New Year New Plans

I love to make plans and set goals for the coming year, realistic ones and with a plan.  

I usually make notes for a couple weeks leading up to the Winter Solstice and then spend that day in a ritual of comfort foods, notebooks, lit candles and meditation, always coming out of it feeling rejuvenated and inspired for the coming year.

I've been creating and selling metal jewelry for about five years now.  I love, it's creative, it's a tangible thing, it's abstract and it's art.  However I also need to profit from it to justify doing it.  It's my schedule C income that offsets my main taxes.  

This past year sales have dropped off.  I had hoped to get into more galleries, the one experience I had wasn't good, so I went back to online sales.  Honestly, the supplies sell better.

So I'm dropping J Gray Design for now.  I'll keep the Etsy shop open through January but I'm not making any new items.  I can sell off some of the tools and supplies in my supply shop JGD Supplies .

My main focus for 2019 will be to get back to my first love, photography, in black and white.  I love this medium, it's as close to fine art as I can get.  I'm not interested in portraits or weddings or babies, I just love creating a piece of fine art in black and white, whether it's scenic or still life.  It's challenging, it's fun and very creative.

I have a website at Fine Art America, Pixels actually, which I've used for a couple years.  I have my domain name pointing there now, www.jenigrayphotography.com , but I hope to sign up with Zenfolio soon and that may become my main site.

I'd also like to try some additional Print On Demand sites like Society 6 and RedBubble.

I'll be changing the names of this blog and my Facebook page and make an announcement there.  I'm sure my jewelry fans will be disappointed and they're under no obligation to stay connected.

Moving forward I want to share articles and tips on photography, but from the artistic point of view.  The internet is already flooded with tutorials and technical jargon.  I already have an extensive collection of blog posts from previous versions of this blog.

So hopefully, moving forward, I'll be more content and less stressed about creating and selling a product.  It doesn't cost me anything to create a beautiful photograph, just the sites I host them on and of course cost to print, but that's after the purchase.

I hope this finds you looking forward to something fresh for the coming new year.