Faces

Well it looks like nobody spied my mask last night. I knew it was a long shot anyway, so I guess it's no big deal. I haven't looked myself yet, but I will scan through the episode when the kids let me have the t.v. later just in case I see something. I did however have two other great features yesterday.

First, VickiDianeDesigns who is responsible for the Etsy Artists Exposed treasuries set her sites on the SteamTeam. The treasury featuring the actual faces of many team members went up yesterday morning and quickly shot to the top of the pile getting hundreds of views. I stole this image and the subsequent links from dbvictorias live journal post...because I'm lazy.


The treasury expires Wednesday, so for posterity, once the link is no longer live, the artists featured are, from left to right, top to bottom:

TotusMel, Tatted Jewelry and Accessories, Unique and Elegant; Tom Banwell, Leather; WinonaCookie, Custom illustration, collage, nifty items; dbvictoria Wire wrapped jewelry and other artful creations; Insectus, Industrial, Steampunk and Gothic Jewelry; CJGrand, The Grand Design;zkitten, Chaoticly Creative; Fantasies in Leather, A bit of leather, lace, love and laughter; IndustrialFairyTale, Jewelry, Books, Art, and Steampunk Odds and Ends; Choklit, Adornments for Tarts; ClockworkCrow, "Flights of Fancy", and more simple silver treasures. Tick-tock; VelvetMechanism, Steampunk Jewelry, Corsets and More!

I know, I cheated a little using an already existing image that effectively hides my face, but it's a good picture!

Also yesterday I had a great photo interview post on a the Tattered Rouge blog. Go check it out if you have a moment, it is also linked in the 'where I'm featured' list in the left column. This is also your last warning. Tomorrow I am posting a giveaway featuring one of my favorite artists, so you will want to pop by and get yourself entered to win a little something. My new tatting project has taken a backseat to a custom order, so it might be a while before I have something tangible to show you, but I will.

Letting Go

It was a flurry of activity yesterday as I finally packed up a box to send to my SteamTeam friends. They will be selling my pieces for me at the SteamPowered convention in Sunnyvale. I tagged and pressed the pieces and packed them and tried my hardest to come up with some displays. That last thing may prove to be a complete failure. Then as I was ready to seal the box, I hesitated. I have never done anything like this as even though I trust the hands that will be receiving my things, I felt a bit of fear. Of course it passed and I sealed the box, set it out on the porch and waited for the mailman to pick it up.

As I watched him walk away with with my box, I felt another pang. I tried to imagine what I was going to feel like if I sold nothing or everything. How would I feel if it was all lost, or worse stolen. While the actual value of the thread and random findings and beads probably doesn't equal more than $40 or so, it represents countless hours of work and I don't dare tell you the potential retail value of the box. I decided the best thing for my mental well being was to say  goodbye to the box and expect nothing in return. Even after this mental exercise, I'm certain to be a little uneasy until the convention is over the first week of November, so send calming vibes my way.

Just after the box left me, I got another front page feature. It lasted only about 15 minutes, but I still got a few more hearts and about a days worth of views out of the deal. So a big thank to MistFlowerStudio for adding me to yet another of her front page snagging treasuries! I hope to here back from a alchemy customer today as well, she has asked me to make her a longer version of the collar I showed you all yesterday. I posted the pictures on etatters and after she saw it there she contacted me on etsy for the project. I never thought I'd get a sale through that networking site. I'm just there to get feedback from fellow tatters, so this was a nice unexpected event as well. I also went shopping again with some favorite shops that I think needed a little surprise sale. I hope I helped their days.

After all of that stuff yesterday, today should be a quiet and relaxing change of pace.

TotusMel's Tatting, Bragging Blog

Well the weekend was eventful. After I wrote on Friday I snagged another front page spot. This time however, I was awake and able to enjoy the event. I spent over an hour answering convos and watching those views and hearts go up, up, up and I was even graced with a few great sales. Then I went into a bit of a etsy coma.

