Taueret

Artist?

If the Natural History Museum (well the Beagle Project) say I'm an artist, does that make it true?  I sure hope so!

*beams proudly*

Charles Darwin Cameo

Etsy

So, I have been working to get some jewelry stock ready (and some ideas for items that I can do as custom orders, but quickly and reproducibly/reliably) for a little Etsy shop.

_{mokume gane Darwin tree pendant/brooch}

The  first few ideas I've had are ready (although I need to get some modelled photos of pendants etc).

_{trilobite pendant- sterling silver and resin}
 I have loads of other ideas too, and now I can concentrate on those.  I'm still not ready to "promote" in a big way, but I think it's ok to post about it here, now.

_{mokume gane Flying Spaghetti Monster pin/magnet}

As you might have noticed, I'm mostly interested in making art that's related in some way to science, or that will probably appeal to lovers of science.  It's a niche, but whatever, it makes me really happy and as I said, I have loads and loads of ideas.  generally I am not an ideas person- so I am enjoying that part.

I created a new twitter account to share announcements of new items etc- if You're interested follow @longleggedfly.  I will keep it to once a day or so, at the most, and keep personal chatter on @taueret.
If you are wondering why I called the shop longleggedfly (well the lack of spaces is an Etsy thing!), the explanation is in my shop profile.  Basically I needed a name people could pronounce (including me) if I wanted to promote myself at all!

Thanks for looking!

FO: Umbridge + Etsy madness

I finished knitting the pink raglan top down cardi.  The recipe I used was great and very easy to follow (as long as next time I remember that I need to accommodate the extra raglan increases evenly to accommodate my bust).  Not the pattern's fault.  What I did (basically a vertical bust dart) worked okay, but not great.  I gave the sides a gentle swingy shape by increasing every 5 rows or so, which would have been fine but when I added a ruffly row just before casting off, it's all a bit too Dolores Umbridge for me, really.  Not to worry, I was fearless and everything I did *worked*- just not so much as design elements on my body type ;-).  It's ok.  I will wear it round the house.  What's cool is that I learned a lot from it- oh yes!  I steeked!

The steeking alone was worth the price of admission.  I sewed it on my sewing machine, cut it- tacked the steek back as a facing- and blimey if that wasn't just way too easy.  I am no longer a steek virgin- and more importantly, having done one, I can see how they work, and now armhole steeks don't scare me either.  Yay.  It's kind of sad that it took me til the age of 40 to start really learning how knitting works, but better late than never eh?  So, while this cardi is really a waste of some very nice yarn, it was a learning exprience worth having.

The Etsy experience continues to fascinate me.  The reason I at first wanted to place my weaving an a bricks n mortar shop was that I knew placing it online would drive me crazy.  In a shop, I wouldn't know what anyone said about it- what anyone thought of it, how many people looked at it, liked it, or hated it.  I could hand it to the shop lady and forget about it.  Selling it isn't important, in fact at the price I have chosen I probably won't- but I somehow placing it *was* important. 

Now that it's on Etsy- I am driving myself mad, as I knew I would.  How many views?  How many hearts?  Someone must have featured one scarf in a treasury that made it to the front page, because suddenly the views leaped into the hundreds, and the hearts correspondingly increased (so I don't think it was the 'views' bug striking).  No sale, but validating, in my first week.  But now, I need to walk. away. from. Etsy.  I haven't done any spinning or weaving since choosing to skip down the Etsy path.  I have had one freaky idea which I can't wait to figure out how to execute, but have done nothing else (other than knitting).  I need to get over myself and get back to work.

Just sayin.

I can has Etsy.

I did it- I set up an Etsy shop.  If you read my blog regularly, you have already seen my wares, but if you would like to have a look, please do.  The address is taueret.etsy.com.  I realise that photography is not my strong point- but really I'd rather be weaving :-).

The move to Etsy was my opportunity to shed the "Taueret" thing- who chooses a name that she can't even pronounce?  I do, apparently.  Why Taueret?  Well, when I started my blog a couple of years ago, I was hugely pregnant.  I also never expected anyone would really read it- but  *was* keen to make it more or less anonymous, for reasons that seem kind of naive now.  So, searching for a not-my-own-name name that reflected my mood, I hit on Taueret- apparently an Egyptian goddess of motherhood and fertility.  Hey, I was 7 months pregnant- right now I'd probably choose something utterly different- like Tourette ;-)! 

Never expecting to have to *say* Taueret- I didn't consider the difficulty in spelling and pronouncing it.  As far as I can see it's "Taw-ret", but my friend says "Taurette" which sounds so cute, and my husband says "Tauray" which makes me wonder how many other ways you could say it.  When I met strangers at the Stitches n Craft show, and told them about Ravelry, I grabbed their notebooks an scrawled "Taueret@ravelry" on them, so they could say hi when they got there.  Strangely, no one has!  heh heh.

Anyway, the biggest dilemma of doing the etsy thing was- what to call the shop.  Well, after a couple of days of trying to come up with the cleverest name evar- I gave up.  There are a few people who already know my blog and therefore my weaving.  It seems crazy to make them learn some new identity, because I am fickle.  So... Tauret is the name of my Etsy shop too.  Did you like that story?  Where are you going?  I have many other fascinating anecdotes!

etsy bound

I'm finally forced to face that fact that if I want (an excuse) to keep weaving, I should find a place to put my finished objects.  I've been looking at local retail, and there are factors that just make me really uncomfortable with it- even though in my heart it was my preferred route up 'til a few days ago.  I am a non-business person in ways I can't even reveal without making myself look so dim-witted that you would run, run away and never read my blog again.  Suffice it to say that one friend regularly refers to me as an idiot-savant (!) and another says things like "so is this like when you say something cost you about $5.00 and you meant to say $50?".  If you could be, I would be, I am, allergic to all financial transactions.  Well I'm ok at spending, not so keen on selling.

Anyway, as someone kindly pointed out on the big weaving list @yahoogroups, I have done the "heavy lifting" by getting ready for shop placement.  I can now apply that to getting an Etsy shop up.  Huh.  I am trying to get over myself and get it together.  I will keep you posted.