Online Activity

Posted on December 13, 2011 by suzy

Its the thing isn’t it, online activity.. keeping up an ‘online presence’, keeping in touch with people, promoting, networking…

Its hard work. I often look at other peoples blogs, the ones filled with try-weekly posts, packed with information, features, photos. I wonder how they can think of all that stuff and how much time they are spending on writing and promoting, it must be huge! I admire that a LOT. I wish I could do it. But as this blog testifies, for me it is a big fail! I just don’t seem to find the time to fill this with updates, in fact I have to say I love Facebook for that, I find that by using Facebook daily I AM keeping in touch with everyone, I CAN offer updates and progress photos and network and interact and follow others, and I can even do it from my phone! Although now I think about it I can also do WordPress from my phone too :) Oh well, maybe I just feel more pressure on my blog to offer ‘useful’ stuff!

What I am building up to, is that I have made a decision. I am going to focus on Facebook as a platform for interacting, posting info, useful links, and networking, and I won’t be updating this blog regularly, it wasn’t happening anyway and I was feeling guilty about that. I think at some point its necessary to make an actual decision and create some direction, or you end up feeling stretched out too far, and I already have a teenager AND a three year old to do that for me :)

So thats it! Come see me on Facebook :) www.facebook.com/woolwenchyarns (for my yarn related stuff) and www.facebook.com/strungart (for my art related stuff)

Cheers :)

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Book keeping software question..

Posted on November 18, 2011 by suzy

I wonder how many millions of blog posts made everyday on the world wide inter web start with ‘Its been a while since my last confession blog post…

I know, actually, it has!! Oh dear… No excuse! I’d love to say I have been busy stocking my Strung Art shop for Christmas, but I haven’t! I have been making yarns though! And getting thoroughly distracted, honestly its like my mind is like Doug from that movie ‘Up’ and every little thing is like ‘squirrel!!’ and then I lose what I was doing two seconds ago.. and the day progresses like that, leaping from one thing to another unplanned and randomly while all the time thinking that there is something I was going to do…

What I really want to do is get organized. Can anyone recommend some kind of accounting or book keeping program that works well with running an Etsy shop? Something really really really simple but also (I know its lame) it has to be really pretty or honestly, I know myself, I probably won’t use it. And I want to. To have some kind of organization, apparently I am in need of it right now :)

Any advise welcome, I don’t even mind buying software if its just what I need.. help?

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Its a WoolWench giveaway!

Posted on October 26, 2011 by suzy

I am so thrilled to have just reached 100 likers on my WoolWench Facebook page here! To celebrate, I would like to giveaway a print of your choice of  any yarn photo from my Woolwench store here. I wish I had enough stock to giveaway some skeins, but that will have to wait a wee while, look for the 200 likers mark for a yarn freebie!

So, we spend a lot of time making the photos for my store, I love to find a prop that matches the idea of the yarn, or the coloring, or the theme in my head as I am spinning, each prop has some meaning to me and connection to the yarn its displayed with, and we have worked hard on making the photos as beautiful as we can to do justice to the yarn that I love so much :) I have even had convos from people just to tell me they like my photos! Such a thrill for me to get that kind of feedback!   I think that some of these pics would make lovely prints, and great wooly workroom decor to adorn the walls of your yarn areas, studios, or sewing rooms, so I would love to give some away to celebrate and share the love! Just leave your comment here, tell me which photo you like best (you can also check out my sold yarns for more pics), and I will use a random generation thingy to select 5 giveaway winners! I’ll keep this open till Saturday 5h Nov to give everyone a chance to stop by. If I get lots of responses I will giveaway more than 5 prints, so spread the word around pleeeease :)

I will make your print for you on an A4 photo quality card, ready for framing, and I will post worldwide so don’t worry about postage :) If you have nowhere to put a print, if you would rather have a set of 4 beautiful greeting cards with yarn on them (for your special wooly friends!) just let me know and I can make you those instead of a print, I hope you like this idea and will leave your comments here to go in the draw! (how do I make a fingers-crossed smiley?!)

Love you guys! Excited about this!! Here are some examples of a few of the pics to choose from:

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And Christmas is coming!

