Monday, May 28, 2012

Do you know Easy Crafts to Sell?

With the cost of living rising by the day, it is becoming increasingly important for households to have more than one sources of income. For the artistic, one way of having another source of income is by making easy crafts to sell. Ideas for the crafts to make may dwindle after some time for most people and if you are one of them, here are some ideas that could be of help to you.

Crocheted items will never go out of style regardless of what comes into fashion. You can do well with items such as scarves, hats and sweaters as long as you do not tread along the already beaten down path. To be successful when making the items you need to plan and put extra effort into it. The effort and planning will have to be directed at knowing what sells, the places with the best patterns and prices.

Another item in the easy crafts to sell category and that you can make and make profit is a handmade broom. The best thing about this sort of craft is that you most people prefer them because they are more durable as compared to the ones that are made from plastic. You can choose to sell the brooms in bulk or per piece

Another good form of craft is the handmade glassware and such items include vases, photo frames and so on. While selling glassware especially over the internet you should ensure that you have taken care of all the transport logistics because if something goes wrong in shipping you could end up losing your whole consignment.

While most people are now into making crafts, many of them do not bath products which if made uniquely, can attract quite a number of clients. Aroma soaps, herbal soaps, hand washing soaps and so on are some of the bath products that can help you rake in a tidy amount.

Ornaments are also among the common ornaments that can be made in the home and you do not have to limit yourself to those that will be worn by women. There are ornaments that can be worn by men and children as well and since not many people make ornaments for these two groups, you can try your hand at that. Candles are very important items in most home as they can be used when power goes off, for bathing and also at dinner. If you know one or two things about making candles you should also give it a try as it will be a lucrative form of craft.

Knowing the easy crafts to sell is not only what is required of you as you will also need to know the correct procedures to make them actually sell. The best place to start is to know where to place your products, follow up on advertising procedures and embrace all the marketing skills you can get.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

The Right Breathing Exercises for Singing

When you breathe normally while you’re just sitting down and minding your own business, your breathing tends to be shallow. You don't take deep breaths; you just breathe lightly, pause and breathe again. That's not how it goes when you need to sing.   When you first start your singing exercises, you'll find that you can no longer just let your breathing do its own thing. You need to actually think about getting your breathing going just the way it should to power your singing properly. There are all kinds of Breathing Exercises for Singing well that you need to take up to make sure that this goes well.

The thing is, the kind of control you need to sing powerfully needs timing and power. You need to start thinking about how you’re breathing. One way to do this would be to actually be aware of how you breathe. You want to be able to visualize it. That way, you'll be aware of what your respiratory system does, even when you're not thinking about it. You'll be able to control how it acts.

When you inhale to sing, you need to be able to do it quickly between song phrases so that there is no interruption. The music can't wait. You can’t do it at your leisure. To be able to breathe completely in a limited period of time, try the following exercises.

You need to breathe air in like it were heavy is water.  Know how really humid air - like in a steam bath - feels really heavy? Breathing air in, you need to visualize how heavy it feels. As you breathe in, you want to feel it settle into your body cavity. Make it feel like it's going so low in your body to settle in that it's reaching your abdomen. This will help you feel the air and control it.

As you do this, you will gain control over your breathing. While still feeling the weight of the air and feeling it settle into your body. You want to breathe in the air and feel your chest expand. Basically, you're trying to power up your lungs and every part of your chest cavity so that they can pull in a lot of air in a short period of time.

At first, if you're learning the right way, you'll find that you are beginning to yawn all the time. It doesn't mean you're getting bored or anything. It just means that your body is trying to cope with all the excess air coming in, trying to balance it out. It always happens to everyone.

So okay, you're learning to breathe in. How about breathing exercises for singing that help you exhale? Those happen to be very important, too. The thing is that singing only occurs when you exhale. Singing is a kind of controlled exhaling. Basically, you want to be able to hold your breath in and let it out in whatever slow and steady weight the music requires.

To do this, try this exercise. Get a feather and blow it up in the air as high as it will go. But when you do this, you don't want to let your chest collapse. Try to feel what part of your body you need to exert to exhale in a sustained way without moving your chest. And try to control that part. Breathing exercises for singing like these really work.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

My Mixed Feelings On Abstract Art Paintings

I have been a great lover of art since I was a child, and my likes are many and diverse. I do tend to struggle a bit more, however, with abstract art paintings, because I think sometimes the artists that create them are trying to be too clever. I will not say that I dislike abstract art paintings as a whole, but I would say that my feelings toward them are somewhat mixed.

I remember making a trip to our local museum of modern art, which houses numerous abstract art paintings. This was a few years ago, and I decided to go because I had always appreciated representational art work, but had struggled to understand abstract work. I think what bothered me the most is that I always felt one had to know about the artist himself in order to get the meaning behind the work when it came to abstract art paintings, and quite honestly, that was not always possible.

