SweetShop Update; 2013 goals and stuff...

Morning SweetShoppers! (Or afternoon, evening...whatever it is where you are, I wish you a good one.)

Earrings samples! Don't tell anyone, but they're stuck in my sweater for this photo...

So all of those earrings and sample earrings from this post have finally been strung onto stainless steel posts and sewn into shape, wonder of wonders. Miracle of miracles, some of them are even available for sale in my etsy shop HERE.

Yeah, the shop...about that...

So I've been talking up the relaunch of my etsy shop for awhile now, and I genuinely had a brand new concepts and designs and so on thought up. This week was my week to work on it, and I had all kinds of tasks in my queue--a new banner, a new logo, lots of professional standard photos, and so on...

And then yesterday, as I began to redesign things, I thought to myself...

...naaaaaah...

SweetShoppers, I have become a victim of doing too much. I'm doing so much, I think I'm officially doing THREE much at this point. One of the things that has suffered from my constant business is my etsy shop. I just don't have the time to make the stock and do the ever-important promotional work of running this business online properly. What I DO have time for, and what I find myself having a lot of fun doing, is blogging, writing patterns, and giving time and writing space to other crafters. For a long time I've thought of writing a pattern book and thinking through the steps of becoming a craft brand that *isn't* based on the hats that I can personally create, and I think now is the time to begin doing that.

So I think I'm going to.

There will always be some items available in the etsy shop--I love having that platform and the interactions it opens up to me. (The money's nice too, when it comes in. :-)) There will always be a donation made from the proceeds of the site to a charity that supports sustainable economic and educational development.

But that's not going to be my main focus anymore.

There is also the little matter of me moving to South Korea in a little over a month. I can't even begin to wrap my mind around the shipping costs involved there, and I'm not too sure of the legalities involved yet either. Add to that my first full-time English teaching job in...well, EVER and I'm pretty sure that crochet is going to be an extreme hobby for a little while. I have a language to learn, traveling to do and students to meet!

So...to recap...sales;not a priority anymore. Patterns, blogging, interviews; a new priority. Me; busy. You; hopefully continuing to visit the blog.

Stay tuned for a pattern post either Friday or Saturday, beautiful people. And, as always, thank you so much for your visits, your comments, and your purchases!

Peace!

Adrienne from Afro Triangle Designs: An Interview with one of the SweetShop C.I.A.(C.rafter I. A.dmire)

If you follow SweetShop Creations on Facebook, you’ll know that I often post about a select group of  awesome artists, crafters, and designers that I like to call the SweetShop C.I.A.(C.rafters I. A.dmire.) Usually my admiration extends to a reblog, a Facebook photo of an incredible piece of work that they've done, and sometimes a reciprocal “like” from the object of my obsession admiration, but that’s it.

So you can imagine how excited I was I got the chance to actually meet up with Adrienne Norris of Afro Triangle Designs and talk shop. I’ve known Adrienne for a few years—we swing through a few of the same social circles in Denver and have a few mutual friends--but we’ve never really gotten a chance to talk art and business in depth before.

I’m a firm believer in networking and promoting other people's brilliance, so I asked Adrienne if I could share an interview with her here at the SweetShop blog and she agreed. So, without further ado, SweetShoppers, I present to you...Adrienne Norris of Afro Triangle Designs!

Image courtesy of Adrienne Norris. Shirt available for purchase here

Welcome Adrienne! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Where are you from, where are you now, where are you going, that sort of thing?

Well, I was born on the island of Barbados (which is in the Caribbean, for those who don’t know) and came to the US when I was 5. I lived in New York with my mom, grandmother and brothers until I was about 12, when we moved to New Mexico to live on the international school campus my dad taught at, the Armand Hammer United World College. So I’m Bajan by birth, but American by culture.

When I was 17, I had the opportunity to attend the United World College of the Adriatic in Italy, which is part of the family of international schools I grew up in. What should have been a two year experience turned into only one, though. I mean, it was Italy and I was 17. Studying just wasn't a priority. So I had a chance to start over at the school in New Mexico where I graduated with my International Baccalaureate degree.

