Weekend recap

Most of the weekend was spent on family adventuring and video game playing. I don't think I picked up a needle once, nor did I get the tiny earrings listed int he shop. I think that was partly because of what happened early Friday morning.

We were out and about early to pick up the afore mentioned video games when I was contacted by several means by a photographer looking to use my masks for a photo shoot this week. If you've been around these parts for a while you know this has happened before and I've had quite the mixed bag of results with the experiences. They rage from lost packages and never used pieces, to actually getting my name in fashion magazines. As you might imagine it's made me a little gun shy. I went ahead and shipped off a large selection of masks to New York though and they appear to have moved quickly toward their destination, yes I checked. I still need everybody to cross their fingers for me that they do arrive safely, get used for amazing photographs that end up in a magazine and then return safely back to me.

Today, I have babysitting of nieces and hopefully get a little time to list those earrings. That's about all that's on tap though. Well that and worrying about everything I wrote in the last paragraph. So here's to a great week and since I spent my own money to ship masks across the country, I could use a week of constant sales too. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

Chaos and Family

It was another very long day around here. I felt pretty neglectful of my guest while we did schooling, but he didn't seem to mind. We schooled and grandpa read. I was pretty determined to get some tatting done though, so after schooling was wrapped, I tatted while we chatted. Every time he visits the stories get more interesting, especially when he talks about his parents before he was born and I realize that we're talking about things nearly 100 years ago and it's history. Though the later stories with how his brothers manged to nearly kill themselves with injuries are definitely more entertaining.

Of course the real chaos occurred when the rest of the family was over for dinner. The cousins get loud, the cats all hid and the stories start to fly from everyone. Once they all finally exit for the evening we were so exhausted that it was almost straight bed for all of us. I love my family, but man they are a handful. The house is still clean, so I'm just hoping I can maintain the cleanliness until the holidays when we do this all over again, but with more food. I know, it's a long shot.

I think grandpa is heading off down south today to visit his brother so the household will get back to normal and I will really get working on that queue of tatting. I just barely made a dent yesterday and finished one mask.

One last thing, the lovely Cindy Marks who does Artizen Magazine, put my tatted spiders in their latest issue.

The Grindstone

During schooling Friday morning, the large order I'd already been working on went through. When it was all properly laid out I realized that although it was about the same number of items as the last time they ordered, the pieces this time around were primarily more complex ones. Last time it was tons of earrings, this time tons of large cuff bracelets. As you might imagine I spent most of my weekend hard at work.

On Saturday, we did make a family trip to see the new Star Trek movie and it was a lovely break from the grind. Also, it was a completely gratifying film. Other than the movie and a few quick errands, we were at home and when we were at home I was tatting away. Also, for probably the first time ever, I'm going to need all the time I quoted someone to make their pieces. Why? Because I got another order on Sunday that needs to be made and it's a mask, which means it takes no little time to make itself. I feel like I'm on a serious clock to finish the large order, which has several pieces left in it to make, so I can get to the mask. I even got a third custom order last night, but luckily, it was for a custom ring and I just took a short break to whip that out so it isn't added to the queue.

I know I always say I like being busy, and I really do, but forgive me complaining a little about my
sore shoulder and the fact that I have nothing of import to share with you...oh, wait, I just remembered. Over the weekend the Spun exhibit opened at the Denver Art Museum and the lovely Celtic Katte snapped this photo for me of my ankle corsets on display. I imagine the rest of the display is quite interesting as well, but since I'll never see it, I'll have to live vicariously through others. So here I go, back to the grindstone.

Work To Do

The stars must have aligned because while I was doing schooling yesterday morning I got a message asking for a necklace in a custom length. It was just what I needed, something that actually needed to get done.

After schooling I put my head down and got to work. Normally this necklace takes at least a full day to make, but I think I was just so ready to get to work I knocked the whole thing out by late afternoon. It still needs it's hardware and a good pressing so it won't go out to its new owner until tomorrow morning, but the bulk of the work is done. It felt good to be tatting with purpose again instead of just doodling with no direction at all.

