Niche Handmade

Haus!

2010-08-03T19:34:00.001+01:00

This is my little collage made from vintage illustrations for the fabulous Haus Stories project.

You can find out more about the project at the website or the Flickr group.

Featured!

2010-07-23T22:10:00.001+01:00

My revolver necklace was featured in Etsy's Storque yesterday, alongside some other fantastic items from newly established sellers. Go have a peek!

Busy Busy!

2010-07-17T17:46:00.006+01:00

So this is where I'm at with my work, all of which has to be finished by Wednesday. Fifty pieces of jewellery to be strung and packaged, seventy flower brooches to assemble, and fifteen books to bind. I'm getting there, slowly but surely!

New Packaging

2010-07-16T17:53:00.001+01:00

I've found myself slightly obsessed with stripes recently, so I was uber pleased to find these lovely black and white striped paper bags that I'm now using to package my jewellery. They remind me of mint humbugs :)

Folksy Friday: Circus

2010-07-16T12:27:00.005+01:00

A selection of my favourite finds on Folksy.

Folksy Friday: Green Men

2010-07-09T09:37:00.002+01:00

A selection of my favourite finds on Folksy.

Hello World

2010-07-09T00:02:00.014+01:00

Well! It's been a while! I honestly cannot believe that it's July already, and that my poor blog has been neglected for so long. The last few months have been an absolute whirlwind for me and I've been busy, busy, busy. I was lucky enough to be offered a trade unit at our local Ocean Terminal for twenty one dates between May and September, selling my handmade goods to the cruise ship passengers who are disembarking at Greenock for the day (almost 40,000 in total. Eep!). It's been absolutely amazing so far but I completely underestimated the amount of work that it would involve. Now that I've got my head round it, every spare minute I have is spent making jewellery or binding books and that's going to have to continue for the foreseeable future, at least until the end of September. Despite the hard graft, it's wonderful to be able to fill my days doing something that I love and to have a guaranteed outlet for my stock.

My online shops will continue to be in and out of holiday mode as the ships come and go, but I did finally get time to make up some new jewellery that I'll be adding to the shop over the next few days. I also managed to take new photographs of everything, which I've been meaning to do for ages! I'm really pleased with how they turned out. Sneaky peek below.

Folksy Friday: Caffeine Fix

2010-03-19T13:51:00.008Z

A selection of my favourite finds on Folksy.

House

2010-03-12T11:51:00.003Z

A selection of my favourite finds on Folksy.

Folksy.com Treasure Hunt

2010-03-10T14:17:00.005Z

Go and have a search around Folksy.com and see if you can find them all! :)

Gio Compario

2010-03-03T00:22:00.004Z

I get a lot of custom orders, but this has definitely been the most fun so far. Meet Gio Compario, the opera singing star of the Go Compare adverts. A customer requested him as a present for her neighbour, who apparently bears more than a passing resemblance to Gio.

As with all my dolls, the materials used to make him are repurposed wherever possible. His trousers, tail coat and shoes are made from one of my hubby's old shirts. His shirt, waistcoat and bow-tie are made from one of my daughter's old school shirts, embellished with fabric pen and seed beads. I'm really pleased with how he turned out. Hopefully his recipient likes him too.

Folksy Friday: Moon and Stars

2010-02-12T18:51:00.004Z

A selection of my favourite finds on Folksy.

Munchkin Making

2010-02-05T17:19:00.004Z

After my last two day crocheting marathon my right thumb was so painful that I couldn’t bring myself to pick up the hook again, so I spent the eight days that I rested it working on developing patterns for some amigurumi critters. I found that it’s very like learning to draw. First of all you master the basic shapes – spheres, ovoids, cubes, cones, cylinders – then you put them together in different combinations until the maximum possible cuteness level is reached! I came up with this, my munchkin:

As soon as my new Clover Soft Touch hooks arrive, I’m going to produce an army of these little guys.

Folksy Friday: Snowdrops and Daffodils

2010-02-05T12:00:00.006Z

A selection of my favourite finds on Folksy.

Folksy Friday: Birds and Bees

2010-01-29T09:37:00.003Z

A selection of my favourite finds on Folksy.

Branching Out

2010-01-27T17:11:00.003Z

I’m happy to say that I’ve spent the last ten days perfecting my amigurumi technique and I’ve now started listing some of my new items in my shop. These little kokeshi dolls stand 9cm high and are uber cute! Great for brightening up a dull corner.

As much as I love designing jewellery, I’m excited to be branching out. I have so many ideas in my head for where I want to go with this new skill and I’m really looking forward to expanding my range.

Folksy Friday: Print and Pattern

2010-01-22T13:15:00.010Z

A selection of my favourite finds on Folksy.

Practice Makes Perfect

2010-01-20T16:56:00.016Z

One of the entries on my never ending list of things to do in 2010 was to learn to crochet, specifically to learn amigurumi, which is the Japanese style of crocheting where the stitches are primarily formed in spirals rather than rows. I found myself at a loose end on Monday night so I sat down with a couple of tutorials and numerous YouTube videos and got to work. I've tried crocheting before but I've never managed to get to grips with it. This time round, something just clicked. Here’s my results!

Far from perfect but I think I’ve nailed the basics. Lots more practice ahead of me! Hopefully I will eventually be able to produce items as lovely as these, from my fellow Folksy sellers:

Folksy Friday: Tea and Cake

2010-01-15T10:21:00.014Z

A selection of my favourite finds on Folksy.

Nice Package!

2010-01-13T13:20:00.007Z

One of my favourite things about Christmas is wrapping the presents. I always take the time to design a festive wrapping scheme that I love and I didn’t think it should be any different when sending out my sold items, especially since a lot of these are purchased by someone making a little gift to themselves. I was determined not to use any materials that forced me to pass on exorbitant additional costs to my customers so I experimented with a number of different combinations of papers, ribbons, string, tags, etc. and I’ve now come up with something that not only looks pretty and is consistent with my brand, but doesn’t cost the earth.

I like to think that when my customers are opening their items there’s at least a little of the excited anticipation that accompanies opening a Christmas present.

As a customer or a seller, how important is packaging to you?

New Beginnings

2010-01-11T21:41:00.003Z

Blogging publicly is something I've found myself less and less inclined to do over the past few years. I used to have a fairly active LiveJournal account in my early twenties (and yes, it's freaking me out that I can now refer to my early twenties as a thing of the past like that!) but as time went on and life became increasingly more routine, I totally lost the impetus. When you're a happily married working Mum of two girls that doesn’t go out much, life is pretty cut and dried. However, every New Year brings new starts and 2010 is no different.

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A couple of months after losing my job in September of last year, I opened a wee shop on the wonderful Folksy.com to sell my handmade bits and bobs. It’s something I’d seriously considered doing about a year previously, but with a full time job it was impossible. I’m glad I waited. It’s gone better than I ever expected it would. Consequently my main plan for the near future is to ensure that my shop continues going from strength to strength and this blog will hopefully be a useful tool in that process. I’m looking forward to documenting the ups and downs of it all. Aside from anything else, having a public forum where I’m expected to write on a regular basis will hopefully keep my lazy side in check!