The Contest

I just noticed that there have been a striking lack of photos here lately and well it because I've nothing new to show you. All the mask making was the same old, same old. Of course you will have noted that this non pictureness is not changing today, but I shall try to make something with one of my new thread colors today, so I have something to share on tomorrow. Though I believe a blog need not be crammed with pictures to be interesting.

As is my way, every time I enter a new space, I blather on about it until the shiny wears off. So today, it's back to the facebook. Look, it's not amazing, or groundbreaking, but I do like this whole fan page business. It allows me to be unapologetically self involved. People are there to see what I'm tatting, selling, etc. so I don't have to feel guilt that this is the only thing that I'm talking about in that space. I mentioned a contest yesterday and it has been started. It's really a win win for me. Basically, one becomes a fan, acquires some of my tatting, not necessarily in that order, takes a picture wearing it, uploads it to the fan photos and I randomly pull a winner after the first of the year. See, I get a gallery full of customer images that I've always wanted and the "fans" get a chance to win free stuff. Well, that's the plan anyway.

I am also being put into a state of constant shock at the speed with which my "fan" base is growing there despite my lack of efforts to that end. I suppose I just waited so long to jump over there that everyone who liked me was already there. I always assume that I will reach a saturation point at some time. You know the point at which anyone who would like my work has already seen it and there are no more eyes to reach, and though the hearts on my etsy shop have slowed in recent months, they continue to grow as well. In fact, I'm less than 20 away from 5000 of the suckers. There are towns around here with fewer residents. Anyway, shocked, I am...happy of course, but shocked. I'm sure that I will be a ball of annoying ego as soon as that 5000 rolls around, so you best prepare for it...or maybe just avoid the blog post entitled 5000. That should keep you safe anyway.

So, enter the contest if you have some of my tatting and you've succumbed to facebook. I want to see all your pretty faces and wrists and necks and whatnot. I can't promise you'll win anything, but it could be fun right?

Very Vicious Valentine Giveaway

Valentines Day, the day hopeless romantics adore and the loveless abhor. A day to celebrate love, to test the gift giving prowess of beaus, to sell countless and disposable cards, candy and flowers. A day to wallow in self pity or loudly profess that you neither need or desire love in your life. Love it or hate it, not one of us is allowed to completely ignore it's passage. This Valentines Day, why not focus on Friday the 13th instead and win yourself a little something both beautiful and a little macabre.Win this set of one Death's Head Moth magnet and numbered 6/66 ACEO of 'Drawn' made by Diana Crites of PaynesGrey.

I have had the fortune of meeting many wonderful artists in the last few years and few of them have been as lovely and talented as Diana. She has an eye for finding the beauty in the odd making her work surreal and memorable. I have discovered through her blog that we also have more than a couple of things in common and her words are as compelling to read as her art is to see.

Here's a bit of bio for you: Diana Crites is a fine artist with a special interest in the dreadful. She has shown in California and throughout the Portland area, including the inaugural exhibition at Pi-Rem Gallery in the Pearl and has been a featured artist at Intown Works III at the historic Old Church in downtown. Her paintings are held in private collections in throughout the United States, Paris, and British Columbia. She also keeps a blog at http://amutedpalette.blogspot.com

Now The Rules:
-Visit http://paynesgrey.etsy.com, and peruse her amazing art.
-Pick your favorite item from her shop and then come back here to this blog post, and leave a comment telling us about what you liked.
-If you are not a blog user, make sure to leave your name and email so you may be contacted should you win.

Want more chances to win...read on

-For an additional entry, tell us a love story or anti-love story as a comment, whichever is your bag.
-For an additional entry, tweet this giveaway, then leave a comment to let us know you've done so.
-Finally, for an additional two entries, blog about this giveaway on your own blog (complete with links and pictures), and come back and leave a comment telling us you've done so.

-This contest is open to residents of the US only.

-Contest ends on Friday, February 13th (I know, ironic huh?). Winner will be announced the following Monday.

The Tatted Mask Strikes Again

You might have noticed that I wasn't around yesterday. I have a really good excuse though. My daughters eardrum burst and her sister was sick as well. We spent the morning at the doctors office and I spent the rest of the day playing nursemaid to the two of them. There was a lot of napping, but while they were awake, there was crying and clinging and I guess blogging really didn't seem important.

