Merry-Go-Round - Customer Service

Jump on our merry go round and join a group of artists/crafts-women from around the world as they link hands and tell you a little bit about their lives in craft.

Do look up the answers from the rest of this band of crafters (links to your left).

If they haven't all posted yet, remember we all live in different time zones and check again later...

This month:

Customer Service

Customer service is about law, of course, but, to me, it is also about the choice you make when selling handmade, about what someone buying handmade from the the maker has a right to expect.

If you enjoy it that people appreciate your handmade work, you have to keep up the personal side of the relationship. It's not a question of what the law says. It's a question of what you get into whan you decide you are an independent artist / designer / crafter...

The most enjoyable, satisfactory sales I have made online were custom-made. It feels so great having someone trust you with their special wish. It makes me feel "important" in a way no serious job does.

To be quite blunt, in my experience, custom is absolutely not profitable (because profit lies in series). But it still is what I have enjoyed most as a crafter.

The other important aspect of cutomer services is returns.

That is never pleasant, but it is crucial to trust-building.

I am lucky that I have only had a couple in the past few years, and, if I remember well, only one was about an online sale, surprisingly enough. But what strikes me is how incredibly grateful customers for whom I have mended a piece have been. In most cases there was a flaw and of course I was bound by law to mend their purchases (or give a refund, never their choice in my experience), but that didn't seem to be how they took it. They seemed surprised and pleased.

I have also been very lucky so far, I know from the forums on various sites, that I have never had to deal with someone patently dishonest.

Obviously, they are around, as are the dishonest sellers, but I still believe they are a small minority and the vast majority are lovely people who do us the great honour of appreciating our efforts and giving us good money for them, and so they deserve our best efforts throughout.

Breaking Dawn Giveaway at Bacon Time— don't miss out!

Mindie of Bacon Time is organizing this great giveaway with 66 different shops participating, including my Etsy shop, of course : )

Here!

Nouvelles / News

Pour commencer, sachez que les boutiques DaWanda et Etsy fermeront le 15 décembre, jusqu'à une date qui demeure à déterminer et qui sera fonction de mon changement d'approche et de statut.

Depuis quelque temps, il est clair que le statut d'entreprise ne me convient absolument pas, ni financièrement, ni moralement. Je vais donc prendre le temps nécessaire pour revoir ma situation et adopter le statut légal qui convient.

En attendant, les coordonnées présentes sur mes cartes de visites restent valides et je reste disponible pour le service après-vente nécessaire..

Par ailleurs, Le Bar du Vent sera présent au Marché de Noël organisé par Chai, rue du Mirail à Bordeaux, à partir du 17 décembre. : )

In order to think over and operate a change of legal status, aiming at adopting one better fitted to how I like to craft and how much time I can afford to allow for it, I will close my Etsy and DaWanda shops on December 15, until further notice...

Merry-Go-Round - Fairs and Shows

Jump on our merry go round and join a group of artists/crafts-women from around the world as they link hands and tell you a little bit about their lives in craft.

Do look up the answers from the rest of this band of crafters (links to your left).

If they haven't all posted yet, remember we all live in different time zones and check again later...

This month:

Fairs and shows— do you do them? If you don't, why not?

Well, this is a topic that I find very interesting, because I haven't been able to take part in any so far— due to having a rather engrossing and time-consuming full-time "day-job".

All I know, so far, is that everyone says it's the best way to reach your custom, because most people aren't into virtual reality when it comes to shopping for jewellery and other trinkets. But it involves a lot of work and organizing, as well as time...

Very curious to read what other merry goers have to say about their experience!

Merry-Go-Round - Tutorial

Jump on our merry go round and join a group of artists/crafts-women from around the world as they link hands and tell you a little bit about their lives in craft.

Do look up the answers from the rest of this band of crafters (links to your left).

If they haven't all posted yet, remember we all live in different time zones and check again later...

This month:

A simple tutorial

A few photos to show you how, with just a piece of wire and a piece of salvaged thread or fabric, you can create a colourful butterfly or dragonfly, using the technique of macrame knotting.

Here are a few pieces of salvaged ribbon or thread among which I take my pick.
And here is the kind of brass wire (controlled closely as you can see) you can find in any hardware store. I also use copper. Silver or aluminium would do just as well.
I cut a pice (22 cm / 8.5 in. in this case).
I bend it like this:
then I make a plain knot at what will be the tail end of my butterfly and start the macrame as you can see. One way:
the other way:
until I have enough to create the abdomen.

