etsy: no longer where the cool kids are

i'm hearing more and more grumbling about etsy. i read an article not long ago, comparing it to a flea market, whereas big cartel is like a little boutique or a gallery (admittedly, the article was written by big cartel, but frankly, they're right). and then i read this over on afiori (go, read it now, i'll wait....). and it seemed like the last straw to me.

when the items i have on etsy already sell or if they expire, i'm not relisting them. i'm moving everything to big cartel. they take only a flat fee per month and not a fee per listing or a percentage of your sales. yes, you have to do more promotion of your shop yourself, but with etsy, we have to do that anyway. it's not as if we actually get much benefit out of being there, especially in light of recent (and unpublicized) changes.

i liked the circles thing at first, but now i find that it has turned up the volume on etsy to the point where i actually avoid it because it's too much.

for awhile now, i've felt lost in the crowd and the crowd is of increasingly shoddy quality with all of the supposed "vintage" stuff that's there. i don't like the way they ignore cases of clear copycats. i don't like the way they shut down conversations in the forums with chirpy "let's all get along" BS responses. and don't even get me started on their lame tweets. but mostly, i don't like they way they ignore their customers. and i really don't like what i read on afiori about their latest "improvements." (giving you another chance to go read it).

maybe what would make those greedy wanna-be mark zuckerberg new yorkers behind etsy listen is if we all did start leaving in droves. lilfish, whom i respect immensely, already did and i'm not far behind. why don't we all sell our handmade wares, made with integrity in a forum that also has integrity. i don't think etsy can say that anymore.

that said, i just activated a free shipping special on everything that's left in my etsy shop - since i've already paid to have the items there, i may as well take advantage of that - so if you had your eye on anything and my rather high danish shipping costs were stopping you, make haste to my shop, it won't be there for long!!

a new flock of clarity birds has come to roost

spring in the danish countryside has meant that a whole new flock of clarity birds has descended upon our little farmhouse in the country. i went out one morning and there they were, nesting happily in the troldehassel (a curly hazel) tree. some of them were dressed in vintage finery and many have sparkling crystal eyes. and all of them sang their pretty danish names to me - josephine, amalie, frederikke, frida, ida and maja. it seems the entire flock were girls! some of them can fly home to you in time for easter. just go here.

now available (round 1)

new stitched-up photos - now available on big cartel

two new quilts - now available already sold on big cartel

old norse series: a new set of feather touchstones with the names of nordic mythological goddesses
for the goddess in you.  on etsy.

i took photos for over an hour yesterday and i'm still nowhere near finished with editing, resizing and writing listings! it's a process that takes a long time! but i will be adding items to the shops all week.  still to come...fish, clarity birds and feather scarves (as soon as i figure out how to best photograph those) and a few other surprises.  i'd better go get some more photos while the light is good!

thank you for the conversation

i have now closed the comments on the it's hard to be original post below.  this conversation clearly struck a chord with makers and etsyians around the world - some who commented, some who emailed and many who visited silently. tho' i was simply blogging because i had something on my mind and i was trying to work it out (which is why i blog at all), i am surprised at the conversation that started. most of it fruitful.

it's clear that this is an issue that means a lot to a lot of people. i think it's difficult as independent artisans to protect our ideas and our creative endeavors and it seems we won't always be able to do so. we can only hope that the community around this handmade culture will foster an ethic and a set of norms and behaviors that mean that people do the right thing in giving credit to others for their ideas where credit is due. having the conversation we've had here is an important step in fostering that environment.  and for that, i thank all of you.

felt bowl tutorial

it's hard to believe, but i don't think i've ever posted a tutorial before. several people asked me to post a tutorial of the felt bowls i've been making of late. i should preface this by saying that i am total beginner at this and what i'm really posting here is my experience with this medium. if you're a real felter, you may want to go visit some other site now, as you'll probably be appalled at my technique. :-)  however, it has worked for me and i've really been enjoying the magic that is needle felting.

the first step is to get yourself a big cup of coffee or tea, as this process takes awhile.  i'll admit, i drink a lot of nescafe's instant espresso. it has that lovely foam that i don't want to know how they achieve in a powdered product. instant coffee, a guilty pleasure. and now let's get on with the felting.

