Sunday, February 24, 2008

Recent Change in Attitude

Ok, I've been struggling a long time with coming to terms with my skills as a spinner and crocheter and as an artisan of fiber works. I've never had a lot of confidence in my skills, though I see others doing the same things I do (and sometimes not as well) and I'm amazed at how skilled they are. It is illogical that, though others charging a very fair price for their time, skill and work makes sense to me, but when I price my own pieces, I undervalue them to the point where it almost seems like I'm begging someone to like my work and purchase it.

Well, I recently joined a group that addresses marketing our fiber crafts and it amazes me that the people of the group are just like me, for the most part. They love what they do and yet need encouragement to market their art at a professional level where they don't need to beg for others to "like their stuff". I've realized that by making my prices beggingly low, I not only don't show their true value, but I make it hard for other fiber artisans to offer their items at their true value too.

I guess this is fair warning that my spindles and the wearable fiber art items at Spindles and More are going to be going up in price in the next few days. So get your items now, before they are listed at their true value.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Wow, this week...

Ok, to begin with we had two snow days in a row this week. During those snow days I finished crocheting an entirely silk-yarn hat for a young friend of mine. Silk is very soft, but has no spring or "memory" to retain elasticity. The hat will simply slip on and off her head, but will not grip it in any way. I dyed it pink, which is her favorite color and then I added 3 black silk-yarn roses to it. I decided afterward that I should have hot glued the roses to pendent pins so she could change the look of the hat as often as she liked. She might send it back to me so I can, I haven't heard from her yet...

After finishing the hat, I plied 420 yards of 2-ply yarn from a gorgeous light lavender purple Superwash (doesn't shrink when washed) wool. It is all in a continuos strand, no knots, except at the end points (duh!). I'm really not sure if I should let it sit for a while and let it speak to me about what it wants to become, or if I should just take some pics and list it quickly before I'm too attached to let it go.

I am a very visual person and as such, many of my handspun yarns have found themselves sitting on the shelves in my craft room, hanging slightly over the edge where I can see them all when I look around. This is a wonderful visual experience, but basically means that I don't make anything out of most of them because I love the visual effect of the yarns laying beside one another. It just doesn't have the same effect to have two crocheted hats sitting next to each other on the shelf. It kills the endless possibilities of the yarn. Having said that, I am still working up my courage to actually list some of my yarns on the Etsy site. I haven't done it yet, but maybe I'll be able to as some point.

Until next time, Happy Spinning.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Trying to show an Etsy mini of my shop listings....

OK, well it almost worked perfectly, the pics on the right got cut off some, but you can still see all the stuff I've got listed. I made all of these and several more items I'm still working up the courage to list.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Spindles, spindles, spindles

More spindles on their way into the Spindles and More Etsy Shop.

   As you know, I make these spindles and each one is unique. Each has been signed, numbered and dated with the year they were made. The lower numbered spindles are harder to find as many of them were given as gifts to new spinners who won't part with them.

  For those of you following this saga...

The first spindle (#1) has been sold and therefore is no longer available for purchase. The next lowest numbers available are #3, #7, #9 and #10. These were the last spindles made in 2002 before I took a five-year break from making spindles. I was reluctant to list these lower numbered spindles because of their individuality (and even now, I am retaining #4 because I love the mini plant pots so much).

  I will be adding 6 spindles to the listings this weekend.