A Mask Returns

Yes, I did spend a little too much time playing with the new phone. I swear I waiting until after schooling to do it. Then the children went of with Grandma for the afternoon and I wondered what to do with my time.

I thought on working on something new, but decided to instead work on something that I haven't remade is probably a year. I loved this mask, but since I stiffen it, there is an extra step involved in its creation. Apparently that was all I needed to put off remaking it until I couldn't even remember how to do it.

So I pulled up all the pictures I had on hand and tried to work out the pattern again. Yes, I am aware none of this would happen if I would just write down the damn patterns when I create them. You know that's not happening anytime soon, so why bring it up.

There were a couple of false starts, but they it all came back to me and I whipped though the piece. It does help when the kids are out and there's nothing too interesting on the television to distract me.

It should be all dry from the stiffening stuff this morning, but I did list it last night. I really didn't think it would sell overnight and it didn't. I might dig though my sold pieces and see if there is anything else I can get remade that I've been putting off. I've been getting lots of questions and wholesale inquires yesterday, but since I don't do wholesale and the small discount I can offer a bulk sale is apparently not so appealing, none of them has led to sales. Somehow it's hard for folks to grasps that making more of something individually handmade doesn't make it easier or faster to create, so why would I want to do more work and make half per piece so someone else can make some money on it, especially if they just sell online, potentially creating competition for myself. Oh well, at least I get nice compliments when they ask.

Dissapointing

The only thing worse than starting yet another day without a sales in the shop is knowing that you just lost one because you won't lie on a customs form. I got a message overnight asking for a pair of ankle corsets to be shipped as a 'gift' with a value under $10. It's been a long time since someone tried this one. I mean I know why, but I'm pretty sure I'm the one that gets caught and pays the heavy fines. Then the item is confiscated, the customer wants their money back and it's just totally not worth even playing that game, so I said no.

In other news, while the etsy seller I mentioned yesterday with the copy of one of my necklaces did remove the listing, the message I received back from her was disheartening. This was part of it:

 "I removed my listing but not because I made it after your design.  Is this pattern(design) copyrighted? I foud it on google, I didn't know it was your "original design"."

Oh, dear. While I'm not a lawyer and I don't want to get into the copyright issue, I am sad that anyone thinks that just because you find something on Google that it's fair use for everyone for any reason. I suppose it could just be a cultural difference, I know there are a couple of countries that seem to keep popping up with this issue, but seriously EVERYTHING is on Google. How can anyone think everything posted online is free to profit from? Clearly this person found my listing image in a Google search and copied it not knowing nor caring that the design belonged to anyone. I know I can't fix people that see no issue with this, but I can write about how it's wrong and inconsiderate and hope someone reads this before they try it themselves. I let the seller know to be careful with that as I am by far, not the meanest tatter in this regard. She copies the wrong one and they'll be cease and desist letters and threats of lawyers.

In other, other news, I didn't get any tatting in yesterday either, but I did list the white collar and I did do more cross stitching. I'll get stir crazy again soon I'm sure and they'll be fresh tatting. I just can't sit on my hands and make nothing. I just have to keep my hands moving.

Make Good Art

Yesterday was a bit of a blurry mess due to a morning headache that I suspect might have reached migraine strength. I can only guess because up until about a year ago I had never had the pleasure of one of these extra strength headaches that come with extra prizes. This time the headache came with the free gift of light and sound sensitivity and apparently turned me into a monster as well because I lost all patience with the kids during school. Not my finest hour, but we carry on.

I didn't have any tatting tasks in queue, but something sent me looking through my old feedback on etsy and I kept running across pieces I stopped selling some time ago. I assume I stopped because I was sick of remaking those particular pieces, but I thought I might resurrect a couple of them. So I went to work on a choker I used to make. Of course since then my tension has improved dramatically making that particular piece tat up smaller so I had to do some fiddling to make it the proper length again and so it looks too different from the original pictures to list it from them. This means that I'll need to take new listing pictures before I can get it listed. At least it's something that needs doing and sice my headache appears to have finally been exorcised I'll try to get on that today.

On another note, I received an email this morning from one of my blog readers and gist of it was, when asking for a pattern they mentioned that they were a needle tatter and would the pattern work for the needle. The reason I mention this is the response received along with the pattern. She was informed that 'needle tatting is NOT tatting, go online and learn to tat'. Now I have a pretty good idea who said this without even asking, but who doesn't really matter. I just wanted to, yet again, go on record to say and I quote, "The knot does not care how it is made". When we needle tat we distinguish it with that word there, 'needle'. We do not diminish the work of shuttle tatters by tatting using a different method, we're not trying to pass off our work as some elaborate forgery to dupe people and I think that the result of the work speaks for itself. Of course don't get me started on all that 'embroidery tatting'. If you're going to draw a line in the sand I suggest it there. I'm getting away from the point though. That person was rude, insensitive and I'm pretty sure has broken the spirit of a number of needle tatters with that harshness. If you want to steer people to the shuttle, then invite them to learn don't try to shame them into it. Of course the best revenge is living well and creating good art. So to steal another quote, get thee to a needle or shuttle and "make good art".