these are the tools of the felting trade. i call that big one with the 5 needles in it "the big kahuna." sabin insists it's called "the kachunk." you can name yours whatever you want. there are different grades of fineness in felting needles. here in denmark, the ones we can get don't really have numbers assigned to them, tho' i've seen that elsewhere - we can buy fine, medium and regular, which seems rather similar to medium.  the needles aren't like regular sewing needles, as they have very fine little barbs along the sides. oh, and you WILL poke yourself with them eventually. sometimes all the way through your finger, so be careful.

it can be handy to have a wooden holder on the needle, as you are poking it in a LOT of times and the needle without it can begin to make your fingers sore. that said, i often use the medium single needle on its own. i have a fine needle for finishing work in the smaller holder. and in the big kahuna, five regular needles. you will break a needle at some point (usually when you've just stabbed it one side of your finger and out the other) and the holders are easy to change them out.  that bit of foam the needles are stuck in is another essential item. this piece, i cut and used to make the bowls on the weekend. it comes as a square and is the perfect working surface for your felting. you should be able to find these where you find your felting supplies. and you will need to replace them regularly as they definitely wear out if you're doing a lot of felting.

next, you need some wool roving in the color of your choice - wool is key, as synthetic materials or cotton won't felt. i buy roving in craft stores and fabric stores and, of course, online. this beautiful piece of hand-dyed wool, i bought on etsy. i blogged about it previously. if you're in the market, i can recommend this etsy shop and this one.  or, if you're lucky enough to have your own sheep, ask him or her to donate a bit of wool. to make the bowls, i have tried both the crudely cut piece of felting pad above and this time, a styrofoam ball, as pictured below. you end up with a more flat bottom using the felt pad and a bit more round with the ball, tho' even with the ball, it's still possible to create a flat bottom.

tear off a piece of roving in a size you can manage and begin covering the ball with it. i roll it and needle it into place with the big kahuna, then i continue rolling it and poking it repeatedly with the needles. it is sticking to the ball, but it's also sticking to itself and beginning to felt.  the longer you poke with the needles, the more they do their felting magic.

keep winding until the bowl reaches the height you'd like - i went about 2/3 of the way on this styrofoam ball. if you run out of roving before you reach the height you wish, just tear off another piece, overlap a little bit and keep going.  you basically can't poke this too many times with the needle.

once it becomes closer to the bowl you'd like to see, you can switch to a single needle and keep felting. i worked especially on the top, poking in along the edge, to form a nice, smooth, rounded edge on the top. if you can see that there are areas where the felt is thin, you should add more pieces and continue poking them. the poking is quite therapeutic and if you want, you can imagine people you're angry with, but mostly, it takes you to kind of a meditative state.

you can work on making the bottom a flat surface as well - just keep poking and it will flatten out. this whole poking process took me about 30 minutes or so, so it's a task which requires patience.

once you think it's felted together enough, you can remove it from the ball, carefully peeling it back. some styrofoam bits will come off in your fibers, but you can flick them out with the needle. i may have to find a solution for this, but as of yet, i haven't.

once it's removed from the styrofoam ball, you'll see that there are thin spots. you should needle more felt onto the bowl, both on the inside and the outside, until it's the thickness you'd like it to be. you'll need a felting pad for this, as you have to have something to stick the needles into. you may also pop it back on the ball as needed. if your roving, like mine, is multi-colored, take care to choose the colors you'd like in the spots you'd like them. basically, you just keep poking. it's simply magical how those fine needles cause the fibers to grab hold of one another and hold their form.

i'm still working on this little bowl, but it's getting close to finished. you can decorate it by stitching on it or by attaching little curly locks of fiber around the top. and voila, you have a little treasure bowl of your very own. and if you don't feel up to all that poking, you can find a couple of little treasure bowls here.  as far as the time required, one bowl takes about two episodes of boston legal.

good luck and take good care of your fingers!

if you have questions, just leave a comment and i'll try to answer them.

edited:  the lovely lisa (who is a real felter) asked if i tried wet felting it afterwards....that's where you dip your felted item in soapy warm water and work it between your fingers to further felt it. i will say that i did that with the very first bowl i made on saturday and i didn't like the result. it made it dull - possibly because i didn't rinse it well enough and possibly because the roving was hand-dyed and it made it more uniform in color to wet it.  the advantage of wet felting afterwards is that you have easier control of the shape of the bowl.  here is the one i wet-felted:

if you can crochet, you can also crochet your bowl using wool yarn and then felt it with warm soapy water (or even throw it in the washer) afterwards. but i find there's something really magical about transforming an actual ball of fluff into a usable little vessel, so i like the needle method. plus, i can't crochet to save my life.

