New Things….

….but not new things I have made.

It’s been a funny couple of weeks.  Very cold weather meant that I spent most days last week wearing my coat indoors between 9am and 3.00pm and getting very little done whilst J was at nursery.

And then at the weekend there was a great flurry of things happening.  First off I dropped my phone (one held together with gaffer tape no less) down the toilet.  I spent most of Friday and Saturday trying to get it dried out enough to assess the damage.  In the meantime my parents visited us on Saturday and within the haul of goodies they brought with them were:

A knife (I’ve got lots of knives so I made them take it back)

A First Aid kit for the car (I’ve got one in the car, one in the house and one in with my camping gear, so I made them take that home too)

Some teeny little stockings for the Christmas tree (ok, I’ll keep those then)

A couple of belly dance belts (ok, I’ll keep those too)

Chocolates (go on then, twist my arm….)

Another box of chocolates (owww, more arm twisting)

A bottle of wine (ooooh, ok, if I must keep it….)

Secateurs (long story, don’t ask)

A laptop (REALLY?  you don’t want it?)  It turns out that my mum got it from a friend who got it as an incentive when he bought a phone.  He didn’t want it, gave it to my mum who in turn spent three weeks playing Solitaire on it, decided she has no interest in anything it can do for her and so has given it to me. !!!  A while ago a friend came round to my house with her laptop and after identifying the network and putting in the password the laptop wouldn’t work.  I later Googled this (just in case I ever got a laptop – which in fairness seemed unlikely) and found out that I probably needed to get a dongle as my PC is wired, not unwired.  But on Saturday I got the laptop to connect via my home broadband and so now I was feeling all….technical

About an hour after my parents left my ex called to say that he had an armchair, did I want it?  Yes please!  We currently have a sofa that me and the two kids can get onto and the only chair in the sitting room was a creaky and uncomfortable wicker one – now we have a big old armchair so it’s all getting quite comfy.  I’m already looking forward to sitting in the wicker chair in the garden during what I hope will be a balmy summer (well, I can hope can’t I?)

And on Sunday I discovered that the dunking my phone took meant that the battery couldn’t hold a charge for more than 6 hours, and all of my photos, music, vids were wiped, and the camera would no longer work.  Time for a new phone.  I now have a pretty good touch-screen phone, nothing too flashy and got that to connect to the home broadband earlier so now I’m really teched up!

You may notice that no-where in this post do I mention dancing/classes/making stuff…..I’ll save that for later in the week, so in the meantime why not click on over to 1st Unique Gifts and see what the very crafty people over there have been up to!

Fun weekends ahead?

So at the weekend we’re off to a small theme park in my old stomping grounds – it’s a place I last visited many many years ago when I was a little girl and that when I worked in the town used to drive past each day.

Me and the children are off to Wicksteeds in Kettering with the Single With Kids group – so it’s all single parents and their children camping for a weekend together in one big group.

*Pray for sunshine* everyone.  I would like this last camping weekend to be a good one, and the sun always helps.

The school holidays have been pretty good this year for us.  Last year was a dark time for me and as children are resilient they do not seem to remember that mummy was not *herself* this time last year.  That I am grateful for.

The next two weeks are something I have been looking forward to – this weekend we are away, then we come back for a few days and then we go off again for a seaside break before returning the day before school for my oldest.  Hopefully the sun will shine on both weekends.

As for me?  Well, I hope to regain some of my love for dancing (it has eluded me for far too long) and I hope to get back into a routine where I can start being as creative as I need to be.

Head Stuff

I really must on with making some new headdresses methinks.

There’s always a million ideas, and a squillion bits of jewellery to plunder and some new flowers popped in to say hi on Sunday so I’d best get creating!

Once a upon I had planned to get around 10 or so pieces done to take to WOMAD but that hasn’t happened… never mind, it’ll probably be raining anyway so I should invest in umbrellas!

But I am tempted to look at vending at a couple of festivals next year, very tempted indeed….

Taking Great Pictures

As you may know, taking great pictures is not my strong suit but I’m going to be trying again to get better shots of my handmade and vintage items as soon as the dark skies clear and the rain stops falling.

Whilst I am not pinning all hopes of more sales from my Etsy store on simply having better pictures I am keen to ensure that I have the best photographs possible.

So this has been my research subject for the week – to buy a light tent or not?  What can I use as a fabulous but not too distracting back-drop or background?  Do I need a better camera?

