Sweatshopbytiq/Kawaii Parlor - Beware this Seller! AKA Royalteababy...

Ugh. Had the most awful experience of Etsy ever so I thought I'd do a little review. I attempted to purchase an Alice in Wonderland corset, kinda gothic/pirate striped top from Etsy seller Sweatshopbytiq in May last year. She eventually sent me one 4 sizes too big, even after I gave her my measurements, then told me to return it to her (at my own expense, even though it was her error) and she's still not sent me a replacement, won't provide a refund and ignores all my emails. I'll get round to typing up the whole story at some point, but basically she is a liar and a thief, so if you're ever thinking of buying anything from this seller, I would strongly advise don't. Just don't.

It just makes me sad that people have no conscience and are happy to rip you off. Sigh... Oh well, I hope karma gets her, someone steals all her money and she is left bankrupt and destitute!

Edit:

Please see updated post here to find out how it all turned out and for lots more info from a ton of other people ripped off by this girl http://weloveshinythings.blogspot.com/2009/05/sweatshopbytiq-update.html

How to Make a Cocktail Hat. Or, How Not to Make a Cocktail Hat...

We'll see how it turns out :)

Having googled the making of hats, I've sort of picked bits out of a few sets of instructions and combined them to see what happens...

Instruction 1. Buy hat block

Well, instant fail on that one, as they're £150. I know, I think, I'll use a mixing bowl instead, that's kind of head shaped, right...? Turns out, not so much. In fact, a mixing bowl is a very poor substitute indeed for a hat block. Remember that. Having wandered round my house looking for something head shaped, I have a sudden brainwave. Roller derby crash helmet! Well, at least it's the right shape...


Instruction 2. Acquire buckram fabric. Steam over kettle, having removed lid first to prevent it switching itself off automatically.

Aha! That I can do! Well, kinda. Please don't fill up the kettle right to the top, or you'll end up with boiling water flinging itself in your direction. Fact.

So, after tipping half the water out the kettle, I managed to steam the buckram with only occasional squeaks of pain as I put my fingers too close to the steam.

Instruction the third. Cover hat block with cling film. Pull buckram taut over hat block and secure at the bottom with elastic band. Steam each corner in turn and pull down firmly until no bumps are visible.

Doesn't sound too hard right? Well, the difficulties of pulling the elastic band down over the crash helmet (erm, sorry...hat block...) so it doesn't ping back in your face aside, it's rather a challenge to steam corners over a kettle. Aha, I think, I'll use a steam iron to direct targeted jets at the corners. Brainwave! Having consulted the boy on how one uses an iron, this actually worked quite well, and eventually I have a buckram covered helmet with minimal lumpage. Go me!

Next instruction: Draw circles using newspaper template onto the buckram, then remove from hat block.

Well, I used a set of compasses instead of newspaper, just because I seem to have about 5 sets of them for some reason, and this bit actually went rather swimmingly, it not being terribly challenging. Removing the buckram from the helmet was more troubling. I suspect it may be easier if you use an actual hat block. Anyway, buckram eventually removed and circles cut out. Tada! Now it gets a bit more tricky...


Next: Affix milinery wire around the edge of the hat base and bind.

Don't want to. Can't make me. Mainly because I want to finish the edges of the hat when I'm finished by putting it through a sewing machine, which may prove a wee bit tricky and detrimental to the machine's health if it has to sew through a bloody great bit of wire. So yes, I'm skipping this step. Oooh, naughty...

And the next one. Cover hat base with a layer of foam to the edges.

Hmmm. Is felt okay? I don't have foam... Well, seeing as I'm now firmly off-piste, instruction-wise, what harm can it do...? So, cut a circle of foam (aha, the trusty compasses again) and place over the hat base. Put in a couple of stitches to tack it in place, the cut another circle of whatever material you want your hat to be an inch or so bigger than the felt. I'm going with black satin. Just because it's there and this is kinda experimental. So, cover the felt tightly with the black satin and affix on the reverse side by pleating the material and hand sewing so you can't see the stitches on the right side.

So, how did that go? A general fail I would say. The hat base warps where I've stitched it and no longer resembles a nice little curve. Hmmmm. That'll be the point of the wire then :) Nevermind, from now on, let's completely wing it...

Next installment soon, once I've regrouped, fed the instructions to next door's cat, and worked out the best way to make it all up as I go along.

Squeal! Snow!

I woke up this morning to a six inch blanket of snow covering everything. I haven't seen snow like this for years! And despite the fact that Britain grinds to a shuddering halt every time we get more than a single snowflake, it was incredibly beautiful. I briefly considered cycling to work, but was glad I thought better of it upon seeing all the stranded, icy people walking with (and falling off) their bicycles whilst I was walking.

I took some pictures with my phone, as I've not really had a go with the little camera on it yet, and they turned out okay actually.

This is the view from my window this morning at my snow covered little garden. It looks much prettier when covered in snow and reminds me that I need to do some serious garden maintenance soon...

Highbury Fields on my way to work. It was such a nice atmosphere walking to the tube station. I had conversations with three random strangers and one small dog, which was most un-London of me.

Highbury Fields again. It ended up taking me way longer to walk to work than it should have done, as I kept stopping to make big stompy snow footprints and take pictures. Seeing as hardly anyone else in my office bothered to even turn up, I didn't feel too bad about dawdling in the end :)

A random lampost...

And a very snowy bicycle.

I walked home through Highbury Fields again, and all the perfect snow of this morning had been turned into snowmen. I wish I'd taken the day off too.

There were all sorts of snow creatures, from the disturbing, above...

To the pretty amazing...

And this one was just plain cute.

Apologies for lack of jewellery making blogging, I have suffered a slight crisis of confidence, more of which later, but tonight I shall try and make a hat...

Woohoo!

My lovely boyfriend moves to from south to north London today! This means that I will get to see him more than once a week, hurrah!

There will be more jewellery making updates soon, I've just had a bit of a mental week...

Flying South for Winter

I spent yesterday evening hanging out at Heathrow with my gran before her flight to Australia. She goes there every January for 3 months. How I wish I could fly south for the winter and follow the birds...

I got to see my lovely mum too. It's the first time I've seen her since she's given up work and she looks sooooo much better. Happier, less tired and less thin. I was very worried about her at the end of last year, but all seems good now.

Oh, and Terminal 4 is possible the most depressing place on earth.

New Books

I must buy these books, for the one I have on metal clay is written by idiots:

My Amazon wish list has escalated alarmingly today. I'm sure it must be my turn to win the lottery by now...

Progress, of sorts

Bah! So much for all my good intentions. I started this blog in a flurry of activity and determination to start making shiny things again, but it turned out that trying to do everything all at once didn't work out so well. I spent the last 6 months of this year trying to redecorate my flat, working full time (and mostly late) and also trying to make 3 or 4 roller derby practices a week, as we split the league into teams recently and dedication was needed in order to win. It turned out that there are only 24 hours in any one day, much as I wished for more, and something had to give. So, sadly I've had to give up skating for a while, as being on a team requires 100% committment, but alas so does starting a jewellery business from scratch. Bum. I really love skating and hope I still get to turn up at the odd practice. I felt really bad about leaving my team, as they are all awesome girls, but I think they're more likely to win their next game if I don’t play! I think my team captain understood, as she's an awesome illustrator, so probably knows how difficult it is to set up a creative business whilst holding down a full time job.

Anyway, so... room of junk has been gutted and renovated during the Xmas holidays. I ripped down all the existing shelves, filled holes, put up new shelves, painted (three bloody coats of the stuff to cover the hideous green) and hung a new vertical blind. Yay! I even used a spirit level and rawlplugs and everything, rather than my usual cowboy tactics of hammering screws into walls! Things I learned were (a) it is very difficult to drill into brickwork using a drill bit designed for drilling wood, (b) putting up a blind is a lot harder than I thought it might be, and (c) attempting to wash gloss paint off a brush and one's hands with water rather than white spirit creates a right mess. But, it was incredibly satisfying to do it all by myself and it now looks like this:





Alas, the shelves still need finishing, but I ran out of money :( I wish I'd taken a "before" picture, as the walls were a horrible sludgy green colour and covered in wonky black shelving, and the whole room was filled with boxes we never unpacked when we moved in and an additional 2 years worth of accumulated junk. It looks much better now and, hurrah, I have space to work!

Also, I've been offered some great workshop space for very cheap for the next couple of months whilst someone that usually shares it is away, AND, a guy I used to go to college with has opened his own jewellery store back home and is looking for designers to represent. Difficult as it was to choose between derby and jewellery, I think these things may have been the universe poking me in the right direction. After all, it does make sense to choose the thing I don't suck at :)

So, onwards and upwards. I have printed out much research material and have picked up a pencil for the first time in 2 years. And, do you know what...? I love it!

More soon...