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!

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!

New pyrography work and a tribute

It's been a while since our last post, however we have been quite the busy couple! Not much is new on the carving side, but quite a few novelties on the wood burning side, and a beautiful tribute to a dear friend. Check it out!

First, let us give you an update on Pedro's tendinitis... It's better but not good! Pedro's tendinitis has evolved into something that we can't know what it is until he makes another exam, that is scheduled for early September! Until then, he'll try to carve just enough to feed the habit, but just a little at a time since the pain and numbness get really bad!

The wood burning on the Mandala Box is finished! We think it turned out very good, but we'd also like to know what you think. It's Pedro's turn to take it and work on it some more. It will have some cool features inside and it will be varnished on the outside.

Even before we finished the pyrography on the Mandala Box, we received an order for an Om and Lotus Flower Hair Fork, which we completed and sent and hopefully will be received by the customer very soon.

As you probably know by now, Pedro is a Firefighter at Lisbon International Airport. His Chief has just retired and Pedro made this box from scratch to carry the Chief’s Service Sheet. We brainstormed the design and Cris woodburned the Lisbon Firefighter’s Coat of Arms, the Chief’s name in a beautiful font, and a text honoring and thanking him for the 34 years of exceptional service and dedication. It was with great pleasure that we made this heartfelt piece to honor a great man, an amazing human being, a natural leader and a true friend! 

 

We also made a new wall clock, but we'll leave that to the next post!

See you soon!

Thoughts on Etsy's Reviews

We received this brilliant review on our Etsy shop yesterday, and it got us thinking about customer reviews...

If you're not an Etsy seller you may not know how important customer reviews are to us. The obvious reason for this is that they help build customers' trust and might be the difference between someone who just discovered us in the Etsy ocean buying from ArtisIgnis or not, but the thing is... that's not what matters the most!

Really!

Don't get us wrong! Earning the trust of our customers is crucial and a vital part of ArtisIgnis shop. However we, as the ArtisIgnis team - the people behind the shop, we are just so blissfully happy whenever we get a stellar review that it slips our minds! We work very hard, have loads of fun, we're very passionate about our craft and our shop, and we take customer appreciation very seriously. "We aim to please" might have been our motto, if Mr. Grey didn't beat us to it! ;)

Many hours are spent brainstorming about our pieces, but also about packaging, writing thank you notes, making little gifts (yes, even our gifts are handmade!) to send with the piece someone just purchased, designing our leaflets and trying to find out what else can we do to make you happy!

When you are happy, we're happy! When you're happy, you leave us wonderful reviews, and when you do that... We're ecstatically happy about it! We celebrate!!!
These reviews mean we are doing it right, there's a sense of accomplishment that comes with them, there's this feeling of success that comes over us because that's when we feel that we truly made it! 

Late last year, Etsy updated their review system. Until then we were very proud that over 75% of our customers were happy enough with our pieces and our service to leave us a great review. Most of them were outstanding and left us teary-eyed. With Etsy's new review system we're dropping that ratio fast! We're almost at 50% and we've been racking our brains to figure out why this is happening.

Our pieces only tend to improve with time and experience and we're keeping up with our standard for customer service as we always did. We answer messages and comments as fast as we can and we strive to leave no-one without a reply. We work to the best of our abilities to communicate well, to create those special custom orders we get and we really appreciate all our customers. We haven't changed, so... What's different?!

Etsy. That's what's different! 

The new Etsy review system makes it harder for customers to leave a review, it prevents them from leaving a review until the "estimated delivery date" and the notification that their order is now eligible for review is barely visible. We think this is a very successful recipe for failing at getting everybody's purchases reviewed! It makes it easy to forget all about it if you can only write a review a week or so after you received the purchased piece!

We have had customers asking us how to leave a review, so just FYI: You can leave a review by going to Your Account -> Purchases & Reviews and finding the order you want to leave a review for. Also, here's the link to the Etsy Help page about Reviews: How do I use Etsy's review system?




