Back to Jobsearchland

Good Day Blogger world!

Once again I have been an absentee. To rectify that I've come back with nothing particularly new to tell you. The job hunt continues. I have recently been handed a link to another potential job. Walk with me as I explore this new lead.

Seasonal, but well paid. Buzz words "fast-paced" and "dynamic" in their usual use of describing the work place. Looks as if I qualify. Haven't got much extra to boast, but I qualify. Candidates will be required to complete a security screening process. Should be fun. Seems they're looking for the business-minded, leadership-oriented type of candidate, and I'm more than willing to fake it 'till I make it...or don't. I will also be required to pass pre-employment tests. Looking forward to those too. Really. I'll be required to present a character reference letter. Can't remember the last (or possibly even the first) time I was asked for one of those. I'm assuming that's in the case of an interview.

Let the games begin.

"This job is not a permanent full time job. We cannot guarantee when you will work or how often you will work. This job is for on-call casual employment. Are you still interested?"

I pretty much have to be. Full-time work is the unicorn of today's job market.

"Do you have the ability to lift up to 22.7 kgs (50 lbs) and carry up to 15.9 kgs (35 lbs)?"

Clearly I need to start hitting the weights, if only to figure out how much I am currently capable of lifting.

"You have been moved to two different area's and you are close to the end of your shift and you are asked to move again. What would you do?"

I have no idea what this would entail or how it would effect what I'm doing or when I leave. The truth of the matter, in any case, is that I'll probably be going along with it.

"What is the main reason you applied to this position?"

Mortgage money. Probably should have chosen something better sounding that "Prefer not to say", but it was an option....

These are just a few of the questions I must consider.  All told, it's not too arduous.  Inevitably, I am creating yet another profile. This calls for another resume. I remove my most recent stint in retail from my work history with a certain satisfaction, as though it had never been there at all.  Only the good stuff belongs on this page.

"My primary career interest". Is not on the list. Perhaps they mean at this particular place. Employers do have a way of implying that the only candidates they want to see are the ones that want the job they're offering more than anything in the world. Optional question, thank goodness.

Alright, t'is done. Another foray into jobsearchland completed.

I have not grown to like this process any better, but I'll keep at it until I land something permanent or manage to get on my feet some other way. This will be my motivation - once I'm on my feet I won't have to fill out job applications anymore ^_^.

In other news, I've been entering the weekly contests on Spoonflower.  Haven't won anything yet, but it's worth it to have some new designs in my library. Here's the one I'm entering for the next contest:



As I write this, I also have an entry in the current contest, which will probably close tomorrow: 

Feel free to go over to Spoonflower and vote! Always worth checking out! :)

I'll end tonight with a Facebook haiku.  I believe I've posted these here before. The process was invented by my Mom, where you take statuses and pieces of statuses posted by people on your Facebook feed and put them together to form a haiku. It can be very entertaining. ^_^

I watched the debate
New season, 1st episode
It is bad enough

'Till next time, Blogger world!

Cafepress News & Stuff - The Admin Shop

Good Day Blogger world!

I may have mentioned that I'm on Cafepress, and I have a shop.  Actually, I have a few - and there will probably be more because I've run up against the limit of sections for one shop (again :P).  In case you haven't heard of it, Cafepress is a customization site with a marketplace component that allows users to sell things with their own designs on them.  I've been a Cafepress shop owner since about 2010, and now I earn enough to cover my internet costs each month.  Bear in mind, this is at the lowest price I could get internet, but there is often a little left over after that too.

Here's something interesting that Cafepress does, or has done for me in the recent past.  Not too long ago, another shop appeared in my account, one that I did not create.  I was taken aback at first, but apparently this is something Cafepress does if it (they?) feel(s) that certain of your designs would work well on products they don't currently appear on.  I have actually had 2 sales result from that, so I'm cool with it.  I try not to meddle with it too much, but I felt the need to spruce it up today as I was doing some Cafepress housekeeping.  Here's the link if you'd like to see what it looks like:

http://www.cafepress.com/admin_cp14439106

Here is an example of one of the things that has sold through this shop.

