Art Market is Through the Roof

Despite slumping financial market, the art market is soaring through the roof. And as the several blogs I've posted states, auction records for art has been breaking this year. According to experts, this is due to new international buyers with new found wealth, from Russia, China, India and Middle East. However art is still below the industry Dow Jones average compared to other industries. With more and more people with disposable income interested in art, this market might rise to the occasion soon.

Hope some of these people will buy our art! :-)

Visit our store at www.DaibeBeads.com or our etsy store at DaibeBeads.etsy.com!

Getting Over Our Disappointment

Daibe Beads would like to apologize to our readers that we will not be having our weekly featured seller this week. But it shall return in two weeks (if not by next week.)

Things have been crazy lately, having to deal with personal issues with my bf's ex (see this post), and now... she just stole ANOTHER $500 off my bf's paypal account. Somehow she found a way to hack into his account, no matter how many times he changes his information. At the same time, he can't cancel the account because then he'll never get his money back. (Chances are, his $1,500 total that were stolen is gone, I say he should just cancel it all together to prevent this from happening again... because it WILL happen again.)

But I digress...

Our promotions with Daibe Beads has slowed to a stand still. We were pushing very hard for the holiday season, putting up ads, being featured on Indie-Fixx.com's Holiday Newsletter, discounts after discounts after discounts, craft shows, word of mouth, blogging, just about every kind of promotions we can think of. And sales have been ultra disappointing these couple months. The season when we expected to have the most sales, we had the least. And it's very discouraging especially since we put all the extra effort into it, and the results were negative.

So being discouraged, we slowly promoted less and less, and eventually stopped promoting all together a few weeks ago. (And of course, no promotion = no sales). Faced with personal drama and no sales, it was tiring and disappointing, and it makes a person feel like quitting.

But then I see my mom (the other half of Daibe Beads) in her room, making her Swarovski crystal necklaces, she never gave up. I almost forgot why we did this in the first place, because we enjoyed our craft. It is our hobby. And if other people want to buy it, great! If not, it's not the end of the world.

So being a very business-minded person, I will take the start of the new year to re-evaluate Daibe Beads' model. This was our first year after all, and overall, we really didn't do that bad. We would like for customers to start buying our jewelry more - and will do more promos for that. We are also working on another craft - a clothing line! So watch out for that some time next year.

For anyone who is very discouraged over sales, don't be! Just take a look at your pros and cons and try to improve yourself. Giving up, like I did at first, won't do any good.

For Daibe Beads, it's very exciting times ahead.

Work of Art or Load of Crap?

When you see the above picture, what do you think the block is made of?

Did you make a guess yet?

Ready for the answer? It's CRAP! Literally, a bunch of crap! Santiago Sierra made 21 Anthropometric modules made of human feces. Each of these 215 x 75 x 20cm modules were made and collected from Delhi and Jaipur, India. The people from Sulabh International sponsored the project by working on it without any compensation. (Are they crazy??). They collected human fecal matters (I am shuddering just thinking of how they collect these things, not to mention slapping them on and making them into blocks), and let it rest for three years, mixed with Fevicol, an agglutinative plastic, and dried in wooden moulds. The stench must be horrifying! But apparently after three years, shit is no longer shit, but it is "equivalent to earth" from a sanitary point of view.

According to Sierra, "workers of the sanitary movement Sulabh International of India are mostly scavengers who, by birth, have to undertake the physically and psychologically painful task of collecting human fecal matter, being charged with the blames of a previous life of bad deeds."

The display is currently being displayed at the Lisson Gallery in London for the first time.

So... work of art? Or a Load of Crap?

Da Vinci's Drawings Invaded by Mold

Leonardo da Vinci's largest collection of drawings and writings, the Codex Atlanticus, has been infiltrated by mold. The damange is not known yet but it will be expensive to repair. Since there is no funding for the Codex Atlanticus, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, the place where the Codex is kept is looking for a sponsor to step up and save the treasure.

Featured Weekly Seller: Savor

Savor makes very unique soap that looks good enough to eat! Mint Chocolate?? Who can resist?

1. What is the name of your store and what do you sell?

I run Savor, a store featuring handcrafted soaps with a culinary twist.

2. How did you get into your craft?

I love to cook -- and growing up Italian, I was always around lovely, rich, tasty food. I took up soaping as a hobby, and I naturally incorporated my cooking knowledge into my soap making -- and Savor is the delicious result!

3. What is your latest project?

I am focusing on soaps with a lot of texture and character. I am looking at them as if they are meringues, or whipped topping. I want a sense of architecture and design to compliment the smell and color.

