January 4, 2025
Cali Perspective 10/30/2019
Took off to California last week. Things were starting to get stale for me and that's usually when I start to feel antsy for a change of scenery. My sister moved out here so it was the perfect excuse to get away for a little bit. Of course I would show up the same week as the Getty fire. Thanks a bunch to the firefighters for handling that one and keeping everyone safe and the fire contained. I was amazed at how everyone here just went about their day even though an entire portion of the state was lit, and ash was raining down all over the city. Welcome to Cali.
So here I am, outside of a coffee shop, enjoying 70+ degree weather, and from what I heard, as of this moment, it's snowing in Chicago.
What's really cracking me up right now though, is that most Californian's I've met are talking about how chilly it has gotten this past week.
What a perspective shift!
Clearing out the clutter 7/15/2019
Every few months, I have to rearrange everything. Move a couch from this corner to that corner, put this plant here, there, wherever. And personally, it helps refocus my energy. I'm not sure why, but without a doubt every time it works. It's so easy to get hung up in life, and it seems like even making the smallest change helps break the cycle of routine that ultimately becomes monotonous.
Sometimes that small change is just the refresher you need.
Taking a Breather 5/24/2019
We don't realize how routine our lives can become until we push ourselves to step out and give ourselves a fresh perspective. I was feeling pretty burned out, and entertained myself on hopper for cheap flights to wherever. I found a last minute round trip flight to Costa Rica for about $400, and my tax refund had just came in. I had to do it. I knew I would sit there and contemplate it, and overthink it until the price went up and then change my mind, so I wasn't serious. But then, somehow I booked it without hitting the confirmation button. Universe or my subconscious, either way it was meant to happen.
Man I had so much fun.
I convinced my sister to come with me, and with less than a week to plan, we booked 2 nights through airbnb at a surf camp near the West coast, about 5 hours away, and a Suzuki 4x4. The rest we would figure out as we went.
When we picked up the car, they gave us a small piece of paper that said Pura Vida. They said no matter what, anywhere you go, this saying means happy life, simple life, peace. And if you get into it with anyone, just say that phrase and they'll calm down, it's simply the motto of the people. This is one of the most beautiful sayings I have ever came across in my life.
We stopped in San Jose first, where a local came up to my window, took my cigarette out of my hands, and walked away without saying a word! I couldn't help but laugh, it was just SO absurd. We're not in the U.S. anymore, Toto.
So here we are, driving through the mountains. The roads were so narrow, we were so high up, it began to get dark, and my anxiety was getting the best of me. We stopped at a small cafe in the mountains, and of course they had a view unlike any I have ever seen before.
We kept going, until finally we made it to a place that goes by the name of Dreamsea Surf Camp, in Tamarindo.
https://youtu.be/RVniBfTBdZY
Tree of Life and Love 3/4/2019
Custom designs are always fun. Last year, a custom design request came in for a Kizmah light. An anniversary was coming up and my client wanted to create something extra special for his girl. So, he came to me with some details about what he wanted. One, his girl loved anything natural and earthy. And two, he wanted his fingerprint in the design. At first I thought this might be tricky.. but after a few designs, we got it perfect.
The Journey 3/4/2019
This all started with keychains.. Yep. Art has always been the core of what brought me a feeling of contentment in my work, and in the beginning of all of this, it started with making custom keychains and posting them on Etsy. When these simple little keychains began to sell, I realized how much more satisfying it felt than my regular day job. And so my journey began.
The Challenge of Custom Artwork 5/8/2019
Creating art has always been therapeutic for me, but applying it to a product was a different story. Whenever life became stressful, it was easy to zone out with a different project every time. Every project had its own story, its own purpose. And the more I talked about it to friends and family, the more I realized that everyone wants to share their own story too. And then, the custom requests began to come my way.
The first custom request came in for a keychain. A friend of mine wanted a funny political cartoon, and asked me to design what he was imagining. As funny of a political statement as it was, it was also a challenge and the first custom order I had. Since he was a close family friend, it felt more like genuine support, and not a sale.
Then the second request came in from a coworker. A photograph of him and his wife together, one keychain for her and one for him. It was a cute request, and also a challenge because it was a real photograph. So from there I learned how to work with different material depending on the type of design.
At this point, keychains began to get kind of boring, and I wanted to explore different mediums to work with. I started moving into creating designs for hat pins, jewelry, dugouts, just to add more to what I already had on Etsy. They were hit and miss, some things sold quickly, others took a lot longer or didn't sell at all. Everything was a learning process.
And then, a bulk order came my way.
The Devil is in the Details
After attempting to create 19.68 multiple times, I finally made one that I approved of myself, and sent it over to my buyer. I wasn't expecting him to send over another design request, so here I go off to the next project, 19.69.
This is a really cool design. My buyer wanted his logo on a lamp, so he could put it up in his studio. This isn't the first request I have had for a business logo to be placed on a lamp, so of course I'm ready to rock, challenge accepted.
Oh this one was a challenge though.
He sent me a couple of posters with his design on it, here it is:
One thing I have to keep in mind when I work on new projects is that, just because it looks cool on a poster, doesn't mean it will translate over to acrylic the same way.