Then I loosen one of the knots to create the small pair of wings:
Then I knot one more tight knot:
And then another loose knot, for the larger pair of wings, followed by a couple of tight knots for the head:
A little whirl at both ends of the wire, for the antennae:

Pretty psychedelic, isn't it? I think it would do a nice brooch...

With a longer piece of blue cord and copper wire, I created this necklace with what looks more like a dragonfly:

There are as many variations as the kinds of thread or ribbon you can use...

Meet Miss G.

She doesn't have a name yet but it is supposed to begin with a G...

L'Ecole du Chat de Bordeaux

C'est gâce à cette association que j'ai pu adopter Mimi il y a presque six ans.

Si seulement j'avais une voiture (et un jardin !) je lui aurais volontiers adopté une petite compagnie...

Merci de faire parler de cette association :

Vous pouvez aider en diffusant cette affiche, en adoptant, en faisant un don, en donnant de votre temps... ou même en vous achetant un porte-clef ou des cartes postales !

Merci d'avance !

Merry-Go-Round - Since you started blogging has your blogging changed?

Jump on our merry go round and join a group of artists/crafts-women from around the world as they link hands and tell you a little bit about their lives in craft.

Do look up the answers from the rest of this band of crafters (links to your left).

If they haven't all posted yet, remember we all live in different time zones and check again later...

This month:

Since you started blogging has your style/content/feeling about blogging changed?

Well, I'm really not sure.

My blogging has remained generally scant and irregular.

There is that vicious circle: I blog little because I never get feedback except from the merry-goers and there is no feedback because, I guess, I don't blog often enough for people to want to check my blog...

I liked the idea of writing, but making my blog bilingual proved to be too time-consuming. So I blog mainly in English now because it makes more sense with what the blog is about. But that means most of my French friends can't read it...

Other than this, the main changes I can think of are, first, that I tend to write less and rely on photos more, but mostly that I post on my Facebok page more often....

Add to that the facts that my blog posts don't go up automatically on my Facebook page anymore, for a reason that remains totally mysterious to me and that my recent computer problem (most recent one only half useable— reliable one really, really slow...) make it even more difficult and slower to do anything at all.

It still might be that my iPhone is going to change my blogging radically when I've finally gotten the knack of Mail2blogger.... So watch this space!

:)

1,2,3 : test

I've been trying to find an iPhone app to blog here. I finally found one that actually allows me to log in, but it doesn't do photos... I'd be grateful for a tip about an app that works on both iPhone 4 and blogspot... En quête d'une app pour bloguer ici (sur blogspot, donc) depuis mon iPhone, j'en ai enfin trouvé une qui me permet de me connecter sur mon compte, mais elle ne prends pas les photos en charge... Tout tuyau serait bienvenu...

History on the go

Last April, strolling along a street in Paris, I found myself reading this plaque:

"En ce bâtiment,

jadis Hôtel d'York,

le 3 septembre 1783,

David HARTLEY,

au nom du Roi d'Angleterre,

Benjamin FRANKLIN,

John JAY, John ADAMS,

au nom des Etats Unis d'Amérique,

ont signé le Traité Définitif de Paix

reconnaissant l'indépendance

des Etats-Unis"

(In this building,

which used to be the Hôtel d'York,

on September 3rd, 1783,

David HARTLEY,

on behalf of the King of England,

Benjamin FRANKLIN,

John JAY & John ADAMS,

on behalf of the United States of America,

signed the Final Peace Treaty

which sanctioned the independence

of the United-States)

I had never heard of this place and didn't remember ever learning that date... One of the things I still love about Paris (together with all my friends there ^.^) is that can still still be surprised by history just around the corner.

Thanks to my lovely iPhone, I was able to take couple of photos and edit one into this shining example of a monument to democracy in the making.

Right now, the edited version is for sale on a sturdy tote bag in both my shops, but I can also provide a quality print of it on a variety of materials (glossy, mat, canvas) and in various sizes up to A4, in this "highlighted" version or in the original version. Either would look great on any wall— a bit of a Paris wall on your own wall...

New on French DaWanda: "les groupes"

So I've been playing with this and gone and started two teams, oops, sorry, "groupes":

The Auld Alliance, to bring together Scottish and French people with a similar taste for the genuine handmade and vintage:

This is meant to use the new "group" function of the French site to allow Scottish and French DaWandians to get together, NOT to keep other British members out, of course...

