Updates and a sale!

It's been a long time since I've blogged (again, I know). But work and teaching at the University have really taken most of my time last months. Now, I'm temporarily only teaching one seminar at the University, because my workplace had some economical issues. Not the greatest moment to not have a day-job, but hey, at least I can do other things for a while. Like crafting! And I'm quite positive I will find a new and even more interesting job soon.

Meanwhile, I've been updating my Etsy shop. You can find for example this... (Yes, it is a real fossil, an orthocerus fossil).

...this...
these cute earrings...

.... these crocheted snowflakes...

... and many other things, like stitch markers and knitted toys. And the best thing is that everything will have 10% discount until Wednesday 30th of November! Just use a coupon code "November" if you shop, and you'll get the discount automatically.

Grand opening!

Are you looking for handmade Christmas gifts? Here's something for everyone who loves animals!

Rosie, the knitted elephant

I have opened my second Etsy shop, Colibriknits for knitted toys and decorations made from my own patterns. Every toy is unique and has it's own story.

I'm also having an opening sale during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, so until the end of Monday 29th of November you can get a 10% discount on everything. Just use the OPENINGSALE coupon code, and you will get the discount.

Hugo, the knitted bear.

Oscar, the knitted wolf

Amelia, the knitted wolf

Aslak, the knitted reindeer.

Knut, the knitted polar bear.

I'm adding constantly more toys, so be sure to check it often!

Featured!

I have been featured in Etsy Blog en Español! Emma makes interesting interviews of Etsy artists in her blog. I'm very happy that I got the chance to be featured! Emma has also her own Etsy shop with some very nice things, be sure to check it.

A while ago, I got this recognition from Juanita, but I just haven't had time to blog about it earlier.

The rules are these:

1. Choose 5 blogs that you estimate because of their creativeness, images and/or interesting content.

2. Every prize is personal and when you give it, you have to mention the name of the blog and put a link to it.
3. The receiver puts the logo of the prize in his/her blog.

4. The logo should be linked to the direction of the blog where you received the prize.

5. The receiver puts the rules in his/her blog.

There are lots of creative blogs-I read, so this isn't easy... But well, here are my choices this time:

-Liivia
- Savilintu

- Paperiaarre

- Kesäkumpu

- Hitaat kiireet

Finally, here's a picture of some jewelry I send to Finland. If you're interested, my Mom is selling these (and many others) in Tampere.

Well, back to study now. We have a long weekend here in Mexico, but no fiesta for me, I'm spending some quality time with my thesis.

Day of the Dead Treasure hunt!!!

The Mexico street team in Etsy is back! To celebrate the Day of the Dead, we decided to organize a Treasure Hunt tomorrow, 1st of November. Here's how it works:

The shops that participate in the hunt will hide the following image in one of their listings:

You task is to find the image in these shops:

http://www.alexca.etsy.com/

http://www.caracarmina.etsy.com/

http://www.colibridreams.etsy.com/

http://www.justinejustine.etsy.com/

http://www.kismetcreations.etsy.com/

http://www.nahuatlv.etsy.com/

http://www.panoptica.etsy.com/

The image will hidden in the shops on Saturday, November 1st and you have until November 2nd to find it in all the shops. To win, you have to submit either the listing IDs of the items or the item links where you found the picture. You should send this information to mexicoteam on Etsy.

The winner is the one who finds all of the images in the stores. If more than one person finds all the images, we will make a draw to determine the winner.

Why bother? This is your chance to win something nice and handmade! Each team member will mark one of her listings as "Reserved for the winner of the Day of the Dead Treasure Hunt". When the winner is announced, he/she can pick any of those listings by any team member, but just one. The winner will shop for the item on etsy, but does not pay since the prize will be delivered to his/her home all free of charge.

So here's the thing in nutshell:

1. On Saturday 1st of November, check all the stores mentioned in the list and find the listings with the skull image.

2. Send the information to Mexicoteam and wait until we tell who the winner is.

3. If you are the winner, pick your prize and shop for it!!

You have to be registered in Etsy in order to participate. Joining is free and easy! Check this link, if you want to participate but aren't Etsy member yet.

And finally, here are some yarn paintings I made for the Day of the Dead.

Energy!!!

First I wanted to tell you that I have been invited to participate in Mayeh, a blog where a few Mexican designers/artist present their work. I'm very happy about being part of the blog. Hope you like it too! Every month there's a new theme for things we make. I have already lots of plans for October's theme (Autumn), just have to make those plans reality!

