Kawaii

I have a confession - I'm a bit of a closet otaku, and I like kawaii stuff. If all of this is Greek to you (well, actually, it's Japanese, but you take my meaning), don't worry about it. Kawaii embodies that peculiarly Japanese cultural phenomenon of cuteness, the most famous example of which is probably the Hello Kitty brand. I'm not a big Hello Kitty fan (although I do like Hello Kitty's associates, the wide-eyed Chococat and surly penguin Badtz-Maru), but I like the more generic kawaii stuff that you see all over the place on Japanese products, like cute desserts and animals. This bear is pretty typical of the phenomenon.

I recently ordered a bunch of things from Japan, with the idea that the kawaii images would make cute charm bracelets. I made this one as sort of a prototype. It's actually probably the most serious-looking of the bunch, but he kind of appealed to me. I'm planning on making myself an entire bracelet of kawaii grocery store images. Yep, that's right - kawaii groceries. It's wacky, but I love this stuff!

Oh, and I just listed my first sale item in the store. I have no idea if anyone will be interested or not, but I'll just mention it. Air bubbles are definitely my enemy when working with resin, and they often sneak up on me while I'm in the middle of the curing process. I was making one of my better koi pendants when I noticed that an air bubble had appeared under the lower fin of the koi (the koi's "armpit", as the Husband calls it). Unfortunately, it was too late to remove it, as the resin had already set around the bubble. However, the koi still looks great (in my humble opinion, of course - I guess it depends on whether you like my koi or not to begin with) and the air bubble is really hardly noticeable, so I've put it up in the shop at a 20% discount. It's features in my Mini-Etsy window on my blog which is to the right of this entry, if anyone is interested in a closer look.

I'm still trying to make headway on some more serious non-Etsy finished pieces. I've also resolved to prepare a few pieces for competition next year, and I've started the preliminary design process for that. I wish there were a few more hours in the day for all of this. I still hope to have a new piece ready to show you this coming week - but I said that last week, too, didn't I?

On other fronts, HP14 and HP4 (aka, the Monkees) have been settling in nicely, and they've been getting along famously with the Short One. I've had to keep a sharp eye on the group - who knows what mischief they could be getting into (the SO can be quite creative that way all by himself).

Thanks for visiting - have a great week, everyone.

ps. I keep forgetting to add this. I still have not heard from Janel, the winner of my 100th Post Giveaway. Janel, please contact me at strandsofbeads@yahoo.com to arrange for shipment of your necklace!