Sunday my family took a trip to the Northern California Ren Faire. We've been going for quite a few years now and we take my husbands parents as they enjoy the unparalleled people watching available. I spoiled myself and the girls a bit and brought home a few trinkets and a mealworm. Yes, a mealworm. After a visit to pet a dragon, or rather lizards, snakes and turtles, my daughter the budding entomologist was gifted a mealworm which she insisted we keep and raise until it becomes a beetle. It is currently living in a water bottle until more suitable accommodations can be acquired.

After the long day, we retired early and I managed to miss yet another front page feature. I woke this morning to more convos and requests and Daniel of Catherinetterings sent me a screen shot of the feature which was the lovely treasury by Insectus.

This one featured was curated and featured some of my SteamTeam friends as well as A topsyturvydesigns hat whose picture also includes one of my chokers. So it's like being on there twice, kinda.

It's been a banner week for me and I actually feel a little guilty that I've been granted such a streak of luck. I still see so many threads on the forums of people doing so poorly in the sagging economy. While I have no delusions that I will continue my current sales trend once Halloween has past, I still feel like I've reached a good point of saturation that will hopefully continue.

Tomorrow, I have a new mask to show you and I promise to stop bragging.

What A Nice Morning

I woke to a pleasant surprise this morning. I apparently got on the front page in the middle of the night. This is the second time in a row that I have been on the front page and missed it entirely. At first I was terribly put out that I didn't get to see it, but then I realized that the timing of the event exposed me to a whole other side of the planet. I received several messages from folk I didn't recognize at all probably because I'm asleep when they are online.

I wish I could show you a picture of my front page, but I can't find one. It was the same tatted mask that got featured in the etsy finds email so its views are ridiculously high and it has an insane amount of hearts (211 at last count). Imagine if all those people actually wanted to buy the mask. Of course my fingers would fall off if I tried to make that many, but still.

The other side effect of my front page in the middle of the night appears to be treasury saturation. I've been in a few treasuries at a time and then I'll be absent entirely for weeks, but this morning as I was trying to discover where my front page originated I stumbled upon not just a couple of new treasuries, but seven! Seriously seven treasuries all featuring my pieces. This knocked my on my arse. I'm just really humbled and grateful for all the attention and by way of thanks here are the curators of those treasuries:

Monarchdancer.etsy.com - http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=12873

insectus.etsy.com - http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=12893

calloohcallay.etsy.com - http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=12971

susidjewelry.etsy.com - http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=12697

homecreations.etsy.com - http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=12674

ImNotYourGranny.etsy.com - http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=12702

mistflowerstudio.etsy.com - http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=12665

Check them out, they all did an amazing job and deserve a little love for their time!

UPDATE:
I found a picture of the front page!

Treasuries

It's been a while since I've made a treasury, but I've been luck enough to be featured in a few. I thought I'd take a moment to show off a couple and say thanks to those wonderful curators that have featured my work recently.

First we have a lovely mix of SteamTeam and the Freethinkers team from ClockworkCrow she called Venus Adorned. It's always nice to be featured, but it's nicer to be featured amongst other amazing pieces!









The second one is a whimsical little collection of fairies, mask and other fantastic pieces called Whimsy. This one by RoseWorksJewelry. While I know ClockworkCrow from steamteam, this one is made by someone I don't know and that make the include special for me. Another plus is that both of these treasuries include my tatted masks. I never in a million years thought that the crazy idea of making tatted masks would create one of my favorite and currently most popular pieces.

So thanks for the treasuries and keep them coming. I swear I'll get my timing mojo back soon and make a few myself, but for now I'll leave you with these.

Masquerade

All this mask making has put masquerade on the mind so I made this treasury yesterday. I resisted every urge to include one of my masks. I did not, however, resist the urge to plug them in the comments of the treasury. I never even realized how many amazing mask makers there were on etsy until I made my own.

I did stop mask making to create a few new small things, including this bejeweled bracelet. It's part of my ever increasing bridal line. Which is just a fancy way of saying I'm making a bunch of stuff in white with crystals and pearls. I know it's entirely the wrong time of year for this endeavor, but it's a nice change of pace from the time and energy consuming masks.

I do still have a couple more masks to get made before I sit down and write out the patterns. I keep having the silly thought that one day a real publisher will want me to put out a book of patterns.I am of course not holding my breath for this to occur, but I figure better to be prepared right. Of course I need the patterns written anyway, I'm not exactly a savant when it comes to remembering even my own patterns and if I were to lose the prototype pieces, I'd be crap out of luck.

From the Top to the Bottom

Yesterday, I hung out for almost an hour waiting to get a treasury spot. I wouldn't normally spend that much time waiting, but I had an idea that I needed to bring to fruition. It didn't turn out quite as I imagined, but that's probably because I can't seem to spend hours picking the perfect items. I think it's still pretty good though and I love if this one would actually get popular. Mine never seem to get a whole lot of attention.

In other news, one of the challenge participants waterrose, wrote up a great little article for the challenge on a site I was not familiar with, but it looks great. So, thanks for that. I'll take all the free press I can get. You can check it out here at MyItThings.

There are just a couple of days left for the participants to get their entries listed and I have to say that I am getting antsy. As soon as all the entries are posted, I'll try and snag a treasury for the ones for sale at etsy for a little more attention. The forum thread I've been babysitting for the challenge has actually drawn a little late attention so I have hope that the next challenge will be even bigger. At this point, I think the next will be after the holidays and with most likely use a simple edging. I don't know how long or what design I'll use yet, but I've got plenty of time for that, right.

The Great Curator

I've been making a lot of treasuries over at the etsy lately. It all started innocently enough. I was trolling the treasuries for that coveted gold star that indicates one of my pieces has been featured when I realized that the ability to create new lists would be occurring in a couple of minutes. Since I was already there I figured, why not. I grabbed a list and quickly filled it with items from the Esty Steam Team. Then just a few days later virtually the same thing happened again. This time I had a few more minutes, so I came up with a theme and tried to create a cohesive image. Then I found myself figuring out when the next opening would be so I could return to make another list. Apparently, I am now hooked.

An interesting side effect to all this list curating has been an extreme decrease in my forum time. Sure, I've visited the forums, but mostly to just take a quick look around, drop my blog link and move on. Curating a Treasury takes far less energy than constantly posting in the forums and I think I will be adding it to my cycle of addiction. It seems to be acting as methadone to my forum addiction. Will I get sick of making lists? Of course I will. I can already feel the decrease in the need to snag a new list and I'm still out of the forums. The bonus of course, besides the free exposure to my team mates, is the extra time I have to actually create things. I've had a few large projects recently and I've managed to knock them out in record time.

I still have a few more treasury ideas to try out before I let this new addiction go, but I know that I will see it again. There is a decidedly cyclical nature to my relationship with etsy and all the ancillary activities that seem to go along with it. I seem to get addicted and subsequently sick of almost every aspect of it. I've gone through brief addictions to the forums, treasuries, shopping, running sales, other social networking sites and street teams. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this too shall pass and return and pass again. I'm sure it's the same for many of you, right? I've learned to just go with the flow, it just takes to much energy to fight the great cycle.

Tatting Is Not A Lost Art

The Challenge

With one week to go until the July 31st deadline, I am already thinking about my next challenge. So far, the challenge has gone off without any major malfunctions and I feel like it's already gone a long way to exposing tatting to new eyes. I actually discovered a treasury at etsy full of tatting curated by beadsandpieces and thanks to the pieces already made and listed for the challenge, four of the pieces feature my tatting. While the challenge is certainly not making me any money and it was never intended to do so, it has had the side effect of garnering me some extra exposure.

I will be sending out convos to all the participants of the challenge later today with a deadline reminder and I would love if tons of people would visit the flickr group in the next week to view the entries. I will of course be posting them all here after the deadline as well. I would also love if any other bloggers would mention the challenge and post the winners when they are announced for a little further exposure. I might be tempted to offer a small discount at my store for anyone who takes me up on the posting offer.

As for the next challenge, I will be needing some input before I proceed. Should I start the challenge next month with a deadline in October or should I wait until after the holidays? Should the challenge piece be a square, snowflake, simple edging or should I stick with the medallions? I've also been trying to come up with a way to involve other tatters in the challenge, but so far I'm up coming up with a blank. So any ideas on that front would be appreciated as well. Thanks in advance for any opinions and check back for the entries and winners in the next couple of weeks!

