A Review of Pottermore by Someone Unaffiliated with Sony

So, as longtime readers have certainly grasped by now, I have something of a love for Harry Potter.  I spoke on gendered intepretations of the broomstick as symbol in modern literature at the 2009 convention; here's some of the massive amount of Potter-inspired jewelry I've made (please excuse the older photos):





So it will surprise no one that M and I were among those who fought for a place in the beta for Pottermore, which is supposed to be an interactive companion to the books containing more information about minor characters, ghost plots, and other things that weren't told in detail within the scope of the series.

Overall, we've found it interesting but disappointing.  Most of the problem is in the advertising.  There was a massive amount of hype for this -- website countdowns, early announcements, competitions for early-admission spots -- and it was not made entirely clear whether this was a game, or a bunch of illustrations, or an interactive ebook ... or what.

It's set up like a collection of illustrations tied to a social-media game.  There are quizzes to take and House points to earn, and there are some little side games, like potion-brewing and spellcasting.  However, the actual game bits tend to be buggy and unresponsive, partly because the servers clearly weren't ready when early registration was first opened and partly because, well, it's in beta.  But ... there's nowhere to give specific feedback.  There's a generalized feedback form that asks you to give a one-to-four rating of how it works, how it looks, and "how you're liking Pottermore so far," but no way to say "When you try to make the Herbicide Potion, the worm mucus isn't clickable; you just pick up the Valerian if you try."  Which you'd think would be the important thing about doing a beta run.  It's starting to feel like all they really wanted was a demographic survey.

The ... I don't even know what to call it, because it's not a game or an ebook or anything really ... Pottermore is unquestionably beautiful.  Each chapter of the book has two or three corresponding "moments" you can access through the ... here we go again ... through Pottermore, and each "moment" has a multi-layered artwork.  Chapter thirteen, the one with Norbert the dragon in it, is absolutely breathtaking. 

And yet there's nothing to do.  You get to collect books and objects throughout the scenes (though in the really lovely chapter, there's not a damn thing to pick up ... and you still end up having to look), but there's no competitive aspect -- it doesn't really penalize you for not finding the jellybeans on the train -- and there's no reward for finding everything.  A few things, when you click on them, will unlock interesting extra information that's been written for the ... for Pottermore.  For instance, there's an entire biography of Professor McGonagall that you pick up over the course of the story, a few paragraphs for every chapter in which she appears.  This is quite worthwhile for people who enjoy the series.  There's not a lot of information -- there's a lot less than the advertising suggested there would be -- but it's worth playing through for it.

Yet the social-media aspect of the ... thing ... seems to imply that it was imagined that people would sink time and effort into Pottermore.  Would return daily to try to earn House points.  But the part that was hyped, the companion to the books, takes less than a day to "play" or "read" or "work" through per book.  And here's the rub -- the books open one at a time.

At this point, the only thing I'm returning daily to do is to check whether the next book has opened up.  Sometimes I try to make a potion, but the timing on this requires you to either find 90 minutes of stuff to do in Pottermore (difficult) or set a real-world timer (I'm resisting the nerdiness).  As of the end of August, it was still only the first book.  With overall opening slated for October, I'm not sure how they're planning to beta later book-companions at this point -- there's just no time. 

The material shows a lot of promise, but Pottermore can't decide what it is.  This cripples the game because it cannot meet the expectations raised by marketing, weakens the storytelling because the different aspects seem to have been developed at the expense of one another, and distracts from the companion information because the reader is treacherously wondering, "This is all?"

Pottermore could have been a great advance either in interactive reading, or in book-related gaming, but it tried to be both and therefore is neither.  It tried to be something new so hard that it isn't anything.  It has potential as a stepping stone, and it's still worth playing/reading/social media-ing/whatever, but don't expect your mind to be blown.

It's my birthday and I'll talk about buttons if I want to

Yes, in fact it is.  My age is a palindrome for the first time in eleven years!  And until midnight M and I are only 8 years apart!

The buttons from the necklace I posted last week came from the single best deal I've ever gotten on vintage buttons.  Here's another made from buttons from the same lot:

 
Available here.

It was at a yard sale, and the guy selling them had sorted them into jars by color and clearly knew they were of value, but some jars had a horrifically foul-smelling mold in them, so he gave me a price cut on all of them if I was willing to clean them myself.  It turned out that only one jar had the mold, and the smell in the others was merely the natural consequence of putting lots and lots of Lucite in an airtight glass jar for a couple of months (Lucite stinks a little; it contains some kind of acid whose name escapes me at the moment).  I scrubbed them all with toothbrushes and buried them all in coffee grounds, and only ended up losing the one jar; the rest smell just fine, and there wasn't a single junk button.  All primo vintage stock.

