Bonspiel: fun handmade clothing and accessories

A little while ago Fluevog shoes had a call for entries for little handmade products to put in their vending machine in their new store in Calgary.  I thought my teeny coin purses would be a perfect fit.  I"ve always wanted to have a vending machine myself.  I blogged about it all gushy about Fluevog and how it was meant to be.  Well, short story short, they rejected me.  But they did it sweetly, with a 25 dollar gift card and vague intimations that they might want my product in the future. 

I love fluevog shoes, but unless I have a brilliant insight that totally changes my business, I can't imagine being able to afford a pair even with the discount, in the next two or three years.  So I'm giving away the card to you!  You can use it in any Fluevog shoe store and also online on their website!

All you have to do to get in this contest is write something on my facebook wall about why my stuff should be in their vending machine.  Or just generally console/praise me. Remember, this is the death of a lifelong dream of mine, so copious dramatic words are welcome.

I have lots of teeny leather coin purses  in my etsy shop right now so I'm doing a two-for-one sale on them.  You just need to pop over and like my facebook page to get the coupon code for the discount.  You have to jump through some hoops, yes, but you will save 18 dollars and get one coin purse to keep and one to give to a friend.

For some reason this green unicorn purse has gotten fifteen hearts today.  So perhaps I'm tapping into a teeny unicorn coin purse zeitgeist.

Together at last, possibly!  John Fluevog, maker of fine shoes, has put out a call for items to sell in the new vending machine in their Flueseum in Calgary.  Since I've always wanted to have my little leather purses in a vending machine, I made a pitch via email last night.  I was chuffed to get a reply within five minutes, from a real person, with perfect spelling and grammar.  Talk about customer service!  I'm mailing them a sample today so they can check the quality. 

Now that I think of it, Fluevog is a company that has always resonated with me.  Back in the early '80's when they were a fledgling with a shop on Granville Street in Vancouver, my sister came back to our little island town sporting a pair of the kickest-ass black pointy booties with skull buckles.  They were ridiculous and rad all at once, and she wore them into the ground.

Their early ad campaigns played with concepts of angels and devils, their graphics were juicy and sophisticated, and although I couldn't ever afford their shoes myself (being a starving art student) I often drooled over them.  I am generally a skeptical consumer but Fluevog is one of the companies I think is pretty cool.

It seems only fitting that we come together at last.  And yes, I"m done sucking up....for now.

She's such a good businesswoman.  Even though something about her company rubs me the wrong way, (the waspy smugness perhaps?  Or the corporatization of folk-skills of domesticity?) I paused at her book, " The Martha Rules--10 Essentials for Achieving Success as you Start, Build, or Manage a Business" in the thrift shop.  It's a slim hardcover with the grande dame herself smiling on the cover, which made me almost put it back.  But I've been lost in the forest of small business low-season anxiety for a while now and so I cracked it open to see if anything resonated.  I got enough of a whiff of wisdom to spend the four bucks and bring it home (along with Dave Eggars' "What is the What", but that's another story...)

Well, half an hour into the book, Martha kicked my ass.  You may be pleased to know that it was while deep in the chapter about loving, honoring and respecting your customers I had a revelation.  Turns out I have been treating my endeavor more from an artist's point of view than a businessperson.  Which is fine if I don't want to make a living or "grow" (in the parlance of our times) my business.  But I do, I really do.  And what has been missing is my connection with my customers.  Am I really making things that you guys want enough to lay out your hard earned money?  Or am I making whatever the hell I want as an artist and then crossing my fingers that others will appreciate it too?  God damn you Martha Stewart.  And thank you.

So what to do with this new information?  For starters, I'm going to test drive some new, low-priced do-it-yourself kits and see if they have appeal for you, my customers.  Maybe you're as creative as I am, and want to put something of yourself into a little project.  I DON'T KNOW.  But I aim to find out.  Yesterday I started with the concept and by the end of the day had designed, sourced materials for, created, packaged, photographed and listed this Glasses Case Kit in my Etsy shop.  Productivity is not one of my shortcomings!