The plans for the Mayeh theme aren't the only one I have. I have lots of creative energy going on, and lots of ideas I want to realize using different mediums. I'm in some kin of manic period... I want to knit - I'm usually one knit's woman, but now I have three projects on the needles and want to start more - make yarn paintings, jewelry, paint... and even crochet. I haven't crocheted in years, but now I want to start again. I actually already tried to crochet a bit, here's the result.

It was supposed to be a decoration for my new jacket, but I think it's a bit too big (10 cm). I like hippy flowers, but there's a limit... But that's a good excuse for crocheting more flowers. This model is designed by Vilma.

I haven't been making jewelry for a long time, and yesterday I finally got my beads out. I have so lovely materials, looking at them gave me even more ideas. This necklace is will probably be called "Circus" for its fun colours. It is made of tagua seeds. If you like it, you can soon find it in the shop.

Even though I make jewelry, I almost never make it to myself. Something had to be done about that, so I transformed these reindeer bone amulets I found in Finland...

... to this jewelry set for myself. Very happy with the result.

It seems something with the bones fascinates me rigth now. I bought these today (I have promised myself to use my old materials before buying new ones, but I just couldn't resist):

At least there's a purpose for few of them already - the circles with two stripes could become earrings for Mom.

Luckily all my creative energy hasn't limited to crafting. I have also had lots of energy for studying, and my research is going well too. The only thing I need is more time to study and craft!

Painting with yarn, part 2

A couple of days ago, I finished a little yarn painting that I have been making whenever I have had the chance. It's called "Hummingbird dreams". I listed it also in my shop. Here is a picture of the finished painting:

And here one work-in-progress pic:

As you might notice, there are a little difference between the work in progress and the final painting. That's exactly what I like about the technique. At every moment while I'm working I can chance my mind and just rip some detail off if I want to. That is very practical, as I usually don't make any sketches beforehand (except for "the Meeting" yarn painting , as it was a custom order), or if I do, they are very very general. I never know exactly how a certain painting will turn out, and that always makes things more interesting. I just love to experiment how to make three-dimensional impression with pressing the yarn on the beeswax in different ways.

The technique requieres a lot of patience, as making just a one little detail can take hours. But I like that slowliness too. It makes you concetrate on the moment of creation, which is relaxing.

I have also been knitting. This time I decided to start the Christmas gift early. I'm knitting a hoodie for boyfriend again, and as he is quite tall, I know it will take a while to make (especially with 3 mm needles). I'm not hurrying too much with this, anyway - if it's ready before Christmas, I know he'll want to use it right away.

Painting with yarn

The very first yarn painting that I have sold, "The meeting", has been ready already from Saturday and was sent today, but I just haven't had time to put any photos here. This very time consuming technique is used by Mexican Huichol Indians. The yarn is pressed to the beeswax to make the painting, that's where the name comes from.

Here's how it all started: Ravyn was looking for things with her totem animals, so I send her this sketch:
And little by little, the painting started to take form...

And finally it was ready! I'm pretty happy about the way it turned out.

Here are some details, you can see more in my Flickr account.

By the way, I decided to allow also anonymous comments, at least for a while, so feel free drop me a line (but no spam, please!)

Lots of things to do...

... and everything at the same time...


Things seems to be accumulating right now. I have to present some research results at the university during the May, finish an article (also during May), try to invent themes for some conference papers (inventing isn't that hard, really, but then some day soon I'll have to write those papers too), start my custom yarn painting in these days too...

And as that wasn't enough to do for a while, I also promised to work as a facilitator in two workshops. The first one will be next week - it was going to start already on this Thursday, but luckily the plans changed. All this came up last Friday, so there really hasn't been much time for planning or preparing things. The materials for the workshop isn't very useful either, so I have to invent a lot on educational management in the schools, which isn't my area at all. The participants will be supervisors and directors of schools, probably mainly elder men. I have worked as a facilitator in workshops, but they were for teenagers and children, so this is going to be quite different. In total the workshop will last three days, ten hour days each. I'll be there all by my own - there are other facilitators in the same city (Chilpancingo) for these workshops, but we are all in different schools. Sooooo.... it will be interesting!


But even though I'm not very well prepared and the participants may not be the easiest audience (though I'm definitively not going to let them minimize me for being a young woman), I'm still happy to be part of these workshops. And not only because they are quite well paid! I think it will be a great - and challenging - learning experience.


Any way, with all these things to be done, I have finished something too. This bracelet was a custom order for Jonna. As she lives by the sea, it's called "A Day on a Beach". I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and hope Jonna will love it too!