I think the camera I have is pretty good, and I’m getting better at using the settings and functions on it and to be fair to myself I cannot afford a new one.  Having a tripod has helped enormously.  All I have to do now is make British summer conditions work for me, and find the best spots in the house to get the best light (something this is always going to be changeable and that I’ll have to be flexible about).

I’ve found some great articles online about photography and here are some of the better ones:

Table Top Studio

Handmade Marketing

Everything Etsy

I’ll keep you posted with progress….

 

 

 

Oh what to do….?

Suddenly I am child free this afternoon….

So here’s the list of what I need to do before 4pm:

Get ready for Hipnotic tomorrow; costumes, music, get paper plates from somewhere (why couldn’t I find paper plates in Morrisons?), make cakes and hide them from the kids, do some more dance practice, housework, ironing…..

Actually, scratch the ironing….

Or……..shall I have a cup of tea and read a book and have a nap?

The latter is very tempting……maybe that can be my reward if I manage to squeeze everything else into the next hour?

The Octopus

Late last night the Octopus with its sticky, snakey tendrils of self-doubt slunk up behind me and got me all tangled up in myself.

I had thought I’d banished this particular beast, but it just goes to show that you can never take anything for granted when it comes to monsters.

Normal service will be resumed shortly.

The bedtime ballet……

…is in reality more of a fight.

This is about children by the way…

Yes.  I know it’s a bit warm.  And yes, I know it’s light outside.  But for heaven’s sake, surely after being up since silly o’clock small children with busy lives and full tummies should feel the need to go to bed, and sleep.

Not want to get into each others bunks, spill water, need their sleeping bags (sleeping bags!!) and generally feel the need to bang and crash around until I have to steam up-stairs and play the evil mummy card.

I’m no fun when it gets to this point, no eye contact or kisses or kind words, just stern admonishments that they should GET BACK INTO BED.  All totally lost on them the minute I close the door.  My almost three year old is currently over-tired and shouting for the kids who live across and up the road…maybe he hopes they’ll come and save him from evil mummy who keeps making him get back into bed….

Don’t they know I have to write a blog, do some dance practice, make a Mucha inspired headdress for the Etsy shop, do some more dance practice, think about how I’m going to cobble together a costume for Sunday’s performance at Hipnotic (for which I need to practice some more, did I mention that?)

I think I’ll go and eat some chocolate and hope they don’t smell it.

Camping….

Sheesh!

The car is full.

I still have to fit in a big sleeping bag, extra quilts, pillows, food x 2 cool boxes and me and kids.

There’s probably something else too…..

Nappies!

Spiderman and Supergirl

It’s a shame I’m so precious about posting pictures of my children online or you would get to see a cracking photo of my son (two years and nine months) in a Spidey costume (complete with muscles) and wearing a red sequined cowboy hat…..

For now you’ll just have to imagine it….

Two nights ago I wore a sequined Baladi dress for a talk I gave at a branch of the local Women’s Institute here in the UK.  I figured practice clothes were too boring, full on costume bling might have been a tad too much.  So I wore a Baladi dress and took some other props and based my talk around costume genres and changes within belly dance culture before doing a touch of teaching to end the night.

But the point is my daughter (aged seven) was blown away by the dress and asked if she could have it when she was big enough.  Apparently I looked like a Princess (sometimes even a compliment from a child is a massive compliment!)

Tonight, when she should have been getting ready for bed she decided to go and dig through the box of dressing up clothes and found an old Shalwar Kameeze dress (sans sleeves that I have used for a costuming project) and came down-stairs, resplendent, happy that she had something similar to what I had worn.

To keep up with the gang my son came down, Spiderman costume in hand, insisting he put it on.  I helped him put it on and much laughter ensued as they danced for me (he in costume and aforementioned hat), before they played Super-baby (where he jumps off a chair into her arms which always ends with a banged head to at least one of them and tears and a cuddle before bed).

Twenty minutes later, Spiderman and Supergirl (as he called his sister) were dispatched to their beds after the foreseen bump and a cuddle (by Supermum no less, although I’m pretty sure that internally they were calling me something less flattering).

Supergirl was happy to step out of her costume.  Spidey was less happy, and so he has gone to bed in a padded acrylic costume, worn over his pyjamas.  I guess I now have to go up and relieve him of his super-powers or I shall be awoken by a very hot, smelly boy at a ridiculous time in the morning (ie, earlier than I would like and not quite early enough to get another couple of hours sleep in before we all have to get up).

Wish me luck.

