ArtisIgnis Etsy Shop

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Work & Reward

This post is something in between ranting and cheering... I know. I find it hard to explain, so you might find it hard do understand. Just bear with me to the end, please. Read on.

Let me tell you something: We work!
I mean: we really work! Very hard. Every day and every night! We don't usually take days off. We don't take Saturdays off. And on Sundays... Yep! You got it: We work!
We both have our "day jobs", so the time we have for our labor of love - i.e: ArtisIgnis - is rather limited. Pedro, as a Firefighter works 12 hours' shifts, either day or night, and Cris as a Document Manager has a fixed schedule of working from 9 AM to 6 PM (most days it's to almost 7 PM), this means that ArtisIgnis' schedule is anytime we're not working on our day jobs or taking care of our homes and families. For Pedro it's his days and nights off, for Cris it's every night and weekends.
So, let me tell you something: We work our you-know-whats off!!!
It's kind of discouraging when those that are closest to us speak little of what we do, or...when somebody complains that we "always do the same thing. Don't you know how to carve something other than hair sticks?" Or when they come up with great ideas, that we just "have to make": "Hey! I know what you have to do! You must carve a phoenix eating a vanilla ice-cream, while riding an ice-flaming dragon, who's wearing the Thinking Hat and laughing about having taken it from Hogwarts! Then just put a stick under it, and it's a hair stick! Great idea, huh?!"
Yeah... 

Rant over. Promise.
Here comes the flip side of our coin.... Ready? Here we go!

Our customers usually have a much better perception about what is do-able or not. We've had great pieces coming out of customer's ideas and desires. We love everything about them! Working with a customer on an idea, choosing wood color and type to fit it, drawing and sketching back and forth, cutting up the final design's blank and seeing it come to "life" under the knives. It's awesome!

Let me tell you something: It is totally and utterly worth it!
I mean: Our customers really give it all back to us! How do they do it? No, it's not just that they buy what we make. No, it's not the money. It's the words, and the love, and taking the time to tell us we made their day better, their life easier, their skies bluer with our work and the love we put in every piece we make! It's words like these:
"I was wearing the first fork I bought from you, the Celtic Cat the other day and 12 hours of studying passed by before I realized my hair was still in place and I didn't have a headache as it took the weight. Wonderful! I know these are both works of art and functional items, but really, your pieces are a gift and I feel so privileged to have them." - M. A., Canada
Or these:
"Just received it ! It is absolutely flawless. Gorgeous, slides in hair without breaking and holds perfectly ! I am so happy. Will make a great review as soon as etsy lets me !
Thank you again for your beautiful work, I will wear it proudly!" - S.A.C., Canada 

This!
This is what makes our hearts sing!
Praise to our wonderful, marvelous, amazing customers, who always come up with some great ideas, who buy our pieces because they truly and honestly love them, appreciate them, and value everything about them! We say it often, but it's never often enough: YOU ARE AMAZING! Thank you so much!

For more of what our customers have to say about us: Check this out!




Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Soon... We're going on vacations!

We have temporarily disabled our Made To Order section. We are preparing to go on vacations, so we need time to finish the orders we have already received. Also, we're trying to prevent getting orders that will have to be delivered during our vacations. We want - and desperately need - real vacations this year... something that hasn't happened in three years.
We have closed our long termed orders and we'll be closing the shop for vacations later this month. We wish to go away with our three kids and not have to worry about the shop, carving, wood burning, sanding, polishing, replying to emails or having to go to the Post Office, posting on Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest and...
We're going on vacations. Period.
It will happen from the 22nd August until the 13th September. We look forward to returning to you with our batteries fully charged and our heads teeming with new ideas and designs!

Thursday, March 5, 2015

New Made To Order Section

Hello there!

Have we got BIG NEWS for you!
We have been so, so, sooooo busy these last months! It's been crazy! Christmas season was totally awesome and  completely exhausting! Stealing hours from sleep for over a month was hard and... being the nut jobs that we are, we loved it!!!

January and the beginning of February were spent trying to recover from November and December! We really needed to rest, in order to restore the stamina and energy levels! Plus, we really wanted to re-stock our shop that was left almost empty by the Christmas shopping (no complaints here, folks!).
We kept receiving orders during January and mid February we were both utterly defeated by a nasty flu. Really, really nasty! We couldn't work for a couple of weeks!
The custom orders kept coming in and we realized we couldn't re-stock. We had no time to design new pieces, decide what to cut and carve and what to just leave alone and we were still working on orders.


Bummer!...............      
     ...............Now what?!

By the last week of February we had two custom order to make trophies. 20 trophies for a Firefighter Competition and 6 other for an International Aeromodelling Competition, both of them to be completed in a short period of time. We also had in hands two Baby Boxes to be wood burned and finished, the first by the beginning of March and the second before Easter. In the Hair Accessories section, we were making them and sending them following our To Do List (first asked, first served kind of thing). It seemed we would have to keep postponing the re-stocking of our shop... But we don't like that! We have a hard time accepting that people who want our pieces cannot get them because we don't have them for sale!
Nobody likes to shop in an empty store, right?! We really needed to come up with a solution for our shop, or it would look empty and abandoned for a while still! So, after some brainstorming...  


Idea!

Wouldn't it be great if you could go into a shop and see everything they sell there, even if it wasn't ready-made?
Wouldn't you like to know that you don't have to wait for that design you love so much to be available?
So, we decided to create a new section in our shop! Presenting our new MADE TO ORDER Section!
Now you can choose even a design that is not ready available and have us make it for you!

What do YOU think of this idea? Do you like it? As a customer do you see any advantages or disadvantages? We'd love to know your opinion. Please share!