Over a Year Later......

So......

I return to my blog.  It has been sitting neglected for over a year.  It seems that once I opened Rotifera , time began to run away with me.  I've been VERY successful!!!!!!

Successful enough to resign from teaching.

The two shops are rocking and rolling:
SewEcological --- over 400 sales, and 100% positive feedback.  Full of fun upcycled creations and handknits!

Upcycled Infinity Scarf

Handknit Alpaca Cowl

And Rotifera.... Rotifera REALLY took off last year, with almost 1200 sales, and 100% positive feedback.

Art Deco Rose Accessory

Lacy Button Snap Clips

And.........just for fun, I opened a Paper goods shop last September with my friend Cris... The boxes I started stamping really took off, and we've had 176 sales with 100% positive feedback so far!!!!

Handstamped Kraft Jewelry Boxes

So, all in all--- a BUSY year.  A successful year.  I resigned from teaching effective June 10th, and will be going to Etsy and the craft show circuit full time this year, beginning in July.  I have a Europe trip coming up in the middle of June, and then I'm FULL STEAM AHEAD into entrepreneurship. 

That means more blogging, more sales, and more fun!!!!!!  I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it.

See you sooooooooon!!!!!!
♥Rose

Editing photos with Picnik

I recently discovered Picnik, a free photoediting software.  It really is amazing, simple, and free.  You don't have to download anything (i.e. no virus worries), and it has turned some of my *shrug* meh photos, into these:

I don't really understand all of the options, but I took most of my photos, which were too far away and included background images like the neighbor's house across the street.  Some were overexposed, underexposed, colors showed up poorly, etc.

So I went to Picnik, uploaded my photo, hit the autocorrect option on the exposure, and cropped the photos to just showcase what I had made.  I really like the outcomes- like these:

A few more recent offerings from my shop!

Go edit!  Make your pictures Gorgeous!

It's so easy, a 7 year old can do it!

I was moping around the house yesterday, because my husband was out again during daylight hours working.  I really wanted to list some new items in my shop, but they needed great pictures to show them in their best light.  *pun intended*

Enter Odin, my seven year old.  "Mom, I can take your pictures!"

I decided I would humor him, and let him give it a shot.

THIS is what he did!

Super Warm Trendy Cowl

Funky Buttons and Cashmere

Fully Lined Reversible Beret

Tweedy Floppy Beret

Funky Buttons Cowl

So there you have it.  He was so excited when I showed him that his "work" was uploaded on the internet.  That his photos were soo good, that I needed all of them in my showcase.

He was tickled pink.

Working my tail off... Back to work tomorrow

I've got to go back to teaching tomorrow, and while I do love my job, I love crafting just a bit more.  I was so worried that creating for my Etsy store would take the joy away from making all these wonderful things, but the feedback I've gotten just adds fuel to the fire.  I've been pushing myself to come up with new designs today, and I pulled out a few stops...

It's really amazing what we can create with the things we have at home.  Upcycling.   I once read that upcycling is "turning useless crap into even more useless crap."  I have to disagree.  All of these items were upcycled from tossed sweaters- cashmere, merino, wool.  Those natural fibers are never worthless.  So, I've been upcycling my butt off all week.  Do any of these look like useless crap?  I hope not.

100% Cashmere Scarf with Ruffle

Wool Cowl with Vintage buttons

Silk Fingerless Gloves

Cashmere Opera Length Fingerless Gloves

I've finished alot more, but I'm waiting for my dearest hubby to get home and take some decent pictures.  I hate taking pics alone.  No fun at all! 

So, what inspires you to create?  I just love natural fibers.  I love color.  I love creating something out of something else. 

What do you love to do?  Share!

Working with Cashmere...and a purse fail.

Good news and bad news.  Let's get the bad news over first.  My orange purse that I dreamed would be perfection, luscious, amazing, superfantabulous, extraordinary? 