It comes with written instructions but I will also have photographic steps on this blog with an opportunity for people to ask any questions they may have about the construction of the kit.  So let me know what you think in the comments and I will pick a winner and give away either a kit or a completed glasses case, your choice.

I know it's a bit painful to hear if you live on Canada's west coast, but autumn is coming.  Even though we're caught in a perpetually damp cool spring situation this year while the rest of the continent is experiencing a record heat wave, I am starting to think about fall designs.  I guess thirteen or so years of participating in the fashion design industry (albiet on the very fringe, no pun intended) has trained my brain to think a little bit ahead.  Although I still can't wrap my mind around a "cruise line" in February.

Autumn is my favorite time of year to design for.  Or, if you're the Grammar Police, "for which to design".  Tweedy, textured fabrics, earthy colors, wool and leather are very appealing after a canvas-and-light-silk summer break.  Boots come back (although they have still not gone away this summer on the West Coast).  Corduroy jackets are always fun to make.  Generally autumn feels to me like a return to some seriousness, but in a playful way.

I had a dream in early June about a really cool tea-stained looking bag made out of a wool blanket with leather trim in a peculiar shade of purply-brown.  In the dream it was on some sort of rough bench, and the scene was the Old West.  The hardware on the bag was muted and aged brass, and this bag has been on my mind ever since.  But it is definitely not a summer item.  I finally get to make it.  I went out and found an authentic, amazing Hudson's bay blanket at the thrift shop (the kind with the green, red and yellow stripes).  I'm going to experiment with dying it with tea-colored dye.  I even figured out how to age bright yellow brass hardware to a mellow patina overnight. 

If you want to know how, here's what to do:  strip off the protective laquer finish first (I used furniture stripper) and then suspend the hardware buckle or whatever over an inch of ammonia in the bottom of a jar, with the lid screwed on tight, overnight.  In the morning remove the hardware, buff a little with very fine steel wool, and voila--old crappy looking buckle, perfect for your Old West, Medieval, or Ye Olde Whenever project.

Some other new fall items that I will be producing over the next two or three months are teeny coin purses, just the right size for cards, coins and a little cash, and I'm bringing back the English Riding Hoodie as I have had some requests.  I'm thinking of making it in this great flat black stretch crepe I found.  Super Victorian looking. Here's the teeny coin purse

here's an earlier version of the English Riding Hoodie.

          Bill Cunningham.  The guy has an amazing smile.

Last night I went and saw the  Bill Cunningham documentary with Rik and Julie at cinecenta.  It was fascinating.  Bill is 80 plus years old and still working, apparently every waking hour of his days, for the New York Times, shooting street fashion and in the evenings, socialites at charity events.  He is definitely living an austere life, with no kitchen in his apartment but dozens of filing cabinets full of negatives,(he still uses film cameras).  He’s surrounded by the hoi polloi of new york city (he is invited to every event), but will not accept even a glass of water, as he feels he is only free to do exactly as he wants if he’s not under any obligation (he has also torn up paycheques—“money is the cheapest thing....freedom, that’s the most valuable”(to paraphrase). Just when I started thinking he was kind of crazy, or at least seriously driven and possibly deeply unhappy, he is shown radiating joy and vitality in levels exceeding most people a quarter his age.  He does so so often throughout the film that it’s undeniable that his choices work well for him.

In his daily uniform of 16 dollar street-sweeper bluepolycotton jacket he rides his bike, helmetless, (and except for one incident)gracefully and assuredly through the streets of new york at all hours of the day and night, dismounting and locking the bike in order to photograph anybody who catches his eye.  His outlook is  egalitarian in that his only concern is whether the clothing is interesting---the cut, the line, the color---not the brand, cost, or prestige of the person wearing it.  He’s not a photographer in that he is not concerned with the composition or quality of the photograph, only in what it reveals.  Various highly respected figures in the fashion world pay their respects to his unwavering eye and unique sensibility. 

