Happy 8th birthday, flickr!
This was my first photo upload when I started my account in April 2006 - a bracelet for my sister made before I started my Etsy shop. I joined Etsy in March then flickr a month later. At the time, all the Etsy sellers were keen on using flickr for promotion eve though it's primary function was not ecommerce. My first uploads were pure portfolio pieces, documenting my early attempts at making jewelry.
Although family makes an appearance on p2 of my account most of my personal pics stay private and visitors just see jewelry jewelry jewelry. Mixed media makes an appearance on the fourth page as I dive headlong into wire and fibre.
My very first self-portrait thursday arrives January 2007, egged on by a bunch of Etsy sellers. In those early years Etsy was a very sociable and helpful site to be part of. There was a great sense of community and I learned a lot about 'being online' from some wonderful people.
My account stays very creativity-focused for a long time, even documenting my progress with other techniques including carving a soapstone grizzly bear.
Finally, after about 40 pages, my flickr account starts getting more personal and less hard-sell with a photo diary of a camping holiday on Sunshine Coast. It's been less deliberately arty and more about cataloguing my life ever since then.
Although the creativity has changed and I don't document it quite as much, it's still a big part of my life. Being able to share the crafty moments via flickr has opened up so many online doors to me, and is probably the reason why I have a good footprint in social media these days. I love being able to look back at my visual diary and see just how far I've come, from the jewelry-making as a step towards sanity as an isolated SAHM, to an almost habitual unconcious incorporation of creative moments into everyday life.
It's been a real journey, flickr. Thanks for the ride :)
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