#jade.blog

[jaderimehardt]

Layered Pendants! \o/

The new mold I bought a couple weeks ago, finally got here, and I've been messing around with it. These are interesting to say the least, lol.

The pedants are very thick, making it difficult to add a jump ring to it - even 14mm is too small unless I completely forego the doming on the backside and then the 14mm just looks funny when attached to a neckless cording. And you must work backwards with these, and in two different molds 😅.

I love how they turn out though. My solution is, use the smaller ones (where I can attach pendant bails behind them), or string ribbon through the larger ones instead of a jump ring. Expect to see a lot of that happening when I use these types of molds (or with these pendants, rather).

Some of my 'layers' are very transparent and hard to see in the (indirect) sunlight. I attempted to get pictures of these mixed against my skin and to show the variation.

I'm still very much toying around with these. Like, I want to try more things with these types of molds, and yet at the same time I kind of want to move forward with other types of things 🙃

A lot of these are the same color teal because I didn't realize how far one color would go. I mixed up five colors and... well. One color would run out really fast, while one color would last forever 😅.

I hope people like the ribbon solution. I cut them 28" long, and between looping them through the holes and cutting them off, they're probably sitting around 26-27" length - long enough to pull the necklace over your head.

There's another way I can think of to make them shorter and using lobster clasps- but it still comes back down to the ribbon so 🤷🏻‍♀️. That hole is too small to even consider wire wrapping. There is another type of stringing beaded wire though... hmm... not sure it'd look good 🤔 really think the ribbon is best and looks best.

[jaderimehardt]

I made little beach-ocean star & moons~ 🌊⭐🌙. First time attempting a beach trapped in resin and I'm not disappointed in myself LOL. I want to keep trying, I may have a knack for this.

Truly I want to try space in hemisphere orbs- but I'm working my way up to those (and I'm missing some materials). I like oceans a lot too though so heck yeah 👍🏻

I was testing my hand at stickers in bezels... the butterfly came out better than the flower but I think the flower could have turned out better if I didn't place it on BEFORE the glitter, lol. First time doing it and I learned from it so 🙃 not all was lost.

Used my extra glitter from the butterfly here and I really like how this turned out. There's some detail in the clouds that's hard to see- but if it's hard to see in the photos, that means it's going to be hard to see when you're wearing it too 🤷🏻‍♀️ kinda sad.

But I do really like that vibrant blue, and paired with the other two colors... think I'm just a space & ocean girl at heart lol.

[jaderimehardt]

Made more dragon medallion/pendants~ 🐉

I gave all of the last batch away as gifts. I didn't think they'd poof so easily, lol 😅. Definitely gotta make more.

[jaderimehardt]

I finally got around to making some dragon medallions/pendants! 🥰

I've been wanting to make these for literally months since I saw a youtuber make these.

She linked the website where she purchased the inlays and showed how she used the inlays with the UV resin, but I kind of learned a different process for it that results in less bubbles 🙃

I've only made these four so far but I do want to make many more 😊

The hardest part with these is centering the inlays and making sure the dragons/wizard are upright, lol. Sometimes they move slightly if you let the resin rest before curing, for the sake of letting bubbles to come to the surface or to let it cool down if you had used a lighter or heat gun, for example.

Because once they're in the resin they kind of "blend in" and I'm sitting there in my terribly lit garage going "uhhhhh....🤔...which way are you facing???" 🫠😖

Like the last pendants I had made (my octo ones), I'm very happy with these 🧙🏻‍♂️🐉❤️‍🔥

[jaderimehardt]

I'm finally able to work with resin again! \o/

It's going to come and go though- the weather is up and down like an unpredictable roller coaster. Even as I was out in my garage working on these, the temperature dropped below 70 F and I could see my resin begin to cure a little weird. I was like, oh... okay, whelp 🫠

I love these Octopus molds though! 🐙 Look how cute they are! When I first took these little guys out I was squee'ing in delight 😆. So adorable! 🥰💓

Of course I had to play around with the molds first to figure out what I could get away with (and vice versa- what I couldn't get away with, lol).

For some reason the angry babies have some slight issues curing? (maybe that's why they're so angry 😅) I'll do some digging to try and solve this.

This other mold is colored and not clear- so using things like mica and black/opaque colors in it with UV resin isn't exactly wise. That's not necessarily a bad thing though and I did manage to make one with mica + black background using thin layers and adding a black doming back.

But that being said, I didn't like the mica version with this mold. I much prefer the clear here 👆🏻. Especially the one with the "bubbles".

I didn't dome the teal one, but I did dome the blue one. (For the sake of trying different things.)

The mica + black backing one could look good for a rustic look now that I'm thinking on it. I didn't take a specific picture of it, but because it's a colored mold it didn't cure the best and I ended up with a ton of air pockets where the resin didn't "pick up" the mica.

