A Review of 2023

My plan for this year was to concentrate on dot painting. I started off painting stones and other items for practice, which looked quite effective. As usual I got side-tracked several times on other ideas, which all came to nothing, and have only completed three small dot paintings. I have spent a lot of time this year landscaping the back garden and doing house maintenance. I have also developed some new ideas for the Swirl-StoNZ I sell at the local market, as well as just replacing my existing market stock.

While I have received a lot of admiration for the dot painting, it has not materialised into sales. So, I think my focus on the Swirl-StoNZ is confirming that my heart is not in the dot painting. I do not get the same enjoyment from dot painting compared to the dot mosaics I made with polymer clay but at least I have given it a good try.

So, for 2024 I plan to return to creating artwork with polymer clay mosaics and selling Swirl-StoNZ at the local markets because I like the contact with customers. I would also like to have another go at selling online, due to the limited number of accessible markets (without a car) and the unpredictable nature of the weather for outdoor events. For this, I am thinking of glow-in-the-dark items, under the name ‘Glow Designz’. I feel this idea is more suited to selling online, as they can easily be shown with photographs, rather than my Swirl-StoNZ that you really need to touch.

From previous experience, it is easy to have plans for the forthcoming year, we will have to see what actually happens!