Front Page

There are two coveted spots on the front page of etsy. One of those is the featured seller spot which runs for a few days and could definitely be considered your big break. While I have not completely given up hope that I will one day grace that spot, I'm not holding my breath. The other spot is in one of the many front page treasuries that cycle throughout the day. Now these used to last a lot longer, but recently they seem to change every hour or so. Yesterday I was lucky enough to grace the front page with my Ladies Who Lunch choker for just about an hour. In that space I received the same number of views I usually get in a week as well as 50 new hearts for my store. This is made even more wonderful by being the second time this month that one of my pieces has made it to the front page. I'm feeling pretty good this morning even though experience has taught me that front page glory fades with the images removal.

I also wanted to vent about some frustrations today. I'm a stay at home mom and anyone who has spent any length of time home alone with kids knows that after a while you have nothing to talk about but kids. This can take it's toll on the few adult relationships that you've managed to maintain. After I found etsy I admittedly went a little overboard with my new found community. I was talking to grownups about things I enjoyed and I may have over mentioned etsy to my husband. Okay, so it was every other word out of my mouth.

Over the last couple of years my devotion to etsy has waxed and waned countless times. Every time I reached the etsy saturation point, my husband reaches a point of extreme intolerance to the word etsy. I can't blame him really, but I simply have nothing else to talk about besides the kids. I often miss working outside the home just because I miss the topics of conversation I could bring up when I was exposed to the public all day long. I love staying home with the kids, I love tatting and I love the handmade community. I wouldn't want to give any of that up, but I struggle with sharing the days events when I know that they will fall on annoyed ears. I imgine it would be the same if instead of etsy, I watched soap operas all day or joined a book club or something. Sometimes I wonder if my stories would be better received if this was a legitimate job, not a mildly successful hobby. I'm sure there is a solution to my woes, but I haven't found a good one yet. The blog takes the edge off, but hasn't solved the problem. Oh well, it could be much worse, right?

Fame

Have you ever wondered what it's like to actually be famous? I certainly have wondered, in fact it has always been a goal of mine to find some kind of fame. I got my AA in Drama and thought I'd get that fame acting, but I live in the middle of nowhere and I have no plans to move, so that's right out. As I've embraced my current identity as a Tatter, I've thought of how I can use this to garner that ever illusive fame, but never really thought I'd even get a little taste of it.

Yesterday, my family took a trip to the county fair. We love to take the kids to see all the animals, the art and the people watching is beyond good. I had noticed that they were having a tatting demonstration, so I thought I'd pop by and see who was there. I should mention that being self taught, I have never met a fellow tatter in the real world. I had a lovely conversation with the granddaughter of the tatter, Caroline Funkhouser while she was busy. I plugged etsy, left her my card, which she said she would share with her grandmother and then we moved on.

As we walked out of the building, we were called back by the granddaughter, who after showing my card to Caroline was informed that she had recognized my name and had seen my work in Belle Armoire Jewelry and she wanted to meet me. We returned to her table and I got that little taste of fame. She was obviously glad to meet me and recounted how excited she was to have seen my pieces in a magazine and so surprised to see that I was from Merced. We talked for a while and though she is not online, her granddaughter promised that she would help her get in contact with me if she wanted. Well, I left the fair with an extra spring in my step because I am now famous...at least to one nice lady.

On another subject, I managed to snag a Treasury at etsy after watching the first episode of Dr. Horrible, which you should also watch...seriously go watch it, I'll wait.

Anyway, I'm proud of my creation, so I wanted to share it. This is only the second list I'm made in recent history and I managed to fulfill my mad scientist theme almost entirely with member of the Etsy Steam Team. So go look and make a comment and feed my need for fame because I haven't had a sale in nearly a week and I need something to keep me going.

Somebody Has A Case Of The Mondays

Yep, it's gonna be one of those days. The day hasn't even begun, but I have little hope that it will turn out better that it started. The day started with my official monthly household job, bill paying. In the age of Internet bill paying, this is a task easily completed although I downplay that fact it ensure that I am properly appreciated for the task. This morning however, it was a painful reminder of how lax we've been with spending lately. I've been a champ at not buying new supplies or extraneous etsy shopping, but every time we see a new widget for the kids we buy it without a second thought.