None of the people interviewed who are in his life (work colleagues and longtime neighbours) seem to know anything about his personal life.  This introduces an element of intrigue that intensifies until,  in the climactic scene of the film the documentarist asks Bill two questions, assuring him that he is not obligated to answer if he’s not comfortable.  The way Bill responds to the questions makes sudden sense of everything about him.  It’s a fascinating study of the result of creating a very unusual life from a set of deeply and unwaveringly held convictions that manage one big fundamental contradiction.

Some of the scenes took place in the lavish apartments and artists’ studios of the Carnegie center. I remember a couple of years ago there was a thing about how the last artists there were being evicted; most of them were over 80 and had lived theresince the 1940’s.  The incredible richness of these backdrops, contrasting with Bill’s austere work and living environment,  adds to the poignancy of this portrait of an artist nearing the end of his life.  Five thumbs up!

I cut off about a foot of straggly, dyed hair last week and I love it.  With long hair I was trying for a classic femininity and allure.  I had an idea that I would wear it up in sophisticated ways, but I almost never bothered.  I'm more of a brat at heart so my short hair reflects that side of me and I think my image is more in line with my personality now.  Oh, and my glasses are the same ones on this case:

I did the haircut myself, I know an amazing stylist but she charges what she is worth (therefore beyond my means at this time). I have one of those razor comb things so I just went for it, and I wasn't even drunk!

My Salvador Dali shirt was made by my buddy Duane--get your own at his etsy shop.  Then come over and I'll give you a haircut and then we can be twins.

"canada post hates me"

Today I am almost as excited as a tot on christmas morning, for  today is the day that the Canadian government will hopefully legislate the Postal workers back to work. (no word yet, at 7:15 am pacific time.) I stupidly did not consider the consequences of the postal service shutting down on my mail-order business and now I'm mired in the middle of it.   My Etsy sales ground slowly down through the start of June when the workers started fomenting, and have come to a standstill but for a few intrepid souls who purchased little items last week.  (They are willing to wait until the mail starts moving again to receive their stuff--thank you so much guys). 

I guess I did kind of start imagining the impact that the inability to ship would have on my business  but it seemed so outlandish, so absurd that I abandoned the line of thinking.  The mail is, to me anyway, an essential service; so it was like imagining that suddenly I had no money, not even to buy milk, and no prospect of any coming in.  Which is also sort of coming to pass. Actually, no, I'm being overly dramatic, but I'm a couple of thousand dollars short and rent day is looming and I'm afraid!

I know it's not just all about me, but it's affecting me so profoundly that I don't care about the politics of it and what it means for unions, the public sector, the Conservative government's use of their powers, or the corporation of Canada post.  In fact if I had to take sides I think I would join the "cry me a river" side against the unions for the first time in my life.  Yes, I have read quite a lot about the issues that would be on the table  if there were any negotiations happening.  I bet if the postal service were de-unionized there would be no shortage of new job applicants willing to work under the current conditions, and for less money too.  The economic and social climate has changed in such a way as to make unions look increasingly anachronistic, in my view.

I heard on the radio the other day that a beekeeper had a hundred or so queen bees in the mail enroute to him to populate orphaned hives.  Unfortunately the queens are stuck in a mail sorting facility with nobody who could do anything about it willing or able to help, and they are all dead as of today.  And without queens all the orphaned bees will die as well.  This will cost the beekeeper thousands of dollars in lost honey revenue, and it makes me really sad to imagine those queens, each in her little vial, languishing in a box somewhere, and those poor motherless hives too.  THINK OF THE BEES, people!  And get back to work. 

I resorted to pleading on facebook for my friends to come support me at the market yesterday.  To those who did, Thank you so much!  I had a really good day with solid revenue and I am proportionately less anxious now.  The sun is shining, the seagulls are screaming and making their monkey noises, and parliament is convening.  I remain optimistic.

Also quite self absorbed, I know, but anxiety will do that to a person.  So now I want to know, how is the postal strike affecting you, if at all?  If you are a bee I particularly want to hear from you.

--ellen

This is the flyer I will be handing out when I start doing my local street market (I'll be in Centennial Square on Sunday May 15, 10 am!).  Yes, after enough renovating to have my own reality tv show, I'm opening my narrow brown door to you-all local Victorians and visitors too.  (That sounds kind of dirty, but I'm just trying to be hospitable). 

