Swimmies of Doom and The Age of Enlightenment

Once upon a time an online market was birthed. A haven for artisans and crafts people, a place where they, with supply and vintage sellers, could sell their wares as part of a global community. It promised to be a counterweight against big business: "... the current economy, favoring megacorporations and supersizes, is unstable. People who make a living making things ... will play a key role in revitalizing and stabilizing the world". (source).

To better educate the sellers the creators spokesperson, known as the redone, held a public reading of Leon Leonnie's Swimmy. That wondrous tale of perseverance and triumph, through co-operation and unity, inspired the sellers! They went forth singing the praises of this great market! And greatly did their numbers swell. All was good.

One among them was so moved that they made their own tribute to Swimmy and sent it to the redone. So touched was he that he proclaimed how magnificent it would be for more Swimmies! And the faithful sellers granted his wish. A Swimmy diorama was erected in the market palace ... and all was good.

But the winds of change blew through this mighty market. While the people had been busy building and strengthening their union, a dark duality had been lurking in the shadows. Called the greenbacksellout the people believed it had been banished to the outerness. But alas, its powers were mighty and its reach far, and it was granted entry to the market. And with it came its minions, the despised non-creatives, known as resellers.

For a while the faithful sellers were too busy tending to the business of growing the market that they did not see the evil in their midst. But then some of the elders, who knew the land well, saw movement in the shadows and they became the eyeswideopen.

What to do! cried the sellers whose eyes had seen the shadows.

Remembering Swimmy they fought to call the evil out of the shadows. Surely the redone will act with honour when he sees the truth? But the redone and his servants denied them.

Scaresome tales emerged of the disappeared, of others whose tongues were sewn to their lips so they could not speak! And all was not so good.

Believing in strength through unity they congregated in the market square and tried to open everyones eyes. But their truths feel on fallow ground. A disease had spread among the land and some sellers were blinded, or deaf, and others refused to speak. And they became known as the threemonkeys.

Joining with the dark forces of the greenbacksellout and the redone they formed a powerful trinity that the eyeswideopen could not overcome. No longer wishing to support the trinity through their taxes they sought out fresh fields and the age of diaspora began. Gathering their wares some appealed to the redone to return their Swimmies - but the redone ignored them.

Their plea's however did not fall on deaf ears. The Swimmies heard them and they rejoiced! Breaking free from their diorama they escaped into the great Tumblr and it's tributary the Twitter . Capturing fakelisajune, who they valiantly try to teach English, they sing the praises of their beloved penciljen and commune with the eyeswideopen and such dignitaries as fakerokali, fakerobwhite, fakedaniellexo, fakerevolvingdorkus.

I rejoice in their freedom from the clutches of the redone and am honoured that they saw the reefy goodness in one of my creations in their daily Tumblr proclamation yesterday.

Long live the Swimmies of Doom!

I thank you :)

New Project Watch Cuff

So excited that the custom watch cuff I have been working on is finished and the client likes it - yeah!

Wish I could take credit for having the idea but that came from my client - a lovely person to work with and very good with her communications - which is always important when trying to match someones vision to what is created.

It's great too that I got challenged to make something new.  The cuffs have always been popular at local fairs but never quite took off online and I was hesitant about making more.  Even though I have so many fabrics, embellishments etc begging to be recycled upcycled into something new.

So what do you think? Would this be something you would consider buying? 

Not the best quality photos I'm afraid as it was very overcast here today and think I need to re-tweak my camera settings.

Health to wear Leisha!

Etsy Rant

I have been biting my tongue for so long but now I can no longer hold my tongue.

Etsy a site that promoted itself as being handmade, vintage and supplies items has totally sold out.  No big deal and no big surprise for some of the more knowledgable readers who will be saying they are after all a business (aka corporation) BUT it is a travesty for the people who signed up to sell their homemade (I prefer homecrafted btw as a label) and vintage and supples who were the people who advertised and brought customers to the site cos Etsy didn't advertise.

As one of the handcrafting people who advertised Etsy I feel ashamed I promoted the site.  Sure there are many genuine artisans on the site still  - but in their midst, and invisible to Etsy admin it seems, are the resellers.