I even had time to get back to the crochet piece. It is coming along nicely as well. I think I may be working too quickly though because the finger I wrap the working yarn over was getting a little rope burned. Of course it looks fine this morning, so I suppose it was just rope irritation and I'm just not used to it anymore.

Personally I'm hoping for the same sort of day to occur today. A tatting task to be handed to me followed by some time to crochet. I think I should be able to knock out this project before the weekend is out either way.

Before I forget, if you happen to be in the Chapel Hill, North Carolina area, my work is part of the Steamworks: Art, Stories, and Adornments show at the Ackland Museum store starting May 10th. I am of course nowhere near there so I can't tell you much else about it, except that I know several of the other artisans from my various Internet adventures and they are all incredibly talented. I guess that's the end of this week. Here's hoping the next one is more adventurous.

Flare

I told you that I hoped to start today off in a better mood and behold, I have...a much better mood. As is often the case, I overplayed those things that were to surely ruin the day. In fact the daughter's visit to the doctor was quite enjoyable especially since she needed no shots this go around. Then I got her all registered for kindergarten through our virtual school and we ran a few errands and went out to lunch, but what really kicked the day back into the positive column was the mail.

 I got in my copy of Flare Magazine in the mail. I assume anyone reading this from Canada actually knows what that is, but for everyone else, it's a Canadian Fashion magazine and that is the magazine which used a couple of my masks for a photo shoot titled Amazing Lace. This one here is my 'Between the Stars' mask made with black and hand dyed blue thread.











Then we have my first mask design, 'As The World Falls Down' in black.

Now, I'll be honest I was a little surprised by the styling. I somehow expected a dark, mysterious lace set. Instead this is light, bright and I'm guessing pretty darn trendy. I can hardly complain though. Right there on each page is 'Totus Mel' and at the back of the magazine my credit is listed with my shop link. So there you have it, tatted lace in a mainstream fashion magazine. Hopefully it brings in new customers and more opportunities, but even if it doesn't, the magazine was a pleasure to work with so I put this in the win column either way.

I've got more adventuring with the family planned for today, but I do hope to get those butterfly cross stitches done and then I swear I'll get back to tatting. I have imaginings to make.

A Video?

Hello Monday. Well, I do in fact have a couple of things to share with you on this brand new week. First up was my Saturday morning surprise. So, I head over to etsy in the morning as I do most mornings and check my stats page. At first I thought I had clicked on the link for the weeks views because they were far too high for that early in the morning, so I try again and they're right. I scroll down to see the views are coming from youtube, I never get views from youtube. Now the stats page won't take me to the exact link so I need to do some google-fu to discover this video before you.

Yes, I am aware at first glace it seems like an odd place to find my work, but it's in there among many odd and awesome finds. If you just want to see mine it's at 2:39. If you see it on youtube there is a list of links in the video description and clearly this encouraged some serious clicking. Though it didn't result in a single sale Saturday, all those new eyes certainly can't hurt. I still have no idea how my little shop ended up on the guy's radar, but I am thankful for whatever did that.

I shamefully spent much of the weekend playing games on my phone instead of remaking pieces that needed it. I'm not sure why I felt the need to stall, but I was most certainly doing it much of the weekend. Last night I decided that I needed to try out the next doodle form at the very least. Once that was made up, I saw that it needed some serious stitch count tweaking in the center repeat to work in the new form, but rather than do that I would get back to the remaking that I should have been doing.

That's the plan for today as well. I have a couple of pieces to remake and they are ones that take some time, so that should keep me busy today and likely tomorrow as well. I also fielded a lot of questions this weekend that theoretically could end up as sales, though the lack of responses to my responses is not encouraging. I had someone ask if I sold my masks on facebook...because apparently that's not obvious...anyway, they were saying they needed 15 of them. I'm fairly certain that once I directed the person to my shop and they saw the prices, they changed their mind quite quickly. It's questions like that I've been dealing with. Encouraging and discouraging all at the same time. So, I'm off to the day...oops, I did forget one thing. Sunday was my blog anniversary. Yeah, I know I should have done something, but it was a Sunday. The blog is now four years old and I'd like to use the opportunity to again say Thank You for reading, commenting and supporting my work. I truly appreciate it!