So you can browse the stuff online, either here or in my Etsy store, and let me know if you want me to put something aside for you to examine in person.

Just ignore the kitchen when you come up, because I haven't even started on fixing it up yet!

I just realized I didn't put the actual street address on the flyer, but you can get that info when you make your appointment--slight whiff of mystery and intrigue there.  Or is it barbecued duck?

Here are a few "after" pictures of my Chinatown loft...I think I must have spent about 40 hours cleaning, sanding, filling, priming and painting.  I had some help from Nicole and Denny.  Nicole attacked the bannister with fierce zeal.  It's not in the pictures though 'cause the whole back of the loft has yet to be fixed up completely.  Denny brought many tools and an invaluable tall step ladder, and contributed his time to wall prep and helping me move, along with his son Jute (see on stepladder flexing guns).  I really appreciate all the help, guys!

There's still a lot to do but the main space is pretty well complete.  It's going to be sweet!

I finally went in to the city yesterday and got the keys to my new loft.  The space is adorable and has lots of fascinating nooks and crannies.  It's also very utilitarian and the surfaces are dingy and battered by probably over a hundred different residents (the building was built in I think the early 1890's).  I can't wait to get in there and caulk up all the cracks between the wooden planks on the walls, paint the kitchen floor a pale apple green, and paint all the walls white.  What color should I paint the black bannister newel-post thingy?  The stairs are remaining red.

I like the spirit of Chinatown manifesting in red, black and white, but I think other colors could be evocative too.  And I definitely am getting rid of the dark teal and burgundy paint job in the lower bedroom.

It's going to be so light and airy and cozy and clean and amazing!

Today Blu Dot is having an unusual event on their website.  You pitch them a service, or collection of weird stuff, or whatever you can dream up, to trade for a piece of their cool modern furniture.  I offered to screenprint Abraham Lincoln on things in trade for a sleeper sofa.  Dream big, right?  Who cares if we're on opposite sides of the continent, and in different countries too--Austerity blows! (their slogan).  I mean, they could send me a stack of tee shirts and I could print 'em up with lincoln and hearts and skeletons too.

You should go check it out if you want to give it a go.  Or vote for mine, hey!

As any of you out there who sell your handmade stuff on the internet know, February can be a very cruel month for sales.  I thought I had life all figured out as I holed up here on Salt Spring Island this winter, house sitting for free rent.  With almost no overhead for the first time in my adult life, I could do some drawing, perfect some dress patterns, and produce some stuff with less urgency than usual.

The perfect urban loft apartment, back in Victoria, was going to be mine on April first, just as the cherry blossoms were emerging and the last frost was behind us.  Or should I say, just as the wallets were emerging from pockets, and the barren wasteland of early spring online retail was behind us. The timing was perfect!   But then I got thrown a curve ball:  The apartment had to be claimed for March 1.  With only a small trickle of funds coming in, how was I going to meet these sudden expenses?  There was no question that the loft had to be mine.

I decided last Tuesday evening, on the spur of the moment, to have a 50% off sale in my etsy shop.  I've dabbled with little sales and discounts here and there, but never done anything on this scale.  Part of the reason was that it would be so much work to individually edit 70 or so listings.  But now craftopolis.com has an "edit express" function that enables you to bulk edit the price and title of listings all at once.  

By 9 pm I had my listings all edited to read HALF PRICE ('cause you gotta be tacky sometimes to get people's attention), changed my shop announcement to reflect what was going on, and posted on facebook and twitter what I was doing.  I called it the February Financial Freakout Sale. I sat back and waited.  After 35 minutes I got a sale for two pouches.  I cheered!  Then I went to bed because it was a long day and I was tired.  I figured I would keep the sale going until I made 500 dollars or 5 days had gone by.  500 dollars used to be a good local market day's sales in the balmy days of summer; no big deal.  But in my midwinter mentality it seemed like an impossible amount that i was not worthy to receive.  It also is the approximate amount of my damage deposit.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up the next morning to  9 more sales!:  As the day went on the sales just kept coming.  A store in Edmonton, Sabrina Butterfly Designs, who had been asking me for wholesale, jumped in with both feet and purchased a whack of items too.  By the time the dust had settled, I had far surpassed my goal and shut the sale down before I ran out of items! 

