A Custom Order- One Viking Helmet...

 Saturday, December 22nd was our last day this year at my weekly craft market..and of course, for the first two hours it poured..so very little in the way of potential customers strolling through the market..cold, too, so me and everything I owned was soaked, in no time, despite the tent and some tarps for walls I threw up, in a hurry...
  The rain stopped around noon, and then at one we got a few customers..very few, because we have to stop at two...*sigh*
Still, I did okay with the hour I had, and one of the things that happened was a big burly young guy came  to my 'booth' and asked for a Viking helmet..I was really happy to do it, I'd actually been thinking about a child's version for awhile..but this guy was about 6'2", so, measurements taken, I started it that night, and today (Christmas Eve afternoon) put the finishing touches on it (I think)...
I want to tart it up a bit more, but I think he wouldn't like that..he was pretty specific about colours..what do you think of the finished product?

He wanted the back to look like chaine maille, so this was as close as I could get without making it too delicate...
He didn't want the horns too big, so...and nothing decorative, although I could have had a great time designing runes, etc. if I 'd been given carte blanche..actually the big discs in the front and the "nails" in the back are my idea, hope that is okay with him...
Kinda looks alien from the back, so, two hats in one...

Leopard That Can Always Change it's Spots

This isn't a tutorial, rather an unpaid endorsement of a fab new yarn I've been wishing for and fantasizing about for for awhile, called "Safari" and made by Stylecraft Yarns, which according to the label comes from the UK..I bought it online from Herrschner's.
I live in the back of beyond, have to drive many kilometers to buy any sort of yarn and what I can get isn't very exciting...I am also allergic, heavily, to  sheep's wool, so that cuts right down on what I can use, as well.  Buying  online has really helped me..
I often to try to blend different yarns, sometimes three at a time, to achieve looks I can't find  readily available.
I have a leopard hat that was created trying to blend different colours of yarn to look as though it were a leopard's fur...

But now that I have this safari yarn to work with, I'm in crochet heaven.. what I've done, so far..



I'm planning on another hat, and this one will be for me...
Found any interesting new supplies that work for you?

Should I Stress or Should I Roll...

Oh dear, just looking at my holiday craft fair schedule...and worrying, just a tiny bit...on the one hand, if I do really well at all of them I'll be happy (having written off this year, generally speaking, as a not so great one financially, at least) but if I do too well too soon, what'll I do?
I feel as if I have to quickly create a bunch of new stuff on the off-chance that I may have little to offer by the end of November...on the other hand, if things go as they have the rest of the year, I'll have a bunch of stuff left over...*sigh*
Trying to guess what will happen is worse than the stock market, I don't quite know how to feel about any of it..besides killing myself trying to make things that take hours each to complete is sort of counter-productive...
Here's my schedule (not counting my weekly Farmer's Market, which will be all but ignored for the month of November, since these holiday (and indoor!) fairs happen, always, on weekends)
Duncan Christmas Chaos -November 8 thru 11
Earthly Delights Winter Market -Nov 17-18
Mill Bay Winter Holiday Fair- Nov 24
Shawnigan Lake Winter market - Dec 1st
Did I overdo it? Too late now..everything is prepaid (naturally) so couldn't afford to back out if I wanted to...
Silly, yes?  I know there are people everywhere who wish they had outlets to sell their work...but don't ..
Sometimes too much is simply too much..maybe I'll slow down when I'm 70....
In the meantime, here's the output (so far) for the week...

Honeymoon Bay Market...

Here are some images of probably the cutest Market I've ever seen (if not my most successful...)
I went there on Sunday, which in Canada is like the US Fourth of July, sorta..it's Canada Day, and I thought I'd take a drive and check out a new Market...this place is only open on holiday Sundays, the rest of the time, it's just a regular Saturday Market.
It was all built by the same man, little individual rustic spaces with a lot of personality.
The 'church' one has it's own bell, which kids love to  ring when they walk in..although it was hard to get the perspective of the little buildings, the church was the size of a large walk-in closet (not too large) and all the other buildings were small but sweet ..all had shelves and 'windows' for display..unique in my experience..guess, though, if I wanted a decent (financially speaking) market I should come on Saturday, when it's sunny, not overcast and cold like yesterday..apparently, vendors there are quite successful.
The last two pictures are of my temporary spot..wish I'd known ahead of time that I wouldn't need my tent and tables..could have made the inside more inviting...live and learn...

A good lesson for anyone trying out a new Market for their handmade goods..believe it or not, it is always a risk..I have two weekly Markets now, and even though I'm an established vendor in my area, sometimes I do great, other times, no matter crowded or not, I sell nothing..you never know.
I had about an hour's drive (admittedly, scenic...) and really enjoyed meeting many new people and loved the look of the Honeymoon Bay Market, but, financially, it was a total write-off...still, I will probably go back sometime when the weather is better, and on a Saturday, which is supposed to be a better experience.