Monday

Why is it that the weekends in which I have the least planned to be done, I always end up the most exhausted from doing things? It really makes no sense, but the truth, it is. Sorry, we've been watching the Star Wars movies on blu ray with the kids and it appears to have affected my speech patterns. We still have one to go before we have fully indoctrinated the children. Anyway, I had a lot of remaking to attend to, so I didn't make anything new or interesting to share.

I do have one bit to share with you though. I was contacted a while ago and asked if my pictures could be used in a blog post about tatting, more specifically about Mrs. Beeton. The post is a both a tribute and a delightful fiction that I think you might enjoy reading. It is on their blog in German, Störstoff. The author has also said that she will post it on her English blog as well, but as it is not up yet, here's a direct link to translate it. It really was a fun read and had little to do with me at all and since I have nothing of value to share today, it'll give you something nice to read, but you can always come back and tell me what you thought of it.

I do still have a couple of pieces that need remaking including a mask, so I am likely to be busy with that today. I will try to do something interesting just so I have more to share tomorrow. Off to Monday I go.

Update: The English version of the article is up now here.

On Zoos And Regret

Another lovely, but exhausting day. It was sunny and breezy and really a perfect day to be outside at the zoo all day. I know I've been to the San Diego zoo, but it was so long ago I barely remember a thing, so this is by far the nicest zoo I have in memory. It's full of large overgrown plants and most of the enclosures are open, large and full of native plants as well. It is a good thing we all took an allergy pill before leaving though. There is also nothing like being in the audience of a bird show with at least three different elementary or preschool groups to make me truly appreciate how well behaved my own are. I mean, they are still kids and thus slightly insane, but they listen to directions, sit quietly and watch the show.

Anyway, we did get back fairly early in the day, even a good zoo can only occupy the kids for so many hours at a time. I finished remaking a couple of things and obsessively tracked my large order package. It did get stalled because of weather in the mid-west yesterday, but it appears to be moving again.

Oh, man I almost forgot to tell you. So yesterday morning after I wrote the blog post, I was looking through my shop traffic numbers and there was a big spike on Tuesday. I look to see where it's coming from and it's...regresty...crap. It was a direct link so I go there and it was a feature on another tatter's 'bridal' mask. The listing was likely chosen for a couple of reasons, a badly spelled name and description and for the mere idea of wearing a mask to ones wedding. The normal ha, ha mocking started and there were also several defenders of her spelling noting that English is not her first language as well as defense of tatting itself. Apparently there was also a troll battle in the comment thread as well. None of that is my point however as someone linked to my shop in the comments to mock mostly my 'cheesy masks' and my barefoot sandals. Again there was some mocking and some defending. It can get downright cruel over there sometimes though generally the things posted mock themselves. This was the closest I'd ever come to being featured and it really wasn't all that bad. We all have different tastes and sometimes we don't get who would wear or use something we wouldn't. I mean, I don't wear barefoot sandals, but they sell well to belly dancers and for beach weddings, so why not. Here's hoping that this remains the closet I ever come to regretsy fame though.

I'm not sure what today has in store, we've no big plans. Probably schooling, errand running and maybe some cleaning, though honestly I am just ridiculously sore and tired after all that walking about and then sitting in a car for hours Monday and yesterday, so I might fight the cleaning bit and curl up like this porcupine fellow. We'll just see how it goes and roll with it I guess.

Over The Hump

Halfway done, halfway done, thank the tatting gods I am halfway done. Unexpected dinner hosting notwithstanding, I managed to get past the halfway point on my pile o' lace. At this rate I should actually have it all knocked out by Friday and with just a bit of finishing work to do on a few pieces, I should get it on its way early next week. I am actually impressed with my own speed at this point...though that might change when I start the finishing work and see what potential mistakes I made in my haste. I mean, I haven't found any yet, but I haven't been looking all that closely.

