Pricing Changes

After a lot of agonizing over the math I have a couple related announcements when it comes to the prices of my jewelry:

1) Starting January 1, prices on my jewelry will be going up.
2) Also starting January 1, I'll no longer be charging shipping on my jewelry.

Basically costs of both shipping and materials are going up for me and the increases I need to make would leave me with fairly awkward prices (for example $31.60 for a standard octopus necklace and $3.25 for shipping for a total of $34.85) but if I include shipping in the prices I can price things more easily as multiples of 5 ($35 for standard octopus, $40 for Cosmic, $45 for Steampunk). Also from a promotion standpoint this will help me on places like Google Shopping where free shipping is a sorting option.

As for my other items: Prices for sculpture I've already finished and have for sale are staying where they are however new pieces will probably be priced higher and I will be increasing their shipping costs once the new shipping prices go into effect next year. Ornaments and other small items like the decorated tins will be going up much like jewelry with free shipping.

These changes won't be happening until January 1 so you have a few days to snag some jewelry at the current prices in my Etsy shop.

Last Chance to Order

Today is the deadline for all Christmas orders from Noadi's Art. If you've been on the fence about ordering a present from me now is the time to decide. I'm also still offering free shipping until midnight tonight.

Free Shipping this Weekend!

This Friday, December 16, is Free Shipping Day. Noadi's Art will be participating and since my holiday order deadline is the end of Monday, December 19, I'm extending the deal all weekend. This is your last chance to order Christmas presents and also my very last sale of the year. Everything in the shop will have free shipping for US orders and reduced shipping worldwide (I'm very sorry to my international customers but I can't ship in time for Christmas).

New Perma-Pets

In the past couple weeks I've completed 4 new Perma-Pet sculptures. Go check them out on Etsy.

Bringing back "Other" payment option

A couple months ago I eliminated "Other" as an option for checkout in my Etsy shop so people can pay via Google Checkout. The reason at the time was that not enough people were using it to pay with Google Checkout but a fair number of people were selecting it by mistake when they really wanted to use Paypal.

Due to the ridiculous problems Regretsy has had with Paypal this week I'm bringing the option back and encouraging buyers to use it. I have to continue offering Paypal since it's the only online payment option actually integrated with Etsy's checkout and I can't afford to lose the sales if I removed it completely. Hopefully in the near future Etsy will finally offer integration with other payment services.

I know many Etsy sellers dislike Regretsy, I get it, I was featured on the blog too. I took it in the spirit of comedy and the idea that no publicity is bad publicity and I was even featured in the book. However regardless of how you feel about the content of the blog April has used it to raise a ton of money for some very worthy causes, including this recent one where 200 kids will get Christmas presents thanks to the reads of the blog going above and beyond the amount asked for to make it happen.

Tree Octopus

It's funny the way ideas will suddenly hit you. I've had a couple octopus sculpts sitting on a shelf for the past month or so that I wasn't sure what do do with them. I made them for Perma-Pets but misjudged their size so I couldn't quite fit them into the jars. Then last night I remembered the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus and I realized the octopuses would be the perfect size for Christmas (or Squidmas) ornaments. A few minutes later I'd added wire loops to the tops of their heads and ribbons for hanging.

Red Tree Octopus

Peachy Tree Octopus

Dive into the Holidays Last Chance

Cyber Monday is nearly upon us and Noadi's Art still has free shipping available on everything in the shop until the end of Monday, November 28.

It's On!

Dive into the Holidays is here. You'll be able to get free US shipping and reduced worldwide shipping in my Etsy Shop until the end of Monday, Nov. 28. Share and enjoy!

Dive into the Holidays!

It's almost Turkey Day which means it's almost time for the busiest shopping time of the year. To kick it off I'm offering free US shipping throughout my shop and reduced shipping worldwide from Friday (Nov. 25) through Monday (Nov. 28). This is a shopwide deal, no coupon code required, so if you've bought from me in the past and have my return customer coupon code you can use that to get a little extra off.

Animal Ornaments

Put together a little video on my animal ornaments. Hope your enjoy it.