slow sunday

a lazy day. sleeping in. spending most of the day in pajamas. needle felting.

watching movies with sabin.  little miss sunshine, eternal sunshine of a spotless mind, juno. films you can watch over and over.

losing myself in the magical alchemy of needle felting. there's nothing like it.

if you like this bowl, you'll find it here.

february is almost over. it's been grey and dreary and i won't be sad to see it go. i like march. even if it can be changeable and unpredictable. it's my birthday month, so i guess that fits.

and speaking of birthdays, i'm thinking about self-presenting myself this or one of these.

hoping your weekend was everything you needed.

can you feel sad and happy at the same time?

how on earth am i going to leave this?

this weekend i spent some time sitting by the fire out in the blue room, as it's come to be known - not to be confused with a bar by the same name in a little middle-of-nowhere town in the upper midwest. i tried to soak it all in. of course, the house has been for sale for awhile and i've known that i will have to part with this room, and in many ways, that's ok. there are things we learned from it and will do differently the next time (more square meters and better lighting). but oh, how i have loved this space - i have literally whispered "i love you room," upon entering on more than one occasion. there's just something so right about it. something that it's hard for me to define. it is at once light and roomy and yet cavelike. that must be the combination of lots of windows on both sides and the dark, rich, turquoise paint i chose. but it also has to do with the creative corner, where i sit, completely surrounded by art supplies - stamps, tape, paint, paper, fabrics, you name it, it's there.

these essential ingredients all come with us. when we go, all that will stay behind are the little wood burning stove and the blue walls. i haven't even decided if i'll leave the linen shades. i was always going to make them longer by adding some fabric to them, but i never got around to it. i've got to check to see if i need them on the windows in the new place (we still haven't heard whether our offer is accepted - there are some challenges (which may or may not involve morse code, telexes and possibly a dog sled team) reaching both parties to the sale).

although i'm sorrowful to leave this space, i am already scheming and planning the new space. i want that end wall that needs to be torn off anyway to incorporate various reclaimed windows, i want a balcony with a little office/computer space that overlooks the big room below, i want more space for books and better shelves for the fabric stash. i want a bigger table that's better for cutting out fabric and patterns and a big wall for laying out quilts. and the colors, just imagining the colors is exciting.  it might not be turquoise this time around. maybe it will be white with purple accents. or green. or a completely different blue. or a hot-blooded magenta. i don't really know. yet. but i think having all of these exciting possibilities is what will get me through the sorrow of leaving this beautiful space behind.

* * *

i've just drastically marked down everything in my etsy shop. i really don't want to have to pack these things up and move them, so do check it out. i'd much rather package them up all pretty and send them to you! there are a few helleristning stones, a couple of pillows, a baby quilt and a scarf. i know winter's almost over, but then you're ready for next fall!  there are a few of the spice line of clarity birds left as well in the big cartel shop, so if you'd like one to fly your way, go there. there will be a new line of clarity birds for summer (after the move). i'm also putting off the art journal course that i mentioned that i was planning until after we're settled into the new place - i had never announced dates anyway so we should be cool there. i just know my time will definitely be limited in the coming couple of months. we've got a LOT of stuff to pack!

100 creative things in 2009

"one gets a sense of how beauty always has to inhabit a faultline between utility and ideology." - said a recent article on heather moore. i'm not sure how much ideology makes its way into the things i make, but i would like to think they combine utility and beauty. i vowed to finish 100 creative things (if i could count the stuff that's just started, i'd have been there a long time ago) in 2009 and i hereby give you the final four...

#97 - my latest baby quilt - up up and away - (going up on my etsy shop later today).

#98 - the first quilt block for a memory quilt for karoline, husband's oldest.

the balloon design i used on the baby quilt originated here.

i wanted her to remember the balloon ride she took in iowa in 2005.

and although the quilt's not finished, i'm counting it because the rest will be designed by her.

this was the gift she unwrapped on christmas.