The group is fully open to all members with a connection to France and Scotland; so that it could be the perfect place to leave "Wanted" ads with a regional / national focus—, for example.

Bord'eau, for all DaWandians who live in / love Aquitaine as well as genuine handmade, OOAK, unique, small series artefacts as well as genuine that is not merely second-/ or third-hand stuff:

For all DaWandians in Bordeaux, Gironde or Aquitaine who wish to come together to create and exchange.

This is a place to make, find, invent, dream, chat, share and recycle— just not other people's ideas, of course.

The group, though "closed", is fully open to all site-members with a connection to Aquitaine, not just sellers; so that it could be the ideal place for you to express your wishes and see them fulfilled by local designers / artists / crafters.

Nouveau : les GROUPES sur DAWANDA

Une nouvelle fonctionalité sociale sur le site européen du fait-main...

J'en ai profité pour en créer deux :

Bord'eau, pour rassembler l'Aquitaine autour de boutiques authentiquement artisanales, créatives et vintage :

Pour ceux et celles qui, à Bordeaux, en Gironde ou en Aquitaine, souhaitent se rassembler dans un esprit de créativité et d'échange.

Ici on fabrique soi-même, on chine, on invente, on rêve, on cause, on partage et on recycle (mais pas les idées des autres, bien sûr !).

Le groupe, quoique "fermé", est bien sûr ouvert à tous les DaWandiens qui ont un lien avec l'Aquitaine : pour celles et ceux qui ne sont (pour l'instant) qu'acheteurs, ce pourrait être un lieu idéal pour contacter des créateurs / designers / artisans de leur région et leur faire les demandes les plus folles...

The Auld Alliance, pour célébrer et entretenir dans le vintage, les arts et l'artisanat ce lien si ancien qui lie France et Ecosse :

J'espère avec ce groupe donner la possibilité aux membres écossais et français de se retrouver grâce à la nouvelle fonctionnalité de la plateforme française : PAS d'exclure les autres membres britanniques !

Le groupe est bien sûr ouvert à tous les DaWandiens qui ont un lien avec l'Ecosse et la France : pour celles et ceux qui ne sont (pour l'instant) qu'acheteurs, ce pourrait être un lieu idéal pour contacter des créateurs / designers / artisans de l'autre pays et leur faire les demandes les plus folles...

Belated Merry-Go-Round: On Holidays from your Art?

Jump on our merry go round and join a group of artists/crafts-women from around the world as they link hands and tell you a little bit about their lives in craft.

Do look up the answers from the rest of this band of crafters (links to your left).

If they haven't all posted yet, remember we all live in different time zones and check again later...

This month:

Do you take a holiday from art / craft?

Oh Wow!

More like on holidays from my brain it seems... This was due last Friday. I did remember, and mull it over— until I completely forgot to write my post up!

My answer would be: No.

Obviously, my routine is gone down the drain and I tend to forget what day of the week or month this is when I don't have to "go to work", and t

he summer holidays in particular are a time of renewal and exploration, but I never really completely stop making and planning, just as I never stop reading all sorts of stuff, all year round.

Last week-end, I took a workshop on digital photography and ghow to make the best of my camera. The man who gave it was this very unpleasant, supercilious kind of "pro" (there— I had to say it— he really was a prat) and his "workshop" was shockingly poor value for money, but it did make me explore the possibilities of my camera for 4 hours and discover a couple of useful things, both for artistic purposes (considering transforming and maybe even selling my photos more within the next year) and utilitarian ones (as in taking better photos of my jewellery).

I've also started knitting arm-warmers from some lovely yarn I just bought. A good opportunity to hae a go at a pattern I hoarded ages ago— and to realize how very bad I am at knitting with double-pointed needles... not sure you'll be seing photos of that any time soon...

I also made the two necklaces in my Wednesday posts (and they're now on sale in my DaWanda shop, where they are getting precious little attention— the weather must have been nice somewhere...).

The fact other people are on holidays and not shopping on the net so much means that I spend more time preparing for my next move than actually making or even doing anything much. But then, and we've discussed this already in former Merry post, I've always worked like that— mulling for a while and working in a spree, and then mulling for a while, and so on and so forth

.

New - Nouveau ! Bis...

A variation on "Mordue" : the "Sookie" Necklace, for the girl with faery blood... Sterling silver and garnets, but the silver is oxyded and therefore dark— except for the tiny but bright magic wand at the back.

