
Placing the initial design
Today's Creative Endeavor:
I continue to feel like I'm in a bit of a lull, from a creativity standpoint.
In service of actually getting a stone painted today I turned to what I often do when I am not feeling creative, which is painting a stone that involves somewhat more of a "paint by numbers" process.
What do I mean by that?
Well there are certain stones in my repertoire that generally get painted in fairly specific patterns, and fairly specific colors. One of these are the Chakra Stones I often paint, mostly geared towards the market of massage therapists, Reiki practitioners, and the like.
Building the design
I found myself in nice slightly larger stone and decided that I would turn it into a crown chakra stone.
When I do these, the "vibe" is always very similar, and I also know that I'm going to use a purple-white-gold color set in some combination... and that eliminates some of the creative variables I have been struggling to come up with from an original perspective.
At first it was somewhat sticky going, but after a while the design started to flow pretty well and I realized that with the suggestion of what to do already figured out before I sat down, it actually wasn't that laborious to do.
And I'm actually quite pleased with the outcome, which can be seen in the top and bottom photos!
Getting closer!
Minding the Store(s):
As we have now started a new month, I took a final look at the Etsy store statistics for January, and they ended up with the traffic increase of 190%!
That's pretty stunning, all in all, but I can't overlook the fact that January 2024 was quite pathetic. Even so, given the traffic level I enjoyed in January and extrapolating it our for an entire year, the Etsy store would end up with 2025 likely having more than double the number of visitors of even the best year of the last 12 — since I started my Etsy store.
Of course, I still have to figure out how to talk people into actually going shopping once they get here!
The only other shop related thing I did today was a bit of photography operation for trying to update the next category of stones, in this case the Soul Mate Stones. It's surprising how ”dated” the photographs form 5-6 years ago look — style wise — compared to my photos today.
Social Media Musings:
As per usual, this is the part of the equation I have the hardest time getting traction with.
But I did send out pings from X/twitter and from the Facebook page. I was going to put some kind of post in my LinkedIn feed, but I couldn't think up anything worthy.
Final Thoughts for Today:
I think the challenge is going fairly well, so far. I am really glad that I took a few moments to reflect and give myself permission to not be too much of a stickler for getting everything done, every single day.
I appreciate you coming to visit and please do leave a comment if you feel so inclined!
Thank You!
If you enjoy painted rocks, do check out The Hive Rocks Project and help spread the word about Hive, while also being creative!
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Thank you, in advance, for your consideration and support!
My Alchemy Stones Patreon appeal
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Thank you for supporting independent art & creativity!
2025.02.01 AS-TXT-317/287