DESIGNER PROFILE

Greetings from the home of Huggleknits, in the leafy suburbs of Dublin. Summer has come at last and its great to finally be able to be out working in the garden when the sun is shining.

This month I am delighted to introduce the lady who looks after the Etsy Ireland Blog - Lily from Petal to Petal. 

Lily at Brandenburg Gate, Berlin

Mo: Hi Lily, great to finally get to meet you (virtually). Can you introduce yourself to the gang and tell us what you do. 

Lily: Hello Mo thanks for inviting me to be your Designer for May. My name is Lily Reilly and I am an Illustrator and Surface Pattern Designer from Cork City but currently living in Berlin. I work under the artist name ‘Petal to Petal’. The name 'Petal to Petal' describes the method in which I work- literally drawing one petal at a time. I can (and do!) spend hours drawing and can get lost in my work.

My style is quite intricate and I use a lacing pattern that I call ‘flower bomb’. The pattern explodes and disperses and I like to experiment with it and use it in different ways. I particularly love working in monochrome and just concentrating on the shapes and detail of an image. 

Lace Doily’- acrylic, pen and varnish on wood

Mo :  How did you get involved with your craft?

Lily : I wanted to be an interior designer when I was younger and at an early age I was introduced to the works of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and William Morris. I loved the detail and perfection in their work, the pattern and symmetry. It was so clear that they loved what they did, not just in their work but in their involvement in the Arts and Crafts movement, and that made me realise how important it is to do what you love. I studied Graphic Design in college and then trained as an Art and Design Teacher but neither of those professions appealed to me. I love elements of both but my heart just wasn’t in either, I knew there was something else. While I was in college I started making and selling work in my spare time- I always made time for it because it was what I wanted to do. I then studied Surface Pattern Design last summer and think that it’s a really fun area to work in.

Poppy and my Jane Ormes print

Mo : Describe a typical day?

Lily : A typical day in my studio starts with a coffee and a clear space. First thing I check my e-mails and I look at my planner and see what I will be doing that day. Sometimes I work on one piece and on other days I work on several different pieces. I love to listen to music as I work and once or twice a week I head over to a friends house- a fellow artist who lives around the corner and we chat for hours over coffee.

As I work my kitten Poppy sleeps next to me, or plays with my pens which she seems to have a fascination with! If I need some stationery supplies I head out to one of the amazing little shops nearby, or even if I don’t need anything I still like to look! 

Poppy asleep in my studio

Mo: How about future goals and ambitions? 

Lily: To keep on doing what I do and I would love to see my designs on home ware and textile ranges. I have lots of projects in the pipeline so it will be nice to see where they go. 

Mo: Are there any Designers, blogs, crafters, arty people you follow and why?

Lily : loads - here are a few :
Jane Ormes:- https://www.etsy.com/shop/janeormes?ref=pr_faveshops I have been a fan of her beautiful work for a long time now, and finally bought a print from her a few months ago which is hung in my studio. Eleanor Reilly:- https://www.etsy.com/shop/JupiterInLoveShop?ref=pr_faveshops Eleanor is a positive artist living in Cork City. She is also my big sister!

Yellena James:- https://www.etsy.com/shop/yellena?ref=pr_faveshops
I love Yellena’s abstract organic shapes and colour palettes.

Esther:- https://www.etsy.com/shop/eveden?ref=pr_faveshops
This Berlin creative hand dyes and screenprints her fabric before turning them into her beautiful bags and pouches. 

Mo: do you have any advice for new crafters?

Lily : The more you practice, the better you will be and you will learn from every mistake so don’t think of them as bad things. Also, never copy anything or compare yourself to anyone else- I think that too many people do and that it’s the reason why there are so many imitations out there. Do what is true to you and do it to the best of your ability. 

Mo : where can we find you online?

Lily : any one of the following:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PetaltoPetal
• Twitter: @PetaltoPetal
• Blog: http://petaltopetal.blogspot.de/
• Website: http://petaltopetal.carbonmade.com/

Mo : cheers Lily and thank you for being my guest this month. 

Lily : I enjoyed the chat, thanks Mo.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So thats it for this month. If you are a member of the Etsy Ireland team and would like to be interviewed for the blog just get in touch through my Etsy shop - www.huggleknits.etsy.com

Have a great May

Cheers

Mo

Off to Dublin in the Sun

A sort of report on the proceedings in the Snail Bar on 14 August 2010
I headed down from Belfast to Dublin on a gorgeous summer's day, and this made getting up at 5.45am for the 8am train so much easier. After a pleasant train journey spent knitting and snoozing, I arrived in Dublin at 10am, and headed to my favourite yarn shop This is Knit. There, I looked at lots of beautiful yarn, and shopped...a little bit!

