Edgar Allan Crow... Beating Burnout part 2

As Part of my plan to beat burn out I decided to do, make, or draw something every week which isn't related to my business, last week I was naughty and skipped class because I was just way too worn out so I decided to use sunday for my making/playing day (after I did my accounts and answered my emails and made some wedding birds)

A pal had brought this gorgeous book, The Artful Bird by Abigail Patner Glassenberg to class previously and I kind of had to buy it! I chose the crow as my first project... probably a bit ambitious really as I haven't really sewn properly for 12 years but I decided to just dive in. The first obstacle I came across was the pattern pieces, they are printed in the book without seam allowance so I struggled adding it on, especially to some of the more complex small pieces, I haven't used a pattern since GCSE so it was a struggle for me.

The next obstacle was the darts for the legs (do I just sew the darts, as indicated? what about the seam allowance) but after that it was pretty much plain sailing... altogether my crow took about 7-8 hours if you include the time to bake the beak which is made from polymer clay. I imagine a more experienced sewer would be faster... or if I made a few more I might be faster too.

All in all I enjoyed making my crow, he's a little wobbly and his beak is crooked  and there are lots of places where I have used sneaky tricks and embroidered bits to hide my mistakes and bad sewing. The instructions are concise and pretty easy to follow but you need a reasonable experience with sewing, I wouldn't recommend this book to a novice.

Edgar Allen Crow is lovely tho, I'm very fond of his crooked everything. I went with bead eyes and changed the wings as I didn't like the way they were in the book and added a little embroidery so he didn't look so very black, he's now gracing our living room, perched next to the Plague doctor's mask we have on display and looking very at home there!

I very much enjoyed losing myself in a project that didn't come entirely from my noggin and I have a feeling that artful bird making is addictive!

The Minis are Coming!

 

 I've been getting lots of requests for mini versions of my best selling birdies recently... being an affable kind of a gal I am happy to oblige! 

 

 Very soon mini versions of tufted titmouse, kingfisher, magpie, great tit and blue tit will be available in my etsy, folksy and Not On The High street shops.

 My personal faves are the titmouse and the blue tit... although I am kind of loving how very annoyed the kingfisher is looking... I wouldn't mess with him!

Why You Really Need to Update Your Etsy Photos

and by you I mean me!

 

Over Christmas my trusty old camera decided to develop a fault and die in spectacular fashion... I didn't despair I cried YAY! It meant I could finally justify buying a shiny new camera for my business... so I did! I was a little scared of it at first... It made weird noises and had twisty bits that my old camera never had. So I bought a digital field guide and dug out my Crafter's guide to taking great photos because if there is one piece of advice I can give you after all my years selling online it's know your camera!

I then realised that all my old photos taken with my old camera were pretty shoddy in comparison to my shiny new one... I groaned as I realised that this meant I had to re take all my pictures so they matched.

But that's no bad thing!

You can see from these images how they've changed, old pics are on the left, new on the right as you look at the screen.

 We crafty types have our best sellers, those things that we've been making for years that kind of just tick over and we don't really have to do too much to promote them but if you think about it these are the things we need to make sure have the best pictures. Over time your style might change as well, you might not realise but increment by increment things end up not quite looking like the picture you originally took.

My owls were my first and best seller and the design hasn't changed much but the style has evolved a little. They're a bit fatter now, a bit cuter... and I'm better at needle felting so they are a touch more refined and solid too. The light in their eyes (the bit that makes them cute and adds life) has moved which alters their mood a bit.

And lets face it... when I first started out I had no idea what I was doing so those pictures I thought were AMAZING when I first took them are a little shabby in comparison to wonder camera's shot quality.

If you aren't sure if things have changed then go to your etsy shop and look way way back to your first sales... aren't those pictures looking a little tired now? Try putting them side by side with a recently made product. Get a pal to look at your shop and see what they think. Join an etsy team and get some opinions, check out those handy blog posts about photography on etsy, folksy and the web in general... your photos are essentially your shop window... so make the most of them!

So I have 130 feltmeupdesigns listings and 90 inkmeup things to rephotograph... it's going to be a tough job but I reckon its worth it!

Beating Burnout

Ok... yep... so it's been a while and I promised things were changing or moving and I was going to make decisions about stuff... Well I haven't!

There are times, for us self employed lot, where things get a little overwhelming and things just drag you down... It's called burnout. I was reading this Etsy blog here about beating burnout and it got me thinking... I am indeed suffering from burnout and have lost the ability to make decisions and act on the ones that I have made. I've been writing plans, following them for a few days the abandoning stuff at the tiniest set back... worst thing is I am aware that I'm doing it but feel powerless to do anything about it.

So what am I going to do?