Let's see, what else have I got for you? Not much else I'm afraid as I am ridiculously focused on getting this project knocked out. In fact I didn't even manage to scan in those pages of the Surface Design Journal. Nope, instead I just took a picture of the bits that mentioned me. I'm pretty sure I didn't need to tell you they weren't scanned though and yes, I played with a filter again, but you can still read it...if you click on the image. It was a really nice article and I was flattered to be mentioned along with a few other familiar etsy sellers.

So, I guess that's it for me today. I will be schooling and tatting and trying to keep the house clean for next weeks house guest. Sometimes the glamour of my live is just too much, I know.

Does No One Respect Routine

Yesterday, not quite as planned. Well it started out just fine or as routine as it could be, then there was the afternoon. We had a field trip to go bowling which was a load of fun for the kids, but it was there that I learned that the dinner we were going to casually host on Thursday was now going to be bigger and on Wednesday. Have I mentioned lately that I have seven cats and tile floors throughout much of bottom floor of the house? Have you ever seen how fur behaves under these conditions? The point is, I had to rush home and start vacuuming up everything I had been neglecting straight away and don't get me started on the slow mess forming in the kitchen that must be tamed.

So though I did manage to keep on task in the morning and get a few pieces done, the afternoon was a complete wash. This also means that today is likely to follow the same pattern. I'll get some stuff done in the morning, but I will need to finish the clean up this afternoon instead of tatting. Luckily I was far ahead of schedule, but there is still quite a bit left to do.

In other news, I was contacted by someone at the Surface Design Association quite some time ago for inclusion in an article for their quarterly magazine which I received a copy of yesterday. You can see the cover here, but it's not available online and it appears you must be a member of the association to get the magazine away. I meant to scan the pages I was mentioned on, but I was unexpectedly busy(see above), so I will try to do that today so you can see it. The article was about the rise of the DIY movement and I was one of the etsy sellers that they briefly mentioned and they included a picture of my ankle corsets. Even though it is a very specific audience, I am glad of any exposure I receive for myself and for tatting, so thanks for the mention SDA.

So here's hoping anything that happens today that could be called 'eventful' is the good kind and in the absence of that I'll take calm and productive.

Weekend Recap

These weekends lately have been flying by at super sonic speed. I seem to arrive at Monday with little to show for the journey. There was Friday where I started the day with a photo shoot of the one eyed mask. It is now listed of course and I never did hear a peep from the customer who wanted a day to think about it. This has become exactly the same situation that spawned my first mask. An innocent request turned into a creative obsession that results in a piece I might never have made otherwise. Too bad in both cases the person doing the requesting disappeared. I also managed a very full day of making. I sold quite a few small pieces and spent much time getting most of them remade and listed.

Then we have Saturday which was reserved for family time. We had some family over and carved pumpkins. What is it about pumpkin that allows it to adhere to ones flesh through repeated washings? Seriously, I washed my hands so much I feared I was going to loose a layer of skin just so I could get back to tatting. Oh and I almost forgot one Friday thing. I got a message of congratulations from someone on etsy who had seen a feature on my ankle corsets over on the Craftzine blog. I had no idea it existed though I guess I would have figured it out as my shop traffic jumped considerably due to it. It's nothing too in depth, but it was linked on the front page of their site, such a wonderful surprise!

I guess that brings us to Sunday which again was spent mostly off the couch and the computer. I sold a pair of the ankle corset which I immediately relisted, so I spent a great deal of the day working on a pair. I am really burnt on masks so even though I have a few of those left to remake switching to the corsets was a nice respite from the routine. I also had some time to think and decided that not only do I need to come up with yet another ankle corset design, but I need to make a bridal pair all embellished with crystals, maybe pearls and some embroidery. I have made several pairs for brides, but I have never taken pictures of them in white nor made embellished ones. Of course then I need to get me some white shoes since I have no reason to own a pair of those. I was married in a silver dress, so nothing. Of course this is all just premature babbling as I would need sufficient time to make them anyway, but the plan has been laid. Now off into a new week full of possibilities.

Hot and Tired

I am so very tired. I wish I could blame it all on the weather, which is ridiculous by the way, but alas it is more likely that I am tatting myself to death. Okay, perhaps that's a little overly dramatic, but I have been tatting like a crazy person for days now. Just as I packed up the large order and sent it out, I received another order with a custom piece in it. So, I had to stop with the remaking and start on that of course. Since I really want to get things make and listed, I'm working at the fastest possible speed and taking very few breaks. I assume that this pace with be the death of me, so toward the tail end of the evening I took a break.

