actual picture of v.5 charcoal
(notice how different is looks from the photoshop recreation below… it really was false advertising… sorry about that)
I was able to borrow my friend’s camera & take some shots of the newest member of family v.5. Just as soon as they arrive, I try to rid of them, of course, so go to mintd and buy it (if you don’t get an internal server error).
Yes, that was a bit of a petulant dig on mintd. mintd, if you don’t already know, is a hipper, younger version of etsy. I’m currently in the middle of a love/tolerate/hate relationship with it. Let me explain. The good parts include, but are not limited to:
Its hipper-than-etsy-ness
The ability to have different shops with completely different feels for different kinds of products.
Lookbooks… customers who have bought a certain product can take pictures of it being used & upload it to the site. Visitors to the site can then see the products used in real-world applications & in a different style than maybe the seller intended. Plus, if another of that product sells, the person who took the pictures gets a cut.
Bad things:
I get internal server errors all the time. Maybe it’s because mintd is young, maybe it’s because every time I want to check the site it’s the same time when the folks in Australia (where mintd is based) are having national mintd parties… I have no idea, but it happens waaaaaaaay too often. They posted a blog entry about this problem two weeks ago saying “you guys deserve better,” but it hasn’t gotten any better. The site is often really sluggish when I can get through… growing pains, I guess… maybe they should hire Alan Thicke as their spokesperson.
Site navigation kinda sucks. My first time at the site almost made me go away & never come back. I still find myself getting lost sometimes in the mintd jungle
I obviously don’t get any of their numbers, but I don’t see many indications that anyone actually sells anything. Very few other “mintizens” that I’ve come across have ratings for other products or have had their products rated. Is mintd just a big show & tell social networking site?
The prices default to Australian dollars, so when I put up a bag for $90USD, it shows up as $109.80 or around there. I definitely wish that the site would recognize where you’re browsing from and adjust the currency appropriately. There is definitely a big psychological difference between $109 and $90 that could cause potential buyers to not investigate the product further. So should I lower my mintd prices to help that? I already get 7.5% taken out of the final sale by mintd (the commission gows down if you become a paying member) as opposed to etsy’s $.20 & 3.5%. I get less money, mintd gets less money…
All in all, I love being part of a newer community, but I’m quickly tired of how little infrastructure they’ve built to deal with their admittedly newfound popularity.
Photoshop recreation of v.5 charcoal (camera’s in the shop)
Finished up v.5 charcoal on Tuesday. I was mostly in a patient mood at the studio, so I tried some new ways of putting this bag together. I used a little more colored fabric than usual, put the body zipper a little closer to the flap… The grand results from these experiments? Unremarkable. I was certainly very glad to have another bag finished but after having such little success with my experiments and the overall not-as-visually-exciting-as-any-of-the-other-bags aspect, I felt like I had invested a lot and gotten a small return. There was also the issue of the injuries as all that experimentation meant lots of pinning. The longer the day got and the more that my patience left, the more I felt as though I was sewing a cactus to the back of a kitten. It wasn’t the most painful thing getting pricked every minute or so, but it ups the frustration level very quickly.
Look for v.5 charcoal exclusively on mintd, sometime next week.
Yesterday I acquired a couple yards of foam, so watch out world of laptop sleeves & gadget carriers… the ish empire is coming over for dinner & bringing the stinky cheese.
I managed to get in an hour of work at the studio today & started the charcoal v.5 bag. It’ll definitely be the most subdued v.5 bag yet, but I think it will be really nice. I’m tempted to keep it for myself… but of course, I say that every time I finish something.
At the beginning of June I hope to begin focusing on more accessories… laptop sleeves, more wrist cuffs, &c. &c. This is all in the secure-space era, which we have not started yet. Hopefully June 1st will be the dawning of that new era, but who knows?
In July I’ll be heading to my hometown Denver for a few days. I’m trying to scope out some boutiques that could carry some ish stuff. I’ve come upon a few, including the Lab at Belmar, Fancy Tiger, A++… If anyone has info on these places or other places to look out for, let me know.
Finished the electric blue v.5 bag today & I think it’s my best yet. It’s such a beautiful color & everything just seemed to flow throughout production of this one. Wish I could say the same for the rest of my life. Still having problems securing my studio, the camera is acting up again… blah blah blah. I haven’t taken a picture for art’s sake for weeks now & now I have to give it back to the meanies/gods at the repair shop.
Anyhoo… check out this bag on Etsy exclusively… for now.
Posted by: ish
Category:
Bags
Soon enough another ish bag will be ready for a new home. I’ve been so busy mounting my photo show and trying to secure my studio space that I haven’t had much time to work on bags.
Posted by: ish
Category:
Bags