Consequently, I can afford to do a special offer on stuff from that lot.  So here it is.  Buy two items, at least one containing buttons (look here), and get 20% off on the lower-priced item when you check out with the code "Lucite always kinda smells if you seal it in a glass jar for a month."  Spelling doesn't count.  Add the code to the Note to Seller when you buy and I'll give you the discount within 24 hours through PayPal.  Offer lasts until11:59 PM on September 30.

A shopping guide

If you have a bit of back-to-school shopping left to do, or (like us) you work in education and the first paycheck after Starvation Summer is burning a hole in your pocket, check out the shops of some of my recent Etsy copywriting customers:


Is liberal guilt about brown-bag lunches setting in hard yet? Reusable bags from SeaCute Designs, whose profile page I wrote, are surprisingly affordable for the category, and appear nicely made and rhapsodically cute; the very professional shop owner donates a portion of proceeds to Feed the Children.


For playing after school, tutus from avasmommy07 are made with lots and lots of US-made tulle so they're soft and poofy like the imaginary fairy princess gown you had when you were little. That isn't the item I wrote the description for; I just love that picture, which balances posing and naturalness so well, and which has a very nice contrast of background and foreground.


This purse hanger and similar ones from talented Etsy graphic designer Topview are great; original artist design, and those things are massively useful when there are narrow aisles between desks (one particular classroom in the anthropology department at UCR, in Watkins Hall, was pretty much where we shoved all the spare furniture so they wouldn't take it away before we were able to lay claim to another room. We guarded our classrooms jealously so we could keep artifacts and posters in them. But that room was hell on earth in the summer).

Topview also does very cool Etsy banners -- and, as you can see, very crisp professional photography. She's one of my absolute favorite customers so far; I edited the content for her very useful website for international students hoping to apply to colleges and universities in the United States, which I'll link to once it goes live.

Treasury Wednesday: I'd shank a kitten for a slice

Until a couple of years ago, I never actually liked watermelon, so it was always canteloupe and honeydew I got at summer gatherings. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that canteloupes don't exist in America. Technically, they're muskmelons. We just call them canteloupe. Actual canteloupes are only available in Europe and Australia -- where I think they're called rock melons or rockfruit.

Funny old world.

There are some neat, weird things in this treasury, really different and cool. A beautiful collection of Etsy's real best, not Etsy's bestsellers.

'Muskmelon Pleasures' by Scribblegoat

Music and food-inspired designs, in rich melon oranges. What could be better?

Bailey Woodland Whi... baileybowls $19.00	Gallop, Canter, Fox... WildLifePrints $20.00	Upcycled Linen Cant... thehighfiberco $27.00	Acoustic Guitar Per... fionadesigns $20.00
Buy 3 get 4th FREE-... songsparrow $	she heard music eve... corid $20.00	Traditional Turkish... Kitty016 $16.90	Wood Fired Bottle a... earthfired $50.00
ballet russe BalletArt $18.00	Cute Pincushions f... BelleCoccinell... $33.00	Goldfish Cracker Ne... BitOfSugar $12.00	Marble Coaster (Mus... j2studios $9.00
Creamsicle Melon Mu... KarinLorenc $20.00	Sweet Slices an Ori... ArtByTemple $165.00	Citrus - Fine Art p... honeytree $30.00	Cantaloupe Bowl-Set... vegetabowls $72.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Instant Vintage

Available here.

What is it about this color combination that screams "vintage"?

I mean, naturally the color of the large plastic/resin buttons is very vintage -- I generally refer to that shade as "60's peachy pink," though from a quick consultation of that ever-handy resource, Wikipedia's list of colors by shade, I suppose technically it's coral.  (Random side note -- I'm that weird genetic anomaly, a colorblind female, so I can't actually distinguish a strong orange from a true red.  I have to ask M for a judgment of harmony if I'm designing in reds or greens, and it's made putting together the Mixed Media Packs for Ballet Llama something of an adventure.)

Anyway.  It's not the muted coral hue I'm referring to, but the combination of it with black.  Pink with black always looks either vintage awesome or modern tweeny "rock star" bleh to me, but this is a particular combination that M and some of my coworkers reacted to in the same manner.  Maybe it's the blue-black jet hue of the blacks that's doing it; that's also a very vintage-feeling color.

