Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Interview Series: Week 11 – Millions of Stitches

Now that I think I have a better grip on my health (*knocks on her desk*), I'm back to my old antics, and of course, back to posting interviews regularly.
At the time I'm putting this one together, however, I only have one more to post after this one! :(  I'm still awaiting responses from quite a few of the people who I have sent the questions to, so I'm hoping they send them in – I won't say who it is here, since I don't want my readers going and bugging them.  I know I don't ask the easy ones, and it takes some time for the answers to flow right, or to decide just how to answer them.

This week, I bring you Millions of Stitches of Zibbet – hand sewn bags of all kinds, adorable Christmas Stockings, crayon rolls, clutches, pillows, so much it's hard to list them all!

Name: Nancy German
Craft: Fabric Bags, Purses and Items for the Home
Favorite material (or medium, whatever you want to call it!): I work with fabric.
Most Popular Seller (whether it be online or at shows): Purses, tote bags, crayon rolls, Christmas stockings

 

Harvest Crayon Roll
I wish I had one of these when I was … meh, no, I wish I had one of these now! I'm not too old!

 

Mine-ICON What got you into your craft?


 

MillionsofStitches My business grew out of a lifelong hobby.  I’ve always enjoyed sewing and creating with fabric.


 

Mine-ICON How did you learn your craft?


 

MillionsofStitches I learned the basics from my mom, but I credit my Home Ec teacher with teaching me correct methods, and the reasons behind those methods, which I use to this day.

 

 Blue and Gold Striped Pouch
Perfect pouch for anything!

Mine-ICON What about YOU? Who is the artist behind those wonderful items?


 

MillionsofStitches I retired from a confidential administrative assistant position in January 2010 and started my business in April of that year. My husband and I live in rural area in upstate New York.


 

 Christmas Stocking
Absolutely adorable, and looks big enough for some great Christmas loot!


 

Mine-ICON What is a typical "working" day for you? How does it usually start and end? How many hours do you spend crafting? How many hours do you spend on other things? What about distractions? I know we all have them! Do you usually accomplish all you wanted to?



MillionsofStitches I don’t think I really have a typical day. Since I don’t have many outside commitments I can work in my sewing room just about any time. Some days I start as early as possible, other days I might not begin until mid-afternoon, sometimes I don’t sew at all. Unless the project I’m working on is small, I usually don’t complete it in one session. I spend a lot of time laying out my pattern and cutting the fabric which really makes a difference in the final product. I usually take a break before beginning to sew. I might also go away from it again before it’s completed. When I come back to the project I often see it differently than I did while I was working on it.

Mine-ICON What happens when you Oops? Everyone has them. Do you get frustrated and destroy/start over, or do you go with the flow and see what comes out in the end?



MillionsofStitches I think there are three kinds of “oops”. The first is something that can be ripped out and easily corrected, the second is to turn the mistake into a design element and the third is to ditch the project. I learn from all three. I usually put the piece aside for a while when I hit an “oops”. Sometimes when I look at it again I realize that it’s not as bad as I originally thought or I can see how to easily correct the problem. Sometimes I will take it apart and use the fabric for another project.

 Laundry Bag
Epic gift idea for anyone off to college or starting out on their own, or for anyone who could use a bag for their laundry!


Mine-ICON What is your design process like? How many tries does it take to be happy with the final product?




MillionsofStitches I usually base my work on purchased patterns, so I don’t have a design process per se. Like with cooking, I usually follow the pattern/recipe pretty closely the first time I make it and might do it my way when I make that item again. From that I’ve learned that my way might not be the right way or most efficient way! As far as being happy with the final product, I am usually happy with the outcome on the first try. That’s not to say that I haven’t made my share of really awful things! I like variety also, so I usually don’t make multiples of one item at a time. Some days I make totes, some days crayon rolls, some days aprons or whatever strikes my fancy.

 Paisley 'N Stripes Walker Bag
Perfect bag for anyone who uses a walker, wheelchair, or scooter so they can carry their essentials in style!

 

Mine-ICON What is your greatest roadblock, be it government regulation or that little frustrating thing that just likes to sneak up and stop you in your tracks? Broken needle? Jump ring jumping out of your pliers? Yarn knots? Cats? Dogs? The family hedgehog rolled about in your yarn basket?



MillionsofStitches Living in a rural area can be a roadblock. Not having the materials on hand for a project can really slow it down.  It’s sometimes difficult to get what I need unless we are going to an area where there are big fabric and craft stores. Other times my greatest roadblock is not being able to decide what to make. The choices of patterns and fabrics are endless!


Mine-ICON All important pricing... Do you have a formula? Do you wing it? Do you feel your work justifies your prices?


 

MillionsofStitches Pricing remains difficult for me. I don’t use a specific formula. I tend to base my price on what has sold and what I think people are willing to pay. My workmanship definitely justifies the cost. My goal is to earn a profit while pricing my items affordably.  I put a lot of myself into each piece that I create. It’s more important to me to do quality work than to see how many items I can produce.


