This whole etsy thing…

I like etsy – I do.  I like it a lot.  I’m just feeling a little discouraged.  It’s probably partly hormones and partly my natural instinct to hate selling things.  The discouragement comes with what I’ve gotten put up in the shop so far.  My handmade stuff, while diverse and awesome, normally goes to people IRL than even making it to the picture taking point.  It would probably be better to focus on becoming self-sustainable here instead of selling things for money so we can buy things at stores.

For instance, Alyssa has really thick but soft hair.  Those little tension clips do not stay put.  I found some claw clips and I’m making paper flowers out of a Dr. Seuss book that was falling apart.  They are one of a kind and just so flippin’ adorable I can’t stand it.  If I didn’t make these myself, I would end up at the mall buying a pair of barrettes for $5.  Instead, I spent $1.99  for 5 clips and the book I had laying around.  I used a little orange button for the center of the flower, gold wire to hold the button in and acrylic sealer to make it a little more durable.  I have some orange ribbon that I bought for the adoption duckies.

Also in progress is the restoration of an antique pull toy.  It’s one of the wood ones with the joints and rollers so it can either be a long caterpillar shaped toy or it can double back on itself and even roll over obstacles!  I’m making new “wheels” for it out of the same Dr. Seuss book and it is sweeeeet.  I took it out to test it with the kids and they were all tickled.  Even me and Shaun were giggling while playing with it.  It is much, much cooler than the $20 electronic piece of crap that I euthanized  a couple of weeks ago.

One thing I probably will sell is the classic car keyboard.  It’s a few days from being 100% done.  I got the decals and the “flashy bits” on it yesterday and it’s gonna kick butt.  The first clear-coat has dried and it’s waiting on it’s second coat today.  The keys need another coat of color, then decaling, then the clear coats.

I keep reading on Etsy that sellers need to find their niche.  Mine is probably going to be selling vintage items instead of mods.  Since I buy in lots, I get stuff I won’t use so it would be nice if other people could have access to those.

But if you want a mod, we’ll just be more personal about it and you can leave a bag of apples on the doorstep or something.    I’ll never get rich this way, but hey, apples!

We made puppets at Grandmommy’s

If my mom had been born with patience, she would be the perfect pre-school teacher.  Lately, every family day she’s been coming up with activities to do with the kids and this one was a hit! It’s a good thing she works in the infants department at work and not stationery because she would be out of money in no time flat!

Miss Alyssa with her bird and lion:

LJ’s monkey and the elephant in progress:

Ethan with his tiger and pig.  I think he’s the only kid who didn’t want help with his…

I gave my sister’s fiance the camera and he takes great pictures.  He made sure to include the grown-ups!

Me and Grandmommy.  You can see some of my art from high school behind us.

Dad and Shaun in the computer room.  However, calling that space a computer room is a vast understatement.

Me and my sister, with my brother in the back corner paying no attention.

My sister and her man.  Do you know how hard it is to get that woman to smile?

I don’t have a picture of my brother’s girlfriend and the rest of the crew took off before the craft time started.  We’re gorgeous, aren’t we?

Components

A picture of my workbench right now.

I’ve been playing with some vintage jewelry lately.  The picture doesn’t do any of it justice but I haven’t been able to put it away even though I got bored with it.

The kids had this really annoying toy that someone gave them for Christmas last year that was totally out of their age range.  It was part of a board game and the electronic part beeped for 60 seconds then the timer went off and it went into hyper-beep.

Now, on my workbench are the LCD circuitry and the speaker.  They’re much more useful now that they’ve been removed!  I need a medium sized circuit board, so I may have to euthanize another one of the annoying toys…

Let’s see, from left to right, I have a swallow brooch, a rope chain necklace, a brass scarf holder, a fake gold and fake diamond bracelet, and a very 80’s costume jewelry set.  Below that is a partially dissected costume necklace.

Looks like fun!

The Abused Lace Liberation Project

I mentioned yesterday or the day before that books aren’t the only thing I tend to liberate from abusive situations.  It’s amazing what people will give you if you simply ask.  I have the heart of a restorationist.

My granny used to make lace and I remember sitting with her while she crocheted these delicate little pieces of art.  I love lace and embroidery, but most of the time when I find them, most of it is too mildewed to salvage.
Being lace is normally seen as a formal item, it’s often “put away for something special” then the box is moved and moved and moved again until it ends up in a damp corner of the basement.

I came across several huge stashes of lace a couple of years ago.  I was hunting for antique books out in the country and I met a couple of elderly ladies who made dolls.  I was admiring the dolls and noticed that they had boxes upon boxes of lace stuffed under a table.  I asked about it and they mentioned that most of the dolls had lace on their dresses, but now that their eyesight and ability to hand sew was gone, they just put it away.  I asked if I could buy it from them and they looked at me like I had dropped in from another planet for about 30 seconds.

Then, shockingly enough, they looked at each other and one said “you can have it all for $5.  You just have to carry it out yourself.”  Yes, ma’am.  I got this.  It filled up the entire back cargo area of my Durango, with the 3rd row folded down.  They asked me what I was going to do with it and I told them “I don’t really know yet.  My Granny made lace and I love it, so I’m sure I’ll find something to do with it.”

When I got it all home, I started sorting through it and I did end up throwing out about half of it.  The rest has some very interesting pieces and I’ve used it on different projects.  Most of it though, is really just too special for a hack like me to use up.  While I love textiles and fabric arts, I have about as much talent with it as I do with gardening.

A few days ago, I decided to sort it all out and start selling the more interesting pieces on Etsy as supplies.  There are some very talented people on Etsy and I’d love to see my liberated lace end up on their projects.

I dug it out of where I had stored it (neatly packaged in a dry, safe place) and I’ve been sorting and smoothing and rolling hundreds upon hundreds of feet of lace.  My back and shoulders are KILLING me.  I’m nearly done – I have about 10 lbs of lace to go – but I know one thing.  I’m going to need a database to keep track of all this.  I’ve got about 200 bags of different patterns and colors so far.  It’s amazing. I have handmade pieces, commercially made pieces, some that have been threaded with ribbon, and some that have been laser cut from fabric.  There are some that seem starched flat and some that are so soft they seem to have been made from alpaca yarn.

Here enters my good friend, Excel.  I’m going to need it to inventory all of this with the research and photos and measurements each bag is going to take.  I’m hoping to learn as much about the construction and designs of lacework as I know about book making and restoration.  Well, maybe more like the amount I know about china and depression glass (which is just enough to keep myself out of trouble with Grandma.)

This should be fun.  If anything, it will free up that storage space for books…