Finally a jewellery piece montage

I remembered this time to photograph the necklace as I put it together.

Here goes...

This is what it looks like when the piece of lace is finished, but still on the pillow waiting to be cut off (like it has been for 3 days!)

A close up so you can see the pins in their places and how the pattern card below might be used to figure out where your wires and pins go.

Here, I have removed it from the pillow and added a bead to finish off the long plaited section. I am yet to decide how to finish the ends at the top of it... Hmmmm

I decided to disappear them into the lace. Think this has worked well. It's not easy to see where the wires might have finished.

I then attached a ball and chain necklace. I had to find a YouTube video to watch to figure out the clasp as I've never used a ball an chain necklace before. It's actually a lot more simple than I was trying to make it!

Now I hope the person I made it for likes it :)

Finally a jewellery piece montage

I remembered this time to photograph the necklace as I put it together.

Here goes...

This is what it looks like when the piece of lace is finished, but still on the pillow waiting to be cut off (like it has been for 3 days!)

A close up so you can see the pins in their places and how the pattern card below might be used to figure out where your wires and pins go.

Here, I have removed it from the pillow and added a bead to finish off the long plaited section. I am yet to decide how to finish the ends at the top of it... Hmmmm

I decided to disappear them into the lace. Think this has worked well. It's not easy to see where the wires might have finished.

I then attached a ball and chain necklace. I had to find a YouTube video to watch to figure out the clasp as I've never used a ball an chain necklace before. It's actually a lot more simple than I was trying to make it!

Now I hope the person I made it for likes it :)

Marketing, the leap from backyard enterprise to real stuff!

Marketing seems to be the only way to get anywhere in the world now. Either through self marketing to get that promotion, or business marketing to create and maintain a successful business - no matter how large or small it is.

The real difference now is that social media has made marketing skills accessible to the average Jo Blow who wants to have a go themselves. This has then become a given that all small business operators will have a successful campaign going on even if they haven't the time or education to really know what they're doing. I suppose on one hand this is good because it levels the playing field and means that even if you can't afford for the latest hot shot graduate to join your company or even do contract jobs for you, you can still be out there in the market place being heard.

Anyhow, what I'm getting at by all this mumbo jumbo about marketing, is that Larrkin Lace is right there with the rest of the population trying to use social media to get our work out there. This means countless lessons by various family members (and anybody else who is willing) on various types of online media. It also means trying to figure out how to make holiday style snaps of our jewellery look impressive when placed next to proffesional photo shoot type photos.

It also means countless hours staring blankly at a computer or mobile telephone screen trying to make sense of a new "app". This would be fine if either of us were techno lovers, but really all we want to do is create art and sell it, so we can make a reliable living from it... not so much to ask really is it?

As part of this marketing scheme, when I took a holiday weekend recently with a group of my girlfriends, I took a collection of jewellery with me and asked one of these dear friends (who is mighty handy with her camera) if she would help me set up some photos shoots of the other dear friends present wearing our jewellery. She did an amazing job and we now have some lovely photos to put up on our various social media sites. All my friends modelling were fabulous too - as if they had all been modelling for Prada for years! Where would we be without the help of those whom we love and who love us?!

The jewellery we have been working on is being madly configured in snippets of time between the other money earning work we currently do and the hours of internet time. I hope this will increase the sense of spontaneity showing in the work?

By the way, the photos you're seeing here aren't the beautiful ones my friend took. For them, you have to look at our Etsy site :)

The passion of craft

So the project was completed. 

Many months ago I promised myself I would make pot mitts for a good friend as a house warming present. How simple are they? I asked myself. Anyhow, her house has long since been warmed and the pot mitts had been moved to the back of my mind again and again. 

What better project to be the first in my new space? It is symbolic of the completion of the room - the making of a house warming gift, they're simple to make and it is satisfying to complete a project so quickly.

Out comes the sewing machine and a selection of fabrics. 

I did purchase a couple of samples at a local shop where the total cost of my purchases came to $22.36. I handed over $22.35 in cash and the young girl looked at me and said "it comes to $22.36". I chuckled and said  "well, would you like to round that up or down?". She frowned, then looked at me anxiously and said, "up?". I handed her another 5 cents.

All my fabric samples had been scrunched up in boxes for so long that everything needed ironing.

I am not one for meticulous measuring and perfect cutting. Quilting generally requires both of these skills. If you ignore both of these processes the stitching becomes more awkward. I put up with it though as it is only a small piece and it didn't become too misshapen. 

Usually I put off hand stitching on any projects, which of course leads to multiple unfinished objects in the cupboard. In this case I was on a roll, so I went on with a needle and thread and finished my pot mitt in one sitting.

Et voila!!