Cozy Artist Vlog 01 ✿ sculpting, packing, + small business Q&A ✿ Small Business _ Studio Vlog

Hi! Welcome to the vlog. This is Tofu. Today's plan is to work on some orders. I have a lot of keychains to make. This is what we're going to be making today. Here is what we have to work with from last night. One thing that has really been helping me like get into the work mindset is to put on a little apron. I mean it's not like the cutest So these are what we have to work with. I just pulled all these out of the oven. We have some frog cake earrings. They come out pretty naked. So I paint the face on and I paint the daisies on. And then these guys I still have to make loops on the top so they can connect when I connect them all together to make earrings. A baby radish guy and some dongo earrings as well. And a scrap desk friend. This portion of the video where we're just gonna be watching me pack orders while I answer questions that I received on Instagram. I know I love listening to other people chat while I do other things so hopefully this is what you can get out of this video. You can just put this on the background or pack your own orders while we have a little talk. Mao Studio asks, my clay figurines never turn out exactly the same. Do you think this really matters if you're selling it? I think it matters to an extent but it really depends on your style and how you want to brand yourself as an artist. If you want everything to be unique and you think everything is one of a kind then that's great. At that point it's not too important but personally for me I like everything to be as similar as possible so I'm not giving one person a worse version of the other. That's just how I think of it. If everything's the same it's fair. So if you have trouble getting your clay figurines to turn out exactly the same then try using a scale to measure out your pieces of clay so they weigh equal size and then that should help with consistency and regularity. Also practice. The next question is by Artistry by Emma. She asks, what first inspired you to start creating? I've always loved creating art. I started with illustration and storytelling on like Nintendo Flipnote Studio if you guys remember that. I had like 200 followers there and there were only like probably 2,000 users whoever just had a Nintendo DS at the time. I also did polymer clay in elementary school but then I kind of stopped doing it then I decided to do digital design in college and I saw that polymer clay was getting popular again and I wanted to do it again. It looked so fun so yeah that's what inspired me to start creating. It just looked so much more fun than what I was doing for school basically. Meoodles asks, what are your dreams for Uncomfy in the future? Oh man, I have so many dreams. Is this embarrassing that I have so many aspirations for Uncomfy? Like I want this to be how I make a living in the future. I want to start transitioning from all handmade items to items that are designed by me and manufactured by others. So things like notebooks, memo pads, washi tape, rugs, clothing, pins, all of that. I want to make all of it and I don't think I'll ever stop making handmade items but I also want the price point of my items be much more accessible. If I were to design something and manufacture it and buy it in bulk they'd be much cheaper than my handmade items would be. Then more people could have Uncomfy stuff. So yeah it's gonna take a lot of work but yeah those are just my little dreams. The next question I think is really good. Ali Morella asks, where do you get the motivation to keep going? I never seem to stay on top of it. I love this question because it's very relatable. It's very hard to stay motivated and I think everyone deals with this problem. I will give you a couple tips. First is balance. I think I learned this the hard way. You need to sleep and you need to exercise and you need to socialize and you need to rest because once you feel burnt out it's super hard to get back into what you want to do. But other than that I would say motivation itself is overrated. Instead of being motivated you have to be disciplined. That's right. It's not as glamorous but it'll help you get to your goals in the long run. For example, I love what I do and I love being an artist but in reality it's spending about seven to eight hours a day in the same room every day making orders and working on my art. But that's just how it is. You know sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. And on that note another tip I have is to make your space somewhere you want to be. Having a clean beautiful space where you want to work. Once I moved my desk away from this one corner of the room that I hated working in to just moving it like as much as five feet I work so much better in this my studio now and I love it. I think it's cute and it's beautiful and I love having plants and I love being in the room so that's what helps me stay working when I need to work for hours and hours on end. Puffy asks, what is your favorite aesthetic? This is so funny. Outwardly I'm not that cutesy and I actually used to be very scary looking and intimidating but I freaking love cute stuff. I love cottage decor, I love danish pastel so basically cute mixed with natural because I love the cafe aesthetic as well. You know those clean neutrals and relaxing and calming vibes. I think that's my style. And the next question is by Bluebell Stickers. They asked, have you ever wanted to give up? How did you pull through? I'm a very determined person like when I set my mind to something so I've never wanted to give up but I've certainly gotten to the point where I wanted to take a break and I have. I was gone for like three weeks. I didn't post on Instagram. My shop was closed and I didn't post on TikTok and I don't think a single person cared. If you decide to take a break I don't think anyone will do that against you. So yeah, I've never wanted to give up but I wanted to take a break because I was so exhausted and sometimes you just need to take a breather to be able to be refreshed and I am refreshed now and I feel ready to work a lot. I think this will be my last question of the day. Milana Rizbey Eva asked, tips for getting more orders for someone who just started a business? My tips? I'm sure there's so many advice out there but this is what worked for me. Find something that you're good at and make that your niche. Like for me, I wanted to make a special character that no one else had and that I can make that my branding and that was radishes and that's how people got to know Uncomfy Studio was through these boopy little radishes that don't even look like radishes and it just has a lot of intrigue but that's kind of my style. So what I'm saying is find your style and find something that you're good at and then build a community of people who support what you do. And how do you do that? There's lots of different ways but in general just be genuine and support other artists and make friends and if you support others they'll support you. So yeah, that is it for today. I had lots of other questions but I couldn't get to them. Thank you so much for submitting your questions and listening to me talk. I plan on making studio vlogs pretty regularly so stay tuned and stay happy and stay safe. I love you.