As the evening arrived, they did seem a bit better and I received an email from flickr. My tatted mask had won a third place in the diy/instructables Halloween contest in the costume category. I had entered simply by adding a photo to their flickr pool and I almost forgot about it, assuming of course that I had no chance up against some of the amazing creation featured there. In the message I received, it was suggested that I also upload a slideshow to the site which required no step by step instruction, so I went ahead and did so again assuming it would be lost among the other more interesting thing on the site. Moments later I received a message saying that the slideshow was featured on the front page of Instructables. I've no idea how it will be there, so run now and take a look.

It has been pointed out that there are no instructions, so why is it featured? I've no idea, they thought it was cool enough I guess. I will tell you though, the interface to make the slideshow was super easy and I just might have to try my hand at listing some patterns there in the future. So a bad day ended on a high note and the tatted mask has again asserted itself as my claim to fame. I still laugh that it started out as a custom request from someone who changed their mind. I guess the moral of the story is, if someone challenges you to make something unexpected, take the challenge, you never know where it might take you!

Well...

If you've been paying any attention at all, you know what today is. That's right it's the 10th anniversary of the imac, oh and it's my birthday too. If you haven't done it yet, you might what to hazard a guess in my blog contest detailed in yesterdays post. You have until I get up Monday morning to get your guess in. While you're reading that post, make sure you check out the sale that ends at midnight tonight.

I figured I would take a moment to look back on my last year and what it has brought. I celebrated my 10th wedding anniversary. My baby grew into a toddler and my toddler grew into a kid, so my life as a wife and mommy has evolved dramatically. My creative life too, has grown by leaps and bounds. During the course of the last year. I was published twice in Belle Armoire Jewelry, started my blog, joined indiepublic, the Etsy SteamTeam and was featured in several wonderful blogs. Both my skill and tatting style has improved and I've designed dozens of new pieces. I feel like I've gotten much better at taking product shots and I actually started using my flickr account. I hosted my first Tatting challenge and it went better than I could have imagined.

I've also made many new friends through my blog, etsy, steamteam and random connections. It is the continued support of these amazing people that has helped me come into my own as an artisan. As I write all this out, I am actually amazed at all I have done this last year. I really didn't feel like I was that busy throughout the year. Now I'm a little afraid of what my next year will bring. How much further can I really go? I guess only time will tell. Well, I'm off to enjoy my day, so don't forget to enter the comment contest and see you all on Monday.

How About A Sale

I had intended to simply preview my one day birthday sale today, but I've changed my mind. Instead, I will start a two day sale for today and my birthday tomorrow the 15th. I also decided to add one more element to the event, a blog comment contest. I've not tried doing a comment contest yet, so please bear with me as I muddle through.

The sale starts now and goes through the end of the day tomorrow the 15th. Take 30% off everything in the store. This deal does not apply to custom orders. I will not be listing the sale anywhere in the store, so only blog readers will know about it. You must wish me "happy birthday" in the notes to seller to get the discount. You have two payment options at that point, you may either pay immediately and I will send a refund or wait for a revised invoice before paying.

Now the contest, leave a comment at the end of this post with your guess to my question and the closest guess will win a super secret tatted goody. The contest will run through the weekend to give everyone a decent chance to guess with the winner chosen on Monday.

The question is: What time was I born?

Make sure I have a way to contact you if you are the winner, if I can't email or convo you through your own blog or store make sure you leave contact info in your comment. Good Luck!

And The Winners Are...

First of all I would like to make a heartfelt thanks to everyone who participated in my little experiment of a challenge. It was a true pleasure to meet each of you and contribute in a small way to your amazing and diverse creations. I hope that the experience was a good one for all of you as well. I reserved the difficult challenge of judging to a few new friends and they all expressed a great amount of difficulty in choosing our winners, in fact this resulted in three third place winners.

