I have the worst time keeping this updated, sheesh. 😛 Anywho…

Holiday season was…slow, to say the least. 😛 But that’s okay, it ebbs and flows like the tide. In the meantime, I’ve done a lot of thinking and planning and this is what is in store for the year:

• Name change. My business outgrew the DarkFire Designs name a long, long time ago. I don’t know what the new name will be but when it’s meant to happen it will make itself known. 🙂
• Shop revamp: a long time ago I embraced my witchy roots and sold wands, staves, goddess dolls, and incense burners alongside my jewelry. This was before I ever picked up a kiln shelf. After a hiatus from working on the shop I’m finding myself being drawn back to that world, and I will embrace it full force. This doesn’t mean I’ll stop fusing glass, but I will be incorporating much more into my glasswork, and also making rune kits in addition to what I  made a long time ago. 🙂 In essence, my store will slowly transform into a metaphysical shop. 
• I’ve been expirimenting with metal inclusions in my fused glass. I started with silver-filled wire, which was a specatcular failure. 😛 I will be trying brass next. 
• I have a lot of kiln firings to post and new inventory to shoot. I’m waiting for pendant bails to arrive so I can finish pieces and get things moving. 

Also, for those in the Glendale area…

I have started selling my jewelry at The Talented Tortoise in the historic district. This is a wonderful little shop full of handmade jewelry, accessories, children’s clothing, pet accessories, and soaps, all made by local artists. If you’re in the area definitely give them a visit! 

And that is life, in a nutshell. 🙂

So…I keep getting sidetracked. Currently dealing with some family things, and then Burning Man Happened. 😛

Things that have happened so far in the Etsy Store:

• Major policy overhaul. Clearer, makes much more sense now, and is easier to follow.
• I’ve fixed and tweaked item descriptions. Etsy’s new layout makes everything so much easier!
• Slowly but surely putting new inventory up.
• Also, kiln is firing as I type. Blog post and pictures to follow!
• Also got my AZ tax license and am working on getting my city licenses so I can resume vending at festivals and art walks.

What is not happening this weekend thanks to the rain and other snafus:

• The finish of the reshooting. I can’t get decent lighting in this weather, but we really, REALLY need the water out here so I’m not going to squawk about it.
• Also, my old computer that I use for photo editing(has the best color and layout) is not cooperating, so things are at a bit of a standstill until I can either bring the backup computer home from Cali or get a better monitor to hook into the laptop. Also, I can’t print anything. Luckily I can download the printer drivers to the laptop and remedy this, quickly.

I am leaving for California on the 11th, and will be taking store inventory with me so I won’t have to close the shop or delay orders.

And now the sun is coming out, so I might be able to shoot stuff after all. Ah, blogging in real time.

A friend of mine had was unloading for a show this weekend when a box of artwork and assorted books was stolen from her.

I’ve been looking through my Etsy stores, and in the DarkFire Designs store I’m looking at photos of some of my inventory and realizing that there are some pieces are in dire need of a reshoot.

I’ve reorganized the inventory in my Etsy shop. It was getting too crowded and there’s too many conflicting styles, so…

…I opened another Etsy store…

…and I’m getting ready to launch a third store. xD

d.Kei is the visual kei store. All the goth/visual kei jewelry and clothing will be posted to this shop.

34th Street is still in progress! The launch date has yet to be determined. This store will have all the fairy kei clothes, jewelry, and sweets. I will keep you posted as updates change!

This week I took a good long look at the Etsy store…

…and came to the conclusion it’s a hot mess.

Multiple interests manifested themselves in my work, and now the poor storefront is a chaotic mishmash of spikes, dichroic glass, and pastel sparkly macarons. The entire scope of my business has clearly outgrown the Etsy store. So, after much planning, and many hours of work, one Etsy store has become two.

I have started by moving the visual kei stuff to its own store – http://dkei.etsy.com. It will operate under the d.Kei label, while the main ‘flagship’ Etsy will still be DarkFire Designs. I have put up a temporary banner in the DarkFire Designs shop to reflect the change. My clothing and cosplay pieces will be posted there.

As dkei was already taken on Twitter, I have decided to keep both stores under the d_keidesigns twitter feed, and on the same Facebook page. Those are a little easier to manage without having to split into multiple accounts.

In the meantime, I have restructured the DarkFire Designs store to reflect the change(I’m well aware the temporary banner is hard to read, I will fix it this week), and recategorized the store until I can set up a third store. This store will be for the clay sweets, decoden, and Fairy Kei stuff that I’m well aware clashes with the rest of the jewelry in the shop and adds to the hot mess look my storefront is currently rocking. XD It will all take some time.

So basically, here is a breakdown of how everything will get structured:

1)DarkFire Designs: Jewelry, fused glass, wirework
2)d.Kei: Visual Kei, clothing, cosplay
3)Third Store(name TBD): Fairy Kei, sweets, decoden

And in the meantime, I’m just taking it one day at a time, not getting overwhelmed, knowing that this will make everything much more streamlined and organized.

It’s been awhile…like…over a year, I think? Ye goodness! I have not forgotten I have the blog, and now I’m going to put it to good use. 🙂 More posts coming soon!

I will be selling Iceland Glass Pendants and more dichro at the Urban Flea Market tomorrow! Come out and support the Iceland Rebuild! Specials include: