etsy friday

It seems that Friday's been a good day to keep the etsy posts on, so lets go :)





Mexican (Crazy) Lace Agate stone cabochon-- hand cut, polished and set in handmade sterling setting by Ahna.etsy.com. You could have knocked me over w. a feather when we were chatting (via Etsy Conversations, you know what a chatterbox I can be ;)) and Ahna told me she not only made the silver (and gold) settings for her stones, but that she was the one that selected the cut and finish of each stone. I kept repeating like a madperson-- you CUT the STONE yourself?! I thought... well, I had never thought about that but it was one of the neatest things I'd heard in a long while.

I've loved crazy lace agate for forever (even want the "crazy lace agate" colorway from Blue Moon... but I think its been discontinued), but only ever saw it loose and had no use for a stone no matter how beautiful. You can see how well she solved my dilemma... simple sterling setting, stamped w. her mark on the back. I couldn't be happier or recommend her shop or work highly enough. She also is the webmaster for the Eclectic Jewelry Artisans of Etsy, and they're having a Summer Solstice prize drawing for those who add their emails to their mailing list-- I have mad love for Etsy Street Teams, so go check them out :)



I knew all about lots of kinds of artists (or thought I did!) but polyclay artists were totally new to me. Polymer clay in beads, sculpture, functional pieces... all over etsy were these things that just wowed me-- they have handmade all over them, as well as art and function. I've bought beads from ArtisticJen before & made them into stitch markers for my shop-- these are a few more sets from her shop that will eventually succumb to the same fate. (If you're interested in stitch markers of any of these, lmk-- I only have enough of each style for one unique no-one-else-will-have-them set.) I love the look of the polyclay markers-- they're really bright and have depth (as the designs cut all the way thru), and are much lighter than glass of the same size so you can have a larger sized bead marker without weighing down your needles.


cards purchased from etsy. top left, clockwise:
amnesia (cat & fish) from jmulcahy.etsy.com
tori (popup cranes) from tracychong.etsy.com
gocco-printed tree with gold leaves from plasticpumpkin.etsy.com
vintage white noise (oscillate*ing fan) from bellajean.etsy.com
robot physics, lost girl & good guest from HeyBuddy.etsy.com

Cool cards, yet again... there's never really a day that can go by without me finding some really cool cards on etsy. The popup cranes is dear to me-- crane motifs strike my heart as my mom learned bunka (japanese punch embroidery) from my paternal grandmother to pass the time as she was pregnant with me... one of the finished pieces that hung for a long time in our house was of two cranes preening themselves at sunset and I've loved cranes since. I have a bunch of her old finished bunka pieces in storage... should take pics and return them to her.

Anyways! :)


Shea butter skin spread from clevergirl.etsy.com

I debated on sharing this one, not cos I want to keep her a secret, but the CleverGirl shop has gone on body butter hiatus for the warm weather in the south. (She's still making rad jewelry in the meantime, tho.) I was able to swoop in and grab a bunch of these sets and I'm glad I did... I'll also share a "secret"-- that each shop on etsy has an rss feed, so you can be updated in your readers when a shop adds new items. You could watch for these to come back, it'll be worth it. Super thick and lightly scented, and packaged in sweet hand decorated tins.


Blue Faced Leicester SUPERWASH roving in "nightshade" & mini merino sock yarn sample skein in "plum tortie" from pigeonroofstudios.etsy.com

I admit, I didn't want to share about the rss feeds since its hard enough shopping Krista's store. :) BFL in superwash? So I'm a stalker, spank me. Love it though... and it was braided even more nicely than the unseemly bumpiness you see-- that was me tugging at the end, wrestling with myself and the need to spin it right when it arrived. I didn't obviously, but that's just cos I'm waiting on new bobbins for my Joy... (and her next shop update!)


Alpaca, silk & merino hand carded batts by loop.etsy.com, "kimono" colorway
(2 open batts in the front of the picture-- front & backside of each.)

Yes, this is a lot of fiber. One of the best things about etsy is that you have the ear of the artist right there... want something repeated that they've already sold? Want a bigger quantity? I've bought a lot of things this way on etsy-- skimming thru a shop's sold items and asking for repeats, or a different quantity, etc. I asked Steph of loop to card me 8 oz of her mini batts in "kimono" and, lord help me its a lot of fiber. Eight just sounds like a nice number off the tongue, doesn't it? (I have no excuse.)

She sells "mini batts"-- about 5" wide, 2 ft long. When I unwrapped them at first I was struck by their size, but the more I thought about it-- this is a really good size for me. When I spin from batts I'm usually tearing off a piece this size, and here I don't have to. Its all really nicely carded and super soft-- I don't think I'll need to do much predrafting at all for as lofty as it is. The color's off, I can't capture red (story of my life ;)) but I think my pic is closer than the color in the listing... it looks brighter than the deep red of the listing picture. No matter, its still beautiful, even though I have no idea what to do with it :)

Have a good weekend! Go celebrate it by checking out the yarn4socks.com "flash sale"-- 20% off of all previously non-discounted yarns, needles and stitch markers (zero stitch markers, yall!) with the code: May07. Valid thru 5/31. I've already made my purchase :)