New Fish and other news

I've had a very hectic time!.. Three fairs/exhibitions in 3 weeks! The YFM exhibition went very well and it was easy with all enthusiasm and support from all group members, I wrote about it in previous posts. Then on last Saturday I was on craft fair in local village (which was an utter failure) and this Saturday is a small craft fair in York's StJohn University. It's a bit too much for me but it's just happened this way!
I worked very hard, neglected the shop in York to keep everything going. It's not about sales I just wanted to have a decent display on my stalls and not let down organisers.
I could not deplete my ETSY shop entirely because apart all above I've applied to two large craft events and my ETSY shop was a reference site. I was rejected by one and ACCEPTED by another!
I'm thrilled and scared!
It's a new craft event called Craft in the Pen and it follows very well established art show Art in the Pen which run successfully for 10 years.
Because it's new the majority of applicants were accepted apparently. It's at the end of November (21&22 Nov 2015), very good time for Xmas sales. Anyway it's an entirely new experience for me! I'm heavily relying on my husband's help and will try to find help and advice from as many friends as possible.
I'll keep you posted.

Wish me luck!
I've missed posting this fish it seems, so a bit late:

Felted Fantasy Fish

Large Felted Fish

Angelfish

I wanted to make an angelfish always but had reservations because of the large top fin...

Felted Angelfish

This one is OK though!

Thinking about making another angelfish, a friend to this one...

This is a fish I've made recently. Just a fish.

 

Sold at YFM ehxibition.

YFM group exhibition

Last Saturday our feltmakers group hold our first exhibition in Dunnington Reading Room. It was the first time and it was a great success. I wrote about it in general in our blog - Here. But here in my private blog I'd like to show some pieces which I liked most. It's because they are different from what I do or  because I like the choice of colour  in particular or for whatever reason!  

Let's start with amazing lilies by Julie, our curator for this exibition. When I saw them first time I was sure that they were a real flowers! So beautiful! And the vase is felted too...

Julie and her lilies

This one is Polly's wall hanging. I admire this subtle change of colour! Very understated and elegant piece.

Polly's wall hanging

This is a proper framed picture and colours are stunning! It's Sandie's.

Sandie's picture

Now the very different story, Jean's Crab. As usual the quality and attention to details are amazing.

Jean's crab

How about this lady? It's a bag actually! Fantastic! I think, it's Lesley's, not sure... 

 This one is a large scale picture and it's admired not only by myself but by my husband as well. My photo doesn't do it justice unfortunatelly...

Rhiannon's picture

 Quite a contrast - this is a little beauty! It's a card and I've bought it! Look at all tiny details! I really  love it, thank you Sandie!

Sandie's card

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.

Black and White Fish

I do not like orders, especially very specific ones. It's OK to repeat some of my previous works so that's clear what we are talking about.But to make to order something different could be rather tricky indeed - not sure that a customer and myself have the same ideas. That's why I put aside one particular order for quite a while despite a few gentle reminders. I always play with colour and the order was to make black and white fish!
Here we are! Eventually:

Black and White felted Fish

 It's not completely black, more greyish, because despite all my efforts the white migrated through. I've put a layer of silk between black and white but it didn't help much. To soften very sombre appearance I added a little bit of red in slits and around eyes.

If I make it again I'll do it differently but the customer liked it and said that it was exactly as she wanted it! Hooray!

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!