#99 - the quilt block for mathilde, husband's middle child's memory quilt.

this one to remind her of all of the giant pieces of chocolate cake

 she ate on our trip to the philippines last year.

she'll design the rest herself, according to the memories she wants on her quilt.

#100 - a cuddle quilt for my nephew owen.

as you can see, i didn't get it sent.

i used the super cute crab fabric from ikea and backed it with a soft green

(and very stretchy hard-to-work-with blankie, also from ikea).

it's hand-quilted with yarn ties.

and that's it, 100 finished acts of creativity in 2009.

i may have to do it again in 2010!

monday bits & bobs

available now on etsy

#88 wool-backed scarf w/patchwork of anna maria horner fabrics and embroidered detail

available now on etsy

#89 - a little tree in the backyard that i've been artistically shaping.

i've tied it and twisted it to itself now for two years.

i think i'll make husband dig it up and bring it along when we move.

#90 - a creative closet door solution in our upstairs bathroom (ikea fabrics, of course)
collaboration with husband (he did the bits that needed building).

* * *

the part about customer service

last week, i complained about the new photo uploader here in blogger. rather loudly and petulantly (because i hate it) on twitter and on the blogger in draft blog. some people were quick to encourage me to switch to wordpress. (shhh, i might have even created MPC over on wordpress in a fit of pique.) but, i want to say that two very cool things happened. one, when i complained loudly on twitter, a member of the blogger team in krakow immediately responded, asked me to clarify my problem and gave me a fix, all in 140 characters or less and within minutes of my complaining tweet. then, on friday, one of the blogger team - you know, one of those people with an actual google.com email address - contacted me and asked me to clarify the comments i left on the blogger in draft post. i answered and she answered me again right away, letting me know that they'd try to incorporate my suggestions (more than 5 photos and not all popping in at once) as they fine-tune the photo uploader. now how's that for customer service? awesomeness. no wonder these people are controlling the weather. so i'm SO not switching to wordpress.

and speaking of customer service, i'm still waiting for those technical support clowns folks at etsy to give me a response to an issue i reported there clear back on THURSDAY. what's up with that? etsy totally sucks at customer service. boo.

last monday, i was at a grocery store far from home (over near ikea) and just as i paid, the register went down, but not before the card machine told me my purchase was approved. however, the machine couldn't generate a receipt, so i was forced to go through on another cash register and pay a second time. on friday, i went back with a printout of my bank account, showing the two identical amounts they had taken from me, right in a row, and they refunded one of them. i dared to say that i thought i deserved a little something for my time and for the fact that i had to drive all the way back to that store, because their customer service was so bad that i couldn't go to my local one to get the money back. and i threatened to spread the word about their bad customer service on twitter and facebook. and because i dared to ask, i got a really nice bottle of australian cabernet sauvignon reserve. if you don't dare to ask, you'll never get anything. never underestimate the power of social media.

* * *

i've done my first ever guest post over on A New Simple Something! today, be sure to stop by and do a little window shopping in copenhagen! i was so happy Shokoofeh asked me to be one of her guests while she takes a little breather to gather her inspiration once again. isn't the blogosphere wonderful that we can do these things for one another? do be sure to stay and look around a bit, Shokoofeh has a really beautiful blog and there are lots of awesome guest posts over the past week!

creativity update: the home stretch

when i last left you with my creativity count, we were at #78, the ghosty cupcakes from halloween. also that evening, sabin was wearing a halloween-themed ugly doll costume which i slaved over but failed to get a good picture of. you can see her face peeking out of the mouth, rather far away, in the middle of this picture. somehow, that is the only picture and she refuses to put it on again for the sake of a blog photo. i know, her priorities are all skewed, i'll work on that...

#79 - sabin's halloween costume

#80 - the very best pumpkin i've ever carved in all my thirty-twelve years.

#81 - rainbow baby quilt, going to a very special home.

#82 - our latest little fun monster guys. sabin and her friend sewed these (you can see that),

but i'm counting them because i made the pattern and helped significantly.

#83 - a new pillow design, which will go up in my etsy shop this weekend

(it has a partner that's similar, but not exactly the same)

#84 - anna maria horner fabrics + wool = a pretty scarf

this one's for my neighbor (the one who reminded me recently about how sometimes you have to close one door before another one opens) but there will be a similar (tho' even more fabulous because it has embroidery) one in my etsy shop this weekend.