After that, I joined the Marines to be an Arabic linguist and spent 5 years doing what people told me (sort of) and translating “things” from Arabic to English. Sorry, if I gave you more details, I’d have to kill you. ;)

These days, I’m working as a freelance artist here in Denver, designing t-shirts, business cards, logos, as well as drawing and painting portraits when I can. I would love for portrait painting to be my primary source of income.

Can you tell us a little bit about how your life inspires your art?

People fascinate me. I think that’s why I love drawing faces so much. We all have the same five features – two eyes, a nose, a mouth – but they can be configured in so many different ways to make each face we see so incredibly unique that even twins who share almost identical genes, can look different from one another.

I am also amazed by what the human body is capable of whether it’s pull-ups, hand stands, or flips. That we can use our muscles to create enough momentum to launch ourselves into the air is astounding to me.
(Blogger's note; Adrienne hasn't mentioned this, but she's also a very capable capoeira  practioner!)

And tell us about the art, too. What are you working on now? What is your artistic background? What's your medium?

I would say that a lot of what I love creating most, the portraits, is self-taught. I remember sitting for hours on guard duty sketching faces from magazines, photographs, even military ID cards in an effort to master capturing a likeness. That doesn't mean I didn't have formal training, though.

I took a number of art classes during my early school years, and after leaving the Service, I attended the Art Institute of Colorado for my degree in Media Arts and Animation. This opened the doors of the digital art world and has allowed me to earn money as a graphic designer.

As far as medium goes, I love pen and ink, watercolor, and acrylic paint, each for different reasons. I call ink drawing the strategic placement of lines. I love the challenge of creating depth in an image using lines alone, though there is no such thing as a line in nature.

I love the delicacy of watercolor, a medium that has a mind of its own, that lends a certain brightness to your subject when you’re done.

And I love the traditional look I can achieve with acrylic. The thicker medium calls to mind most peoples’ idea of what a painting “should” look like. 

An Afro-Triangle original watercolor portrait. Find out more here.

Do you feel your art connects the different cultural and social influences in your life? Can you tell us more about how if it does?

I think it does. My tendency is to draw or paint realistically, so most of my work is based on photographs. Most of these have been photos I have taken myself, of friends or of people in a place I happened to be.

I think I also capture the universality of what it is to be human. I love painting expression and no matter where you are in the world, what your cultural background, our expressions hold the same meanings. A frown means you’re unhappy about something, a smile expresses joy. We are all working with the same five features.

What's your favorite work of art(either by yourself or someone else)?

It’s so hard to pin down one specific piece… Yeah, I’m gonna have to pass.

Can you tell us a little about your etsy shop? What kinds of items are available there?(Quick note, SweetShoppers...etsy is an online craft and design bazaar. If you don't know about it, you should!)

I am very new to Etsy, so my shop is still growing. Portraits are the main listing right now. I offer custom portraits in a variety of media, as well as a series of what I call Geek-tastic celebrity portraits in which I have drawn characters from my favorite sci-fi/fantasy television shows and movies. There are also a few of the t-shirts I have designed and printed so far.

Any Supernatural fans in the house? Purchase this one and more like it here

Have you got any live exhibitions coming up soon? Can you tell us anything about that?

Glad you asked! I have a show starting on January 1st at  Love Sick Ink, a tattoo parlor off Broadway and Iliff.  It runs until January 31st and it would be great to see new people there. Keep an eye on the Afro Triangle Facebook page and website for more information.

So there you have it, SweetShoppers--hope you enjoyed being introduced to Adrienne as much as I enjoyed doing the interview. If you want to know more, check out the official Afro Triangle Designs website HERE and like and follow on Facebook HERE. If you want to purchase your very own Afro Triangle Designs shirt or portrait, check out the etsy shop HERE. There's also some very cool shirts available to purchase only on the official site. Many thanks to Adrienne for your time and best of luck with your future art and business!