Again that's something I'll go research more into. Not sure if I can fix that? Maybe a stronger lamp (though my lamp is already strong 🙃), or more curing time, or a thinner layer of resin (though in this case I already did as thin as I could lol 😅), or something I'm just not thinking of? Might have to use epoxy for this mold if I want to use mica 🤷🏻‍♀️

Either way, very happy with these! I love them 💖

I got the molds off of Etsy:

[jaderimehardt]

The weather has been looking warmer and dryer lately, but its still been quite windy. I spent the earlier half of the day gathering some flowers and drying them with a flower press (that I'm pretty sure I've linked before in a previous post), for some future resin projects.

The link is here if anyone is interested, and it's called "Aboofx Microwave Flower Press":

It's been so long since I last used it, I somewhat forgot how time consuming it was to dry things. I vaguely recalled it required intervals of 20 or 30 seconds of "zapping" the flowers on 8-power or on high, depending on the microwave, but I forgot the details inbetween 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think it depends on the flowers, to be honest, and the flowers I was picking in this case, were these:

Many of them were large, thick, waxy, and very hydrated- because it's been raining a lot.

I ended up having to "zap" them for 30-seconds about 5 times, more or less, with breaks inbetween where I took the kit out of the microwave, took the components apart, let it cool almost completely, before assembling them together again and zap it again.

Even doing this, I feel some are questionably not completely dry. But they'll be sitting in a container for a good bit before I sit them in resin. So, they'll have time to finish the drying process (if they even need it).

I kind of felt bad dismantling the flowers to be honest. They're so pretty~ 🫶🏻. Just know you'll be forever memorialized in resin pretty flowers~

It's interesting to me that the original flower was a bright red, and then once it dried it turned into this more maroon red.

I tried to save as much as I could from the flowers, but the white one was incredibly damaged and had a lot of sap on it.

It took about 4 hours to make all of this. I guess I can understand why people buy already pre-made dried flowers- because it's time consuming, lol 😅. But I mean... I don't mind this too much. Just requires a bit of patience.

The itty bitty white ones (on the right in the tin) I did on a different day. I honestly love those and I need to make more of them.

I probably should have dried the dandelion differently, but that was the first angle that came to mind 🤔. Next time I'll try something different. And I messed up a pink flower trying to figure out the drying situation with the kit... mistakes happen 🫠. RIP pink flower.

I saved one of the red flowers for another day. This whole thing just ran too long for me 🙃. It's sitting in a water cup downstairs brightening up our kitchen 🌹 (I actually have no idea what type of flowers these are if I'm honest.)

[jaderimehardt]

Re-Organizing Things 📦 & Resin Mask

My new Sterilite storage containers finally arrived in the mail today. A little late but that's okay- it's been rain storming again where I live. We even have predicted snow? Cali expected to get snow? 🌨️❄️ Hah. Yeah right. I'll believe it when I see it.

(No, that's not me being negative, that's me being grounded. I've lived here my entire life.)

But anyways! I bought these two containers to stack upon each other for basically two levels of flat surfaces, vs. the one flimsy (but cute) fabric cube I had before. These also have a seal that according to the website:

💠 "Gasket Boxes offer a gasketed seal to safeguard items from both air and moisture, keeping those special belongings safe from the elements, dust and pests."

Most my storage containers in the garage are like this because of this seal. Last thing I want is for moisture to get in and penetrate things. I see what happens to my soda boxes out there in the winter lol, they become soggy and warped and just yuck.

If you want the Walmart link to these exact ones, it's here: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite-Plastic-Storage-Container-12-Qt-Gasket-Box-1942-Clear-W-Blue-2-Pack/855654663. You can also find more just searching Sterilite. But they can get pricey- you're buying that fancy 'seal' after all.

Let me show some pictures.

Another reason I like these so much, and I believe I mentioned this, is because the bottom of them is flat. I don't mean a rounded-flat, I mean square-flat.

With most other containers, the edges will curve up so much you cant push items or boxes all the way to the edge and you lose so much room in the box. It's actually a huge let down- but not with these. You can clearly see I pushed a box all the way to the side and I'm losing none of my inner space. I love these containers.

Think I have more pictures of these in past blog posts where I'm storing bubble mailers and such in them.

Time to put them to the test with fitting my resin molds in them. I only have room for two in my shelving otherwise I'd totally buy more.

On the left is the "flimsy fabric cube" I was referring to above, lol.

But yes, these do fit all the things! And everything is flat for the most part. I'll have to do some digging to pull stuff out when I need it- which may become a bit obnoxious time to time... I wish I had room for more of these 🤔💭 even just one or two more. Especially with the way I keep buying molds 😅

I'll figure out something, and I might end up buying more of these.

(It's important to keep resin molds flat because you want your resin to cure flat. If your molds have curls or deformities, they're going to cure that way too. Ofc there are some exceptions- like some silicones are heavy/loose and bounce back, some molds are small, etc.)