So, I contemplated this one for a while. Can I pull it off or not, how will it look, will it be clear, on and on and on... This is where I realized, I let the artistic side of me shut my business side down. Taking his advice of not getting hung up on perfection, I decided to go for it. I cleaned up the file, and did what I could:
And I still wasn't happy with it. The robe blended in with the mic too much, the edges were bland, and from a distance, to me, it just didn't meet expectations. Frustrated, I sent a picture over to my buyer and let him know, hey, I'm working on it, but it doesn't look good enough yet, I just need a few more days, the work is almost done, etc. etc. etc. Excuse after excuse after excuse...
All he responded with was this:
"I don't know!?! It looks pretty dope to me!"
I realized in that moment, my incessant need for perfection is questionable, and it's holding me back when it comes down to it. But I still didn't care, and asked for a few more days. Luckily, he knows not to rush an artist and agreed saying, do what you do!
So here I go, trial 1, trial 2, trial X....
But I finally get it to where I love it:
The robe is clear, the mic looks clean, the details look good, the yin yang is prominent, and the sun around him is epic. I finally delivered it to him, and my buyer loved it so much he bumped it on his Instagram..
Hell yeah. The devil might be in the details, but the little details are what count. It might not be exactly as expected, but working diligently towards your own vision never fails. I could have let it go at the first design, but I just didn't want to, and that's okay! At the end of the day, it's your decision, but remember that getting too hung up on small things can hold you back too. There isn't really a moral to this, but I can definitely say I'm happier taking the extra time to make it perfect, than to kick out something that is substandard to my own expectations. I've worked in corporate long enough to know that most companies don't care about that anyway, and refuse to believe in that ideology.
It means the world to me that my buyer loved it, and because of that, I'm happy too.
Learning fun tricks along the way 4/14/2019
So I really wanted to add a page to my website that displayed my Instagram feed, and when I googled how to do it, it looked really easy, if I wanted to pay $5 to $10 a month for it. Enough with the subscriptions, I'm trying to find a way to keep the site going without going broke (made enough rookie mistakes the first year) and came across the perfect answer! I added it to The Lamp page, but just moved it over to InstaFAM, check it out!
So, if any other fellow entrepreneurs are looking for the thrifty way to keep your website going, and by thrifty I mean FREE, check this out!!
Hope they don't mind the free traffic to their site, just sending good Karma right back into the universe. Good looking out ByteStand and SnapWidget, and thanks!
Psychic Says… 4/5/19
So I went to a psychic last night. I'm pretty skeptical when it comes to fortune tellers, but I was convinced by my neighbor, and figured, why not. So we went, and I made it a point not to give any hints about my life, just to see how accurate it would be. All she said about my passion project (AKA Kizmah) was this:
You're procrastinating. Stop.
I couldn't stop laughing, just because I know that's the main problem I have. I'm dragging on custom projects and I don't know why, but I'm practically sabotaging myself. She even said, you have everything else in place, this is all that's holding you back.
I really didn't have to drop $80 for someone to tell me I'm procrastinating, but I did anyway, and ironically needed to hear it. Money well spent?
Oh the best part, at the end of the reading I showed her pictures of some custom Kizmah lamps, and now she wants to buy a custom lamp for herself too. It would have her logo on it with a woman aligned with the 7 chakras.
Not bad for a rainy Wednesday night.
Your Vision 4/1/2019
Not sure why, but for some reason I can really push myself to work hard for the company that I work for, but for my own projects, I let them take the back burner. Either I get moving now and discipline myself to balance the two, or I let myself wonder what could have been... twenty years from now. Food for thought.
Get Moving 3/28/2019
The more we put ourselves out there, we end up realizing that people are more receptive to our thoughts and ideas than we would imagine. But we tend to hold ourselves back over trivial obstacles.
19.68 is a round shaped design. Round designs are always the toughest designs to master. I've made projects over and over again that were always just a little bit off, and hesitated whenever a round project came my way. And hesitation never gets anyone very far..
After a year of dabbling with different design concepts, this custom order came my way and was so intriguing, that I had to make it work. Of course, it was a round design.
I decided this time I wasn't going to let that stop me. I spent extra time designing a guide that would work for all round designs, so I wouldn't have to deal with this again. I thought I had it.
Then I fired up the laser, really excited, just to find that somehow, I miscalculated. The entire design was off by less than a quarter of an inch. And when it comes to small lasers, that's basically a fail.
I didn't even want to take it out of the laser. I was so upset at myself for such a silly mistake. I left it there and walked away.
A few days later, my sister came by and said, you finished it? And popped it right into the light and it began to glow. I told her I was unhappy with it, and since we both worked on it, she saw the flaws too. But it still looked nice, almost mystical. I decided to shoot a picture of it over to my buyer, and let him know that I'm working on it, but this one wasn't perfect, so I'm going to keep it and make him another one. He is a tai chi instructor, and all he said was this..
Never let yourself get hung up on the flaws. You might see them, but most people never do. And those flaws are what make your projects unique. Tomorrow, those small imperfections that you see will become the mark of your originality. You will always know which work is yours, and that is better than not having any work to claim as your own. And that alone is worth holding onto.
Cheers to him, I'm back at it and will make his lamp as promised.
But I'm keeping this one.
Project 19.68: Buddah sitting under the Tree of Life
Which design would you say best describes Buddah sitting under the tree of life?
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
Merging over 3/5/2019
Finally have the site pulled together the way I envisioned it... now all that's left is consolidating all of the social media accounts... and I can go back to designing products. Cheers to the patient people of this world, maybe one day I'll join you on the other side!
Back, fresh and ready to go for 2019. Lets do this!!
