I suppose everyone in UK is stuck home with a snow blocked roads... I have two appointments cancelled today. But having felting at hand is very helpful!
Will show two different tea cosies, both with poppy design but colours are varied and it makes all the difference:

 

Back to work?

Was struck with a flu and out of action for two weeks! So unfortunate! Being so busy, had to cancel a demonstration session with our York felters group.
For a start want to show a new coffee pot cosy in subdued colours with delicate lavender flowers. Playing with a new style of pictures as well...

For your eyes only!

Last week I posted a new tea cosy with poppy design on Facebook and sold it the same day:

But I need some for a Skipton fair so that I had to make two more with similar design but was not going to show them in social media until the event is over, I need a good display there. Here are they:

 

Hope somebody will like them... 

Just pictures...The rest of the order:

Quite happy with the most of them. The only one which turned out mediocre is this one. Poor thing was left behind and the rest were posted to the shop.  

 

Poppy Picture

Have felted large panel with poppies. The first picture shows just a layout, the second one - felted.

 Interesting to compare, obviously the sharpness of some lines is gone and some shapes changed. But in general, it's OK. If I make it a cushion cover (haven't decided yet) I'll felt it more.

Catching up...

Oh dear! I'm so behind, do not even know what to talk about... OK, what's gone is gone, I'd better tell you what's on and what is coming.
I'm in the third week of online course on Fantasy Fish. It's the final week so it's time for a brief summary:
- am I happy with the course - not exactly;
- do I know what should have been done differently - no;
- am I going to run another course, later - not sure.
Very positive, isn't it?

The second show of Crafts in the Pen is coming next month. I was quite happy how the last year it went and was looking forward for this one. Now it's close and we've got a brochure and I'm growing  more apprehensive as it nears. 
At first it's huge this year 176 participants instead of 105 last year, and many of them (myself included :( ) have double pens. It means vast space for visitors to cover and it's not indoor meaning a lot of customers will just give up before checking on the all stands.   
Then the selection of exhibitors is a little bit strange to my taste. I do admit that the last year show was a mixed bag, and the standards of this year is much higher but it's much closer to art show than to Xmas craft fair. I do agree that artistic quality of, say, paintings or prints, is much higher than, say again, of decorative candles, but we are there for Christmas! I'm sure people would prefer more festive staff which means - cheerful, cheaper, even slightly kitschy. I myself was exhibiting at art show earlier this year but at Crafts in the pen I'm to present very different stuff.
Anyway "happiness comes from having low expectations" and my expectations are really low!

To end on more optimistic note I'll show something cheerful! Sunflowers tea cosy, just finished:

Apple Blossom

I've worked on this design for quite a while, but with rather mediocre result. But I'm rather happy with this one.  (thanks Ruth and Els!) I wanted to make something in delicate bluish pink colours and flowers in this 5-petal shape like apple or cherry blossom and wild rose. I worked with colours first - these are three glasses cases in the same colours:

And then this larger piece with more complicated design:

 

 

New works in wool watercolours

Have been working on small floral pieces, playing with colours and new shapes.

This is a new Kindle case with rather familiar yellow daisies. Done some small details differently and pleased with result:

 

This one is very different, I've tried to focus on shapes on poppy pods and stems lines. Far from perfect but still like it as a try!

 

 

Dandelion Picture

Jumping from fish to pictures... Can't stop, sorry! This is a recent picture of spent dandelions on the dark rich coloured background. Apparently I like dramatic colours, surprised myself... I started to use a lot of viscose to create more depth and add some sheen. Play with it at the moment. 

Again it was felted on the base of cotton scrim to make it firmer but thin still because I want it to be framed under glass. 

Framed Picture

It's my first picture  properly framed! Properly means in proper frame with a glass and a mount. I'm quite happy with the result and thinking about the next one!

 

And this is the close up of the felted picture itself.

Girly Pink

Wanted to make something very pinky and feminine...