Posted on October 19, 2011 by suzy

Already, everyone is starting to think about christmas, tentative plans are being made for ‘the day’, shops are hauling out the decorations and lights, Etsians are rolling up their sleeves and stocking up their stores, all in preparation for ‘that’ time of the year. And I love it :) Christmas is seriously cool. I come from a southern hemisphere land where we celebrate the season with sun, barbecues, picnics, family outings, sand, and surf. I have seen Father Christmas arrive on a motorbike, in a helicopter,  four wheel drive, and even a Mack Truck. Often he was wearing his shades. Here in Holland its a little different, and I have to say I finally get the whole ‘lights’ thing, it really gets dull and the days get so short around Christmas, the lights are an essential to staying sane as well as being pretty. Now I would just like to see the Dutch get a little more daring and use actual COLOURED lights as well as the standard white fairy lights. Your neighbors won’t think you have bad taste, not really. They will secretly admire those pretty colored lights from a distance and wish they had the courage to put them up too!

Ok so I just thought I would show you a few of the items I have in my store for this coming holiday season. I am only a small way towards having it all ready of course, but so far I have some pretty Owl Cards:

And I will be adding to this one with some more Owlish designs for the winter season :) I can also custom make these in different colored card and envelope sets on request.

I also have my sweet little winter felts, Cats who are rather pleased with themselves, for various reasons but mostly to do with food.

These little Kitties make really cute christmas tree decorations, they are all hand stitched, and have wintery christmassy motifs such as the holly leaves or the sparkly stitched snowflakes.

I really enjoyed making those, I don’t sew very often but when I do I love it a lot :) Especially the outcomes when I make something like these kitties, so cute!

So I will be watching my favorite shops stock up for the season, I hope you enjoyed seeing a few of the items that are in my store specifically for the holiday season :) Don’t forget to drop by too for stocking fillers such as art prints and ACEO cards, or special treats like an original artwork!

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Two Etsy shops? Double the Love <3

Posted on October 5, 2011 by suzy

I thought I would make this post about my experience of setting up a second Etsy shop. I know people ask about this quiet often during the Etsy Labs, should they set up a second shop and why / why not. Usually its because, like me, they have a wide range of somewhat eclectic products and they are worried that their shops are: scary, incomprehensible, confusing, scatter-brained, and/or impossible to navigate. Well, thats what my thoughts were anyway, perhaps I am just paranoid unique in this though.

But in fact I was probably right, in as much as my Strung Art shop is for my artwork; original paintings, prints, cards, and also art dolls. That just doesn’t fit with handspun yarns, I couldn’t think of any way to integrate that into what I already thought was a bit of a mix. To with great trepidation I opened a new shop, devoted to my handspun yarns!

It was/is -exciting, easier because I know more about how to do it, simpler as in I am selling a much more specific item, even tagging is a breeze in comparison to the artworks, more challenging because I was starting from scratch again with an empty shop to fill and no existing contacts or networking for it, and scary, because I did not know (and still don’t) how I am going to find enough time and energy to promote two separate shops and all the associated online marketing and social networking that goes with it.

In fact that is the hardest part for me, working my way through the maze of interconnected inter web social networking sites, promotional sites, and trying to work out how to market. I have discovered some cool things on the way though. I already have an established Facebook page connected to my Strung Art shop, I have this blog, I have Twitter. I was just getting the hang of all those things and how they work together and what to do with them, and building up some nice friendships among the online art and craft communities. Its actually be quite a revelation to find so many like minded people and become part of this amazing online community we are all building together. I have made some truly lovely contacts with people this way. So of course its not really that ‘scary’ , but there is the time commitment this needs, and I was worried about that and I still am. As I type its 1.18AM. Its this late because my kids were late to bed, and I had some yarn to ply and wash and dye (I know btw). So in the sequence of activities the blog came before bedtime, and that has gotten pushed back later and later. I also have a daughter with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and a lot of high school homework to do, help needed there most nights. The 3 year old is a whirlwind at the moment and things are literally falling off shelves as he dashes past and the floor is no longer visible in the living room by the end of most days. Spinning is my relaxation. But I need to plan enough time to keep up the online activities.

I don’t know how other people do it!! Is there a trick to it that I don’t know about yet?

