Why Vlogs?
If you’ve been following for a while, you know that I’ve been posting sporadically to YouTube for many years. I started my current channel just before my birthday in 2011. My mission back then was to have a place to put up dance clips and performances of my friends, my troupe, and myself. I had dreamed of putting up content, but I never really had that one “great idea” that I could really sink my teeth into. Until now!
Making My Own Challenge
Between 2014 and 2018 I joined a few makeup challenges and had a blast sharing the craziness. These were month-long topic-driven events with a list of prompts to drive the project. Didn’t know what to do for a day? Look at the prompt! I found it very gratifying to throw myself into the process of completing the challenge but was also grateful when it was over. Here’s a playlist of my submissions for the the 2017 belly dance makeup challenge.
Sustainability, Interest, and Motivation
Makeup is one of the key elements of my “5 Layers” of belly dance appearance. But, during these challenges found that I would run out of steam and energy, and sort of let the challenges just drift off. In 2017 I learned a critical lesson, I’m not a makeup artist, and I just couldn’t sustain the energy to come up with a month of different and unique looks. And just so we are clear, I still love WATCHING makeup videos. I still love buying cheap and cheerful products, and setting aside “makeup playtime.” Makeup video creation was fun, but not a sustainable choice for me.
What I needed was an angle to my topic of belly dance costuming that I would find interesting enough to make content regularly. I also needed to find a video quality that was good enough to feel motivated to share. And finally, I needed to hone in on a workflow that allowed my work on YouTube to be a sustainable process. Sort of like writing a book!
And that’s when it came to me:
I needed to share content about being a costumer/author!
Silver the Tabby, one of my Studio Assistants
2022 – The Year of ABCD
This year, I’ve created my own year-long challenge that involves me documenting and sharing the process of finishing up my book. Moving forward from here, I’m going to be sharing the process of book creation starting with the raw materials for the costumes. Then, I’ll share with you peeks into my world as I design and make “30 Looks” for this new book ABCD or “Assiut Belly Dance Costuming in Detail.” There’s going to be a ton of things to see and do over the coming months, I hope you will join me.
1K in 2022? Subscribe to the Studio Davina Channel!
If you want to support my work, my first YouTube goal for 2022 is to reach the 1K subscriber mark! I’m almost halfway there! When a YouTube creator reaches 1K, their status changes behind the scenes, I have access to more data and tools, and I will rank higher in search. Thank you for your ongoing support.
I hope you are having a great day!
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
February 7, 2022
