Venetian Lace

Venetian Lace. That may strike you as a bit of an odd subject, but I have always had a bit of a thing about lace. I crochet, and laceworking is only a few steps away from that, but the microscopic scale of the work would be a bit beyond me. It's one of those skills that infinitely fascinates me, but would frustrate the devil out of me should I ever try to do it. I'm happy to admire it from afar.

I recently had the good fortune to visit Burano (Venice):

Yes, there is a reason why the houses are all different colours. The different colours follow a strict system run by the government. If you buy a house on Burano and wish to paint it a different colour, you need to notify the government, who will tell you which colours you are allowed to use in that part of the island. The story behind this is that it supposedly helped fishermen find the island and their own house when they returned from a fishing trip at night.

Burano is the island which is famous for its beautiful handmade lace. I was also lucky enough to visit one of the lace workshops there, where an old lady gave a demonstration of how they make the lace. They had some beautiful designs, and I bought my lace fan from there.

The quality and detail is fantastic, and it really makes me want to make lace! The different ways of making lace overwhelmes me though, as well as how it takes so long to make such a tiny piece of work.

I could write more about Burano and the lace, and more about Venice in general, but if you want to learn more about needle lace, and Burano lace, this website may be helpful, provided the Youtube links still work...

http://lynxlace.com/learningneedlelace.html

Business Cards

My business cards arrived from Vistaprint on Tuesday.

I am absolutely chuffed to bits with them. Yes I know, they are Vistaprint's £9.99 cheap and cheerful business cards, but they're mine! I've never had business cards before and I'm looking forward to handing them out and leaving them in places.

In lieu of a picture, I have taken a picture of the design I picked right from the site:

I changed the large blue text on the card to purple. I felt a darker colour was more 'me' and also looked a bit more professional.

The only thing I would say is that I was a little bit disappointed with Vistaprints selection of crochet and alternative jewellery business cards. Everything with flowers on either looked as though I was advertising a funeral parlour or a florist. Then again, there aren't many people hat do what I do, I suppose....

Rewnewed Listings at Merryflowers

Well, it's been four months and 4 of my items have expired. I have decided to renew all of them with modified tags and titles and will shortly be uploading some new pictures as well.

Please have a look at my relisted items. I'd like to sell them this time round!

A couple of these are on sale, so please have a look. As with all my items I offer free postage if more than one item is bought at the same time.

Black Crochet Flower Brooch

Pink Crocheted Flower Brooch

White Rose Crochet Brooch

White Crochet Flower Brooch

Postal Service Rant

WARNING: This is a bit of rant. I don't want or expect any advise from anyone, I just want to vent some steam!


As an Etsy Seller, I have seen a few posts on the Etsy forums from people saying they have had customers complaining about high postal rates, and them saying there's nothing they can do about it, the postal rates are the postal rates. And that's true.

I completely sympathise with them. The Royal Mail has gone nuts just recently. The other week I sent out a ‘large letter’ for 90p, which was fine. This week I posted out a package that was only slightly bigger and only a few grams heavier. The only problem with the package was that it wouldn’t fit through the small letter slot – it was too tall by about half a cm, therefore I had to pay £3.00 postage for a small parcel! Insane.

What annoyed me was that I had already charged the young lady buying the item 90p for a small letter, and I didn’t have the heart to ask for the £2.10 back for the extra postage. I was worried I might lose the sale that way.

I have now had to go through all of my items and change the delivery cost on a couple of items because I can see the same thing happening again. My only other option to avoid losing money is to charge 90p postage for everything being posted around the UK, and put the item up for sale at £2 more than I would normally want to charge for the actual item. Either way, I might not sell the item either because it’s overpriced, or because people think the postage is too high.

I’m being stubborn and charging more for items I know will be parcels rather than letters. I’m not prepared to pay buyer’s postage just because Royal Mail are delusional and are overpricing small light items. I’d probably pay less postage on a lead brick if it fitted through the ‘large letter’ slot.... it’s not fair on anyone.

Royal mail are puddings!

Foooood!!

The other evening I arrived home from a long, difficult day at work to find my husband skipping around the kitchen in chef's whites and an apron clearly pretending to be Gordon Ramsay....

He calls cooking 'therapy'. I call it torture. Which is why I never do any cooking if I can help it.

Yes, I am an incredibly lucky person in that I have a husband who can produce this (on a complete whim due to the fact that he'd gone and bought himself a new cookery book):

Spicy tomato soup and crusty bread. And that was just the starter.

This was the main course:

Shepherds pie!

We were meant to have sticky toffee pudding for pudding, but we were both too full to eat after all that so they will be for another day.

Etsy Seller Spotlight - Elements Inspired

Welcome to another post promoting one of my fellow Etsy sellers.

Today’s promotee is Elements Inspired, run by lovely Elizabeth Banks, who makes a variety of jewellery from a number of different mediums.

I completely fell in love with the necklace below, it’s something I may have to treat myself to sometime in the next few weeks..... I just love the pearls teamed with the rose pendant.

Elements Inspired carries a range of necklaces and earrings made with beads, precious stones, resin, some gorgeous metalwork, and even a felted/crocheted flower brooch or two.

There are a lot of different items spread across a number of pages so it’s well worth having a look at the shop and looking at everything she has to offer. I really do love the range of items that are available in this shop, the owner really is multi-talented. Elizabeth's love of metalsmithing comes through in her profile and in her items, such as this gorgeous ring:

Funny, I never really thought of metalsmithing as a hobby before.... then again, I recently fell in love with the idea of becoming a glass blower in Venice, but that is a whole other story.

Quick Update

There are some posts coming, it's just having the time to write them and then post them, which I won't until tomorrow or Wednesday. 

I have a couple of posts drafted to come soon, including the next installment of my Etsy Spotlight series.

A Little Help

Here is one of my latest creations:

Trouble is, I’m a bit stuck trying to decide what to do with it. It’s huge – almost 12 cm wide and it seems far too heavy and bulky for me to work it into a necklace or a brooch. It might work if it was sewn up a little tighter, maybe.

 Any ideas? It could perhaps be sewn onto a scarf, but I don’t really fancy crocheting a scarf just to sew this onto....

Merryflowers is Proud to Announce First Etsy Sale!

After nearly four months of being on Etsy I have finally made my first sale! It was a really nice surprise this morning when I was checking my emails on my phone.

 Here is the little dear that is going to it’s new home tomorrow:

I have just put it in the envelope ready to be sent first class to Penny in Wiltshire.

Here’s to many more sales, and I hope I don’t have to wait another four months for another one!!

Etsy Spotlight - Time Machine Jewelry

The second installment of my Etsy spotlight series focuses on a subject that is very close to my heart - Doctor Who.

Time Machine Jewelry makes a fantastic range of jewelry, of which the majority takes inspiration from Doctor Who (and if you don't know what Doctor Who is, shame on you!). There are some beaded necklaces in a straight Edwardian/Steampunk style, such as this beauty:

But a  lot of the jewellery is steampunk Doctor Who, which quite frankly makes me go wobbly at the knees. If I could justify the expense, I could buy so many things from this shop, such as:

http://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/129717556/doctor-who-ring-tardis-under-glass?ref=shop_home_active

Or

http://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/160608912/doctor-who-necklace-friend-of-the-doctor?ref=shop_home_active

Or

http://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/160235556/doctor-who-ring-gallifreyan-symbol-under?ref=shop_home_active

Mmmm....