Une variation sur le collier "Mordue" : le collier "Sookie". Toute en argent et grenats, lui aussi, mais l'argent est oxydé et donc presque noir (avec des reflets rouges sur la chaine...), mis à part la minuscule mais étincelante baguette magique qui vous fait un superbe décolleté dans le dos.

New - Nouveau !

"Mordue" Necklace, which, literally, means "bitten", but also, figuratively, "hooked" or "smitten"... Sterling Silver and garnet (one round bead and one heart / drop-shaped, both facetted).

Collier "Mordue". Pas besoin d'expliquer, si ? Tout en argent 925 et grenat (une pierre ronde et une en forme de goutte / coeur).

Merry-Go-Round - Visual Inspiration 2 - Sand in my shoes...

Jump on our merry go round and join a group of artists/crafts-women from around the world as they link hands and tell you a little bit about their lives in craft.

Do look up the answers from the rest of this band of crafters (links to your left).

If they haven't all posted yet, remember we all live in different time zones and check again later...

This month:

Create something inspired by the photo published by another merry-goer.

A lucky accident has me working on Samantha's unorthodox post last month— holiday photos.

Sand, beach fun, more sand.

I cannot imagine anything more fitting for me, generally, and this year in particular, when I particularly long to enjoy the beaches of the Atlantic and a bit of farniente this summer.

So, here goes!

I'm calling it Remembrances of Beaches Past.

;)

I am the eye in the sky...

Merry-Go-Round - Visual Inspiration

Jump on our merry go round and join a group of artists/crafts-women from around the world as they link hands and tell you a little bit about their lives in craft.

Do look up the answers from the rest of this band of crafters (links to your left).

If they haven't all posted yet, remember we all live in different time zones and check again later...

This month:

A photo that inspires you.

This photo inspires me in that it is the positive I get out of a not so pleasant time.

As you can see, it tells of movement, speed, travel.

It was taken from a train, on one of the several trips I've had to take over the past four weeks. Because of a mix of professional and personal obligations, this has been a very busy month, both at home and elsewhere. And not in a creative way, I'm afraid.

Actually, I'm on my way again this afternoon, and then again on Tuesday (flying off to Edinburgh for a few days) for the only one among those trips that I have looked forward to a little bit, if only because I chose to go, as opposed to being made to... There'll be one more train trip, And then I really look forward to a quiet, creative summer, mostly at home...

The reason why I like this photo, is that I can sit back and look at the movement and all that green. A bit like when I'm on the train. I find it soothing. I enjoy being in transit. It's all the bother before and after that I mind...

I'll try to take a photo from the plane too!

PS: I also have True Blood, 3 rd season, and Mad Men, 4th season, to go home to! Just so you know how much I long for some quiet here...

***** RAIATEA RELIEF SPECIAL *****

There was a massive landslide in the south of the small French Polynesia island where I took my first steps and hope to take a few steps again someday.

Several families lost their houses and everything in it and some will not be compensated by their insurance companies (yes, I kow!).

Out of all combined purchase totalling 15 euros in my shop, 5 euros will be given to Secours O Sinistrés Raiatea (www.sos-raiatea.com)

(30 euros —> 10 euros given etc.)

***** RAIATEA RELIEF SPECIAL *****

Il y a eu un glissement de terrain catastrophique au sud de cette petite île polynésienne où j'ai fait mes premiers pas et où je ne désespère pas d'en refaire quelques-uns un jour, et plusieurs familles ont tout perdu en perdant leur maison.

Le droit des assurances, différent en Polynésie de ce qu'il est en Métropole a permis à certaines compagnies d'assurances de classer les demandes d'indemnisation sans suite. Tout simplement...

Tout achat de 15 euros dans mes boutiques me permettra de rajouter 5 euros à mon dons personnel à l'association locale Secours O Sinistrés Raiatea (www.sos-raiatea.com : n'hésitez pas à faire votre don directement à l'association si rien ne vous tente !).

(30 euros —> 10 euros donnés etc.).

Merry-Go-Round - Time— to manage or not to manage

Jump on our merry go round and join a group of artists/crafts-women from around the world as they link hands and tell you a little bit about their lives in craft.

Do look up the answers from the rest of this band of crafters (links to your left).

If they haven't all posted yet, remember we all live in different time zones and check again later...

This month:

Time management— how do you juggle your time— how do you wish you could juggle your time?

"Juggle" is about right...

At the moment, for instance, I'm having to deal with an overload of work in my day job and that has to take priority. Whenever that happens, I don't have any time for creation and I just deal with orders, if any...