I hate the idea of art for art's sake, and I really don't like thinking that people are becoming wealthy by making art that they refuse to explain. How do we know they even meant anything at all, for instance, and aren't just laughing at us behind our backs. I also hate the idea of people getting rich off of their reputations, which it seems that artists that create abstract art paintings would be more likely to do. I am not accusing any artist of doing this, but because it is abstract and because many will not explain their work, one never really knows for certain.

On the other hand, I have encountered abstract art paintings that have really moved me to the point of tears. I remember one such painting that was meant to represent a family attending the burial of a young boy. I really can't explain why I got this painting immediately, but I did. I felt it, and I went home shortly after viewing it and researched it a bit. I was right on the money on my interpretation of the painting, and it meant so much to me that I could figure it out on my own that it will always hold a special place in my heart.

My feelings are definitely still mixed on abstract art paintings, and I am still not totally convinced that I like them. I have gotten better at interpreting them, I believe, and that does make them more palatable in my book. I don't go to our museum of modern art nearly as often as I go to the museum that houses classic art, but I do enjoy it more than I used to.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

How to Buy Reproduction Paintings as an Investment

People often believe that investing in art is only for the very rich. But there's a part to the art investment market that's open to the rest of us - it's the market that deals in reproduction paintings.

A printed copy of a painting will have no value other than what you pay for the print quality. Reproduction paintings on the other hand are real paintings. They are real paintings done by skilled artists, who will get the original and try to reproduce it by hand. They are artistic works, and they have worth.

If you love art, investing in reproduction paintings could be for you. But you do have to make sure that you know what you’re doing. Here are a few areas where you could make mistakes, and how to steer clear of them.

When you don't have that much experience in art appreciation, you can often let your enthusiasm run away with you. If you find that there's a particular artist whose work you have felt appreciation for in the past, it's only natural that you would right away overgeneralize and think that all whatever that artist makes is probably good as gold.

It never works out that way. No matter what kind of artist it is that your thinking of, artists have limited capacity for great work. Make sure that you study each piece of art closely before you put any money down for it. Investing in reproduction paintings may be easier than investing in real paintings. But it still does involve skill.

And you really do have to be serious about studying the painting you buy. To look at the thumbnail will not do. You have to make sure you understand what the painting is about, or you need to read somewhere about what it might be worth.

Reproduction paintings are often made and sold by companies that employ skilled artists. Basically, you really need to know a company to make sure that they are good at what they do. Reproduction paintings need to really be painted by experts to be of any worth.

We all hate paying for shipping. When you buy a painting like this online, you might be tempted to choose the cheapest possible mailing method. After all, how could a painting break or get damaged with a little reugh handling?

Actually, there are plenty of ways in which that could happen. Remember - it's paint, not print. Heat, high humidity, moisture or dryness, could easily leave their mark.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Giving in to Temptation and Getting Stained Glass Windows

It is not just that stained-glass windows at home can really light things up. It's also that stained-glass has traditionally been associated with palaces and cathedrals - places that people love to look up to. To have stained-glass windows at home just makes you feel better psychologically, than mere regular windows ever could. They positively feel royal or something. Some people just love to have small replicas of the stained-glass designs in the Notre Dame or the Vatican in their homes. It transports them to another realm.

Stained-glass windows are also known by another name - art glass. Traditionally, stained glass has always been about intricately-designed imagery to do with biblical events. These days, ordering a beautiful stained glass window for your home is easier than you might think. Art glass dealers are all over the Internet now. You can shop around and make a great choice right at home. The shopping process should be a lot easier if you would take the trouble to learn a little about stained glass though.

Okay, let's start at the bottom. Stained-glass is just simple glass, except that it's permanently colored with the help of certain metallic compounds that are added to the glass when it's in molten condition. It isn't just the way stained-glass is cut and put into place in a window that makes it special. The very staining process is considered an expert art form. High-quality stained-glass can be exquisitely beautiful in the way it appears lustrous and gem-like.

They always make lighting products like Tiffany lamps or windows with stained-glass. When light passes through beautifully colored glass, the true beauty of the glass really comes through. The one thing you want to be careful about when you buy stained glass windows is that their effect can be quite powerful. When there is even a small stained-glass window in a room, anyone walking in the door is right away going to be transfixed by it. It's going to become the focal point of the room. In other words, a stained-glass window isn't ever an afterthought. So you think out the rest of the decor after that window comes in.

Some people worry about the kind of insulation from the weather outside that stained glass can provide. Usually, when we install any kind of window these days, it's glazed and insulated. It is a fair question to ask, what kind of insulation stained-glass is able to provide.

They certainly don't make double glazed stained-glass windows. But they do manufacture modern stained-glass for better resistance to temperatures. So it doesn't have to be as bad as you imagine. And you can take a little comfort in the way stained-glass has better shattering qualities. Since it's heat-treated, when it breaks, it completely breaks into smithereens. That's safer than glass that breaks into large and sharp shards.