So to anyone thinking about opening up a second shop, I would say, the shop opening part is the easy part! The stuff that goes with it is just as absorbing, and time consuming as your first shop, which you WILL feel guilt over for neglecting even just that little bit. BUT I am getting so much pleasure out of the second shop, and satisfaction from knowing just that much more about how to make it a good shop, that its totally worth doing! I am loving it :) I guess its a little like having your second child! You’re more relaxed because you have done it before, and you do it better because of your experience, and of course you love your second as much as your first – double the love :)

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Mural Painting

Posted on September 29, 2011 by suzy

I have been painting murals in peoples houses, mostly kids rooms, for a couple of years now here in Holland. Its pretty fun, and so far I have only had very happy customers :) The most recent one was this tree, my client asked for the tree, showing all four seasons, some squirrels, owls, and cute things for the baby to grow up with. So I had lots of fun painting this! Thought I would share a few images of it here, although you will have to forgive me the photos a bit, the room was small and I didn’t have a good lens to take very wide angle pics. I should try and do something about that because most of the rooms in dutch houses are pretty small!

Anyway here we are :) You can click on the image to see it bigger in the gallery, and then click again for the full size

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Artist Feature: Kathrynmuse

Posted on September 18, 2011 by suzy

This week I want to share with you something different and something special :)  An article featuring one of my Etsy Ugly Cute team mates and an amazing artist and craftsperson, Kathrynmuse.

Kathryn has a gorgeous Etsy store, in which she sells amazing soft creations like this one:

I really love the style of these, and the way Kathryn uses some amazing fabrics in very clever ways.

I wanted to learn more about my teamie and share that with you here :) so I asked her a few questions which she was gracious enough to answer and let me post.

“I see you have a fine arts background and you also mention your photography in your profile, thats quite different from your work on sale at Etsy, what was it that drew you to making these lovely plushies?”

I used to love additive sculpture, like clay, when I was in school, and have always loved most hands-on creative processes (ie the photography darkroom, painting, building simple furniture, etc.) A couple years ago, our oldest daughter started craving the Ugly Dolls, but if you wanted a bunch of them, it got to be pretty expensive. So I started thinking, “I bet I could make something like this myself” and made a bunch of simple fleece creatures for our daughters as Christmas presents that year. Other people would see them and ask about them, so it made me think more and more that maybe I should try it as a business.

“Are you a planner? Do you make up your designs in advance or do you let each plushy develop organically as you go?”

I like to start with some idea (certain animal, alien, object, etc.), and sketch it out on paper first. Once I like the sketch, I’ll scan it into my mac and play with it and clean it up in Photoshop.

“How do you manage your time with family and photography and sewing?”

I often struggle with keeping it all balanced. I’ve actually had to spend less time with photography lately, to try to get the Musers established. I’ve been blessed to be able to be a stay-at-home mom to our children, but they are now 9 and 11 years old, so they’re at school during the day and I have plenty of time to devote to the Musers (and sometimes photography). The hard part is after school, when one needs to go to dance and the other needs to go to gymnastics, and I need to cook dinner, and they both have homework, etc.

“What do you like about our Ugly Cute team? (are you in many teams?)”

I love the creative diversity encompassed in the Ugly Cute Team! Also, everyone is super friendly there. I have been able to start a wonderful project there where other Etsy artists sign up for me to create a plushie inspired by one of their items, as this has challenged me to stretch my comfort zone, and my sewing/fabrication skills.

“Can tell me a bit about your photography too? Its beautiful! Any plans of setting up an etsy shop for that too?”

I DO plan on opening up a photography shop on Etsy in the future; hopefully in 6 to 12 months. My photography was actually a way for me to get back into fine art when our girls were little. I would never have the time or energy to devote to hours at a canvas, but I could sneak out and take some photos, and then work on them on the computer during naptimes. It was a creative outlet that I really needed. When the girls were starting to go to school, I was able to join a few local art groups, and sold photos through them and won some awards. As they got older, they also became part of the art themselves. We go on “shoots” and they are the models. It became a family affair. Our girls inspired me in photography, and then inspired the entire idea of creating the Musers!

Thanks Kathryn! I can really identify with a lot of the same issues, time constraints, family demands, but creative people like you seem to have this extra ability to find opportunities to make and create and fit that into all the other things that need our time. I am looking forward to seeing your photography store, and in the meantime I will keep loving and favouriting your Musers items which are way fun :)

Here are all the cool links where you can find these gorgeous creatures (and Kathryn of course!)

