2020 Thanks and Goodbye.

For all of us it has been a different and challenging year in many ways. I hope as it is ending, you can see many things to be grateful for.

For me 2020 seems like a blur. I am not exactly sure what I did with a whole year, it seems foggy still to me. I certainly didn't create many mosaics this year. Making mosaics is what I love to do, but for some reason I just didn't get into my groove.

The online store always keeps me busy. It's lovely to receive your orders and pack them up to send to you. I wonder what you will be creating, and I hope you'll be having fun.

I spend a lot of time sourcing new materials, and stocking back up on popular items that may have sold out, or be getting low in stock.

In 2020 Compound Nippers found a way back into the store with hopefully a good supply now available to me. They are necessary for nipping the Ceramic Tiles that are now in stock. They are a great colour range, lots of neutrals, and every bright you will need to create lovely mosaics. There is something about ceramic mosaics that I love.

Hopefully 2021 I can have a good play with Ceramic tiles too. I have a great photo I took years ago in a garden I worked in, of a white cockatoo that used to visit me and bathe under the sprinkler I turned on for the birds each Friday. Then it flew up into the London Plane Tree and danced around on a low long branch for ages and we chatted, and we had quite an encounter. I took some great snaps, and have always wanted to make some large panels. I'll start with one and see how I go.

I've ordered some more Vibrant Glass Tiles. Some are to restock the colours that are sold out, or very low, and I think there are about 30 new colours in this order also. They are in manufacture now, and will take a while to be packaged and shipped to me. Then the fun part, opening all the boxes and checking the stock, preparing it for sale by photographing it and loading all the new colours onto the store, and adjusting the inventory of the colours already online. It's one of my favourite times when i get the VGTiles.

I'll let you know when they are loaded up into the store.

I have lots and lots of Beads and Extras, from orders I made during the year waiting to be loaded into the store. I seem to always get sidetracked from this task, because it is laborious, and now I have numerous piles of materials in various places in my studio, at my work bench and under it, of goodies needing packaging, photographing, measuring and weighing, and loading into the store. I really want to get all these done over the Christmas New Year break, so I have a clean slate for 2021, and all the things that are coming in then. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Check the Newest Products tab in the online store to see what's new, and if I have infact got around to loading some of the goodies for you. :)

I'll be keeping the store open, it's usually a bit quiet, but if you are creating and run out of a material, just know I'm here to pack it and send it to you.

December 2020 marked 4years of trading for Tess-Array.com. I'm a pretty low-key seller, I don't have wild sales or discounts or send you emails all the time, because I guess I'm just not that kind of gal. I try to price things well so you are getting a good buy, so often there isn't room to discount, also if your inboxes are anything like mine, I think you'd be annoyed if I was emailing you all the time. That's just me.

Anyway, so I think I will have a little give away/competition in the new year. My thoughts so far are:  it is for anyone who has made a purchase from Tess-Array.com, and you will automatically be entered into the draw, once for each order you have made. To increase your odds of winning, if you have made a review post on the Tess-Array Facebook page about the store, you'll get an extra entry into the prize draw also.

If you have emailed me at karen@tess-array.com with any suggestions about things I need to improve about the store, or have sent me photos of mosaics made with materials you have purchased from Tess-Array.com, you will get an additional entry into the draw. So there is the heads-up, get your comments in, and your suggestions forward so I can add you into the draw.

I'll make an official notification in the new year and show you what I'll be offering as prizes.

Late this year I ventured onto Instagram, and am slowly finding my feet there. Look for me, @tessarrayformosaics ..... Hopefully I will get better at photographing and posting there. It takes time and effort, to produce content, so I guess I will have to focus more on that and being more interesting Instagram-wise in 2021. Are you all on Instagram? Do you prefer IG to FBook?

I've been messing around with this substrate for the last week or so. I bought it from Aldi a couple of years ago and it has been in my garden. I brought it inside recently wanting to rejuvenate it into a sculpture for my garden as a memento of my travel to Chile some years back to create a mosaic there. It is I guess fabricated reminiscent of the Easter Island statues, which is of course nearby Chile, so I thought it was appropriate. I have him near where I work everyday, and am sketching out ideas of what I want to incorporate into the design, remembering Chile and what I saw and experienced there. He is made of fibreglass, and was grey, I've just started to put a skim coat of thinset on him to make him white, because I find that is easier for me to "project" my ideas upon...... I'll put a layer of mesh strips on him to make sure he is nice and strong also. This will be my Christmas design project, and hopefully some headway will be made on his creation.

Well thanks to you, my best customers, I am grateful to each and every one of you. Thank you for shopping at Tess-Array.com 

Wishing you all a great Christmas and New Year, and welcome the blessings of 2021, may they all be delicious and joyous!

Karen Baker