Etsy-tastic

I've finally spent some time photographing and prepping for Etsy several items I made months ago. I always tell myself it will take no time at all, and then, of course it takes all afternoon. Part of the hold up on some of these things was that I told myself I was going to make 10-15 of them for the sake of experiment and design exploration. I stuck to this plan for about two weeks before it began to taper off with a grand total of four completed. I told myself repeatedly that I would continue with the rest, but that hasn't happened yet, so I decided to put what I had up on Etsy since I'm satisfied with them thus far. 

This series of mine is several felted "nest" shapes, akin to an oriels nest, attached to a branch of grape vine curl. The wool is a smokey mix of several fibers and doesn't felt as smoothly as the usual roving. The effect is more organic and I like it. I've been stitching little bright beads into it hoping they'll look like little spoors or seeds or eggs... or.... something like that. They're interesting as necklaces, but I'm thinking of putting them on hair pins as well so it would be as though something had nested in ones hair. 

The woodworking items on Etsy have been taken down at the request of their maker, Chuck. I worked with Chuck at his wood shop, but he's out of business for the time being. I haven't had a chance to talk to him about what happened yet, but I hope it's good news and not bad. 

In reviewing the remaining items, I find myself getting critical of my writing style again. Apparently, writing the product descriptions is the tricky part for most people. In mine, I try to balance candor about how I feel about what I've made while making it interesting and not coming across as patronizing or glib. I'm probably more guilty of over-thinking them! 

Rita has lately had me processing some dyed-in-the-grease wool. I like this sort of thing and how it feels very close to the material. I like the terms for the tools; the doffer, the picker, the flicker, the carder. I also seem to be able to focus for long periods of time on stuff like this-- I get particular about pulling burrs and dense short bits out while carding. She let me take the pulled out bits with me, so now I have dyed wool that is still rather raw in every other way. This will probably be quite interesting to work with...