Goodies I found through Twitter today.

Twitter is a site that people can network through via the medium of mini blogging. Each message written can be no longer than 140 key strokes. It makes for a fast moving, interesting place to spend some time on. You can spend an hour there and get linked to so many fabulous handmade and vintage goods as a lot of independent artisans use the site to get their products out there and seen. You also get to chat with the people making those products so you can ask them all about their beautiful creations. Here are a few of the goodies I got to see today.

This set of 6 mini cards are so bright and colourful they really made me smile. It's so cold and grey here today I needed an injection colour and festiveness. You can find these cards in ndnchick's shop at Artfire. Thanks ndnchick for brightening up my day!

Knister23 brings us these cute little Christmas tree earrings. They are made mainly of glass beads that catch the light so well. Perfect for the festive season. If Christmas trees aren't your style, she has many other pretty goodies in her shop to check out.

Just how much fun is octopus from LadyElevator? I think I want to name her Octavia the Octopus because any octopus in such a pretty dress deserves a name, don't you think? Octavia has many friends in LadyElevator's shop. All very individual and deserving of love.

Not only do we have handmade goods, we have handmade goods made from vintage fabric too, as Lyptis showed me. Using vintage fabrics to create new items is the best form of recycling going and what a beautiful dress she has created!

Woooo-Woooo the train is coming! Isn't this painting fabulous! It's an original oil painting from DoreenBatesart's shop on Etsy. Doreen is obviously inspired by things she sees around her. The perspective in the picture is great!

MakaLeWakan created these gorgeous seed balls. I love the colours and the texture of them and think that they look great in a large group as they are in the photo. They are rustic but stylish and they really caught my eye in her Dawanda shop. I can imagine a Christmas tree with many of this hanging from it along with dried orange slices and cinnamon sticks.

Twitter is a really good place to find new thing. Try it out, you will be sure to become addicted fast.

Written by Lynne of Hyperloop Hoops and Pirate Pixie Crew

Photography Tutorials: Using Natural Light

You spend hours, days, even weeks, creating your one-of-a-kind, handmade masterpieces. You sculpt. You knit. You weld. You stitch. And then you take a photograph of your creation, your “baby,” so you can show and hopefully sell your amazing work on line. There are so many gorgeous handmade products out there that simply are not photographed correctly, so I have decided it is time to help. Welcome to the first instalment of my photography tutorials: let’s start by turning off the flash!

What does the flash on your camera actually do? It throws light on a subject, allowing it to be seen in low-light situations: great for a quick snapshot of the school play, not so great for an up-close shot of your beautiful sterling silver jewelry. Why? Because when used in a close shot, the type necessary for photographing your handmade items, the light from the flash is harsh and indiscriminate. It washes out everything in its path, creating a blinding glow that obscures the detail of your work.

Here’s an example: a little statue of a bird. We’ll call him “Bill.” Let’s say I took weeks to carve Bill by hand (which I didn’t, because if I ever tried to carve anything, it would look like something my four-year-old made). Now I’m ready to take my picture. The only time I have to take pictures of my creations is after work/after the kids are asleep/after I pay all the bills and the 11:00 news is over. So here’s Bill, shot with a flash:

Well, it’s not awful. You can tell he’s a bird. He’s a cute little shiny, pale-pink bird. But wait! Bill is not actually pink (or shiny), although he sure looks that way in this picture. Anyone NOT wanting a pinkish bird will not give him a second look. Someone who DOES want a pink bird is going to be very disappointed when Bill arrives in the mail. Did I also mention that the flash on your camera can change the color of your object?

Here’s Bill photographed without a flash, only lit by the lamps scattered around the living room:

Hmm….Now Bill is yellow. And a little fuzzy looking because there isn’t enough light in the room (which is why you thought you should use the flash, right?). At least he doesn’t look shiny, and we can start to see that he has a little more detail in his wings and tummy area than was visible in the first picture. So now what should you do?

Let’s give Bill the respect he deserves! You don’t need to buy or build yourself a complicated light box. Instead, let’s choose a weekend where you are finally home in the daylight hours, or even a weekday when you’ve actually gotten the little ones down for their naps (or plopped them in front of “Sesame Street” for a bit…hey, it’s educational and you’ve got a bird to sell). The day doesn’t need to be sunny – even a rainy day will provide enough diffused light for a good product photography. Now, choose a window. Any window. Pull up the shade, draw back the curtains so they cannot be seen in your shot, and sit Bill in that nice, natural light.

Hey, look at that – Bill isn’t pink! Or yellow! Or fuzzy! You can see the fine detail and the true creamy-brown variations of his mottled feathers. And he looks rather lovely, doesn’t he? While the first two images practically scream “amateur,” this last photograph places you – and your work – in a professional league (where it belongs!). And all you had to do was turn off that flash and find a window.

Article written by Michelle Ciarlo of MKCphotography

Artfire

A few weeks ago I found a site called Artfire, through a link on Twitter. It is site set up for Artisans of handmade goods to sell their wares. It is still in beta release, as it is so new. They have invited crafters and artists to join the site already to test it out in full to be sure that it works perfectly once it is out of it's beta testing. In return for thrashing out all the problems on the site, these new sellers are being offered a fabulous deal. They are charging the first 5000 people to sign up for a verified account a mere $7.00 a month, no listing fees and no commission on sales for the life time of their shop. You get your own sub domain. That's an absolutely amazing deal.