Well I am formulating a plan. What kind of plan? I hear you ask... Is it a cunning one? Why yes friends it is a cunning one, it involves stepping back a little and taking a bit more time for myself... which for me is kinda hard. To start things off I've joined an art class, I find being around creative people is inspiring in itself and I'm using the time in this class to finish off projects started long ago and work thru ideas that I have had bouncing around my noggin for ages.

Also I am opening a new shop for said projects to go in, our flat's kind of full of stuff so I can't keep them all it's going to be called "The Snob Goblin" and be centered around the more fantastical and arty side of my work. (I've added a couple of pics here so you can see what I'm up to) I want to keep them separate from Feltmeup and Inkmeup as they are so different and I don't want them to feel like work right now.

The idea is that all this stuff will help me find myself... ok it's corny but until now I kind of snorted at people who said they were off to find themselves but I have kind of lost my identity a bit and with that a bit of my passion for what I do. Once I feel a bit more me I shall start making proper business plans and hopefully see them through.

If you have any tips for beating burnout then please post them here in comments. I'd love to hear how you cope with it.

x
mel

Goboline and Boris, 2 snob goblins

Time for a Change

It's the new year! Well it's 3 weeks into the New Year and as ever I am slightly tardy!

Last year was... well if I am totally honest last year was a drag of one minor catastrophe after another, personally we seemed to stumble from one blah to another blah with nothing but blah in between. I'm not complaining here, you understand, I'm not saying it was a bad year... it just wasn't good, it wasn't great... it wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

Professionally things were going well for me but the personal stuff really started to drag me down, so much so that mid September I was just wishing the rest of the year away... which is not good... the realities of working for myself, at home seriously kicked in and I began to feel a little like a robin making factory.

What to do? I asked myself.

Who the Hell knows, myself answered, have another biscuit make some more robins and deal with it in the new year.

Don't mind if I do, I answered, and took another biscuit.

So it's the New Year and myself has popped up again waving biscuits at me and telling me that instead of making robins I ought to make wedding cake toppers and deal with all that other stuff in the summer... this time I am ignoring myself!

So what's this rant all about then? Well mostly I'm letting off steam but I am also informing you lot out there in blog land that change is gonna come! I haven't quite decided yet if I am going to be tearing down the old blog and starting again somewhere else or just revamping this one and getting rid of a lot of stuff... right now I am pretty much in favour of burning it to the ground and starting again somewhere fresh in the blogosphere. I'm just that kind of girl...

So I shall keep you posted... and where ever I end up I hope you will be coming with me because all you people out there in internet land are what has been keeping me going... and I thank you for it!

xx
mel

Hello Blogosphere! Have you missed me?

Here at Felt Towers we have had one hell of a year... that is to say in many respects a hellish one! We've had a few ups and downs but we're now sufficiently recovered and looking forward to the New Year! Here's some of the ups (we're not going to dwell on the downs!)

I opened my Not On The High Street shop and was bowled over by the response it got, so much so that I really wasn't prepared for Christmas in any way shape or form! I travelled to Leeds and met the lovely Moaning Minnie and we attended the Not on The High Street Christmas on the move lecture/conferency thingie... which was awesome. I met lots of lovely people there whose names I consequently forgot (sorry) but it was nice meeting them anyway!

We lost a few shops and galleries in the new year but that's ok we gained some more along the way and made new friends and contacts in the process.

I made more robins then ever before, sold more birdies then every before and lost more sleep than ever before... but it's al good!

So all that remains is to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a very very Happy New Year.
xx
mel

Mollie Makes Feathered Friends

A while ago I was contacted by a lovely lady from Mollie Makes Publishers about maybe having some images in the inspiration pages of Mollie Makes new book, Feathered Friends, I of course said yes and sent in my images, signed some consent forms and being a dandelioned brained fool totally forgot about it!

Mollie Makes Feathered friends was published recently and I went to my local Waterstones (where I used to work) to have a flick thru... image my delight opening it up to find my pictures there. There was an ear drum bursting SQUEEEEEEEEEE heard throughout the shop and a lot of giggling uncontrollably (I have no embarrasment) I got a few stares but since my former collegues were used to me being mental they thought nothing of it!

I had to buy it so I took the book home to settle down on the sofa and stroke it and generally bounce happily (don't worry I paid for it first!) but as I flicked thru the gorgeous projects I got another surprise when I found another page with my images on later in the book! And sharing a page with Abigail Brown no less... well there was a bit more Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee going on I can tell you!

The book it's self is fab, lots of great projects ranging in difficulty all beautifully photographed and gorgeous... I shall be trying a few out myself if I ever get any free time! Mollie Makes Feathered Friends is available from all good bookshops and the lovely Mollie Makes folks are offering you a chance to win a copy over at their blog here:
http://www.molliemakes.com/competition/mollie-makes-feathered-friends-giveaway/

Thanks MollieMakes!