New Directions

No not the band, don’t get excited, it’s only me and my ramblings again.

What a busy time! My Partner’s support group has moved into phase 2, where we now know the old group has actually been disbanded, and not just abandoned, so we know where we can go with it now. I only wish the people we need to help us would go up a gear too, it’s all a waiting game at the moment. You can find details of his group here.

I mentioned last time that I had written a couple of tutorials for my bead pendants and earrings. Well I listed them on Etsy, and I’m selling one every couple of days, which is great! I’m still waiting for feedback on them, but one lady has come back and 'favourited' it a few days after she bought it, which is positive so I’m over the moon. There will definitely be more to come in the next few weeks.

Quite a while ago I caught sight of polymer clay covered crochet hooks. At first I thought they might feel bulky or heavy, but on further research people have said that they are actually more comfortable to hold and work with, easier to grip and seem to be more balanced. So I bought a couple of sets with the intention of covering them. They have sat around for weeks doing nothing, but when a friend of mine gave me something rather expensive and didn’t want anything for it, and this friend crochets a lot, I decided to at least make up one of the sets for her.

It didn’t take too long to make up 12 hooks, I kept it simple, after all it was my first set, with a pearl white background and the pink roses shown in an earlier post on this blog. I must say I was quite pleased with them. Last week I nervously handed them over to her as a thank you, and waited for the reaction. She was thrilled with them, so much so that she got her wool out in the middle of the coffee shop and started to crochet.

Well, just as a little bit of market research, I put them on my facebook page. Right away I was asked by several people did I have any more designs, any more hooks etc. So I scrapped all my plans for that day and made single samples of six designs, and picked up three orders that night!

I’m adding those singles to my Folksy shop for May, but will be more than happy to make up sets, pairs, etc to order.

 

 

Over on Etsy, someone told me about the ‘On Fire for Hand Made’ team, so I applied to join them. I have to say it’s one of the best teams on there in my opinion. There are plenty of team challenges and activities, but not one of them is in any way pressurising you to take part (reverse psychology? I feel more willing to take part). The commitment is for one hour activity each week, that is it. But for the last week since I joined, my shop views have trebled daily, I am added to at least three treasuries a day, two sales as a direct result of those, and a possible bulk order to bricks and mortar shop in the USA for my bead pendants and earrings.

I have more exciting news for May but I’ll leave that for another day. Meanwhile, here are some of my more recent makes.