My tiny world

Turkey Brooch, Q. Cassetti, 2012You know I am obsessed these days by all things tiny. I am probably the largest importer of small stuff from lands far away in Central New York…with more wonderful things to come. I am living in a teeny tiny zone…learning how to think and visualize in millimeters, learning how to search out these gems that I can turn into fun stuff to wear. I am learning about this teeny tiny world where people create their ideal life complete with paper plates and napkins to celebrate holidays, St. Patrick’s day etc—to 1:12 scale home healthcare equipment, to odd/unusual and out of reach furniture and housewares that any normal individual might not be able to afford. Living in this tiny world, celebrating holidays with little people, tiny babies, eensy boardgames, televisions and iPads—is a happy place where we can exist, own our own healthcare facilities, our own bakeries, charcuteries, and lingerie stores. This is the world where we can own pets who do not pee on the newly cleaned rugs, or puke behind the radiator, who do not eat the chicken on the stove as it cools, who quietly love and adore without any effort. This is the world that Santa is guaranteed to come, and household servants (in uniforms, no less) will serve you, bring the car around, and cook your savory dinner that includes pate, turkeys, and every form of cake, pie and fruit. This is the world of Christmas trees with real lights in every room if you want that never shed a needle, and can be weighed down with bitsy little ornaments that cost three times what they cost in the RW (real world…or at least the 1:1 world). However, I am Gulliver in this world—thudding through, collecting my batch of goodies that I can design with (with a fist filled with a squished tube of the miraculous E-6000) andHappy Party Cake Necklace, Q. Cassetti, 2012 make little confabs of iced cream cones, or veggies, or a whirl of tiny carrots and garlic. There are small breakfasts to go on your lapel, and birthday cakes that adorn glossy bangle bracelets. What fun. I have some little silver teasets that will adorn business card cases…along with candy encrusted compacts to whip out to fix your lipstick or make sure that corn silk is not hanging out of your teeth. Sickly, I am so charmed….and it has spurred me back to vectors (you got a dose last week) for fun (and happliy for profit I cannot speak of).

Now that this work is going to be at Sundrees, I am doing my own little affordable Queen of Design from Estee Lauder, Princess….and I am buying small wooden tables to display my jewels and pins, along with small black windsor chairs, and happily, some 1:12 bakery cases! Cute and sooooo fun! Forget playing in the tiny world—I love using the medium to sell the twist on the medium. Sundrees is a fun store here in Tburg filled with really wonderful and tasteful things and they have offered to carry my teensies, cameos, prints, cards, illos. I have gotten some big prints made along with some big “posters” (printed one side) that I am running through my accucut diecutter to give me 5.5” x 5.5” finished sized (two fold) cards of my farmers market wreathes. I am making a ton of cards to see what goes… and I am cutting out kraft boxes—to package all this stuff. Illustration is being layered on top…and is selling as well. So, I am keeping busy…and am psyched to see where all of this time will go.

Simple squidly

Squid sketch, Q. Cassetti 2012Kitty finally got the packing done with all her things moved to the dining room for us to move later this month to Northampton/Amherst for her. We had a quiet day—with Kitty packing and me musing. Alex was camping. Rob came back from Nascar for a nap and then to take Kitty and me to go hear Johnny Dowd at Felicias which was fun and always interesting as Johnny is one live wire. Johnny was celebrating his “25 yrs. in showbiz” complete with looped music, poetry and wry commentary. Not a crazy crowd, but everyone there was there to hear and admire Johnny, a rare bird who attracts a specific audience who want to listen and hear.

Tonight, there is a village meeting having some points about the Farmers Market being discussed, so I will need to be there to represent. I hope it’s brief….but you never know.

I discovered something very obvious, but very sweet between Etsy and Pinterest! If you have an Etsy store, you can “pin” your items in the store….and move them into “board” on Pinterest…with the image, text and even price moving over in a neat format. So, you can easily share and promote your store through Pinterest, and begin to see whatever you are offering up to become part of people’s scrap and personal reference information. Be cautious, however, as their copyright stance was questionable…though I am seeing via the web, they are getting more in line:

“Pinterest is a platform for people to share their interests through collections of images, videos, commentary and links they can share with friends. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides safe harbors for exactly this type of platform. We are committed to efficiently responding to alleged copyright infringements. We are regularly improving our process internally with the help of lawyers who are experts in the field of copyright.” from Pinterest

Here is QToo on Etsy. Here is QToo on Pinterest…as a fyi for Y O U. I am learning quite a bit from this  little experiment…and learning that sales can happen. We will see if the price point is sweet enough…or if a bit of refining might move the product. I am sure you are less than fascinated, but I am. There is something marvelous about this time when an entrepeneur can build a business, one brooch or one blouse at a time…and for a miniscule price, post those products to sell to the world if the design is right, if the audience is right, if the time is right, if the price is right. All these essentially free tools that help us take tiny risks to see if there is traction…and to see if there are “legs”. Then, there are the flash auctions like One Kings Lane and Fab.com who sell online—and are happy to take on a single item, handmade or design specific things. One could graduate from design school or an illustration program and create your own job versus waiting for one to fill… and, if you are wise, you create your own space, your own position, and not wait to be the square peg in the round hole. So much potential. So much wealth in these venues. Rich for ideas, rich for development and potential. What a great world.

As an aside, or did you love the Olympic Octopus yesterday? I did!