Flickr, Butterflies and other People's Critters

I've just been looking at all the really cute stuff on flickr. I'm allowed to do this cos I've declared myself to be on holiday! Anyhow, I thought I'd post a pic of my butterfly-tweedies and hopefully it will inspire me to get some more together for my Etsy shop. I hope to get it together and take part in all these lovely blogging activities such as swaps, give-aways, crafters interviews, etc. I think it'll take me a wee bit of time for my poor little brain to figure out how to go about all these things! I'm still familiarising myself with Etsy, Flickr, etc. but I'm having fun doing it! Here's my butterflies:

Maybe I'll get it together to do a giveaway once I've got my little shop stocked up and ready to go! Aim high! These little fellows are about 5 inches wide and made from Harris Tweed (of course!), felt circles and embroidered eyes - all handstitched. I've started to embroider features such as eyes now and hope to pick up a few more embroidery skills along the way. I love seeing all the different versions of similar themes on people's craft blogs and flickr.

And I thought I was the only one making soft-toy (plush) ladybirds (ladybugs), butterflies, etc.!! It's been really cool to see different people's approaches to making 'similar' critters! A real eye-opener for me! I love the international element to Flickr and craft blogs in general. I wonder where all the inspiration comes from to make all these creations. My children "egged" me on with all my projects. If they laughed, I knew I was on the right track! I also love the texture and colours of Harris Tweed. What's your inspiration?

Oidhche Mhath (Good Night!)

P.S. If anyone wants to do a "critter" swap with me, I'd be happy to oblige!! Butterflies, bees, ladybugs, frogs (?!), spiders ......

(Most of mine are on my Flickr photostream - here or in my original shop here)

Highs and Lows

This week has been a series of highs and lows. A change in my blogging habits from monthly to daily is a bit of a radical change, but the weather has been so awful and I'm on a bit of a break from crafting. Having completed a rather large order which was quite unexpected and quite challenging - about 3 weeks of frantic crafting!, I'm now chilling out a bit, regrouping and taking a back seat for a couple of weeks. We have October holidays in a week's time, so I will be concentrating on getting my house in order and looking forward to having a good old family break at home. Not to say that I won't be blogging or continuing with my Etsy shop developments!

Highs

I had a lovely chat with Ebba Redman this week on Domestic Crafts. She has been conducting a questionnaire on this topic for her dissertation (Ebba is a student at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design). I don't consider my work to be particularly highbrow! but I love discussions about why we craft, inspirations, cultural influences, etc. She gave me a lovely write-up on her blog which was a great buzz for me - thanks Ebba!

Wholesale Dilemma

Completing my wholesale order and packing it off was a huge relief. It's on its way now so hopefully all will be well! This is how my workspace (corner!) looked while working on this order (what a guddle!):

Selling wholesale has always been a bit of a dilemma for me as it seems to go against the grain of 'handmade'/unique, etc, - it's not always easy to motivate yourself to make 10 items exactly the same! It was rewarding to see it complete though and I was grateful for this order as I haven't been able to attend the local craft fairs recently. I sell 'Sale or Return' to my local Art Gallery shop which is a midway ground that works quite well.

Cuteable High
Another high was being featured on Cuteable this week. I was jumping up and down with excitement when I visited and lo and behold there I was! How cool! Thank you!

Etsy Shop v Original Shop
As mentioned in my last post, I managed to add a couple of items to my Etsy shop. It's difficult to know which to promote my original online shop, or my Etsy shop (which has very little in it yet!). But I'm really enjoying the sense of crafting community that Etsy exudes and had I known about it before ... It's also great to think about selling internationally - very exciting!

Selvedge Fan

Last Saturday, a kind friend sent me a copy of Selvedge. This is not a publication I would have come across but it's a really sumptous magazine on all things 'textile'. I just drool over this magazine, it's really inspiring too and I love the covers - fantastic photography.

Lows

The Central Heating is still on the blink! Boo Hoo!
The Winter Bugs have started to hit our family - Boo Hoo Too!