 

 Maple Leaf Pillow
Beautiful, contrasting, and a gorgeous accent piece for fall decor.

 

Mine-ICON And of course, is there anything else you'd like to say to our "viewers at home"?


 

MillionsofStitches Just that I’m incredibly fortunate to be at this place in my life where I have the time and resources to create nearly every day. Most items I make are one-of-a-kind which I really enjoy and think my customers appreciate.

 

I certainly appreciate it, and I have not yet become a customer, but oh, some of the things in your shop need to go on my list of "snap up once there is cash at hand for such things"!  Thank you so much for what you do, Nancy, and again for telling your story and allowing me to post it on my blog!

Be sure to visit Nancy at Millions of Stitches on Zibbet if you haven't already!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Interview Series: Week 10 - Moxnme

The responses are winding down, and I'm nearly at the end of them, sadly.  From what I have in my Inbox, I only have two left after this one.  I will of course refresh the call on the sites I have them on, and once again, if you know of anyone who does any kind of hand-crafted work and sells it, and would like to have their work and their story featured on my blog, please, please have them contact me!  I can be reached via the messaging on Facebook, Zibbet, MadeItMyself, Etsy, or by email; links are to the side riiiiiiiiiiiight over there ----->

For now, this week, I'd like to present Moxnme of Zibbet and her incredible glass work.

Name: Michelle (moxnme)
Craft: Stained Glass
Favorite material (or medium, whatever you want to call it!): Stained Glass
Most Popular Seller (whether it be online or at shows): Screenbugs – little glass bugs that go on your patio or window screen.  They keep birds and people from walking through the screen and also look neat and sparkle in the sunlight

 

 
Stained Glass ScreenBugs
Cute, creepy, and an absolutely awesome idea!

 

Mine-ICON What got you into your craft?




moxnme-ICON I have always admired the intricacy of stained glass. The ability to cut glass and make a beautiful piece of art- it’s almost like creating a puzzle.


 

Mine-ICON How did you learn your craft?




moxnme-ICON My mother has always done stained glass and when I had the financial means to support the craft I asked her to teach and mentor me.

 


 

Stained Glass Butterfly
I would love to see this beautiful gem in the sun!

 

Mine-ICON What about YOU? Who is the artist behind those wonderful items?




moxnme-ICON I am an artist at heart; I have always been interested and surrounded by art my entire life. I have probably dabbled in all art forms but the ones that I love are painting, stained glass and sewing. I graduated from York University with a Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree and majored in Painting and sculpture. I am happily married to my husband Adam and we have a Black Lab named Moxie.


 

Stained Glass Dragonfly
Is it just me, or would anyone else get several of these and hang them in their garden, or their flowerbeds –
same with her Ladybug, Butterfly and Flower – or better, a combination of all of them?

 

Mine-ICON What is a typical "working" day for you? How does it usually start and end? How many hours do you spend crafting? How many hours do you spend on other things? What about distractions? I know we all have them! Do you usually accomplish all you wanted to?



moxnme-ICON Well, my time is split between a part time office job and my art. I would say that work is the biggest distraction that takes me away from my art so I need to focus on my days off and weekends. My goal is to one day do my art full time but for now it’s part time. The stained glass process is quite lengthy and can take many days to complete a project so a typical day is hard to describe.


Mine-ICON

What happens when you Oops? Everyone gets one sometime or another! Do you get frustrated and destroy/start over, or do you go with the flow and see what comes out in the end?



moxnme-ICON When I have an oops it’s usually because the glass is not cutting or cooperating with me. When this happens it’s usually best to walk away or move on to something else and retackle it later. Usually I need to step back and recut the piece in a different way or choose a different glass altogether.



 

Stained Glass Panel
This would look adorable as a centerpiece in a paned window, or even better, as the pane in a bathroom window to offer light, privacy and a bit of sparkle! 

 

Mine-ICON What is your design process like? How many tries does it take to be happy with the final product?




moxnme-ICON Every stained glass piece begins with an idea, and then transforming the idea into a concrete design begins with sketches. After a design comes together on paper I begin to experiment with glass color combinations. Once the design has been approved and the glass has been chosen I begin to cut out the pieces.  I then grind each piece to give the edge a rough surface, then wash and dry each piece to remove glass dust, I copper foil each piece, and begin to re assemble the design and solder the piece together on front and back.  Every piece has an element of trial and error, but there are so many steps that if something’s not right there is always time to change.

 Stained Glass Orange Bird
Adorable.  Not much else one can say! It even comes in other colors!

 

Mine-ICON What is your greatest roadblock, be it government regulation or that little frustrating thing that just likes to sneak up and stop you in your tracks? Broken needle? Jump ring jumping out of your pliers? Thread knots? Cats? Dogs? The family hedgehog rolled about in your yarn basket?



moxnme-ICON Time is my greatest roadblock. I have a million ideas but lack the time to complete them all. For example, I have an armoire that has wooden insert in the doors, I took the inserts out last summer to make stained glass inserts however I had to put the wood back at Christmas time since I was having company and hadn’t completed it. Someday I will tackle this…


Mine-ICON All important pricing... Do you have a formula? Do you wing it? Do you feel your work justifies your prices?




moxnme-ICON I do have a formula that I use. It takes into account the size/square footage of the piece, the number of cuts, supplies and my time. I have trouble with figuring out how to charge for my time but I am working on this.