So, to you, who have left us brilliant reviews on our Etsy shop, who took the time to write them and thought we're worthy of them: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You have no idea how big a deal it is for us, and we fail at explaining how perfectly wonderful we feel when we read them. All we can say is... Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

If, however, Etsy's review trap caught your words and prevented you from expressing yourself when you chose to, or made you forget a review, go get them now! Check out the status of your Purchases & Reviews, recapture the feeling of opening that package and unwrapping that piece and spill your heart out! We're sure we are not the only sellers out there who get a jolt of joy when we receive a review!

What do you think about Etsy's new review system? Post a comment with your thoughts and opinions.

Video! Floral Celtic Moon Hair Stick by ArtisIgnis

We love sharing our work with you and we found that videos make it all the more real, and absolutely show off the beauty of the carving and of the pyrography work.

We give you this video we made a while ago, of our first Floral Celtic Moon Hair Stick, hand carved by Pedro and hand wood burned by Cris. We'd love to know what you think. Should we make more videos?!

The one on the video sold really fast, but you can find a new one in our Etsy shop: ArtisIgnis Shop.

Tendinitis and a Work In Progress

Hello there!

We believe everybody is creative, in one way or another, however some people pursue that creativity much more than other, and those are the ones usually regarded as "creative". There's this quote found all over the web that we love:

 "Being creative is not a hobby it is a way of life". We find this to be very true for us! It is exactly how we think. We are naturally creative, we have this need, this urge to make things, to use our hands and to be creative. Anything can trigger this: a sound, a smell, a picture, a movie or a tv show, something we see on the street or on a garden... 

Anything and everything can get the creative juices flowing and our mind starts racing with ideas and designs and things-to-do and we have to write it down or sketch it before it vanishes in the mists of memory. Sometimes, we even stop whatever we were doing and start working on the new idea. We have to! It's right there!

However, life has a way of stopping us on our tracks, sometimes, and that is just what happened to us this week... 

As you know, Pedro does all the carving and Cris does the wood burning. It's been a while since Pedro started experiencing some pain in his right hand when carving. We though it could be attributed to the long hours of carving, or to the fact that he had been carving hard woods more often, but with time it became more evident that something was not right. We decided we needed further advice and Pedro went to the doctor. It turns out he has a severe tendinitis on the thumb of his right hand. This is the finger that pushes the knife through the wood and the one with the hardest work. By doctor's orders he should not carve, he must not carve. Heck! That hand should be in full rest for a complete and as-speedy-as-possible recovery!

So... Pedro will try to stop those creative juices from taking over and he'll rest that pretty hand of his, or else!... Cris will nag him until he does! 

LOL

In the meantime, Cris has started woodburning a new box. She has been strongly attracted by mandalas, finding them both beautiful and mesmerizing. Mandalas are timeless masterpieces, very rich with tradition and symbolism. Each mandala is unique and incredibly versatile since they convey different meanings, depending only of the creator and the observer.

It has been a while since Cris wanted to wood burn a mandala and now the opportunity presented itself. This box measures roughly 8 inches (20 cm) wide, by 4 inches (10 cm) tall. We started working on it several nights ago, but the pyrography work it self only started last night. Here are some photos of the work in progress:

This photo was taken just after transferring the design onto the wood.

Here's the first teaser photo we published on Facebook.

"Let the wood burning begin!"

After two and a half hours of work we decided it was time to go to sleep... This is how it looked then.

We're looking forward to keep working on this box. Follow each step of the way as it happens on Facebook, as it it much easier to post there on the go, than here! ;)

Gorgeous Round Number: 1000!

It was a great weekend!

Going back a couple of days: it was Pedro's birthday on Thursday the 26th and he received so many messages from friends and loved ones, both offline and online, that he was thrilled! Even some Facebook page fans took the time to congratulate him and we couldn't be happier about it. It means we're accomplishing what we wished for: we're reaching out and touching people hearts with our own hearts and our art!

Our fans also gave Pedro a wonderful birthday gift: ArtisIgnis Facebook Page reached 1000 Likes! 

WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

This is so awesome! We're are bursting with happiness that one thousand people like us and what we do and are giving us the opportunity to share our art and our love for every step of the creative process!

1000 THANKS TO YOU ALL!!!

Tough decisions

Our poor neglected blog is a faithful friend, always here for us and always waiting for us to spare some time of day or night to write... Last post is dated from November 2013! Good grief!

It's been a long, cold and wet Winter, with lots of rainy days and overall gloomy days, when all we can wish for is a warm blanket and a good movie or a hot cup of tea and a good book to read... Or the computers humming on, the sound of knives cutting wood chips and a wood-burner to keep our hands warm! This is much closer to the reality of our days or nights!

The wheel of time moved and Spring has sprung... It really hasn't been a nice Spring, the weather isn't holding up like previous years and we never know when it will be a cold and somewhat rainy day, or a day hot enough to make us wish for vacations so we can sit in the pool!

We haven't blogged in a long time, but there were so many other things to do! Creatively, it has been a great time, though!

We would really like to blog more often, but it is very time consuming - extremely time consuming, considering that we set out to write in both English and Portuguese. So, we had to make a very tough decision and, weighing carefully all the pros and cons, we decided to stick to just one language to - hopefully - be able to write some more!

Our customers, our feedback and most of our online interactions are with English speaking friends and fans of our work, so we decided to write in English only. We have added a Google widget to our sidebar, that will allow any visitor to translate our blog to their desired language, so we hope this will remedy this change. The translate widget is right under the Google+ Followers, like you can see in the picture.

So, this will be our last post in both languages. We hope this is not a farewell to our Portuguese reading friends, and we remind you that you can always contact us and read all the latest ArtisIgnis news on our Facebook and Google+ pages. Just click the links and Like or Follow us! We'd love to welcome you!

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O nosso pobre negligenciado blog é um amigo fiel, sempre aqui à espera de tenhamos um tempo extra para escrever... O nosso último post foi em Novembro! Credo!

Tivémos um Inverno longo, frio e molhado, com muitos dias sombrios e de chuva, que nos fazem desejar um cobertor quentinho e um bom filme, ou um chá a escaldar e um bom livro para ler. Ou os computadores a zumbir, o som das facas a esculpir a madeira e o pirogravador para nos aquecer as mãos! O que está muito mais próximo da realidade dos nossos dias ou noites!

A roda do tempo andou e chegou a Primavera... Não tem sido uma grande Primavera, na realidade. O tempo não se segura como em anos anteriores, e nunca se sabe quando teremos um dia frio e com alguma chuva, ou quando teremos um dia quente o suficiente para nos fazer sonhar com as férias e com os mergulhos na piscina!

Há muito tempo que não escrevemos no nosso blog, mas há tantas outras coisas para fazer! Criativamente falando, tem sido fantástico!

Nós gostávamos mesmo de actualizar o blog mais frequentemente, mas leva muito tempo - demasiado tempo, tendo em conta que nos propusemos a escrever em inglês e em português. Assim sendo, tivémos que tomar uma decisão difícil e, pesando cuidadosamente os prós e os contras, decidimos passar a escrever apenas numa única língua, para conseguirmos escrever mais vezes!

Os nossos clientes, o nosso feedback e a maioria das nossas interações on-line são com amigos e fãs do nosso trabalho que falam inglês, por isso decidimos passar a escrever apenas em inglês. Adicionámos um widget do Google à nossa barra lateral que permitirá a qualquer visitante traduzir o nosso blog para a língua que desejar, e assim esperamos colmatar esta alteração. O Widget para traduzir está mesmo abaixo do dos Seguidores do Google+, como se pode ver na imagem.

Assim sendo, este será o nosso último post em ambas as línguas. Esperamos que esta não seja uma despedida dos nossos amigos portugueses, e relembramos que nos podem sempre contactar e saber de todas as novidades da ArtisIgnis nas nossas páginas do Facebook  e do Google+ . Clica nos links e Gosta ou Segue-nos! Adorávamos receber-te!