Etsy Store

Musers Blog

Musers Facebook Page

Kathryns Photography Website

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Dolls

Posted on September 12, 2011 by suzy

So today I packed up and posted my Traveller Art Doll! She is winging her way to a lovely doll collector in the USA. Its exciting to be sending her off but I will also miss having her here, I did enjoy making her a LOT , but the best thing is having something I have created going to a new home where someone else can enjoy her too :)

Now I need to continue on with the next one in this series. However the recent total disaster I had with him in which I melted his eyes out.. well its not too inspiring right now to say the least. I guess its one of these ‘opportunities’ I need to look at as positive thing in which I need to get extra creative to make something wonderful out of the current holes for eye sockets freaky doll head. Its a challenge huh :)

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All back together again

Posted on September 8, 2011 by suzy

Now the dust has settled from our extended vacation, it all seems rather back to normal again. Its raining a lot, kids back in school and creche, I go to finish a mural tomorrow that I started on Monday, and then its another weekend. Not sure what to do with it yet, except there is apparently an event called ‘ The Day of Wool’ to which I am tempted. I brought my spinning wheel back with me from New Zealand, and so the art of spinning is foremost in my mind at the moment :) The Day of Wool is some kind of … well there are workshops and people showing stuff and selling stuff, and its being held in a farm somewhere near a place called Oss to the south of us. I think I will go :)

It was odd using my wheel again, I wondered how it would be after so many years, but apparently its a lot like riding a bike :) I have four skeins now waiting to be dyed. I love the dyeing part of it too :) thats gonna be fun! I am just waiting for my Ashford dyes to arrive so I can get started.

I am planning on some multicolored wools. At the moment I am spinning pure Merino, but soon I will start on some blends, I want to try bamboo, it looks gorgeous!

Apart from that, coming up on the blog is an artist feature of an Etsy colleague, photos of my finished wool (if my dye ever get here!), and dare I say it, I am actually going to start on the art doll I have been planning since forever… I keep putting it off until I have enough time to finish the head and face once I start it all in one go, and apparently I never think I have that kind of block of time available. But now I am sick of waiting and I will just do it and anything that might interrupt my sculpting will have to wait!

There I said it :)

Anyone else get torn between too many projects? I end up feeling bad for putting off one project to do another, which of course becomes a perpetual situation!

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Here we are again

Posted on August 29, 2011 by suzy

4.36 Am Amsterdam time. I just woke up. Jetlag. Somebody please tell my body that its not 2pm and I ‘should’ actually be sleeping. Actually better tell that to my 3 year old… He crashed at 4pm, slept really well, and just woke me up, bright as a button and ready to play downstairs. *sigh* This could go on for a few days… But the main thing is, after an epic journey and a truly awesome holiday with family friends and familiar places in New Zealand, we are back. And I have SO MANY things I want to create! Here is my list: -New Moleskine illustrated notebooks, to replace those sold from my Etsy store plus some extras -The second in my ‘Traveller’ Art doll series, which is even more important now that the first one has sold!! Progress to date – I have the wire framing made and materials bought.. -Create some cards ACEOs and prints from my new watercolors range, plus continue to create some new originals like these:

-Make use of my Copic Pens which I luuurve very much and in honor of being a featured creative on the Copic Website!!

-And last but absolutely not least, (because I am really excited about this) I managed to pack my spinning wheel in my suitcase and bring it back here with me to Holland! So I am planning a biggie, a whole NEW Etsy store devoted to my handspun and died WOOL! :) I adore spinning, and playing with dyes and techniques, but I am really a hopeless knitter. So the very best solution that allows me to spin to my hearts content, is to open a store and sell the end result, which then allows me to make more! I need a new shop for this of course as its totally unrelated to anything I sell in my Strung Art store, so I hope I am up for the challenge of running and promoting two stores :) So now I am off to order some lovely fleece so I can start spinning! Its something I haven’t done for years and have really missed, I find it so relaxing and calm inducing; the rythem of the wheel and the working of the hands together, and it doesn’t need a lot of brain activity, its like a kind of meditation really. And when I  moved to Holland my wheel was one of the many things I had to leave behind, so I can’t tell you how happy I am to now have it here with me again! I was worrying the whole journey back about how it was in the suitcases and hoping it wasn’t lost or damaged. Luckily its one of the New Zealand made Ashford wheels, especially designed to be flat packed for shipping :) This is my new favorite website: Ashford and it has a pic of my wheel on it. I hope my blog here doesn’t get confusing as I expand my activities… although all crafts are related because it is the use of our hands to create something, whether its wool, dolls, or paintings.. But in any event I hope to tackle at least some of my above to do list, this week! If the jet lag keeps me waking so early at least I should have plenty of time to get things done :) I will leave you with a photo from my holiday.

Te Awanga Beach NZ 2011. In front of the cafe

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