I can’t believe we are already 3 days into 2015…. so I am already late setting my new goals; not the most auspicious start! 🙂
My first 2 goals are essentially carried over from last year but they really worked for me so I will carry on with those with just some small edits.
- Post to my blog at least once per week and to Facebook twice per week
- Maintain at least 90 listings on Etsy
- Attend at least 2 workshops with other feltmakers to further develop my felting repertoire
- Start teaching felt making
Number 2 is an interesting one for me, as we approached Thanksgiving last year I set myself a target of having 90 items listed in my Etsy shop and I noticed a significant increase in sales soon after (not difficult to achieve, you might think, given that I had only sold 8 pieces in the 13 months prior). Initially I put the sales spurt down to a Christmas rush but I have had 5 more sales since Christmas (I’m still bouncing round the house with joy that other people like my work! 🙂 ) so it can’t just be people buying Crimbo presents.
Number 3 is a bit of a cheat since I have already signed up for a hat making class with Judit Pocs (I am so excited I can barely sit still) and I already have an idea of what I would like to do for the second one (more on that once it has been confirmed). But I do think it is important to keep learning from each other and expanding our horizons.
Number 4 is still just a handful of seeds in my mind, a few people have suggested I write a tutorial and I have ideas for at least 3 but the new EU VAT rules that came into force on January 1st put a spanner in those plans for a while but after much reading and networking I think there may be a work-around if I email the tutorials (it still isn’t clear if ALL the EU countries will agree this is acceptable). I also like the idea of doing some face-to-face teaching although it scares the hell out of me! There is a studio near me that runs a variety of workshops but as far as I can see felting is not on their menu, so I have plans to go and have a chat with the owner…. watch this space 🙂
I hope you have been taking a few days from your day job and have found time to be creative over the last week or so? I have been having a whale of a time, here are a few images of the things I have been working on:
A pair of fingerless gloves to match my felt jacket:
Another pair of fingerless gloves with silk hankies for decoration:
A couple of nuno felt scarves:
A black-widow spider inspired cape – in this photo it looks more like a dangerous creature from the deep 🙂
Rolling the tassels for the fringes took forever, I am so glad it is now finished and busy drying!
A new nuno felt top for me 🙂
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| layout of the silk over a resist |
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| layout of wool over the silk |
I plan to wear this next week – will try to get a photo of it on, seeing it laid flat on a table under artificial lights really doesn’t do it any justice…
What have you been up to over Christmas? Have you made any resolutions or set goals for 2015? I hope your start to 2015 had been great and reflects how the rest of 2015 will pan out.
Linking up to nina-marie, off the wall Friday
