Are You My Target Audience?

When I first started selling my jewelry I didn't really think it would ever be something that I did full time. Even after completing my degree, it took a while for the reality to sink in. Jewelry. It's what I do. Somehow in five years it just crept up and became an all-encompassing part of my life.

The problem with starting a business so loosely is that there comes a time when you need to take a major step in order to optimize your time and energy spent branding, marketing, creating, and networking. The difficulty comes when you're not sure what that step is. Because my business has grown so organically over the past 5 years, it's hard to decipher exactly what I need to do next. I'm too close to it.

A friend of mine is starting up a new business (Stellar Sunshine Hoops) and I have a blast troubleshooting and coming up with ideas for her, but I can't always do that for myself. I really miss being at that stage where every step was a big one.

I mentioned earlier this week that one major project I have going on is my new website. It's finally much more in line with how I've always envisioned it but the research and development of it has led me to wonder about my focus. Up until now I've been sort of "throwing mud at a wall". Spread my work around and see who likes it, what sticks. This year has been especially experimental because I have so many new events going on and a lot of them have been complete failures.

What it comes down to is this. I have to finally ask the question "who is my target audience?" Who do I have something to say to? Who's life can I improve? Who's questions can I answer?

I need your help!

Why do you read my blog (or tweets, or facebook updates)?

What is it about me that interests you?

If you're a fan of my jewelry, why?

You can e-mail me your answers (robinmsills [@] gmail [.] com), or leave them in the comments. I'd really appreciate it if you'd take a minute to get back to me on this.

SA Sunday: Lechucita Vizcachera - Birdwatching

Lechucita Vizcachera, originally uploaded by Soasa Designs.

I spotted this Burrowing Owl while my friends and I were at a polo club outside the city of Buenos Aires. I couldn't believe how close it let me get!

I've just finished my birdwatching class at UCA, and I'm so pumped about how it went! I'm very sad to say goodbye to my professor and my classmates. We were a small, tight-knit group, and we had a lot of fun together. Yesterday we saw some incredibly cool birds, including a father and son pair of Rufescent Tiger-Herons, a whole mess of Monk Parakeets, a Golden-Breasted Woodpecker, and the silly looking Guira Cuckoo (Looks like he's got bad bedhead, right?).



This is a portion of my list of birds that I've identified from Argentina and the US. It's growing, hopefully forever! I'm very excited to take my book with me on my trip and see what else I can find! You can click the image to see it more clearly.

Want more South America Sunday? Click it!

Nobody wants to change their own mind...

Is Love Enough - Michael Franti and Spearhead

Usually Memorial Day is a family holiday, a day off, a day to spend with the people I love. This year it's different because I'm far away, in another country, and I've been thinking. I've gotten a range of reactions from people when I tell them that I'm from the US. Most of the positive ones are from people who think NYC is a magical place, and they imagine that I live there and ride around in a limo and drink champagne with supermodels. Not so. Most often I get sort of an awkward "ohhh". You really reflect on your own country when you leave it behind, even if it's temporary, because you have to learn to navigate in your new environment, with new cultural norms and new social laws.

I've been robbed twice now (as I've written about) and my initial reaction is rage. Rage at a government for not employing adequate security in a HUGE city, rage at an economic structure that causes so many people to exist with so little. After fuming and storming for a while I realized what I really feel is rage at this society in which so few people extend a hand, or a smile, much less any help. Two weeks ago I started buying cookies and juice for a family of children that sits at the corner near my Subte stop. I've made friends with the business owners on my street, the man in the hardware store, the guys in the produce market, the Chinese family that owns the supermarket, the woman from Peru who sells fruit in the market on Estado de Israel. Once a week or so I visit the used book vendors near my Subte stop at school to have a chat and see what they've got. To get robbed after making these connections, after finally building a little community for myself, was almost enough to make me pull back completely. It has occurred to me over the last few days that if I do that I'll only be perpetuating the problem here. I can't fix the economy, I can't make the city hire more police, but I can show people that I care, that I am interested in their stories. I can show them that I am human, and they are human, and we are all human together. We all have stories, in that we are all the same.

It was difficult to find a song that was appropriate for today because I wasn't sure how I was feeling about the day. I'm not a political blogger, and I'm grateful for that. I hesitate to share political views because so often they shut down opportunities for conversation, rather than opening them. I'm still an idealist. I support our troops as human beings, and because they protect the rights that I have as a citizen of the United States. I do not support the global social and political mindset in which guns and bombs are necessary to secure our beliefs. I do not support the decision to bowl through other countries on the basis that we know what is good for them, without allowing them to search for their own new way of life. I believe in human connections, regardless of how we name it in our churches and temples. I believe we should bring our troops home because if we really, truly respected them as human beings we would not ask them to die for us without first trying to resolve our problems in a human, non-violent way. We are distinct in the animal kingdom because we alone have the ability to chose how we arrive at our future. I believe we should exercise that ability and speak, in memory of all who have given their one, single, irreplaceable life.

