Saturday, April 24, 2010

Helping Mom's for Mommy's Day!

So Mother's Day is fast approaching......have you bought your mommy a present yet(remember shipping time if your buying online)

One thing with today's mom is that fact that she has more things on her plate and the plate is getting smaller.

Well of all her sacrifice and efforts, its nice to be recognized.

I received a convo today at my store from Melissa. Melissa has started a Mom Blog about all the small business mom's out there on and off the internet.

Melissa's blog is a resource for families to help mom's succeed and also provide us with great products. She has requested to feature my store Fibreheart in her blog with a Product Review and Giveaway! I can't wait. This really warms my heart. Especially when everything has been so up in the air lately with sales and views on Etsy. Things like the SnickersnCream blog at blogspot.com seem to make all this worth it and made me feel like I am succeeding somewhere. Thank you so much Melissa for your invite to your blog.

I wish everyone great success and on Mother's Day give your Mommy an extra hug to show her you care.

To view and follow Melissa blog go to snickersncream.blogspot.com.

Happy Shopping!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

I am obsessed.......

I have realized this morning, that I am obsessed with the checking and rechecking my Etsy shop for any change what so ever.

I have come to the conclusion that this is a lot like watching water boil.

To not lose your sanity on a site like Etsy, I think you do need to step off for a few days.

It takes me a day to 2 days to make my little creations and I believe that I could probably get those out quicker if I wasn't refreshing my shop, floating aimlessly around the forums and playing in the chat rooms.

Don't get me wrong, I agree that you do need to do these things to network, answer questions, have questions answered, but I think that like all things, it must be done in moderation.

You can check your shop for convos, post listings, renew items, change your shop announcement, but then get off. Hanging around cuts into your production time and valuable photo light if you take pics outside.

So in light of all this I am going to conduct an experiment. Check my shop just for sales and messages, see if anything needs revamping and get off. Prepare stuff for listing and list on the weekends. Sundays will be forum and chat days. I will do this for my next fiscal month and see how that compares to the previous month.

I do have mentors on Etsy and I hardly ever see them around. Top Sellers, hardly ever see them around. I know they have other venues to attend to so I will have to see if that has anything to do with it as well.

I would be curious to hear if anyone else is doing or going to do something like this. Leave your comments and Happy Selling!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Fellow Etsian and Felter


I would like to introduce a fellow Etisian on Etsy.com that I came across while I was researching my craft.

Her talent is shown in all her wonderful creations.

Janice of Janice Cordeio's Wool creations can be found here http://www.etsy.com/shop/JaniceCordeiro

She can also be found at the ArtSprings Gallery in Silver Springs, Maryland and one of her ornaments will be featured in Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Craft Magazine.

She has helped me with advice and inspiration.

Thank you Janice.

Here is a sample of her work. Just the cutest!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Needlefelting-Little Known Art


Now for a little about what I do.

I am a needle felter. What's a needle felter? A needle felter is basically a wool knotter...lol. My creations are created with an old technique called Dry Needle Felting.

First you aquire some non spun wool called roving in some parts, batts in others. There is a difference though that I a learning about as time goes along. You also need a special needle that is barbed. They primarily come in 2 shapes, triangle and star. These needles have barbs up the shaft that catch the hairs of the wool and pull them into the center of your work. These needles are very, very sharp! I have ouched myself plenty of times....lol. Blood sweat and tears is an understatment when your learning this craft. But don't be afraid. Usually you have a stiff foam block to help protect your table, lap etc and you can buy finger protectors to stop stabbing your self. I also got some hand carders. These can be small or they can be large. They help with brushing the wool straight, blending colors, and brushing out vegetable matter that may still be trapped in the wool.

How it works: Ok so you have your supplies. You want to make a ball, fine, but how? First you would figure out how big you want your ball. To do this you first need to know a few things. 1. Felted wool shrinks. As you felt your ball it will shrink down to about half its size because as you draw in fibers to the center, you are pushing out the air in it. but no worries, you can add more wool to build up 2. How squishy do you want your ball? The more you felt your ball the harder it gets because of the air again. So if you want a squishy ball go easy on the felting. 3. Felt and look. If you want a ball that is perfectly round you must look at your ball from all angles as you felt. Felt a bit, look a bit and keep doing this for all your projects. 4. The details are in the needles. Your needle can come in various sizes but what you will hear of most commonly is 38 and 36 needles. Your 38 needle is your bulk needle. This will allow you to felt your project quickly and create the most of the density. The 36 is your detail needle. This needle is smaller and only grabs a few fibers at a time and allows for more detailed work. A little note on needles, you must go in and out of your work straight no matter what angle you are at. A bent needle can snap easily.

I hope this first installment of needle felting info was helpful and if you are a needlefelter and feel that I have missed something, feel very free to leave comments for others. I will be reading these comments and can make corrections in the post.

I will be posting the new things i learned during the week every Monday as well i will be posting creative works from people i run into so you can see what can be done with this art form.

Till we talk again!
FibreHeart.etsy.com

Welcome to my blog

A little about me, I am a 33 year old mother of 2 beautiful girls and a work at home mom. I have a shop on a great website called ETSY.COM. This site may be about selling handmade treasures, but its much more than that. My shop, FibreHeart.etsy.com, has only been open for about 3 weeks. I have asked a lot of questions during that time and I owe all my success to this point to the kind members of Etsy. Their insights, input, and kind words are most inspiring. Everyone looks out for each other. I have found some of the most kindest people there. If you are ever going to do online sales got to Etsy and tell them I told you.