I'm not trying to turn this into a total insert-product post or anything but it's kinda looking that way isn't it? 🙃🫠😅

Up until now I've only worked with UV Resin, but I'm going to change that this year and work with epoxy, and with that means I need to have proper protection equipment. If you're reading my stuff, I hope you're taking note of this and considering this yourself.

At first I just went to Amazon and searched for "resin mask" and "resin mask for women" or something simple and got a plethora of options, it was a bit overwhelming.

After reading through several items and many reviews, I almost settled upon one. Almost.

I then saw this comment.

And decided to look up some things. (Time to use some braincells~)

So, the mask I was looking at (that, that comment came from) was the mask + the filters + goggles. The price of it came to:

That one can be found here btw: https://a.co/d/hfoAiO5, and it looks like this:

BUT! Let's take a look at 3M like she's suggesting.

(Link: https://a.co/d/1XrdvGU) Kay...

(Link: https://a.co/d/atr8H4I) Okay...

Now we're just missing goggles. But there's many pairs of goggles out there, this is just the baseline for the mask + filter.

21$ for a cheapy wanna-be knockoff (and people are wishy-washy on its validity to keep you safe) vs. 40$ for the real deal.

Putting two and two together I was kind of like wait... this isn't adding up for me. The 20$ one kinda feels like a scammaz, y'know? Or maybe you can see it as a really good deal 🤷🏻‍♀️

If you're still not sure which is the best option at this point, let's find a pair of goggles.

(Link: https://a.co/d/frylBF6) My Bro uses this brand all the time at his construction job and look at the amount of reviews on this. In addition, the comments and vid reviews are great on them too.

Also in the reviews on these goggles, are a bunch of photos of people wearing these with the 3M mask and other types of masks. So they definitely work with masks- that is something I was looking for specifically.

Another thing I was being mindful of, is if they cut off your peripheral view cause that's a thing that drives me nuts. According to one of the video reviews- they do not, because of how they sit on your face/head 👍🏻

That puts us around the 52$ mark if I'm just averaging the price, not really doing actual math.

Yeah you could go the cheaper route and get a "knock-off" for 20$, but is it worth the risk? That's something you gotta assess for yourself, I guess. Personally I bought all of the separate things, I'd rather be safe than sorry. I did however link all these things here to provide information and options.

If you're going off the grid of information I've provided, just make sure to read reviews and watch video reviews. Make sure you can return the product. People are usually vocal if they have complaints about a product, but sometimes you have to judge that for yourself as well cause flukes do happen.

Or, in some cases people don't know how to install/operate things, they'll have user-errors and blame the company or product for their faults. Even if an item arrives damaged, they'll blame the company for the item's condition when it was more likely the fault of the Shipping Courier. In that case, is their customer support good? Is that mentioned in their reviews anywhere? Be mindful. Do research.

There might be better brands or options that I don't know of. I'll be the first to admit I don't know everything 🤷🏻‍♀️. I didn't even bother to consult my Bro on this (cause I'm not the type to just randomly dial up/text someone and be like heyyyy~ question~)

Can always consult Google and Youtube too with keywords like "Best Resin Mask" or "Best Resin Goggles". I didn't consider to do that this time around; Those are usually hit or miss for me. Most times they take you to websites of "Top 10 ___" and then they're super expensive out of budget items and 🫠 meh.

Edit: The mask stuff just got here!

The filter was very easy to install onto the mask and I don't smell anything weird coming from it.

It does fit me and it's adjustable- if anything it tricks me into feeling like it doesn't because I'm used to using a headset at the PC that sits more forward on the top of my head, and this sits far back on my head. That's going to take some getting used to. But it is secure, it's not going to fall off. It's like a loose helmet- It's a mask.

Exactly how Amazon reviews described this. When trying these on, I could see out my peripherals- which I love.

These sit up high on the cheeks and the nose, so they leave room for that 3M mask (or other masks). They're very clear, almost like you're not wearing anything at all. I'm surprised myself at how much I love these 💟 (stamp of approval)

[jaderimehardt]

I'm on a bit of an emotional roller coaster today...

[redacted]

I removed the rant 🫠 but thought I'd leave the ink links in.

The inks I bought:

I love making ocean scapes. This stuff looks amazing! I cannot wait to use this 💖

Let's Resin is a well known reputable brand 💗

There was an image I saw on another social media platform and it basically said "Don't underestimate the healing power of these three things... Music. The Ocean. Stars."

