What's a charm swap all about? Ask Re-Maker!

are you joining our Sweet 16 Birthday Charm Swap?

I hope so! This post might inspire you, it's from Re-Maker, an Etsy shop we love and one of the 2012 swap participants. I love her writing, her photos and her take on our swap! 

check out the blog post here and check her out, too!

Weekly Newsletter - you should just subscribe!

Good afternoon! I'm sorry my note is late today. I returned from a trip to the mountains yesterday and my bed was SO comfortable. I feel like I left a big part of my brain under a tree in Western NC. Perhaps it's there now, watching a blue-tailed skink scamper down a branch, into a stream?  I had a lot of fun on my mountain trip. We saw some amazing bear tracks (!!!) incredible starry skies and lots of those skinks. I am happy to be back, though. I filled my brain and my sketch books with lots of fun ideas for projects that I want to get started on. This hot weather we'll enjoy for the rest of the week gives me great incentive to stay inside in the cool air and bring those ideas to reality. If you are looking for cool, indoor activities, we have a few good classes this weekend (look below) plus our Make-N-Take jars are full of fun ideas for you. The Decopatch paper coupon on the bottom of this note can help you to do this if you really want to keep busy!  Pop-Up Sunday Vintage Market is THIS Sunday, and I'm looking forward to a great day. We'll have beer donated by our friends at Carolina Brewery (yum!) and all our donations will go to support Global H2O. This clean water initiative was started by a group of NCSU and UNC graduates and has put clean water wells in 30 villages in Uganda. While we don't usually support international charities at Pop-Up, the strong work done by Global H2O was so compelling we had to work with them. Learn more about Global H2O here, or when you stop by the Carolina Brewery tent at Pop-Up this Sunday. Find the list of vendors at this month's Pop-Up here.  some new items in the store this week: and now in our Etsy shop:

Well, since my brain doesn't seem to have actually returned from the mountains yet, I think I'll see if I can find some busy-work today. Perhaps there are some beads I can sort? I might be able to find those around here somewhere... I'll see you soon-    This message is excerpted from our store newsletter.You also missed some amazing coupons and discount codes for classes...so subscribe already! Use that link in the sidebar >>>>

Inspiration - Space

This beautiful necklace was created by Jane Mormino, a North Carolina artist who also happens to be part of our wiz-bang team of designers here at Ornamentea. This necklace is currently listed in her Etsy shop where you can view it and vote for it in the NASA & Etsy To The Moon and Beyond Contest. The winner of this contest gets to attend the last shuttle launch in 2011.

I love the way Jane has combined vintage images of moon walks and space craft with the curved vintage watch crystals. Those watch crystals remind me of shuttle portholes.

So, please go vote for Jane's lovely design right here. Her shop name is Ergane.

To the moon and beyond!

Regretsy, when the usual handcrafted gift just won't do

One day last year a friend sent me a link to a site called Regretsy. I clicked on the link to see some vagina jewelry featured. Or maybe it was a chicken sweater or knitted tampon cozy. I don't remember, it is all a funny blur. The very funny Helen Killer (April Winchell) selected the very best of the worst on Etsy and featured the items on her site. Tampon earrings. Vampire wedding couples made out of clay flowerpots and glued-on pom-poms. She skewers the very oddest, the worst, the craziest in Indie Crafts on post after post. The site is not to be read at work, or with your children, or with anyone who has thin skin. The crafters that are skewered often sell their work fast to hipsters who purchase the oddities to hang ironically on their living room walls or (in the case of a few wearables) to don for their ironic wedding photos.

Before you think April Winchell is evil, she is a person who admits to loving the weird. She also admits to making wicked fun of people who forget to use spell-check, who make something in 5 minutes and want to sell it for $100 and to people who glue pipe-cleaners and plastic sequins on old cheese graters and call it Steampunk.

Now there is a Regretsy book. We got the book in and I browsed through it and laughed but I have to admit I didn't read it cover-to-cover. I did bring one home, because that is exactly the kind of book I want to have in my living room. One evening I was leafing through the book looking for design inspiration and I saw that a print that I have (unironically) hanging on the wall of my studio is featured in the book.

Now, exactly what is odd or humorous about a bowl of brussel sprouts and doll heads, I ask you?

You can get the book here. It is very funny and would be a great gift for your favorite etsian.

handmade Harry Potter jewelry

These amazing pieces of jewelry were all created by Susan Reynolds in celebration of the newest Harry Potter movie. I love them all. They are so beautiful I would wear them to any movie. I wish I were wearing them tonight, to see Harry. Are you going?

These images are from Susan's etsy shop at Bijou Savvy. Please visit her shop today.

Thank you, Susan, for sharing these images with us, and have fun tonight!

It's an Etsy Craft Party!

If you are wondering how you can celebrate the birthday of Etsy, wonder no more. There will be a Craft Party Meet Up here, there and everywhere on June 18th at 8:00 to celebrate Etsy's birthday and craftiness. You can register to join the Meet Up here. The site with the most registrants wins a nifty box of craft goodies from Etsy.

I don't know exactly how that will work as I am picturing lots of formerly-peaceful crafters going frantic as a box of glue sticks, glitter, ribbon and paint is sighted. It could get ugly. Imagine the Bargain Bin last call sale crossed with Cameron Crazies and all the oddities from Regretsy.