It's the Great Outdoors For Me...

It's gonna be that time of the year again..when we go back outside for our Saturday Farmers/Crafters Market..and I can't wait!
I'm getting to the point, usually about this time of year, when I can't bear to be inside all day, trying to sell  and trying to take a decent breath..it must be the antsiness of Spring, but, personally, if I lived in a place where I could sell outside all year, I would be happiest there.
Just spent way too much money buying some really outrageous yarn from a store going out of business here..it's one of my main locations for yarn purchasing so all of us  who are involved in fibre arts are really feeling nervous about where we will go in the future, since we live on an Island (albeit a big Island, not exactly the UK, but still, big) and we have few choices within an hour's drive...and with the cost of fuel, our options are shrinking..
Tried buying online but the shipping charges are prohibitive too..we may end up doing that again, this time hopefully  in co-operative mode,  buying in quantity to save a bit of cash on supplies..I really hate raising my prices!
It is one of the costs of living in Paradise, I guess...
Happy Making, everyone, and wish me luck for the coming season...♥

Some Newer Baby and Toddler Hats

Here are some of my latest "kids' lids" to be sold in my new Etsy shop..trying to upload a few every day until I have as many as possible listed...of course, I always seem to sell them at my Saturday Market when listed, but since I will only go to my Market about twice a month until mid-March, they will hopefully be available for online purchase for a little while longer.
Cheers!

Some Jewelry

I went on a wild spending spree (for me, that is) and bought a bunch of new beads..here's some of my newer jewelry items.
I have a real love for skulls - probably because I grew up in Los Angeles and was exposed from a very early age to decorative skeletons and such for Day of the Dead and Cinco de Mayo - Mexican holidays that seemed to blend Catholicism and native belefs into a potpurri of interesting and colourful images.
I also love turquoise- the colour, that is..always have...
I think that also must be a leftover of Southern California..lots of swimming pools in my past life.
Enjoy!

Check out my Sale Pieces...

Here's my Collection of some of the hats and neckwarmers currently on sale in my ArtFire studio-the ones marked "Sale" are all going to be discounted by $5 each when purchased..just put "miz5" in the coupon or message area and I'll refund the $5 through Paypal..if you buy more than one item, just add X2 or whatever the number is, and you'll get a $5 refund for each item purchased.
Starting outside at my Farmer's Market this Saturday, and the discount applies there, too, so make sure and get your order in as soon as possible..

Little Green Bits Popping Up..

It seems way too soon, but even I have things sprouting in my balcony garden of pots..tulips, the garlic chives I thought were well and truly done for this winter..and some things I'm not sure of..lots of birds hang out at my little birdbath, so considering that they transport a plethora of seeds in their droppings, anything could happen..
I always look forward to this serendipitous new crop, whatever it may be..
Creating a little 'crop' of my own, as I need to have a good booth-full of jewelry for the Spring and Summer Markets..here's a couple of my new things, a bracelet and a neckace..

DO Try This At Home...

I was attending the opening day of one of my local flea markets, strictly as a potential customer, and my favourite Tarot card reader/organic dry dog food maker was there..yes, it is an interesting combination of careers, but her little bags of doggie treats are proving quite popular...and I know, from personal experience, that she's a good card reader, too..
We were talking about local Farmer's Markets (she reads cards at mine) and selling venues, etc., when she mentioned something that I just had to share. Don't know if you all are aware of this, or if it's done in your area/State/Province/County/Country or not, but until today I was totally unaware.
I live on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, as many of you know..it's the central part of the Island, called Cowichan, where I live, and sell in-online, of course, and the location of my weekly Duncan Farmer's Market.
My friend is sending me to the Cowichan Tourist Bureau, because they like to promote local businesses, especially colourful ones that tourists would enjoy, and the promos are FREE!!! Free..that is a biggie..they go to trade shows and give out your cards to those attending from the cruise industry, bus tours, travel agents, etc. etc. And my friend is sending tiny little doggie bag samples..
Pretty hard for me to afford that, but figured I could give them a couple of hats to display..also, they have a roll of 500 free stickers to use on your goods that say "Cowichan Made"..too cool!
This kind of literally International publicity would be impossible for me to afford in real life..but who needs reality when the Tourist Bureau is able and willing?
So, think about this for your own businesses - even online businesses that are locally owned and operated, are of great interest to most Tourism agencies..I think it's a fabulous idea, and hope some of you out there can benefit from it, too.

