Christmas in July

What a wonderful idea - Christmas in July Sale.

Since I still have some ornaments that I painted I thought this would be a great idea. I made some of my little 6 sided gift boxes to go with some of them to be sold as a set. I'm also listing some without the boxes, but giving people the option of buying one to go with it.

I admit I have a hard time coming up with prices. Especially for something that I haven't really been able to find something similar to it. I go back and forth thinking I'm charging too much to thinking I'm not charging enough. Especially when I start figuring in the time spent taking pictures of each ornament. At least 5 pictures per ornament. And then there's the sorting through the pictures, cropping, resizing, and then of course posting. I'm pretty much copying similar descriptions from one ornament to another.

The ornaments are quite a process. Since most of the ornaments are "found" or from a thrift store and have the original paint on them - I have to get that paint off. I soak them in a solution trying to keep it out of the inside - then rinse them off and gently scrape any remaining paint off.

Then dry them. Hand drying them is a necessity with our hard water. Then go over them with a glass conditioner. The fun part is deciding on a design. Some of them are a free form abstract style, some have an abstract flower, or a specific flower. A few have SW style designs. I'm not Native American and I don't claim that they are painted by a Native American, but I'm definitely influenced by their art. I've lived here most of my life and I love the designs and the meaning of many of the designs.

I use a glass paint - not the acrylic kind that you bake on - that stuff does come off. The paint I use is pretty durable. I can't attest to just how durable - but I do have some glassware that I painted that I've used for 3+ years that gets washed in the dishwasher at least monthly and the paint still looks as good as the day I painted it.

I've been trying to finish up a few that I left unfinished. I've also started a few new pieces. But it seems like I have spent so much time taking pictures, sorting and resizing etc I haven't had much time to paint. Some of the ornaments have been really tricky to get good pics of. The sun glares off of them - I try it on a coudy day and the shadows are too dark. I think I'll try making a light screen somehow. Something lightweight almost sheer and see how that works.