After time spent in shops, charity shops and St Stephen's Green, I was so hungry that I arrived in the Snail Bar early to tuck into a delicious brunch - the food is really really REALLY good and I can recommend it highly.

The first one to arrive after me was Elke, another German, who like myself has been living in Ireland for a long time (I think we arrived the same year). While we chatted on the terrace, more Etsians arrived inside, so we actually missed the first bits of conversation. However, we surely made up for it - often two conversations went on at the same time...

The following team members were present:


Fiona from Patchworkdelights
Angela from Artysmarty
Judith from ABoxForMyTreasure
Mo from Huggleknits
Tanya from TanyaMac
Hazel from Hazeldonnelly
Elke from dragonfly1760
an Etsian whose name and shop I didn't catch (sorry, please enlighten me!)
That would be Mary from A Wish for You (Etsy shop being rolled out sometime before Chrimbo!)
and Brigitte from purlsofcolour behind the camera.

Sarah from Redpossum and her daughter Poppy were also there, but had to leave early, so they are not in the photo.

Tanya also took some photos, and hopefully she'll add them to this article. Only one for ye girls - the rest were super fuzzy! (P.S This is me, TanyaMac, in green - in case you hadn't guessed already!) :P

Fiona from PatchworkDelights, Our Dublin Rep Angela from ArtySmarty,

Judith from aboxformytreasure and Mo from Huggleknits.

We had a great craft swap, and I now have some lovely fabrics, and bits for making more stitchmarkers! Mary (etsy shop on the way) brought in a whole bag of the cutest teddy bears she had once used for teaching. She also added lovely Etsy Ireland blog ribbons to them. The idea came up to leave the bears in prominent places to advertise the blog, or bring them on our journeys and take pics of them in front of famous landmarks a la Amelie.

So here's my bear...sunning himself at the Liffey!

However, although I took two bears, I couldn't just leave a bear behind in the train, so I gave my extra bear to a friend of mine who will display him prominently on her desk.

I had great fun planting my teds around the city - here's a couple of pics... ;)

Ted 1 fancied a spin to feel the breeze on his fur,

it was a very hot day in the city...

and Ted 2 had developed quite a thirst in my handbag!

(The tourists all went loopy when they saw him left there!)

I'm trying to recap what we discussed and decided, but if I have missed something, feel free to add it in the comments:

• 
  
  Sales are slow for everyone, and we had a good moan about it. However, to stay positive, we tried to focus on the Christmas business, and ideas floated around for an Etsy Ireland pop-up shop in Dublin sometime in December. A few people are looking into it.

• 
  
  Some people who are also selling on DaWanda talked a bit about that. Elke is really successful there, so she can be our DaWanda guru...

• 
  
  I brought up a few things relating to the blog. Letizia (Ooakie) reported that some people had encountered problems with the shop directory, and she and Francis (ShineSpinner) had investigated a few options in relation to changing the shop directory:
  1.) a long list of clickable shopnames on the side - simple and clear, but takes a lot of space on the blog
  2.) a link to categories and these link to Etsy pages with all the team members that do that. The disadvantage is that if you have not listed for a while, your shop is not likely to appear
  3.) The third way is to have a single link to another page with a full list of all shops (and a pic for each)
  
  Most people are happy with the drop down list as it is, and therefore Tanya will look at the code again to see if there is a glitch somewhere. Of all the options, number three was seen as the best, but the consensus was that it's a hell of a job to do, and it would be a huge page to scroll down to, unless we have more than one page or links to the different categories at the top of the page

• 
  
  We decided that if a shop that isn't one of the team or an Etsy shop wants to be added to our Craft Supplies page, we ask them for a 10% team discount.

• 
  
  The question of having some discussion forum on the blog also came up. However, since our Crafty Ireland team thread on Etsy is pretty quiet these days, we weren't too sure if we need one. I suggested we could use the discussion forum that is available on our Etsy Ireland facebook page, because that's already there. We didn't come to a conclusion on this, but Letizia and I will open a new Crafty Ireland team thread on the Etsy forums - after 114 pages it is about time...
• 
  
  Also Hazel brought in a copy of the Sunday Business Post, where our lovely Judith was surprised to find her lovely jewellery featured smack bang in the middle!  

It was great to see everybody, and hopefully more local meetings will be underway shortly.

I for my part stayed a few more hours in Dublin and spent some happy times at the Designer Mart at Cow's Lane (thanks to Hazel, who told me about it) and knitting at the Liffey.

