Letting Go

It was a flurry of activity yesterday as I finally packed up a box to send to my SteamTeam friends. They will be selling my pieces for me at the SteamPowered convention in Sunnyvale. I tagged and pressed the pieces and packed them and tried my hardest to come up with some displays. That last thing may prove to be a complete failure. Then as I was ready to seal the box, I hesitated. I have never done anything like this as even though I trust the hands that will be receiving my things, I felt a bit of fear. Of course it passed and I sealed the box, set it out on the porch and waited for the mailman to pick it up.

As I watched him walk away with with my box, I felt another pang. I tried to imagine what I was going to feel like if I sold nothing or everything. How would I feel if it was all lost, or worse stolen. While the actual value of the thread and random findings and beads probably doesn't equal more than $40 or so, it represents countless hours of work and I don't dare tell you the potential retail value of the box. I decided the best thing for my mental well being was to say  goodbye to the box and expect nothing in return. Even after this mental exercise, I'm certain to be a little uneasy until the convention is over the first week of November, so send calming vibes my way.

Just after the box left me, I got another front page feature. It lasted only about 15 minutes, but I still got a few more hearts and about a days worth of views out of the deal. So a big thank to MistFlowerStudio for adding me to yet another of her front page snagging treasuries! I hope to here back from a alchemy customer today as well, she has asked me to make her a longer version of the collar I showed you all yesterday. I posted the pictures on etatters and after she saw it there she contacted me on etsy for the project. I never thought I'd get a sale through that networking site. I'm just there to get feedback from fellow tatters, so this was a nice unexpected event as well. I also went shopping again with some favorite shops that I think needed a little surprise sale. I hope I helped their days.

After all of that stuff yesterday, today should be a quiet and relaxing change of pace.

Back To Business

So apparently I was talking to myself yesterday. That's okay, I just needed to vent I suppose. So today I'm back to my creative self. I am of course working on a new mask design. This one is based on my Grand Daisy motif and though I'm certain to make the first one for sale in black, I think this one will be great in many colors for perhaps a fairy costume. I know it's hard to see in the ecru, but that's my prototype thread. I use it not only because I have a mile of it, but also because I can count the stitches so much better with this thread. I have yet to write down the patterns for any of my masks. I know, I should should know better by now. If I wait too much longer, I'll forget the changes I made from the prototype to the final design and they will be lost to the ages, but I'm on such a creative roll that I'm afraid that stopping to write them down will stunt my growth.

Since I'm back on the subject of tatting, I thought I'd share that I finally joined my first tatting community. Why is this a big deal? Well, when I first tried tatting I was using a shuttle and I failed miserably, but I was determined to learn this skill. I went online for help and ran across a small mention of needle tatting, bought a book and learned like lightning. Once the book had no more to teach me, I went back to the Internet for help, techniques and patterns and though I found lots of that, I also found unpleasantness. I ran across people claiming that needle tatting was not only, not "real" tatting, but insinuated that it was akin to cheating. I also found folk who thought that they were the only worthy tatters and they rest of us should just shove off. You can imagine that I tried to avoid all contact with other tatters for fear of being judged and told that I did not belong.

I'm certain that nearly every discipline or craft has the same problems in their communities, but I was so afraid and unsure of myself that I stayed away. It wasn't until I started my blog just a few months ago that I began to develop friendships with other tatters. I've since met some amazingly talented and wonderful people and it is because of them that I finally realize that I do in fact belong. I look forward to using this new resource to learn and grow. It is also refreshing to network where my ultimate goal is not selling something. I don't know how much time I'll devote to this new adventure as I'm stretched pretty thin already, but I've dipped a toe in and water seems fine so far.