Get Custom Jewelry for Christmas!

Custom Blue Ring Octopus
with iridescent rings.

The deadline for custom jewelry orders is Sunday, November 20. Get a custom cuttlefish, octopus or squid for someone special this Christmas. All custom order requests need to be in by November 20 so I have enough time to finish them and ship with plenty of time to arrive.

I'm also taking orders for custom ornaments! Get the design, message, or name of your choice painted on a platypus, beaver, or ceolocanth. I can also turn any of my jewelry designs into an ornament as well.

Contact me through the Etsy shop or by email.

Social Media Updates

So a couple quick things related to social media stuff:

Google+ Page

Google+ launched pages this week, I've created one for Noadi's Art. Go add it to your circles if you are a Google+ user.

Facebook Page

If you are a Facebook user, I've revamped the Noadi's Art Facebook page so please check it out.

And as always I am most active on Twitter but be warned it's my personal stream and to say I'm opinionated might be an understatement.

Sprucing Up the Shop

I've had a variation on the same banner in my Etsy shop since nearly when I started it in 2008. It was time for a new look but I still needed to keep it consistent with all my other branding but still look fresh and less cluttered. I think I've accomplished this. The Noadi's Art cuttlefish mascot is now really prominent and the whole theme is much more clearly underwater bubbles.

Painting a Blue Ringed Octopus

Continuing my series of behind the scenes videos showing the work that goes into my jewelry. This video shows the process of bringing a Blue Ringed Octopus necklace to life. The sculpting while the most important part of the process is bland and lifeless until the eyes are painted, they bring the personality of the pendant out.

Note: I've made a minor change to the Etsy shop, I now only accept paypal in the shop. Offering "Other" as an option for people who prefer Google Checkout caused more confusion and problems than it solved. If you want to pay with Google Checkout you need to contact me in advance.

Busy, busy, busy

I've been busily creating jewelry and stuff for the shop the last week. I received about 14 lbs worth of polymer clay so I'm now well stocked up for at least the next 6 months.

Look at all these unopened
packages of clay!

Along with restocking my supply of all the colors I regularly use I also picked up a few new colors to play with. One of these is Premo Candy Pink which is a really bright almost neon pink. I mixed it with some other colors to tone it down a bit but it's still really vibrant, I'm not sure what this new color will be called yet. It will also replace the pink I use for pieces like the Octopus Love necklace after the current stock sells out.

I've also shot a quick little behind the scenes video showing the cores I use inside my jewelry and explaining why they are so important to my designs.

We Have a Winner

The winner of the International Cephalopod Awareness Days giveaway is: greglovestoast

1: I love the Cuttlefish.

2: It's lightshow is like Nature's Las Vegas.

3: I like Cobalt Blue.

Congratulations to greglovestoast and thank you to everyone who entered this year.

Giveaway Time!

This is the special International Cephalopod Days 2011 giveaway prize. It's a one of a kind necklace made just for the occasion. Entries close at 12pm EDT October 10 and I'll be drawing the winner later in the evening.

Entering the giveaway is a two step process:

1) You must answer me these questions three:

• What cephalopod do you find the most facinating?
• Why do you think so?
• What is your favorite color?

2) Go fill out this form on Google Docs using the name you posted under in the comments (the names have to match, if I can't verify that you commented I have to toss the entry).

The winner will be picked by random chance using RANDOM.ORG based on the number of their comment. The winner will be posted on the blog as well as contacted via email and have 48 hours to claim their prize (after which I will pick another winner at random).

Don't forget that the Cephalopod Days Sale is going on in my Etsy Shop, I have 15% off cephalopod jewelry.

Cephalopod Appreciation Days Sale!

Yes, it's that time of year again, October 8-10 is International Cephalopod Awareness Days! That's this Saturday through Monday. Here's what I'll be doing to celebrate:

• Sale in my Etsy shop. 15% Off all Cephalopod Jewelry (this includes all items in the squid, cuttlefish, octopus, and nautilus jewelry sections, other cephalopod related items not in those sections are excluded form the sale)
• Giveaway here on the blog. I'll be making a special Cephalopod Days necklace to giveaway here on the blog. More details, how to enter, and a picture of the necklace will be posted at midnight Saturday Oct. 8.
• I'll be posting cephalopod related content all weekend via Twitter and Facebook, no prizes for following either but fun cephalopod facts, pictures and videos will abound.

