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I would say that most of the time when I’m working with dried herbs, it usually involves dumping them in water and stirring a lot. While I’m aware of the art of the pressed flower, I’ve always been a bit blank as to its practical applications. Sure, people put them in bookmarks and use them in bookmarks, but now that flowers aren’t a secret code between you and your beau, what applications do they have?

Apparently, as I learned from a visit to the Bell Museum of natural history, they have use in taxidermy and dioramas. While most musuems have been able to move on to other methods of learning, the Bell’s standby at the moment is its dioramas – and the creation of them is a real art form.

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My first pet was a frog. I named him Lowe, since he hatched around Halloween, and “Lowe” seemed like the least freaky term as well as being more original than Fido or Max. My mother and sister persisted in calling him “froge.” ¹ My mother always assumed that I felt guilt over eating frog legs. I never did, and I don’t recall her ever asking me about it so it was probably some weird projection of her guilt/attachment to the frog. The frogs I ate were caught on the banks of Kankakee river. Lowe was a test tube tadpole. Never the twain would meet – especially since he never got bigger than my thumb before he…well, croaked.

RIP Lowe.

Ever since then, frogs have been a strange little symbol for me. Creativity, though people like to say fertility, but I think that’s just a “knock up all the women and get them out of the way” conspiracy. Adaptability. A willingness to get wet.

It’s really not a bad association to have, as long as no one thinks I go great in a garlic reduction.

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References

1. I’m the youngest member of not just my nuclear family but the youngest in my generation on both sides. Family members don’t listen to me unless I come in with a sledgehammer and a bullhorn, and sometimes not even then. [↩]

Among the arts that I am puzzling at giving a try to are the paper arts: specifically origami, and paper cutting. The end result would always be something I fragrance and burn, making it all essentially another sand mandala: I’d spend possibly hours of effort making it only to let it blow away in the wind. Really, it’s a quite beautiful exercise once you get used to it: it all keeps you busy staying in the process of creating.

I also found out that paper cutting is a traditional Polish art form, and it is gorgeous. Maybe I’ll finally learn to cut a straight line. I’m hopeful!

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When I was wandering around Minneapolis Art-a-Whirl one of the things that struck me was along with the actual creations themselves, there was also a great deal of creativity expressed through the methods chosen for display. Especially interesting to me were the collections of odd pieces for a sort of dioramic collage; they’re floating around in my head for some home projects, but also for whatever my “ultimate solution” will be in creating quick and easy-to-access perfume displays.

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Over at Treehugger:
Giant Rat-Eating Plant Discovered

From Crafting a Green World:
Crafty Ways to Reuse Milk Jugs

From Craft Gossip:
Itchy Cure Bath Recipe

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Sara Mosle must have wanted to stir up some controversy, and so she picked Etsy to talk some smack about. Unfortunately, she got so lost in being condescending and not doing her research, she actually buried the few valid points she had. As a favor not to Mosle, who deserves a job at McDonald’s cleaning toilets with her tongue for the deliberate “stirring controversy”  attitudes that came through in this piece, but to other Etsy sellers who might need to think about the perception of their business as I have for the past six months, I would like to go through and point out the actual valid business discussions buried within her piece.

1. Many sellers are underpricing. It’s a common discussion. I’ve vacillated on this issue, but then I got this month’s Lucky Magazine, which listed Etsy as a major shopping resource. The description read “Everything is priced wholesale!” To me, that is SO not good.

Given that the majority of Etsy sellers are making their work one piece at a time and it’s very common for women to undervalue their work, that does require consideration. Lots of orders doesn’t necessarily make you a profit, although it does give you a sense of success. Sometimes you just have to sit back and trust the numbers.  But ultimately, your business, your decision.

2. The whole “Quit your day job” series is questionable and I do think that Etsy staffers – who are notably running their busineses as sidelines – don’t really know the whole picture and don’t know the right questions to ask to make the series useful. Fortunately, I think most of the people who have been on Etsy for two years or longer see right through that. Especially since only a few of the long-timers are interviewed for the series.

