Potential New Products?

I just love my kanzashi dragonflies.

I can't even explain why, but the magnets continue to make me happy to look at every time I see them. :)

Ellie likes to snitch her favorites from my production and puts them "temporarily" on our fridge so we can admire them every time we go to open the refrigerator door or even walk past.

Ellie and some actual customers have long suggested I make brooches or hair clips with the dragonflies on them. I was a bit hesitant for two reasons: The glitterboard I use as a base for the dragonflies to perch upon would not be waterproof; and because the dragonfly bodies are attached to their wings with less than a quarter-inch of contact they can be fragile to be handled.

Well, I think I've solved the first problem!

Instead of glitterboard, these dragonflies will be perched on felt. (I used some stabilizer sandwiched between two circles of felt that I hand-sewed together.

I started out with small circles of felt no bigger than the glitterboard circles I used, but after making a prototype, I discovered that it was smaller than the brooch pin I wanted to mount it on and too much metal showed.

But I didn't like the plain felt circle base when I enlarged it, either.

My solution?

I added some beading to 'prettify' the bases. And I think it looks much better that way!

What do you think?

Now, Ellie and I will test these prototypes to figure out if the dragonflies are too fragile to wear or not.

If they are, I can try some other kanzashi wing shapes that would offer more contact surface between the body and the wings. But I'm really hoping these will work!

And either way, I'll let you know as the experiments progress.

What Would You Call It?

I love this little beauty! It's spalted maple burl, 5 inches from rim edge to rim edge and roughly 2 inches deep.

I envision it as a pretty thing to sit on a side table or nightstand or similar place, where you could safely put down a piece of jewelry or some other bits-and-bobs. I know I've seen those kinds of dishes and bowls (although not nearly as beautiful as this one!) (Yes, I'm a little biased, aren't I?) but I have no idea how/what to label it.

Mother Nature did an outstanding job on this piece of wood, didn't she?

So what would you use a pretty little bowl like this for? And what would you call it when you described it to someone else?

And if you're interested, you can find it here in our Etsy shop!

Star Saleswoman



Ellianna is a finger-knitting whiz! She wants to sell these as bookmarks. Would you buy one? And she's not just a maker and a salesperson, she's also modeling one of my favorite kanzashi flowers!

The star of our craft fair was our 8-year-old sales charmer.

Ellianna is the daughter of two geeky introverts and she swings between being shy around unfamiliar people and circumstances and being effervescent with friends and family. But put her in a sales position, and she really shines!

At last December's craft show, Ellie worked our table for a couple hours after setup and then her favorite babysitter came and took her off for the afternoon to have fun. This time around, I decided to keep Ellie at the show for the whole day, partly as a way to teach her that it takes time and effort to earn money. (An ongoing lesson for an 8-year-old to learn.)

I was a little worried that it would be a long day and hard for her to get through, but she was quite the trooper! She didn't complain about being bored or annoy our neighboring vendors. Whenever someone came to browse our offerings, she was right there to tell them about her notecards or my flowers.

Sunset Over the Ocean, a watercolor, made its notecard debut at the craft fair. It will soon be available for sale in our Etsy store.

And my child, who hides when someone wants to shake her hand, actually shook hands with two customers who bought her notecards! Without being pressured to take their outstretched hands, which is just huge! (Actually, the pressure never works anyway. So I'm glad I didn't even try when she hesitated before shaking the first customer's hand.)

It was heartwarming to see Ellie come out of her shell and bubble with enthusiasm as she interacted with potential customers. And it was a rare one who could resist her pitch! Ellie's notecards don't get a lot of interest (yet) in our online shop, but they are the most popular item we've had at our two craft fairs so far.

We may not have broken even at this most recent craft fair, but it was definitely a positive experience for all of us.

The Appeal of Mystery

What drives people to choose or buy things when they don't know exactly what they're buying?

Last summer, we stopped by Crafty Wonderland to check it out and of course my kid was determined to find something she could buy with the $5 limit I'd given her before we entered the shop. After I proved to her that there were items in her price range, she was entranced by a cool selection of magnets. But instead of buying the one she liked best, she opted for a "mystery box" that contained one of about a dozen styles by the very talented local artist Bishop Lennon. And while Ellie didn't get the Portland rose she had hoped for, she was delighted with Stumpy.

Stumpy in the center of a drawing the artist must have put on the refrigerator herself because I don't recognize it.  We have a fridge with the freezer on the bottom, and the deal is that she curates the freezer door and the adults are the sole curators of the fridge door. 

I didn't get it at all until just recently when I found a shelf at my local library branch urging patrons to go on a "blind date." There were about a dozen books on the shelf, all wrapped in kraft paper with what looked like personals ads printed on the front. (Wish I'd had my camera! I'll try to get back there later this week to take a pic of the display, and I'll post it on our Facebook page.) You wouldn't find out which book you'd chosen until you checked it out.

It was absolutely irresistible to me! In fact, it was painful to limit myself to just one.

Here's the one I chose:

The "personal" reads:  "Single mother seeks rugged outdoor type who believes in fairytales. Experience handling difficult teenagers a plus." The book is Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman, although I haven't brought myself to unwrap it yet!

But while I was delighted with this idea by the librarians to encourage people to take chances with books they might otherwise not pick up, it apparently doesn't have universal appeal. During a recent Facebook conversation, my friend Melody, who is an absolutely voracious reader with very high standards, thought the idea of "blind date" books was appalling because, really, why waste time reading mediocre or worse books? And I understand her point of view. I often feed my reading habit with free Kindle downloads from Amazon, and the vast majority are worth exactly what I pay for them. I do enjoy finding the occasional gem though.

But there's clearly some appeal to those types of treasure hunts or there wouldn't be so many opportunities to buy them.

Ellie wants to offer a sort of "grab bag" of her note cards (and maybe the bookmarks she plans to add to her offerings) on Etsy. And I'm contemplating trying it out to see if there's any demand out there.

What do you think? Would you (or do you) buy something without knowing exactly what you're getting? Do you like the surprise? Let me know, either in comments here or on Facebook -- I'd love to hear what you think!