We went to see Wall-E this weekend, wonderful film, then we proceeded to buy all the merchandise we could find. You could bury the children in the amount of toys they now own, seriously it's like the big baby in Spirited Away. I know we spend too much and yet I we continue to do it. We try to save money on ridiculous stuff like not buying bottled water or sodas, but we don't seem to have a problem with spending an insane amount on toys. Oh well, I got the morning bills reality check and hopefully we'll stay on track now.

On an etsy note, I reached one of my three goals over the weekend. I have now exceeded 1500 hearts. I have just two more sales until I reach 300 and four more feedback need to be left before I reach 400. These are just mind boggling numbers to me, it seems like just yesterday I was excited about 100 hearts and 10 sales. I was also flabergasted at the number of treasuries my pieces appeared in over the weekend. I was in a total of 6 of them and 5 were in the main treasury. I'm still in four this morning, of course that does not undo my Monday blah, but it helps a little. It seems I might be getting a little more notice lately. Here's hoping that all these trends continue!

Happy Weekend

I know I usually don't write on Saturday, but I thought I'd at least leave a little eye candy for you since I am lucky enough to be featured in two treasuries right now.
















I'm also really happy with my two most recent creations so I thought I'd give you those pictures to look at as well. The one on the left is the Grand Circus Daisy. It was inspired by a Storque article on Circus couture which is described as one of the many sub-genres of Steam Punk. The one on the right is Gears of Grace. It was named by one of my steam team friends Elegant and is the first successful merging of gears and tatting. I promised I wouldn't jump on the gear bandwagon unless it looked like it belonged in the design and I think this was spot on. The design actually came about while I was trying to create a rectangular motif for another steam team member Zkitten. So, see Z, I haven't forgotten, I'm just easily distracted.
See you all on Monday when I'm certain to have something new and witty to say, if not, I promise I'll fake it.

Steam Team Style

It's all about the steam. Or is it? The evolution of my tatting style has found me within quite a few genres over the last couple of years. It has been described as Gothic, Ne0-Victorian, Steam Punk, Shabby Chic, Classic Victorian and even Rockabilly.

Every single time someone suggested that my pieces would fit in a genre, I found myself trying my hardest to make more pieces in that style. I suppose I was just trying to make sure that I deserved a place in their clique. Here's the thing though, I am not good with cliques, never have been. So eventually I always give up trying to fit in and go back to making whatever pleases me.

A couple of months ago whilst googling myself as I'm wont to do on occasion, I found someone on a steam punk board talking about my jewelry. I have always liked the steam punk movement, particularly as it is depicted in many anime movies, though I hadn't actually intended my jewelry to be steam punk fashion. After reading the comment, I got all excited and almost immediately began a search for gears and watch bits to add to my pieces to make them even more steam punk. Then I came to my senses again.

Look, I love that people who like my pieces come from all kinds of different style bases, but I am so finished with trying to fit in with any one of them. Sure, I'll make a piece with an obvious vibe every once in a while, but the truth is, I like too many genres myself to ever pick just one to fit into. When I was in my first street team, it had a Gothic focus and I would actually feel weird about about making a piece that wasn't in black. If I had continued to feel that way, I would have never made my scarves, and you know how I feel about my scarves. I'm glad to have joined the Steam Team, because they are wonderful people and I'm glad to have new folks who like my pieces to work with and offer support.

In the end, my style is my style. It is not defined by anyone else and though it's likely to change as I grow as an artisan, it will no doubt still feel the same to me.

Pretty Pictures For the Weekend

I just joined a new team at etsy, SteamTeam...it's too soon to see if I'll stick it out for the long haul. The people are nice so far and I do really enjoy the steam punk. You can search for steamteam at etsy to find their wares.

For one of their first official acts, the team leader, SteampunkBB has put together this steamy treasury over on the right including my heart pendant.

I also found a bright red beauty of a treasury featuring my crimson bloom necklace right in the middle. I hope these pretty pictures will hold you all over until Monday!