Maiko Silhouette Dark Maternity T-Shirt Maternity Shirt (dark) Admin Store

These are not things I decided to include (although there may be some duplicates between my other shops and this one), and I wouldn't have guessed that a black on black design would sell (when this item sold, the shirt was only available in black).  When it did sell, I realized that this particular design actually does look nice on a black background - it adds an air of mystery to it, which suits the subject matter.  So I added a similar product to my main shop.

I don't know how much of this is an actual person stocking this shop and how much is automated.  Not sure how well the white seahorse is going to work out on the white background of this phone cover, but that remains to be seen.  I haven't changed any of the products so far , though I may decide to adjust some of them.

In other news (as I mentioned earlier), I'm going to have to put up a new shop to make room in my old shop.  I've decided to make a few mini shops containing images from my calendars.  This could get confusing.  I will have to find a way around that, and for the near future it will probably involve links.

That's all the news for now!  As always, thanks for reading!  :)

My First Youtube Upload! Also, Recent Work.

Good day, blogger world!

I just finished uploading a short video to youtube - finally, after years of having an account, I have actually uploaded some content. It's not much - mostly a test, but it features one of my current projects. 




Usually I don't go quite this largescale, but I've had the idea in my head for a while, and I wanted to try it. 

Life is interesting.  I am still in 2 jobs, and the problem with the latest one has become not so much the job itself, but rather the co-worker element.  Specifically working with the same co-worker who answers every question with annoyance and or frustration and deals with her stress by browbeating me each time I make a mistake.  Asking her to explain things yields precious little, as she is low on patience and clearly unimpressed with the fact that I was not borning knowing how this particular workplace works.  Every gaffe on my part is a source of grief, and I've come to think of this job, or rather this job situation, as a form of torture.  Fortunately I don't do full-time hours there yet.  Unfortunately, my earnings between both jobs are only just covering my mortgage payments and condo fees.  So the job search continues.  On the plus side, I have been making a little more money making art lately.  I've had a couple of commissions, and some sales in my Cafepress.  Not much, but it's not nothing. 

To wrap this up, I'd like to show you one more piece of my latest work.  The inspiration was a beautiful performance by Anya Nesvitaylo of the Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada, dancing the part of Carmen in a short pas-de-deux during theABTC's  "Intense" Gala. 

 

 

Anya is one of the principle dancers of the ABTC, and her roles have included Christine in Phantom of the Opera and Lady X in Don Juan.  The ABTC has had some really good work out these past few years, pushing boundaries with established storylines, and more recently addressing serious issues, as in the production "Ghosts of Violence". 

 

I have to wrap this up now.  Thanks for stopping by, Blogger world, and I'll see you next time!  :)



I am an (artistic) anxiety machine O_o!

    Just give me a few crossed wires, a little pressure, work that requires speed and accuracy combined, some verbal cues to over-analyze, and off I go!  You'd think after a while it'd just become white noise.....But no.  How is it that I keep putting myself in jobs that require speed and accuracy?  Not deadline speed, but spur of the moment speed.  On the plus side, having an extra job means I have a little more freedom to look for a job that fits me a little better.  In theory I have the skills and experience to do this job, but efficiency has been a problem in the past.  Hopefully I'll get faster as I get used to it - more hopefully, I'll find a job that fits me better.  I've got a job that fits me just fine, in addition.  That's why I'm hanging on to the 2 shifts/week I'm getting from that one.

    On the online front, I made another cafepress sale today :)!  2 of them in fact (2 different greeting cards) - first time in a while.  Seems to happen every time I go into an extended frenzy of uploading - and it's almost never any of the things I upload O_o.  Perhaps seeing my new items, customers also see some of my older stuff go by.  Hey, I'm happy with that :).  I also made an order of swatches to Spoonflower, so hopefully I'll have a lot more designs in my shop after that arrives.  My exploration of Spoonflower has lead to one entry for my hitherto hypothetical list of dream jobs:  Fabric print designer.  I'd love to just make the designs, get paid royalties for them, and see them put on fabric to be made into all kinds of things by people all around the world.  I'll have to develop this list.

And now, since you've been so patient, I have new work to show you :).  Actually it's recent work colourized in Photoshop, but I feel really good about it:


Art Minis - Dragon I in Colour by ~Eseopia on deviantART

It is available on items in my Deviantart Printshop, and in my Cafepress. 

That is all for now.  Thank's for visiting today, and come back soon :)!

Hello again!

Good day to you, Blogger world!