Our First Etsy-versary!!! * É o nosso Primeiro Aniversário no Etsy!!!

One year ago we started this adventure.
One year ago we had no idea where this would take us, and it has exceeded our expectations, by far!
It's been a wonderful journey since the creation of our first hair toy, to the thrill of our first sale, the exhilaration of our first feedback and the recognition of our work. Our enduring effort to do the best we can and our never-ending love for each and every piece we make are widely acknowledged by our customers and proven each and every time they come back for more of our pieces.
Some customers have become friends, some friends have also become customers. Each and all of them are special to us and we thank you with all our hearts for your support and the love we receive back from you!

Join our celebration of our first anniversary! We give you 10% discount in every purchase made today, the 27th November, on our Etsy shop! Use the code 1PARTY

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Há um ano começámos esta aventura.
Há um ano não fazíamos a mais pequena ideia onde é que nos iria levar, e excedeu as nossas expectativas, de longe!
Tem sido uma viagem maravilhosa, desde a criação do nosso primeiro acessório de cabelo, à emoção da nossa primeira venda, passando pela alegria do nosso primeiro feedback e pelo reconhecimento do nosso trabalho. O nosso esforço permanente para fazer o melhor que podemos e o nosso amor interminável por cada peça que fazemos são amplamente reconhecidos pelos nossos clientes e comprovados de cada vez que voltam a comprar mais peças das nossas.
Alguns clientes tornaram-se amigos, alguns amigos também se tornaram clientes. Cada um e todos eles são especiais para nós e agradecemos de todo o coração pelo o seu apoio e pelo amor que nos retribuem!

Juntem-se a nós na celebração do nosso primeiro aniversário! Oferecemos-lhes 10% de desconto em todas as compras efectuadas hoje, dia 27 de Novembro, na nossa loja online! Use o código 1PARTY

The story behind our hair toys... * A história dos nossos ganchos

Hear ye! Hear ye! Learn the story of how it all begun and how one insignificant decision someone made over two decades ago gave origin to ArtisIgnis!

Hear ye! Hear ye!

Some 20 years ago (or more!), Cris' mother gifted her with a hair pin that she bought on a sidewalk stand, somewhere we can't remember after all these years. This hair pin was the inspiration behind our wood burned hair pins: it was pretty, functional, had a strong hold on the bun, it endured over 20 years of abuse and it provided with a small "canvas" where Cris could burn to her heart's desire!

Mind you, it's quite rare to see a hair stick, pin or fork in Portuguese heads! When we started making them, many of our women friends had no idea what they were or how to wear them! Cris' mother is a well educated woman, who worked most of her life in a big international computers company where she came in contact with many different people from many different countries, hence her knowledge of hair toys!

Portuguese weather provides us with very warm summers and, while she was a student, Cris was always sticking pencils in her hair to hold it up in a bun, whenever she forgot her faithful hair fork. So Mum, once again, found her some African hair sticks, the kind that is common in any crafts fair nowadays, and are much more suitable to carry in a student's pencil case!

All these years gone by and from an ordinary conversation a brainstorming session emerged and - with a little help from our friend Google - this is what made us think of making hair sticks too.

We've been having fun wood burning several different designs, and lately we're playing with watercolors and adding splashes of color to our hair pins!

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Ouvi! Ouvi! Aqui se conta a história de como tudo começou e de como uma insignificante decisão tomada por alguém há mais de duas décadas deu origem à ArtisIgnis!

Ouvi! Ouvi!

Há cerca de 20 anos (ou mais!) a mãe da Cris ofereceu-lhe um gancho de cabelo que comprou numa banca de rua algures, já não nos lembramos onde passados estes anos todos. Este gancho de cabelo foi a inspiração por trás dos nossos gancho pirogravados: era bonito, funcional, segurava muito bem o cabelo, resistiu a mais de 20 anos de abuso e fornecia uma pequena "tela" onde a Cris podia queimar o que o seu coração desejasse!

De salientar que é bastante raro ver um gancho deste tipo nas cabeças portuguesas! Quando começámos a fazê-los, muitas das nossas amigas não sabiam o que eram, para que serviam ou como os usar! A mãe da Cris é uma senhora bem formada, que trabalhou a maior parte da sua vida numa grande empresa internacional de computadores onde entrou em contacto com muitas pessoas diferentes e de diferentes nacionalidades, daí o seu conhecimento deste tipo de acessórios!

O clima português oferece-nos verões bem quentes e a Cris, enquanto estudante, andava sempre a espetar lápis no cabelo para segurar um coque em cima, quando se esquecia do seu fiel gancho. Então a Mãe, mais uma vez, encontrou-lhe uns ganchos (pauzinhos) africanos, do tipo que se encontram normalmente em qualquer feira de artesanato hoje em dia, e que são muito mais fáceis de transportar num estojo de lápis!

Todos estes anos depois e uma conversa normal transformou-se numa sessão de brainstorming, e - com uma ajudinha do nosso amigo Google - foi isto que nos fez pensar em fazer também estes alfinetes de cabelo.

Tem sido muito divertido pirogravar vários desenhos diferentes nos ganchos e, recentemente começámos a brincar com aguarelas e a adicionar rasgos de cor aos nossos ganchos!

Dawning * Primórdios

In the dawn of ArtisIgnis we had lots of ideas and little notion of how we were going to pull it off. We were just so excited about working together! We just wanted to make beautiful things together and sell them so that we could continue to make more beautiful things! Oh, it would be grand! We talked for hours on end, compiled a huge Ideas List, and we had a lot of fun creating our visual image.

Opening up an Etsy shop was as easy as 1-2-3... Writing the texts to go in it took us a while longer! Between the About Page, the Policies, doing research for worldwide shipping costs and writing all of this down in a clear, concise way while keeping our day-jobs and maintaining our homes (and our sanity!), probably a couple of weeks went flying by!

At first we started out creating burned designs on cork coasters. Portuguese cork is one of the best in the world and it's an abundant raw material in our country. Traditionally, it was used in the most various utensils of daily life, but its use has been falling by the wayside due to the demand for new and cheaper materials, modern but not really eco-friendly. You can still find those in our shop, since they are great as a pretty original house warming gift or hostess gift. Cork is a beautiful, natural material, that absorbs heat and humidity extremely well, and we can even personalize them and make the gift even more special!

These cork coasters would be the starting point to make wood-burned wall art and wood-burned boxes and wood burned hair pins... And that's when things took an abrupt turn in our shop!

Pedro carved a few hair pin blanks for Cris to wood burn, some in Linden wood, others in Alder wood. We were experimenting, so we wanted to see how the different wood types reacted to the pyrograph pen. We had so much fun choosing the designs to wood burn on them! And a lot of doubts too... Is it pretty enough? Is it meaningful? Is it whimsical? We guess they were all that and more, because people stated buying them soon after we listed them on our Etsy shop!

The game changing event happened next, when we brainstormed ideas of hand carved hair sticks. Coming up with ideas is really not a big issue with the two of us... When we get into a brainstorming frenzy, glistening eyes locked in one another, we're like a couple of kids dreaming of Wonderland! Then we have to come down to earth and decide which ideas are just plain insane, which are to store for later in a Ideas To Do List, and which are to make right away!

We decided to try our hands at  making hair sticks, by incorporating something Pedro had hand carved before: Ivy leafs. We tried to imagine what it would look like if we were to take a branch from a wild Ivy and strip it from all but one leaf. Sketch in hand, Pedro went into the work shop and hand carved his first hair stick!...
Oh, wow! It was beautiful!!!

That's it! We were hooked! And we weren't alone in it! Ivy leaf hair sticks were flying off our shop faster than Pedro could carve them! Some never even made it to the shop!
Soon, we started playing with this idea and added another leaf to the stick. When we found out how gorgeous these look paired up in a bun, we started offering them up for sale in pairs.
They are a huge success, which makes us very, very happy. From that point onward, we have incorporated Celtic Knots designs in our hair sticks, we branched out into hair pins and hair forks and we plan on taking it one step at a time, always moving forward, always trying to learn more, innovate and delight our customers.

As it is obvious just from the three photos in this post, our photographic skills have also improved a lot... But that's a learning curve we'll talk about in another post!

See ya soon!

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Na aurora da ArtisIgnis tínhamos muitas idéias e pouca noção de como iríamos faze-las resultar. Estávamos tão animados por irmos trabalhar juntos! Só queríamos fazer coisas bonitas juntos e vendê-las para que podermos continuar a fazer mais coisas bonitas! Oh, seria maravilhoso! Conversámos por horas a fio, compilamos uma enorme  Lista de Ideias, e  divertimo-nos imenso a criar a nossa imagem visual.

Abrir uma loja no Etsy foi tão fácil como 1-2-3... Escrever os textos para ela demorou um bocadinho mais! Entre a página Sobre, as Politicas da loja, fazer a pesquisa dos custos de envio para todo o mundo e escrever tudo isto de uma forma clara e concisa, enquanto mantínhamos os nossos empregos "normais", as nossas casas (e a nossa sanidade!), provavelmente passaram-se um par de semanas!

No início começámos por criar bases de cortiça para copos, com designs pirogravados. A cortiça portuguesa é uma das melhores do mundo e é uma matéria prima abundante no nosso país. Tradicionalmente usada nos mais diversos utensílios do quotidiano, o seu uso tem vindo a cair no esquecimento devido à entrada em cena de outros materiais, modernos mas pouco ecológicos. Ainda as pode encontrar na nossa loja, visto que são um presente bonito e original para quem inaugura uma casa nova ou para oferecer à sua anfitriã. A cortiça é um belo material natural, que absorve o calor e a humidade extremamente bem, e até podemos personalizar as suas bases para copos e tornar o presente ainda mais especial!

Estas bases para copos seriam o ponto de partida para fazermos quadros pirogravados, e caixas pirogravadas, e ganchos de cabelo pirogravados... E foi aí que, de repente, as coisas na nossa loja mudaram!

O Pedro esculpiu uns quantos ganchos em branco para a Cris pirogravar, alguns em madeira de tília, outros em amieiro. Estávamos a fazer experiências, por isso queríamos ver como as madeiras diferentes reagiam à ponta do pirógrafo. Divertimo-nos tanto a escolher os desenhos para queimar nos ganchos! E tivémos muitas dúvidas também... Seria bonito o suficiente? Tem significado? É fantasioso? Parece-nos que sim, eram tudo isso e mais ainda, porque começaram a ser comprados assim que entraram na nossa Loja no Etsy!

O acontecimento que mudou tudo veio a seguir, quando pensámos em designs de ganchos de cabelo esculpidos à mão. Ter ideias não é realmente um grande problema para nós os dois... Quando entramos na excitação da troca de ideias, de olhos brilhantes fixos um no outro, somos como um par de crianças a sonhar com o País das Maravilhas! Depois, temos que descer à terra e decidir quais das ideias são pura loucura, quais devemos guardar para mais tarde na Lista de Ideias a Concretizar, e quais são as que vamos fazer de imediato!

Decidimos que a nossa primeira experiência com ganchos de cabelos esculpidos, seria feita incorporando algo que o Pedro já tinha esculpido antes: Folhas de Hera. Tentámos imaginar como seria o aspecto de um ramo de hera a que tivéssemos arrancado todas as folhas, excepto uma. De esboço nas mãos, o Pedro entrou na oficina e esculpiu o seu primeiro alfinete de cabelo!...
Oh, uau! Era lindo!!!

E pronto! Estávamos apanhadinhos! E não éramos os únicos! Os Ganchos de Cabelo Hera voavam da nossa loja mais depressa do que o Pedro os conseguia esculpir! Alguns nem chegaram a entrar na loja!
Em breve, começámos a explorar esta ideia e juntámos mais uma folha ao gancho. Quando descobrimos que espetar dois ganchos destes num coque ficava lindo, começámos a pô-los à venda aos pares.
São um grande sucesso, o que nos faz mesmo muito felizes. Desde aí, o nosso trabalho tem vindo a evoluir, incorporámos designs de Nós Celtas nos nossos ganchos, abrimos o leque de ganchos ao esculpirmos ganchos com dois ou mais dentes e planeamos continuar a dar um passo de cada vez, sempre em frente, sempre tentando aprender mais, inovar e deliciar as nossas clientes.

Como é óbvio só pelas fotos neste post, as nossas habilidades fotográficas também melhoraram imenso... Mas essa é uma curva de aprendizagem de que falaremos noutro post!

Até breve!

Us and the Environment * Nós e o Ambiente

We believe in real handmade. We believe in sustainability. We believe our planet is our home and every little bit we can do care for it will add up and make a difference. We believe in a better way, a natural way. That's why...

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Nós acreditamos no que é realmente feito à mão. Nós acreditamos na sustentabilidade. Nós acreditamos que o nosso planeta é a nossa casa e que qualquer pequena coisa que possamos fazer para cuidar dele, vai somar-se a tantas outras pequenas coisas e fazer a diferença. Nós acreditamos modo de vida melhor, mais natural. É por isso que...

A non-introduction! * Uma não-apresentação!

Hi!

We are Cris & Pedro. We're a couple in love with wood, art and creation. We're from Portugal, a little country with a big soul and a lot of heart, and we thrive on working together to create original pieces for you.

Wait! That's our "canned" introduction! You can read more if you click on the About tab up there! There's also a very pretty picture of us! Artistic, we'd say!

So... Let's start over!

Now that you know our names, where we're from and what we do... You don't?! Didn't we tell you to click on the About tab up there?! Well?... Go on!... We'll wait here.

...

...

Ready?! Ok.

Now that you know... All of that, we'll let you know what to expect from this little blog here.

Expect nothing!!!

We're aiming at unpredictability! We don't know when we'll write a blog post, what it will be about - it could be about our vacations or our latest work in progress or a finished piece or two. We can write about a recipe we love or some random advice about hair, home decor, dyi and crafts or we can publish our latest video - who knows?! We're blogging on a whim!

We could write just in English and Portuguese, but don't be surprised if we manage to introduce some words in French, Spanish or German here and there.

See ya soon!... Or not!

Olá!

Somos a Cris e o Pedro. Somos um casal apaixonado por madeira, arte e por criar. Somos de Portugal, um pequeno país com uma grande alma e muito coração, e adoramos trabalhar juntos para criar peças originais para si.

Espera! Essa é a nossa apresentação "enlatada"! Pode ler mais se clicar no separador "About" ali em cima! Também lá está uma fotografia nossa muito gira! Dir-se-ia até, artística!

Portanto... Vamos recomeçar!

Agora que já sabe os nossos nomes, de onde somos e o que fazemos... Não sabe?! Então não lhe dissémos para clicar no separador "About" ali em cima?! Então?!... Vá lá!... Nós esperamos!
...
...
Pronto?! Ok.

Agora que já sabe... Aquilo tudo, vamos dizer-lhe o que pode esperar aqui deste bloguezinho.

Não espere nada!!!

Estamos a apontar para a imprevisibilidade! Não sabemos quando iremos escrever um post no blog, nem sobre o que iremos escrever - poderá ser sobre as nossas férias, sobre o nosso último trabalho em progresso ou sobre uma peça ou duas já terminadas. Poderemos escrever sobre uma receita que adoramos ou algum conselho aleatório sobre cabelos, decoração, artesanato, até poderemos publicar o nosso último video - quem sabe! Estamos a blogar por impulso!
Poderemos escrever apenas em inglês e portugues, mas não se surpreenda se conseguirmos introduzir, aqui e ali, algumas palavras em francês, espanhol ou alemão.

Até breve!... Ou não!