Etsy Shop Re-Stock - Friday 6th March 11am (GMT)

Spring is nearly here, and finally I'm ready to get my Etsy shop update live.  It's taken me a while as I've been juggling commissions, workshop renovations, big birthdays (not mine) and flaming torches (ok, that last bit is not strictly true).

From Friday 6th March at 11am (GMT) I will be listing lots of your favourite friends (including Egg Men, Singing Birds, Russian Dolls) and some larger panels that are now available for sale following last year's One Square Foot group exhibition.

It will also be your last chance to get hold of some of my designs as I am phasing-out a few and planning on introducing some new work later on in the year.

So catch them while you can....

Gypsy Caravan

It's nearly the end of the Easter Holidays.  I haven't done a stroke of work.

We stayed in a proper Gypsy Caravan set in an orchard in a very beautiful part of the world.  Our stay coincided with beautiful spring weather, clear skies and a massive yellow moon rising as we sat around the campfire.  There were frisky little lambs to coo over and big scary cows to run away from.  We took our wildflower and bird books and spotted-and-jotted.  The girls wrote and drew constantly.  We climbed hills, swung on rope swings, paddled in rivers, fell in nettles and slipped in mud.

Details here.  I can't recommend it highly enough.


(NB. Not a sponsored post.  Just an actual holiday)

Eastergram

A few Instagrams of the Easter Weekend (so far).

Multi-coloured hen eggs from the WI market.

Sunlight on the lagoon at Abottsbury Subtropical Garden egg hunt.

More sunlight, generally, flooding into the house.  Making everything just nice.

Etsy Shop Spring Update / UK Postage Price Rise

Just added a few IN STOCK items to my Etsy shop.

A new design - Big Bloom, which is partly inspired by the naïve style of contemporary Japanese illustration, and partly inspired by those big fat bulbs poking their heads up in my garden...

3 new Egg Men, updated in their snazzy hipster geometric jumpers.

And a couple of little singing birds, in slightly more muted colours than my usual cheery chaps, but I can't get enough of that green and plum together.

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I was a bit stunned to read about the latest hike in UK postage costs from the 2nd April 2013, and lowering (slashing!) of compensation cover.  My initial knee-jerk reaction was "OK, that's it, no more selling online!"

Actually what I will need to do is just make some changes here and there.  I'll need to order in smaller boxes so my small items (like the singing birds) can squeeze in to the "small parcels" price bracket (although this will still involve a small price rise).  And I need to majorly re-think some of the designs that just fall outside the small parcels price bracket. 

One thing is for sure, anyone thinking of making ANY purchases from independent sellers on Etsy, Folksy even Ebay, would be well advised to do so before the 2nd April.  It isn't going to be pretty, I'm afraid.  

Details on price changes here.

Randomness

Been a busy old week - visiting best friends in Bristol... long lazy days at the beach... impromptu family reunions around the kitchen table with never ending mugs of coffee... tidying and sorting.  Squeezed a bit of work in too.

I liked this French stock cube tin at my friend's house 

(but I think she may have thought me bonkers for snapping it)

We've scoffed a fair few of these lately.

Work in progress on my current commission.

And in case you were wondering (I'm sure you were) I haven't heard back from my mystery caller from the last post.  Yet.  

Contemporary Stained Glass Egg Men Decorations

These are the finished Egg Men, which are now available to buy at The Stained Glass Museum Shop, along with lots of my other designs.

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I'm having a bit of a re-think about my "business".  While I've been bringing up small children it has been a great way to maintain my skills, keep my mind occupied and learn how to use social media.

But frankly, it's a hobby that pays for itself, and not what you could call a business.

Don't get me wrong, I am very proud of what I have created so far.  It has grown out of tinkering in the workshop late into the night and doodles on the back of till receipts in cafes while Isla napped in her pushchair, and the kindness and support of all the other amazing creative people I have met through blogging and selling online.

But now my children are both at school I need to find a way to make a living from it again.

So I'm planning a few changes here and there: phasing out some designs that aren't profitable, making new ones that are and, unfortunately, increasing some prices slightly (this is largely down to the recent increase in price on the Polish mouthblown glass I use).

This will be happening over the next few months, but not immediately and there are several "in stock" items in my shops that will remain at the same price.

I'm excited about coming up with more designs and nudging things in new direction, and turning my hobby back into a business.

Thank you to everyone who has supported Through The Round Window so far, I feel like a new chapter is ahead...

Happy Easter

May your chicks be fluffy, your sun be shiny and your chocolate eggs plentiful.

Hello, how do you do?

I'd like to introduce you to some friends:

Maurice


Roderick


Melvin


Claude


Eugene


These little eggy fellows are in the shop right now...well, eggcept Maurice and Melvin who will be packing their suitcases and heading off to Kent to stay with their Auntie Linen Cat.

Such fun to make these guys. Initially, I had ideas about making decorated pastel coloured Easter Eggs for the shop. Do you know the book The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown - illustrated by the amazing Alice & Martin Provensen? "And then a world of Easter eggs that danced about on little legs"

That image just kills me, so I started designing eggs with legs and arms, and then I kept putting faces on them that made me laugh and found the legs and arms to be rather unnecessary. So I dressed them in dapper little outfits and here they are. I was channelling 1970s men's hairdressers for the names...spending most of yesterday wandering around muttering things like "Hair by.....erm....Roger? No, not quite right"

I hate to show favouritism, but I think I love Claude the best...who's your favourite?