Friday, January 29, 2010

New Life

I have a box that I keep my old jewelry in.  It sits on a shelf in my closet and I rarely take it out for a number of reasons.  The design or color of an item got 'old'.  A clasp might have broke.  Or in the case of earrings, I no longer have a pair because one of the two was lost.  For the longest time, I hesitated to get rid of the jewelry in this box because they were finely made using top notch materials or had some sort of sentimental value. 

But eventually I began to recycle my jewelry.  I've been gradually developing my jewelry making skills over the last year or two (beading, wire wrapping, metal-smithing, etc.) and I've found ways to incorporate pieces from this old jewelry box into the new items I make.  For example, I make lariats a lot and I sometimes use earrings to embellish the ends.  I've also done this with bracelets.  I had an old sterling silver chain in my jewelry box for the longest time.  It was worn, but its quality was apparent.  Left alone, it seemed a bit plain and maybe a bit masculine.  But then I attached a few beads of varying colors and lengths and suddenly it took on new life.  It no longer seemed masculine and I was excited to wear it.  



http://homini.etsy.com
http://toulecho.com

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Farmers Market II



ok.  I've changed my mind again.  I WILL be applying to be a vendor at the South Tacoma Farmer's Market for 2010.  And..... I've already submitted the application!  Surprised?  Well, I went to a market committee meeting last night and wound up getting enthused about it all over again.  Darn that enthusiasm.  Went right home and completed the application right then.  It also gave me a couple ideas for new felting projects....!  (claps hands happily)  Good thing I got that business license a couple weeks back, uh?


The bag is coming along nicely...if I can ever find the time to crochet!  I have more time on the weekends for projects, just not during the week - full time job and all.  *sigh *  Maybe someday I'll be in a position to do this business full time, but right now it seems a million miles away....


Monday, January 11, 2010

Farmers Market

I'm about a third of the way through the bag.  I hope I judged the yarn right.   One of the colors I chose is actually a cotton instead of wool.  So it won't felt like the rest of the bag.  Now I've done this before, usually with flashy, fun materials (furry, sparkly, etc.), so I think it will work out.  But occasionally, it happens - the project doesn't turn out.  We'll see.  I think this one will be ok.  But won't know till I finish the project.

About the farmers market....  I don't think I'll be doing it after all this year.  Had too much going on last year and I'm pretty far behind in production.  I do this thing I call 'magical thinking' - its where you somehow imagine completely superhuman feats are possible.  I do this on a regular basis.  Only in later years I've started to recognize it as its happening.  I'm not sure this is helpful, although it seems like it should be.  Knowing what's happening doesn't stop it from happening, nor does it make it easier to deal with.  This time I didn't recognize it until after I started working on the felted bag I mention above.  As I began to work, reality came crashing in - it takes WAY longer to make than I remember.  It's very frustrating and disappointing.  I could always apply next year.  But this year was the first farmers market in the South Tacoma location - its possible my chances of being accepted as a vendor were better this year than ever before.  I guess vendors from other existing (already thriving) farmers markets in the area are reluctant to try to sell at a new market - never know it will flop or not.  A part of me wants to forego sleep, food and family to produce at a superhuman page to meet the challenge.  But, at least in regards to family, I'm not that selfish.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Love these colors.....

So tonight I started another felting project.  I am in turbo mode because I want to get a lot of these finished in a short amount of time.  I figure I crochet about a stitch every 3 seconds or 20 per minute (as long I'm not trying to do it while watching a movie or something - if I do, I get distracted).  I like the color pallette I chose - a cream color with muted lavender and light green.  I've attached the palette below.  Can't wait until its finished....

Felted_Bag
Color by COLOURlovers


Its good that I started felting again.  My last project about finished me off.  Too big, too long... lost patience.  I was forcing myself to try to finish it before starting other projects.  So nothing got done for a while.  I'm over it.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Its Alive!

Toutes Les Choses has just applied for business license! That's very scary for me. But its about time. Would hate to have the IRS pounding on my door!


A little bit about this blog (since its my first post)... Toutes Les Choses is an Etsy online shop from which we sell antique and vintage items, as well as handmade jewelry and felted bags and other items. This blog is meant to provide up to date news about the shop, the contributing artists and anything else we feel like sharing.


At Toutes Les Choses, we not only sell items we make and find, but anyone is welcome to request custom items through Etsy's alchemy process (which is an amazing feature of Etsy - I'm not just saying that to 'sell' - there are millions of artists on Etsy to choose from. And where else can you can you get custom made items direct from the designer over the internet? Etsy is the only place I know of.)


There is also the possibility we'll be selling at a local farmers market in 2010! If you're in the Seattle/Tacoma area, stayed tuned as we get closer to the opening of the market.