I won!

Remember my post about blog giveaways? Well, I entered one here at the CrazyKwilter and won!

I picked fabric since I pretty much have the tatting supplies posted. It's kind of ironic because I started collecting "fancy" fabrics about 35 years ago to make a crazy quilt...which I have not done yet, but clearly, this is a sign that I need to get serious about it! LOL!

I've been a subscriber to Instructables for about four years now but haven't had time to bother opening the emails for a long time. Today I did and found that they now feature pdf files with their instructions which is great! I used to copy & paste each segment and it was a pain. I had to really want the instructions to do that. Here's a variety of Christmas ornaments and decorations you can make: http://tinyurl.com/5wtv9d.

I was looking for my stash of jingle bells last night and found these lovelies that I bought on clearance some many years ago! Oh, I found lots of goodies...but I'm going to use the bell one right now with a new bell pattern I've been wanting to try out. Maybe I'll show it and maybe I won't. LOL! Depends on how it turns out. I've been wanting to tat a star shape for these too, and the tree. So how shall I attach them? I think originally, I was going to put the motif between 2 pieces of glass and glue the edges of the glass together or something, but I'm pretty sure that would be too heavy to put on a tree now. A glue stick has turned out to be pretty good for gluing something temporarily. I still have a heart glued on a heart plate with a glue stick that I did four years ago which is just now coming loose. I admit I just sort of cringe when I see tatting hotglued to anything.

Okay, all of my current tatting is still on "gift" status and I can't show it yet. I DID get some inspiration for the reindeer but it will have to wait. SORRY. Maybe it will comes as an after-Christmas gift.

And here, because I was scrounging for something to say the other day since I had nothing to show, is an opinion (stop here if you don't want to hear it!) about "handmade" versus "homemade".

Some sellers are afraid to price higher because they are fearful the items won't sell. This hurts all artisans as the buying public becomes habituated to low prices. Many people are still of the mindset that handmade equates to homemade. They regard homemade as the stuff you make when you can't afford to buy store items.

Excerpt from article at Beading Gem Journal on pricing jewelry.

I never really thought about the difference in the terms "handmade" and "homemade." I guess I still don't see the difference except that one is made at home and possibly the other is made elsewhere, like a studio if one is lucky enough to have one. They're both made by hand, right?

So it comes down to semantics and culture. Do you think the term "homemade" is derogatory? Does it mean something less than excellent?

I know a selling point for many communities is that the work is "handmade." I have to admit it's never made any brownie points with me. I've seen very well done handmade items and very poorly done handmade items. The phrase, "I took the pledge to buy handmade" annoys me. Putting together a string of machine made objects does not mean handmade. LOL! More accurately, it means "assembled by hand." Very creatively at times, I might add.

That said, I'm amazed at the diversity of items on Etsy. It's hard to tell from photos sometimes how well made something is but some sellers are very good at photographing and describing their product. Price doesn't tell me anything but showing a good photo and describing it precisely helps.

I did edit out a bunch of this...my point being that however something is made, it needs to be made well to sell. The label "handmade" or "homemade" is meaningless otherwise. There is a poll in the right hand column under my photo if you'd like to vote. I'll publish results next week.

And now, I'm off to tat.