Taking good pictures...

I've been struggling with my photographic mojo lately, and thought I'd share some dismal failures in the photography department to show you what I mean.

I made a gorgeous headband/fingerless glove set for a client who didn't want the items worn by a model but did want pictures of the items. Given that I was in the throes of an intercontinental move and had no real work space, I pulled out my trusty camera, a suitably colorful last minute surface, and came up with...

This. What, pray tell, are those lumpish purple things? And the background? My bedsheets and other assorted messes. How dreadful.

My first thought was that maybe the shot would be improved by being a little closer on the items. So I tried again and got...

Well...it's certainly closer. At this point it was about 1 am, and I was rapidly giving up on consciousness, so I gave up and sent the client the second image and promised better quality ones when I had a chance to take some daylight photos. 

Surprise, surprise...she bought the items based on these images. 

I guess I'm making this post to reassure myself and fellow perfectionist crafters that sometimes, it's more important to get the content OUT there than it is to make sure it's perfect. In this case, the client had a pretty good idea of what she was getting and really just wanted a photo to confirm the order was done. There's no way I would use this image for an etsy listing or any other promotional effort if they weren't already spoken for...BUT I guess I'm learning that not everything has to be magazine ready to sell.

I still WANT everything to be magazine ready, of course. But it doesn't always have to be. 

Meanwhile, I am reading blogs and watching videos on how to become a better photographer. And sharing my mini-failure up here to solicit commiseration from other crafters, bloggers, and sellers...have you ever had something that you just *couldn't* get right?

Peace, beautiful people!

SweetShop Creations is still blogging...

Hey friendly neighborhood SweetShoppers! Don't know if any of you have had a chance to peek at the etsy shop or the Twitter lately, but I'm taking a little break from online sales. I've just completed a very definite intercontinental move and am thinking of doing some different things with the shop. That means there won't be any SweetShop items available in the shop until after Christmas, but never fear...you can always contact me for a custom order HERE if you have a specific item in mind or buy an Etsy gift card HERE.

I'll still be blogging here about all my personal crafting in the meantime. Trust me, now that I'm not making loads of ready made hats, I'll be doing TONS! I still haven't finished my winter sweater from last year!

In the meantime, please enjoy this picture of a crochet turkey courtesy of Crochet Spot and check out the pattern HERE.

Cute, isn't he? 

Peace, beautiful people!

Handmade Product Update: Pamper and Preen

So I thought I'd do a quick update on Pamper and Preen's Honey Caramel soap, which I reviewed last week. I've been using the soap about a week or two now, and a few things have become obvious;

1)I won't be buying this soap again. The next two items are why.

2)It is, ultimately, VERY drying. Although at first it didn't seem to have much of an effect, prolonged usage has turned me into Mel, Master of Ash and Flakes. Personally, I have dry skin and I HATE that tight stripped feeling I get after using a drying product. I've had that after every shower so far this week, aand I don't like it. Thank God for cocoa butter.

3)It doesn't last long. I've been using the bar of soap for two weeks, and it is less than half the size it initially was. I'm very careful to store my soap in a covered dish, so it's not stray water causing this.

Overall, this was nice to try, and I'm glad I could support a local handmade seller with a stray £5. But I won't be doing it again.

Peace!

I Buy Handmade: Pamper And Preen

Look, at this point I'm not even going to bother apologizing for how long it's been since I've updated this blog. I'm doing a full-time MA, I have a part time job, and I also have *Bill Cosby voice* FIVE other blogs. Count them, one, two, three, four, five! And while that's really no excuse for being a lazy and unreliable craft blogger...that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

So what's brought me out of Dreadful Blog Silence? Another excellent handmade vendor, that's what.