There were some amazing pieces that did not place, but I'd personally like to make special mention of them. First I'd like to mention the striking red cuff made by Waterrose. The skill of embroidery mixed with tatting created a piece with a very artisan feel. Secondly, I'd like to mention the distilled rose piece by thebeadedlily. While I felt the piece wasn't the best feature of the tatting, it was an amazing piece of art and it's softness and beauty are unmistakable. I really loved all of the pieces for different reasons and I actually feel bad that I can't give them all a little something, but that's not the way a contest works right?

Now on to the winners, we'll do this backwards all Miss America style. The three third place winners were all chosen by different judges and they will all have their choice of my pendants as their prize.

Wenchie for her SteamPunk Hair Stick.








MadArtJewelry for her Flies' Time Necklace.

IndustrialFairyTale for her faux Ivory and Medallion Choker

Second Place goes to Lamplighter for her amazing lampshade. She will receive any item up to $20 from my humble collection.Fetishghost had this to say, "Wow! My eye kept coming back to this piece. Visually, it's a very strong piece. I'm intrigued by it's design and construction. It appears extremely well crafted. Great work!"

Finally, our first place winner who was chosen by all the judges, SkyIsland for her incredible baroquen mandala. She will receive an item up to $40 from my tatted goods.

This piece of praise by another of our judges, Jane Eborall,"... I like baroquen skyisland mandala - angle by miahawk as not only is it a stunning piece of work she's put a lot of time and care into it (mind, they all have!)"

I'd like to end with some quotes from our judges, first Slvrlily, "That was tough. I went with the three I felt best incorporated the tatting into the piece." Next Fetishghost on judging, "Wow, that was a tuff choice. It took a good while to find my top choices based on originality, craftsmanship, and beauty... this of coarse didn't narrow the field down at all. Each piece is amazing for it's own reasons, congratulations to all." Last from Jane Eborall, "This is one of the hardest things I've been asked to do for a long time but I've thoroughly enjoyed it."

Well, that was a lot of excitement, my life is bound to get a little boring now that this event has concluded. I hope that all the participants will join me again after the holidays for a fresh challenge and I'm looking forward to many more artisans jumping in to help me bring tatting to some fresh new places. Thanks again everyone!

All photos are property of and copyrighted by their respective creators.

The Entries Are In!

Well are all aboard who are going aboard. These are the entries for the very first Tatting is Not a Lost Art: The Challenge!

All of these spectacular pieces were created around tatted medallions made by me just for the occasion. Judging is currently underway and the winners will be announced Monday morning to create the proper amount of anticipation. All items and pictures belong to the respective artisans and many of the pieces are available for sale through etsy.

1st row( from left to right): Bayousalvage.etsy.com, Industrialfairytale.etsy.com, Adicat.etsy.com, Lamplighter.etsy.com

2nd row: SkyIsland.etsy.com, Joeireedhats.etsy.com, MyFairyBabies.etsy.com, Waterrose.etsy.com

3rd row: LacyLove.etsy.com, Figments.etsy.com, Wenchie.etsy.com, GabriellaLucretia.etsy.com

4th row: Thebeadedlily.etsy.com, MadArtJewelry.etsy.com, Foxgloves.etsy.com

I can't even begin to tell you how proud and impressed I am by these pieces and I am so grateful to every one these artisans for participating in this little adventure of mine. Please visit the flickr group to see more pictures of these pieces and check out the participants etsy stores for many more amazing creations. Until Monday!

Tatting Is Not A Lost Art

The Challenge

With one week to go until the July 31st deadline, I am already thinking about my next challenge. So far, the challenge has gone off without any major malfunctions and I feel like it's already gone a long way to exposing tatting to new eyes. I actually discovered a treasury at etsy full of tatting curated by beadsandpieces and thanks to the pieces already made and listed for the challenge, four of the pieces feature my tatting. While the challenge is certainly not making me any money and it was never intended to do so, it has had the side effect of garnering me some extra exposure.

I will be sending out convos to all the participants of the challenge later today with a deadline reminder and I would love if tons of people would visit the flickr group in the next week to view the entries. I will of course be posting them all here after the deadline as well. I would also love if any other bloggers would mention the challenge and post the winners when they are announced for a little further exposure. I might be tempted to offer a small discount at my store for anyone who takes me up on the posting offer.

