Category — Blogs

Please bear with me as I test out a new-to-me plugin. If you click on the image, you get a larger picture overlay, which is an improvement to my old method of linking to a different window. Any feedback about how this works out at your end would be greatly appreciated.

Here is “Am I Blue” hanging on Bambi. The patterning is exquisitely detailed and I’m having a very hard time deciding whether I want to sell it or not. That seems to be happening a lot lately!

Technically speaking, the past few months have been nothing but hellish for Shibori Borealis. My website was hijacked by internet drug companies, the database that drives my Wordpress installation was corrupted, my business email is still not working right … the list goes on. Which only goes to prove the point that one shouldn’t put all their eggs in one basket, or service provider in my case. It seems so easy just to pay one company for everything, but when things go wrong, they all go at once and you’re stuck on a desert island blowing in the wind … without the help that you thought you were paying for.

I’ve managed to recover most of this website from old backups and bits and pieces, but there are some posts and comments missing. Not bad considering I had to figure out how to do that myself; there’s been a lot of head scratching going on here. I could have paid somebody new to help me out with my problems, but the cash just wasn’t there to do so; neither would I have learned what I did learn from this experience by managing to keep things somewhat running myself. I’m still having issues with the “info” email address, but I’m giving out an alternative on the contact page in case you need to get a hold of me.

As you might have noticed, I have practically nothing left on eBay. The store will be closed any second now. If I have any pieces to auction off, I can still use eBay for that and you will be the first to know right here first. It took a long time to make the decision to move to another venue, but I finally reached my last straw of disgust. I’m looking forward to presenting my work alongside more like-minded artisans. I don’t know if it’s going to fly, but seeing that it’s the quiet time of the dance year, it will give me some time to get my act together.

I encourage you to visit my new shop on Etsy and favorite me if you wish. Your encouragement might very well stop me from having a mental breakdown about my decision. You can find me here : http://shiboriborealis.etsy.com

I’d also like to take this opportunity to say that I’m sorry, and thank everybody for their patience if they’ve been caught in the never-never-land of my technical problems in the past few months.

Your patience with me is appreciated while my blog undergoes some maintenance and tweaking. Simple is best, but simple isn’t always that simple. The for sale page may look especially funny … for some reason that I haven’t been able to figure out yet, but it works … somewhat.

Just when I thought I had everything under control, the blog/website decides to go on the fritz. So sorry for the very bland new look. It’s a bandaid until I can sit still long enough to figure out what’s going on.

It just dawned on me that I’m a terrible blogger. Nobody please count on me offering up daily pearls of wisdom or long winded accounts about the daily grind. I don’t think that’s what you’re here for, in fact, if I base it upon my own experience reading many other blogs … some people blog too much. Some people should be cut off. Not all thoughts are worthy of public consumption. I’m not that interesting.

Suddenly, I’m not feeling too guilty about not having written anything in a couple of weeks. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

If you’re wondering what’s happening here, let me warn you — in case you don’t know this — that it’s belly dance high season : year end recitals and many, many public performances before the sultry lull of the summer. Which means that those of us involved in dance in some way, shape or another, are running off our feet trying to deliver costume pieces to make those dancers shine.

I am lucky at this point of my career that most of my clients realize that if they want something unique and custom that this takes time. Even when I make a reiteration of a previous pattern, I try to make that new piece unique in its own way. This takes time too; sometimes the creative process involves much thinking time. I’m not so much in the business of selling veils as I am in the business of making them, making something special. It’s the art of dyeing that moves me and I don’t mind going that extra mile, not so much to make the sale but to please the craftman in me. I like to see the end results evolve and I like to see myself continuously learn: from my last piece, from reading and studying anything and everything about dyeing and from watching my product and others move on the stage.

Speaking of which, one of my babies is making an appearance on a new video about to be released produced by Michelle Joyce and her Cheeky Girl Productions. It’s entitled By dancers for dancers, volume 3. At about 00:34, there’s a flash of Bahaia veil dancing with one of my babies, the original “Peacock Strut” actually. You can check out the clip on Youtube when you get the chance. (if you click on Youtube, the video should open in a different window; if it doesn’t, let me know!)

Oh my. Look at that. I’ve blogged too long! Picture in this post is from this weekend’s bumper crop of greens. A truly stunning rendition of the aurora borealis, if I may say so myself. I’m tickled pink by greens!