So, as you can imagine, I spend a lot of time on etsy.com, perusing other people's wonderful wares. As you can guess from the SweetShop mission statement, I am vey passionate about handmade items and supporting sustainable development, wherever that may be. The third leg in the tripod of my personal stance on buying and selling is supporting local makers and sellers as well. So, usually, my trip to etsy starts with me clicking the "Shop Local" button on the left hand side of the page.

And that is how I came across Pamper & Preen soaps. Usually I buy handmade items because of a personal connection to the maker or particular aesthetics or ideals. This time, it simply was a matter of hey, I'm out of soap, they live in Manchester too, and I have 5 extra pounds in my account this week.

I bought Pamper & Preen's Honey Caramel Cold Process soap for £2.85 plus an additional £2.46 shipping. YIKES at the shipping, right? Especially since they're right around the corner, practically. But because I've recently been all but forced to charge exorbitant shipping rates for my own products, I feel a bit more charitable about such things and went ahead and paid it. For the most part I'm glad I did.

The Honey Caramel soap looks pretty much it does on Pamper & Preen's site...so no surprises there. It has a deep, sweet fragrance with hints of vanilla and coconut as well as honey and caramel. The bottom edge is scattered with a sprinkling of black seens. I'm not exactly sure WHAT they are, but they're great for exfoliating and they haven't turned my skin green yet, so they don't bother me. This is what it looks like unpackaged;

I bought this soap because I have dry, sensitive skin and I need something that cleans my grimy self without turning me into Mel, Master of Ash and Flakes. This soap pretty much fits the bill...it gets me clean. It smells lovely, although the scent doesn't stick around for very long. And while I haven't been using it for very long, it hasn't dried out my skin, which I definitely appreciate it. I do slather on a thick moisturizer afterwards though, so if you aren't an after-bath lotioner, you might not have the same results.

I hope it doesn't sound like I'm damning Pamper & Preen with faint praise...I'm not intending to. It's a beautifully made bar of soap, and while it doesn't exceed my expectations it meets them very well. If you like handmade soaps and want to pamper yourself with a lovely scented bar of soap, I'd recommend giving Pamper & Preen a visit HERE.

Peace beautiful people!

No-One on the corner has(crafty) swagger like us!

*peeks from under quilt* Is it over? The holiday season, I mean. SweetShoppers, I was not even remotely prepared for the maelstrom that was this past Christmas season. I did no decorating. No Christmas crafting. No Christmas cards. Precious little celebrating. No, beautiful people, what I did was Christmas cooking, and Christmas eating, and Christmas (night job) working, and Christmas studying. Bah humbug.

But, that is all past, and I have no problem reaping the benefits of January sale. See below...

I know it doesn't look like much, but there are 5 skeins of yarn in that plastic bag in the rear of the pic, courtesy of Abakhan's 10% off sale. It's mostly Robin Acrylic Double Knit, but there is a nice skein of black woolen worsted and some sparkly lavender double knit in there as well.

In the front of the pic you'll see a hilarious crochet hook that I got at Fred Aldous in Manchester city centre, simply because it is large and traffic cone orange. I think it's a sign of obsession(or worse) that I find that crochet hook as funny as I do. There's also a gorgeous wooden 6.50 mm hook that I splurged on at Purl City Yarns as a treat--it's a gorgeous bamboo hook. I've never really crocheted with wooden hooks before, but I've always wanted to try, and this one happens to be my favorite size AND tie-dyed.  Like I said. obsession. Maybe worse.

Rounding out my Purl City haul is a handful of checkered and spotted covered buttons that I got for a pound. I have no idea what I'm going to use them for. But they were cute, and I'm sure I'll figure something out.

Total cost for all this future crafty goodness; 13.70, or thereabouts. God bless the January sales.

Speaking of sales, I'd be amiss if I didn't mention that SweetShop Creations, my very own etsy shop, is having one RIGHT NOW! Like huge. Major percentages off of everything. Check it out. Help me pay for my next yarn haul. *g*

Peace!

