Friday again? How quickly it sneaks up.

Welcome to the latest Skook Works in Progress newsletter. I run two online stores – one at Zazzle and one at Redbubble. This newsletter is my cracked idea of marketing for those stores. Personal news upfront, art and stories about said below that. Read on!

These Days …

I had one of my scheduled vacations last week. I spent as much of it as I could working on art.

I went back to work at USPS on Tuesday. My body, particularly my legs, has been unhappy with me since then. Doing art requires very little physical exercise. Delivering mail requires quite a bit of exercise. Bodies don’t like going from little exercise to lots of exercise. Ouch.

My station got a new stationmaster last week. This makes the fifth or sixth stationmaster our station has had since I started working at the post office seven years ago. I haven’t interacted with this one yet. At this point I’m pretty settled in to my position. A new boss isn’t likely to affect my job much. I do expect there to be more emphasis on hitting the numbers and avoiding overtime. That’s happened every time we’ve gotten new management. It does’t change how I do my work.

I suppose I ought to say hello to the guy, recognize him as a human being and such. Probably not this week. Between the heat and my body’s protests I’m not feeling too social.

Prayers from Ancient Ghosts

She is the last god of a dead pantheon worshipped by a lost civilization. There is no one human left who remembers her true name.

The trees remember. The stones remember. The rivers and the rain remember. The birds in the sky and the beasts who prowl the forest, they remember. She hears their prayers.

Sometimes she walks through the streets of a city. The people rarely see her. Their minds have been seduced by the empty, hungry gods of the modern world – gods that do not exist yet demand unyielding fielty. She watches. She listens. She hears the prayers the people offer to their selfish gods.Those prayers she does not answer.

She sees the world as it is – a planet that has become overrun by a single species. That species is clever and resourceful and lost. She is patient. The world will not end. The world and life is resilient. The civilization that is eating the world will eventually choke on its on filth and fall. Life will go on. New gods will be born.

Until then, she amuses herself by answering small prayers.

In this world she is called Fantomah. That is not the name to use if you wish her to answer your prayers. To learn that name you will need to ask the wind or the soil or the serpent in the grass. Then, once you have learned that name, be very careful what you pray for. Real gods are not servants. They answer prayers according to their own whims and sense of humor.

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Shop Talk

“How do I get sales?”

That’s a question that keeps coming up in the Redbubble Facebook group to which I belong. People post links to their latest designs and their stores and ask how to improve them. When I have advice or suggestions I offer them. But I’m not an expert.

I’ve listened to a lot of youtube videos about running Redbubble stores. I will play the videos while I’m working on art. Sometimes I hear useful advice and get a handy tip.

There are quite a few energetic tubers who claim to be making big bucks running POD shops. Those folks are usuallly offering paid classes and course on how you or I can also make big buck running POD shops. I haven’t taken any of their classes. Their advice in their free videos is often about following trends and kinda sorta stealing the work and ideas of the designers whose work is selling well. Bleah.

The folks I resonate with are the ones who are having fun running their stores.

I am having fun. My stores are performance art and summoning spells. Art really only exists between the work and the audience. When you see it here in this newsletter you’re making it more real. Thank you! When you go to the stores and browse the designs you’re calling up stories. Thank you! And all y’all who have bought merchandise. We are partners in sorcery. You’ve taken a image that only exists as data and pixels and made it into something real and tangible. That is so very very cool! Thank you so much!

On my end I’m continuing to update my older designs so they fit and print better.

This pair of monster hunters looked ready to fight before –

Now they’ve got room to really rumble!

This wizard’s spell stirred things up …

Now it ties them all together!

This PI gave a good portrait …

Now he’s got more room to investigate the crime!

And then there’s this –  V for Vaccination Victory.!

I haven’t been taking requests for new designs or images. I’ve got so many of my own ideas to execute that taking on another person’s suggestion isn’t practical. Last Friday night, however, one of my former high school classmates messaged me on Facebook with this – “Hey man, I need a t-shirt with a symbol that assimilates a V for victory and one for vaccinated.”

I wrote back saying I’d think about it but my brain had already started generating ideas.

Saturday morning I worked up the design above. These last few years practicing with Photoshop have paid off.

My zazzle store now has a collection of merch featuring the design and my Redbubble store has the design on another variety of desirable oblects. Hopefully this design will only have meaning for a few months.

This is an example of magic. My former classmate gave me a spark. I hammered it into a design.

I’ve got another friend who has asked to have some of the images he sees adjusted so they better fit on the product he wants to buy. Or he’s asked me make a design I’d posted only in my Redbubble store available on a product in my zazzle store. I’m happy to oblige.

I have another friend who keeps asking me to do designs featuring Aunt Hortense and the rest of the lizards. I love those guys and plan to work up some illustrations

These exchanges have me considering actually asking for requests. I still have way more of my own ideas to every execute in my lifetime but, heck, why not add more?

Are there images in my Redbubble store that you’d like to see on different products than what Redbubble offers? Let me know. Zazzle has huge variety of different objects just waiting to be used. If I can make the illustration work on one of your preferred objects I will do so.

What new illustration would you like to see? What new design?

Reply to this newsletter and let me know.

Maybe your spark will fire up my creative forges. Maybe you will summon up a new story.

Thank you for reading. I hope your part of the world is safe and warm and has plenty of cats and cookies.

See you next week!