Folksy Friday - Yellow

I've decided on a change from different materials as a theme for my Folksy Friday blogs and so I'll be going with colours for a few weeks. As Spring is just around the corner, Yellow is this week's choice. No other colour quite manages to convey Spring as well as Yellow, even though as everything starts to grow the predominant colour is green. Yellow just makes us think of sunshine and blue skies.

Here are my choices for this week....

First up is a pale yellow cake stand from  jml pottery

 A beautiful rose photograph by  Katie Railton Photography

Pretty daffodil corsage brooches from  PaulinesCrafts

A stunning yellow and black candle holder from  Glassmagyck

A lovely yellow enamel pendant by  JellyGiraffe Handmade Jewellery

A leather butterfly key ring from  Tovicorrie

How cute! These baby shoes are from  Funky Shoes - Unique Gifts for Babies

Lovely leather journal! It's by  Bound

Gorgeous colours in this lampshade by  Revill, Revill

And lastly from me, a yellow and lilac bag  Wild Rose Designs

thanks for looking,

Linda

Folksy Friday - Wool

This weeks Folksy Friday's material of choice is Wool.  Not all wool comes from Sheep; Cashmere and Mohair comes from the fleece of Goats, Angora from Rabbits and Alpaca from a type of camel. Wool is a very versatile fibre which can be woven, knitted or felted and it has great insulating properties. Natural wool is usually a creamy white colour though it can come in black, brown, silver or random mixes.

Here is this weeks selection - hope you like them...

Love this cushion by  Lainey Drew Textiles

Wish I'd made this bag, it's from  Jenny Gale

A lovely  traditional Peg Rug  from  nellie and eve

A pretty felted neck scarf by  BEAUTIFULFELTS

A cute teal felt bowl with lid from  That Fuzzy Feeling

Love the colours in this hand knitted Fairisle wool beret by  Mezzaluna bags & berets

Gorgeous handwoven wrap from  Mingled Yarn

This funky felt fish brooch is great, it's by MADE WITH LOVE

A stunning Merino wool painting from  The Mucky Pup Gallery

And finally from me a wool Kindle cover  Wild Rose Designs

thanks for looking  ..  :-)

Linda

'Must do list' - update

Further to my previous post I have managed a few of  the items on my list;

 I've joined Pinterest!

 I  only have one board so far, more by way of a practise run but I'm slowly getting the hang of it - I think!         You can follow me by clicking on the button on the left.

 I've booked two craft fairs so far:

 I'm back at Barties Boutique, Chapel Road Worthing, on Saturday 9th March 10 - 2,
 and on the 30th March I will be at The Emporium, Worthing from 9 until 5. It's a brand new monthly    outdoor Market right in the centre of town in Montague Place. I haven't done an outdoor Market before so  I'm really looking forward to it. I just hope it isn't too cold or tipping it down - though I will be under cover.

 And I've started to raise my prices to a more realistic level. I hope that it won't put people off buying, especially in the current economic climate. But though I love what I do, it is my job and I really need to earn something from it...

Okay, so that's three down, it's a good start but plenty still to do, it's a work in progress...

Folksy Friday - Silk

Yet another week has flown by, where does the time go? I know they say that you slow down as you get older, but this is ridiculous  - and I'm not in my dotage yet! I think like most of us, it's a case of wearing too many different hats!

Anyway, continuing with my materials theme, this weeks Folksy Friday is about Silk. Now we all know that silk comes from the cocoons of the larvae of the silk moth caterpillar, but did you know that the shimmering lustre of silk is due to the triangular, prism like structure of the silk fibres which allows the cloth  to refract incoming light at different angles thereby producing different colours! I love silk, or more precisely silk dupion. I love it's slubbed texture and the way it shimmers and it comes in some stunning colours. Here is my selection for this week:

This is a beautiful hand painted silk scarf from  Ellie Hipkin Hand Painted Silks

Some love silk papers by  Fantasytextiles

Cute silk Mary Janes from  WINNIBRIGGS HOUSE

Gorgeous colours in this lovely hair clip from  Kwur-kee

Some unusual silk bowls by  foto art paper craft

 This Kimono top is lovely, it's by  MistressCollection

A lovely silk ribbon embroidered scented sachet from  handmade by susanjane

A stunning silk Flower girl dress by  Gilly Gray

A gorgeous grey silk taffeta rose necklace from  The TatteredRose

And finally from me, a blue silk bag  Wild Rose Designs

I hope you enjoyed my selection..