Now let me state straight off that I have no problem with resellers per se.  What I have a problem with is when they infliltrate a handcrafted site and claim their work is handcrafted and the site admin lets them away with that.  

What's the problem you ask?  Well it's pretty simple. I for an example take my fabrics out and start mixing and matching and sewing them together for a cuff.  Sometimes I like the effect first go but a lot of the time I feel it needs re-worked and will unstitch and re-sew.  When I'm happy with the basic backdrop then I'll go get my stash of vintage buttons and beads and jewelry out and play around with what looks good. 

When the cuff is finished then I photograph it (edit it usually too cos we don't  have good natural light here a lot of the year round) and then list it. 

Now I realise much of what I've written makes homemade/homecrafted sound cumbersome and involved.  Well you know what? It is! 

I don't have any helpers to design or sew, or take photo's or list.  Thats what people are paying for - the one to one touch, the ultimate designer item. Don't get me wrong here ... I love what I do but I am trying to stress that it is what I singular do- just like so many other genuine Etsy sellers do.

But when we are on a site that promotes handmade yet blatantly promotes resellers, through it's various PR tools, then there is a problem for me the wee seller as now my truly handcrafted items are on the same page as the mass produced and that affects my credibility by association as well as the fact that I can't compete price wise to a mass produced item. 

I saw this problem with Etsy a couple of years back  ... but recent developments seem to confirm that they have truly disregarded the artisans who made the site what it is today.

And therein lies Etsys downfall - you screw the people who made you then they will go find another site to promote.  


Etsy will no doubt go on and will enjoy financial success in the short to mid term .... but their credibility is being dragged in the gutter. 

Roosters always come home to roost and if (when?) the behemoth of handcrafted falls it will only have itself to blame.

Etsy Ireland in the Irish Times

Well, well, well - lots happening these days on the auld promotion scene! One of the teams I'm in got featured in the Irish Times magazine - how about that for some kudos?!

Big thanks to Alex who was the mover and shaker in making that historic event happen.

Now I know Christmas is about more than just sales and crazy over indulgence ... but for the whole hand crafted movement in Ireland this was a BIG deal!  Move over big guy ( < insert your favorite mass produced, unfair trading, exploitative store name).

But back to work here now ... I have a pile of very realistic looking onion ornaments on the floor that need to be somehow transformed into very pretty Christmas tree ornaments!  I'll spare you the details on how I managed to paint them into onion impersonators (unless someone, somewhere, needs a tutorial on how to make the perfect onion lookalike?) - nah, didn't think so.  The idea of trying to create a new craze of onion ornaments was contemplated ... but somehow I don't think that would fly. And even if it would I'm not a very good marketeeress.

I'll be back tomorrow with day one of the 12 Days of Christmas - when I'll be featuring some beautiful creations from fab course-members of the Etsy Organic, Crafty Ireland, Trashion and Eco Etsy teams I'm proud to be a member in, as well the Auld Irish folks who like to chat! Big thanks by the way to Ecoleeko for the great idea of the 12 days feature  and who will also be running a 12 days event on her blog :)

Winter Shopping Extavanganza

Got a lovely surprise this morning - woke to see that I'm featured in Reducefootprints Winter Shopping Extravangza list!

This is a fab list of global sellers who handmake all kinds of wonderful creations ... and a neat resource for those of you who like to buy handmade.  Look for the ** symbol for eco friendly products.

Reducefootprints has her own online shop Appealingtou where she sells her oil paintings, prints and earrings.

What a nice start to the weekend - thanks for all your hard work in putting the directory together.

For my own effort in promoting handmade this Christmas season I'll be running a 12 days of Christmas blogaganza!  Starting Tuesday the 1st December - through to the 12th ... I'll be featuring 4 different artisans whose work I love.  Hopefully you'll also love them and we can all support the small scale artisans out there.

There are many reasons to buy handmade - for me the two biggest factors are I get to buy something unique (not mass produced)  plus I know I am buying fair trade!  PLUS - I get a designer made product without the designer price tag.  Got to be good :)