Whorls, Sales, and Other News

The sun was playing hide and seek with us all morning, but I was lucky enough to catch some early in the morning to get photos of the new pieces. I got this necklace listed first and then the earrings and finally the pendant which I didn't add anything to, but I did put it on a nice silver chain rather than the default ribbon. Once that was done I stalled for awhile before getting back to remaking. Of course my stalling was more like doing laundry and cleaning, but still. I know I said that there were more designs in the motif, but I think I'll save all that for some time down the line.

In other news, I was reminded by the intatters twitter feed that International Tatting Day is Sunday, April 1st. Yes, I know that's its a rather unfortunate date to have chosen, but that's neither here nor there. A couple of years ago I ran a special in my etsy shop for the occasion and it was rather successful. The idea was to offer a really cheap pendant in any color to get tatting into more hands. I didn't do it last year because I was just too buy to handle the extra work. The good news is I feel pretty good about doing it this year and the even better news is I decided to put together a special pendant just for the event instead of just knocking the price down on one for the day.

This is the pendant and I will make it in any color for one day only. I will get it listed Sunday morning and take it down when I rise Monday morning. I will also post the link here on the blog Sunday morning so you will have no excuses that you forgot or missed it. So just to recap, this will be a very reasonably priced pendant available for one day only in any thread color I have on hand all for International Tatting Day.

In other, other news, many moons ago I collaborated with etsy friend and jeweler Allison of RockLove Jewelry. She used magic to make some of my tatted bits into silver and gold jewelry. Unfortunately by the time she finished the line, she didn't feel like they fit the direction her business was going so they were never released. Yes, I was a bit sad, but she has decided in conjunction with her annual birthday sale (today only w/code "27thbday"), the sample pieces are going up for sale. You can fine the lace collection here. I can tell you that it is pretty surreal to see something I made with thread turn into fine jewelry.

Other than all that, the weekend will be devoted to preparing for the week ahead. I think I mentioned that the oldest has state testing and the youngest has her fifth birthday. There will be trips to zoos, parties all the cleaning that goes along with that so I'm tired just thinking about it. So I guess I'll see you again on Sunday.

New!

So there I was doing what I was supposed to be doing, remaking, when a thought hit me. It wasn't a terribly amazing thought, but I immediately decided to change gears and started back to work on the doodle, hoping to arrive at a finished piece. What was the thought? I don't really remember, but I think it was something like, 'If you want to do something new so bad, do it...the remaking will still be there when you're done.' Though it was probably less cohesive than that in my head.

So the first thing I did was rework the stitch count on the design. The first version had all three points exactly the same and the center was bowing something terrible. Then I completely changed how the piece was worked. The time between starting the doodles and yesterday was so long that my mind was able to let go of the way I did it originally and try a fresh approach. Often I get so stuck in making something the way I did the very first time I tried it that I resist adjusting the design for any reason, even when it really needs it. I guess I'm stubborn that way, but I'm getting better and this rework made the design so much easier to construct.

Next was the question of what to do with the piece. I was stuck with a design choice and I decided to ask the internet again. It had actually been so long since I had any announcement of any kind that I think the facebook people to shocked to hear from me, but they and the twitter folk provided a general consensus on how to proceed. I hung the piece on chains and then went to work making matching earrings as well. In the end I decided to make a third small motif for a pendant. I still haven't decided whether or not to hang something off it though.

Hopefully today will have some sun and I can get photos of all the new stuff and get it all listed. Then I think I will feel much better about getting back to the remaking. Of course this new design is not done becoming all the things it can. my mind is still wrapping around all the things I can do with it, bracelets, ankle corsets, back drop necklaces...maybe even a mask. It feels nice to have a creative direction for a change.

Long Week

Seriously if these posts get any more boring I am going to start having to apologize at the beginning of each one. I thought I was going to be able to catch up yesterday, but then I got another order that needed making. You know I would never complain about getting orders, but I certainly am curious about why most of the recent ones have either contained something that needs to be custom made or one of my larger pieces that takes a large chuck of time to remake. Like that whole feast or famine thing I was talking about before, there seems to be a cycle related to the types of things that sell at any given time as well. Of course if I was really curious enough I would go through all my sales records for the last six years and do the math necessary to come to actual conclusions so that the information could be used to make predictions about future sales. That would be work however and I am clearly too lazy for that nonsense.

