Mon, 24 Jul 2023

Is a mid-blog crisis a thing? Because I think I'm having one.

I got the embroidery machine to make precision fabric sculptures, like the Greater Sea Dragon and such. They sold okay, though not up to where I was actually making more than a nickel per hour. And then I started to experiment with more details, especially in the head, with the Love Dragon, a/k/a Dragonheart, a/k/a the Pink Squirrel Dragon and the Celestial, a/k/a Space Noodle.

And then I just... stopped. I finished Dragonheart, then revised its head, and still am not happy with it. I really really wanted to use the "lemon" cabs but they are really too big, and I should re-head it yet again with one of the smaller sparklies I've acquired since.

I also wanted to sell designs because I was pretty sure I could make 3D plush on the embroidery machine and revolutionize in-the-hoop plush making. I was right about the former, not so much about the latter. Turns out the 3D stuff doesn't go over all that well, and I don't know why. And so I've gradually come around, in my designs, to what are actually pretty mainstream designs.

Yesterday I realized I was making flamingo-floatie wreath designs. There's nothing nerdy about them. What have I become?

Part of the answer is that I've always been reminding myself "you are not your customer." I don't own any triple-digit dragon sculptures, fabric or otherwise, except maybe a Windstone. (The $30 I paid for my damaged Male Dragon in 1982-ish is, I guess, close to $100 today.) But it's very difficult to get feedback on designs - almost nobody ever comments on the monthly ones. They get downloaded, but I don't know if they get used. I just keep flinging them out in the void, and hoping that the favorites I get on the demos on Instagram are indicative of something.

Anyway, now I think I'll make a roleplaying-themed wreath design, even if it's only for my own house.