As for the next challenge, I will be needing some input before I proceed. Should I start the challenge next month with a deadline in October or should I wait until after the holidays? Should the challenge piece be a square, snowflake, simple edging or should I stick with the medallions? I've also been trying to come up with a way to involve other tatters in the challenge, but so far I'm up coming up with a blank. So any ideas on that front would be appreciated as well. Thanks in advance for any opinions and check back for the entries and winners in the next couple of weeks!

All Better Now

Well, I fell better now, I always do after a life lesson post. So back to business then. The deadline for the tatting challenge is looming, just two weeks to go. If you're playing with me this time, don't forget to join the flickr group and get those entries up! I still have a few medallions sitting around as well, so if you're one of those people who thrives on a deadline, feel free to join us.

I have been impressed so far by the pieces created for the challenge and I'm really hoping that I get an even bigger response to the next one. No, I don't know what or when the next one will be, but feel free to let me know if you would be interested in participating in another of these challenges. My goal is to get a large exposure to tatting outside of the established tatting community. I think that the more people exposed to pieces made with tatting might actually result in more tatters and and upswing in the popularity of this unique and beautiful art form.

I think I will also take this opportunity to out the judges for the challenge. First, we have Jane Eborall, a wonderful tatter that I've had the pleasure to talk with on etsy and through her blog. Next we have Fetishghost, also know as Zygote from the Etsy Steam Team. He is an amazing ceramics artist as well as a jewelry artisan working primarily in silver. The tie breaking judge is also the original collaborator that inspired the challenge in the first place. Lily also known as Slvrlily. She's another member of the steam team, a wonderful steam punk jeweler and you may remember a fellow victim of the photo thief.

Once these wonderful people have chosen the winners, I will announce them here, at etsy, on flickr and anywhere else I have a place to post. Only with exposure can the challenge have any real impact on the popularity of tatting, so feel free to post about this challenge if you need something new to talk about. I'm certain to mention the challenge often as we get closer to the deadline but I will refrain from posting the entries until they are all listed. That's all for now, here's hoping this weekend helps me recover a little more from my vacation.

Happy 232nd

I bet you find it odd that I know how old the country is, well I was born in '76 so it would be really sad if I didn't know. This really isn't a big holiday for me, as much as I enjoy blowing things up and eating lots of nearly burnt meat, I just can't get into it. So I thought I'd bring up my Tatting challenge this morning instead.

The deadline for the contest was set at July 31st, so there's still a few weeks left for creation of the pieces and are still a few medallions left if anyone still wants to join in. The entries are already starting to roll in and a few are already listed at etsy and in our flickr group. I am so pleased at what these wonderful artisans are going with my little pieces of tatting. You can see the entries that have already come in at our flickr group. I truly hope that this contest and the future ones that are secretly swirling around in my head give tatting the mainstream attention that I think it deserves.

Well if you live here in the states, have a great holiday, if you don't, feel free to ignore all this 4th of July business ans have a nice weekend!

And So It Begins

I present for your approval and participation, Tatting Is Not A Lost Art: The Challenge

First, a little background.Tatting is the art of making a very durable form of lace with knotted stitches using either a shuttle or needle. While there is a very vibrant tatting community, it is often regarded as a lost art by the general population that has had little exposure to this unique and timeless craft.

By creating a your own piece with a tatted medallion, you can not only help expose tatting to a wider audience, but also win yourself some of my tatted pieces. First place will be a $40 credit at TotusMel.etsy.com, second place will be a $20 credit and third place will be your choice of my tatted pendants.

Each person may purchase one or more of the tatted medallions to participate in the challenge. You may create absolutely anything with the medallions. The medallion should have a prominent place in the design and may be dyed or embellished. In order to accommodate artists of all kinds, I am offering both a small medallion, 2 inches, in black and ecru and a larger size, 4 inches, in ecru only. Your choice of medallion does not affect your chance to win. I will continue to offer medallions as long as there is demand for them, so if you don't see the one you wanted, let me know and I will make more. The medallions are available now.

The entries must be listed at etsy using the tag, "tattingchallenge"and/or uploaded to our flickr group by July 31st to be eligible to win. They will be judged on creativity, design, use of the medallion and general coolness. There will be three prize levels all redeemable at my etsy store.

