Hello Out There

I am feeling much better this morning, though the distinct lack of comments over the last week and a half has me wondering if anyone was listening when I said I felt bad in the first place. Not that I comment often on blogs that I read either, even the ones I read daily so really ought not complain, but man it's been a complete ghost town in much of my online existence.

I finished up the pair of ankle corsets I was working on, but not before I realized that I had made a huge error in the center that had to be fixed. The piece I thought I had started and abandoned was actually an attempt at a bracelet version and was two rings and chains shorted than it was suppose to be. I didn't notice until I had finished the first two rounds of both pieces. This caused me to have to cut and redo the center of both the pieces, add more motifs, cut out a few in the wrong place and then add the edging. This of course took longer than I had hoped and I just didn't have the energy to play grab bag tatting. Instead I decided to do a twitter giveaway for old pieces and play with vintage patterns.

Most of my attempts were complete washes as I didn't have the focus required to interpret the thickly written patterns. Usually with the help of the photos I can figure them out, but I failed at several of them before I finally found one straight forward enough for my tired brain to get. I think I might begin morphing this one today. I see a few adjustments I could make to strengthen the design and work it into a choker or bracelet. I might even look into replacing the center motif with a filigree bit. It's really too early to tell what it might or might not become.

The saga of the ghost town shop continues and this morning as I was writing, to add insult to injury, I received a few messages from a potential customer requesting that I hold a few items for them. What's the insult there, you ask? Not an insult really, but since I'd already used the phrase...anyway, they're from Italy. Yes, silly Italy that will not allow me to ship lace there. I know they are just trying to protect their native industries, but since etsy does not allow us to block individual countries from purchasing, I have to say 'sorry, no'. At least this time I got a message first instead of having to cancel an already completed sale. So it seems that I am turning people away left and right with the not copying another persons work and this Italy stuff. I guess that makes it my own fault then.

So I'll probably play with the new motif today and there was a couple more patterns I might try again with a fresher brain. Without any pending projects I'll just let the day go and roll where it takes me.