I apologize for my abscence :(. Since we last spoke, I've been let go from Tim Horton's, gone on vacation and come back. My loss of job was due to "not being up to speed", which I think was meant in the literal sense :/. Something to work on, for sure. That said, I'm more than willing to see it as a blessing in disguise. I have more shifts coming up in my other job, a job which is actually very involved in the art world, so I'm not feeling totally pessimistic.

On that note, I would like to introduce you to a venture I started quite some time ago. I had been hoping to find an equivalent to Cafepress based in Canada, since the products I ordered from CP had to come from the other side of the continent and the next country over. I did find a customization site, but quite different from Cafepress. Not in a bad way - I actually find it quite sophisticated. It was a bit intimidating at first (as with so many things), so I didn't go beyond my first couple of uploads for a long time. It's still in its formative stages, but I'm able to approach it with more confidence now. Unlike with Cafepress, where I upload my designs and choose which products they appear on, here I upload the designs and customers can put them on any products they want. There's still a component that allows me to design my own products and put them up in my shop, which is great if someone comes by not wanting to fuss with design tools. Makes my shop look nice and full too :). But it really is about the design here. There is also an option to put one's designs up in the Wordans marketplace. I still retain ownership of the design, but people can search it out and put it on products without going to my shop (I get $2.00 commission for this - not bad). This does mean that someone could use my design in something they put in there shop, but it's still connected to me (ie I still get paid if it sells). I do wish there was a way that customers in this context could connect my design back to me - and maybe there is a way that I haven't discovered yet. Still, it's a pretty cutting edge system, if you ask me.



In other news, I managed to get a bit of drawing done while I was away :). Here is the latest in my deviantart gallery, also available in my deviantart prinshop:

Inkblot Raven Hair by ~Eseopia on deviantART This blog seems to have become lengthy already, so I'll wrap it up here. Until next time, Blogger world! :)

Lots of things (new structure)

Good day again, blogger world! :)

What's new
I've decided to divide up my subjects so that it's easier to get to everything I want to talk about. My last post was pretty much entirely a news post - but it was big news, as least for me ^_^. In other news, I'm going through a bunch of my old paintings, mostly from 2007, from Advanced Painting, Intro Figure Painting, Largescale painting and Intermediate Painting. Some of them still look pretty good. I've let some auctions go by already, which is a shame, but hopefully something will come up where I can donate a piece or too. I'm having to move them out, you see. This is hopefully just a precursor to moving myself out, but that's a whole other story. I'm not sure all of these are exactly auction or art store material. Some are more fleamarket grade, now that I look at them again. It's sometimes hard to know what to do with the nudes. The ones that don't show faces can be sold (though you have to be careful what you post online), but the ones that do require a little more though. Some of these are just so big I don't know how I'll get them from point A to point B. Hopefully I can get someone else's help with that, if need be. Right now I'm getting them cleaned up (painting the edges and whatever else needs doing). Hopefully I'll be able to sell at least a few, and find good homes for all of them, (or at least a fitting end, in one or two cases).

Shown first here is "Baby Puppet". Possibly the best of the bunch. Always hard to part with those ones, but that's what makes them good enough to sell. It's 4X4', which might make it a little bit harder to find a home for, but we'll see. Below is a study I was doing for a larger work. Unfinished, not really a sale item (though I am noticing it looks alright in this post). I may simply get rid of the canvas and keep the stretcher - always a little bit painful, but sometimes that's what has to happen.






Latest work
Still working on the silk painting. I'm feeling good about how recent experiments have worked out, particularly this sample.





Shop
I continue to do housekeeping in my Cafepress. Going back through the sections of my shop, I can see how my process has become more streamlined. I've learned a few things about what works and what doesn't.

-Wide boarders work well. Having a lot of room between the edge of an image and the subject of an image makes things a lot easier in terms of having room for "bleed" (the sides of the image overtaking the sides of the printable area. Also...
-Images without backgrounds work well too. You can't do this with a jpeg, but you are allowed to upload photoshop files to Cafepress, and that means you can have the edge of the subject be the edge of the image, making the surface of the product itself the background.
-Certain shapes (particularly circular and square designs) work well for printing on multiple items. Particularly because a lot of items have print areas that are specifically circular or square (patches on shirts, for example). Sometimes a square image can be used on circular print areas as well, as long as it has enough of a bleed edge.

