Happy New Year!

I've decided to do a little update this week. My top films and albums of this year will be up by next week.

This evening I reached 201 shop hearts in my Etsy shop. Thank you very much to those who have hearted my work. It means a lot!

I've been hard at work on some new designs for 2010. I created about four pages of doodles the other day so I've been going through them to see what works. Most of them are large motifs so I may be able to make them into chokers. I've already given you a glimpse of one of my new ideas (the tudor tatting prototype from two posts back). I hope to create others similar to this. Watch this space!

Lastly I've been included in a fantastic treasury. It ends Thursday so you'll have to be quick if you want a look. Here's the link  

Happy New Year!

Heather x

Happy Christmas

Hello. How is everyone? I was pleasantly shocked today on my Facebook Fan Page. I was approaching 50 fans this morning and I'm now on 115. Wow! Thank you very much if you have become a fan. If not, check it out. There may be some surprises happening on there at some point!

This will probably be my last blog for a few days. I'm thinking of doing a blog post for my favourite films of the year sometime next week. Stay tuned for that!

Have a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you for following this blog. It's nice to know there are people interested in my thoughts. I've only been doing this for a couple of months but I've made some great friends already :)

Thank you,

Heather xx 

Tudor Tatting: A Work In Progress Part 3

I've finished it! Something as big as this takes a lot of concentration. I did make a mistake earlier on but thankfully I was able to rectify it without having to go back too far. I love the final piece and I hope you will too. Here it is:

What do you think? I've attached it to a sheer organza black ribbon. I'm tempted to tat an extra ring at the top right and left to make the sides more rigid but I'll have to think about that. The great thing about tatting is that it is so light, so even though this motif is quite large, it still weights next to nothing.

I'm trying some new thread out at the moment and if it works I might even do this in that colour. This is another thing to think about.

I'll continue creating things tomorrow. Enjoy the snow if you have it.

Heather x

Snow and pastel elegance

Good evening. How is everyone? We had a lot of snow here on Friday evening, so much so that it took a long time to get through Dover the following morning for a family meal! Oh well what can you do? It was great fun seeing kids throwing snowballs though. This was taken on Saturday morning. Our road was like an icerink over the weekend so we just stayed indoors for most of the time. Anyone else had snow?

I've been sewing up my tudor motif today and I might even be able to do part three on here some time tomorrow. I also managed to grab a treasury spot today. It's called Pastel Elegance. I'd love some view and comments. Here is the link. It ends Wednesday so plenty of time.

I'll blog more tomorrow.

Heather x

Tudor Tatting: A Work in Progress Part 2

Good evening. Brrr it's cold. We are hopefully getting some snow soon but who knows. I shall now continue with my work in progress.

The outer motif 

I've decided to use claret and black for the outer motif. Here is the start of it. The black really gives it a nice border. As you can see, I've used the same motif as in the middle.

Here is where I am up to at the moment. I decided to add glass teardrop beads to give it a truly Tudor feel. This motif is quite large so it will definitely have to be a choker rather than a necklace.

What do you think so far? This would also look great in black. Once I've finished the prototype I shall do it in other colours. 

Have a great day.

Heather x

Tudor Tatting: A Work in Progress Part 1

Hello for the second time today. I'm in the process of tatting a large Renaissance/Tudor motif that I shall hopefully be making into a choker. I thought it would be nice to share pictures with you as I create it. I've no idea how many parts this will stretch to but I'm looking forward to sharing with you some of my thoughts. Here goes:

The inner motif:-

I had the idea a few months back for a small motif. This started as a doodle and when I tatted it up the design worked first time. This motif became my Elizabeth pendant and necklace (I already have a few colour variations of this in my Etsy shop). I then thought I could go further with this pattern and soon realised I could do an outer layer. I decided to add some floating rings to the four outer chains. Here is a quarter of this inner motif:

As you can see in the picture I'm using two different reds. I'm thinking of adding another colour to the outer layer but more on that later. For those eagle-eyed people amongst you, yes the bottom colour is new. I received this gorgeous colour (I believe it is called claret) yesterday. I really like how it looks against the other red.

Once I knew the two colours would go together, I continued tatting and have now completed the inner motif. Here it is:

Tomorrow I hope to start the outer motif. I shall take photos as I go and write up the second part in the evening. I hope you have enjoyed this.

x

  

Facebook and a new treasury

Afternoon. This is the first of two blog posts I shall be doing today. I'd like to tell you about some discussions I've started on my Facebook Fan Page. I'm always interested in seeing other people's Etsy shops, Twitter, Blogs and Facebook fan pages, so if you are an Etsy seller, head over there! Become a fan and post your URLs in the relevant discussions. It's also a great way of keeping up to date with my goings on.

I grabbed a treasury spot earlier on today. It's called 'Gorgeous Browns' and ends Friday. Enjoy!

x

New item in my shop

Evening. As promised I have listed an item in my Etsy shop today. I tatted Mystica in red cotton thread and added Eight Swarovski Crystals. Here it is:

It is so sparkly in real life. I lreally ove Swarovski Crystals and I may even buy some different colours this week. Here is a pic of me wearing it:

Tomorrow I might tat a necklace version of my Nimue bracelet. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Heather x

Tudor inspired tatting

Good evening. We are in the process of tidying up in preparation for our Christmas tree. I feel so Christmassy, I might have to drag out the Christmas music!

I have listed two items today in my Etsy shop, both are Tudor inspired. The first is a black pendant of my Isabella pattern. The Swarovski Crystal at its centre adds a lovely sparkly touch. I really do love this design as it looks so much like a Tudor Rose. Keep checking for the necklace version of this!