At that calming time is when I got an email request for a wedding mask. Again, not normally a big deal, but at this point, it actually exhausted me to read the request. Sure, I'm glad to be this busy, very glad, I just didn't anticipate being this busy now. I thought if I was going to make sales, it was going to be a lot of masks and having made them already I would be in the clear. I need to really stop trying to tell the future and just roll with it.

Oh, I was apparently on the front page of etsy again...in the middle of the night of course. This was Sunday/Monday depending on your time zone. This one resulting in many hearts for the shop, but no sales. Now I just need to see if they can feature me when the sun is out in my neck of the woods....oh, and when I'm actually home would be lovely too. Or you know, they could just make me the featured seller. Could you imagine the amount of overworked complaining I would do then? Wow, that would be awful. I would have to stop blogging to save your sanity or me from getting collectively smacked by you. So off to it for the day.

In Which I Am Annoyed By Blogger

Well, that's it...I'm done. I have officially tatted everything that needed tatting. Sure, I still have those custom pieces I keep going on about, but honestly there's no real rush on those. I had some grand plan about tatting up a whole rainbow of moths to get listed, but I only ended up with just this one. On a slightly related note, how annoying is this new blogger editor? Seriously, I can get used to a lot, but I hate not being able to re-size a photo with a simple drag it smaller motion. I have to go and edit the size in html. Yes, I am aware of how easy that is. You know what's not easy, adding a link to a picture. I can't figure that one out for the life of me. I guess I need to go look at a previous one in html and copy and paste it to make it work because you know what else, I don't speak html...at all.

I'd like to say that was the whole of my complaining about the new blogger interface, but I simply haven't tried to do much else yet and I'm still a bit boggled over the not being able to link pictures. What I do like is the full view preview. This is particularly helpful since I have the three column thing going on and it is narrower than the previous preview so this one is actually accurate. So I guess I'm spending the morning searching for linking help and perhaps I'll just take the day off from tatting entirely. Okay, that's about as likely as me learning to rock climb, water ski and sky dive over the weekend. In case you don't know me well enough, it's not likely at all. All it takes is a few idle moments and I'll be tatting, it's just what I do.

Oh, I almost forgot, one nice little bit from early yesterday. I received a message on etsy informing me that my ankle corsets were featured on a site called Skirt as their Daily Muse. This was apparently also sent out to their users as a daily email. It didn't bring in huge numbers of views to the shop, but some and it is always wonderful to be discovered and shared. I think that about covers everything, new blogger is annoying, I've nothing to tat and I was on Skirt.com...yep, that's all of it. Have a nice weekend all.

note: I figured out the link photo thing by the way...apparently I'm late to the new editor, but I still don't like it.

The Cross Of Ambrosius

From the cuff came forth the choker and from the choker came forth the enormous pendant. As often happens, I kept seeing other pieces that could be born from the same new pattern. Though this one was so reminiscent of something, I kept looking up other tatting on etsy to see if I had in fact seen it before. I never did find anything just like it, only pieces with a similar feel.
I also made this one up with gray rings in the center and I wore that to the Renaissance Faire on Saturday. No, I don't have any pictures. I was far too busy enjoying myself and taking pictures of the children to remember to document the outfit. The weather was perfect and even though the crowds were thick, it was a lovely day.

Speaking of lovely, when I returned home it was to a healthy sale and the news that one of my chokers was on the front page. It had sold apparently rather quickly so the views garnered from the exposure where much smaller than other times, but I will take the sale over the views and hearts.I also got the hand dyed thread from yarnplayer that I was waiting for to make a custom moth bracelet. I'm sure it's well known that I prefer to use size 10 thread. There are a lot of reasons for that, it works up quickly, the size 5 needle is stronger and I am an aggressive tatter and I've used it so long I can actually guess final size as well as the amount of thread needed at the needle end. This is size 20 and while I do use that for earrings and a few other bits, using it meant that there was more guess work on the bracelet to get it the right length. It still turned out quite well and the recipient seemed pleased with the photos. Now what to do with the rest of the pansy thread...hmmm. Not to worry, I am lucky enough this morning to have a sold collar that needs making as well as a few other pieces that need making to be listed again. I will be a busy little bee for a spell and I am pleased as punch about it.

