Happy Monday

Finally Saturday afternoon brought the thread I needed for a special order. It was chosen by the customer on ebay and I just picked it up myself to avoid all the extra shipping. I also learned a new lesson, even when the link to thread is provided by the customer, read the entire listing before purchasing. When I opened the thread/yarn I smelled the ball and was greeted with the smell of cigarette smoke. Yuck. I went back and read the listing and it was clearly mentioned that it did not come from a smoke free home. If I had read better, I could have looked elsewhere for the same stuff, but I didn't. Luckily as I am working with the thread the smell is quickly dissipating. Hopefully a quick wash will take any lingering small away and my lesson has been learned.

I should have the last piece in that order done today and I'll try to get some pictures to show you this thread/yarn. I've been trying to take pictures, but the color is just not showing up the way it really looks. It is neon yellow and ridiculously bright. It is also acrylic and works closer to yarn than thread which I don't enjoy, but I persevere for the good customer.

The only other thing to share this weekend is the inclusion of my barefoot sandal tutorial on the Instructables email newsletter. Views of the tutorial were already good, but this shot them right past 10,000. I've also received a few messages on etsy of thanks. My favorite ones are those that tell me that they have given up on tatting and that my tutorials got them to try again. More thread addicts into the fold my friends. Well, that's it really. I did respond to the large order inquiry with the huge shipping quote I got for UPS as well as a long time estimate for completion and I haven't heard back. I might have scared them away, but honestly that to rushing myself and settling for 'maybe it'll get there' shipping just to snag the order. So if they do respond at least it will be on my terms.

Damn time change has the day already wasting away on me, so I best get to it. Happy Monday all.

New Instructable

I decided to try and stay on task and get some sold things remade and since I was starting with the barefoot sandals, I kind of veered off task a bit to take pictures of the creation. I have been meaning to do an Instructable on them for quite some time but I never seemed to make the time. Why would I bother doing an Instructable when I have already posted the pattern? Well, it's because the audience there is completely different from my usual tatting friends. Doing these allows me to introduce tatting to new people in a much more visual way. I can step out processes like joining together a first and last ring which seems to stump folks. Heck doing these is what got me to make the short videos and those have sucked in countless new tatters so it really is a win.

You can find it here and the wonderful people over at Instructables have featured the tutorial on there main page as well. This just exposes it to way more views and again that's wonderful. Of course this does not help me remake pieces that need remaking, so I must get back to that today. I also had a request this morning for a great many pieces to send overseas. I'm a little hesitant as it is a very large order with a small discount I offered before I knew just how large the order would be. There is also the matter of shipping all this stuff. I've not worried about my small packages being considered a commercial shipment before, but this one seems to cross that line and I'm not certain I know how to handle all that. Of course if I ship with UPS, I think they handle all that business and I just have a huge shipping cost which I would of course have the buyer pay...maybe I can do it. I think there is more thinking involved here.

I also got the two pieces with bad pictures listed with better pictures yesterday. The first one up there is the redone piece. I really am so much happier with the way it hand now. I still has the same belly dance flavor with the bells, but now it's much more wearable and supported by the extra chains. The other is also listed and it too has a nice weight to it, but still hangs very well. I suppose I've just gotten better at assembling chains and my tatting over the past few years. It was bound to happen, practice and all that. Anyway, I'm going to go stress over that crazy order and get the day started.

A Second Look

Up late again. You see the kitties who normal rouse me from slumber around 4:30 or so have a new toy. Their grandma bought them a new scratching tree and rather than bother me awake in the morning, they play on that in our bedroom so I sleep away like a normal person. Problem is, I have things that need doing early in the morning before the children rise and I hope they get over the new toy smell soon so I can get back to my routine.

I didn't get a thing remade yesterday like I had hoped, nor did I play with the rings I was so desperate to find. Instead I worked on a one off whose initial design came to be in the morning as I was waking. I got this resin piece on clearance and after much design tweaking, I managed to get the tatting to lay behind it like a piece of filigree. I really had no preconceived notion of the rest of the piece, so I just grabbed some more clearance bits and started piecing them together. Since I wasn't in the mood for a photo shoot yesterday all you get is this blurry camera photo for now.