The contest details and entries will be published here on my blog with proper credit and links to the creators. Please contact me with any questions you may have.

Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/tattingchallenge/
My store: http://totusmel.etsy.com
Forum Thread at Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5648779

Stop Thief!

Over the weekend I received a message from one of the tatting elite, the Tatting Goddess. Isn't it funny how every community no matter how small has their own famous names that no one outside the community has ever heard of, but I digress. She informed me that she had seen one of my pieces on a questionable site. Now, I've found my photos being used without my permission before, but so far it's always been in a good way. The pictures linking to my store and credited to me, usually they are accompanied by some kind words as well. This was not the nice kind, it was the kind where someone was actually using my image as a set of pictures to convince people to purchase a disc of tatting patterns from them.

What makes this even sillier, is that the patterns on the disc appear to all be vintage patterns that are all in the public domain. In other words, they are all free patterns available all over the internet. I've seen a lot of people complain of these kinds of image thefts, but I had been fortunate enough to not have experienced this until now. I feel annoyed and I keep trying to decide whether this person thought my design was amazing enough to sell her product or that I wouldn't be a threat if I caught her. I guess it really doesn't matter what they thought, I sent a strongly worded email that I'm fairly certain will be ignored and that's about all I can do. I wish for a moment that I knew a really good hacker to take down the site, but that's probably a little extreme, huh?

The Challenge

Switching Gears now, I think I have gotten enough interest to go forward with my tatting challenge. In the next couple of days, I will be working out the details, tatting up medallions and attempting to con a few folk into being judges (if you're interested, just let me know).
Participates will get to choose from 2 sizes in 2 colors. The small ones are about 2 inches across available in ecru and black and the large ones are 4 inches across and I'm only making those in ecru. I will be charging $5 for each of the small ones and $8 for the large ones and domestic and Canadian shipping will be free. Each person may buy as many of the medallions as they want for the challenge and they may be dyed if desired. The finished pieces will be due by July 31st and will be judged on the usual traits, creativity, function, quality of construction and generally how cool they are. I will be offering up three places worth of prizes. First place will your choice of pieces from my etsy store up to $40 or a credit up to that amount. Second place will be up to $20 and third place will be your choice of one of my pendants .

I'm hoping to have the medallions available for purchase on Wednesday, but no later that Friday. These rules are a work in progress and the medallion listings will hopefully contain the final version. Please let me know via email of etsy convo if you'd like to be on the notification list for the challenge.

A Lost Art

So awhile back I made some ridiculous goals with the intent of keeping myself forever moving forward. One of those unreachable goals was to make tatting the next big crafting craze. Then something weird happened, I thought I might actually give it a go, well not exactly that, but a modified version. I what to expose tatting to a wider audience so that it is no longer referred to as a lost art. How, you ask. Well, I'm still working out all the details and I'm gonna need a little help from as many people as I can get.

I submit to you, Tatting is not a lost art: the challenge. I've done a beading challenge a few times and I thought, why not do something like that to get more people to not only see tatting, but use it in their own pieces. What I was thinking of doing is offering a tatted medallion in one or two colors at maybe $5 or $6 to anyone that wants to participate. The challenge would be to use that medallion in your own work, be it jewelry, multimedia art, clothing, whatever. Then you would list the creation for sale on etsy using something like TotusMelchallenge as a tag or upload it to a flickr group I would create if you aren't a seller or simply don't want to sell the piece. All of this would be done within a set time limit. I would recruit a small panel of judges and the winner(s) would receive something from my shop or another prize to be determined.

My ultimate goal here, is to get tatting a lot of exposure and hopefully by association get myself a little exposure even if it means eventually there will be more tatters to compete with. What I need from all of you out there is input. I need to know if you think this is a good idea. Would you participate? How good would the prize have to be to get you to play? Should I offer the medallion in just one color(ecru) or perhaps two (ecru & black)? How long should the time limit be? I'm thinking that I need a least a dozen people to make this worth the effort, so I'm going on a forum recruiting spree soon. If you'd like to be kept in the loop, just shoot me an email using the Contact Totusmel link on the bottom of the right column or convo me on etsy.