Blarg

I was having such a good morning, I got to sleep all the way until my alarm, the election is over and won't be dragging on for weeks and then I was distracted by a lost package to Lithuania. Now I knew it was hadn't arrive a while ago, but the recipient was still looking for it on her end. Yesterday she said they couldn't find it, but they'd know for sure in a day or so, so I offered to send another piece though I'm honestly worried about the same thing happening. This morning I get a message saying it can't be found since it wasn't sent in a method requiring signature so could I send the replacement that way. I never do that because on a regular first class shipment it raises the cost about $16 and I don't expect anyone to pay that for shipping unless the item is particularly expensive a $30 piece really doesn't rate, right? The customer who is also a seller says she adds that to her shipments, so my guess is the service is much cheaper coming into the U.S. Anyway the whole business has put me in a sour mood.

On a lighter and more tatting related note, I made another one of a kind piece yesterday. I listed the red piece yesterday morning and it sold immediately to a facebook fan who had expressed in interest in it the day before. So I thought I'd see if I had enough bits to make something else in the same family and I did. This time I used dark purple Lizbeth and did a little more tatting around the brass bits. This one was pretty well received too, so I'm hoping it flies off today when I list it as well, though it would be pretty weird to have that happen twice in a row.

Also when I posted this image, it was suggested by someone that it would look good in a dark green. Well, I just happen to have this same stone in green as well, so I'll be digging though the bits once again hoping to find something to make up another. I am running out of matching pieces though, so the green will likely be the last one unless I order some of these on purpose and not in a grab bag. Well, here's hoping today picks up from here.

One Off

Yesterday started out so calm, quiet and annoying. Not any special kind of annoying, but the kind that comes with a Monday after a holiday where the kids are being squirrely and not getting their school work done. There were many sibling battles and I just retreated into thread once school was wrapped. I had one custom order to complete and then I decided to take a look at last years November sales to see if I could infer a pattern from the holiday sales. I wanted to see if there was in fact something I should be making more of at this point. My research was inconclusive, but looking at some of my old one of a kind pieces inspired me to dig through my random bits and make up something nice.

It's actually quite sparse on the tatting, but folks seemed to like it. I used the last of my copper chain and the only three copper feathers I had so yes, it's another one of a kind and I am going to try to get it listed later today. Hopefully it finds a home quickly.

As of bedtime last night I was prepared to just play some more today with random bits when my sale notification went off on my phone. It makes a ch-ching noise that I've become quite fond of. Anyway, I heard that noise a few more times during the night. I've no idea where all these people came from all of a sudden. It's even more confusing because of the lack of views the shop has gotten over the last week. I'm not complaining, just commenting on the unexplained. So today I have a few pieces that will need remaking which feels really good to say and I'll hopefully get this necklace listed as well as the one linen necklace I got make eons ago that never got listed. Well, that's quite a list for today and I'm feeling pretty good about that.

Something's Missing

As the cold finally let go of my brain completely over the weekend, it because quite clear to me that there are tasks I seriously need to get on, both in the shop and at home. The first came with the realization that Thanksgiving is quite a lot closer than I thought. This year we're playing host to more house guests than we have in the past and though none of them are uptight about a spotless house I'm stressing on getting things as clean as possible. As I'm generally one of those, 'that'll do' sort of cleaners this is more work than I'm used to, so I started tackling some of the tasks over the weekend hoping that maintaining that level of cleanliness is possible with the kids and cats...I guess only time will tell.

After a day or so of playing the victim over my still mostly dead shop, I got back to work on the art project prototype. The entire shape has now been constructed, but I'm not quite settled on the design yet. It needs something more and I'm not sure what that is yet. There are also a few stitch count changes that I will need to make on the final pieces, but that pales compared to the feeling that something is missing. The shape is good, the width of the piece is good, but I think it needs something on the inner edge, a little frill or something. Oh well, I'll work it out. That is what a prototype is for after all. In fact as I'm writing here, starting at the image, I've gotten a couple of ideas to try out later. Man am I glad that cold finally freed my brain.

