This time, I mean business

Mainly because we are in business.

Last night's panic session paid off and we successfully made the cut for Animenorth Crafter's Corner. Now wonderfully thrilled, Magic and Stitchcraft will now have two conventions again this year!

So, now this means there is a booth to design, merchandize to create and I think a site/blog that I might put on tumblr for exposure. I'm not etsy level yet, but I think having something on a major social media site will be to my benefit. I really need to look into it anyway.

But of course, in the end, I need stuff to sell, so I really need to hunker down on returning products and new designs. I have two chocobo fascinators which I still need to finish and then I can start on some fresh stuff.

It's full steam ahead now!

Wark? Kweeeh.

The stars have aligned thusly.

I have made stuff.

2 Blue chocobo fascinators, (or, to be fair, they could pass for Articuno fascinators as well.) are now complete, and kinda adorable. I wasn't sure how they were going to translate from yellow to blue, but I quite like the effect.

I should be able to finish up the two green ones today, but I want to go back and get a better matching fabrics for the yellow ones. I had bought some since I was out of the original yellow, but the colour match isn't quite good enough. This might mean a Queen St run, since both of my local fabricland's didn't have enough selection in yellow.

So a step foward and a step back.

(And application dates for Crafter's Corner now hovering above us. Eererehghghgh.....!)

Did I promise productivity?

Because I think I lied.

Sort of.

I mean, I did a little bit of crafting work. And by a little, I mean I stitched all the bases of the fascinators I had pre-prepped. .....Which might have taken two hours tops, in which I completed them in.... three weeks.

Whoops.

I blame Post-Christmas energy crashes, retail plague and extra tutoring shifts. Yes. that sounds reasonable.

Anyway. I did get the inkling of an idea at work. Art Noveau fascinators. No idea where that is going, but eh, I`ll let the idea percolate for a while.

Tally Ho!

Starting the New Year

Okay.

Hello 2015.

Let's be friends, okay?

As such, let's begin. My silent New Year's goal to myself, was to be more on top of my crafting - with our FanExpo booth all but assured, I at least can take some confidence in the fact I will have some sort of booth this year, and any and all crafting I undertake will be displayed. Normally, everything pins down to Animenorth and whether or not we can get a table there, which following as intense rush of alchemy in about two months time.

We will be applying to Animenorth again with held breath, and crossed fingers but at least I can start making things now for August and if luck is on our side, be that much more prepared for May.

So. Let's begin now.

And, actually, I have. 6 Chocobo fascinators are now in their hatchling stages,of the currently 8 I have planned. I figure if I do a bit each once and a while I'll have them done nicely in between work, my tutoring jobs and life, the universe and everything else.

That's positive, right?

The art of selling.

So, I work retail as my day job. For all it's ups and downs, you do learn a trick or two about merchandizing stuff. And so, while I was spending an hour mopping up the flood that decided to expel itself from the pipes/walls/gates of hell at work, I turned my mind to booth setup.

Things that I have concluded/noticed/have come to mind.

1. Touch is key. Get people to touch an item, they create a bond with it.

2. Displaying something nicely is good - but too fancy, they get intimidated, to casual and it doesn't show off it's value. 

3. The further the hand has to stretch towards an item, there is a 30% decrease in likelihood the item will be touched/picked up/noticed. If all booth tables were therefore only a foot wide and 18 feet long, vendors would be selling 100% of their products.

And so, I am once again mulling over how I should change how my stuff is displayed.

For the hairclip flowers, I find that on their fancy stand didn't get them noticed as much, for that they were.... very accessible. But, something about that extra extension of the hand just made them unnoticed until I dropped them to the table surface right at the front. Current idea: Create a rotating display, right at the front of the table, that has the flowers. Create a card stock backing for them to clip onto which in turn would hang on the display. Could double as the display top for the head that usually has one of the fascinators on it, again putting it right out front.

I also want to ramp up the Chocobo fascinators display. Maybe print out an actual chocobo and put it right next to the clips. (Maybe on another side of the spinning display?)

The biggest thing to also consider is that the table sizes for Animenorth and FanExpo are slightly different, so it has to adapt to each. (Fingers crossed we get Animenorth again this year....)

Ah, well. To the sketch book.

Winter accessories

So, my daytime tutoring session was cancelled for this week, so I decided to take the time and be productive with organizing and tidying making pretty things. Been meaning to make a blue flower brooch for my Nanny for a while, to match the pink one I made. Also, I had bought some Christmas fabric (like two days ago...) to make Christmas hair clips for me and....whoever else wants one, heh. They look like poinsettias, so it works. Probably end up wearing one at work once it gets closer to Christmas, for that festive cashier look.

Random stuff.

So.... I've been shamefully neglecting this blog. Oops. To be fair I haven't done much in the ways of creative stuff lately. I'll post some Halloween stuff after I finish it all, since I have made a couple of tester things, which have served as experiments in techniques for future and more elaborate projects.

So in the meanwhile, here! Have a picture of a hair comb!

Yay!

I made it yesterday since I need something to match my outfit I wore to high tea today, which was all about Swans. ...The outfit not the tea. The flower matched the scarf I was wearing, pinned with a crystal swan brooch.

I very much liked the effect of the brooch on the scarf, so I might use that look again in the future.