PREVIEW - BIENTOT EN BOUTIQUE...

Brand new - Tout chaud :

Merry-Go-Round - Creative Challenge

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 posted yet, remember we all live in different time zones and check again later...

This month's theme:

This month, we have all been working on projects inspired by one photo— showing a bouquet of colourful ballons.

I have long wanted to experiment with those lovely fabric flowers that I had seen on Etsy.

What with their being round and as colourful as you like and also potentially full of life and cheer, that's what came to mind the minute I saw those balloons...

So here goes.

I really like that those fabric flowers are organic-looking, and all unique, however adept you can probably get at making them.

As usual, I like the haphazard, chance aspect of this craft.

I also like that you can make them recycling all those industrial fibers that you find everywhere and that always seem to age à-so-not-gracefully— that way, you can turn som drab, mass-produced stuff into organic-looking, unique loveliness.

I still need to practice a lot more before I can create more loveliness than cuteness, but I already quite like the simplicity of these two in particular.

Now. What to do with them.

You see a lot of these on bobby pins and who am I to do any different?

So that's where my two maroon balloon-flowers will go.

But for the other five, I have a special master-plan.

He, he, he...

A few weeks ago, I was given this promotional Etsy bag— which was nice.

But have a look— don't you find it a bit sad.

Really not balloon-like cheerful, is it?

Badly in need of some embellishment, wouldn't you say?

Ta daa!

That was fun.

Lots more flowers to be strewn on the path of the unsuspecting virtual shopper. All in good time.

Merry-Go-Round - Is place of the essence?

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 posted yet, remember we all live in different time zones and check again later...

This month's theme:

How much, if at all, does your geographical location affect your art/craft?

Well, truth is, I am away right now, in Morocco.

So that is definitely affecting my crafting, as I am away from it all. But I do plan to keep my eyes peeled and find new inspiration. I've also taken with me a large cross stich project, but I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to put into it... Able, willing, whatever. When the sand and the ocean beckon, strength of character is really not my forte.

Other than material contigencies and lack of space, I'm not sure that my current geography affects what I do, or how I do it. Wherever I am, I am always on the lookout but also thinking of, remembering, looking forward to— other locations.

I think it's much more about personal culture than geography, for me.

Though my location definitely affects how I feel, which in turn...

That'll be all from me, 'cause I'm off to the beach! Sorry about that. :-) Not!

I'm pretty sure you'll find much more interesting reading on my fellow merry-go-rounders...

Celebrate the Fleur de Lis and donate

I'd like to show off a few photos of my first Fleur de Lis items, all created with Louisiana in mind, celebrated the old tie with this "cousin", and trying to help.

I've already made a donation because I wished to help in any small way to clean up and save as many as possible of the unsuspecting creatures that have been victims, as usual, of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but there is only so much I can do on my own...

Now, when I posted a question about this on the oh-so-friendly Etsy forum, I got a biting remark about the first victims which happened to be the human fatalities and casualties at the site. So I guess I had better point out right away that however saddening the loss of these lives, I still find the the loss of innocent animal lives (and the wrecking of quite a few human lives too) even more saddening and quite maddening. Not that I'm happy about the plants destroyed either...

I should also add that I'm fully aware that Louisiana is not the only state suffering from the consequences of the spill— I just had to pick.

Anyway. I have begun listing a few original Fleur de Lis items and whenever I sell one— nudge, nudge—, I will donate half the price to the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Foundation (here, scroll down to the very bottom). To help clean up the mess and save lives and keep people busy in a good way.

I began with the two "Carnet de Bal" notebooks, and then went on to create two different pairs of earrings. Everything handmade by me. Everything listed in my Etsy shop.

So— thanks in advance— nudge, nudge...

Merry-Go-Round - What's on your plate?

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 posted yet, remember we all live in different time zones and check again later...

This month's theme:

What's on your plate - healthy quick recipes that give us plenty of time to create.

Healthy and lazy, huh?
That's me. :-)

Actually, there is something really simple and possibly healthy that I often put on my plate, together with some sliced tomatoes and / or green salad (whatever I have in my fridge), when I want something quick and tasty and balanced: cheese, with olive oil and pepper.
Any kind of cheese, really, though I favour goats cheese.
I love to eat cheese without bread, anyway, with a knife and fork. Or without them too (blushes). Love bread on its own, on the side. As a dessert, really.
A guess that's the Mediterranean in me...

Etsy Craft Party... à Bordeaux, le 18 juin

Pour célébrer ses 5 ans, le site de création / design / bidouillage etc. artistique et tout et tout, Etsy, lance une vague de "Craft Parties" dans le monde entier, histoire de se retrouver entre créateurs de tous poils.

Comme l'indique le titre, à Bordeaux, ce serait le 18 juin, sans doute au Frog & Rosbif.

Qui veut en être ? C'est ici qu'il faut vous manifester.

Merry-Go-Round - Networking

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 posted yet, remember we all live in different time zones and check again later...

This month's theme:

What do you do to network? In what ways does it work or not work?

These days, I have even less time for networking than for crafting.

Over the past few years, I have tried the usual (myspace, blogging, among others) and the less usual (this Merry-Go-Round, the Thursday Sweet Treat...). I don't believe the networking sites, such as myspace and facebook (which I keep personal) are any good for me.

The only forum I still visit on a daily basis is the DaWanda forum. If only because I find it much more congenial than the Etsy forum where you get a measure of support but also a lot of gratuitous aggression. I have no time for this... Still, the Etsy forum is where I found the Thusrday Sweet Treat, which was a really inspiring 'place', (when I still had time to be part of it...) and it is much faster than the DaWanda one, especially in English, which is a shame.

As I have never done this full time,
I really have no idea what concrete results it has brought about, or what it could have. What I do know, though, is that it has allowed me to learn a lot from fellow crafters. It has also inspired me in a way I couldn't have been if I had only been focusing on making and selling.

It has kept me curious and — relatively— ambitious.

In short, though it sometimes felt like the networking time was stolen from crafting, I suspect I wouldn't be crafting at all anymore, if it wasn't for the virtual ties that have kept me going.

Using my blog address as a signature at the bottom of all my mails has brought me at least two clients among aquaintances who didn't know of that part of my life. I also keep giving away my business cards, though I still don't know what effect it may have had. Who knows...