I sent it to my friends over Discord and I was like "Oh look, my three favorite things, lol" 💓 Add in Resin and Hitsu in there and make it five. (I'm going to lump Octo-friends and Jelly-friends with Ocean 🐙🪼)

Personally I always make my OC a lightning or Astral (light) wielder, but I love space, stars and the ocean 💖

[jaderimehardt]

I miss working with resin, adkjaskdj 🫠

Past few days I've been watching a ton of resin vids and I've been spending my 💰💸 on more resin things with a bit of... ehh... I don't want to say carelessness, but I can't say I've been sparing about it either, lol 😅

I'm trying to be smart about it, by just getting the "necessary" things, but then I see a Youtuber I'm subscribed to use Pinch Bails on these pendants that are massively thick, and I'm like "Omg! Why didn't I think to use that with my pendants instead of stringing ribbon through them?"

🤔 And then I realize, "Wait, I have Pinch Bails... Did I try them, and they just were not large enough?" So, I have to go back through all my stuff and re-measure and sure enough... yep! 🫠

Why are things more complicated than they should be? Lol.

But I mean... lookit them now, with the correct size pinch bails! 💖 (I ordered two more packs because I'll be using these on ALL my pendants)

I got a new mold, in addition to a handful of others I got a few months back. So, I have many new goodies waiting for me. What I need to do is go in my backyard and front yard and pluck a bunch of flowers when it's not so wet (like after it's rained, or during the rain for example) and dry some flowers to use in my resin projects. That's something I've been slacking on.

Also need to get some alcohol inks if I'm going to start working with epoxy resin. Mainly white. If I don't get other colors, that's fine. But I need white for oceans.

A thing I've been doing recently in these blog posts is plugging in names of Youtubers I've been watching, that have been giving me ideas, inspiration, motivation, learning tips, etc.

For resin those people would be SteveMcDonaldArtsandCrafts, daniel..cooper, and ClairesCraftyCorner.

(I don't know if the @ is necessary in the front of their names or not? I removed it, but just add it in if it is 🤷🏻‍♀️. Also yes, Daniel's name does have two periods.)

I watched their vids when I was a total newbie, took a small break and then started watching again. They're really great at what they do and teaching others.

Guess I need to go distract myself with my other hobbies until the weather warms up and I can return to my garage, lol 🙃 (easier said than done, it's clear where my heart truly lies)

(In music~ 🎧🎶 with the ocean~ 🌊🐙🪸 in the cosmos~ 🌌✨ and working with resin~ 🎨💎)

[jaderimehardt]

Why do I get so many random Discord messages from people I don't know?

Like... I'm not trying to be rude or anything but if I don't know you via something else (irl or games or other communities), please include WHY you're messaging me. Don't just be like "Hi" or "Hey" or "What's up?" or "Yo." cause I'm not gonna reply. I'm going to ignore you. I get way too many of these and I know the pretense of these messages are going to lead into either phishing or "I'm trying to sell you something".

In short, I'm not interested.

If you just wanna chat and be friendly, that's cool. I have no problems there.

[jaderimehardt]

Earlier today I found a vid with some advice I think sounds rather wise.

Disclaimer: The advice isn't in the title 🙃 (Well it is, but it isn't.)

He actually advises you draw things you see around you.

Pluck objects from your everyday surroundings and draw or doodle those. That way you get practice of drawing a little bit of this and a little bit of that. A bit of everything.

At first, I was like well... as an introvert, the most I really see is my bedroom 🙃😅. But there's still a lot in my room (I've made my living space truly my own - it's anything but bland).

Also, it's not like I'm cutoff from venturing to other parts of my house, or even my backyard or front yard. I even have a park a couple blocks away if I wanted to walk or jog to it.

And if for whatever reason I still don't want to leave my house, what about pictures in my phone? I take pictures all the time when I'm out. I'll take pictures of the most random things to send to my friends over Discord 😅. I can go back through my phone camera albums and draw from those and my memory.

Of course this is just for the sake of doodling things and practicing, not for making anything I want to post up in my shop or something. But it could lead to some inspiring ideas nonetheless.

(With my room having 30+ octo plushies, probably closer to 40 now... I'm gonna be drawing a lot of octopuses, Lol 💝)

Edit: I'd also like to edit in a Tweet (again). Her foliage tutorials look amazing and I've been needing to look into learning how to draw & color foliage myself (mentioned in previous posts). She's also going to hold classes in a little over a week and she has brushes for download. Check her out if you're interested!

[jaderimehardt]

So, Cali is in the middle of another storm, yay me~ 🙃. Tomorrow I get to go out in it because I have appts and errands. We're in the middle of a flood watch with wind advisory and potential power outages atm. Nothing new, I guess? 😅

Yesterday I had my bedroom window open listening to the deluge of rain, because I actually love the rain. For the longest time, Cali was in a draught and I wished for nothing more than rain. I can't help but feel that phrase "be careful what you wish for" is coming back to haunt me.

I'm sure it'll be okay. It's global warming, surely. Everything's out of whack. Just gotta hang in there until the next season's crazy weather, and then the next, and the next.

I've also been watching lots more vids on Youtube (to no one's surprise), but from all the things I like; ranging from culinary, to Myer Briggs, to art, to science, to resin... man I miss working on resin.