Speaking of not taking the time to take photos, since I didn't do that I took a second look at a necklace that was expiring. I couldn't decide whether to keep it on in it's current form or disassemble it and give it a new life. It was one of my first grab bag pieces that I wasn't entirely pleased with. The lace didn't hang right and honestly I shouldn't have settled, but I wanted it to be finished and so I listed it.  I liked what it was supposed to be so after asking twitter opinions, I went ahead and took the piece apart, cutting through lace with wild abandon as I redesigned the piece in my head.

So, this is what I came up with. Again, no real pictures of course, but I think this is much better. I adjusted the original pattern to give it more of a curve and tatted around the filigree piece. Then using just the same bits from the original necklace, I reconstructed the necklace. I decreased the length, added stabilizing chains from the left over chain and it hangs so much better. The lines are cleaner and basically the lesson here is that you never *have* to be done designing something. If you want to take a second look, do it, even if other people have praised you work. You know what you want it to be and don't settle for less. Sure it took me almost a year to get it right, but I am quite pleased.

Hopefully today I can stay on task and get some things remade because as soon as that special order thread gets here, I'll be busy on that order for days I think. I would hate for anything to be distracting me at that point.

Found Again!

It's always wonderful to get a little unexpected attention. I get 'etsy finds' emails daily and I can't tell you how many times I've looked at their theme and thought, 'why not me?' Well, yesterday was Mardi Gras and their email theme followed that theme and as I scrolled down with that familiar thought, there was my white mask. Woo and also Hoo! If you don't get the email, here's a peek at it and clicking will take you to a image of the whole email if you're curious.

The day then of course brought a mess of new eyes to my shop, not tons of sales or anything, but those eyes favorited many things and that equals a very good day. The day wasn't all etsy finds though, I also made up the awareness bracelet and got that in the shop. I didn't have to make too many adjustments from the original, but I did add a hook to one end for easy wearing. The first was tied on to avoid using any metal, but the hook makes wearing it that much easier. As it has been pointed out, I can also easily change the color of the ribbons to match any cause one might want to support while still wearing a fancy lace bracelet.

I also managed to finish up one of the masks that needed remaking, but there are two left and I woke up to an idea for one of the bits I recently picked up on clearance, so I'll likely be distracted with that this morning. I do adore being busy. I have also been dealing with an increase in youtube subscribers and folks acting shocked that people are still tatting, including other tatters. I've been sending people in droves to Intatters to see the humongous community. It can't be too much longer that the shock begins to wear off because every time I visit Intatters the list of new members is mind boggling. Well, I'm up later than usual so if I missed sharing anything, sorry and I'm off to it.

Put 'Em Up

It was another fairly productive day over in my neck of the woods. After being distracted by household duties both normal and odd, I had to clean up under the couches...the child 'lost' something, I got the demi gloves finished up. It did take me a while to suss out the best way to photograph them and after getting some dolled up pictures twitter helped me pick the best ones and helped me name them and they are now listed. This 'boxing' photo was quite popular with my twitter friends, but I did opt for a different photo for the main listing. I also admit that the price tag on these pieces is particularly high, but it is quite an involved, dense pattern with a little Celtic work as well as the time sucking embroidery so I'm sticking with it.

The advantages of being ones own model are the ability to take photos whenever you need to. The disadvantages are you have to get presentable on the laziest of days and then make faces into a camera hoping that the neighbors don't walk by and think you're a total loon. Okay, so they likely think that anyway. After the listing was up I went back to work on some sold pieces. Then I sold some masks and that planned today for me. I'd still like to get that awareness bracelet made up for the shop so I might take a break from masks to do that, but no playing with rings for me yet.

I should also be getting in some special order thread that was requested by a customer toward the end of the week. I have been commissioned to create several pieces in this thread. I'll show it to you when it gets here, but it's a poly blend thread chosen for its color and I have never worked with it before. I definitely prefer working with natural fibers, but we'll see if I can keep up my standards with non standard thread. I think that's it for me today, much tatting lies ahead.