Sometimes, after a long day of working for my day-job, I will have an outburst of creativity and suddenly put together one or several items in one evening. But I prefer to be able to take a whole day when I work on something, often working on several things in parallel, exploring techniques and allowing projects to "mull" some...

Over the past few years, I have dedicated all or nearly all my leisure time to Le Bar du Vent, researching or actually designing / crafting. That is how I juggle my time and my double life— one day at a time.

Secret Paris

View from the room I was staying in. View AND perfume...

New / Nouveautés

Need feedback! Positive, constructive feedback.

Besoin de retours, avis... et autres encouragements.

Moss terrarium necklaces— I'm only getting started— I just love the colours.

Not posting them abroad, so far— I'm not sure it would be legal. I suppose I might consider Europe, though.

Colliers terrarium de mousse ; ce n'est qu'un début. J'aime ces couleurs !

Je ne les envoie qu'en France, pour l'instant : je crains que ce ne soit pas légal de les envoyer à l'étranger. Mais peut-être que l'Europe serait autorisée...

And now for something completely different, though with lovely colour too—

Rien à voir, mais là aussi j'aime la couleur.

An original, indispensable little something that will add flare to your table, whatever the occasion. Solid copper.

Une accessoire original et indispensable, en cuivre, pour ajouter ce petit je-ne-sais-quoi à votre table, quelle que soit l'occasion.

FOW 10

So little time, so much to do. I stumbled onto these sweet chrysoprase cabs recently. I did try to resist, but I really couldn't... They're two tortoises (rather than turtles, I think), and a lovely dolphin, and, one day, they will stand proudly on handmade rings.
Beaucoup à faire et trop peu de temps pour le faire... Adorables cabochons gravés de chrysoprase, pas pu résister. Comme d'hab.

Deux tortues et un joli petit dauphin qui feront de ravissntes bagues. Un jour.

Merry-Go-Round - Inspiring artist

Jump on our merry go round and join a group of artists/crafts-women from around the world as they link hands and tell you a little bit about their lives in craft.

Do look up the answers from the rest of this band of crafters (links to your left).

If they haven't all posted yet, remember we all live in different time zones and check again later...

This month:

An artist that inspires you.

I'm really not sure what to answer to that. I cannot name one or even several artists whose work I feel is an influence on what I make.

Of course there are a few visual artists I am particularly fond of.

Painters Turner and Magritte, as well as photographer André Kertész come to mind immediately.

For some reason(s) that I'm not sure I would want to explore, even if I felt I could.

I simply enjoy looking at their work and letting my mind ramble.

But I wouldn't say they are an influence. It's more like what makes me like them is also what makes me come up with the ideas and objects I come up with.

One work of art that has played a special role in my life is this landscape by Van Gogh. It's entitled Yellow Wheat and Cypresses.

I am not the happy owner of this painting— it's in a museum somewhere, possibly in the National Gallery but I'm not sure.

I have just owned three reproductions of it. Two of them face each other across my living-room at the moment— a large framed print and a larger unframed copy that my brother had made especially for me in China (unsigned, as I asked— it's a copy not a fake). One of the (many) things that make people find my flat "interesting" to plain old "weird".

I first "saw" this painting when I came across a very large print of it, as I was browsing through prints, looking for something to make the white walls of my Cambridge room less white. It was love at first sight. The print was really huge and much too expensive but I just had to have it.

For two years, it was the "detail" that, to my eyes at least, made my bedsitter harmonious as opposed to its original drab state.

After that, it was my visual haven in three more flats, until the paper (I never framed it) couldn't take any more. I was starting a new life, in a different city— I shed that skin.

But after a few years I remembered it and realized I'd missed it. So I hunted down a quality print on the net. Not as large as the "original", but good enough. I felt much better once I'd gotten, framed and hung up the successor. And then two years ago I had the opportunity to have a copy made— for texture— A really large one.

I must have spent hours gazing at this landscape, getting lost in its perfection.

I am no Van Gogh fan. I don't even like his painting most of the time. But this particular painting is me. Somehow.

There's quite a bit of yellow in this, and ususally, yellow is my least favourite colour. But I just love the yellow strokes in this. Just as much as the gorgeous green ones and the delightful blue ones.

The mix of violence and placidity I see in this picture is mysteriously soothing for me, to this day.

The chaotic harmony of it— I really cannot get enough of it.

I guess it epitomizes the mystery of art. As opposed to design. So, a very, very distant influence and source of inspiration...