One last thing before I go, if you are a facebook type, I have a small giveaway that is ending sometime today. Turns out I turned my brain off when I made a pair of Victoriana earrings. There is nothing wrong with them except that's not the pattern for the earrings. The chains are longer and have too many picots. Rather than go to the trouble of taking pictures so I can list the variant to sell, I'm just giving them away to someone who leaves a comment on the most recent post. I think that's it for today, we'll talk again tomorrow.

Earrings

It was another long day, but much less eventful. I would even go so far as to say it was a calm and fairly pleasant day. In fact one of the first things I stumbled upon was a blog post by a lovely twitter fashion friend that featured my fancy mask. The blog is Awakened Aesthetic and post was on etsy Halloween finds. What was better than the inclusion was the very sweet thing she said about my work and while I don't know that I'm all that, it was still truly fabulous to hear. I also stole one of her picks for a future Wunderkammer collection so win win.

Before I stared on the long process of getting masks made, I went ahead and made up some matching tenebrous earrings. Then I though, I should make up more matching earrings for existing choker designs. The first was an absolute success meant to match the flower garland necklace. As you can see, it was a simple case of add a couple of chains and a ring, but it tuned the design into a really interesting chandelier type piece. That was so easy I decided for another and was meant with utter defeat. This is when I stopped for the day. So, it turns out some designs do not in fact lend themselves to this sort of motif separation and enhancement. Some designs only work well as part of a whole. This fact has been noted and I will attempt to merely echo the shape for matching earrings the next time I give it a go.

Now to end the week, I'd like to list off a few things that have bothered me this week, you know just to get them out there not to attack anyone in particular. Ahem...people who send emails asking questions, then require you to authenticate yourself in order to respond...I am not going to do it, sorry. People who court drama for the sake of attention rather than intelligent discourse. Self justification...me thinks the lady doth protest too much. Justification seems to only applied when one knows one is doing something wrong. People who 'lol' at their own posts, this one is two fold as I generally dislike the acronyms in the first place and secondly, it is exactly the same as loudly laughing at your own jokes which, unless you are in fact hilarious, is annoying. Putting someone on your mailing list without asking. This will have only one effect, I will unsubscribe, ignore your content and if I know you from elsewhere like twitter, I will likely block you there to. I'm fairly certain all that is the opposite of your intent. And last for now, people who ask a question or request a custom order, receive a swift and lengthy response from me and don't even bother with a no thank you or acknowledgment of any kind. Feel free to add your own annoyances if you'd like...might be fun to vent together.

Good Monday

I warned you that I wouldn't make any progress over the weekend and I was right. You see on Saturday we rented a scissor lift. Why? Well as soon as we were able after we bought this house we outfitted every room we could with ceiling fans. The was however one room that eluded us, the living room. It's ceiling is 19 feet high. No we could see that it was wired properly for a fan, but the logistics of getting a fan up there were daunting. Finally we bit the bullet, bought a six foot down rod and rented a scissor lift. Saturday was challenging as I was tasked with keeping the children out of the way while also running various errands. The lift was surprisingly difficult to get into the house and we required the help of family, a friend and a neighbor. Then while patching small holes in the ceiling which look as if the previous owner played a round or two of darts, husband runs the lift into the entry way wall. Luckily he struck a metal bracket so fixing it wasn't too much of a drama...though it became my drama. It is done now, but no time for tatting.

I did say that I would show you one of the birdcage veil attempts today. This was the longer version and it seems to sit well in her thick hair. Perhaps I was right in assuming that these veils are not completely ready to wear, but require doing ones hair just so to situate the piece on your head. Here's hoping. I started making up the flowers in black on Friday and started embroidering them in silver filament. I figured they needed some highlight to let then stand out from the black motif base as well as the veil itself. It might be some time before I get the rest of that finished so I can assemble the pieces. I think I might end up ordering better feathers as well since the ones I got at Michael's are 'craft' quality. Usually that's not a dirty word, but I think it's appropriate here.