Looking for more Music Monday? *They're usually not politically driven!*

South America Sunday: Little Bird, Big World

"Little Bird, Big World" Inspiration, originally uploaded by Soasa Designs.

I took this photo while waiting on the corner of my street, Loyola, and the closest avenida, Scalebrini Ortiz. I was just sitting watching cars and people rush by, and this little pigeon was standing at the edge of the crosswalk. I snapped this shot and that's when the new name for my blog occurred to me. I feel a lot like a little pigeon here, just one in the crowd with people rushing by and paying me very little mind. Every day when I leave the house I'm not sure what I'll experience, what I'll come across, who I'll encounter. Leaving the house I feel like a little bird getting pushed out of the nest, learning to fly for fear of falling.

East: Weaving Yellow

East: Weaving Yellow, originally uploaded by Soasa Designs.

Hello y'all!

I'm still alive! Still in South America too:) This post has nothing to do with that though, sorry.

Recently I joined in on a year-long journey called Project Spectrum. You can read a bit about it and see some group photos here! Also more of my photos here! The idea is to incorporate a special focus involving color into your everyday creative practices. This year's theme is Cardinal Directions, and we are just wrapping up North and it's associated color, which was green. We are moving into East, and yellow! For that I am excited to announce that I'm taking a weaving class and it begins on Saturday! I'm really thrilled, as weaving is something I've wanted to learn for a long time and never found the time or money for. What better time than this? Above is a photo of my new loom, and my first skein of yellow yarn!

Faith

I made my flatmate laugh today...in Spanish. Through her I am beginning to find faith. Faith in the power of human connections that erase all barriers of language and culture and make all things possible for those who are willing to open their hearts and minds.

Estoy Aqui!

Hola Todos! I arrived safe and sound in Bs. As. yesterday. You can't tell, but the view from the plane is of New Paltz and Newburg! I thought it was pretty funny that we flew over:)

Yesterday was mostly about adjusting...I unpacked in my new home and had some lunch with my host mother, Carmen, and my housemate Nikki. I had no idea there would be another student here, but was relieved to meet her. She arrived only hours before I did, and is a bit more comfortable with city life, and South America. We are becoming fast friends.







Today we went on our first big adventure, tracing our route to UCA so that when we go for orientation tomorrow we have it figured out. The Subte is our main mode of travel, and is very inexpensive. We ride the Green line all the way to Catedral, the government center (you see that in the picture above)and from there we have a bit of a walk to school in Puerto Madero. We are getting a bit more comfortable with the system, and on our trip back we even managed to purchase multi-trip cards (I asked in Spanish and the woman at the counter understood me!!)



After finding UCA we made our way up to San Telmo and found the market. There were vendors selling handcrafted goods, and also there is an indoor market for antiques. It was all very overwhelming! So many interesting things!

Argentina

Yes, so I realize that I've been mentioning this from time to time for several months now, but never formally introduced the big news!
ETA: Actually, I just read back through my posts and it looks like I never really did mention this, even though it's been consuming my life.

I will be studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina from the end of February through the end of July. It's an interruption from my regular course of study, but I'm going to take the opportunity to complete some credits towards a Spanish minor, as all of my courses will be taught in Spanish while I'm there. This is a wonderful (albeit terrifying) opportunity for me and I have to admit I'm freaked out. This is definitely bigger than anything I have ever done in my life!

Because I'm going to be away during the festival season, I am having a sale right now in order to give people a chance to do any shopping they might have wanted to do over the summer. From now until February 15th I will take 20% off of any order of two items or more, and shipping is free for all purchases! 11:59 on February 15th I will close my shop in order to prepare for my departure on 2/20.

This is a sneak peak, before I completely finish my uploads, and send out an e-mail to my mailing list, so if you see something you like you may want to snap it up now, because I won't be making more until next fall, and when I run out I run out!

The Burn Out

I feel a little bit like this. (This being my very first car, which spontaneously burst into flames one day on my way home from work.)

I HATE this time of year. I hate it because it is the most beautiful time to live in New England, and yet I spend so much time in a melted puddle of anxiety and fatigue that I can't appreciate it like everyone else can. I hate that I feel so disconnected, even though I know there are people who love my and think of me. I'm sleeping 8-10 hours a night, and I fell asleep for an hour in the library today. All I want to do is go home and sleep, even though I know that on top of my regular course reading and jewelry shows I have three tests and three papers and Salt and Pepper shakers to complete in the next two weeks. I think that all my determination to ignore this problem is going to have to bend, because I'm sick of being so unproductive and listless. I think it's time to go sit on a sofa and have a chat with someone.

Do other people struggle with seasonal depression (because I suspect that's what you'd call this)? Is anyone willing to share their experience, or what has worked for them?

Love it!

Classes have started, and I'm looking at my clothes and thinking "do I really want to ruin all my clothes again?" Every semester I end up wrecking all my favorite outfits in the studio. I always dress all pretty, not planning to do any work that day, then end up at the polishing wheel, or covered in pickle. Always. The answer? A fabulously rugged, very comfortable apron from Utility Canvas in my new home town! I've always loved their aprons (they come on loan when you borrow a hammer kit from the school) and it's high time I bought my own so that I can always keep my clothes nice and in one piece.

Other news! I met my mysterious other house mate yesterday and he is very nice and remarkably sane!
Other, other news. The line to pick up pre-ordered textbooks is still so long that I suspect I won't be getting mine until the end of the week. I'm not really up for camping out on the floor all day.

Back to civilization

With classes starting Monday I moved into my new housing Friday evening. I sort of knew what I was getting myself into....sort of. No internet, old house, eclectic landlord. Right. My family works hard to "tread lightly" as they say, but this is a whole new experience for me. I can't imagine coming into this house from a family even less eco-conscious than mine, because it's been a culture shock for me as it is! It isn't helped by the fact that the libraries (both the local and the university) are all closed this weekend, as is the studio (though that was supposed to be open, so what gives?) I did escape from the surreality for a short time last night when I went out to dinner with an old roommate. I've managed to rationalize myself into some sort of calm, but I'm telling you, this is going to be the strangest semester yet!

In Which I Attempt to Catch Up - Ep. 2 - School

School ended May 15th or so, I stuck around to spend one more day in the studio, then headed home. I didn't see the final Grad show, or go to the end of the year party, which was kind of a bummer, but not worth staying until the end of the week for. I'm relieved to be home, that's for sure.

I pulled of some lovely grades, and here's the run down:
Ceramics: A
Metal Forming: A-
Enameling: A-
Sociological and Philosophical Foundations of Education: A
History of Jazz: A

I'm very pleased with myself, but my pleasure is heightened by the fact that I know for certain that I learned a lot this semester. The past semesters have been a bit of a let-down, but this one was both academically and artistically stimulating. I spent more time than ever in the studios, and my Soc and Phil class was the best course I've taken at New Paltz to date. So stimulating, in fact, that it helped me solidify some very important decisions that I've been unsure about.

I've decided to change my major from a BFA in Metals to a BS in Visual Arts with a Concentration in Metals. This will allow me to balance my academics and arts more evenly, and I feel will help prepare me more adequately for *drumroll* a Masters in Library Sciences. It will also give me the free credits I need in order to get a minor in Spanish. I'm very excited about all of this!

Photos top to bottom: "Flailing Soul" somewhat comical piece done for Forming - copper and sterling silver, "Stumpy" exploration of high temp brazing for Forming - copper, Earrings made last minute before I left for the summer, enamel and copper in a bowl I threw for Ceramics.

#20 Sugarcane Academy

Book: Sugarcane Academy: How a New Orleans Teacher and His Storm-Struck Students Created a School to Remember by Michael Tisserand
Pages: 192
Entertainment Rating: 4.5/5
Snooty Rating: 5/5
Total Rating: 9.5/10
Books Read Total: 20/50
Pages Read Total: 3875/15,000

This book may be small, but it packs a punch. Riding on the wave of emotions from my recent trip down to NOLA this book could not have come at a time when I was more vulnerable. Frequently I found myself in tears over the hugeness of it all. The hugeness of the hurricane and the aftershocks, the hugeness of the indignities forced upon so many citizens, and the immeasurable outpouring of awareness on the part of those capable of giving something to the people who had nothing. In a society where education is so bound by rules and regulations, this small section of a community banded together to give families what they needed. This is education as it should be: active, responsive, aware. What these children needed was not a standardized test or even a normal classroom. They needed time and space to express their experiences, to learn about their relations to the world around them, and to make sense of all that they experienced in such a short time. Much was lost during Hurricane Katrina, but the disaster laid bare the strength, courage, determination and love that human beings are capable of giving.

Woohoo!!! 101!

This is my 101st post in this blog. Yay me!

I thought the image was fitting, since I'm a farmer's daughter, and I found it here.

As it happens I did a lot today! I woke up at the unreasonable (for a Saturday) hour of 6:30 to ride into Newburgh with my dearest Habitat crew for a freezing cold morning of demolition and organizing. I've never been to a build in Newburgh because I'm usually working, but I had a great time! The volunteers are clearly a tight group, and there are certainly a lot of characters! I spent the better part of the morning sorting through a warehouse full of old and new donated building supplies and taking inventory. My toes were good and frozen by the end of it all, but we got a lot done.

From Newburgh I went straight to the studio and it's from there I just returned. I cleaned the hell out of my space, and I'm wishing that I had the energy to do the same to my apartment, but I'm pooped!

Another bit of very important news is that I've just finished the last bite of the best chocolate I've ever eaten. Messico, by Maglio of Italy is the BEST. It also retails at $10 a bar. That's $10 more than I have available to spend on chocolate, so if anyone is wondering what to get me for my birthday, now you know!! I'm also not opposed to trying their dark chocolate varieties. Hint, hint.

In other, other news I just had some of Progresso's Hearty Black Bean soup for dinner, and I think it's a new favorite! Especially with grilled cheese...yum!

I've finished two books in the past week, and I'll post about them separately, and then I'm off to knit!

Morning Verse

(Photo found here.)

Every morning my classmates and I recited this verse, all through middle school. Every once in a while it comes up, and each time I come across it I am struck by the sense of purpose and connectedness I feel. A childhood friend of mine just recently returned from Cambodia and he wrote a piece for my school's newsletter about finally feeling the full purpose of these words. Thus they come into my life again and I am filled with a lightness and bubbling excitement that comes from feeling that all things are possible.

I look into the world
In which the sun is shining,
In which the stars are sparkling,
In which the stones repose.
Where living plants are growing,
Where sentient beasts are living,
Where man, soul gifted,
Gives the spirit a dwelling place .

I look into my soul
That lives within my being.
The world creator moves,
In sunlight and in soul light,
In wide world space without,
In soul depths here within.
To thee, creator spirit
I will now turn my heart,
To ask that strength and blessing,
To learn and work may grow,
Within my inmost being.

-Rudolf Steiner

True love has found me

I'm thoroughly infatuated with my Sociological and Philosophical Foundations of Education class (even if it is a mouthful). My professor is an exceptional guide, but I think also that as a whole my class is great! Our discussions are inquisitive, thoughtful and intense, and my professor is great about fielding our hard-to-answer questions, making clear distinctions between the times when what she says is fact, and when she's simply participating in the sharing of opinions. At this point in the semester we're exploring the struggle of racism and segregation in education. I absolutely LOVE that there is no right answer. I find myself mulling over possibilities, realities, actions and repercussions even outside of class, as I'm falling asleep or eating lunch. I love having the ground yanked out from under me in this way, forcing me to abandon opinions because there's simply no way to pin one down!

This is why I went to college.

#9: Shame of the Nation

Book: Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America by Jonathan Kozol
Pages: 332
Entertainment Rating: 1/5
Snooty Rating: 3.5/5
Total Rating: 4.5/10
Books Read Total: 9/50
Pages Read Total: 2410/15,000

From Publishers Weekly:
"Public school resegregation is a "national horror hidden in plain view," writes former educator turned public education activist Kozol (Savage Inequalities, Amazing Grace). Kozol visited 60 schools in 11 states over a five-year period and finds, despite the promise of Brown v. Board of Education, many schools serving black and Hispanic children are spiraling backward to the pre-Brown era. These schools lack the basics: clean classrooms, hallways and restrooms; up-to-date books in good condition; and appropriate laboratory supplies. Teachers and administrators eschew creative coursework for rote learning to meet testing and accountability mandates, thereby "embracing a pedagogy of direct command and absolute control" usually found in "penal institutions and drug rehabilitation programs." As always, Kozol presents sharp and poignant portraits of the indignities vulnerable individuals endure. "You have all the things and we do not have all the things," one eight-year-old Bronx boy wrote the author. In another revealing exchange, a cynical high school student tells his classmate, a young woman with college ambitions who was forced into hair braiding and sewing classes, "You're ghetto-so you sew." Kozol discovers widespread acceptance for the notion that "schools in ghettoized communities must settle for a different set of academic and career goals" than schools serving middle-and upper-class children. Kozol tempers this gloom with hopeful interactions between energetic teachers and receptive children in schools where all is not lost. But these "treasured places" don't hide the fact, Kozol argues, that school segregation is still the rule for poor minorities, or that Kozol, and the like-minded politicians, educators and advocates he seeks out, believe a new civil rights movement will be necessary to eradicate it.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. "

This is a complicated book. I've been struggling over the past few days to decide what I will write about it (both here and in the paper I'll have to write for class) and I still haven't decided. There is no denying that Kozol has devoted his adult life to fighting for the rights of inner city citizens, however I can't help but feel that his attitude towards the people he is writing about is condescending at best. His writing is completely inaccessible to anyone without some form of higher education, and even then it takes hours to wade through, by which time much of the inspiration and rage has dissipated to frustration. I don't see how this book will do much to help when his final call to action is to the teachers in these schools. They don't have time to read his book, as he's already proven page after page throughout this book. As a reader I was frustrated by the intensity of his use of statistics. There were some wonderful (and heart wrenching) chapters in this book about the schools, the teachers and the students, and those were the most effective chapters. Then there were pages and pages of straight up statistics, during which I had to fight to keep my focus because numbers are really just numbers. They lose their meaning quickly.

The content itself is something I've encountered before, and it never fails to break my heart. With each year that we fail to resolve this issue the problems deepen and become less reversible. There were definitely parts of this book that made me want to drop everything and devote my life to the children in these schools, while other parts brought the realization that Teach for America (a program I've wanted to participate in) may not be all the peace and love it seems to be. So long as we make these schools settle for uncertified youth as teachers we deny them the resources they need in the form of strong, seasoned educators. In the end I'm torn. Can I, from my position, help this cause? How can we activate the teachers? How can we educate the parents on how to demand what is best for their children? How can we show these students that they can have better, of they're willing to fight for it?

It isn't stress....

And this post is not professional, it's just honest. Really this blog isn't professional, because if it was I'd never write in it because I'm a human being, not a corporation.

I'm extremely busy. Unforgivably so, I think, though there's no one to forgive but myself. I've taken on the roll of Fundraising Chair for the New Paltz chapter of Habitat for Humanity, and we've just purchased 15 spring break plane tickets to New Orleans. The total was a bit over $5000, which really isn't bad until you realize that I've just signed myself up to figure out how to fundraise some $6000 total by early February or else we're all going to get stuck with the bill. And 14 other people are depending on it.

This on top of a whole lot of school work that came up quite suddenly. (None of us, professors and students alike, quite realized it was midterm)

I love projects, and generally I'm thrilled to be busy and not have time to think about my emotions but this week they're creeping in when there's nothing I can do to stop them. I'd forgotten how it felt to be lonely, and now, surrounded by people ending relationships (seriously, 5 in the last week and a half) the reality of it is coming back pretty quick. On one hand I'm wishing I could lock myself away and not face it, cry a lot and mope about, but on the other I know that I'm too devoted to my life to stop doing what I love, and I would only hate myself more if I neglected myself.

What's getting me is the anxiety. Am I capable of another relationship any time in the near future? Will I ever stop being anxious about being capable of another relationship? Will my anxiety about being anxious about being capable of another relationship prevent me from being capable of another relationship and thus will I forever be anxious about my abilities? Is Caleb okay? Will I always be scared of men? Why do I care if Caleb's okay? Realistically I know that it will all be okay, but anxiety doesn't work that way, it doesn't follow logic, nor does it respond to it.

Where do you find energy in a time like this? How does one overcome anxiety without the meds? That's the point of this post. Not to angst and whine, I just genuinely need some advice.

One of those moments that makes you say "whoaaa"

Are you ever walking a walk you've walked a hundred times when the reality of your existence in that place hits you and you have to stop and say "whoaaa"? I live for those moments. Those are the moments when I realize a shift has happened. The Robin Marie that used to walk that walk is gone, and in that moment I recognize a new self. It may be the most minute shift, but it's a shift none-the-less, and that means adventure!

The biggest reason this shift is exciting is that I've been really down, and this may mean an end to that, for the time being.

Additionally, someone should really buy me a copy of Be Here Now because it would make me exceedingly happy.

Business Dilemma

To Business minor, or not to Business minor, this is the question.

I am torn. I have pretty much come to the conclusion that as an artist who intends to make a living I am going to need some business experience. If Soul of a Starving Artist is ever going to be something big I'm going to need to know what I'm doing. I refuse to be one of those spacey artists who never quite pulls it together. Lets face it, we aren't the most business minded of folk. Now here's the question. The requirements for a Business minor sound completely terrifying. I don't know what most of this stuff means. Do I need it? Do I want it...? Would I be better off just picking and choosing my courses? My advisor is one of those artists who never quite pulled it together, so she's not a hell of a lot of help.

I'm going to have to wrangle a business student and interrogate.

Cheers!

Robin Marie