4. Where can we find your products?

My shop is located here: http://savor.etsy.com

Offensive Line's New Item!

One of our favorite stores, Offensive Line, available at http://www.cafepress.com/offensiveline just came out with a new item!
It comes in various colors and sizes, for male and female. Buy it now!

How to Make a Christmas Wreath

I recently made my first Christmas Wreath with my bf. It could've turned out better, but for our first time, it went pretty well.

Here's what you need:

1. 2 Wire Cloth Hangers
2. Thin Wire/Twistie Ties/Fishing Wire (Whatever is easier for you)
3. Plier/Scissors/Cutting tool
   
4. Collection of small fir branches with healthy leaves
5. Decorations of your choice
6. Red Bow

Here's what you do:

1. Take the cloth hangers and bend them into a circle shape, leaving the hook intact. The hook can be used for you to hook the wreath. Put both circle shaped hangers on top of one another. This will double the strength.
2. Start taking fir branches and piling them on the hangers, tying them to the hanger by using thin wire/twistie ties/fishing wire, etc. I find that it's easier to first secure the bigger branches on the hanger first, tying them with thin wire. Then start filling it out with the smaller branches, securing them by using twistie ties. Make sure the fir branches are all facing the same direction along the circle.
3. Keep filling out the wreath. Pick up the wreath once in a while to see which empty spots need filling
4. After you're done, you should have a full looking wreath. Now all you need to do is decorate it. Twistie tie the bow on, and any decoration you wish. Some suggestions are pine cones and berries.

That's pretty much it - quite easy to do! Here's the outcome of our wreath:

It would've look better if we place a shorter bow at the bottom of the wreath. Our mistake was we only used one cloth hanger instead of doubling it up. So the bottom was drooping downwards. To make the wreath look anything remotely like a circle, we tie the bottom to the top with fishing wire. And we put that long bow at the top to let it drape downwards, covering the wires.

Feel free to share pictures of your own handmade wreath! Post a comment here with a link to your wreath, or email us at daibebeads (at) gmail (dot) com.

Dealing with Ignorance

Hi everyone! Sorry we haven't been blogging of late. It's the holiday so as you can imagine, we've been very busy!

Now, I don't like to air out personal issues in our public blog. But this is an exception. The real reason why we haven't blog is because I recently received a racist hate message and have been dealing with that since - yes that's right, an ignorant filled message about how Asians should be killed and how we eat cats and how we need to get back on our raft and leave. But the way the message was written, it wasn't some random racist attacking me, it was someone I know (from the way they described how I look like, to how she talked about my two cats, etc).

Usually the best way to handle these people is do not give them the satisfaction. But I had an idea who it was so I replied and defended Asians and myself, trying to provoke this person and get more info out of her. And as expected, she started revealing more and more of her personality each time she replies. Little did she know, while she's busy replying, I tracked down her IP address and is able to trace to the region she was at. And as I suspected, it was my bf's ex (I didn't know anyone else who lives in that region, so it was obvious.)

I've always suspected that when my bf and I started dating, she probably thought she had a chance to go back to him. They were already broken up, my bf was ready to move on, but she was trying to find every excuse in the book to see him. It was getting tiring. But as soon as my bf and I established that we were a couple, she saw she had no chance and finally moved out of state to live with her family.

But then the real trouble starts. She's obsessed! She won't leave my bf alone. When she moved out of state, she "accidently" took my bf's tax forms and bank records with her....And then the unspeakable, she got into my bf's paypal and took $1,000 from him. To this date he has yet to get it back. So when I started getting these racist hate messages, I knew it had to be her. I'm a generally easy-going person, I didn't think I can cause such hatred in anyone... except for a jealous ex.

Whatever the motives were, pulling the race card is a new low.

I sincerely hope that she can somehow move on with her life.

Weekly Featured Seller: Erin Lillies

A word that comes to mine when seeing this week's featured seller's jewelry is elegance. Erin Lillies' craft is stylish and classy. Let's meet her:

1. What is the name of your store and what do you sell?
Erin Lilies - Handcrafted Artisan Designs. I sell primarily jewelry in my etsy store, but will soon be offering jewelry boxes and pens.

2. How did you get into your craft?
I began making my own jewelry a few years ago. It stems from my love of all things shiny. My husband would frequently lose track of me in a store as a result. So instead of searching through the pretty, shiny items, I decided to start making them.

3. What is your latest project?
My latest project (which I hope to list within the next couple of days) is a phoenix pendant. It's so cool and I can't wait to share with everyone.

4. Where can we find your products?
You can find me on etsy at http://erinlilies.etsy.com or my main site: http://www.erinlilies.com.