Edit: Oh yeah, there's a Facebook event page too.

Quick Note on Necklaces

After running a survey and getting feedback elsewhere I'm going to be changing my standard necklace length for a number of designs to 20 inches from 24 inches. This includes the octopus, squid, cuttlefish, nautilus, and trilobite designs (other designs like the specimen jars and tentacle chokers are different lengths already, 18 and 15 inches respectively).

Most feedback said they preferred a necklace that was 18 inches long though in my judgement that's a little too short for such large pendants.  Using myself as a guide they just don't quite hang right so short (though on a shorter person they might, I'm 5'6"). I will always re-size necklaces to whatever length a customer would prefer but most people just order the standard size that's offered so I want to have one that makes the most people happy.

Necklaces currently in stock won't be shortened right away (it would be a big project) but all necklaces made going forward will be, including 3 I'm finishing up right now. This goes along with some other changes I will be announcing in the next few days, I am waiting on some new supplies to be delivered that will allow me to expand the jewelry I offer. Nothing is going away, I promise, this is all new stuff that will be added to what I already create.

Xmas Beaver Ornaments

I actually started making these and listed them in my Etsy shop last week but neglected to write a post. Every year I try to come up with a different animal Christmas ornament to add to the seasonal section. I now have platypuses, ceolocanths, frogs (discontinued as a regular item but available by request), and this year's addition: the Xmas Beaver!

Yes, I'm having a very juvenile glee at showing people my beaver. I apparently have an inner 12-year-old boy despite never having been one.

So why a beaver? Rude jokes aside it actually is because of a misunderstanding by my brother. He had seen one of my platypuses briefly looking at my website and he asked me if I still had beaver ornaments. I said no, I have platypuses, but the idea stuck in my head the rest of the day and finally I just decided that I'd have to make them. Seeing that beavers and platypuses have very similar shapes since they both live in freshwater environments it wasn't hard to figure out how to sculpt one. The heads are a bit different and the legs of beavers don't have webbed flipper-like feet but the bodies are pretty much the same and the tails are the same shape though they have different textures.

Important Upcoming Dates

It's getting closer to the holidays so things are getting busy. Here are some upcoming dates to keep in mind:

International Cephalopod Appreciation Days - October 8-10 - The yearly celebration of all things cephalopod. I'll be holding a sale and giveaway.

Halloween Order Deadline - October 25 - If you want jewelry from me for your costume you'll need to order by then to guarantee it will arrive by the 31st (US only)

Custom Jewelry Order Deadline - November 20 - Please, if you want something custom for Christmas contact me ASAP. If I have too many custom orders I may move the date.

Custom Small Sculpture Deadline - October 31 - Small sculptures I can do custom (Perma-Pets, etc) but larger pieces I may not be able to make in time for Christmas. The sooner you get me your custom request the more likely I will be able to fulfill it.

Black Friday/Cyber Monday - November 25-28 - The much hyped kickoff of the holiday shopping season. I'll be offering free shipping in the US and reduced shipping worldwide.

Frankenpods Video

Frankenpods! by NoadiArt

Been having fun with the Frankenpod jewelry. I created a fun mock-movie trailer with suitable B-movie inspired titles and a poster to go with it.

I love being able to play with my designs like this, it helps me break out of my usual routine and think about my jewelry in new ways. In this case I took an obvious theme for my Frankenpods and ran with it.

Getting Ready for Halloween

I know it's only August but if I waited until October to get the shop ready for Halloween it would be too late. I've started adding some new H.P. Lovecraft inspired jewelry and brought back the new and improved Frankenpods.

First up I have a new smaller Cthulhu Cameo, it's 1 1/8 inches across (the larger size is 1 3/4 inches) and Cthulhu is facing forward rather than in profile.

