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Scarves Don’t Sell: Lessons Learned from 20 years Running an Etsy Shop
I opened my first Etsy shop in August 2005 and I’ve been an active seller that entire time. I’ve seen every variation, iteration, experiment, and mistake that Etsy’s made in all of those years. That original shop has had a little bit of everything but for the most part it’s been focused on what I call “fiber art geekery”, kits and project bags for all kinds of fiber crafters.
One thing I’ve learned is that having a focus or niche for your shop is helpful. So in 2017, I opened a second shop so I could focus it on a specific [read more…]
Preventing and Untying Knots in your Embroidery
One of the most frustrating things about hand embroidery is when your thread ties itself in knots while you are stitching. I thought I would write a couple of tips to help prevent knots and how to untie them when they happen.
Preventing Knots
After you have threaded your needle, take a few seconds to “condition the thread”. That means pinching the eye of the needle so that it doesn’t come unthreaded and then running the length of the thread through your fingers a few times while you pull on it gently. What does [read more…]
Picot Beaded Edge: A Micro Tutorial
I learned how to stitch this picot beaded edge from a friend a bunch of years ago and one of my students in class reminded me about it today, so I thought I’d make a very quick micro tutorial and show you how it works.
First you need some beads, needle, thread, and something to stitch the edging on. For this example, I made a heart shape from two layers of felt. You can stitch around anything, but a circle is the easiest shape to start with if you’ve never tried this before. I am stitching with #8 perle cotton embroidery [read more…]
Paste Paper is my Nemesis.
I use a lot of handpainted paper in my work for making collages and illustrations from cut paper. One of the kinds of paper I fell in love with many years ago is called paste paper. It’s a kind of surface design where you cover the paper with a tinted paste and then draw, scrape and press patterns into it. The thing I love the most about it is that it tends to make richly textured patterns that are close to monochromatic, so you can introduce texture into a design without adding a lot of different colors. There are many [read more…]
Hi, I’m Becka.
Talking about fabric design, teaching, and the life and business of being an artist.
Teaching online and in person classes in embroidery, handcrafts, technology, fabric design and artist business skills. Co-author of The Spoonflower Handbook.
Making books, paper art and fiber art geekery.
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