None of those adjectives seem to fit the bill.  I'd go with....blech.  The beaded embellishment of my vision looked ridiculous on it.  The construction was mediocre to say the best of it.  I blame the super thick wool, the lack of handbag construction experience, my cruddy old cheap sewing machine.  Whatever.  Here is the vision....  A long rectangular bag with a half moon flap, lined with vintage linen, and embellished with the most beautiful beaded dangly thing I thrifted..  this thing:

The dangly thing-y doesn't really go with the shotty craftmanship of the bag.  I don't know if there is any saving of this orange monstrosity...  give me a fricken' idea already.  I'm fresh out. 

Pointy edges, too short of a flap.  Blah.

Extra thick felted sweater + older cheap machine = crappy construction detail.  Blah.

But on an up note...

The cashmere creativity train has pulled into the station.  With two of the lovliest color of cashmere I have found to date, I made four things:

Cashmere Cowl with coordinating thrifted cotten lining

Cashmere Fingerless gloves in progress...

Cashmere Scarf of gorgeousness...

You want to touch it, don't you...

And this, the crowning achievement of an old Daniel Bishop Cashmere Sweater.  Possibly the thickest I've ever seen...  Cabled and ribbed?  This scarf is 6X thicker than any cashmere object I've ever touched.  And like a cloud.  Soft as butter...  I don't know if I can sell it, other than it is not really my color...

OMG!! 72" of luxury right there.

And one more pair of cashmere fingerless gloves, in a classic combo of linen color and tiny cables....

So, as artists, whether we are knitters, sewers, upcyclers, whatever... We take the good with the bad, right?  And sometimes the bad is very, very bad.  But the good can be very, very soft. 

Off to work!  I have a pile of cashmere and wool that needs work.

And- everyone give a shout out to Rex; he found me some lovely pieces that could become my very first design involving wool suiting... Any ideas?

The process....

So I have this process of designing these one of a kind items, and it never really is the same...  But the basic steps go something like this.

*Mommy note:  This is by no means a continual process.  I'm constantly interrupted by the needs of the household (rugh.) and the needs of my kiddos and hubby.  Interruptions add time and frustration to the need for design inspiration.  But alas, we do what we do. 

1.  Hunt for objects that are natural fibers.  Find.  Buy.  Buy more.  Buy more.

2.  Organize said natural fibers by color.  (I'm currently using an old bookshelves and repurposed shelving in my laundry room.)  Could be more organized, but you aren't reporting to Martha Stewart, right?

These colors are at the top of my to- do list. 

Vintage sheets!!!!!!!!!

3.  Stare at items.  Fondle items.  Decide if items should be felted.  Put items back onto shelf until inspiration strikes.


4.  Once inspiration strikes, remove item(s) from shelf, felt in the washer, and proceed to de fuzz .  Whilst de-fuzzing, which anyone who has ever felted knows- takes FOREVER..., I stare at item some more, and decide what it wants to become.  Whatever that is, it needs to be chopped up.

5.  Chop, slice, chop.

6.  Decide that the original idea I had will not work with said sliced pieces.  Stare at item.  Fondle item.

7.  Make a command decision.  Back out of decision.  Man's plain armwarmers?  Those sold quickly.  Embellish these brown ribbed wrist warmers with beautiful felted flowers or embroider, or better yet; a lace flower with a button?  That would be really cute...  This goes on for an hour or so.  Then I embellish or not. 

I end up with something like this-

Kept plain.  They were already sooo darn cute!

or this

Angora and Wool with a lace flower.

or this

The Cowl that would become a purse embellished with Vintage fabric and wool rosettes.

 

 

 

 

Sometimes my inspiration pile gets unruly... But I just pick what I like when I look down...

Declan has a little pink soldier "watching over mommy's pink sweater thingie"

And I always have extra scraps to inspire me further into the patchwork/embellishment abyss...

So there it is.  Organically created by a possibly insane person, who has trouble focusing if I know I won't be tested, who doesn't like to ever do the same thing twice, and who loves, loves, loves what I'm doing.

What inspires you?  How do you get that inspiration out there?