studious reflection. a step into the [colorful] darkside.

Just look at all of the possibilities here! I know; I'm sick & twisted. And I've always reacted like this with fabrics, paint, beads, jewelry, art, architecture, books...

Yup, another proud geek moment.

~~~~

But, right, rambling. So the point was to show where I swerved onto a path of what I consider the darkside [albeit a colorful one]. I had originally intended for these groupings of fabrics to be become more of the 3-flower Rosalind necklaces...

ta-da! 

I play around with each fabric to see what folding technique works better each time. The fabric in the necklace above is a looser weave & made a nice, fluffier [technical term] flower vs. the fabric above which folds flatter & frankly looked boring. So I made a tighter fold & pinned the flowers on one of my portable idea boards [a couple of 6x6 cork tiles].

Peachy flower--okay, but didn't thrill me. The blues & greens with a tighter fold similar to ribbon flowers. I hadn't intentionally grouped the flowers together on the board like that at first, but when I saw what I had done...well, I tossed out the original idea to the wind.

I have a number of smaller sheer fabric books sitting around with nothing to use them for because of the paper backing on them.

The paper-free part of the fabric is too small really to work into flowers, but could work as the base to sew the flowers/adornments for a small bib.

 et voilà!

[okay, so this picture shows a piece of fabric from one of the larger sheer books I had. but you get the point I think!]

Then I back them with coordinating faux leather or faux suede [again, from recycled books from the office]. 

I have many colors to choose from above and beyond the pic above of my backings. Fun & creepy all at the same time, huh? 

That made the mini-bib another nice choice because I got to use up all of the grouped fabrics in one swoop [vs. 2 had I stuck with the original idea]. After working up these 2 though, I've decided to put these aside for now [like the bracelet]. There are too many bib-type necklaces on the web right now &, frankly, most of them are under priced. 

Okay, let's put it this way: 

•I break apart all of the old fabric books 
•separate & group out the fabrics

•cut out the fabric

•fold the fabric

•select the beads &/or buttons for the adornments [usually vintage]

•select/cut out the fabric for the backing

•place & hand-sew flowers into place

•place & hand-sew beads/adornments into place

•go back through to hand-secure flower edges into place

•hand-hem/tack down backing fabric

•prep the backing

•hand-sew the backing into place

•attach chain [which isn't store bought/ready-made]

•make necessary adjustments to length based on final weight, etc

•take photos/edit

•create listing/+whatever slight "marketing" I may do

Right, so the point of the little rant is this: there are a lot of super-inexpensive pieces on Etsy that tell me either 1) the designer spent no time on it & it's super-shoddy [& if there is hardly any description/ details, that's going to be my automatic assumption] or 2) is selling themselves short &/or competing with Wal-Mart when they're not selling Wal-Mart products.

Hmm, that turned into a rant too...

I guess what I'm trying to justify is that I've set this batch of fabrics aside momentarily until I crunch some numbers. I'm keeping the lilac/lavender one for me. I've listed the green & blue [which reminds me of the lush green foliage against the bright Spring sky] at a moderate price for now.When I bring the rest out, I plan on really figuring out accurately the amount of time I spend on one of these puppies from start to finish. At that point, the pricing will reflect that time because my goal is to one day do only this. 

I'm very lucky that I still work full-time with a good paying job, fabulous benefits & great people. Frankly, I'm very lucky because there have been a lot of designers let go in the Atlanta area this past year & a half. But I'd still love to be my own boss doing something that is so enjoyable to me & that comes so naturally. I don't sell myself short of the office & I refuse to sell myself short here either [especially if this is to be my only means of income & I'd be paying health insurance, etc].

Sorry, this is one of those topics that I'm VERY passionate about. My grandmother sold her wares for dirt cheap & barely supported herself once my grandfather passed. My mother would also sell her crafts that way & barely covered supplies. I also come from a VERY conservative family that typically undersells the women in general. I'm the first female in the main family core to graduate from college so it pains me to see women underestimate themselves.

I'll stop now because I may type on for hours about this otherwise. Not sure when I'll break the fabric back out [or the bracelet] because they don't work up as fast as I'd like & I have an overgrowth of books that I want to quickly [haha] work up. At least, as quick as a little thing called life will allow!

Seriously, I'm quitting for now! No further ranting on this post!

♥ -Kat.