The people behind the site really do seem to be listening to the feedback we are giving them and they are working very hard to fix any glitches we find and forging ahead with all the added extras on the site. They will, when the site is finished, be offering sellers blogs, guilds to join for help and support, site participation rewards (artifacts as they call them) and much more. They already allow everyone to view the listings in whichever currency they wish. They have a flagging system in place to remove goods that do not belong on the site and they have pledged to plant a tree for every person that joins the site. There is a list on the site that lets you know the jobs they have carried out and things they have still listed to be worked on, so you can see how the site is changing and growing day by day and week by week.

I'm loving that when listing all the details you enter are on one page. I also like the friendliness of the people behind the scenes and how they seem to look at everything from the perspective of "how can we help the sellers get sales?". Even though the site isn't finished and does undoubtedly have many glitches still to be fixed, I would urge people to check it out and join in now and help to build it from the ground up. I see a bright future for this site. The people behind it have so much faith in the site that they are already spending out large sums of money on advertising for both more sellers, and... and to me this is the important bit... BUYERS too! Yippeeee!



I've already listed a quantity of my Pirate Pixie Crew goods there and found the listing time took me about half the time it takes me on Etsy or Folksy, which made me very happy.

Give it a go.
After all at only $7 a month, can you afford not to?

Artisan of the Week, Leahkl

This week we are bringing back the Artisan of the Week feature and we are starting out with an Australian resident who makes the most cute items from vintage chenille, Leah of LeahKL. Her shop is stuffed full of goodies made from her ever growing vintage bedspread collection. I remember as a child my sister and I having matching bright orange chenille bedspreads on our bunkbeds (what can I say it was the early 70's and orange was very fashionable back then). I loved how soft they were and often used to curl a corner of the bedspread over my finger and rub the tip of my nose with it whilst I curled up in bed to listen to my big sister reading me a story. Ahhh, happy days! When I saw Leah's shop it just reminded me of a time gone by and made me smile, so I asked her to come and be featured on Autonomous Artisan and she agreed!

1. Could you please introduce us to who you are and what you do?
My name is Leah I live in a very small country town in Australia and I have an etsy store that I love, filled with handmade creations from the mountain of vintage chenille bedspreads that I am collecting.

2. What led you to take up your craft?
I am currently a stay at home mum of 4 small children. I have always loved to create. Our first 3 children are boys, our 4 is a girl. When our baby girl arrived, I was inspired to create. After stumbling across a vintage chenille patchwork quilt on the internet, I just had to have one, so I began the costly process of collecting old chenille bedspreads, I love them, and some of the stories connected to them. Chenille bedspreads are taking over our home, my kids love them, so I keep creating with them, I save every little scrap!

3. Which part of your work do you most enjoy?
Collecting the chenille and networking on places such as the Etsy forums, I can spend hours checking out blogs etc, while I sit here feeding my baby!

4. Which part do you find hardest?
Sewing with 4 small children, getting out of bed after I have been sewing into the early hours of the morning!

5.Where do you hope to be in 1 year’s time?
As long as I'm happy and my family are too, I'm not too fussed. I'd love to be making steady sales on Etsy!

6. What is the best advice you have ever been given?
Nothing is impossible!

7. Name other artisans sites/shops would you recommend are worth a visit?
Made By Maisie - Blog & Etsy shop
Cupboard Scraps - Etsy shop
Annie Design - Etsy shop
Alaiyna B. Designs - Etsy shop
This is my blog

8. What is your favourite sandwich filling?
Cheese, lettuce and tomato, boring I know, but I love fresh bread!

Thank you for joining in with the blog Leah. I love your beautiful goods and am sure that your sales will go from strength to strength as more people come across your shop. Recycling at it's best!

As always dear readers if you like the items you see just click on the photo and you will be taken to that item in Leah's shop. I would urge you to have a look around at all the gorgeous items you can find there. They truly are fabulous!

Written by Lynne of Hyperloop Hoops and Pirate Pixie Crew

Vegetable Envy

Nothing is happening at the moment at 66 east - my little allotment plot, so instead of endlessly flicking through seed catalogues I thought I’d try to gain inspiration for the next growing season by finding some talented crafters with vegetables on the brain and what better way to celebrate thanksgiving!

So here are some of my vegetable (and fungi) favourites…

There’s something so compelling about this sets of vegetable cards featuring Japanese Radish, Artichoke, Brussels sprouts, Eggplant, Leek and Radicchio. They are digitally reproduced on cream cards from original hand cut lino block prints, made by Rigel Stuhmiller for Drenculture, who hails from Berkeley.

I’m not sure if this is ethically right, but this gives me urges for mushroom stroganoff… This little (inedible) mushroom is made by Kate Broughton, who has shops on Etsy and Folksy. She produces naturally simple and perfectly crafted fabric brooches. Check out her birds and meerkats too!

Still a sprout, not strictly a vegetable… yet I couldn’t resist. This pouch, or portafoglio as cipolla calls it is lined with amazingly cute green flowers, and is just one of the range of hand crafted items with appliqué designs from this Toronto based designer.

Artichokes have to be one of my favourite vegetables… served with a melted butter and shared between friends. You can’t get better than that! They are so delightful to look at as well as taste, you can see why mammaslittlebabies has chosen it for a brooch. This seller makes a wide range of Victorian inspired brooches, using vintage images.

This amazing photo really took me aback, its simplicity and beauty really makes an impact. Judging from this and Kathe Lesage's other items, I’d definitely say this is an up and coming etsy shop worth checking out!

I hope this has inspired you to buy, grow or even eat something yummy. I’ve mentally spent hundreds of pounds on vegetable themed items and seeds for the spring just whilst browsing etsy today. I thought owning an allotment would save me money, how wrong I was!

Article written by Rose Parkin of Feltgiraffe