Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Day 8 (belated)

[kerravonsen]

Day 8

In your own space, talk about setting yourself a fannish goal. Big or small, it doesn't matter. Some examples: complete a bingo, sign up for a Big Bang, write that fic you've been thinking about for years, podfic that story that you love, make a fanmix for your fandom, post that bit of meta or reclist you keep putting off. Maybe resolve to be better at leaving feedback or answering comments. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

Hmmmmm.
I think I will have a few fannish goals for this coming year. Not too many, not too unrealistic, or I will just be discouraged.

1. Uploads: to go through last year's tthdrabbles drabbles and actually upload them to all my archives.

2. Revision: to revise "Memoria Veritas" and upload it to all my archives.

3. Rewrite: to actually sit down and do the rewrite of "By Any Other Name" that I've been putting off for years.

4. Semi-fannish goal: make more jewellery that is symbolic rather than just pretty. This is semi-fannish because some pieces will be more fannish than others.

All of those (apart from #4) are a sort of clearing-the-decks exercise, but it will be a weight off my mind when they're done.



In regard to #4... I'm not sure what to do with the pieces when they are actually done. I know some people would say "open an Etsy store" but I feel very uncomfortable about selling my jewellery, for several reasons:
(a) the money isn't worth the extra work & stress needed to run a side-business
(b) people wouldn't be willing to pay the amount of money my pieces are really worth, taking into consideration the long hours I spend on them
(c) making it a business turns it from play into work; it takes all the fun out of it
(d) there's just something about selling my work that drains the love out of it

Now, normally, I just give my jewellery as gifts to my family and near friends, and I tend to make enough pieces a year to cover that, but with my new goal... if I make fannish pieces of jewellery, there's no point in giving them to my family, because they aren't fannish. Well, mostly not fannish. If I were to give any of them something LotR or Narnia themed, I'm sure they would appreciate it, but if I were to give one of them something SS/HG themed, they wouldn't know what I was talking about (or worse, they would make a face. Not everyone shares the Snape-love).

And, to be frank, while I like y'all, you're not on my Christmas list, and I don't want to post my work overseas at my own cost just because someone might like it and I don't want to sell it. I'm not that generous.

I'm wondering... while I don't want to sell my work... I think it would be cool to exchange creative works. Because that feels like love for love, worth for worth, and not crass commercialism. Whether that be craftwork, artwork, fanfic... it's all creative, and worthy.
What do you creative peeps think? Would that work?

Comments

[kittylefish]

i think your idea about exchanging craftiness is a good one, and will no doubt make me wish i had something crafty to exchange too.

[kerravonsen]

You write fic, don't you?

[kittylefish]

well, yes, that is true. :)

[watervole]

Is there a convention local to you that has a charity auction? (Redemption falls into the 'posting at own expense' category, so I won't ask for that)

[kerravonsen]

Oh that's a good idea. I haven't been to local conventions for a while, but it just so happens that there's one happening in the middle of this year that I'd like to attend. (It helps if one knows someone on the committee...)

[watervole]

The great thing with an auction is that you know it will go to someone who will want and appreciate it.

THere's a guy who makes fannish cufflinks for Redemption and they always sell well.

[fred_mouse]

Someone else has already mentioned fannish auctions, so I will just second that as an option. The other thing that I have seen done is that crafty people that I know will sometimes put 'surplus to requirements' items up on their blogs, or will just put up all items to show them off (which I'm hoping that you will do - I'm am always interested in seeing how other people combine craft and fannishness), and then if there is something that someone is particularly interested in, they can enquire. If the emphasis is on the 'showing off', would that stop it becoming unfun work?

[kerravonsen]

Oh, I do intend to post pictures of stuff when it's finished. I usually do that anyway.

[fred_mouse]

yay! (I've not been keeping track of who has been posting what, other than the one person who occasionally posts quilting pictures, given that was the other reason I friended her).

[dozmuffinxc.livejournal.com]

I've always been interested in exchanging crafty things, mainly because I'm like you; while I'm not against selling what I make, it's hard to decide on prices and often, the amount of time and energy you put into the items can never be measured in dollars, anyway. I would love to exchange work with you, though I doubt there's anything much I could make that would interest you.

Perhaps an LJ community for exchanging?

[kerravonsen]

I would love to exchange work with you, though I doubt there's anything much I could make that would interest you.

Milady, you sew. You patchwork. How could you think I would not be interested?

Perhaps an LJ community for exchanging?

I'm not sure I want to do that much organizing...

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

How about you offer them to fannish friends for a donation to a charity of your choice? You could do a first come first served basis or an auction. I certainly would be willing to donate and offer to pay postage too.

[kerravonsen]

Hmmmm. That might actually work. Thank you for the suggestion!