I keep checking the weather forecast and I need 70+ degree weather to come back (to work on resin) but I also really don't want warm weather back, lol 🫠. So conflicted.

And then I remember I still have a ton of things I can work on with graphics- on the computer and on mediums. I just seem to mentally skip over that. It's like I need a huge checklist or sign right in front of my face. Even if I'm watching vids most of the day, when I get free time to actually sit and do something- I give that time to something else- I prioritize something else. I don't know what it is. Or why that is.

When I work on resin, I'll literally wake up in the morning, go out into the garage first thing, won't come back inside until it's like 1am or 2am. I'm out there all. day. long.

It's like an escape.

I think there's a disconnect with other things when I compare it to that. Because when I find an attachment to projects, I don't pry away. It's almost impossible to pry me away.

🤔

Another thing I've been doing lately is watching movies in the evening. Some new, some old. But I'll put them on with a sketch book in front of me, and doodle.

For the record, doodling is different from working on an actual project (for me at least).

Y'know, two weeks ago, I had never seen any of the DC-verse movies made by Zack Snyder. Today I can say I've seen them all, lol. I've grown especially fond of his Batman, Superman, and Aquaman 💘. (I like the Green Lantern too but I can't tell if he's part of his DC-verse or not? Like... he should be but... ??? 🤷🏻‍♀️. And I like Doctor Fate but... 🤐)

I've always grown up a big Batman fangirl so it was interesting to see another new take on Batman. I like this version a lot- my favorite tbh. But to each their own. I know people cling to their nostalgia, faves and biases.

I replay a lot of the marvel movies too because I also love the marvel-verse. But I'm also the type that replays a lot of Disney movies and anime 🙃

The next Aquaman should be available to watch on Amazon Prime and Max next month. I've yet to see that and I want to~

I'm also still trying to figure out what graphic to make for that puzzle. Thinking some kind of scenery with focus on ~something~. I might actually pull some places from a book I once was writing back in college (that I never finished). It might be time to revisit that.

My skills in drawing scenery though... 🫠. Yeah, this will be a fun challenge /sarcasm. Let's just reference all the trees and foliage necessary to get this task done 😶

Because, I mean, it's still all here in my head. I just never followed through with writing the whole thing.

I was like 170 pages in at 8pt font or some nonsense, and not even halfway done with the book. That's why I stopped, lol. It would have had to be chopped up into multiple books with multiple "climatic" endings 🤷🏻‍♀️. It put me in a position of "I dunno what the heck to do" and we see how well that went 🙃

That turned into "I'll come back to it later" and "later" turned into months, months into years, and years into indefinitely, and indefinitely to..... I think about it occasionally. It's in a folder in my bookcase where the last time I looked at it was years ago.

I still use my OCs in a lot of things though.

And if anyone is curious why my blog posts tend to lean more on the ramble-y side:

This is one of the handful of vids I watched today. When watching it, it was kind of like a lightbulb 💡; I was like "Oh! This explains a lot."

He has good Myer Briggs vids /nods (I'm an INFJ -t)

Edit: Oh, my god. Let me edit in this tweet I just found on Twitter.

It's a visual chart for pencils and this is awesome.

Marcel aka Draw Like a Sir, on Youtube, has a video that I'm pretty sure I've linked in a previous post- about how the B pencils are not easy to erase, but they're great if you're "coloring" or "filling" with them. Use the others for sketching, as they erase better. Always remember to sketch lightly, so your eraser will have an easier time to erase.

I think the vid was called "5 worst mistakes" or something 🤔

[jaderimehardt]

👋🏻 So, I ended up not drawing anything for that character's birthday.

I did think of a pose about a day and a half ago but that isn't enough time for me to actually get anything drawn out and colored. I'm too slow and I set myself to too high of standards. Plus factor in irl things and my lack of motivation... 🫠 *shakes head*

If I feel bad about it, it's for a couple of mutuals who like him as much as I do, or more- even. I've kind of grown super attached to a certain B🔹L🔹E🔹A🔹C🔹H boi, to be completely honest with you (I'm bypassing the tagging system with the 🔹's).

They still draw him every year on his birthday, and one even bi-weekly almost. She has supported me every time I draw him by re-tweeting my artwork on Twitter. Probably the only person who acknowledges me like this on a regular basis. The other person supports me also on a bit of a lesser scale, and she draws him often too, but I think she struggles with confidence in her art like I do.

It's not an easy thing... "having confidence" in one's own art. And when you don't see likes or favorites on your art, that confidence drops tremendously. You feel like you've done something wrong. You try to figure out 'what' you did wrong, and when you can't find it- you just want to give up. It's a sinking feeling.

But inevitably most artists pick up the pen or pencil again and draw once more because it's something we love to do. The thing is, this time we're less likely to share it because of that lack of confidence. This is what has been happening to me slowly over the past couple of years (and to a couple friends of mine as well).