My perfect bag and Easter holidays

It's here! Yesterday the mail man brought me a lovely messenger bag. It's a custom order made by Katherine of happykatbags and I just totally love it! It just the right size - I'm a kind of girl that carries everything with her, just in case.... The colours are beautiful and I love all the details Katherine has put into it. There was even a cute extra pouch inside the bag, which was a very nice surprise. What can I say - my bag is perfect! And it shipped much quicker than I expected (usually things tend to take time in the Mexican post). I'm so happy!

The Easter holidays passed nicely and peacefully. I planned to study, but finally I just spend time with some friends and with boyfriend's family. Weeeellll, one needs vacations sometimes, right?

It's curious that in Finland there seems to be a lot more Easter traditions than here in Mexico, even though Mexico is much more religious country. Well, there are religious processions and masses, but not much else. And you can actually shop all Easter, it seems - we went to buy shoes on Saturday, and shops were also open on Friday and Sunday, too. That was certainly a bit strange for me - in Finland, you can't basically do much anything on Good Friday, because everything is closed and on the TV there are only movies on the life of Jesus.

No virpominen on Palm Sunday, nor rairuoho (quickly growing grass used to decorate home during the Easter time) here, but I wanted to honor at least some Finnish traditions. So on Easter Sunday I made a traditional meal to my boyfriend and his mom. Well, the traditional part actually was only the roast mutton (which was delicious, by the way!), but the avocados filled with schrimps and the cheese cake with peaches were very good too. Here are some photos (I wanted to take more, but the battery of the camera was low):

New creation

I figured that I haven't been showing any creations of mine lately... So here we go, a jade necklace that I just listed in my Etsy shop:

Another Treasury...

I got a another treasury in Etsy! Though it kind of happened very suddenly, so I didn't really have time to plan it at all. Here's how it turned out:

You can see it better (until Sunday) at http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=23971.

Here's what I won...

My prize has been shipped to me, so now I can show you what I chose:

Aren't they cute? I like the green ceramic beads a lot, they are very original. The earrings are made by eyecandytreasury. Now I'll just have to wait that these lovely earrings arrive...

I won, I won!

Yes, I won in the Treasury hunt Etsy Texas crafters held yesterday. I'm so happy! I think the last time I won something was when I was in the kindergarden. Well, in this kind of competitions, at least - competing with your own merits is another story. But I won't tell you what prize I chose before I'm absolutely sure no one can buy it before I claim it.

Today was a good day in general. I also got some encouraging news academically - and I don't mean getting extra time to present my research progress, which is perfect, too. I might be able to change the director of my thesis and the person I want to have as a director, is actually interested. Hope that all works out well!

Some goals...

Here are some of my goals for this year:

- Advance in my doctoral thesis
- Find beeswax and start making yarn paintings again (and sell them in Etsy!)
- Go jogging more often and take longer paths - and exercise in other ways too
- Make my Etsy shop more prosperous

Ok, the last one is more like a wish, but I'm going to work for it listing more items, making a banner, trying to promote more and creating a new line of products (the yarn paintings). We'll see if that works!

Happy New Year everyone!

My treasury list

Today I got my first Treasury in Etsy! If you aren't familiar with Etsy, "Treasury" means a list that Etsy users can make to show and promote other etsians. It isn't easy to get one, as there are only 333 lists available and lots of users that want to make these lists. It was fun to make one, but it took a lot more time that I would have thought - even though you can only choose 12 items of all those lovely things that there are in Etsy...

Here are my elections:



Yeah, I know, have to practice these snap shot views still... Well, if you want to see the complete list better, you can visit the list at http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=20699 . It will expire next Sunday.

My first Etsy sale!

I'm so excited! I made my first Etsy sale today. Thank you, Valerie!

I have sold quite a lot of jewelry in Finland, but it's still nice to notice that people elsewhere are interested in my creations too. Besides, at least here in Mexico it's believed that the first sale brings good luck... Hopefully it works for my shop, too!

Here is the picture of the lucky bracelet, called "Walking in the woods", as it was inspired by my favorite forest back in Finland.



Today was also a shopping day, as I went with my friend to Ciudadela, one of the biggest crafts market here in Mexico City. Actually I only went to keep company and help my friend to choose some gifts for her family. But you just can't go to Ciudadela without buying something... Everything is so beautiful, colorful and unique and there are crafts from every corner of Mexico there. I just love the Mexican crafts!

Well, this time I only bought a bag. And I needed it! I have been thinking of buying one for a while now, as I always manage to broke my bags. The one I bought doesn't have as many pockets I would need, but it is so big that at least I can carry a lot of books to the university (that's how my bags usually break - I guess I'm always carrying too much things in them). I found also lovely watermelon-shaped plates, but they will have to wait for the next time.