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That’s pretty Hannah,congrats.
Every act matters.No matter how small💞
(Wanted......Brimstone Lap)
Male Hearth....one day🤞Dream on.There’s been a lot of good commentary on this. I definitely agree with Hannah in that if I were new and a first-time participant, I’d be more than a little depressed by not knowing what was going on.
I don’t think the swap needs to be as complicated as having multiple organizers. I think having an unbiased organizer–a veteran member who has free time and won’t be participating–is ideal though it’s not foolproof by any means. But it’s just as good having a trusted member do it as well.
As Bodine said, if an organizer pulls Melody for themselves I think they should be able to keep it as such given that it’s not their first time hosting and that it’s a one-time thing (to keep it fair). Truthfully I was initially not going to participate because of money being tight but then Melody threw her name into the pot so I took a gamble. We have tons of talented painters on the forum so I’m in no way dismissing their abilities but Melody painting something “just for me” would make it that much more special. And I’m sure everyone feels similarly in that regard.
As for communication there did need to be more of it this time around. I don’t think that a nearly-finished or finished picture needs to be required as long as the communication is spot on. And when it comes to who painted for who, I personally prefer to not know who’s painting for me until I open the box; I like the surprise of it!
I don’t know if my painter has sent my piece out yet but I do know that I was going to be getting it late; throw in winter weather and holiday shopping and it may be awhile yet before mine gets here.
My swap is being mailed out this week. I apologize for the lateness (I had to leave it with a relative to mail this week, as I out of state until next week). I do hope the recipient likes the piece and it was worth the wait though. The last few weeks have been more than a little chaotic personally and emotionally with some personal matters, aside from colds and throwing out my shoulder (I do hope 2018 sweeps all that away!) and I apologize for not getting it out sooner. I do have photos with me if I need to post anything remotely once it is received.
Hey you guys. Im sure know one cares to hears, but I apologize for all of the chaos. This fall has been heck and I have been doing me best to email folks and be as organized as I can. I got into a bad car accident the night before Halloween and everything has been scattered since. I picked up hosting several times because the previous hoster had gotten too. If folks dont want me hosting swaps, then I will happily bow out and stay out of the drama. :/ The list for the swap was mixed with a random list generator as I do every year. I mix em up and then make sure know is painting something they dont want or mixed to paint with themselves. I know I have not been on since before christmas. I have been not feeling well and in a lot of pain from my car accident injury as I attempt to return to working a bit. I was not matched with melody because i pick and chose. It was random and I was worried folks would be upset and was ensured that it was fine. Guess it wasn’t
My piece, Bi-polarbears and Laundry2011 are all late as we share a house hold and have been trying very hard to get things going. Both of them wanted to learn airbrushing for their pieces and waited and in the end i was not able to show them. All three of our swap matches were emailed a bit over a week ago.
For those curious, another driver hit an elk and then slid into my car and clipped us head on. Laundry2011 was in the back seat and was fine, as was my other passenger and Bipolarbear was at home. My car was totaled and i have sustained herniated discs in my neck and back that have been giving me heck since. Top that with having to go to Seattle to work with a film crew two weeks later in a neck collar, and an art client going off the wall to make me finish thier peice ahead of time or threatening a charge back (i still ended up refunding them and they have now trashed ,my business all over) This winter has been a nightmare. I was not just gonna stop the swap or dump it on someone else mid swap.
My greatest apologies for the disorganization and my lack of getting on the forum. I’ve been feeling exhausted and sore and havent been on since Christmas. I meant to get pics of melodies and have not had the chance. Bipolarbear got his, its on the book shelf. I’ll remind him to post pics. I’ll have pics of Melody;s and Laundry2011 after we head back home on Sunday.
If someone else feels they would be better to run the swap, feel free to pick it up. They are quite a bit of work and I did not anticipate this fall and its torn everything apart around my place and left us all scrambling with the new year coming.
If you have not been emailed and not received a piece, please email me so i can straighten it out. Nobody has emailed or pm’d me concerning this and I cant read minds over the internet to know where everything sits. :/
I will now finish reading through the various posts. I’ve read a little over half so far.
Please if there is an issue, just message me. I think I am done hosing swaps. Between my lupus, EDS and attempting to run an art business, I think hosting hobby swaps, as good intentioned as I have tried, are just not what I need to be doing.
Recently married to the ever lovable BiPolarBear (little John)
www.weaselsoneasels.com | www.facebook.com/weaselsoneaselsAs seen on This is Life with Lisa Ling on CNN (2018) !
Always open for pyo commissions, repairs and fine artwork! Email me for current prices! awier(@)weaselsoneasels.comHer peice came the day we were leaving and packing for oregon and we just didnt have time. He’s waiting on my dresser until i can go back and post pics. She said she had some pics to post of him, I’ll ask her.