One thing I haven't done yet is work with the templates for each product. That will add a whole new dimension to the work, I'm sure.

Before I move on, here is a recent addition to my shop, just posted today:


IB Wine Glass Jewelry Case Inkblot Wine Glass Inkyboots Designs (by Robyn MacKinnon)


The design isn't new, but it's one of my more popular ones. The jewellery case is one of the newer products on Cafepress. A nice little thing. Lends itself to a lot of designs.


Book review







Still getting through "Generation T". My disintegrating pink nightgown is now a pile of pink yarn, which I've decided I will turn into a sachel, with the pocket sewn on the side. Or maybe on the inside, where it won't get ripped as easily. This might be the most versatile idea from this book (T-shirt yarn). One things they should have mentioned, though, is how to pull the individual pieces of yarn so they curl in on themselves, making more convincing yarn. I actually learned this from a youtube video (0:39). It's a little thing, but it makes all the difference.





Haven't tried this particular craft yet, but it looks like fun. The web is such a great resource these days, for everything, but definitely for arts and crafts.

Alright, I'm going to wrap this up here. Gotta love a good long blog post (as long as it has plenty of visuals ^_^). Later blogger world!

Inaugeral Post (also, reveiw of cafepress.com)

Good day, blog world!

My name is Robyn MacKinnon, and this is what will become my arts, crafts, and design blog. More likely it will become a "my life in art, crafts, and design" blog. With any luck I will find lots of material, stories, and anecdotes to keep my potential readers interested :).

I am an art school graduate of 3 years at this point. Not yet "making it work" as such. I'm living at home, shifts at my day job aren't currently plentiful (though the way the job market is right now, I'm grateful to have a job at all), and income from my creative exploits has been residual at best. In light of this situation, I will be plugging my creative exploits when appropriate (ie at every opportunity). These include such things as Cafepress, Spoonflower, and Deviantart at the moment.

I'm currently doing some Cafepress housekeeping. This has recently become one of my residual income streams. Very residual so far, but becoming a more steady trickle as time goes on :). It's particularly satisfying to see what my designs look like on various items, and so far Cafepress seems capable of delivering a good product. The one time I had to ask for a replacement of an item, my request was met with speed and courtesy. Cafepress has its ideosychrosies - certain functions may not work depending on your browser (I've heard Google Chrome works best). They change things as often as Facebook, though usually not drastically. The addition of new products usually makes me feel like a kid playing her favorite video game, I must admit. However, my favorite feature by far is the fan portal feature. There are certain brands (TV shows and movies, mostly) connected with Cafepress, and the fan portal feature means that fans like me (in this case, a rabid Dancing with the Stars fan) can upload their fan art and put it on T-shirts and other merchandise (following specific rules, of course). I can't tell you how excited I was to find out about this O_O. This function has contributed to my sales, and it feels pretty good to occassionally see my products there among other DWTS merch. I'd love to link you to a page that emplains the fan portal function further (I know it exists!) but I'm having a peach of a time finding it >_<. Here it is! (I had to Google it XD.) http://www.cafepress.com/cp/shopkeepers/index.aspx?page=fan-portals Anyway, that sums up my review of Cafepress: An exciting innovation, not without its quirks, but with plenty of possiblitities. I'm going to show your my latest upload to Cafepress:

http://www.cafepress.com/inkybootsdesigns/8978399 Is where you can go to see the stuff I put this design on :).

It think this is a good place to end this first post. I'll be giving you more of what this blog is about as I go (ie, as I myself figure it out). It's easy to start out with one idea as to what a certain project will be and how it will go, but when you actually get down to it and the possibilities start multiplying, it can be hard to restrict it to being just one thing. The trick is to know when not to restrict it, to let it grow into what it will be.

If you are curious, here is the link to my Cafepress shop. It is an ongoing work in progress, and I will be adding designs and products regularly, so stop by when you get the chance :)!

http://www.cafepress.com/inkybootsdesigns

Later blog world!

PS: I've been trying to dig that URL to the fan portal page out of that paragraph, but it doesn't seem to matter how many page breaks I put in, it insists on being mashed together with the lines on either side >_<. Maybe it will all be better when I publish the page. That'd be cool.