Other than the art project and the two weeks of cleaning ahead of me, I'm going to buckle down and work on the shop. It's no help to worry about sales, I just need to focus on what I can do. I've already gotten a few more listings changed to offer different colors with the variations tool and I finally posted a processing time on all my listings. I can always get more variation listings worked up and get some more stock made of a few pieces. Now comes the focusing on all this stuff. I think I've already exhausted myself this morning thinking about it all. Of course that could have more to do with the cats waking me up early because they don't 'get' the time change. Whatever it is I definitely have a week to start now. Wish me luck.

Super Secret Art Project

I'm certain I mentioned this a bit when I was first offered the opportunity to participate in my first real art project, but since the project has a long timeline I had yet to actually get to work on it. Yesterday I finally got some time to sit down and really get to designing so I thought I'd share a little bit of the process. For this commission I've been given all the particulars of the art installation and a scale image of the shape I need to fill. The artist has been very communicative and I've been given free reign to design within those parameters.

The first step for me is to use what I have already made to approximate the shape. So I dig through my finished pieces and begin by laying out several different ones trying to see which designs comes closet to the right degree of curve. I's hard to see in the pictures, but at this point I have three different pieces representing different techniques I wanted to try. I don't plan on using any of these exactly as they are now. Everything will be modified and adjusted so I know I need to work up prototypes first.

These are something I rarely do, prototypes. I like to know where I'm going when I start tatting and I like the finished piece to just be there at the end of my first try, but this is something extremely different and it's worth the extra design steps to make sure the final pieces are gallery or museum ready, I'm not really sure where the final piece is going to be yet. I'll let you know when I do. Since this is a pretty large piece, I don't expect to have the prototype ready for at least a few days which is frustrating as well. I have little patience waiting to see if the design will work.

As expected I have already mucked up several times and have had to adjust my ideas repeatedly. I no longer regret going the prototype route at all. The exhibition isn't until next summer, but I thought getting a jump on it while the shop is a virtual ghost town was a good idea. Normally I would have complained about that this week, but with the cold, it was actually well timed. I'll keep working on this until the shop tears me away which will be soon...hopefully. Then I'll have plenty of time at the start of the year to work on it. It's always back to ghost town in January and February which is still ages from my deadline. I'm kind of ridiculously pleased about the idea of being named in an art exhibit so I'm crossing my fingers that nothing goes awry since there is so much time for it to do so. I'll just put my head down, get the work done  as perfectly as I can and knock on wood periodically. That should work right? right?

Halloween

As expected I got nothing tatted related done. Not a thing. My day revolved around the children and their Halloween based needs. After schooling it was into the costumes because they had to wear them all day and getting their nails done. After lunch it was a solid hour of getting them truly ready to leave the house, extra costume bits and make up. Then it was off to daddy's work to trick or treat amongst the buildings there. Honestly they get such a good haul there we don't even need to rick or treat for 'real', but they'll hear none of that.

I do have better pictures of them, but the pose here is so perfect that even though it's a bad camera photo, it's my favorite. Yes, I did dress up too though it was just in some of my black clothing and a fancy witch hat I picked up at the Target. In fact their costumes were just their regular clothing with some cheap accessories as well. They may not look fancy, but they were cute and happy and I didn't have to stress out on costume acquisition, but I digress.

After the first run out, we had my sister, her kids and my mom over for dinner as Halloween is my mother's birthday. Apparently this was awesome as a kid and not so much as an adult because everyone ditches you for free candy. Then we ditched her for free candy and trolled the neighborhood with our cousin menagerie. We tried to hand out candy when we got back, but few trick or treaters come over to our side of the neighborhood so as a result we now have what might be categorized as a ridiculous amount of candy in the house. I leave with one of the cats and her cat nip treated treats that they got for Halloween. She paused only briefly from rubbing her head on it for this picture. My entire household is spoiled.