I wouldn't miss it for the world.

Visit Regretsy here. Warning, it is so Not Suitable For Work. Or children.

Etsy

Is is et-zee? or eat-see? nevermind*. Etsy is a powerhouse that has transformed the whole indy craft movement. Some folks say it IS the indy craft movement. I know I sure spend enough time and money there. Sometimes the work is truly amazing, technically superb, hip, cool. And then sometimes you just want to say, what? You made that? Why?

For those moments, there is Regretsy. Very, very funny. Not for children.

(um, it is et-zee. I asked when I was there earlier this year. Oh, and by the way, their offices are kinda messy. That made me happy for some reason.)

Crafting for Money

Are you thinking of selling your work?

This is the time of year when I begin to hear from so many of my customers about selling their jewelry. This year, with the economy and so many folks finding themselves looking for a new career I am getting the questions even more often. How can I price my work? Is my work good enough to sell? Where can I sell my work? For long-distance friends I answer questions via email but if you are in Raleigh (or even within driving distance) we have several classes geared towards designers. In Photographing Your Work you'll learn how to take great photos with any digital camera, how to make an inexpensive light box and even how to do simple photo editing using free software. In Getting Started On Etsy you'll learn how and why to use this great sales platform to promote your work. In my Crafting for Money class we'll discuss how to price your work so you are making a profit and ways to sell your work from craft shows to boutiques.

I teach the Crafting for Money class and one of the things I spend a lot of time talking to folks about is why they might want to sell their work. For many people, it's economic. They can make way more than they can wear and would love to make some extra money to feed their crafty habit. These people don't necessarily want to quit their day jobs and design full time. They want to sell to family and friends on a limited basis. This is a great motivator but sometimes these folks seem to feel like wanting to sell their work part-time or on a small scale makes them less of a designer. It doesn't. A part time designer can still create work that is beautiful and unique and original. A part time designer has some advantages over the person who must pay all their bills with their work; they can take on jobs based on interest and enjoyment, not just the bottom line.

Jane Mormino teaches the Photographing Your Work and Etsy classes and in both classes she draws from personal experience and exhaustive research. Jane is experienced with selling her own work at shows and via Etsy and she can tell you how important good photos are. Jane is also the kind of crafty gal who doesn't spend money unnecessisarily so she will also show off some inexpensive and free ways to make the digital camera you already have take better photos.

So, call and register already, what are you waiting for?

Etsy Craft Night

While I was in New York last week I caught up with Emily (of Panopolie!) She is living in Brooklyn now, raising the world's cutest trilingual child. We miss her terribly but she is settled in to the cosmopolitan lifestyle and really enjoys Brooklyn. She took me to the etsy.com offices for Craft Night on Monday and we had a great time. It was an 'open' night which means that no one was teaching a project so we got to do whatever we wanted to. Emily wanted to make a zipper bag and I wanted to make a necklace out of quilt yo-yos. Mostly, we rifled through the well-supplied etsy shelves and chatted.


There was a group of etsians making kits in the room. I found out that they are all members of the {NewNew} Street Team and they were making giveaways for an event they were promoting. I was impressed with the level of chatter and laughter as they all cut and folded and stickered their giveaways.

I would love to have a picture of the yo-yo necklace here for the blog but I have somehow lost it...which is sad because it was pretty cute and summery and I was looking forward to wearing it a lot...hmm, maybe it's time to clean out my bag again?

Emily and I ended our evening having dinner at the French restaurant (but of course!) Provence en Boite on Smith Street. While the salade nicoise was not what we expected, we really loved the frites and the olives and the wine! It was lovely...so nice to see her and hear her voice. Emily, I miss you here in Raleigh!

Felty Links

Felty goodies are all about this fall...

Candie Cooper has felt topiary rings

Betz White has a felted flower pin video tutorial


Annnette Totzauer has color blocked necklaces and rings

and these artsy necklaces on etsy and felted flowers, too

We have a new shipment of wool roving wending it's way to us from the Kingdom Of Nepal. The rainy season is ending and the ladies in the village that card and dye our wool and make our felt balls and flowers and rings can get their work into Kathmandu and then on to us. I am dreaming of cool days spent with my fingers in wool.*

Soon, soon...


*yes, this will be my form of procrastination for my next book as well. As you may remember, I distracted myself from the last book by felting. A lot. Maybe my third book should be called 'Felting-Distraction for Craft Authors' Hmm, would that sell?

Beads I love...

...there are so very many, aren't there? But these twigs and acorns beads from Lori Flanders are so nice. Handmade right here in Raleigh from soft colored glass, they are organic and detailed. Her work is unusual in a sea of seen-it-before handmade glass. Check her out at IsabelRose.com. or visit her at etsy.

Felted Fairies

This very sweet fairy doll is the felting work of Emily from Vermont. She makes the sweetest tiny dolls in pouches and I have a few that I will be giving to the girls for Valentine's Day. These little fairies will be perfect companions, the girls can wear the tiny pouches and have a home for the fairies when they get tired. The pouches are felted around rocks and they have soft neckbands. I cannot really say how sweet and compelling they are.

Visit Emily's shop at Vermont Fairies on Etsy. She also has sweet birds in nests that make me swoon...