I've also started creating sculpted Cthulhu jewelry and larger Cthulhu figures in the same pose. The pendants are 1 inch tall while the figures are 2 inches tall (a hanging loop and ribbon can be added to these by request if you'd like to hang them from a tree/hook/tentacle).

The first non-Cthulhu design added to my Lovecraftian jewelry is a pendant based on Lovecraft's story "The Hound". In it a young man and his friend are haunted by a demonic winged hound summoned by an amulet they stole from a grave.

Finally I've brought back the Frankenpods. I first created one of these several years ago and liked the idea but all my cephalopod designs hadn't quite come together yet so I only made one. I've now revived the idea and created not just a cuttlefish one but also squid, nautilus, and octopus frankenpods.

The Original Frankenpod

New and Improved Frankenpod Cuttlefish

Frankenpod Squid

Frankenpod Nautilus

Frankenpod Octopus

Cool Postcards

Apart from my jewelry and sculpture I also do a little bit of illustration. The majority of the stuff I create I don't like enough to want to sell but the handful that I think are good enough I put up on Zazzle. I recently got a $10 credit from Zazzle that had to be used within 3 days so I had some stickers of my logo made and these really awesome postcards of my Natural History Nautilus illustration.

I'm still collecting answers about what necklace lengths people prefer and taking it will be a big help to me. Click here to take the survey.

Quick Survey about Jewelry

Please help me out by taking this short survey on necklace preferences.
Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Octopus Slideshow

Continuing on my quest to get slideshow videos for all my product lines created here's one for my octopus jewelry:

New Sculpture Project Process

So I'm going to be making some new steampunk cephalopod sculptures. I like the commissioned project so much that I want to take it a step further not that I don't have a budget constraint on creating them. I also though it would be cool to document on video some of my creative process so I've going to be doing a little video series while I create them.

Part 1: I describe the project and show the previous sculptures along with some gears and stuff.


Part 1.5: An unplanned video but I got some great supplies that I can't wait to use for this project.

Steampunk Sculpture

I recently finished a set of 3 custom sculptures,, an octopus, nautilus, and cuttlefish. Bodies are sculpted in polymer clay, clockwork is real watch and clock pieces sealed under clear resin. Bases are stained wood with a brass rod support.

Wanted: Clock bits, gears, etc.

If you know my work at all you've seen my steampunk jewelry. While I can buy plenty of little watch bits from various suppliers larger gears and mechanical bits are a bit harder to come across. I would like to make more steampunk sculpture and the watch pieces are mostly too small.

What I really need are pieces from old mechanical clocks and the like. Think old windup alarm clocks, grandfather clock movements, etc. I don't want to rip up anything that still works though. So if you have anything that fits the bill or know where I can buy some, please get in touch. In the meantime I'm going to keep my eyes pealed at yard sales and the like.

The Amazing Perma-Pets Video

Still having fun with making videos of my work. The latest one is of my Perma-Pets. I decided to really have fun with this one and make it look like an old silent film. I even found some very cool old calliope music from the early 20th century with static and pops that went well with the video.

Mini Stories Part V

The last installment of the mini stories for my cephalopods.

Space Squid

“Black tentacles flashed with shimmering waves of color as two space squid were locked in battle. Great fins along their heads flapped angrily and beaks snapped at one another. The battle stretched on and on, other denizens of that area of the galaxy learned to avoid it.”

Space Nautilus

“The first anyone saw of the space nautilus was it's long pale tentacles the color of a winter moon. It's dark shimmering shell blended into the depths of deep space. Most didn't survive love enough to see it.”

Cuttlefish Jewelry Video

Another slideshow of my jewelry, this time the cuttlefish.

Space Cephalopod Video

I put together this slideshow video of my space cephalopod jewelry yesterday.

Semi-Daily Sketch #4 - Squid

Quick squid I drew in about 10 minutes.

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's my birthday today, it's my last year in my 20s. I'll enjoy being 29 and when 30 rolls around I still don't plan to grow up.

It's become a bit of a tradition for me to offer free shipping the weekend of my birthday so I can share the celebration (and buy myself a little something extra). This deal doesn't require a coupon code so if you have one from me you can use it and get free shipping on top of the discount. So head over to my Etsy shop and make me a happy birthday girl! The deal will be up from today through the 13th.

