Look At The Thread

It's bill day, so I've been terribly busy this morning and nearly forgot about the blog. Let's see first a frustration. So I emailed and emailed and waited and waited, but received no response regarding the additional shipping cost for the mask I mentioned yesterday. My stress level continued to rise as the shipping deadline neared, so I shipped it anyway. I know I really shouldn't have and I can probably kiss that $40 goodbye, but I thought about it and decided that I would rather do that than deal with the potential aftermath of doing the opposite. I tell you this story as a cautionary tale for my future self that may need to be reminded to just say no next time someone wants something overnighted. It is so not worth all the stress.

In less stressful news, I did make up one more of the new rings. I must direct your attention to the gray thread. It is magnificent. Really my favorite shade of gray thread ever, it shines and yet it is still the perfect dark color. Heather really outdid herself with this color. Now, I realize that not everyone is in love with gray so you might think me batty, but I've barely broken into the skein and I'm already thinking of ordering much more of it so I am never without it. I even want to keep the ring, but I am ridiculously rough on my hands so I would only be able to wear it on special occasions and those are very few and far between.

I'm still dealing with the aftermath of the Halloween rush, but I still don't feel compelled to start remaking masks yet. I will need to soon however as the Christmas season is fast approaching and it generally brings with it custom color and size requests and Mardi Gras mask sales follow closely behind. Better to have them done now rather than rush through them right after the holidays. Of course I am being rather presumptuous, I could get no more sales than normal and be blessed with the gift of limitless time. See, now I'm not quite sure which way I want that to go. No, I do...I really need the income, I am a capitalist pig. So, I guess to recap, don't say yes to expedited shipping, gray thread is awesome and sister likes to get paid. Now it's off to tat, Halloween and other nonsense.

Vanity and Bloomers

Yesterday kick my butt. Seriously I could write a novel on all the going ons that occurred throughout the course of what what not so much a bad day as a day of...not smooth. There was the teacher meeting that went quite well and the errands to the store that followed that ate up the entire morning. When we returned home it was to an ant invasion in the kitchen and then the children went down for their nap, but didn't actually sleep. Though at this point I must confess that I completed my ankle corsets, took photos and got them listed and that was as smooth as ice. However shortly after that I though it would be okay to list my unmade mask as a custom order. I mean who is actually shopping online for Halloween at this point right? Wrong.

The mask that was not yet made was ordered and requested to be shipped overnight. So I spent a great deal of the afternoon trying to sort that. Oddly enough the same overnight shipping request would be made of another ready to ship mask right before bed. Though the second time around I already had all the answers having looked it all up. Though the first customer still has not paid for their upgraded shopping yet, so I am still stressed about shipping it this morning. Deep breath.

Then I got a note from Krystledawn on twitter letting me know that she had used the idea I came up with for my bobby pins and lapel pins on her new rings...which are adorable by the way. Then I though, why haven't I tried that on rings yet. I made a few rings on bases years ago but they were difficult to put together and I just stopped. Of course I know more now, so in a rare case of the 'me-too's' I dug out slumbering ring bases and tried a ring using the same basic design as my bobbies. The biggest difference is the inner ring I had to add to fully hide the larger silver base. I only have a few of these ring bases left, the others I have are the ones with cups meant for jewels and I'm not certain those will work with this technique. These might be good for Christmas shopping season so I'll get the other two made up I think. Or I might crawl back into bed and try to ignore any more crazy that ,might want to fling itself my way.

Strike That

Reverse it. Well, maybe not strike it, but rather put it on hold while I go an entirely different direction. I worked up the first ankle corset with a couple of minor modifications and I found the sweet spot. I took a quick phone picture, sent it to twitter and then began playing with the piece of lace while I waited for opinions. I do this a lot. When I placed the piece on my wrist, I found that it was it was perfect as a cuff. Of course I had to wrap it all around in the back, but it could be perfect. So, I abandoned the ankle corsets in favor of transforming the piece into an arm piece.


As you can see, I did just that. It took a few more adjustments to the pattern and after consulting the Internet I decided to use a couple of hooks to close it. Then when I put it on my rather small wrists, it was too big. Of course this just means it won't fit me perfectly and will likely fit many more people perfectly. Ah, but the light bulb went off again. Since I only attach hooks, not eyes and the hooks are meant to attach directly to the lace, I can simply hook further into the lace for a perfect fit.

The really great thing about this pattern, even with my scalloped edge added on, it is such a flowing and simple design that it works up much faster than some pieces half its size. So even though it looks huge, I can still charge less for it as both the cuff and the ankle corsets. The hard part is getting people to understand why this one would be less than say the In Bloom Ankle corsets that take days to make with many individual motifs. This one is made with one motif, one outer round and then the scallop and that's it.

I have a face to face conference with my daughter's teacher today, so that will eat up the morning, but after that I'll get back to the second ankle corset so I can get those finished and listed today. Though I do have an awful sandal tan that is going to make pictures a bit difficult. Then I had yet another idea for this design which I'd like to try out. Mask season is about over, though I do sell them all year round at a much slower pace, so I will get the ones that I couldn't get remade in time listed as custom pieces as well. Do you ever get the feeling that I use this blog as a planning and scheduling device? I so do. Oh and one last thing, google alerts, alerted me to this blog in English and Italian I believe featuring my work.

Ankle Corset, Thy Name Is Vanity

The idea of a new ankle corset design wormed int way into my brain and would not let go so the second I was finished with the task at hand it was straight off to my stack of vintage pattern books for inspiration. This is the point where I confess that I consider myself much more of a reinvent-er than a designer on most accounts. I flip through those pages looking with a different perspective looking for something to bend to my will. I found this one fairly quickly. It's the pattern for a vanity set with a fabulously 40's description on top. I'm sad I never lived when every woman just needs a gaily designed vanity set for pleasure.

Anyway, my method for adapting these patterns is very simple. Read the stitch counts, ignore the pattern and use the pictures for structure. Follow the design exactly at least the first time. Like teacher always said, you can't break the rules until you know them. The large openness of the design made it a fairly quick piece to work up, just a couple of hours during the kids naps. Though I was tatting at should aching speed. The first prototype worked up so well size wise that the changes I'll need to do are quite small. Of course that means the changes are quite fiddly. i want to bring the design down a bit int he front filling in the sides just a bit I think.

I did try one variation already and that was simply to add a scalloped edge along the front bottom edge. While I like that it ruffled up a bit, the problem lies with the loose structure of the bottom center. Whenever I start walking the center begins to curl up a bit and won't lie back down on its own. I have started on the second version though I only got a a bit into it last night. I have a plan that I hope with give me the edge I'm looking for and if it works it will likely still have the scalloped edge as well. I like that it help differentiate the piece from my others. In the end the changes to the original pattern will be slight, only it's usage will be drastically altered. Sometimes I wonder what these ladies of the 40's would think of the blasphemy I unleash with their tried and true designs. Oh, vanity set, welcome to ankle corset.

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.