 

Stained Glass Window
*jaw drops* *gapes* I'm not sure I should even try to SAY anything…

 

Mine-ICON And of course, is there anything else you'd like to say to our "viewers at home"?




moxnme-ICON If you have a passion stick with it, don’t be afraid of failure because if you’re having fun it’s a success!


 

Thank you, Michelle, for sharing your story and your work, and as always, thank you for helping spread the message that hand-crafters are not machines, but hand-craft beautiful things that deserve as much, or more, attention than anything machine-made.

Make sure to visit Michelle at www.moxnme.com or at Moxnme on Zibbet.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Drowned, but not out!

I have been silent for several weeks.  It is not because I ran out of interviews to post, nor was it because I didn't feel like posting.  Next week, the interviews shall indeed resume, provided I have a few more responses! I still have a few of the questionnaires that I have sent out and have not gotten responses to.

No, my silence is due to one of the ickiest illnesses I've ever had.

It started, I think, as a sinus infection that decided my lungs were tasty, and moved in, then crept back up to my throat, then back into my head.  What do I have? NO idea.  It's being treated as an "Upper Respiratory Infection".  I have been feeling more human since I got treatment.  This is good, but it does remind me that I am quite behind in a good many things.

In the next week or so I do plan to completely disinfect my workspace, and anything I've so much as looked at in the past MONTH, which includes my supplies, my tools, my surfaces; everything.  I'm not about to pass whatever I may have had to anyone.  Of course, not even finished work will be safe from the cleansing; everything will get a cleaning and re-bagging in new plastic zippy bags just in case.

I'm going to take a moment out of interviews, soap-box babbling, and promoting handmade to do a little self-promoting, or at least let you in on THIS artist a little.

As a good many of you may know, I'm not highly religious, though if you HAD to put a NAME on what spiritual things I am or do, you could put the "Wicca" or "Pagan" label on me.  This does not mean I do not believe in other religions or have multiple beliefs – there are too many, and too much bad stuff has been done in the name of one god or another; it's as bad as watching two small-brained, sex driven men wave their penii around while screaming "Mine's bigger than yours!"  Come on, all of us know at least ONE person, male or female, that acts in this manner, including for the small things, like putting Monster Truck tires on a convertible, or .. what was it Tim Allen used to say? Put a Chevy engine on the vacuum cleaner, make it ride on, and then maybe he'd do chores?  Bigger is better? Faster is better?  Anyway, back to my point. (Yes, I have one!)  I can not really be defined by a religion, as my beliefs encompass way too many things from so many ideals and "systems" that I can only be defined as spiritual.

In light of that, Easter is coming up quickly, and while I was playing with some practice wire on my old jig (I didn't want to pull out any of the REAL stuff while I was sick…), I was trying clovers for St. Patrick's Day, and learned I can do some very pretty loopy crosses.  Discovering this made me rather ecstatic.  Most of my family is pretty big on Christianity, even though there are a couple of them take it a bit too close to the ones we all encounter who are clearly taking it a little too far (you know the ones, the ones we find screaming at children, telling them they'll all go to hell because their parents are heathens?) for MY personal liking.  (Luckily, the ones like that live far enough away that visiting is impossible – and I've not seen them since I was young enough to think Santa Claus still existed.)  It's not easy trying to find gifts for holidays I don't personally celebrate, and while Vernal Equinox is right around Easter, they don't always coincide.  Not to mention I doubt that any of my Christian family members would much appreciate a new crystal for their alter, or a new rune-carved candle, or even some of my not-so-simple jewelry designs.  Now I have something they can appreciate, that is appropriate for the holiday.

This leads me to wonder what else am I capable of?  What other things can I make that would be appropriate?  I know I have one friend who has asked me to make a Valknut necklace for him (and thus far I have not been successful, though I am still trying to find a way to do it!), what else is out there that I could do that would offer everyone of every faith a way to share their holidays, with the proper symbolism?

It's one of the things I have wondered if I should try my hand at – looking up some of the symbols that I might be able to make.  It will be a challenge.
Particularly if this post loses me a few of you, my readers, for even thinking about it – but I ask you to think on this – is it not better to be tolerant of everyone else's beliefs, even if that is not what you yourself believe?  I think it is, thus I am willing to look outside my own to create items encompassing others', so that the joy of the hand-made gift can cross borders, no matter who it is from or for, no matter what it represents – I want my work to be special, I want my work to be appreciated for what it represents, whether it be sacred or secular.

And now, I do believe I should head off to bed, as this post has drained a lot of my energy.

Look for my post next Wednesday – a new interview will be up then!

Thank you, everyone who reads my blog, and thank you especially for reading this post, if you have come this far; few people think I have much in the way of sanity when it comes to how I view the world of religions, but as with religions, to each his/her own, I am not one to judge.