Recently married to the ever lovable BiPolarBear (little John)
www.weaselsoneasels.com | www.facebook.com/weaselsoneaselsAs seen on This is Life with Lisa Ling on CNN (2018) !
Always open for pyo commissions, repairs and fine artwork! Email me for current prices! awier(@)weaselsoneasels.comJust so you are aware, I do fit your “criteria”. I’ve been a member of the forums since 2013, and hosted many swaps over the past several years, pyo, gift swaps, art and aceo swaps.
I had already sent most of the emails when I realized she was painting for me. This will be last swap I host or participate in. I hope this eases everyones frustrations.
Recently married to the ever lovable BiPolarBear (little John)
www.weaselsoneasels.com | www.facebook.com/weaselsoneaselsAs seen on This is Life with Lisa Ling on CNN (2018) !
Always open for pyo commissions, repairs and fine artwork! Email me for current prices! awier(@)weaselsoneasels.comThere’s been a lot of good commentary on this. I definitely agree with Hannah in that if I were new and a first-time participant, I’d be more than a little depressed by not knowing what was going on. I don’t think the swap needs to be as complicated as having multiple organizers. I think having an unbiased organizer–a veteran member who has free time and won’t be participating–is ideal though it’s not foolproof by any means. But it’s just as good having a trusted member do it as well. As Bodine said, if an organizer pulls Melody for themselves I think they should be able to keep it as such given that it’s not their first time hosting and that it’s a one-time thing (to keep it fair). Truthfully I was initially not going to participate because of money being tight but then Melody threw her name into the pot so I took a gamble. We have tons of talented painters on the forum so I’m in no way dismissing their abilities but Melody painting something “just for me” would make it that much more special. And I’m sure everyone feels similarly in that regard. As for communication there did need to be more of it this time around. I don’t think that a nearly-finished or finished picture needs to be required as long as the communication is spot on. And when it comes to who painted for who, I personally prefer to not know who’s painting for me until I open the box; I like the surprise of it! I don’t know if my painter has sent my piece out yet but I do know that I was going to be getting it late; throw in winter weather and holiday shopping and it may be awhile yet before mine gets here.
This is my third or Fourth time hosting a PYO swap over the past 5 years. Again, I have not done anything outside of what is being suggested. -_-
Recently married to the ever lovable BiPolarBear (little John)
www.weaselsoneasels.com | www.facebook.com/weaselsoneaselsAs seen on This is Life with Lisa Ling on CNN (2018) !
Always open for pyo commissions, repairs and fine artwork! Email me for current prices! awier(@)weaselsoneasels.comHello,
- For those that don’t know me I’m Melody’s nephew and Windstone employee. I was there when 96037 ran the randomizer and helped write all three names in. She was really surprised when she found out melody was her swap partner and asked if she should reshuffle the results because she was worried people would think she rigged it. I told her not to. Random is random.
I would help but I am just to tired to get out of bed today~
Engaged to a WeaselHello,
- For those that don’t know me I’m Melody’s nephew and Windstone employee. I was there when 96037 ran the randomizer and helped write all three names in. She was really surprised when she found out melody was her swap partner and asked if she should reshuffle the results because she was worried people would think she rigged it. I told her not to. Random is random.
Here are Bi-polarbear’s Pieces
Recently married to the ever lovable BiPolarBear (little John)
www.weaselsoneasels.com | www.facebook.com/weaselsoneaselsAs seen on This is Life with Lisa Ling on CNN (2018) !
Always open for pyo commissions, repairs and fine artwork! Email me for current prices! awier(@)weaselsoneasels.comReally amazing Foo dog, the 3-D effect is really cool!
*Formerly meowmix101
Not currently open for PYO commissions.I appreciate you finally coming back and saying something, 96037.
BiPolarBear, you are absolutely right – random is random. However, I hope that you can appreciate how concerning it can be for people who are involved in the swap to see the swap organizer get the most coveted painter, and also seemingly disappear from the swap entirely after emailing out names. The lack of communication raises suspicion and distrust. It’s not healthy for any of us.I certainly understand having to take longer due to unforeseen circumstances, or general “real life” stuff. Everyone here has stuff going on in their lives, and some people have a lot on their plates. However, having such limited communication once you have taken up the responsibility for the swap was super concerning. It seems like someone could have said something, or come back to check on it, but it didn’t happen until far later than the swap’s send date. I am not trying to be mean or rude here, I am just hoping to show you how it looked from the other side.
I cant read minds over the internet to know where everything sits. :/
Certainly true – but there’s been feedback on this right here, waiting for you. I’m not trying to dig into you, but if you needed help you could have said something to us too.
Finally – if there are people who simply do not receive pieces from their swap partners, please let me know. I’d be willing to paint something for those who did not get anything, and I am certain there are a couple other painters that would be willing to help out as well.
