Rayela's Fiber Focus: RIP
410 posts
March 28, 2008-June 5, 2012
OK, I bit the bullet. I keep telling people that their websites should be the mother ship where people can find everything they want to know: who you are, what you do, where you are. My website was over 10 years old. I never looked at it and neither did anyone else. The contract with the server was up (they are also clunky and old) so it motivated me to finally do some housekeeping.
Wordpress. Ugh. I've worked on it a bit before, but Blogger is soooooo much easier! But, now that I decided to completely re-do the website, I knew that I also had to move the blog and incorporate it into the site. Why? Two reasons:
- Branding: I made a big mistake when I named the blog Fiber Focus. It should have been Rayela Art's Blog or something like that. It's important to develop name recognition and be consistent everywhere.
- Traffic: Many websites get lost because they are static and don't get updated. Having a blog attached to it adds new content and moves it up in search engine rankings. It makes it more interesting, more vibrant and gives people a reason to come back. Once you have seen a website, you probably won't visit it very often. But, a blog can develop a following and can stream all over the social media world.
So, I hope that all of you who have enjoyed this blog will come on over to Rayela Art's new home. Click around, leave some comments, break it in. Let me know if anything is broken or needs revision. Learning the ropes is always a challenge and I'm sure there are many tweaks ahead. But, I am pleased with the template and look forward to wearing it out like an old rug. If you are in the market for a new wordpress template, I would recommend checking these guys out: http://www.dessign.net/. The hardest part, for me, is deciding what to use and then finding all of the plugins to make the site function properly. Finding a good way to showcase images was a nightmare, but I finally bought a slideshow plugin that is lightweight and clean.
I will continue to host guests over there, so if you would like to submit a story, do contact me. As usual, I am interested in textiles, fiber art, economic development, sustainability and how we can make this world a better place.
For the past several years I have made photo collages to mark the passing of time. I thought this would be a good way to end my time here. If you read my last post, you know that I recently lost a dog that I dearly loved, Juba, to cancer. These collages have always had my animals and also show that my editing skills have improved. These are the ones that I could find... Here is to the past and to the future!
Dara Tribal Village with Abdul (partner), Chicago, 2003
Dara Tribal Village with Abdul (partner) , Chicago, 2004
Ex-husband, Paducah, 2007
Ex-husband, Paducah, 2008
2009
Paducah, 2009
New Year's, 2010
Christmas, 2010
New Year's, 2011
Christmas, 2011
As you can see, I sometimes used the same images many times. That is like life. We take our ingredients and constantly change them, move forward, improve, and make a mark. At least, that is the hope! I look forward to what the new site has to offer and hope to see you there!
Of the four dogs, only Laila remains. There is a new one, Tor, who will certainly make it on this year's Christmas card:
Tor and Laila
