Just a quick little update.
I don't really know what's happening but in the past month, interest in my work on Tumblr has skyrocketed! My work has been featured on the site several times recently either under "gaming" or "crafts" and that has drawn a lot more attention to my art. Normally I have a few sales every month but since this rapid surge in popularity on Tumblr I've had several sales in just the past few days! When I post a new embroidery on Tumblr I include a link to my Etsy store so that has brought in a ton of new shoppers. I haven't had this many views on Etsy since I first opened it. It's pretty awesome!
I posted this sloth hoop yesterday morning and in 24 hours it got nearly 3,000 notes (a note is when someone "likes" your post or reposts it to their blog). And on top of that I've gotten nearly 100 new followers in 3 days (and some of these folks are artists who I admire myself). As an artist, you're always waiting for your art to start making waves and for people to start talking about it. It would be the bees knees if this was the beginning of my career taking off. I've worked really hard the past few years and struggled financially (and mentally). I really hope that my audience will continue to grow this year. I sincerely believe that my purpose in life is to make art that brings happiness to others and so far it looks like I've been successful in fulfilling that purpose. I've gotten so many messages from people telling me how much they enjoy my work and that really makes me happy. I don't expect to get rich off of my artwork but being able to just live comfortably without having to work a crummy day job would be a dream come true.
Anyway, back to Tumblr! After posting this Psyduck, it sold in about 3 days. This was a duplicate of a hoop I made last year. The first hoop took about 6 months to sell so being featured in Tumblr's "gaming" section really sped up the process. I already had so much love for Tumblr and now I wish I could give it all the hugs it deserves. I've been using Tumblr for 2 years now and it's becoming my Happy Place. Whenever I'm feeling shitty, I just go on there and before I know it I'm laughing like a crazy person. There's just so much good stuff to share and so many cool people too. So, thank you Tumblr and everyone who's either "liked" or "reblogged" my work! It really means a lot!
Your friend,
Iggy
www.iggystarpup.tumblr.com
So far this weekend has been pretty pretty pretty good. I've watched a crapload of tv but that's okay, as long as it's in moderation, right? In case you're curious I've watched "Our Idiot Brother", "Dirty Girl", "My Week with Marilyn" and some of season 2 of "Game of Thrones". I must say, I have some damn good taste in tv, I'll tell you what.
But I didn't just watch tv. I've gotten a lot of work done too. Courtney works hard and she plays hard. I finished a Breaking Bad hoop and it sold in less than 24 hours! Then today I got a commission for a Fancy Beasts animal portrait so I've been a busy little bumble bee.
The buyer of the Heisenberg hoop (pictured below) was an old art school buddy of mine. He drove over to my neck of the woods to pick up the hoop and we got to catch up as well. Always good to get updates on other Herberger Institute of Art and Design alumni. While we were shootin' the breeze I bumped into another friend of mine who I hadn't seen in years. My friend and I had wanted to take a picture together with the embroidery when a woman offers to take our picture. I look up and I'm like, "Oh mah gawd!" I've known this girl since I was 12 and now she's a married lady who's just about to have her first baby. Time sure does fly, doesn't it? However, I feel like my life is more like the movie "Big" played backwards. I feel as though I'm becoming more of a kid with each passing year, haha!
Anyway, I've probably already said this before but it feels SO GOOD to sell something you made. For an artist, there isn't any better feeling. I've been meaning to buy a map and start putting pins in it to keep track of all the places my art is. It's cool to think that my art is all over the world now and that a part of me has traveled to distant lands and over vast oceans. Neat, huh?
Oh! Another thing I wanted to mention is that today I bought a disposable camera and the reason I bought this camera is because I'm going to be doing a project with my pen pal called "camera swap". If you haven't heard of it (I hadn't til a week ago) let me explain it to you. So both you and your buddy buy disposable cameras and take pictures of your life and the things around you. Once the camera is full you mail it to each other and get it developed. What makes this a special project is that only your buddy will ever see the pictures you took, not you. It's like sending a part of your life to another person to share. I'm very excited about this project and am already thinking about places I want to photograph. I took 2 pictures today so only 25 to go. My friend lives in Texas, which I haven't really spent any time in but I'd like to do this same project with my pen friend in Scotland as well. That would be a super cool exchange since our environments are so vastly different. So yeah, you should try it with a friend :)
Okies, I better get back to work but I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening and have a nice holiday!