Being Ethical

This is about what I make as a designer and I dare say I may meander into other areas…..

Tonight I made this.

Titania Headdress

As Blackwillow I get to make and sell things.  I do this because I have a creative streak that really only gets going once the children are either in bed or when they are with their dad (ie tonight).

But, this is about being ethical.  Here’s why this particular item is ethical.

The fabric used for the base I bought some 15 years ago from a charity shop.  It’s a beautiful brocade sari and choli (I used a sleeve from the choli) and it’s taken me this long to get around to cutting it up because it’s SO beautiful.

But I had the urge to use it this week. The sari is hanging in my bedroom at the moment and may well become something else (a skirt or trousers).  The choli had been taken in at least three times so there was a lot of stitching to undo but it was worth it.

The flowers I have had in my collection for some time too but don’t ask me how long.  They came from a charity shop too as most of my items do – you can count into that the jewelry and the pearls and beads and lace that I added.   All of those things came from a good friend of mine who works in a charity shop and puts things aside for me.

The earrings than brooch that form part of the design are pretty old, probably vintage (I do as much research as I can into designs).  The beads and wire part at the brow were second hand.  Inside the base is a belt I bought some time ago (from…guess where, a charity shop) and the elastic that makes up part of the ties is one of the only things that was bought new.  So I can’t claim that the whole item is ethically sound.  Just 90% of it….. maybe even 95%…..

Why is this important?

Because if I use things that have come from charity shops (goodwill or op-shops depending on where you live) then I am re-cycling or up-cycling.  Sustaining the life of an item that someone had decided they had had enough of.

The recent upsurge in fast fashion disturbs me, even though it suits my single parent pocket.  Even more so that I am now reading *To Die For* by Lucy Siegle, and then two days ago there was the rehash of a Panorama (BBC) programme about children working in sweatshop conditions for one of the biggest retailers of fast fashion here in the UK.  The BBC said that they were going to apologise for showing a programme that had *flawed footage*, apparently made up footage by the investigative journalist Dan McDougall.

If the footage was faked then I am disappointed.  That means that many people will continue to disregard the reports (that they cannot ascertain as true for themselves) about the working and living conditions of those who are subcontracted to make and decorate the fashion items that we now all take for granted as being as cheap as chips on the High Street in the UK, the US and in Europe.

But.         Think about it.        If you can buy a hand beaded top in Primark or a Walmart store for less than £10 then someone is not being paid properly.  Full stop.  I KNOW how long it takes to hand bead something.  I can’t bead a vest top, let alone a dress or a skirt for the price I could buy one for.  New.

In fact I can’t make my own clothes for less than I can buy them in a High Street store.  I certainly can’t grow, harvest, weave, dye, cut, sew and embellish a top for less than £10.00………….

But someone (in fact lots of someones) does all of these things in order for us to get such cheap fashion.

So how can we all play out part?  Do our bit?  Feel as though we have made a difference?

Get the most out of what you buy and wear.  Wash and care for it correctly and it’ll last longer, ensuring that you don’t have to buy more often.  If you’re going to buy something new then maybe buy something that is better made, better design, better quality.  BUT don’t be fooled by Fairtrade labels.  Fairtrade labels only refer to the growing of the cotton, possibly to the way it was woven.  They do not refer to the making/sewing/embellishing.  Sorry to burst the bubble……

Another alternative is to buy second hand and make alterations to ensure it’s unique to you.  Buying second hand makes sure that an item does not end up in landfill.  That it does get a second or maybe third lease of life.

And the hardest one?  Don’t be seduced by fashion.  Fashion is fleeting.  An industry that WANTS our support, but that does not need it if you are able to follow your own path.

DO NOT buy into the fantasy that buying a cheaply made top/skirt/dress means that someone somewhere IS getting a fair wage that will feed their family and keep them employed.  Consider this.  If there is no other work than the work that is offered by subcontractors for the clothing industry, then where are you going to get a job?  When you have worked a shift (8 plus hours) and your manager is under orders to complete and order and s/he instructs you to work another 8 hours 9through the night) before your next shift, are you going to ask your children (aged 5+) to help you or not?  Take a guess.  If you live in one of the many locations that are subcontracted into this work then you probably will tell them to help you.  Many hands make light work.

Take a stand.  Buy second hand.  Buy from people that up-cycle.  Have a go at making things yourself.  Wear things for longer.  Don’t be fooled by the foolishness of fashion.

End of rant.  You may now switch off.