How to Measure For My Hats

Hello! Welcome to the blog for my ArtFire studio..mizdarlin's hats and jewelry...which I thought I'd post here too..
Because I sometimes have problems with buyers and sizing, I thought I'd explain a bit about how to know if a hat will work for you, or whoever the hat is going to.
I have provided, as an example, a medium sized brown earflap hat..
This hat measures in at 23" (58 cm) at the opening, which is what I call the area at the very bottom of the hat body, before the earflap braids...
In this particular case, the 23" is also identified as "before stretching", which means that it can and will stretch comfortably within a 1" range.
If you are have a 22" head circumference, don't worry, this hatwon't be too big, but I wouldn't go any smaller.
Now of course, the question is, where and how do you measure?
Use a soft cloth tape if available, or a piece of string that you can measure afterwards, and, starting at mid-forhead, measure around your head going across your ears, not behind them, and finish again at mid-forehead, snug but not tight, ...this will give you a general idea of your 'size'.
The reason I do not use typical hat size measurements, e.g., 6 1/2, 7 5/8, etc. is because they don't have meaning in stretching hats..
The average adult female has a head from 19" to 22"..if you are someone who can walk into any store and try on a "one size fits all" hat and it fits, or is even too big, you fall into this range..and most of my hats are labeled as Small (19"-20") in this range, or Medium (21"-23").
Children's 'sizes' can be problematical..believe it or not, most kids from about 2 years old have heads only 4" to 6" smaller than an adult, around..
So, when I list the measurements for a child's hat, a newborn comes in at around 12", 3 months to 6 months is 14", and from one year onward, I usually list from 14" to 16" and up..many girls, for instance, from 3 or 4 years are wearing 19" hats..(please remember that these are "averages", and most of the hats have 'give' within a one inch range.)
It is a difficult question to sometimes find the exact size in the exact hat, I know, which is why I do custom work..if you love a hat that is the wrong size, let me know, and chances are that I can do a version just for you at the same price.

And for my First Event...

Pictured to the right of this note is the poster, for my first craft fair of the season..a benefit for the "Cowichan Women Against Violence"
Last year's fair was the first, and a wonderful time was had by all..this year we've moved to a larger venue.so if you are in the neighborhood, looking for fabulous homemade gifts and prefer spending your money to suport those who can use your assistance, please come by...
Looking forward to seeing you there!

Gift of The Small Town

I've read several times in the Etsy Forums about the joys and sorrows of Craft Markets or Fairs, both outdoor and now in...and I have a doozey-I just went through possibly the worst craft fair experience of my 30 years of craft-fairing, and I have had a few...and yet, heartwarming, in an ironic sort of way...

To begin with, I hate being upstairs in halls, schools, etc. because your foot traffic is automatically cut in half..but I had no choice yesterday, since it was a four day fair, and I was only doing the Sunday, which is normally the best day...but there was nothing "normal" about this fair...
I was told to pull behind the building, because there was a ramp that led directly to the top floor to make it easier to load and unload my stuff...well, unbeknownst to me, there was a right side and a wrong side..guess which one I took...
A muddy morass awaited me, after our heavy rains, and a large abandoned set of steps that led nowhere, right in the middle of the "lane", so I tried to back out down the lane, but of course all my stuff was piled in the back of my truck so I couldn't see, so I started to turn around...got stuck in some very deep mud, where the drainpipe emptied from the gutters.
Eventually after several people tried to push me out, we called a tow truck.
I decided to set up and wait, why stand around outside..so I did that, and when he came, went out to "help".
When it came time to pay him, I was shocked to learn that he didn't take plastic...having only a cash float of $20 and out in the middle of nowhere, I didn't know what to do..
Luckily, he was a nice guy in a small town, and asked me to pay another seller at the fair who he was familiar with, and he took off...
Breathing a sigh of relief (only temporary, I assure you) I sat back and waited for the hordes of Christmas shoppers to descend richly upon us...
 Apparently, they had somewhere else to go...in 6 hours I doubt if thirty people passed through our little upstairs room, and none of them were buying, at least not from me...
Had this been a large town, I would have been in trouble, the equivalent of not paying for a restaurant meal after the food has been consumed..but this is a place where everyone knows everyone (except me)-and since I live here,  am somehow to be trusted... of course, in a large town, not only would the bill have been much larger, but they would of course have taken plastic-and I've never had a bigtown fair where I've sold nothing...
Still kinda nice that I will be paying the driver the balance when he's "in the neighborhood", and I was automatically assumed to be an honest and upright person.
Naive? You bet...but perhaps I'm assuming they can't judge properly, since they're small town folks...maybe I'm selling them a bit short-because after all, I am an honest person...maybe I'm the one with the problem.

This is a bad season for craft fairs generally-economics, The N1H1 scare, and the sheer drawing power of the malls screaming  *SALES!!!!*  for months in advance..but I learned an expensive lesson yesterday...that, despite the wrong choice of back lanes. I had made the right choice, moving to a small town on a wonderful Island, after all....