Below for all to see is the record of how this strategy impacted my online sales for February.  This screen capture is from craftopolis.com, a wonderful utility that shows etsy sellers in nice easy to take in at a glance graphics our views, hearts and sales by the day.

As you can see, my sales were pathetic and dismal.  Even worse than an average February, since I had lost about a month of production time and momentum when I had to move in December, so my stock was down. Despite the severe depletion yet again of my stock by selling it for half price, the sale put cash in my (landlord's) pocket and gave me a little peace of mind, as well as lots of food for thought.

What have I learned from this experience?  You, as an etsy seller, might be able to get something out of this.  I learned that way more people were looking at my stuff and wanting to own it than I thought.  I learned that they love a deal and will act on one.  Nobody was buying when I knocked a few dollars off of a few items earlier in the month.  I really think that the specialness of the sale, the wide-sweeping-ness (my whole shop, except this item), and the deep discount all added up to spur shoppers to take action. Also, I made it really easy for the shoppers--each item said HALF PRICE right on the title, and the prices were already adjusted so they didn't have to do any figuring or thinking that might interrupt the impulse-buy process!

My buyers were a combination of new and repeat customers. I love the new customers because hey, maybe if they were reluctant to go whole hog and buy an item they could not smell and touch, but took a chance when it was on sale, they will be reassured as to the quality and come back.  And of course I love the repeat customers because I already feel so grateful to them for supporting me that I am happy to give them a discount. 

I had a couple of people contact me after the sale was over to beseech me to let them know when I was going to do it again.  Will I do it again?  Depends on how desperate I get!  But if I do have another sale, I would do a few things differently.  First, I would publicise the sale  three or four days in advance so people would have a better chance of finding out about it. I think any further ahead of time than that, and it would start to bore people and seem spammy.   Also, I think I would do a sliding sale strategy, ie on the first day everything would be ten percent off.  The next day, 20%, the next 30 and so on up to 50% off.  Since most of the items are one of a kind, once they are gone they are gone, so that might spur people to go for their favorite purse before somebody else grabs it, rather than wait and see if they can get it cheaper.  At best the whole event would have an auction-esque feel.

I have a little book about oriental carpets that I found at a used book sale on Saltspring Island.  I was staring at the full-color pictures the other day and enjoying the colors and patterns when I came across this one carpet (shown in the picture) with a central black medallion.  It looked like a hole in the ground of the carpet, sucking me through to outer space, passing through an intertwined golden grid of viney floral shapes.  Not literally.  But it was still super cool.  I decided to do some sketches based on these motifs and forms, thinking I'd create a fabric with a similar feel, with rich detail floating over layers of color.  You can see in my sketch a couple of little dress ideas.  I may make the fabric myself with silkscreens, or get the fabric made on spoonflower.com.  They have a silk chiffon that could be amazing. 

I'll extend the scrollwork beyond the perimeters of the medallion, add more detail into it, ink it in and see where it takes me.  This is the first drawing I've done probably since the Tall Kitty maybe a year ago, which has been a big hit made into fabric on spoonflower.com.  I like drawing, but it challenges me as I have issues about not being able to draw, so I tend to go unconscious after I draw and let months go by before I return to the sketchbook.  But I have a feeling that drawing is a fundamental part of my leap to the next level of creativity with Bonspiel, so I must open the sketchbook more often.  Maybe I should make a regular practise of just drawing something.  This feels like a pretty big project but it does feed into my goal of doing things on a larger scale than I have been doing.

