This Week’s Giveaway: Brandy from Uncommon Threads!

Check out this wonderful little purse — so cheerful for spring!  Thank you to Brandy who is giving it away here on ItsKizmit! Want to win?  Comment here — about anything!

Giveaway from Our Uncommon Threads

Love it?  Check out her shop!  http://www.etsy.com/shop/ouruncommonthreads

This Week’s Feature: Rachel Steck

In Her Own Words…

Hey!

My name is Rachel Steck and I run Rachels Crafts www.etsy.com/shop/rachinator87 on Etsy.  I live in Orlando with my Fiance, Camilo (the one in the pic with me).  In my shop I do 2 things, I make and sell hemp jewelry with or without beads, and I knit.  I knit scarves, hats, blankets, book covers and purses.

Rachel Steck -- This Week's Feature

My typical day is jam packed, I have to wake up at 7:30 am and knit a little before i have to get ready for work, then once I get home at 7 pm I have to get dinner ready, study for college, me and my fiance go to workout, then come home and knit some more!  My passions are knitting, i have been doing it since I was 15 (now I’m 22).  I love coming up with new designs and patterns and scarf ideas.

Scarves by Rachel Steck

One of my goals is to one day own my own bakery, but if my knitting picks up, I’d be happy to do that!  Another goal would be to quit my day job and have my knitting completely support me.   My ideal day would be to wake up early, start a new scarf with an awesome design and knit, knit, knit! (Starting a scarf is the funnest part for me, because there is so much potential!)

A few things inspired me to try and start my own small business and knit.  My dad used to own his own business and I saw that he could do it, so why can’t I?  My mom is another influence, she taught me how to knit and always has faith in me, and both my parents always supported me through all my endeavors.  The last things that inspired me is my friends.  At work one day I was knitting my fiance something, and one of my friends wanted me to knit them something, then the next day it was someone else, by the end of the week I was making 10 people things!  It really made me realize that people like what I’m doing and they see how passionate I am about knitting.  My motivation is the beauty of the scarf.  I take pride in my work and I strive to make my customers happy with my beautiful work!”

Overloaded!

Am I the only one, or is it some sort of curse on creative people to always take on more than you can do?  I guess when you’re passionate about what you do, it’s hard to say no to a fun new project.  I have been swamped lately, and ItsKizmit! is a fun project for me, so I may be switching over to a blog format to make it a little easier to maintain for a  while.  Also, I’ll probably start making changes on Tuesday since I work on Monday — why didn’t I think of that sooner?

Hope that’s okay with you guys

What is Art?

I picked a heavy topic for this week: what is art? How do you define it?

I’ll never forget when I enrolled in a fine arts program freshman year of college, having not a clue what I was getting into, and found myself in a Modern Art class.  Before that class, I was definitely one of those people who thought Jackson Pollack just threw paint on a canvas and basically got lucky.  He’d tricked everyone in the art world into thinking he was special.

But after I truly studied Pollack, Rothko, and so many others, it started to make sense that you can’t define art as simply the the realistic portrayal of actual life (i.e. Renaissance artists).  It sounds silly, but it had never even occurred to me that the invention of the camera had a radical effect on art: if all you had to do was snap a picture, what good was a really great painting of a real life event?  Art had to reinvent itself and broaden its horizons.

Then you have that problem, though, of where does it end?  Certainly some aspects of contemporary art go towards the extreme — everything from the completely ridiculous to the shocking to the disturbing.

So, what does art mean to you?

CREATIVE DIFFERENCES: Where’s the line?

It happens in the creative fields all the time: you have a vision or a standard of some kind, but your client has a totally different idea.  As a designer myself, I find it so agonizing to address this issue, especially because when you’re trying to build your portfolio, you want everything to be flawless.  How do you handle it?  Do you say nothing, and go with the flow?  Or do you press the issue?  When you show the work to future clients, do you tell them that it wasn’t how you would have done it?

Welcome! Its Kizmit launching on March 8!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Its Kizmit blog.  As a supplement to the website, this blog will be a place to discuss topics pertaining to freelancers, entrepreneurs, and independent artists & designers.  Check back for the first topic of discussion on March 8, along with the new website going up!

Check out the website: www.itskizmit.com!