People don't seem to realize this.

"Where did all the fanart go?"

Well, you all got so picky with favoriting things, they lost motivation and stopped posting. What did you expect?

If and when I post things, I have a fear of tagging it. 💠 Well if you don't tag it, no one is going to see it- and then you really won't get likes/faves. ⚜️ Yeah no kidding. but then I have a logical reason for WHY no one likes it. Like Twitter, I get under 10-30 impressions on most my posts even with tags. At the very least if it's posted, it's on record/in my portfolio of sorts. It exists in my history somewhere.

I removed all of my stuff off of my DeviantArt a couple years ago. Now I'm sure when I post things people question if I'm genuine or not because they have no history to look at- no 'portfolio'. Though if they went to my Wordpress Blog, they'd see that I've been drawing and posting my stuff for a long time. But no one is going to go and look into me that far in-depth. "Guilty until proven innocent" means nothing when all they want to do is prove you guilty.

That makes me even more hesitant to post things- but I do have all my PSDs with individual layers, so I can always provide proof whenever necessary. And I know where my posts are, with timestamps and dates. I can defend myself. That's all that matters to me.

I made this blog to "be more creatively unhinged" and to "be ramble-y". That includes putting my thoughts out into the open, "having proof on paper", so to speak.

I also want to show people the path that I'm taking, so if they're interested in taking it- they can. But everyone learns differently. Everyone has a different style. I may absorb information one way and apply it in this manner, while someone else may learn it in a completely different way and apply it in a polar opposite format. It's all a matter of who you are, perspective and variables.

So... one day (or a string of days), I'll post a bunch of videos. I did this a few days ago actually, lol. These are learning tools. Other days I may make tutorials (I used to make a lot of these but then I deleted that blog). Some days I'll promote my Etsy shop (this might happen the most, tbh)- featuring a lot of my Resin things, and graphics I'm working on. And on rare occasion some fanart because I'm at the lowest of low with that atm.

If I do anything fanart I'm thinking my OC's... 🤷🏻‍♀️. People dislike OCs, I'm aware of that but it's not like many people (if any) like my stuff anyways. They say to draw for self-satisfaction. I think it's time to follow that.

And I 💓 H🔹I🔹T🔹S🔹U to death, but his hecking fluffy hair man 🫠. I did my best with his hair in my last fanart- spent hours perfecting the lineart... honestly I was so proud of it. But apparently it wasn't everyone's cup of tea 🤷🏻‍♀️. It is what it is. (I'm still happy with it. I love his hair, please never change it Kubo-san 💝)

I might doodle a lot of the Loomis Method heads cause I like drawing faces. Poses/bodies not so much. In time I'll work my way to the poses but I just want to mindlessly doodle. (I hate drawing hands 😒)

Btw here's another vid on that, and I like this one so much better.

I also want & need to do a full graphic image for a puzzle. My Mom and my Step Dad are really big into puzzles right now and they're just passing them around with all their friends. Like some puzzle group, lol 😅

I think it'd be cool to actually design one myself, buy it from my Partner- Printful, gift it to them, they can complete it and then they can pass it around.

Mother's Day and Father's Day isn't that far away. I just have no clue what to make the graphic, lol. All the things they like are copyright and I'm not crossing into those waters.

I need to find something generic 🤔💭

[jaderimehardt]

Printful Product Samples Pt1

Hello! o/

Today I bring to you the Printful Product Samples, Part 1, that I previously promised I'd write on my official wordpress blog. I'm basically copying over the exact post because social media being what it is- it's just good to have things on multiple platforms for visibility.

Trust me though, if you're interested in Printful products- this post will not disappoint 😊

Sizing!

At first, when it comes to ordering these products off of an Etsy shop who Partner's with Printful, it might be confusing what size to get because the sizing sheet they automatically provide is a little... well it's not like other sizing guides. Making it a bit of a guessing game.

They want you to grab a piece of clothing you already own, lay it out, measure it, and then half that measurement, use that size in the measuring chart to determine what to order. I don't even fully grasp this way of coming to a conclusive size because none of the numbers I was getting matched anything in the chart despite how straight forward that seems.

I went searching through the internet to find an alternative sizing guide for everything to basically come to the conclusion that whatever you typically wear- go with that. True to size (unisex clothing).

So, in my case, the safe sizes I usually wear are Small up top, and Medium on bottom. That's what I ordered and these sizes worked perfectly for me in Unisex items. When it comes to male/female specific clothes... 🤷🏻‍♀️. May have to refer to charts again and do some more internet searching.

Some people with Printful as their Partner have figured out the sizing and have made alternative sizing sheets to put in their shop. This is smart and I'll probably look into doing this into the future if I can find out where they've got this information. But until then I have the default sheets and I hope other people can make sense of it where I couldn't. (I do have a neuro disorder so 🤷🏻‍♀️ I'm just going to conveniently blame it on that, lol)

Quality!