Excuse Me While I Vent

I was going to say that I had a lesson to learn to impart to you today, but it's not really. It's more of an anecdote that has a few interesting points I'd like to get out. So, it starts like this, I get an email a week ago from someone looking for feathered accessories for a photo shoot asking my location. The email is signed with a name and a studio name, but no further information. I find it odd since I don't make feathered accessories, but I dislike ignoring messages, so I respond with just that. I receive further response asking for a link to my available pieces because she works with 10 different photographers and pulls often. I still find it odd that she doesn't know what I make and my shop link was already in my signature, so at this point I do ignore it.

Let's then flash forward to yesterday when I receive a couple of messages back, one that just says hello? and another that says they work with "all" the magazines and could she get a list of what I have available. I should have ignored it but I didn't and this escalated into me being called unprofessional and "very small", which quite frankly upset me more than it should have. How did it end up there? Well here's the points I wanted to get out. When I looked up this person online, or tried, I should say, there was no information, none. Nothing on the studio name either. So the first point is, even if you're supposedly used to contacting "80 accessory designers" you should be more forth coming with information. Tell people who you are, what you do and most importantly, low profile or not (that was her excuse) you must have a web presence that allows one to trust you. I am small potatoes and I might need help getting my work exposed, but that doesn't mean I should trust that you know better than me and will treat me kindly. You can tell me repeatedly that would work with over "20 photographers" or returns "millions of dollars" worth of product, but unless I have some tangible proof of that or even some actual names, I'm not biting and I don't think anyone should go on faith alone.

The second point. Not only were her emails lacking in information, but they were full of what I call text speak, 'u' and 'pls' and unnecessary ellipses and you know I love ellipses, but this is no way to expect a professional response from someone either. I don't care how "casual" a person you are. In the back of my mind, I still feel like I might have botched a potential opportunity, that this person was everything they said they were and I even fear some sort of black balling backlash, but they still created a situation where the risk involved was too high in my opinion. I have been taken advantage of in the past by people who probably knew I had no idea how the industry worked and I lost pieces. Since then I have worked with several legitimate magazines and photographers and they all were generous with information from the beginning even when things didn't work out. So the moral of the story is, as one of my twitter friends stated, when in doubt, opt out. There was some more advice on twitter too, but the language was too salty to repeat.

On a more pleasant note, while all the above was stressing me out and draining away my sunshine, my special order customer made their purchase and I got a couple more sales as well. It was almost as if the Universe was telling me all was well and I was not losing anything. I still have doubts of course, but I feel better now that I've vented a bit. I have tatting to do today and that feels good as well. Also I have gotten a few responses regarding the Canadian tatter call and have sent them off to meet the reporter, virtually anyway, so hopefully that article has enough relevance to move forward. I'll let you know if I hear anything. Here's to a fresh day with more of that pleasant stuff and none of that other nonsense.

Size Matters

Completely against trend the person who said they were going to make a large order actually did so and in a timely fashion to boot. I know I shouldn't be shocked, but things rarely work out that way. Usually after several conversations the customers fall off the face of the earth without so much as a never mind, but I'm rambling now, back to the point. I was working on a bridal veil yesterday when I inspected the veiling  I had on hand and found several flaws in it, so I had to put that on hold to order more. This put me right to the next task of remaking the pieces that just sold.

You all know that I rarely write down patterns, but I do like to keep track of details, like how many repeats are needed for a particular choker or bracelet and as I was looking that up for one, I noted that I had changed the number on this one not too long ago. The truth is I've had to make several pattern adjustments over the years. Were they wrong in the first place? Nope, I've changed...or at least my tatting has. I've noticed bracelets that are somehow shorter than they were meant to be and whole designs smaller. It's become quite an issue for me. I've always had a pretty good handle on tension, it's the main reason I think my work turns out so uniform and not loose like most people assume needle tatting to be, but over the years it's gotten even better or at least tighter. Thus the stitches are smaller and patterns that were suppose to work up a certain size are now too small.

In most tatted work, size isn't terribly important, but in worn pieces, particularly ones that are worn around, like bracelets, chokers, ankle pieces and to a lesser degree, masks, it matters a lot. In the back of my head I'm worrying that I'm going to have to rework many of my designs the very next time I make them. For now I'm doing some measuring as I'm making to try and make small adjustments to keep things the right size. I bet you're asking why couldn't I just adjust my tension a bit looser. Well honestly the work looks better this way and the change was so natural and gradual, it would be hard to consciously step backwards. So in moving forward, I must make changes to those old favorites that I made up so long ago. Luckily this will only affect those pieces I've been making since the beginning as more recently designed pieces were make in my current tension. I just thought it was an interesting thing to note so I wanted to share. If anyone else has any insights or observations on the subject I'd love to hear them.

So today I am remaking and that will likely spill over into most of the week. I even had to quit stalling and make a supply order yesterday as I was out of the clasps I need to remake a few of the sold pieces. Next I need to actually sit down and go through all my thread to make that thread order I wanted to make the other day. I'm not sure when that one will happen though. Probably not until a custom order forces me to get a new color. Yep, it's going to be a long week.