The second listing is for an Elizabeth necklace in red with a pink AB teardrop glass bead. This would look lovely at a Renaissance / Tudor faire or ball or even for evening wear. I've just thought of a variation for this pattern so stay tuned for more details on that!

I have another pendant that I shall be listing tomorrow and I shall do a blog post for that then. Have a lovely day.

Heather x

Update to Etsy shop!

Good evening. It's listing time on Etsy! I bought some ribbon yesterday and it came this morning. This meant that I could get on with creating. The item I have listed today uses my Mystica pattern but I've added some black seed beads to it. I decided to make it into a necklace and chose black Czech glass beads up the sides of the organza ribbon to keep the colours co-ordinated. The finished item has such a Renaissance/Tudor feel to it. I'm very happy with the result.

As you can see in the second picture, I've started using a tripod. I spent quite a long time today playing with the settings on my camera to get a good picture of myself wearing the necklace. I love how this looks so I think I will try it with my other pieces.

Tomorrow I hope to list some at least one necklace or pendant. I have quite a few in the pipeline so keep your eyes peeled!

Have a lovely day, I'll be blogging more soon.

x

Ethereal Elegance

Evening all. Anyone had snow yet? I'd love some down here in Southern England. It's cold enough so we shall see. I've been buying some different colours of crochet cotton today (I'll talk more about this when they come). I can't wait to try them out and see what goes with what! I've also found another online bead shop but I must resist buying things. I've purchased enough today!

Treasury West opened up yesterday evening so I have another treasury to show you. As you can probably tell, I really enjoy creating these. There are so many beautiful items on Etsy. Sometimes I end up with too many choices and can't fit them all in! So anyway, here it is. I've called it 'Ethereal Elegance'. It ends Friday. Enjoy.

I had a lovely surprise yesterday. I've been accepted on Craftgawker for the second time. I submitted the Elizabeth bracelet and it's given me some more views, which is always nice.

I'll blog more tomorrow. Have a nice day/evening.

x

My weekend with Black and Pine

Evening all. How was everyone's weekend? I've have had a busy few days. As you are aware I did a craft fair on Saturday. It was an interesting experience. I received quite a few lovely comments and gave out some business cards but no sales. I did, however, have a lovely surprise when I came home to find an order of some items from my Etsy shop! I'm in the process of completing that now.

I've been thinking of ideas for new designs and I hope to tat some of them later on in the week. When I do I'll probably post the pics on flickr and some on here. I'm also thinking of buying some new colours of cotton thread soon so expect more versions of my designs soon!

I've been included in a beautiful treasury entitled 'Black and Pine' by Yael Berger of The Joy Of Color (ends tomorrow). I really love this collection of items. Check it out! Thank you Yael!

Have a great day,

Heather x

A milestone and some treasuries

Good evening. How is everyone on this cold day? I reached a milestone yesterday - 100 shop hearts! I know this may seem small but it's quite a big thing for me. My shop has been open less than two months and I'm very touched by the reception i've had so far. It really is lovely to know there are people, like yourself, out there who like what I do.

Another thing happened yesterday - I found I was in two treasuries. Yay! I've never been in more than one at a time so it's quite exciting. The first one is entitled 'Purple Dandelion'. It expires early tomorrow morning so you will have to be quick if you would like to have a look. Here's the link.

Thank you very much to the wonderful Amy of AREjewellery. Check her shop out!

The next one comes from Margaret of MissElany (a fellow Craft Britannia team member). Check out this bright treasury (ends Saturday):

I too managed to grab a spot. Here is mine. It is entitled 'Beautiful Blues' and ends Sunday:

Right I think I'm going to get back to the sorting out for the craft fair tomorrow. Wish me luck!

x

I love Craftgawker!

Evening all. I had a lovely surprise this morning. I did my usual check round sites on the internet and found that Craftgawker has accepted one of my entries! I'd submitted my Nimue bracelet recently and it is now on the front page along with some great finds. I love to 'gawk' at this site as I'm forever saying 'ooh that's beautiful'! I'll see what happens with this.    

I'm still running around like a headless chicken for this craft fair I'm attending (I've put the details up on the right hand side of this blog). Don't worry, I won't be closing my shop on Saturday! I've been creating items specifically for this fair and whatever doesn't sell will be listed on Etsy over the weekend. I'm so looking forward to it but I'm also quite nervous as this is my first one.

Have a great day,

Heather x

Loads of updates!

Good afternoon. I'm sitting here listening to Mediaeval Baebes and feeling very Christmassy. How is everyone? I've got loads of things to talk to you about.

Firstly, I really enjoyed doing the sale over the weekend. It was a great experience and I had a sale out of it. Yay! I might even do one again but not for a bit.

I'd like to announce that I shall have a stall this Saturday, 5th December, at St. Leonard's Social Centre (opposite St. Leonard's Church) in Deal, Kent for their Cristmas Craft Fair. It starts at 10am and ends at 2pm. This is my first fair so I'm really excited. At the moment I seem to be running round like a headless chicken trying to make sure I have everything. If you are in the area on Saturday, pop in. There will be loads of stalls selling paintings, cakes, handmade crafts and so on. There will be a raffle, tombola and also face painting. It should be a fun day.

Next, I'd like to say a big thank you to CJ Grand of The Grand Design. She is a fellow Metaphysical Etsy Team member who has featured me on her blog over the weekend. Take a look. As usual I've also put a link on the left. She makes the most amazing jewellery in her Etsy shop. Check it out!

I managed to grab a treasury spot last night. It is entitled 'Elegance All Around' and ends Thurday. Have a look.

Have a nice day. I'll be blogging more tomorrow.

x