Happy New Years

The end is nigh! At least for 2010. I have lots of hopes and plans for Noadi's Art heading into 2011. To celebrate the end of 2010 I'm giving away a free tentacle charm with every purchase through New Years.

Starting to get things ramped up for Valentines Day too. Going to have some pretty pink cephalopods on the way along with more of the new Tentacle Bracelets.

In more personal news this is the first year in quite a while I'll be celebrating Valentines Day with a special someone. I'm with an absolutely fantastic guy that I love dearly and Valentines Day will mark just about 10 months we've been a couple (we started out as just friends and it grew from there).

Operation Bad Foot

From now through midnight Christmas Day use the coupon code BADFOOT in my Etsy shop to get 15% off any order. In case you missed my previous blog post I'm running this special to try to pay off the medical bills I incurred after injuring my foot. It's too late now to order in time for a Christmas arrival but plenty of time to get yourself a little something special for the New Year.

Last Call for Christmas and a Sale

The USPS deadline for 1st class mail for Christmas is Dec. 20. If you want to order a gift you only have until midnight Sunday Dec. 19 to order. I'll be up later than that packing orders but I can't make any promises how late so if you place an order after midnight I may not get it in time to ship on Monday.

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you probably know that back in September I fell and tore the tendons and a piece of bone loose in my foot and I don't have health insurance. I was very lucky and a program at the local hospital is going to cover my emergency room visit but I still have some fairly substantial bills from the orthopedist and for the walking cast I needed. I've had a pretty good holiday season so far but I would like to be able to pay off the medical bills by the end of the year and I can't with what I've made so far this month. So to try and make up the difference I'm going to be offering a special coupon code next week for all of you shopping for yourself, a late X-mas gift, or for the New Year. This is very last minute so I haven't decided on all the details yet so keep an eye on this blog or Twitter for details as I have them.

Thankfully my foot no longer looks like this.

Flamboyant Cuttlefish Perma-Pet

Finished this custom Perma-Pet last week and it's now on it's way to it's new home.

Christmas Shipping Deadlines

Here they are:
US First Class - Dec. 20
Military Mail First Class - Dec. 4 (APO/FPO AE Zip 093) all others Dec. 10
International First Class - Europe/Canada/Australia/New Zealand Dec. 10

If you are shopping after those dates please contact me about priority or express shipping, I'll have to charge a bit extra to cover the cost but if you really need it on time that's your best bet after the cut-off dates.

Note: Squidmas/Cephalopodmas is Dec. 22.

It Has Arrived

It's Black Friday everyone. Time to joyously celebrate shopping and nearly getting trampled in stores! If you are trying to avoid the insanity by staying home and shopping online I have 15% off my entire Etsy shop through Monday.

Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale

Next Friday Nov. 26 through Monday Nov. 29 I'll be running a sale in my entire shop for 15% off on all items. This is the only sale I'll be running before the Christmas shipping deadline of December 20.

15% Off Coupon

Etsy has just rolled out coupon codes to some sellers. I happen to be one of the lucky shops who already have this feature and I want to test it out. So I've created a coupon code and will be keeping it active for the next 24 hours (that is until 1:45pm Nov. 19). I hadn't been planning to run a sale or anything until next week for Black Friday so consider this a bonus if you don't want to wait until then to order for 15% off.

Coupon Code: SQUIDLOVE01
Go to Noadi's Art on Etsy to redeem in the next 24 hours, it will be inactivated after that time.

New ornaments in the making

Original froggy ornament

So a while back I made this frog ornament. Cute but a bit rough. However lots of people liked it and it has since sold AND I've had a request for another one.

So I've been looking around locally to try to find clear glass ornaments to use without much luck. However I got lucky over the weekend, I went down to Portland and stopped into the Joann's there to get more of the varnish I use on my jewelry and of course they had exactly the ornaments I needed in the holiday section.

Hooray for big craft stores. I wish there was one a little closer to me but that's what I get for living in a small town in the middle of rural Maine.

8 little glass balls for frog ornaments

Here are the new glass balls. I'm planning on making a few changes to the design. First of all wire instead of fishing line to hang the tadpoles inside the balls, ribbon instead of leather cord for hanging, and maybe glue some beads in the bottom of the ball to look like eggs (haven't decided on that yet). Also I'm thinking of not just plain old green frogs but maybe a few of the really colorful tropical rain forest frogs as well.

An Unusual Christmas Tree

'An Unusual Christmas Tree'   an Etsy treasury by noadi

Some weird, wonderful, and geeky Christmas ornaments.

Living Terrarium Orname... WarmCountryMea... $	Christmas Nativity Regr... niftyknits $69.00	The Xmas Platypus Ornam... noadi $35.00
Festive Holiday Cthulhu... UglyGerbil $17.00	Wool Felted Acorn Ornam... angeldogdesign... $	79 Aurum (Gold) Atomic ... Iammie $7.00
Happy Santa Embryo with... Feti $12.00	Nintendo Super Mushroom... UntilItEndsStu... $14.95	Dark Blue Dragon w Tedd... rainabedaina $
Yellow Hanging Firefly ... blackcrowforge $5.00	porcelain fish moonflowerartj... $8.00	Airship AND Submarine S... buildersstudio $35.00
Chili Pepper with Holly... LaBellaTerra $12.00	Ceramic Bacon Strip FoundStudio $6.00	Clay manatee with Snowb... claygirl790 $

Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.

Halloween Sale on Cthulhu Jewelry

I'm running a Halloween sale in my Etsy shop on Cthulhu Jewelry October 30-31. 15% off all my Lovecraftian jewelry plus free tentacle charms for any order.