However, it had been a long day, and when I got home, I had the earliest night in ages! When do I ever get to bed at 11pm???

Trade Secrets - to keep your head above water

This week's Trade Secrets come from Brigitte of Purls of Colour, who might have read too many motivational books for her own good.

Stay cool!

It's the recession, and the living is not easy. People's pockets are empty, the purses that still have a few coppers are shut, and although there is a loudly proclaimed trend to prefer homemade to shop-bought, it means that often people want to make things themselves, not buy anything YOU've made.

Don't hang up your hat yet
(light blue yarn by Lindsay Crafts, yellow yarn by Pancake and Lulu on Etsy)

So there you are with your lovely unique goodies on Etsy, feeling like a contestant on the x-factor, hoping to be discovered for your talent, and wondering who to blame or sue if that isn't happening or if members of the panel sneer at you.

You spend your last food money on a market stall (don't do this if you still have to feed the goldfish), and get no return, eating your supplies of Baked Beans for the next couple of days.

Your friends think you have a lovely time sitting in the garden crafting away (which admittedly, you do), but they go out in the evening, while you update your Etsy descriptions again, put a treasury together, or decide what else you can do without (if these Crocs die a death, I can really live without them, I really really can...)

The Craft sector - La Boheme 2010...

So what do you do when Etsy bombards you with 1001 success stories, but you are not one of them? I do love getting tips from Etsy, but it sometimes feels like looking at beautiful people with perfect white teeth, while your worst nightmare is that yours are falling out!

Here are some Purls of Wisdom (thanks to Ruth for that expression!) for when the going is tough, or when nothing seems to be going at all:

Aaahhh, bliss!

- whatever you do, buy good coffee - even when you spend your last money on it, because you'll love it, especially on days when the world just doesn't seem to love you!
(same goes for chocolate)

- get out into the sun, even if it is an Irish one and it doesn't last for long. It does you good, gives you new ideas, and is free! Remember Baz Luhrmann though (wear sunscreen!)

- encourage your friends to share their awful office stories and remember how much you hated the air conditioning and the instant coffee!

- share a good moan with other crafters

- ignore any success stories and good advice at least for a day. Focus on your own!

I love myself

Repeat to yourself:

- I love my craft!

- I believe in handmade. I am a crafter, a creative by heart! I don't 'do' mass-produced. I want to create something gorgeous and one of a kind!

- My products are great, because...(list about 10 good things about them, without any but!)

- the only person that is exploited in my business is myself!

- my business is my choice! If I wanted to, tomorrow I could be a (tick as appropriate) astronaut, actor/actress, chat show host, celeb, IT guru, materchef, model, politi...no, delete that one!

Feel better?
No?

Now where's that coffee then?

Team Treasuries

• Sugary Sweet & Good Enough to Eat!

• Tea? Coffee? Chocolate? Anyone?

• An Invincible Summer

Here are some beautiful team treasuries that have been put together this week by myself, balanced. and Letizia, ooakie. Please click the links above and then click the items, and comment to help make these treasuries HOT!!

"Treasury is Etsy's ever-changing, member-curated shopping gallery.

Create and share lists of items. Beautiful, diverse Treasury lists may be featured on Etsy's home page.

Treasury Guidelines for creating your own Treasury

You can create a list of items for any purpose and edit as often as you desire.

If you'd like your Treasury list to be chosen for inclusion on Etsy's home page by Etsy admin, here are a few tips:

• Use all 16 slots.
• Be diverse! No more than one item per shop.
• Don't include your own items. Spread the love!
• Make it beautiful."

To increase your chances of being chosen for a treasury by other Etsy members, here are a few tips:

• Use all of your allotted 14 tags in your item listings and use them wisely!
• Tag space is precious so try to be as creative as you can. Use colours, textures, styles, etc.
• Please use our team tag "craftyirelandteam" as one of your tags when listing an item for sale to make it easier for treasury makers and team members to find your creations.
  
• Have great photos!
  

Here is a link to all the treasuries I have curated myself since T-east opened if you would like to see some past team treasuries.
Eventually, hopefully soon, we will be able to search the treasury for tags we are now able to include in the treasuries we make. That will be very helpful! I've already started adding our tag, "craftyirelandteam" to the team treasuries I am making.

Treasuries are a lot of fun to make. And being on the front page of Etsy feels really good! It is not a guarantee for sales, but the exposure is wonderfully helpful. It nearly always increases your shop/item views and hearts and it could result in future sales, blog coverage and custom orders.

So, whatcha waiting for? Go make one! or some! :) Click me!