Wild Horse

Driving along a rural road on an Indian Reservation I spot him yet again. Every time I see this horse (in different areas of the reservation) he runs off. This time he stays and he even looks at the camera for me. For a moment I am frozen, I cannot believe he is staying there. You have no idea how many times I have tried to capture this horse with my camera. I am scared to breathe as I lift my camera. I am scared to move too quickly and find that I am holding my breathe as I take the picture.

After taking some pictures I just sat there watching this magical looking creature. I decided I should talk to him and thank him for letting me take his pretty picture (yeah I do this with bugs too that’s how I get the shots I do). Once again he did not run and appeared to be acknowledging my thanks. I start the truck back up and drove away absolutely enthralled with my experience.

I get home and start processing the images of my magical horse. I posted on a few forums to find out more about this magnificent creature. Apparently according to one equestrian expert they believe this to be an Appaloosa and what appears to be dirt is most likely spots/markings. According to this person when a wild Appaloosa can find a free regular meal they will stay in the general area. So maybe he and I will meet again soon.

About the post processing. Since this horse has the look of a magical horse (to me anyway) I wanted to add to the feel. First I processed the image to give it a dreamy feel then I overlayed a TTV (through the viewfinder) image over the horse and merged the images.

Like all my photography this image can be purchased at Etsy or 1000 markets

CPSIA Act of 2008 Pissing Me Off

The more that I read of this long poorly written document the angrier I become. Let me ask a simple question. The problem that led to this Orwellian legislation was what exactly? Lets see, lead products hurting children right? Now where were these lead products coming from? Were children getting sick off of handcraft items? Not in any reports I have seen. All the reports I have seen show most of the offensive products coming from China. So why the legislation that hurts everyone? So big companies can stomp out the competition? So big companies don’t have deal with the movement to buy handmade? So they don’t have to worry about the mom and pop “buy in the USA” shops cutting into their profits?

So here is my theory. My theory is these companies purposely put lead in their products to initiate a crackdown for everyone. This was the surefire way to stop people from taking away any of their business since they could easily afford testing of their products but not the average small handmade business. Yet another bonus, what better way to cut out any losses from moms and dads selling their kids clothing and used toys forcing everyone to buy new or nothing!

Now maybe I am being a little devious with my next thought but I do believe in fighting fire with fire, loopholes are often a place to start. If parents want to continue to sell their products/used items without submitting for testing then make it very clear that the toys you make or are reselling are for collectors only and not intended for children under the age of 12. As artists we really have little control over what “stupid parents” decide to do with the products we sell right? You say it is not intended for children under 12 then the parents are to blame if they let their child play with it. After all you made it very clear in your listing right?

For the record I am a photographer and jewelry designer. None of my products are designed or made for children period but I am still outraged by this legislation. We have a large part of our nation in a huge financial crisis. Parents cannot afford to buy their children new clothing or new toys. They depend on the secondhand market and now because of the knucklehead bureaucratic morons in our government many people will suffer. The only people who will gain are the ones who put poison in our children’s products to begin with. Hmm, hardly seems like a punishment for the companies who are to blame!

Banks Get Creative To Make More Money

With all the banking woes out there banks have found a new way to make money. If people thought banks were unscrupulous before hold onto your panties.

Many banks are disguising their new practice as a way to “help their customer” when it is the bank who is helping themselves to your hard earned money. If you have a check card and have bills tied to that card be careful!! In very recent times if a business tried to charge a bill and there was no money in the account the card would decline. However now many banks have decided for “your benefit” they will pay the charge for you and charge you an overdraft fee for them helping you out. Some banks are even charging their customers a returned fee if the charge is declined and they do not pay it. Sounds so pleasant doesn’t it? I feel so warm and fuzzy.

The other scam banks are working to help their customers is changing policy without notifying their customers. As I was told by one bank representative this morning “we do notify our customers as we publish the changes on our website”. So customers are expected to go to the banks website to read changes instead of being notified by mail. To me this seems a bit dishonest and a wait to sneak in new changes without notifying customers properly. After all if the customer does not bother to read your website it is their fault since you the bank notified them. Yeah that sounds like a great service to one’s customer!

Hold on tight that is not all. Here is another scam to create more fees. If you have more than one checking account with your bank and you use the other accounts as overdraft protection be careful. My bank in the past would draw money from both accounts if either account could not cover the amount of the check being paid. Well they changed their policy recently which they notified their customers through their website only. Now they will only debit one account for the overdraft. So regardless if you have the money in the accounts to cover the check they return it and charge you a fee.

All these practices are designed to create more revenue for the bank and nothing more. The bank employees try to insult our intelligence by telling us how this will benefit only us the customer. It is not enough that these banks got government money (our money) in bailouts now they want to invent ways to stick it to their customer every chance they get. I encourage people to write their banks and their state representatives about this unfair banking practices. These issues are not isolated to a certain bank either as I have received reports from others who have experienced the same problems.

Supporting Etsy is more than supporting artists

Do people realise that when you buy from an artist on Etsy you are doing more than supporting the artist? More than likely you are helping to support a family. In my case I try to use my art to help support my family so I can stay home with my children. Caleb is 7 and Egan is 5. I decided to homeschool them because of a their gifted curse. I call it a gifted curse because I really do not view it is a disability but it is not always a blessing either. See Caleb is Autistic and Egan is Aspergers (high functioning Autistic). They are both extremely intelligent boys but sensory wise have many difficulties. This makes normal school impossible. Did I want to homeschool? NOPE, I was totally against the idea prior to having children.