The benefits of the doubts

I'm with Facebook now and like it there!  But I'm not leaving my blog behind! Recently I've made a tea cosy with a new design of sunflowers. Everything was fine apart from the central flower, the largest one. While I remembered what it was I wasn't happy with I've made a repeat, focusing mainly on that flower. I'm happy with it now but the rest of a bouquet was not as good as the first one! Going in circles, am I?  
Here they are pictured together:

Weedy Inspiration

Quite unlikely source of inspiration:

And that's the result:

It's a case for glasses or phone to wear it around the neck hence the string.

Cushion at last!

I was thinking about making a proper cushion cover with floral design in "watercolour" technique for a long time  - choosing design and fabric, planing details... Here we are at last:

Felted cushion with floral design

I wanted it to be a seamless one but it didn't happen this time, I stitched it as an envelope.

 To keep it thin and firm I use a cotton scrim as a lining, then a a thin layer of wool and  a "watercolour" of sunflowers on the front and two pieces of silk blend on the back of cushion. Everything comes together nicely and I'm quite happy with the result.

My ETSY experience

As you could guess I sell on ETSY. If you don't know what ETSY is you are a lucky person and better ignore this post!

OK, I sell on ETSY, i have some sales and it's about 14 months of this adventure - time to write memoire!

When I started to work in "wool watercolour" technique especially on Kindle cases - I wanted to make them but could not sell them in York shop, the target audience was not right for them.

So I opened the shop mid September 2013 and begun to wait for my first customer. And read, read and read all advice experienced ETSY sellers were sharing. You can't overestimate them! And still I was (and still is!) doubtful about some of advice which by many considered as absolute truth. Like these:

- you need to fill the shop with at least 50-70 items! 100 is a magic number! More viewing and more sale! I could not imagine a crafter who can produce (and sell!) so many true OOAK pieces to keep this number in a shop! It may be true for the shops selling a lot of similar (and easier to make) items, like jewelry assembly, but not for my stuff definitely. I prefer my shop to be more boutique style with a few but exclusive pieces than being overflowed with multiple identical items. Everyone to their own.

- you should work on your visibility on ETSY. - treasuries, teams, forums. I do practically nothing of this. Why? First, I am not very social person. Second, it's hard work, requiring a lot of time. And I don't enjoy it! From my experience if you are active in ETSY teams, forums, making treasuries you get more views, more favourites sometimes but not necessarily more sales. It could work for you if you sell small pieces, or some funny stuff, things which work perfect as an impulse buy. I sell quite specific items so I have to relay on search mainly.

 - social network - the same as above. I do nothing apart from blogging. And I've got two ETSY customers from  my blog! I need to do more blogging apparently!

So what I consider as important? To be relevant in search! There are plenty of papers and posts on "Search and Relevancy" subject and I'm not going into details here. What I do: try to find key words which work for my items properly, renew listings regularly, just try to keep up with new rules and changes on ETSY in general.
Now I'm coming to the very core of my "ETSY strategy"! Sorry it sounds too grand!

 The most important thing is To find a niche! Your own niche, the things you made that are very special, very specific. It's not easy! "Do things that are hard. Way less competition." (Eric August Johnson) It's funny but it's true! If you can produce smth which are not in abundance on the market you are guaranteed to get customers interested in your products. My "wool watercolours" are not the most beautiful or perfect or whatever, they just relatively rare. There are not that many items in this technique on ETSY. So competition is not that fierce as in traditional felting techniques. In my shop I've sold mostly cases&cosies decorated in "wool watercolour" but very few more traditional items like scarves or mittens unfortunately! I'd like to make and sell more scarves but alas!...


My point is - try to do smth different, which stands out in the very competitive market of handmade products.
 For those of you who've read this all - my new design, "spring hyacinths".

Felted Kindle Case with hyacinth image

Baby hyacinth!

In mid April our YFM group is going to hold an exhibition of members' works. The theme for collective display is "Spring" and I've made this case for this event. Wish us luck!