This, incidentally, is also one where I bit the bullet and included a photo on black, which may or may not have actually been a good idea:


But it looked too bizarre with black at the edges and white in the middle, and this gives a truer idea of the variation among the buttons, so this was the only way to make the contrast work.

In general, these aren't great photos. I'll need to rework the cropping, I think, and try for a deeper focus.

But hey, check out those great 1960s flapper-style rose beads!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

We're a little ways back into the year now -- and incidentally, this is the part I dislike, because no one has papers yet so there are almost no students, except for the panicked older students who are expected to use technology, but aren't being taught to use it.  The other day, M and I worked with a very nice gentleman.  She taught him to make capital letters on the computer.  I taught him how a printer works.  She taught him to use the mouse.

There is a lengthy diatribe on educational priorities in here somewhere, but I will limit myself: Did it ever occur to anyone to maybe require a computer-usage placement test?  It's seemed to me since high school, when I volunteered to drive some of my friends home after they missed the bus staying late in the computer lab, that the requirement of technology usage reinforces class distinctions in educational opportunity.  Clemson University requires that every student own a laptop -- and in my current still-a-bit-under-the-weather state I can't decipher whether this fixes or exacerbates the problem.

Anyway.

We've gotten started now, but before we did, M and I went to spend a couple of days in Asheville, North Carolina, where O. Henry lived for a while.  We went on the first day to Biltmore, the Vanderbilt family's estate.  After looking at the website, I came away with the impression that it was where rich people go to buy expensive branded wines and jellies and be rich together, but M's grandmother was kind enough to give us tickets and it was absolutely and completely worth the trip.

I've been to California's Hearst Castle, which is a melange of stuff imported over the Atlantic to build a fantasy Mediterranean village -- the architect called the style of that place something like "Franco-Anglo-Arabesque-Mediterranea-Japano-Rusko-screw-the-look-whatever-my-client-wants architecture."  Biltmore was a useful companion, since it is also a very Victorian-American estate -- appropriated spoils of empire and of education, combining in a large, somewhat asymmetrical cathedral-inspired house on top of a hill -- but Biltmore is much better-designed, and you can see how people would have flowed through it, both the guests and the downstairs class.  It's useful to see how the estate would harmoniously operate.

Also, some very inspiring wallpaper-decor combinations, including some beautiful examples of using rich jewel tones to make the very Victorian damask and tapestry feel masculine -- I'd give a photo, but they apparently never release them, contributing to my previous impression that it was a fancified wealth getaway -- and some wonderful 1890s-1900s clothing was on display, including a probably Worth-inspired gown and several pieces with delightful nostalgic touches that made my inner costumer dance.

Also, this fountain:


This view of the gardens (August is not a good time for gardens in the Carolinas, but these still looked pretty good):


And this carved marble pillar from the outside, which I'd love to "translate" into a jewelry design, somehow:


As for dining in town: The Jerusalem Garden Cafe is out of this world.  We ate there the first night and went back the second.  Try their curried mango shrimp -- it's delicate and warm, not spicy, and is served over perfect couscous.  It's atmospheric and lovely, especially the floor seating, and the servers are wonderfully attentive.  Asheville's more famous Tupelo Honey Cafe, however, was terrible and not worth the wait.  M's meal, the shrimp and grits, was drenched in hot sauce (not listed on the menu) and too spicy to eat; when we remarked on it, the server suggested stirring it around a bit.  Mine was a fried chicken something-or-other and was too salty to have more than a few bites.  However, if you still want to go, the peach rosemary lemonade is delicious.

Asheville can be described like this:  If you took a mellower version of the free-spiritedness and general artsy insanity of San Francisco and fused it with the prissy exclusivity of San Diego, their hipster love child would be Asheville (two silent E's.  And it went to North Carolina.  You've probably never heard of it).  The shopping is delightful -- don't miss the Spice and Tea Exchange, where they sell ras el hanout with black pepper and hibiscus flowers, and also onion-infused sugar and powdered extract of burgundy wine.  Malaprop's Bookstore is also a must-do -- we shopped a while and then sat drinking their amazing ginger lattes for hours.  And Woolworth Walk is not to be missed -- yes, there are all kinds of little art studios down by the river, but they were like an IRL Etsy, so you might as well visit through a screen -- and also overpriced and of questionable quality.  Woolworth Walk is right in town and features some truly amazing art -- pottery, installments, and traditional.  We purchased, or rather my parents purchased us through the magic of plastic and our birthdays coming up, a piece by Brenda Marks.  It's a three-dimensional giclee over wood rendition of her photo collage "Serenity."  Here's a picture of it on our wall, but visit her site because our lighting does it no justice:


Doesn't the dark luminous aqua balance the red so very eye-catchingly?  Stunning.

