Your Favorite Things and their Stories

 Being a handmade seller can be at times a bit difficult. Not everyone appreciates the meaning behind artisanal work and choose low-priced mass produced items. In the case of jewelry, an incredible amount of necklaces, rings and bracelets are created every day making the competition fierce. It takes a great deal of energy at times to keep on making and keep on selling. It can be overwhelming to make our ideas and value in particular stand out.

 During tougher times, it is important to remember that buyers are not interested in settling for handmade items the way they would purchase a plastic broom from a department store, they want to fall in love with your artwork, to instead discover a mystical and fascinating witch’s broom, scented with their favorite herbs. The ingenuity behind a hand maker is the heart and soul they put into their creations and this is something factory-made objects can never compare to. To remember that, I offer an anecdote.

 When I was young, the running joke in our kitchen was my mother’s inability to keep dishes intact for very long. Wine glasses were especially at risk, but as she explained, these were mass produced glasses, and accidentally smashing them to a million pieces wasn’t a big deal.

On the very top shelf of the glassware cupboard, however, were small crystal glasses my parents hardly ever touched. Fine crystal brandy snifters that had belonged to my now deceased grandmother. The sentimental value attached made them irreplaceable, but something else made them undeniably special.

The material was incredibly thin and delicate, their shape completely unique, and etched onto them was a remarkable flower and vine design I could have spent hours admiring. Upon looking closer at this florid embellishment, I noticed that between the set of four glasses, the design was not identical. The vine seemed to flow freely, growing buds where it pleased and blooming spontaneously. Each glass was perfectly unique, only the hand of the artist understood this vine pattern, an expression of himself that could never be reproduced. On this delicate crystal, the artist had lovingly engraved a mysterious and charming story.

On special occasions, I was offered a drink from one of these magnificent heirlooms, and each sip could not have been sweeter. They sit to this day carefully returned to their high shelf, safer away from the daily family kitchen accidents, but fully enjoyed.

Got a story to tell? Send me an email, show me your favorite things and the stories behind them!

--
*Image published  with CC0 Public Domain Free for commercial use-No attribution required 
See kevgeniya's images at https://pixabay.com/en/users/kevgeniya-150455/

April Challenge "Inspired by Kandinsky"

Karen of WizardIslandDesigns has set our new theme for us! The theme for April’s Challenge is:

INSPIRED BY KANDINSKY

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), was a well-known Russian painter who created the first purely abstract works based on non-representational properties of color and form.

Please visit: http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/coll ... tists/1515 and check out Mr. Kandinsky’s awesome works for Inspiration!

PLEASE NOTE: You can reference your source of inspiration in your description but please don’t post any photos of Kandinsky’s work alongside your piece, as it will constitute copyright infringement. Direct copying of any portion of his imagery is also not allowed.
************

THE CHALLENGE RULES
Any EBW member may create one new beadweaving of your own design (not from a tutorial, kit, book, magazine, or class) in response to the challenge theme. Your work should be entirely beadwoven, or have a substantially woven component, to feature and promote our art form. You may not renew an existing piece, or list a tutorial or made-to-order item as an entry.

Members are expected to participate in challenges when possible, and required to do so once each year. Start the weaving anytime after the theme is announced. Complete and list the work for sale on Etsy by the 5th of the month of the challenge, before midnight Etsy (Eastern Standard) time. Your listing date is proof you entered by the deadline, and also determines your placement in the mosaic, so DO NOT RENEW your work until after the voting poll opens on the 9th.

Your listing must be for sale for the duration of the challenge (not made to order), unless it sells from your shop. If that happens, please alert the moderators to your sale, and you can still participate. If you must reserve your listing for purchase, please follow Etsy's recommendations and edit both your title and your description to begin with: "RESERVED FOR (buyer's Etsy username, or designation of buyer's choice) ONLY." Etsy does not allow the listing of items not for sale, so reserving your entry to sell elsewhere or keep for yourself is not permitted. Please do not put your shop on vacation mode when you have an item entered in the challenge, or deactivate your entry from the time you list, until the close of the challenge. If you must be away from your shop, please leave your challenge entry active, with a message explaining the date the item will shipped if purchased."

WHAT INFORMATION MUST BE IN MY LISTING?
Your listing must include the following four (4) things:
1. The theme of the challenge. For example, “This (describe your work) was created for the Etsy Beadweavers Team (insert the month) challenge on the theme (insert the title of the theme).”
2. An explanation of how your work relates to the theme.
3. The address of our team blog where the voting will take place and the voting dates. For example, “Please visit our team blog, http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com between the 9th and 15th and vote for your favorite entry.”
4.Tag your entry EBWC. This is how we find your entry. Please test this tag by searching "handmade" and "EBWC" on Etsy. If your entry does not appear in this search within an hour after listing and tagging it, please contact a moderator for assistance. Please do not apply this tag until after the previous challenge poll closes on the 15th, and remove the tag after the voting poll closes, so entries for the next month’s challenge can be featured. Please also post your entry in the Monthly Challenge section on our Free Forum, in the thread designated for entries of the challenge you are entering.