In other news, I was walking in downtown Victoria (west coast of Canada) yesterday and noticing how many clothing shops have shut down.  Plum, which has been around for years, is gone, as is another shop whose name already escapes me.  I think Mango is still there and I suppose Grape, Persimmon and Durian are going to open up soon.  Yes, it's a fruity town.  Roots and the Gap are still and forever having huge sales, in fact everywhere things were being offered for half price or less.  In the meantime I am suffering from very slow sales in my Etsy shop, right when I need money for my move into my new studio.  February has always been the cruellest month for me.  So I decided to put everything in my etsy shop on sale for half price, and give the people what they want (fantastic handmade goods for cheap!).  It's only for a limited time, until I hit 500 dollars in sales or after five days, whichever comes first.  So if you want a great deal, go there now, I won't be doing this again until maybe next February.

Now I'm off to stoke the woodstove, 'cause baby, it's cold outside.

--ellen

I'm holed up on Saltspring Island in my parents' big cozy house, surrounded by over 100 kinds of bamboo (my dad's hobby and business) and 5 acres of forest.  I moved here temporarily on New Year's Eve (which I missed completely due to moving exhaustion--passed out at 9 pm with a glass of white wine in my hand).  My parents are enjoying their retirement down in Palm Springs, running daily marathons, swimming 40 lengths of the pool, doing an hour a day of yoga, hiking up whatever hills they can find in the desert, and collapsing into bed at 9 every night (is there a pattern emerging here?).  So they graciously gave me this opportunity to live rent-free in their house and take care of their wild birds, goldfish in an indoor pond, and many tropical houseplants.  I'm burnng up their firewood, I'm grinding their pepper, I'm borrowing my dad's tools without his permission--it's great!

     Tact prevents me from going into the details of my situation last year--suffice it to say that my living arrangement had grown beyond my ability to maintain my financial equilibrium, and I was becoming increasinly stressed out and unhappy.  My future was starting to look grim, perhaps involving streets and me living on them.  So I created a new future.  This house was waiting for me all along, offering overhead-free solace and a spiritual crash pad.  And my amazing friends and acquaintances in the art and craft community in Victoria sold my stuff in their shops for me, gave me emotional  and practical support, and told me about an opportunity to live in a super cool live/work loft in Chinatown. 

      I am renting the loft starting March 1.  I'm so excited.   It's the top floor on the right.   It's got three huge windows overlooking Government Street, where all the parades go, so I can have parade watching parties.  It has a tiny narrow doorway on the street leading up  ridiculously narrow pink wooden stairs that go on and on; moving up will be hell.  I wil buy people  who help me move will get not only pizza but RRSP's.

     The bathroom has no bathtub or sink! (what kind of bathroom doesn't have a sink?)   And the kitchen has no cupboards or counters, but it does have a big white enameled country-style sink with drainboard and a gas stove (I love cooking on a gas stove--haven't had one for maybe twenty years!)

    I will be right in the middle of my people, getting better  entangled in their lives and making up a new one of my own.  Apparently I have one of the few ovens in Chinatown so I'll be hosting roasted foods night and letting people come bake cookies if they have the urge to (isn't that nice of me?). 

Speaking of pork buns, my loft is right over a Chinese bakery which is ironic since I'm eating low-carb these days.  But I'm an old hand at not only  not giving into temptation, but not even being tempted at all (when it comes to food).  Those almond cookies might nail me now and then, and that's okay.  They're so good dipped in coffee.

     These changes have affected my business.  For one thing, I lost my support team, Diana and Melissa, so I am once again completely on my own with production.  That means I am producing less.  Which leads me to value the products more.  Which means no more wholesale, at least not until the fall when I've re-established my team and upped production.  The only stores you will be able to find my items at are Floating Gold Iceberg on lower Pandora and Regalia boutique in Fan Tan alley.  (Shout out to my bitches).

      For another thing, I will be opening my studio as a shop, (by appointment) so if you're in Victoria you can come and fondle  everything I have in stock, all the stuff in my Etsy shop, as well as new things in progress, and the bargain bin, which is starting to overflow with oddities again.

     The last thing I can foresee changing with Bonspiel is that I will have more money available to re-invest in the business: that means higher end product, more selection and variety.  I intend to gradually make a shift over to producing clothing.  I want to make mainly dresses, skirts and jackets.  My clothing style tends toward the classic and slightly prim, tailored pieces that aren't really in style, but will never go out either. 