Commission spots are currently closed! Please message me for details.
Please visit My Webpage to see my art and PYO's that I've done in the past!Bodine, did you paint for BiPolarBear? I think I saw you post a “teaser” earlier, right?
It’s awesome! It really looks like he has raised vines on his fur – it reminds me of lichen. What was the inspiration for him?Commission spots are currently closed! Please message me for details.
Please visit My Webpage to see my art and PYO's that I've done in the past!@ Kujacker
Yes, I was told to participate, but it wasn’t as if I was ordered. It was more of a forced friendly commitment. Allison and I are friendly on Facebook and she knows I haven’t been painting for some time now.
On a bit of a personal note I’ve been in a bit of a slump for the past 2 or 3 years and fighting against a really bad state of depression. I don’t believe in medicating so it’s been that much more difficult to face my failures so I distanced myself from the things I loved (such as painting) because I haven’t been able to move to Oregon and live my dream painting for Windstone like I wanted since I was a child. So since then I’ve been beating myself up and abandoning the hobby as of late just to make it easier to deal with (Allison knows this… you all of course did not, but this same depression is mostly why I don’t post here often anymore is because I hate people who constantly whine and complain and I was slowly becoming one of those people while I dealt with the depression of not being able to achieve a life long dream. i.e. – I think I basically had a midlife crisis) She wasn’t trying to be rude, but she just really wanted my participation and even supplied a piece for me to paint just so I would be able to partake. So even though it wasn’t much my decision to participate in this swap she was basically giving me kick in the pants I needed to get my act back together and start painting again since even the sight of my own Windstone collection has been making me sick because they are just painful reminders I’m still in New England and I hate my life.
So… all in all I hope hat puts that situation into perspective. Not that I wanted to dive into the personal bit, but I don’t really care anymore who knows about my personal garbage at this point. I’m getting over it and it’s been easier to bear the past few months. Talking about with some friends helped and I’ve pretty much accepted the fact my visit was probably about as close as I’ll ever get and to be thankful for that once in a lifetime experience at the very least.
But back on topic, I don’t think Allison meant for things to be as disorganized as they were. I know she had an accident that screwed her up for a while and BiPolarBear had his identity stolen from someone who went on a shopping spree on his dime so they have had issues for sure. Not saying it that makes any excuses for the disorganization that has occurred, but what I mean to say is I don’t believe it was intentional at all and I’m glad that most folks agree and have made that bit clear.
Of course though future swaps could certainly use stricter rules as the ones that have been discussed and quite honestly they really should have been enforced a long time ago to prevent these kinds of problems in the first place. In life stuff happens, it could have been dealt with better of course, but I’m sure there was no ill intention on anyone’s part. The important thing is to learn from this and move forward with a better understanding of how to host future swaps with a bit more organization and accountability.
Got a busted Windstone?
drag0nfeathersdesign@gmail.com
*OPEN for repairs**SEEKING GRAILS*
Arc-en-ciel Emperor
Siphlophis Male Dragon
Calypso Hatching Empress
Ivory Moss Sitting Baby Kirin
Tattoo Mother Kirin
Emerald Tabby Male Griffin
Tie Dye + Orion Hatching Royalty
Indigo Rockfish + Flame Tabby Little Rock Dragons
Dragon Quail + Obsidian Frost Old Warriors
Betta Sun Dragon + Male Dragon
Dreamscape, Orion, Poison Dart, Fireberry, Spangler + Tigerberry DragonsI cringed while reading this thread, because I can’t imagine dealing with a major car accident, including injury and loss of the vehicle, the holidays, your business, and the task of keeping a swap like this organized. I don’t think anyone would point out this swap as an example to be emulated…indeed, the organizer never said that nothing was wrong, just that she was doing the best she could given the circumstances.
Yes, it took her awhile to address these concerns in this thread, but… Honestly, who would want to jump in on what was being said here?
Re: the organizer not being eligible for a Melody piece… What thanks do we imagine the organizers get for running these swaps? There is no compensation. Make some rule like that, and you’ll have even fewer people willing to take that hit for the team. Worse yet, you might well scare Melody off from participating, because people fight over the “right” to the piece from her.
I love every swap piece I’ve ever had painted for me, as well as every piece I’ve painted for someone else. I love that this company, this art, that I’ve been in love with for 25+ years is still going strong, and that I can participate in opportunities like this swap, in this forum, with an amazing group of people including Melody.
I get being disappointed in the lack of communication. I get being disappointed in the disarray. But I really don’t think there was much hint of wrong-doing going on, and I understand why the organizer would feel attacked by the comments made.
96037 – I definitely see that organizing swaps might not be something you want to do, given all the other things going on in your life, but I hope you won’t be put off from participating if you would like to. Thank you for the time you invested in this swap, especially considering that the energy came at a time when you had so little to spare.
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