Over the past 3 days, I have been spending quite a bit of time sorting through some of my old boxes and bins.
It's not exactly creative work, but I decided that it's necessary work.
I have long been guilty of getting in new stones to paint on, and starting on sidetrack ideas, and buying painting supplies, and simply putting a layer of the new on top of the old.
The (suboptimal!) result has been that it looks like I have a lot of things, but once I dig in I discover that much of them are a little bit obsolete and they actually end up irritating me; sometimes enough to where I lose my momentary creative spark.
It has been a interesting and rather revealing process in the sense that I can really tell how my standards and requirements have changed considerably over the past 10 years. Because yes, it has been 10 years since I last really sorted everything out!
Aside from just sorting all my blank stone stock so it's easier to find specific things, I also feel a lot better organized now because I dug out my old label maker and put labels on all the bins.
Tomorrow, I will be hauling some 50 lbs of rocks back to the beach! Thankfully, the beach has a pretty liberal "return policy" so I'm not too worried, even though some of these rocks have been sitting around the house for ten years.
Meanwhile, I also spent part of the day doing finishing work on the first batch of painted stones from January. I know there are still a few days left in the month but it seemed like there was a natural breakpoint, and I've been trying to keep up with new listings on Etsy because I don't want to develop too much of a backlog.
Historically, I have tended to cluster all my work inside the couple of weeks immediately preceded being a festival or arts and crafts event and it has always proven rather overwhelming to get it all done on time. One of my resolutions for 2026 is to try to do things more as they happen, as opposed to in hectic storms of activity punctuated by months of virtually nothing.
Meanwhile, I've been able to back-burner social media a little bit, because my wife has taken over most of the social media updating and she's currently researching the best possible ways to market Alchemy Stones to a wider online audience.
One of the things I find really interesting about the process is the fact that she is using her "AI sidekick" for the reasearch process and actually getting some really good ideas. While I have long been skeptical of what AI will or will not do for humanity this definitely looks like an appropriate use of AI.
As a consequence, I haven't really been painting a lot for the last few days but hopefully this weekend I'll be able to get around to that as we close out the month of January.
I'd also like to get a few more items into my new Hive/PeakD Store because I really do want to support this new initiative. If you are an artist or creative, I hope you will, as well!
Thank You!
If you enjoy painted rocks, do check out The Hive Rocks Project and help spread the word about Hive, while also being creative!
Because I am trying to make some semblance of income — a part time living, even — I now add this footer to all my posts, in the hope that someone, somewhere, might decide to take a further look at my work, and perhaps consider supporting independent art.
Thank you, in advance, for your consideration and support!
My Alchemy Stones Patreon appeal
Alchemy Stones web site and blog
Regardless, your upvotes and comments are always appreciated!
Thank you for supporting independent art & creativity!
2026.01.30 AS-TXT-373/343