I am so impressed with the quality of these items, that I am in awe. If I were comparing this to RedBubble, it'd be like comparing a 1-ply paper napkin (RedBubble) to a handstitched cloth napkin you typically find when you go out to dinner at a fancy steak house (Printful). The worlds are so far apart, it's crazy. You are most definitely getting what you are paying for and I'm not just saying this because Printful is now my partner.

If I were to buy another jacket with my Octopus designs on it again, I'd 100% go back to Printful for it, getting paid for it or not. In fact I bought all of these out of pocket, I'm not getting anything for this post (sans the items I paid for with my own money).

I did have to color correct most of these images because it's raining outside and the pictures I took downstairs were gloomy and offset by our yellow indoor lighting. And then when I brought the clothing upstairs, my room walls are super red-red and again, offset with yellow lighting. I tried to color-correct to the true-blue that everything truly is.

There are only like, three pictures I didn't touch, and you'll notice them. They're more on the teal side because my phone cannot pick up the true-blue, but the blue is gorgeous. I couldn't get the aquamarine-color in the octopuses arms to show much in these pics, but it is what it is 🫠

This is how they arrived, inside another thick plastic bag. I thought they'd be in a box but at the very least they were sealed in plastic (within more plastic) so they couldn't be penetrated or damaged by rain.

This is my Magus Adventurer Octopus Bomber Jacket - Unisex. Almost all clothing in my shop is going to be Unisex. That's a personal preference of clothing for myself and I feel it's more convenient to post items this way. It's also more equal/fair.

The fabric on this is lightweight, but the stitching is fantastic, as with all of the clothing pieces I got. If you're looking for something to keep you warm, this wouldn't be it, but this is a nice wind breaker and fashion statement.

These photos in particular (are the ones I didn't fix the colors on but the colors are not accurate none-the-less), but they're also very important to show because look at my designs. They're literally printed as the fabric. They're not printed on top of the fabric.

This is very important because that means over time they will not wash away over so many washes, and peel off. Thus extending the life of these pieces of clothing. 💝💙💓

Glowing Galaxy Octopus Legging. Leggings might be one of the few exceptions to my 'unisex' clothing thing, lol. I mean... if you want em, there's nothing holding you back. It just doesn't say 'unisex' in the description anywhere 🤷🏻‍♀️

I want leggings because, again, this a preference in my clothing style - something I wear often. I feel they're versatile, comfortable, have a long shelf life, and they're worth your money if you invest in them. They're also great if you live somewhere really hot and you don't always feel like wearing shorts (says the person who lives in Cali where it's almost always 80-110 degrees).

Again the quality is above what I expected and the stitching is amazing.

(You can see my TekuTiger Logo here 🥰. Fun fact: I'm trying to fit this into all of my clothing.)

Glowing Galaxy Octopus Wide-leg Pants. These are so baggy and the fabric has weight to it, I love them~ 💙

You can never go wrong with a good pair of baggy pants or PJ bottoms. Something like this is what I lounge around in all day when I'm staying in. I'm an introvert so that happens more often than the average person 😅

I know I've said it already but I cannot get over the quality of this fabric. Maybe I'm just not used to high quality fabric, but I've bought many things from Victoria's Secret, for example (yeah I'm one of those girls) and this even beats out VS.

No more VS for me, it's Printful all the way after this.

(My TekuTiger logo is hidden in the pocket on these pants)

This is the bomber jacket again. You can't see it in any of the pictures I've shown, but my TekuTiger Logo is on the bottom hip cuff on the inside.

I think it's cute how I have the option to add my own logo and it's totally hidden from view. If you ever forget my name or where you've gotten my stuff, you can just find my logo again by looking at the clothing article and search me up online again!

I only bought three things this time, but I would like to get more in the future. Most especially some stickers. I need to design more things too. My mind is going 100-thoughts per second, lol.

I'm just incredibly blown away 🤯. Why don't more people use Printful? Is it just lack of knowledge of their products? 🤔 Because these are amazing.

(Last but not least, My shop link: https://tekutiger.etsy.com)

[jaderimehardt]

Uhm, hello, hi, good evening? night? morning? early morning? It's 2:17am... So, my hours are royally borked... I guess being sick will do that to you... 🫠

I've been doodling a lot the past few days and looking up a lot of Youtube videos. When I say a lot, I mean a LOT.

A lot for me is already massive, so imagine multiplying that even further. That's... well... 🤯

At first I was looking for a way to put this pose I was trying to do in a better perspective. And then I was like y'know what, I know how to do that, it's just not coming out how I want it for some reason- so let me brush up on the pose method I typically do-

-And then I couldn't find the pose method I typically do.

... as if that method fell off the face of the planet. 🌍😵

Like, what?