Because of the stress of not only homeschooling but doing so with kids who have different needs I need an outlet. Without this outlet I would surely go bonkers. I actually have two passions that keep me sane. One is creating beautiful woven soldered jewelry and the second is photography. The problem is in order to create one has to be able to sell. When the economy started going south so did jewelry sales. I had to quit creating which left a huge void in my life. Photography was able to fill a portion of the void but it was not the same. One cannot justify taking money from the family to buy materials if one is not able to sell them right?

This is a dilemma most of us struggling artists face. We have to be able to create but we have to be able to feed the family too. Without the ability to create many artists are left in a depressive slump which benefits nobody in the family.

A buyer must also understand why it is an artist is having a sale. Many buyers think that the artist having a sale means their items were overpriced in the first place. Personally I have sold some jewelry where the sale price was way below the cost of materials I had in it, meaning I lost money. Our time is valuable and so are the materials we use. Example this weave http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7797084 takes me 20+ hours to make plus materials which means I am working for about $10.00 an hour after deducting cost of materials. Now if times are tough and cut the price by 50% does that mean I was overcharging before? Of course not, it probably means I must put food on the table or pay a past due bill or get a recent rescued animal shots and spayed. Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures but this does not mean our work was overvalued before. When we have sales this is an opportunity for you to get a really nice piece of art on sale and help an artist out at the same time.

So please understand when you buy from any artist on Etsy or 1000markets you are supporting more than the artist. You are most like supporting children and pets as well. In my case you are supporting our family, our “unofficial dog rescue” currently at 5 dogs and our growing turtle rescue.

Please see the links to the right for links to my shops!

Going out of the way not to buy Chinese made

There is nothing worse than to going out of your way not to buy Chinese made then finding out you were deceived or ripped off.

Well there were two items this Christmas that I could not shop for a non-Chinese alternative and that was the NintendoDS lite. At least all the games I have found are made in Japan, or at least that is what I keep telling myself.

I have a good friend whose husband is from Germany. I cannot tell you how many time in the 2 years we have been friends I have heard her husband say “In Germany” and how superior Germany is. Well the boys got these really cool puzzles called Ravensburger Puzzles + Schleich (which is an included toy). On the box it says made in Germany. Well wouldn’t you expect all the pieces were made in Germany? Well take out the Schleich alligator or horse (depending on the puzzle you buy) and look where it is made- surprise China!

Now I have my Playmobil rant. Before I start I want to say I love playmobil toys BUT they are expensive for what you get. Do you know what you get? Do you know why they are made in Germany and not China? There is a real simple answer to that question. Because you the parent are the laborer! You put every piece of that toy together, you are the assembly worker so he needs for any Chinese labor. I can hear the executives saying and laughing “We here at playmobil save millions in labor every year. With cutting edge technology and little work force (which gives us bigger profits- ha ha ha) we can efficiently and quickly produce toys. It really is quiet simple how we do it. With zero need for assembly line workers to assemble the toys cutting huge costs, we have simply decided to let the stinkin parents put them together! Talk about having our cake and eating it too since we still charge high prices!! What fools these people are- ha ha ha”.

Well my boys each received 3 playmobil toys for Christmas. Approximately 4 hours after opening Christmas presents the 6 toys were assembled. Now some may ask if I am mechanically inclined and the answer is yes! But we are talking about several hundred little pieces of plastic that needed to be but together. Since this is the first time we have gotten playmobil and since my friend’s husband neglect to notify me of assembly line manufacturing job that was to befall me, I had no idea! Not to mention nowhere in the online store was the warning “huge assembly required” heck not even an attempt to lie by saying “some assembly required” you are just in shock when your child opens the present to find out it is not a toy at all, just tiny pieces of plastic for you to put together to make a toy for your child. I guess now we will know what Santa’s elves feel like. However next year I am writing to Santa and give him hell about his lazy elves not putting their toys together (at least that is what I told my boys lol).

Now I will go on my clothing rant. I have to drive over 60 miles to get to stores that offer clothing not Chinese made. JC Penny, Walmart and Kmart all sell clothing which “shockingly” (okay not really) are made in China. Last year I was on a mission at JC Penny to locate a winter jacket not made in China- wow that was not going to happen! Well in El Paso there is an outlet mall with all your favorite stores and guess what MOST of the items do not come from China BUT buyer beware because occasionally in your favorite store you will find one or two outfits that have China on the tag. This happened to me yesterday at Oshkosh. After looking though and selecting several outfits for my boys I was satisfied that all their clothing were non-China so I stopped looking at the tags. Well I pick out this adorable Train Engineer overalls for my 5 year old. This morning while hanging up the clothing I noticed on the tag made in China!! I was shocked and felt so ripped off and cheated. I thought I was shopping in a safe store to avoid made in China crap. So buyer beware and look at all the tags.

Did you know that even today you can buy clothing made right here in the USA? Yes, oh yes you can! There is a website called plainlydressed.com where you can buy clothing made by the Amish. Adorable clothing to boot.

Here is my little model wearing PlainlyDressed clothing: