Dropping the Ball

Jeez, long time no talk to, huh? Or write, or add to the site, or fix the site, or...

You may have noticed the index page has changed, and all the linky goodness has been removed. That's because I am finally getting around to redesigning the new site and working on the new product lines, and while I've been doing that, I haven't had time to fill orders. Of course, the time when you can't fill them is when they start to pour in, so I had to take down the "real" page. On top of the redesign, I'm also filing taxes and getting a LOT of stuff taken care of that has been sitting since I left for Paris way back in the good ol' days of 2006.

Holy smokes, does time fly.

I haven't had a day job in quite some time, so it seems a great time to put in the work I've let sit for the last 3 years. As I posted a while back, Dragonfly Design is becoming Bijoux Bisous, a more fun, kicky sort of place. When I started Dragonfly, I wanted to offer jewelry in sterling silver and semi-precious stone. I would not allow myself to work with pewter, copper, base metals, or clay, glass, or any other "cheaper" materials, because I wanted to focus on more "upscale" (for lack of a better word) goods. I never really got to realize that vision in the way that I wanted, because I kept getting sidetracked. And I felt stifled. I wanted to do more creative stuff, but I kept getting pulled in the same old, "beaded jewelry" direction, even though that kind of crafty style was not what I really wanted to do. Part of that was my own doubts, a self-stifling of my creative impulses, trying to appeal to a wide variety of people at once, and a rigid set of standards that did not allow me to grow beyond the box I'd somehow set up for myself.

I have since come to learn that my talents do not lie in costume jewelry design. I know too many talented people who put me to shame in that regard. They design and create beautiful, graceful works of art you just happen to wear on your person, while I tend to make simple, very straightforward designs that are more functional than beautiful. Try as I might, I just don't come up with beautiful, gracefully chic, trend-setting designs. I'm more about the whimsy. The quirk. I like simple things that sometimes go together in ways most people might not think to pair them. And I hate mass-production. Oh, man, do I hate it. Once I make something, I find I don't ever want to make it again. The fun is in making one thing and then moving on. I just have to stop playing it safe and accept that sometimes what I make will appeal to someone else, and sometimes it won't, and I'll have to cut it apart, call it a loss, and turn the parts into something else. That's life. Hopefully, I won't have to do it very often. Hopefully, what I like will appeal to other people, too. Because if I feel lukewarm about something - or I don't really like it at all - odds are, no one else will be all that excited about it, either. That's how life is.

So anyway, that's what's going on. I'm still dealing with my dad's death, trying to take care of all the stuff I've been putting off for the last 3 years, and basically working at wiping the slate clean, to start all over again. The new site will have all kinds of stuff on it that Dragonfly never really had room for. Quirky stuff like girly computer accessories, travel pillows, sachets, lotions, lip balms, perfumes, notecards, window hangings, bags, etc. Nearly all of it one-of-a-kind and never to be repeated again. Because life is like that, too. :)