Take her easy!
Today I spent the day with my friend Hannah. First we made the rounds at Goodwill since it was half off Saturday. I love that in Arizona all Goodwill stores have half off day--on EVERYTHING-- every other Saturday. Washington only had half off on certain color tags (and nothing I ever wanted had the sale color). I didn't have too big of a haul this time but I got some good stuff. My favorites are probably a hot pink t-shirt with a tiger on it and some overalls. I'd been wanting a pair of overalls for a while so I'm excited to have finally found some.
After thrifting we had lunch at Pei Wei (I love me some Pei Wei) and talked about boys and stuff. I needed some more soft pastels so we popped in Arizona Art Supply on the way back to her place. Since it was still early in the afternoon by that point we decided to go see a movie. We decided on "The Great Gatsby" at Picture Show since they have movies for $5.50 with a student ID (I will continue to use my ASU ID for as long as I possibly can).
The movie was just okay for me. The novel is one of my favorites so I'm a bit of a tough critic. I will say that I loved the original film adaption with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow but this version was just "meh". The style was weird, the music wasn't my cup of tea and I honestly wasn't impressed by any of the performances. I normally adore Carrie Mulligan but her Daisy just felt like a weak attempt to copy Mia Farrow's portrayal of the character. I also didn't like the accent that Leonardo DiCaprio decided to use for Gatsby; it was weird and made his Gatsby less likeable and charming. I will admit that the first time I read the book the ending made me bawl like a baby but seeing it in this film I was just like, "Eh, whatever." I didn't feel emotionally attached to any of the characters in this film. Bummer.
Anyway, it was still a good day.
What else has Ms. Doom been up to lately? Well, I've been working a lot lately. Both on my art and at my job. I started back at my old job this past week and it was weird how once I was there it didn't feel like any time had gone by at all. I remembered everything almost instantly and it was as if I'd never left. I've been working on a self portrait lately as well and it's coming along pretty well. I hope to be done with it within the next few days. When I'm not drawing I'm working on an embroidery. Here's my newest works:
Let's see...anything else? Oh! I've also recently gotten addicted to "Game of Thrones". The first time I saw it I did not care for it all; I didn't like the violence against women and I couldn't keep track of all of the crazy names of characters. But I was in need of a new show and so many of my friends talk about it on a regular basis that I thought I'd give it another try. I watched one episode...then another and another. By the fourth episode I was like, "AHHH! SO MUCH DRAMA! I HATE EVERYONE ON THIS SHOW BUT I HAVE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!" I finished the first season two days ago and now am on pins and needles waiting to watch season two at my friend's house.
Welp, I guess that's all for now. Mama is pretty tired and might tuck in early tonight. I hope you all have an enjoyable rest of your weekend.
Nighty Night!
I have been phoneless for nearly two weeks now. My phone had been acting weird since February and slowly got worse and worse. My friend is trying to transfer its memory to a different phone but if he's unable to I'm going to have to buy a new one. I'm not very happy about this since I've had the phone for less than a year. It's ballz.
I hate to admit it but I was kind of addicted to my phone. The first day without it I felt physically ill. Now I don't miss it that much, in fact, I feel like I have so much more time all of the sudden. However, it is a pain having to go on my computer to check my email (my computer is an old man and takes forever to start up). What I miss the most about my phone is Instagram. I can't help it, I sort of love Instagram...and #PugsofInstagram.
Yesterday I attended Harry Potter bookclub with my mates and since we had finished book 5, we watched the movie. I hadn't seen "The Order of the Phoenix" in a while and watching it again made me remember how much that movie sucks. I'm not crazy about the book either but the movie takes out so much of the story and they put in so many scenes that are completely unnecessary. We decided that the next time they make the Harry Potter books into films that they should be made as a mini-series instead of feature films. That would be soooo awesome. They made another one of my favorite books, "The Count of Monte Cristo" into a mini-series and although they still changed the ending (no film adaption has ever had the same ending as the book) it was so much better than the movies since they were able to retain so much of the story.
Another bit of news, I have recently acquired a new pen pal! This time it's a young man from Germany. I sent him my first letter yesterday and am looking forward to his reply. I know I've said this before, but having a pen pal is a very lovely experience. There's something about getting handwritten letters in the mail that's very romantic no matter if the sender is male or female.
Oh, and here's my most recent embroidery:
Okies...I better get back to crafting now. Much to do today! Laters!