So I went on a massive search for "my method" and in that search I found the official method for how I draw heads- which I didn't know was a method. I guess I've been doing it a lazy way all this time? So, now I can do a more structured version of that- holy wow. A method to the madness! (or I can continue being lazy, lol 🙃)

Before I continue and ramble on, let's start with the head method. It's called the Loomis Method. There's a ton of videos out there on Youtube and stuff but here's a good one:

His is 25 mins, and I understand not everyone has that much time to watch vids but it's worth it if you you're trying to learn something new and absorb info.

Here's another one teaching the same method in 9:30 mins. It's shorter and not as "refined" (with perfect circles. Who freehands perfect circles anyways? not me~ 🫠) but has more information packed into it about the method.

Honestly watching both wouldn't hurt as each of them bring something different to the table.

After finding that, I resumed my search for my pose method and came across something called Gesture Drawing. This isn't my method but it's pretty darn close to it, and it caught my attention.

I was looking up vid after vid- wow this is cool. The techniques used here have so much potential... but I'm on a mission here and I'm trying to get a thing done by Valentine's day.

I do think if someone is interested in getting into Gesture Drawing though, this is a good video:

Having watched so many vids, and of the dozens I DID watch, this felt the most complete and explanatory and thorough and easy to follow, etc 👍🏻

Finally in the late evening, I found what I was searching for. And it was in the Gesture Drawing category. The title of the video is called "Quick Pose Gesture Sketching" so to me it sounds like it's a mesh of Gesture and Sketching, but this is basically how I learned to sketch posing and I've been doing it this way for a long time. Its worked for me all this time and I've never felt a need to change my ways.

Or at least until this past week when I couldn't get a perspective on this one specific pose to work for me. It could just be that I haven't drawn in a very long time and everything is feeling off. I just need to tinker around in my art program and not on a sketchpad (because I was drawing with a pencil and paper for a change - which could be it too. I haven't done that for a few years now).

I guess I get to do that "tinkering" thing tomorrow because it's way too late....... this morning? *looks at the time* [3:05am] 👀 oof. I just wanted to share a handful of great helpful videos I found.

Remember a post ago, or a couple posts ago (I forget already) I posted my color palettes of my colored pencils? One of the artists I've been sharing vids of made a new video for working with small colored pencil sets and making a color wheel- essentially making your own colored sheet. It's handy if you're not too familiar with color theory;

[jaderimehardt]

Today has been a day 🫠 I've been without internet almost the entire time. I finally got it back around 8:45PM-ish. (I don't know what's going on in my area. I guess the storms here in Cali have really messed things up 🤷🏻‍♀️)

I spent the entire day trying to complete chores and get together missing art supplies. I also seem to have gotten sick? So, been dealing with that. 🤒🤧

I mentioned in my last post I wanted to pull together a couple watercolor glasses and petri dishes. Well I found the perfect things!

Jam jars! Typically we clean them out after we use everything in them and in this case I just had to use some goo gone to remove the labels, and viola!

The lids will be the make-shift petri dishes, and well... the jars are obviously for the water. I'm happy with this find, I don't need to go buy anything or use anything fancy 👍🏻

And because I'm feeling insanely dizzy with vertigo and drinking ginger tea up the yin yang to combat my nausea- I didn't feel like beginning any "projects". So I just started working on a palette sheet of my colored pencils. This is a "must have" anyways, imo. Most artists will suggest you have one and I wanted to test out my new pencil extenders.

(I washi taped it down because I was intending to use solvent on parts and then decided not to 🙃)

These extenders are awesome! But if you tighten them too much, they dig into your pencil's wood, so watch out for that...

Oh and I have this body kabuki brush I bought last summer, or the summer before that, but never used it. Now I'm using that for my "eraser brush" to brush away eraser particles off my paper (and any other particles) 😄. I'm just reusing all the things I can find lol.

The Kabuki is here: https://colourpop.com/products/body-kabuki

The Pencil extenders are here: https://a.co/d/gdCgfbr

I'm sure you can get a cheaper brush from the dollar store or something, but I mean... that's an option if anyone is interested 🤷🏻‍♀️

My finished palette sheet of the Snoopy Pencils, the 24 Prismacolor Pencil Set, and the 11 Piece (8 Pencils) Faber-Castell Pitt Graphite Matt Set. 👇🏻

Colors are highly likely to be distorted from my camera phone though + lighting in my room + my walls being red.

But you can get an idea at least.

I feel like the snoopy pencils had a lot of grit in them... and they colored very lightly. It's no wonder why prismacolor is the favorite choice when it comes to colored pencils.

I have another set of colored pencils but I have the palette already done for them and they're in a tin. I didn't take a photo 🙃

They're kinda cheapy pencils also and they break easily down the center of the wood. I don't recommend lol 😅

(If this post is incoherent in some parts, it's cause I'm sick and I apologize lol. I don't know how derpy I am atm 🫠)