I'm back!
I hope everyone is doing great! I've missed chatting with you all, but I soooooo needed that break from social media. Sorry for the long post, I've got lots to say!! 
- I spent most of my time off doing fun stuff like deleting my million unread emails, cleaning up old files and photos on my laptop and phone, organizing paperwork, and counting inventory, lol! Fun.. yeah right!
I'd neglected these tasks for too long, so it needed to be done. Okay I'll be honest, I'm nowhere near done but at least I started...
- I also spent time catching up on marketing training, as well as redesigning my website. I'm hoping the new look is easier to maneuver. I've been researching how to make my site ADA compliant. I've also been testing text to speech apps to see if there are any glitches. If anyone would like to give me feedback it would be greatly appreciated.
- I did a lot of soul searching as to the direction I wanted to take Wicked Winglings® and decisions have been made. I will be discontinuing a few items/lines that I currently offer. This will mostly affect my in person options at festivals.
- To start I will not be making any more Mystery Chests, Hatchling Eggs, small pendants or keychains. I started offering these items at shows to give the crowd an option for a lower price range. Unfortunately, they take away my time from my sculptures. I will sell off the remaining inventory at my upcoming festivals.
- I am also going to stop making the thumb tack dragon eggs. Same as above, I'll offer the ones still available at festivals, then l may offer the last of them online. I'm still undecided as to whether I'll keep the clay claw eggs or not.
- I took some time to play around with new egg designs to take the place of the tack eggs. I still want my focus to be my dragons, so my eggs will be limited. I enjoyed the opportunity to just be creative without an actual vision in mind. I like a lot of these designs, but there are a couple i don't like as much...
I would really like to know which of these new egg styles you would like to see more of....
1. Spikes
2. Wings
3. Foil spikes
4. Eye with tail
5. Galaxy eye
6. Eye with claw
7. Jeweled scales
8. Geode
9. Foil leaf
- Other than the following faires I will be changing directions in regards to shows. I will be returning to Viking Fest in April, the Southern Indiana Renaissance Faire in May and Clayshire Castle Medieval Faire in September. My new focus will be higher end juried art shows. I want to see how my dragons are received by the different crowds. I am already starting to apply for shows for October.
- Going back to my earlier comment about changing directions. I want to expand my skills and work to elevate my dragons this year. The one thing I've learned the last couple years is that my dragon scenes and ones doing activities are my most popular. Even when I'd offer $25-30 options, my $90 plus dragons always sold first.
- So with that in mind, my focus is now quality over quantity. I was wearing myself out trying to sculpt enough product for festivals, which is one of the reasons I felt so burned out. That means my sculptures will be more limited from this point forward, but that will allow me the time to make them even more special!
- I am also changing how I accept commissions as well. I will only open a limited number of spots every 2-3 months. I do have a small number of people on my list to message in the next week. After that, there will be no more waiting lists. New spots will be first come first serve. Make sure you've joined my email list to be notified when commission spots are open.
- Let's talk Patreon.... every year I plan to set up my membership tiers, but never seem to make it that far. Thankfully, I took a little time to write out goals, to do lists and rewards for your support. I'll share more details once it's ready to launch, but let's just say there will be benefits to being one of my Patreons.
- Oh yeah, I almost forgot.... my first shop update if the year will be February 11th! I will share the first sneak peek tomorrow!
1 comment
I was hoping to get a custom piece made, when are commissions available?