Halloween Sale

To celebrate Halloween I'm going to be running a sale for 15% off all my Cthulhu jewelry October 30-31 (that' next weekend). In addition all orders will get a free tentacle charm no matter what you buy.

I'm a Model

Took a bunch of photos today modeling my jewelry. I like how they turned out.

Cephalopod Days

International Cephalopod Awareness Days has begun, I have free shipping in my Etsy shop on all cephalopod jewelry and a tentacle charm with every order Oct.8-10. If you aren't following me on Twitter please do, I will be holding a giveaway on Saturday, October 9th. First person to answer a trivia question correctly will win a free jewelry item of their choice from the shop.

Coming up on Halloween I will be having a one day sale on my Cthulhu jewelry along with free tentacle charms on all orders.

Upcoming Events

The holidays are coming, the holidays are coming! Things are going to be getting busy so here are a few upcoming things from Noadi's Art.

October 8-10 - International Cephalopod Awareness Days. For the 4th year I'm participating in celebrating cephalopods. There will be free shipping in my Etsy shop on all cephalopods, free tentacle charms with every order, and giveaways on Twitter (please follow me to participate).

October  31 - Halloween Special. Free tentacle charms with all orders.

November 26-28 - Black Friday Sale. Reduced prices and free holiday cards with all orders.

Fun Custom Order

I really enjoy getting custom requests and I just finished one of the more important ones. I've had much bigger more complicated requests but there's something special about being involved in someone's wedding. Here's the wedding cake topper I make for nullalax and her fiance.

Free Shipping This Weekend

For various reasons I'm skipping an art show this weekend and missed the deadline for a refund. So to try to make up for the lost fee I'm offering free shipping in the shop through Sunday.

New Cthulhu Jewelry and Free Shipping

Today is my birthday and so in celebration I'm offering free shipping on all jewelry through Friday in my Etsy shop.

Also I have new Cthulhu jewelry in my shop. I sculpted some tiny cameos for earrings, cufflinks, and tie tacks that I'm starting to add to the shop to go with the necklaces.

First Wholesale Order

So I'm sitting here with my first wholesale order completed, packed up, and ready to go to the post office. It's a pretty cool feeling. I've done a large multiple order before but that was for members of a club not for resale.

I made 10 specimen jars for a store that sells latex and nickel free products. This meant I had to change the design somewhat to eliminate all the metals I usually use that might contain some nickel. So I figured out a new way to hang the jars which I actually like better than the wire wrapping I was doing and have started using it for my own shop's necklaces. I also use a simple cord tying trick I learned a few years ago to make the necklaces able to go on over the head then adjust without any metal findings.

Using Ice Resin

A couple months ago I switched from using Diamond Glaze in my steampunk jewelry to using Ice Resin. I really love this stuff, it comes out crystal clear and very hard.

So I've put together a tutorial Using Ice Resin to Create Jewelry on Squidoo including a couple videos I shot.

Regretsy Book

The Regretsy book was released today and I am featured in it with my Baby Rat sculpture. Obviously since I'm posting this I fully appreciate the humor of the book and the Regretsy Blog and I look forward to my copy arriving (no I didn't have to buy one, I get one free for being in the book).

Apartment Photos

I took these Saturday but it's taken me until tonight to post because I've been ridiculously sick with bronchitis. This has made doing anything, including packing, very difficult but I'm starting to feel better.

Big News

I got the apartment I was looking at. Let the packing commence! I'll be moving in April 1st and I'm so excited. Complete independence at last.

It's in this great funky old building right in the middle of South Paris, Maine. I'll have photos to share soon. I'm not terribly far from my parents, about a 20 minute drive, and I have friends and family in town too. Most everything I need is within walking distance, including art galleries (actually one is just downstairs from my place), the library, post office, stores, etc. It's been really hard networking with other artists living in a very rural area depending on my parents for transportation because I can't drive (vision issues) so being in an area with galleries, art groups, classes, etc is going tp be fantastic.

So Excited

I'm going to go look at an apartment this weekend. Finding one has been torture and I'm so happy to just be going to see one and hopeful it will be good and I'll get it.

If I do this is what my packing will look like:

Comic by Justina Kochansky of articulatematter.com

New Jewelry Video

I put together this little slideshow of my new and improved steampunk jewelry.

Change to Steampunk Jewelry

Left: Ice Resin. Right: Diamond Glaze.

If you've been by my shop the past few weeks you've probably noticed I didn't have many of my steampunk jewelry pieces. The reason for this is I've been trying to find a new material to seal the gears under. I had been using diamond glaze but in thicker applications or if it's humid it gets cloudy. You can see this in the photo of the new version next to the old (right).

The new version is made with Ice Resin which is a jewelry grade non-toxic resin. It's been getting a lot of press in the crafty blogosphere recently and so I decided to give it a try. As you can see the result is crystal clear and also very hard and waterproof (I also use an indoor/outdoor gloss on the creature body that is water resistant, so they can get damp but don't submerge in water or scrub with cleaners). The downside of it though is that it is expensive, messy, and time consuming to use. Because of this I had to increase the price of all my steampunk jewelry

Brass Steampunk Horseshoe Crab

Steampunk Octopus

Molding Cthulhu Cameo Videos

Working on a new jewelry line of Cthulhu cameos. I recorded video of the process of making the press mold I'm using for them. Photos of the finished jewelry coming soon, I'm waiting on a supply delivery so I can finish them.