Etsy Recce

I've sent out these little fellows to do a little recce over at Etsy and to hold the fort until they're joined by some other pals in my Etsy shop. I decided to send them out together as a team to keep each other company - they've to report back to me at 0800 hours with a full survey report and a low-down on the general layout of the land. Actually, not really, they just happened to be made up and ready to go! I hope they'll be joined by some more TinyTweedies soon!

They're made from 100% wool Harris Tweed, entirely handstitiched with hand-embroidered features and greeting. They're waiting to be adopted by a baby near you! Like the rest of my TinyTweedies range they're 5 inches in height. Do your best boys! Tee Hee!

Aahhh - Summer Days!

It' such a wet, windy, wild, dreich, cold, blustery (I've run out of adjectives!) day here in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, that I thought I'd post a photo I took earlier in the summer just to cheer me up. Was it really this sunny, was the water really this blue, clear ...? It's a sneaky shot of my O.H. and little boy mucking about in the sea at a beach near our home. Our central heating is on the blink, so I'm doubly cold - not much crafting happening today!

Love it or Hate it!

I started making these little Harris Tweed soft-filled houses earlier this year. I had high hopes of making a whole street of them! I loved using the earthy shades of tweed which was quite a departure for me, and thought the sharp contrast of the black and white felt embellishments worked well.

When I photographed them in a little group like this, they reminded me of the houses of Main Street on St Kilda, which is a remote group of islands off the West Coast of the Outer Hebrides. No longer inhabitated by the original population, St Kilda holds a real fascination.

I didn't subconsciously set out to make these houses in any particular way, they just 'emerged'. I think this is a common occurrence amongst crafters, whereby creations tend to evolve and somehow magically 'work'. However, my other half can't see any beauty or merit in this particular design, and the reaction has been mixed from other folk too - but I love them! The 'naive', simplistic design isn't to everyone's taste. I know you have to listen to other's opinions and take them into consideration, but sometimes I think you have to stick with it regardless!

On a similar theme I designed a 'wee hoose' collage card which is still a bit of a prototype. I thought it might make a fun 'new home' card, but it hasn't made it into my shop yet! I enjoyed making it but like many things it may remain as a wee bit of experimentation and go no further.

If you've ever visited St Kilda and these houses bear absolutely no resemblance, I apologise! I've recently started to add a sprinkling of lavender inside the stuffing to give them a delicate fragrance. I quite like the woolly smell of Harris Tweed myself!

Have you ever made, designed, a piece of work and others didn't quite "see it"? I'd love to hear your experiences. Did you stick with it? Love it or hate it?

You can read more about St Kilda here.

"Oidhche Mhath!" (That's "Good Night" in Gaelic and there endeth tonight's lesson!)

Etsy - eek!

I have taken one step further with my Etsy endeavours and added a link to my Etsy Shop. Yes, I know - there's nothing in it! But this is a step nearer ... these things take time! (We're on Hebridean time, don't you know!) If anyone has any tips, comments, observations re Etsy trading before I take the plunge, they would be very welcome! Should I just jump?

Proverbs (Sean-fhacail)

Another case of two posts in one day! Don't hold your breath - it usually means I haven't blogged for a month! When I rediscovered my 'crafty' inclinations a couple of years ago (this co-incided with my youngest child starting school), I became interested in using proverbs (Gaelic ones in particular) in my work. I intended to use them possibly as part of a cushion cover, wallhanging or similar - however I took a completely different direction and decided to make Harris Tweed dinosaurs instead! Anyway, during the summer tidy up of my work area, I came across my humble (and rather crude) first attempts at embroidering text.

I took out a book on Gaelic proverbs/sayings from the local library as reference. This one made me laugh, which I guess is why I used it. Roughly translated, it means "You don't know someone until you've shared/burned a peat stack with them". Peat was the traditional fuel in the islands until a few years ago. Every house had a peat stack beside the home and ours was no exception. I think the proverb makes reference to a married couple, (a peat stack would last for up to a year) - suggesting you don't know someone until you've lived with them in close domestic proximity for some time). I might be wrong!! but that's my interpretation.