As a matter of interest ...

While my suppliers are trying to calm everyone, the laws of supply and demand would indicate that turquoise prices are going to hit the roof again like they did in the 1980s.  China is going to be dramatically slowing its production of turquoise rough -- a couple of sources are suggesting that that country's output may fall by as much as 75%.


Available here.

While this is no doubt exaggerated, it has some interesting implications.  A lot of turquoise miners are going to lose their jobs -- but the loss of life in mining should slow too.  The environment around some of the turquoise mines should improve.

And as for what this will do in the jewelry industry ... well, turquoise was recently a Pantone Color of the Year, and it is still exceedingly popular, since it fits both the fruity jelly-bean shades that are in everything this year and the dustier ones predicted for next summer.  As the prices rise, we may see a surge in substitutes, like dyed or undyed howlite, which pleases me -- I much prefer howlite.  Turquoise may be found in fine jewelry more often than casual jewelry by the end of this decade -- as it becomes priced as a luxury, it may be paired with sterling, gold, and precious stones more often than leather, fiber, and bone.  That could conceivably redefine tribal/ethnic-inspired jewelry styles.

This will be interesting to see!

Unrelatedly, I am sick.  I do this every year, but usually I manage to weather it before the school year begins.  However, it's possible my body is still on California scheduling (UCR starts in late September) and thinks it's got plenty of time to be ridiculous.

A Little Grin

In the description for the earrings below, I actually used the one really cool thing I learned from the Etsy writing workshop: Using a quick, unusual story to explain damage to a vintage item.



Sold!

To wit: "The two large pearl beads have slightly different shades and imperfections (I like to imagine it comes of their being worn by a dangerous gang of flapper girls for a famous faux pearl heist), but this is barely visible and what can be seen only enhances the vintage feel of the earrings."


It's always nice when something you wrote makes you smile a little later on.  I got this feeling from the descriptions of some of the stick incenses for my current Elance client, too.  It's a high, like suddenly realizing that the beads are falling into an additional pattern you didn't even plan but which is perfect.  Flipping over a pancake to find you've judged just right and it's wholly fluffy, and melt-in-your-mouth gold.  Or perfectly executing a martial arts form.

Things I Am Slightly Chagrined By

1. I'm making more in a month of copywriting than I ever made even in Decembers from my jewelry business.  Admittedly, most of it's coming from Elance, but I've been at the jewelry for three years (going on four) and the copywriting for three months.  There is something slightly frightening about this.
2. I'm officially giving up the ghost on frontal toggles.  Every time a new Stringing hits the grocery store, there's a new and interesting way to put the clasp in front, to the side, as a pendant base, interchangeable, adjustable, convertible -- just stop.  I am going to accept that my jewelry has boring clasp placement, at least for a while.  I use too many different toggle designs (because I match them carefully with the piece's look) to put myself through this anymore.
3. Teapot earrings -- a billion variations on a single finding -- beat out every other category I can make for top jewelry sales ever.  Maybe this is less chagrin and more astonished laughter.  But yeah.

Sold!

Finding Changes

I like to delude myself that I make these posts so that when I'm rich and famous, my slavish scholarly fans will be able to date my work.  Also, I figure you customer types like to know I actually think about this stuff.

In the past, with some variations, I've used flat headpins and fishhook earwires, as such:


However, especially with doing all the bridal designs, I've occasionally ended up using ball headpins and French wires, as such:


Images courtesy Fire Mountain Gems.

I've just finally made the investment to switch over more or less entirely to the second option.  I prefer the look of ballpins, which give the effect of a tiny additional bead rather than a "stopper" -- and they mimic the look of hand-fired ones better.  Also, while I never believed all the people who told me this, the coiled fishhook wires genuinely don't balance quite as well.  Admittedly, I don't have problems with them -- and I send all my heavier earrings with rubber stoppers to solve any problems others with less beefy earlobes have -- but the ball-end ones give a touch of confidence.  And they're rarer, so I think they look more professional.

So I'll work through my former stock -- especially since there are some design types that the coiled wires suit beautifully, I just don't do them that often.  But overall, I've decided that it's going to be mostly ball-type findings from here on out.

With exceptions to be made, of course, for cool headpins like the enameled ones in these earrings:


Available here.

But ball earwires, anyway.  Although wrapping a colored wire over the coils might be cool ... I'm off to experiment.