Friday

Oh, Friday, this has been one of those weeks where I feared you would never arrive and now that you're here I think, what happened to the week? Yesterday was another with my nose to the grindstone. I think that I mentioned that we had advanced my daughter in a few of her courses. Well, my goal was to then finish the new courses within this school year. This means a lot more material to cover than a normal class load for both her and me and I think it's finally getting to me. Seriously, her science class is starting to hurt my head. Mass is defined as a quantitative measure of an object's resistance to the change of its speed. At 8 she's supposed to get that? I had to read it a few times before it sank in for me. My excuse is, it's been like almost two decades since I studied any science, but that's not really the point I'm trying to make here. I'm saying that I'm a bit tired.

I only managed to get one of the custom order pieces made yesterday between schooling and the book fair in the afternoon. Today, I must finish the other because I have a third that just came in late last night. It was another of those ones that was requested a week or so ago and they just picked it up. On a similar note, here's another rant for you. When you ask someone a question regarding the timing of creating and/or shipping a piece and they answer you with details, please understand that the answer applies only to now. Or if you ask if I can ship something today, I say yes if you buy now and then you buy two or three hours later, the answer no longer applies. So far I've not run into any protest when that was revealed when orders were actually made, but it's just another thing that bugs me. I really need to be more vague when answering questions.

So, more making today and again if I manage to finish, I've got remaking to do. I still have that new doodle piece to rework as well, so if I need a break from the sweatshop, I might play with that over the weekend. It's been too long since I listed something truly new. I hope to have a picture filled week for you next week just because all this text has got to be a bore. If nothing else a cat parade. See you all then.

This & That

Again, my day was more or less exactly as planned. I started schooling early to get it done before we all headed out on our field trip. It was far too hot for October standing in the sun while the children pretended to learn, but we left with a couple of small pumpkins and home we went. Wait, on our way home we stopped by the newly opened Hobby Lobby in town. I'd never been in one, but I'd heard they were wonderful and that they carried Lizbeth thread. So in we went and I was completely, wholly disappointed. While the store was huge the yarn section was a joke and they had exactly one roll each of a dozen shades of Lizbeth in size 20 only and no cebelia at all. They has some low end cotton crochet thread and some nylon which doesn't seem appealing either. I don't know if they plan on stocking more, but at this point I don't have a reason to ever walk back through the doors. It was full of house decor and the fabric section was nice, but I really don't see it killing Michael's anytime soon.

Once we were home I immediately began cleaning the floors. Not sure why I felt they needed to be done that minute, but we are hosting a birthday dinner this weekend and guests next week so it had to be done sometime. All this cleaning and adventuring meant very little tatting. I did start the last mask I need to remake for the time being, but it will have to get finished today. After that I don't currently have anything else in queue, so it's a mystery what I'll get up to after that. I leave you with a cat in a basket, because I can.

Rinse, Repeat

How is it that I can have so much more to do on a day designated vacation. The kids were more of a handful without the daily school routine. I had thought I'd get at least least one free day while they played happily, but no it was all battles and drama. I had a great pike of things to tat, but I kept being distracted by things to clean. I don't cook for Thanksgiving, but I do host the dinner since we have the space and most of that space needs a good cleaning. So I'd tat for a spell then do laundry and then tat some more and vacuum something, then tat some more and clean something else. You know what else is sad? I get to do the whole routine over again today and tomorrow, except tomorrow I get to add the family dental appointment to the mix for good measure. I think the yawing kitten photo fits perfectly for today, don't you?

So I'm having a bit of a moral dilemma lately. My needle tatting videos on youtube and the tutorial patterns on Instructables have not only continued to be popular beyond expectations, but appear to have resulted in quite a few new tatters. What's the problem, you ask? Well the problem does not lie in more tatters, that is wonderful and completely my intention. The problem is many of them, even ones who have not gone any further than those lessons are immediately opening up shop to sell their wares. Still not a giant issue, I realize. I guess what gives me pause is the number of them requesting to sell my designs or 'modifications' of them online. I try to be friendly and remind people that I make no money sharing those patterns and helping people learn, but my job, my business is selling finished pieces and forgive me, but I really don't want to create an army of competitors for my business. So where is the line? I've even thought to go so far as to pull all my free patterns  and videos down, but I really don't want to do that either. I like that people are learning and sharing. I like that people enjoy working my patterns, but I fear that I am just setting myself up for more copycat drama. Why do so many people immediately figure they can sell what they make, when they've just learned the craft themselves? There are a wide variety of crafts I make that I would never attempt to sell and it took a long time before I decided to sell tatting. Any insights or opinions on these subjects would be greatly appreciated. Am I making a mountain of a molehill? I know there have got to be plenty of folks learning from my efforts with the simple intention of learning and sharing and I would hate to take anything away from them, ever.

Well that was a lot of unintended drama for the morning. Now off to the planned cleaning, tatting and child rearing drama that I am so used to.