Speaking of ordering, I did send off an email regarding the large thread order and apparently I bought more than she or her supplier had in stock. So I get to wait just as bit more as she should receives hers on Tuesday and will be shipping them to me as soon as they arrive. The lesson here is of course not to wait until you need something to order it...oh well. It was still a fine deal so I shall not complain further.

One last thing that I forgot to mention last week. Yet another lovely person I met on twitter has done a feature on my work for her blog. She the author of a new Steampunk book and imparted to me that she wishes to help expose other artisans in support of handmade. The article on me is on Caught in the Cogs. It is already listed in the 'where I'm featured now' column. That's it for today I think...yes.

Artizen

I'm sitting here racking my brain to see if there is a darn thing worth sharing this morning. See, as I typed that out I remembered the single thing that was interesting yesterday, Artizen Magazine. Not so long ago the Esty Steam Team that I am a member of was contacted by someone wanting to do a steampunk themed issue of a new fine arts online magazine. She was looking for high end sellers of steampunk wares to interview. I personally stayed out of it since I find my work to be more Victorian style accessory to the movement rather than really steampunk itself. However, I was later contacted on etsy and asked for an interview and since they were certain they wanted to talk to me, I went ahead and yammered on again.

The flash based magazine can be found here, Artizen and it also contains interviews with some of my other team mates as well as several other authors, artists, links to steampunk sites and is full of multimedia links. In short, go waste some time and check it out...and not just because I'm in it, really.

Other than that little tidbit, yesterday was a lot of nose to the grindstone tatting. In fact I am almost caught up with the sold orders anyway and then it's on to the remaking portion of our agenda. It'll be nice when those beetle elytra and peacock pearls get here and I'll have an excuse to stop production mode and make something new, but they're not here yet...silly international slow shipping times. Ah, well...back to it then, go read now!

A Cave Of Coolness

Well as I said yesterday, I spent a large portion of the day on the way to, in and on the way back from a large cavern. We drove through ridiculous rain that turned into slush and back into rain. We went into large cavern. Apparently said cavern is large enough to house the Statue of Liberty standing up. The five year old was freaked out, the three year old loved it. When they turned off the lights, I wanted to take a cave nap. As soon as the lights were back on the five year old raced up the hundreds of stairs to get back to the surface.When we emerged the sun was shining and we were able to have a picnic and pan for gems before the long drive home.

I did try to tat in the car, but the weather made the car ride...let's say a little too interesting to want to be holding a large needle in ones hand. So all that nose to grindstone stuff is starting today. I have two pairs of ankle corsets in line to be made and then if I get a chance, it's on to remaking a number of larger sold items. That of course is where the issue lies, not that I've sold too many things in generally, but that I've sold too many things that take at least a full day if not longer to make. So I will need days of calm to catch up. Honestly, don't want those days of calm, I want more sales. I'm greedy like that.

Oh, one bit of news for you this morning. Some of you that have been following me for some time know that I did a few articles for the Belle Armoire publications quite some time ago. I really didn't think I was qualified nor experienced enough for the honor, but I was asked and I leaped on the opportunities. I received an email when I returned yesterday, that I still need to respond to, letting me know that one of my articles from Autumn 2008 will be included in their upcoming publication, 'Hand Crafted: The Best of Stampington & Co." How nice to be included especially when I have been too busy...or lazy to submit anything in quite some time. I'm not certain when this one is published, but I will be sure to let you know, so you can at least leaf through it at Barnes and Noble. Now seriously, I will be tatting today at that is all.

The Caterpillar

I know I should do something epic today, but I just this moment noted that this is my 500th blog post and all I can really think is, yikes. So, I shall just leave it at the acknowledgment and move on. Usually, I rely on my google alerts to share features with me but it was the analytics that alerted me to a new one...in French. A lovely facebook fan apparently shared my work on a fashion networking site and this is actually the second article to result from that. The very similar wording leads me to the conclusion that they originated at the same place as does the comparison to Chanel's new rub on tattoos. This one is at The Trendy Girl and the first one was at Set Your Style. So thanks to the fashion blogging world...keep it up, no really...go right ahead!