That's What I Get For Sleeping

So Apparently this lovely treasury was on the front page at etsy over night. I of course did not get to see it, I was sleeping. I know, rookie mistake. My little hat got a bunch of views, it is at 689 views this morning and I earned myself quite a few hearts, 1201 now! No sales from the adventure though.(quick update: 1 sale acheived!!!!)

I have started to work on a new tatted scarf design that I will preview for you in the next couple of days. I have also finished the first piece in my new simple bridal line that will be posted later today. I think I might be too late for this years wedding season, but I like the design so I'll make a few more complimentary pieces in the next week or so. The mother's day gifts are finished and now I just need to finish my how-to article for Belle Armoire. I think I might be catching up with all my projects.

I've also got a nice place in another treasury today too. I really like the look of this one too. In fact I figured this was the reason I got the hearts this morning, until I discovered the treasury west one had made it to the front page.

On another subject, the pendant in this treasury is up for grabs on This Old Hen House blog for just one more day, so get over there and comment to win.

Anyway, thanks for the treasury features, the views and the hearts...now buy my stuff!

Are You A Spy?

When I first started selling on Etsy, I was the one and only tatter on the site. That is one of the reasons I chose to sell tatted jewelry as opposed to my knitting or crochet pieces. As Etsy grew, a few tatters migrated over and I would be lying if I said I didn't panic greatly. Was I good enough to handle competition? Would the other tatters mock or hate me?Almost every day, I would check the other tatting shops, not only to see how they were doing, but also to make sure I was doing something that they were not. I figured the only way to stand out was to be different and the other way to know if I was different was to spy.

There are some great reasons to spy on your competition that have nothing to do with copying designs. You can really grow as a seller by really looking at how other shops are doing. Look at their prices, their sold items, color choices, and stock numbers. Look at how they describe their items and how they take pictures. Compare your sales with theirs and try to make better items than them. Try doing searches for your products using your tags and see what else comes up. Never copy them or bad mouth other sellers that you feel are doing something wrong, just point out what you are doing right and use this info as a jumping off point. Never stop spying, because there is always more to learn.

Today there are quite a few more folks selling their tatted jewelry there, but I'm not nearly as stressed out about it and I'll tell you why. Most of us have dramatically different styles that would not appeal to the same buyers. We have each carved out our own niche and I know this because I'm still spying on their shops on a regular basis. I swear it's a good thing. Sometimes a shop will make me giggle because they have designs suspiciously similar to my own making me think they must be spying on me too. For some reason I enjoy watching someone else try so hard to compete with me, perhaps because it makes me feel like I've arrived.

You'd think I'd be upset that someone might be copying me, but most of the time I'm not. I know my work is original and my workmanship is as good, if not better than anyone I've seen doing similar designs. There are a few tatters on Etsy that I really admire for their skills, some that hand dye thread, others that make beautiful shuttles, and some that make designs I don't like at all, but I appreciate the skill and time that goes in to making them . I'm not afraid of the competition anymore, but that doesn't mean I'm not watching...always watching.

Now for Something completely different:

I got featured on not one, but two treasuries yesterday:

Happy Easter Morning & A Belated Equinox

I awoke this morning to a nice little treasury with one of my newest designs in it. It's been a little while since I've seen myself in one & the best part was the item listed has already been sold.

So my question to all the etsy sellers out there is: In your experience, has either creating or being picked for treasuries that don't make the front page helped your sales?

It's been a mixed bag for me, I don't really enjoy making treasuries, partly because of the stress involved in getting a list in the first place. I used to sell tickets at a ticketmaster outlet & I remember the physical & emotional drain of being the fastest seller around. Though the love from my customers was nice.

Speaking of treasuries...I'd like to take this opportunity to express my confusion over the enormous number of Buy and Replace treasuries. Seriously, what is the deal? You're not really getting ahead and making real sales, because you're spending money too! With the possible exception of finding something you intended to buy anyway listed in one, you're just trading. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with trading, I do it a lot, it just seems do defeat the stated purpose of "wanna make a sale". Rant over!

Have a happy spring holiday!