* * *

on the creative front, i'm really excited because i've signed up for a weaving course which starts in january. i talked to the most delightful older lady about it on the phone and i just can't wait. i found a weaving laug like the one at the museum in randbøldal in a town much closer to home. i've also got a lead on a loom, tho' it happens to be in scotland, but husband's a logistics expert, so i'm sure we can figure that out.

* * *

tonight we opened a jar of the apple chutney i made back in september and i am happy to report it is fantastic (that's the very jar we opened, the dark one there on the right)! if you have any apples left from your apple trees, run, don't walk and make this chutney, it's not too late. we had it as an accompaniment to a wonderful chicken gumbo from jamie oliver's new america cookbook this evening, but we will be eating it with just about anything...a roast, a curry, our thanksgiving turkey...it's wonderful! and so satisfying to have made it myself. in fact, i don't think i counted it before, so it's #85.

only 15 more things to go in the year of creativity! i think i'm going to make it.

* * *

p.s. dear blogger, i HATE your new photo uploader. it sucks beyond belief. bring back the easy, good one from blogger in draft. please, pretty please? you know, the one that lets us upload our photos, choose where they go and when and then lets us change them to the size we want without changing the html in 3 places....yeah, that one. give it back! don't make me ponder wordpress....

p.p.s. dear blogger, thank you for helping me very quickly via twitter. and while i'm still not entirely happy with the new photo uploader (only 5 photos at a time? please, that's pathetic), i can now make my photos the 800 wide that i want to without distortion. it's a bit more cumbersome than it was, but it is pretty cool to be able to look up pix that are already in the picasa albums and i'm sure you'll keep improving it. oh, and please send some sunshine.

grateful friday: etsy treasury

yesterday, i took the plunge and listed a bunch of photographs on my etsy and already, one of them is in a treasury! i couldn't be more excited. my first treasury! i'm also working on a big cartel site (will link to it as soon as it's ready), just to try it out. as much as i love to buy things from etsy, i sometimes feel like it's easy to get lost there with your own shop, because there's just so much there! i haven't been very good at standing out from the crowd, but i have decided to try a bit harder (i actually hadn't really tried at all with the stones i've had listed there). if i'm going to fulfill my ambition of having a fantastic little shop when we move to a farm place, i've got to start somewhere. several people who i admire started with an online presence on etsy and then opened an actual shop where they live.

one of the things i listed yesterday was my little rainbow stacked coin fleece-backed baby/lap quilt. i think i'm even more excited about it than the photos, because it feels more personal. i've got some pillows underway that are similar to the ones i originally listed when i started my etsy shop last spring. i hope to list them this weekend (light for photos permitting).

if there are photos you're interested in that i didn't list, just send me an email, i'd be happy to make them available. but please do go check it out! just a note: i do hereby promise not to get too insufferable about this, i'm just a little excited!

happy weekend everyone!

inspiring me right now

it's been a long time since i've shared my sources of inspiration, but since i've been thinking about inspiration (again again) of late, i thought i'd show you my latest sources. mostly from etsy, of course. but some are also from the blogosphere and of course a bit from flickr.

i really adore these whimsical seasonal robots by botodesigns on etsy.

i'm enthralled by these handmade map beads by mygoodness on etsy.

one day soon, i'm going to order one of afiori's beautiful books (yup, from etsy).

this is the cutest use of old typewriter keys i've seen in a long time.

by allstrungoutjewelry on etsy.

this colorful wall art by artbyrosemary is just up my alley.

jude hill's thoughtful mini quilts are like art journaling in fiber.

her blog. her flickr. her big cartel shop (oh, i wish i didn't know that).

and i didn't resist a meter of cute new fabric featuring these whimsical figures at panduro.

what's inspiring you these days?

helleristninger - just listed!

just listed in my etsy shop --9 (11 actually, but one is a set of 3) new beach stones painted with helleristninger.

and a few close-ups of my favorites:

sold as a set--they're quite small (3.5cmx2cm)

i was inspired by bronze age (1100-500 B.C.) nordic petroglyphs (or helleristninger) that are found in scandinavia--especially in norway and sweden, but there are a few here in denmark as well. go and check them out.