P.S. Not pictured is a copy of Stitch N' Bitch knitting I scored on Amazon for 3.50 or something like that. I'm not picturing it because every time I try to learn to knit, I embarrass myself. I'm mentioning it because, hey, humility is good, right?

Pre-Christmas Sale at SweetShop Creations!!

Hello SweetShoppers! Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving, those of you who celebrated.

Apologies for the lack of posts around here recently. My personal crafting time has gone by the wayside while I dive into the books and write essays and seminars and reviews, oh my.  Hopefully I'll get a chance to finish my winter sweater soon and I'll put a nifty post up about that...

Meanwhile, there's a sale going on over at SweetShop Creations (as usual...). Use the coupon code TURKEYSANDWICH to receive free worldwide shipping on any item! Now's the time to get those last minute little gifts and stocking stuffers for the funky fashionistas in your life! And if you can't think of anything immediately, may I suggest a pair of these...

..."these" being the SweetShop's signature Curly-Wurly earrings...find them and more at our shop, HERE!

SweetShop Creations in Etsy Treasuries!

Okay, first things first! The giveaway is still happening, but we need a few more facebook likes before someone gets a brand new custom crocheted pair of Curly-Wurly Earrings! Click HERE to like SweetShop Creations on facebook and enter the contest, if you haven't already...

Next things next...on Etsy, you can do these great things called treasuries, which are collections of etsy seller's work organized around a theme. It's a great idea, a wonderful way of showcasing lots of different artists together, and a lot of fun to do!

I've been fortunate enough to have been included in a few of these collections and to have made a few, which I'd like to share with you all.

Orange Cowl by SweetShop Creations, on Etsy

So first, my features...the Orange Cowl, which I'm still waiting for the right stylish neo-urban hipster chic to snap up and fierce her way into fall with, was featured in a treasury by TeoMaeDesigns called Surrounded By Autumn. TeoMae herself designs lovely silver toned jewelry, which is worth taking a look at as well.  Pretty cool, huh?

Also Knitella(who by now you should all know and love) featured my flowered Multi-Way cowl/scarf in a treasury called floral festivity. Knitella is a fellow yarn artist--she knits and is starting to add crochet to her repertoire of skills as well. Check her out, check the treasury out, and check out that cowl!

Okay, now that I'm done giving orders(but you did check all those things out right? RIGHT!?) I'm going to provide a few links to some of the treasuries I've put together. All of them feature work by artists whose creativity and presentation I really respect and admire, so please do click the links and take a look at some truly fantastic work.

Also, I have it on good authority that there's only 81 shopping days until Christmas, so if you feel the need to get a jump start on your gift list this year with any one of these artists or myself--we'd all appreciate it.

Take a look at:

Craft Menagerie - a collection of animal-themed items
Purple Haze -all things purple, curated while listening to Jimi Hendrix, of course
Ooh! Sparkly! - pretty much what it says on the tin...sparkly things!
and last but not least...
Keys To the Kingdom - because apparently there are a LOT of nifty things you can do with a key.

Thanks for taking the time to look at some new things, y'all! Peace!

(Wait! Before you go...did you like me on Facebook? Did you? Please do. These earrings need a good home...*puppy-dog eyes*)

New Items: Fall Scarves...

So today is the first day that has REALLY felt like autumn to me...I woke up with the urge to crunch through leaves and make gingerbread. Wow.

I guess it's appropriate, then, that today I posted these two scarves in the etsy shop...

 The multi-colored ruffles scarf, which can be found HERE...

And the orange cowl(Can I just say, I LOVE this color?) which can be found HERE...

...my goodness I am making a serious face in that last picture...sorry. 

Anyway, click and buy or appreciate or copy or whatever it is you need to do to keep warm this autumn weekend while you crunch through leaves and eat gingerbread...

Peace!

New Item: Flamingo Rings!

So this morning I got mentally hamstrung trying to finish a new pattern...started playing around with some new yarn I have...wound up with this...

...which then turned into this!

You can get more information and order your very own Flamingo Rings HERE.

Peace!