Archiving my work from the past 5 years, today I am doing 2022.

During this year I decided to be more active and post more updates and write monthly journals on FA so I have been looking back to those to reflect that year. This year was crazy busy and a lot has happened so I am afraid this won’t be a short blog.

New logo & Ko-Fi members

First of all, I officially started (and registered) my business this year, so I had a lot of plans ahead of me. I was very excited and finally came up with an official name and logo design (concept) to work on my branding. It wasn’t until 2023 though that I actually made the final logo. I decided to go with the name “Atelier Sweetsushi”.

I also started to use my socials more like twitter (which I now left ages ago >_>) and started to use ko-fi, open a shop there and announce membership tiers. I’ve illustrated pretty cute badges for each tier, so that took a lot of work too. They aren’t here in my visual summary, but if you go to www.ko-fi.com/sweetsushi and check membership you can see the badges I’ve illustrated. I am also planning to upload them here on FA.

Art commissions & Art Fight

It started out pretty well, after practicing headshot drawings I realized I am putting more effort and detail into them. So I decided to offer connecting icon commissions (black raven) for valentine. I was happy there was some interest and that I could practice my art more <3

I also worked on a full body + background commission which I am pretty proud of (the black/green dragon). I’ve put in a lot more details and with the background it really felt like a complete piece. Later I accepted another big art commission, this time a high tea party with a pokemon theme and I really enjoyed drawing that piece as well.

I did offer more art commissions, but I must admit my art commissions didn’t really get the traffic I needed. So I came up with a cute simple icon style I can do quicker, meaning I could keep the price low as well. I really enjoyed doing these as well :) but there was still a very low interest in my art. While I do enjoy drawing I was lucky to fall back onto my sewing so I started to focus more on that later that year.

I also decided to join Art Fight once again and made a few cute drawings. I kept it simple, bold and colorful <3 I also made a few cute simple headshots of all my characters that I use on my Art Fight.

Kigurumi pajama & Pride pillow

I was also very busy working on a kigurumi pajama, this time a cute vaporeon! I once again underestimated the project so it took me a while to finish. But I really love the end result and the challenges only added to my experience as a seamstress <3 I explored a lot of new things like a removable collar and tail. Plus I am a big fan of Vaporeon, it’s my favorite out of all the eeveelutions, so it was a lot of fun to work on.

Since I wanted to explore different kinds of sewing projects I came up with a rainbow pillow with a furry paw. Personally I just like rainbow designs, but it can also work as a pride pillow <3 So I also started to make different flag designs, but sadly the pillow cases didn’t really take off. I really like the idea of making different design pillow cases and showing my support to the community. But maybe I can think of different ideas in the future :)

Later I also introduced something else, kigurumi concept designs for everyone. Before I just made a concept for those that commissioned me for a pajama, but now you could commission just the concept to help you visualize your character as a kigurumi with no obligations to commission me for a kigurumi. I also decided to accept a few more Kigurumi Pajama slots after making a few new concepts.

Splatoon hats sales!!!

So until the summer my sales on Etsy for my splatoon hats were pretty low, just a hat here and there and also edited my pictures to upload here when I made a new color. But then nintendo announced a new game, Splatoon 3! And once I saw the new braided hat style I was super excited. I immediately started prototyping the new design and as soon as the game was released I announced my new hat design as well. I was not prepared for what happened next. Sales exploded during that month and the following months. I was like what is happening here? People loved the new design and I would start making lots of hats of this new design.

Sales wouldn’t just stop there, due to the exposure people would start ordering my older hats as well and ask for customs and designs based on their character. Orders in my shop also unexpectedly exploded during Halloween. I even had to stop taking orders for that season, because I couldn't keep up. I also got a commission for a pearl hat, this is like a sneaky debut in my summary because I never uploaded this one before. Idk why not, I think after this year I got super overwhelmed and just had no energy left to share what I’ve made and was just in a create or out modus.

Birthday cakes & Marble bags

At the end of the year I would focus on my family/kids and personal stuff again. My son would turn 4 and start school, so I made 16 marble bags in different colors with a crescent moon. Inside a wooden toy and 1 baked cookie. He would give those away on his last day in kindergarten. These were very exciting times for him, since he’s a very strong willed but sensitive boy. He experience everything very strongly just like his mom :O

Next to this I also baked them both birthday cakes again. This time I went a bit overboard and made a pirate/sea theme with way too many details, all edible marzipan. Sadly everybody that we had invited was sick, except for his grandparents. But at least he looooved the cake! For my daughter, who is a huge fan of the carnaval festival, from the Efteling, a Joki cake with a big red nose. She still talks about this cake till this day :P

Bad luck with chronic illness

I got ill the moment I started to get serious and needed the money (for living and treatments). One thing led to another so in between all these projects I was dealing with a lot of pain, fatigue and sickness. I am surprised I even created anything at all O_O Sadly that meant I had to delay my hopeful kigurumi pajama plans (1 or 2 slots each season) and haven’t opened new slots for them ever since. I am hoping to find my way back to this again and finish my backlog and start creating a routine and making lots of cute kigurumi pajamas again <3 because to be honest I love doing those the most ^__^

Reflection time

Okay this was a big year to reflect too. But wowies! I did a lot, but also a lot went wrong. I blame the heavy nerve pain, chronic TMJ pain, chronic sinusitis and bursitis. But I also blame that I forget I am a parent with lots of responsibilities, lots of unexpected events and wanting too many things and also the sudden success of the new splatoon hat(s). I tend to suffer under succes. It just becomes too overwhelming and I lose focus on other things. I sometimes forget I suffer from ADHD/Autism & Fibromyalgia on top of other stuff and chronic illness I have been dealing with.

I guess I have a lot to learn from this and have try to find a work&life balance. At least I made a lot of cool things, right!? >_<

Summary 2021
Summary 2020
Summary 2019
Summary 2018
Summary 2017
Summary 2016
Summary 2015
Summart 2014
Summary 2013
Summary 2012
Kigus/Fursuit 2011-2014

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WHERE TO FIND ME
site ♥ www.sweetsushi.nl
ko-fi ♥ www.ko-fi.com/sweetsushi
bsky ♥ sweetsushi

Art/Crafts/Sewing © Mine