Jezebel does a great job pointing out how Mosle is a complete jackass who is spouting rhetoric to cover her obvious lack of research. Mosle doesn’t say where her “demographics” come from, and the ratio of men to women, the income base, etc. in no way match the demographic data that Etsy publishes annually. She also completely ignores the many couples/families who work in tandem, either in shared Etsy shops or in a separate but cooperative environment.

What bothers me most about the article and all its inflammatory comment: the undertone is “quit daydreaming about your crafts and get a real job.”

First of all, the economy is not doing well, and that whole $65/70K income thing was a)pulled out of nowhere or b)is strictly New York centric. I live in Minneapolis – incomes are so disparate that it gets reported by neighborhood. And jobs are hard to come by at the moment for men and women, just about equally.  Second of all, the women who are staying home to do this full time and to stay at home with their kids just might be making a great financial decision. Every working parent I know has an enormous chunk of income go to childcare. Staying at home and running a side business is sometimes the only way to come out financially ahead.

Mosle is so determined to prove that women are buying into some subversive patriarchal manipulation that she completely overlooks what the Etsy sellers she interacts with are telling her themselves: they aren’t hoping and dreaming of the Etsy full-time, they’re using it as a platform, as intended, while working out the best choices for themselves and their families. Really, Etsy sellers as a group, with all that education, are much smarter than Mosle is giving them credit for.

You can see forum reactions here:
Thread 1
Thread 2

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Just for the heck of it, I thought I’d share 7 things I enjoy taken from my Etsy favorites. These are all things I might buy, given the opportunity.

I would absolutely love it if one of these decal artists could make a decal of the Minneapolis skyline – I actually would like to put up such a decoration in my living room, next to my skyline painting. (I call my decoration motif “urban mythology.” It’s my thing.)

I’ve als got my eye on a solar-powered version of these – some colorful lights coming from my balcony at night would help myself and my guests see where we put down our drinks.

This print just speaks to me on so many levels – I am a joyful magical thinker, and I love this for it because it grounds the magic in the ordinary, right where it belongs.

I’m on a hunt for a watch. Just the right watch, the one that speaks to me – or more specifically, that survives me.

I love heart-shaped pendants for some reason, not sure why. This one would be a great conversation piece, especially sitting at the Wilde Roast with Joel: “Straight or gay?” “Worth asking for his number or not?” “Court summons or restraining order?”

Yes, my living room is urban mythology. My bedroom is a sort of rainbow shabby chic, complete with white vanity and girly prints. My fiancee says he finds it soothing.  Also, my father loved red carnations.

I like this box – it’s just a bit girly and shiny, but it has some real personality to it, and is just the thing that would brighten up my vanity table that little bit extra.

Paired together these things might look very strange but I assure you my home’s decoration style makes sense when you see it.

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Etsy is taking its annual survey of its shoppers – if you buy on Etsy, stop by and share your thoughts on your experience.

Speaking of Etsy, at long last they’ve introduced their advanced search.

Over at Craft Gossip, they’ve announced that the Bead Museum needs your help.

If you’re looking for some ideas for marketing your own Etsy shop, check out Pam Hawk’s 151 Guerilla marketing ideas and then take a look at Sellers Assisting Sellers on time management and Etsy.

Out in perfumeland, Aromaconnection raises and reiterates some important concerns about the Cosmetics Safety Database, while sensory psychologist Avery Gilbert tells us about the biochemisty of body odor. The Scented Salamander talks about price points with Chanel today and yesterday, while 1000fragrances grabs a shot of East European designer perfume fakes.

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This weekend has been fraught with interruptions, but just to keep you posted, I’m in the middle of organizing my studio. The theory is that if I have a well organized space, I can get smelly goodies out to folks a lot faster, and create more new stuff quite efficiently.

- hey, it’s a theory. So for now, I’m rolling up my sleeves and going back to work. There will be pictures once the place is clean enough I’d let my mother see it!

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