I tatted at a ridiculous rate yesterday and so I start today mostly caught up. I have one necklace that needs to be remade and the rest of the pieces in my queue are ones I'd like to get made, but aren't strictly needed. For example, I like to have more than one pair of ankle corsets made up at a time so I can immediately relist them upon selling and I'd like to get a few more of the masks made so I can change their listings to ready to ship instead of custom. Of course I'd love to get something new made, but it all depends on how I feel after I get that last 'need' piece made. It's already been an exhausting week and next week will be much worse because it contains the oldest daughter's first state testing and the youngest daughter's birthday and subsequent party which means much cleaning, entertaining and adventuring. Too bad I can't sleep sitting up like the cat here.

I had some more stories to tell you about some messages I've recently received, but I don't think I'd tell them right this morning. I think I might get them sorted in my head and then share them tomorrow, maybe...I might forget then too. Yeah, long, long week.

Crazy Cat Lady

Working, working, always working. That's been about the size of my days for a little while now. Up before the sun with a day stuffed full of things that need doing. These are the days when I get nostalgic for my time in retail. You know when I'd leave the house and pretend to work for eight hours instead of actually working and then come home satisfied that I didn't have to do anything around the house because I had a full time job. Of course all that was before kids and seven cats too, so the need to clean was less omnipresent.

I chose some black cat pictures to enhance the post today. You always seem to get the white cat picture because Neko likes to lay on my lap while I work making him the easiest model. I went and actually hunted down these because I just knew that this would be another meandering mess of a post. Everything is better with a cat picture right?

I spent most of yesterday remaking once I settled all the issues I had to work on from the morning. I got details on how to properly send the package to the customer in Australia who wanted it held. I also escaped the custom order request for the 'not tatting' lace necklace. If fact I swept so many things off my plate in the morning, I was worried something else odd was going to come up, but it never did.

Today is looking like a repeat of yesterday. I still have one large piece and a couple of smaller ones to remake so I won't likely get around to anything else. I suppose that means there's no real need to speculate on what I would get up to in the event that I actually did finish. Though I think I really need to get some pictures of some lace up around here soon, people are going to start thinking I'm just a crazy cat lady and you know that I'm so much more than that.

Need Sleep

Don't let the fact that I can apparently type at 4:30 in the morning fool you. You are reading the words of a zombie again today. It was another long weekend full of just enough orders to keep me tatting most of the time on nothing new or interesting. We also had the pleasure of attending a birthday dinner and celebration on Saturday that compelled us to stay up far later than is our habit. Sure, at the time it seemed like a fine idea, but as dawn threatened to break in Sunday, the cats clawed me awake leaving me with far less sleep than is strictly required for me to function. I managed plenty of tatting on Sunday, but most of it was done in a daze. Luckily I have such good muscle memory I could probably tat in my sleep.

I promised that this week I would have pictures, only I forgot about that promise until late Sunday so you get a cat picture. Hey, it's a picture right? So what's ahead for the week? Well, more remaking of course and dealing with odd requests. I have someone who wants me to mail something so that it's held at a post office in Australia, but they haven't told me how that could be accomplished and I've no clue. I got a request last night to remake a "tatted" necklace that looks like either needle lace or machine lace or maybe even fine thread crochet. It's fine, wide and terribly long and there's no way that's getting replicated with my work. There were more of those sort of things, but as a zombie, my memory is a little fuzzy.

I image that today will require much caffeine and another early bedtime to make up for the lost sleep. I miss being a kid when lost hours of sleep could be recovered by sleeping in. Not anymore, now I need days to recuperate. Man, I feel way older than I am...not that I'm all that young anymore, but still. Okay, I've begun to make even less sense than usual so I'm going to skip proof reading this and go walk on the treadmill and hope that wakes me up even to really start this day.