Back to the tatting world now. I did decide to get on with the caterpillar. I went with my new hand dyed green thread as the base color then set it aside to work out a pattern. I could have sworn that I had a vintage edging around here with the proper undulating effect that I wanted, but after a search through my abandoned and prototype tatting box, I came up empty. I did of course run across several older designs that might be brought back to life at some point. I do hate to give up on a design. Anyway, with no preexisting design to work off of, I started by modifying the basic vine pattern to make it curve in and out. Then I added a second row that switched from one side to the other further enhancing the curve. It kind of reminded me of drawing a ribbon.

Once I was happy with the prototype, I switched to the hand dyed thread. I hate to waste any thread, so I wanted to be sure before I began. Here, you can see the wave forming with the vine pattern. I made a fairly long length, but I think I should have gone longer since the second row really does pull the curve up making the overall length shrink up. I have a clever idea for joining the necklace, but I'm not certain how to accomplish it yet. Yes, this is another of my just tat it and see how it goes moments. I am not a good designing role model...don't do what I do.

When I started the second row, I added rings at the joins on a whim. I thought perhaps they would give the impression of little caterpillar feet. In a subtle way though, not the 'there's a bug on my neck way'...okay maybe a little like that. So this is where I left off. My Grandfather who had just visited from two states over came right back to bring us some things. I think he was insane to do so, but I thank him for the visit as well as the things. We took him out to dinner and he was already back on the road this morning before I woke up and I wake up early. Today is finally a school day again and though I do enjoy a bit of a break, I relish in the routine to get things done around here, including my tatting. So hopefully I'll get some more done on the caterpillar and then I feel compelled to create some new fashion pieces to play to the blog attention. Can't let trend potential slip me by, now can I?

Whirl Wind

Well, that was one heck of a day. My Grandfather who had been staying with us left early in the morning, so by 7 it already seemed late. Then I fretted on twitter that my last few listing were not showing up in a search...it was relevancy Thursday. The day chosen by etsy to etsy out a new search engine on the site. What happened then was odd and fortuitous...etsy responded. Yep, Anda took the time to test some searches for me and give me some tips on the search. I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, I am an apologetic defender of the site, I have seen it through dozens of changes and growing pains and I don't plan on leaving. That said, every so often I wonder if the deserve my loyalty...they do.

That wasn't all Anda did for me that morning, she also posted my Shoe jewelry to the Etsy fan page. I thought, 'well, that's nice'. Then a while later I went to check it out...dude. They have nearly 100,000 fans and there stands over 40 comments on the post of my piece. The final tally of views to my etsy shop from this single post, 3500. My average daily views currently stand somewhere in the 175 range and even when I was on the front page for an hour the views only hit 1600 or so. Better yet, I actually got sales, many of them. All of this because I whined just a bit out of frustration.

It would have been a perfect day, but I had the mother of all headaches most of it, sapping the joy from the events. Oh right...event(s). There was one more. Through the power of the facebook post, as well as a few twitter friends, my fan page broke through the 300 mark that I had set for a giveaway. I get a bit jealous about others with many more fans, but I take pride in knowing mine are not etsy sellers there to acquire reciprocal fanning and most have found me in a pleasantly organic fashion. In short, I am proud that most of my fans are actually fans. So to thank them I will be giving away a piece, starting a little later today there will be a giveaway post that fans can post on to enter to win. I'll keep it open until Monday when I will choose a winner or two...we'll see.

The Mad Hatter piece is also now listed and I think I might be done with Wonderland...though honestly if I can think of anything for the Cheshire Cat or the Caterpillar...I might go back. I'll probably be playing catch up all weekend to get things remade. Though I'm kind of getting addicted to having new pieces to show off. I feel like a kid stuck in a class of perpetual show and tell and I must have something to show. This might be a problem...I'll just take a deep breath and see you all again on Monday.