Busy Bee (What's that? - Future free stuff??)

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Goodness me. Where does the time go?

I've barely touched my computer the past few weeks. Life can be like that, sometimes. ;w;

Despite being busy, I've been working very hard in my free time. Would you guys like pictures of what I've been working on, or shall I wait until I have something truly worthy of showing off?

I recently decided to test out some shrink plastic that has been sitting around waiting to be loved for a few years. Sadly to say, I do not love it. I'm terribly excited, but it's not what I expected. I'd like to some day sell charms, but the quality does not feel like something I could ask money for in exchange. It may be a brand thing, so I will be testing out a different brand soonish. 

I've run into a lot of bumps.
The charms are NOT waterproof. (They are made using an inkjet printer, so this was expected) This makes even sealing them a bit difficult. If I'm not VERY careful, the ink runs. I coat them with mod podge, an additional sealer, and then top with resin. Only two of four charms I domed with resin came out clean.. One was absolutely terrible, and refused to dome. The resin spilled no matter how gentle I was. On the second that failed, the resin sank into the charm's hole. Although, I think this could be avoided when I make some other various improvements to the charms. Sadly the resin actually made the charms look worse. The brand of shrink plastic I used gives the charms a bumpy texture with ridged sides. They also have a small dent between the front/back. A bit unsightly. When doming with resin, it actually adds a slight magnification to the image. This only magnified all the flaws the bumpy texture added resulting in a lower quality image.

And may I just complain that it takes like 4 hours to cut out 26 charms. ;___; I had no idea my casual test/play would be this time consuming. This doesn't include the time spent coating them with all the various protective layers to make them pretty and water resistant. The second protective layer requires TWO hours between coats. Gah! 

However, I think I've finally found a combination of sealers/protective stuff that works nicely together. Heck, they even look nice without the resin, but I want that last bit of oomph that really gets them looking professional.

My biggest issue is the shrink plastic.
Wish me luck with the brand change! 

Once I get the hang of things, and really have a solid ground under me, I was thinking of raffling off the test pieces. Not the ones I have now, that is. This is if the brand swap solves 90% of my issues. (I have high hopes. I see such nice pictures online, why do mine look like poop? T_T Please be the brand.. please be the brand...) This would allow me to do something fun for you guys, as well as get a good understanding of how much shipping will cost me. The big plan is to sell them. A test. A start. A hope to get some made professionally so I can provide you guys with slightly less questionable quality. However, that is still a bit away. Although it's my dream to make people smile with little things with my art, it's hard to convince myself that people would want to pay for it. It's quite a bold gesture to purchase 50 charms in hopes to sell them. 

However, because I will be eating the shipping cost myself, I can only give out so many. I can't spend a fortune shipping things out to a large handful of people. After that, I will likely be trying out a site and selling them at a huge discount so I can get a feel for the process of selling things online without the guilt.

Sooo, what do you guys think? Think raffling of nice look? How many winners do you think there should be? Do you have anything specific you would like to see as a charm? Should I offer an option for additional entries, or limit it to one per person? 

Expect a delay. I will likely be creating a new full set of charms. All of my test pieces were pulled from old art, and few will be used again. 

I also do not know if I will be able to do this outside the US. I have never shipped out of the country before. I would really like to, so those of you outside the US, keep your fingers crossed! Wee!

By the way. By charms, I mean cell phone straps. The charms will include a small strap for attaching to things like cellphones, zippers, Nintendo Ds.
Its so easy to be vague when you have a solid mental image of what you're talking about. xD

EDIT:
OH, OH, GUYS. And Skype!
HELP ME KEEP TRACK OF MY PHONE.
I want so badly to be social with you guys, but I'm really struggling keeping up with messages.
Feel free to add Happbeeness on Skype! I would love to talk! (Free time for voice chat is limited, and video chats aren't my thing)
I'm not much of a conversation starter, but I'm always happy to chat if you want to say hi!
And I apologize in advance if I reply slowly.
Also my memory is garbage.... Please be forgiving if I forget things.
Yay phone apps!
© 2014 - 2024 Happbee
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Yennie-Fer's avatar
I wanna see everything you work on, lady! >:3 And ahh I know the feeling with creating things the first time. We learn from these things.