Requiem Art

This is the not-quite-secret pattern I was developing for PUDDLE 2013. I didn’t have time to make a new pattern for Pullip (all body options) AND Taeyang AND Isul AND Dal, but I could make something that all of them could use.

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This is the last one, because I’m leaving at the crack of dawn to sit in traffic to get to the air port tomorrow.

Woo!  Hootercon 2013!

Yowza, my Panda’s hair is turning white!

Someone’s all done and ready to debut at PUDDLE!

Alrighty, I have finally monkeyed with Tumblr enough that I think I will be staying there. So:

http://requiemart.tumblr.com/

If you would like to add me there to get updates instead of coming here to see them. I’m thinking Twitter next, possibly Instagram.

Late adopter? Absolutely! The problem with social media is that I only have so much time. The more things I’m on, the thinner I’m spread. For the most part I’m only checking these things once a day, briefly, to update and make sure there’s nothing I need to respond to. And in the social media world, most people assume that means I’m purposefully ignoring them/dissing them or whatever. I’m not, I’m just really not online that much ^^;

I’m almost done with my PUDDLE prep, but then, Puddle is Friday, so I damn well better be. I apologize, because blogging has been pushed to the bottom of the list. PUDDLE isn’t at the top of the list, either. The top right now is “Work” because naturally now that I have something I really need to get done, we get a work surge. Last Thursday I started working at 5:30 AM and finished up at 8PM. Ugh.

But ALMOST done! Yay! I’d show pictures, but some of this stuff is for PUDDLE, I don’t want to show it until after.

But I can share the following updates:
The next pattern pack for MH girls will be based off of the prototype Coffin Bean Draculaura outfit. This one:

AKA the awesome one with the puffy sleeves and corset that was released with neither? It will include a puffy-sleeved blouse (with short and long sleeve versions), corset, skirt, tights and possibly a one-piece dress variation of the blouse depending on how much space I have left on the pattern sheet.

The next pattern pack for MH boys will be a shirt pack. It will have 1 T-shirt, 1 Raglan, and 1 collared shirt, all with short sleeve/long sleeve variations. Not as exciting, but extremely useful.

Everything else I’m working on right now is PUDDLE-related, but hey, only 6 days left!

Alright, so I’ve been looking for the new 13 Wishes dolls… not all that intensively, I’ll admit, but still looking. All I find is Scaris dolls, and I look at this Jinafire and go “There is something… different about this doll. She looks better than my doll. What is it? Read more »

I know, I own a byul.  Shocking, isn’t it?  Just the one.

Anyway, I’m having difficulty working with fleece for dolls.  It doesn’t drape right.  I’ve tried both elastic bands and ribbing for the wrist/ankle closures, but it’s not working so good.  I think I will try again with a different fabric.

Ok, I have another pattern poll for you.

I’ve been taking a lot of suggestions as to what kind of patterns people want.  I have some interesting sets planned, BUT I have a question for you all: What do I do about doubles? All of the pattern books I’ve bought have them, even in the same book.  You see three or four different styles of a shirt, then you flip to the pattern index and find out that the exact same pattern was used, just with different materials/embellishments.  In between books, there is even more repeating.  But I’m not making books, I’m making mini-pattern packs.

I try to include as many pattern pieces and variations per pack as possible, but after I release a pants pack for Monster High boys that has a bunch of different styles of pants, what do I do if I want to release a suit pack?  Should I say “Please purchase pants pack to complete look” and leave the pants pattern out, include a really basic pants pattern if I can fit it in, and say “For more pant styles and options, purchase the pants pack”, or include the pants pattern at the cost of other pattern pieces I might have included, like a vest or cummerbund or tie styles?

Each option has its merits.  For people who already have the pants pattern, there is more value in getting more pattern pieces and not having repeats.  For people who are trying patterns for the first time, they would want to have all the needed pieces included.  I think the last option is probably the best, if I can do it, but for some patterns with a lot of pieces, space is very limited.  I didn’t have enough space to fit a tie pattern into the Monster High Ghouls School Uniform, for example (it’s just a rectangle) so I wrote in instructions in the pattern instead.  So there is a very real chance that including even a basic version would be nudging out other pieces.

Why not just make patterns more pages, I hear you ask.  Well… here’s the problem with that.  I limit the patterns currently to one page of pattern pieces + instructions for $3.  If I want to keep the patterns cheap, I have to stick with that.

So um… little help?

All righty, the shenanigans at Flickr have been causing me to do some thinking.  I could migrate to Ipernity… and then have to migrate again when ipernity sells out to Yahoo or goes defunct or whatever. Solution: The only way to have total control of my image galleries is to move them back to the website.  So I’ve been looking at some plugins that will allow me to do that.

Next: if I migrate my image galleries back to my website, I will lose a lot of the social functions I enjoyed through Flickr.  However, that was dropping off even before they revised their website.  Solution: look into other social media.  I expect I will remain active on Flickr, as well as Ipernity to keep up with my contacts in those places, but both platforms are dying.  I understand why Flickr did such a massive redesign, its just I think they went about it the wrong way, and rushed the finished product out before it was ready.  So right now I’m looking at twitter, tumblr, pinterest, and, er… possibly facebook.  I’ve never lasted more than 10 minutes on facebook though, so that’s unlikely ^^;

Lastly: I think I probably need to have a shop attached to the website, so that I can sell things with an easy user interface that doesn’t require signing up for etsy or ebay or whatever.  I’m quite happy with etsy, but I do get a lot of people contacting me because they want to buy something but don’t want to have to sign up for etsy.   So I’m going to try to find a plugin that will do that, too.

That’s all for now.  Mostly things going on the website now are me fiddling behind the scenes with scripts and plugins.  Hope I don’t break anything beyond repair :D