     So that's the scoop!  My mood and life are perfectly matched to this point in the seasons--sometimes cold, even frosty; sometimes sunny, but always getting brighter and greener.  Cheers to the future!

--Ellen

A facebook friend posted this little movie this morning. (link below)

Boys of Milan & Paris FW2011 from Justin Wu on Vimeo.

Some of us viewed it and one commented "I can haz le cheezburger?", making me think, yeah, why isn't there a website of purely adorable young men, European models or not, getting into trouble, being spunky, perhaps getting tangled up in a skien of wool....oh wait, there are plenty of those.  But on the one I'm envisioning they wouldn't (usually) be naked.  It would be similar to the LOLcats website, with lots of 'oops' moments, short clips of spazzing out, and "aren't they cute when they're sleeping" threads in the forums.

So, if you know of a site that fills this much-needed niche, please post the link below in the comments.  And if you think I should just start one, send me some content to put up and I'll figure it out as a sidebar templatey thing here.

It has come to my attention that my shiny new website here is spamming everyone who comments.  I'm so sorry!  I am usually kind of low-key when it comes to self promotion (so much so that you'll not hear a peep from me for months at a time).  Unfortunately it is almost impossible to figure out how to turn off these automatic notifications.  I'm going to have to contact support for my site provider.  In the meantime please know that spamming is evil even when it makes you join my site and I would never ever do that to you.

xo ellen (I am not a bot)

--Half an hour later--After poking around the back end of my site and searching in the help area, I have discovered that I am not permitted to control these emails.  They are automatic and there is nothing I can do about it.  I can't even edit what they say!

    I really love everything else about the blog application here.  I think I'll just keep using it for now and hope that you don't get too pissed off.  And I'll petition the folks who can make changes to let us control this feature.  Thanks for not hating me.  And try this all-natural viagra, it will really make her scream all night long!!!!!

I've always had a 'no custom work' policy.  I made a bride's dress for a friend in the '90's, and after that I said to myself "never again".

By the time the dress was done we were no longer friends.  She was pregnant at the time and the hormones  *completely* changed her personality--she became super waffly and also really picky and nervous.  She knew exactly how she wanted the dress to look--she had a vision-- but had no way to explain it to me.   Also, every time she came for a fitting, her body had grown one or two inches.  It  turned out all right,  but she never paid me (I had asked for a token amount--the bulk of the service was her wedding gift from me)  and the friendship just fizzled after that.

I have made a few things for people since then, but the nervous perfectionism that I have when I'm specifically making something to someone's requirements made the process so unpleasant that I figured it wasn't worth it.  However, I'm starting to think that if I could get over what is obviously my own issue, I could really make very good money and also help make a lot of people's dreams come true.  We all love the idea of participating in a creative process--and having a craftsperson do your specific bidding is a delightfully old-fashioned concept that I can get behind.  I get so many requests for custom bags--probably three or four a week even though I say I don't do them.  They vary from just a simple 'will you ever make this exact bag again?' to "I have an old coat I want to send you and have you make me my dream bag".  Yikes!  So many things could go wrong.  But they could also go right.  And then I would get to use the word "bespoke" (even though I'm not quite sure what it means).

As for getting it right before passing into the afterlife, that doesn't fit with my belief system, so no pressure there.

I was at the fabric store today and found this excellent wolf fabric--meant to make big cushions from, but I think it would make a great skirt.  Alas, there was only enough for three wolf skirts, but I bought it all.  There is a guy that works at the fabric store (he has a thinning ponytail and doesn't seem to be gay--just a total anomaly) and he said 'hey I've never seen that fabric in here before!  I wish I had.' Tough luck, anomalous fabric store guy.

    For the picture, I just wrapped the piece of fabric and pinned it to the skirt that my doll-lady was already wearing, but I would make the skirt out of some kind of nice tweed and sew the wolf panel to the front like a giant applique, since the wolf fabric is quite light cotton (too light for fall/winter).  The quality of the image is very high, with the nose so shiny and wet looking you can just imagine it poking into your ear.

    So what do you think?  Could you rock it?  Or is it just too weird.