Linda

Folksy Friday - Velvet

It's that time of the week again and this will be my first Folksy Friday of 2013! I couldn't think of a suitable search term. Snow, valentines, winter? No, all more than adequately covered. Aha! light bulb moment, I'll do a series of Folksy Fridays based on the material used rather than the items themselves. So my first one is all about velvet. Lovely and tactile and usually in beautifully rich colours, I love it!

Here is my selection of Velvet goodies, hope you like it.

 Love this shabby chic cushion by  love from Emeline xxx

Who could resist this little rag doll in her velvet dress from Maisy Muffin Rag Dolls

This a a lovely valentines velvet heart brooch from  Jolene's Parlour

Love the colour of this velvet snood by  The Mediterranean Touch

Sooo cute! It's from  Northfield Primitives

A stunning velvet shrug from  La Costurera

Beautiful earrings by  emily was like wow

A great spotty velvet iPad cover from  Mia Scarlett

A really gorgeous red velvet baby dress by  Lily Lily Handmade

And finally a lovely dark green velvet clutch from  Handbags by Helen

Thanks for looking 

Linda

Flying the flag

Although my first attempt at using oilcloth for bag making went surprisingly well, I thought it would be quite a while before I'd be using it again...wrong!  Whilst in town last week I popped into a fabric store (I can't not go and look, can I?), and saw this great distressed Union Jack oilcloth..I just had to buy it!

At first I was just going to make some basic, unlined shoppers, but thought again. This oilcloth deserved more than that, so I decided to make this great tote - I'm almost tempted to keep it for myself, almost...

What do you think?

My 'must do' list for 2013

Hmm, I've neglected my blog of late, I really must do better...... Note to self, "add to the 'must do' list".

I don't make New Years resolutions, there's no point as I always break them within in few days... I have absolutely zero will power, be it dieting, keeping in touch with people.. anything really! I'm so envious of those who can make up their minds to do something and stick to it! But there are a number of things that I really have to do this year on the business front and my thinking is that if I set them down on virtual paper and publish for the whole world to see, then maybe I can be shamed into doing at least some of them. So I've made a list of things that I must do in order to get my business 'out there' and for it to grow. So here they are in no particular order:

1)  Open a twitter account. I've no idea what I should do with it but the general consensus is that you should have one, so I'll do it and figure it out as I go.

2)  Do more craft fairs. I did my first in October last year and three more in the run up to Christmas. They weren't super successful, but I think it's good to get out and face the public and get some feedback as to the kind of things that they are buying.

3)  Get some of my items into bricks and mortar shops. this is going to be a tricky one as I know that most shops expect a 40-50% discount and my current prices are not high enough to make this a viable proposition. I also find it hard to 'sell' myself.

4)  Raise my prices to a level that reflects the amount of work that goes into making them. I think I've spent too much time listening to people who wouldn't pay more than £15 - £20 for a bag.. they're not my target market! So I need to raise my prices and not panic and reduce them when they haven't sold a few days later. I've been known to do this several times over until the bags are about half their original price!

5)  Have more selling outlets online. I have my website www.wildrosedesign.co.uk, my Folksy shop www.wildrosedesigns/folksy.com and a neglected shop on Misi and Groovycart. I need to sell on some   sites that have a much bigger online presence such as Wow thank you, Swanky Maison or Gift wrapped and gorgeous. I can't afford to even think about Not on the high street!

6)  Be more visible. This means spending more time on the forums, on twitter and facebook and blogging more frequently. Time consuming but necessary.

7)  Join Pinterest. I've seen mixed reviews for this so it's not a priority at the moment..... unless you know differently????????

8)  Paperwork. I must keep proper records and keep them up to date. I also need to do a stock take and properly calculate the costs involved in each item I make.

9)  I need to work more efficiently. ie: making some things in batches, even if the fabrics are different.

10)  Take some time out now and then. Being at home all day stuck in my workroom is not necessarily a good thing. I need to get out and about sometimes, otherwise I can get a bit obsessive about sewing and not want to do anything else!

Er, that looks like rather a lot so wish me luck and if you've got any better ideas please share..

Linda