Memorial Day Coupon

To celebrate the holiday use the coupon May2011 in my Etsy Shop to get 15% off this weekend. The coupon will expire Monday night.

Nautilus Illustration

I've always loved old natural history illustrations and I've wanted for a long time to do some illustrations in that style. This nautilus illustration (shown on a Zazzle iPad case) is the first in what I hope is a series of these. I painted it using GIMP and my tablet, I used a couple stock images of aged and watercolor paper for the textures.

Natural History Nautilus by NoadiArt

Wholesale and Custom Orders

I LOVE to make custom jewelry and sculptures. If you have an idea for an octopus hairclip or a Cthulhu sculpture or anything you think I could create for you please check out my page on custom work.

If you own/run a store, boutique, or aquarium gift shop and would like to sell my jewelry I have a page dedicated to buying my work wholesale. Go here for more information or take a look at my linesheet below:

Semi-Daily Sketch #3 - Sea Slug

Quick little sketch of a nudibranch, used this photo on flickr as inspiration.

Mini Stories Part IV

Here's the latest installment of my mini stories. I only have a handful left to write now.


Space Cuttlefish
“Floating lazily through space, a shimmering figure is seen from the ship's deck viewport. The crew stares speechless at the sight of the space cuttlefish, all thinking the same thing 'this can't be real'.”

Space Octopus
“The astrobiologist furiously took notes as he observed the space octopus. His scientific reputation would be made once he presented his work on this new species. It was truly a remarkable example of convergent evolution, so alike the earth octopus in appearance yet not even a carbon based life form.”

Image Survey

In my quest to have the best Etsy shop I can I've been tweaking the images I use. I've set up a small survey with 4 image options, please take it and rate each one of the images.

Survey

Launch of New Noadi.net

I just relaunched my website with a brand new look and feel.

Tax Day Coupon

I don't know of anyone who is self-employed who looks forward to tax day. While people with a traditional job who had withholding taken out may look forward to a refund those who are self employed get a double tax bill because it's also when our first quarter estimated taxes are due. So to help soften the blow I got this year I'm offering a free shipping coupon good through the end Monday, April 18. So use the coupon code TAXDAY2011 to get free shipping in my shop.

Semi-Daily Sketch #2

Quick deep sea squid.

Semi-Daily Sketch #1 (Mildly NSFW)

My drawing skills have never been as good as my sculpting skills and I keep meaning to improve them. Since I have my new tablet that I can sketch with without digging out my charcoals and getting all messy (not to mention an undo button) I'm going to make an effort to do at least one fairly quick sketch everyday. I know better than to think I can actually do one each and every day, my schedule and how busy I am is very unpredictable, but I'll do my best. If I like the sketch I'll share it here on the blog. So for the very first one: here's a nude sketch based on this stock photo from DeviantArt.

Having Fun with New Toy

My Bamboo set up next to my laptop with a quick cuttlefish sketch.

Really it isn't a toy, it's a very useful tool for my artwork it's just so much fun it feels like a toy. I recently got a Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch, it's a graphics tablet that lets me digitally draw and paint in a way that feels a lot like drawing with a pen or pencil. I've been wanting to do a series of illustrations featuring the creatures from my jewelry designs and I kept putting it off because honestly I'm just not that great with paints. I need ctrl+z in real life when it comes to painting anything 2 dimensional, painting jewelry and sculpture is a totally different set of skills it's adding color and enhancing texture I've sculpted, it doesn't deal with things like shading and perspective.

The tablet has taken a little getting used to, it arrived from Amazon last Wednesday and I produced a lot of crappy sketches in GIMP getting used to it. The tablet came with Photoshop Elements but Elements has a lot of features missing that GIMP does have or which CS5 has but neither Elements nor GIMP has (which I understand, Adobe wants people to have a reason to upgrade to Photoshop CS5 but is CMYK too much to ask for Elements?) so I probably won't use it much.

So here's a work in progress painting of a Steampunk Octopus.