skulls + art.

eeeks! i'm in a mad rush to finish as many projects as possible before this friday, when i leave at 0'dark-thirty for The Girlie Show in oklahoma city. last night i was up in the werkshop cutting, clipping, stitching, and gluing feathers and fancies into wonderous plumed fascinator headbands until well after the rest of the world was fast asleep. i always panic before shows, and i know i mentioned before that i have nightmares where customers ask for items that i almost made but didn't. i must say, i'm very excited about this show! the only part of oklahoma that i've been to before was very po-dunk, small-town, dusty, and not incredibly welcoming to people covered with ink and metal. this should be very exciting, indeed! i've heard nothing but wonderful things about OKC!

in other news, i attended a little halloweenie fete and dressed as my interpretation of marilyn monroe's spirit. really, i just wanted to try my hand at some sugar-skull/muertos makeup, which was fun...but alas, i'm so blind w/out my glasses that it was hard to really get any detail into the makeup. in fact, i had to break off the end of my one crappy makeup brushes just so i could get 3 inches from the mirror to see what i was doing. c'est la vie, though, right? i think it turned out well.

sure, the ubiquitous leggings made their way into the outfit. it was a loose interpretation and god forbid i show my actual legs to anyone. also, it was less sugar skull and more just dead girl skellyton makeup, but i was pleased that my glasses blended nicely into the whole thing. it was a big concern for me.

please note the pill necklace.

anyway, in less light-hearted news, i'm pissed. i'm sick of re-sellers on etsy and my anger sort of came to a head yesterday when regretsy posted this. there's a few sellers in particular on etsy that i KNOW are re-sellers....buying their junky shit from wholesalers and selling it as if they designed and made it with their own hands. i've been flagging their crap for years now and etsy lets it fly. i send etsy LINKS TO THE WHOLESALE WEBSITES that sell the same items being sold in these etsy shops and yet these sellers continue to make a living off of it. meanwhile, i, and many other REAL ARTISTS AND DESIGNERS struggle to eke out a living by grinding our fingers down into dirty little nubs by sewing, soldering, and WORKING to produce our wares. i have stained, peeling fingers, i have arthritis in my knuckles, i have aching wrists from ACTUALLY PRODUCING THE GOODS I SELL. and since my sales are down 75% from what they were a year ago on etsy (i blame the influx of resellers and plain ol' junk on etsy that has created a sea in which my items get lost in) i schlepp all my goods to the farmer's market at 8am every saturday morning just to make enough cash to buy groceries for the week. i'm drowning, i tell you.

no matter what, i'mma keep doin' what i'm doin'....keep making and recycling and schlepping. i'll earn my honest, albeit meager, living by keeping it real and working as sustainably as i can. one of these days the real artists will prevail.