The 100 Day Project, Day 1 — An Unexpected Early Start!
Proof that life seldom unfolds as planned...
Today has inadvertently turned into Day One of The 100-day Project! We are off and running!
Today's share on the Facebook page!
What Had Happened Was...
The underlying reason for this is that the Podcast interview that was originally scheduled for today, is in fact going to happen tomorrow instead, due to a scheduling conflict by the podcaster. Good thing it's a pre-recorded show, not live! I'm still very excited about this because this is a chance to talk about my work to an audience of several thousand people — this particular person is (I guess) what you would call a "C-list Celebrity."
It's also cool because their podcast goes out to a demographic that has historically been very good for Alchemy Stones: the ghost and paranormal enthusiasts, which — for some reason — really like my work.
Two designs take shape for today's creative work.
Onwards, to the Challenge!
So what am I learning here on day one?
Indeed, it only takes a couple of minutes to actually put a post up on twitter, Instagram, or the Facebook page. But what takes a lot more time than that to take an appropriate photo, format it to where it's attractive and web browsing friendly, adding some meaningful text to provide context, remembering to tag it appropriately and then post it.
Of course there are a lot of people who would read that statement and say "well, most people don't bother with that!" and therein perhaps lies the root of my frustration with social media. It's 99.9% crap, and 0.1% something halfway worthwhile.
I want to be in that 0.1%.
The other thing I'm learning about is how to "sandwich" in creative work during an already jammed schedule.
Turning them into a bit of a pinwheel design
The way this worked out today was I got up, fielded all my morning emails, then I had to run to town to go to the post office with packages, the bank and then to the supermarket to do the "big shopping" because we have guests coming over for dinner for several days in a row this week, which all takes a lot of prep time.
Since I like to photograph my work during daylight — to avoid having a nasty yellow cast on it from lighting — now I had to sandwich in 15 minutes of creativity between putting away the groceries and a 4:00pm meeting.
Well, that just didn't happen!
Where as I absolutely got the creative work done, it wasn't until after dark, and it was certainly a suboptimal way of working and — if anything — somewhat annoying.
But then I have to remind myself that a large part of why I'm part of this project is because I'm trying to teach myself the habits I need to do stuff that annoys me so that I can promote my work.
The painted stones. They will now "cure" for about a week before getting a durable lacquer finish coat.
Day 1 Summary:
Two stones painted; they are now on the shelf to "cure" for a week before getting their finish coat. Part of the process pictured in this post.
Daily Twitter/X post: Check. Also tried to engage a little, and look for new people to follow.
Daily Facebook Page post: Check. Single photo post.
Daily Instagram post: Fail. Just couldn't find the time, and my phone wouldn't log in.
Other Stuff: This Hive post, of course. Otherwise nothing. Daily shoutout to @gillianpearce!
A decent — albeit not perfect — start. Tomorrow is the podcast interview, so another challenging day ahead!
I appreciate you coming to visit and please do leave a comment if you feel so inclined!
Thank You!
If you enjoy painted rocks, do check out The Hive Rocks Project and help spread the word about Hive, while also being creative!
Because I am trying to make some semblance of income — a part time living, even — I now add this footer to all my posts, in the hope that someone, somewhere, might decide to take a further look at my work, and perhaps consider supporting independent art.
Thank you, in advance, for your consideration and support!
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2024.02.20 AS-TXT-200/168
Seems like a perfect start to me. You got plenty done even with all the other "life" stuff happening. Well done for getting started even though the podcast date changed.
Your photographs are beautiful. Especially the top one which you've obviousy taken alot of time over. When I was selling online the photography was my least favourite part. It just takes too much time. But I felt it had to be done.
My intention for the challenge is to be OK with being one of the 99.9% and just get something posted but, yesterday, I found myself fiddling with the photo of the picture which, was a waste of time. It looked completely different on my laptop than it did on my phone and neither looked even close to the real thing. 😂
CHeering you on for Day 2!
Well, thank you! I guess I navigated it pretty well, all in all.
I never minded the actual photography too much, it was the post-processing and formatting that felt like a drag. But it has to be done... still, we can only do so much to get it right, as you experienced with your phone and laptop.
Looking forward to a link once the podcast interview drops!
I'll definitely be sharing it! It'll be interesting to see how it goes, and how she approaches the interview, since it's a "team" gig with my wife.