Updates and a sale!

It's been a long time since I've blogged (again, I know). But work and teaching at the University have really taken most of my time last months. Now, I'm temporarily only teaching one seminar at the University, because my workplace had some economical issues. Not the greatest moment to not have a day-job, but hey, at least I can do other things for a while. Like crafting! And I'm quite positive I will find a new and even more interesting job soon.

Meanwhile, I've been updating my Etsy shop. You can find for example this... (Yes, it is a real fossil, an orthocerus fossil).

...this...
these cute earrings...

.... these crocheted snowflakes...

... and many other things, like stitch markers and knitted toys. And the best thing is that everything will have 10% discount until Wednesday 30th of November! Just use a coupon code "November" if you shop, and you'll get the discount automatically.

Featured!

I have been featured in Etsy Blog en Español! Emma makes interesting interviews of Etsy artists in her blog. I'm very happy that I got the chance to be featured! Emma has also her own Etsy shop with some very nice things, be sure to check it.

A while ago, I got this recognition from Juanita, but I just haven't had time to blog about it earlier.

The rules are these:

1. Choose 5 blogs that you estimate because of their creativeness, images and/or interesting content.

2. Every prize is personal and when you give it, you have to mention the name of the blog and put a link to it.
3. The receiver puts the logo of the prize in his/her blog.

4. The logo should be linked to the direction of the blog where you received the prize.

5. The receiver puts the rules in his/her blog.

There are lots of creative blogs-I read, so this isn't easy... But well, here are my choices this time:

-Liivia
- Savilintu

- Paperiaarre

- Kesäkumpu

- Hitaat kiireet

Finally, here's a picture of some jewelry I send to Finland. If you're interested, my Mom is selling these (and many others) in Tampere.

Well, back to study now. We have a long weekend here in Mexico, but no fiesta for me, I'm spending some quality time with my thesis.

Energy!!!

First I wanted to tell you that I have been invited to participate in Mayeh, a blog where a few Mexican designers/artist present their work. I'm very happy about being part of the blog. Hope you like it too! Every month there's a new theme for things we make. I have already lots of plans for October's theme (Autumn), just have to make those plans reality!

The plans for the Mayeh theme aren't the only one I have. I have lots of creative energy going on, and lots of ideas I want to realize using different mediums. I'm in some kin of manic period... I want to knit - I'm usually one knit's woman, but now I have three projects on the needles and want to start more - make yarn paintings, jewelry, paint... and even crochet. I haven't crocheted in years, but now I want to start again. I actually already tried to crochet a bit, here's the result.

It was supposed to be a decoration for my new jacket, but I think it's a bit too big (10 cm). I like hippy flowers, but there's a limit... But that's a good excuse for crocheting more flowers. This model is designed by Vilma.

I haven't been making jewelry for a long time, and yesterday I finally got my beads out. I have so lovely materials, looking at them gave me even more ideas. This necklace is will probably be called "Circus" for its fun colours. It is made of tagua seeds. If you like it, you can soon find it in the shop.

Even though I make jewelry, I almost never make it to myself. Something had to be done about that, so I transformed these reindeer bone amulets I found in Finland...

... to this jewelry set for myself. Very happy with the result.

It seems something with the bones fascinates me rigth now. I bought these today (I have promised myself to use my old materials before buying new ones, but I just couldn't resist):

At least there's a purpose for few of them already - the circles with two stripes could become earrings for Mom.

Luckily all my creative energy hasn't limited to crafting. I have also had lots of energy for studying, and my research is going well too. The only thing I need is more time to study and craft!

Lots of things to do...

... and everything at the same time...


Things seems to be accumulating right now. I have to present some research results at the university during the May, finish an article (also during May), try to invent themes for some conference papers (inventing isn't that hard, really, but then some day soon I'll have to write those papers too), start my custom yarn painting in these days too...

And as that wasn't enough to do for a while, I also promised to work as a facilitator in two workshops. The first one will be next week - it was going to start already on this Thursday, but luckily the plans changed. All this came up last Friday, so there really hasn't been much time for planning or preparing things. The materials for the workshop isn't very useful either, so I have to invent a lot on educational management in the schools, which isn't my area at all. The participants will be supervisors and directors of schools, probably mainly elder men. I have worked as a facilitator in workshops, but they were for teenagers and children, so this is going to be quite different. In total the workshop will last three days, ten hour days each. I'll be there all by my own - there are other facilitators in the same city (Chilpancingo) for these workshops, but we are all in different schools. Sooooo.... it will be interesting!


But even though I'm not very well prepared and the participants may not be the easiest audience (though I'm definitively not going to let them minimize me for being a young woman), I'm still happy to be part of these workshops. And not only because they are quite well paid! I think it will be a great - and challenging - learning experience.


Any way, with all these things to be done, I have finished something too. This bracelet was a custom order for Jonna. As she lives by the sea, it's called "A Day on a Beach". I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and hope Jonna will love it too!

I have another shop!

I now have a new shop at DaWanda, too. I have only two items there now, but will be listing more once I'll have some time to create instead of studying. The site seems nice, there are lots of cool features -plus it's in euros, which I really like. Go and check for yourselves!


Here are my Kaamos Is Ending necklace and earrings that are featured in the shop:





Kaamos stands for the polar night in Finnish, aka the darkest time of the year, when the sun doesn't get up the horizon in the north of Finland. No kaamos here, but I have been in a wintery mood lately (I miss snow!), so that's where the inspiration came from.

New creation

I figured that I haven't been showing any creations of mine lately... So here we go, a jade necklace that I just listed in my Etsy shop:

Does it ever happen to you...

... that you go to buy materials for one thing and end up buying something else? Well, with jewelry materials it happens to me a lot (ok, ok, with other shopping too, sometimes). For example my "Winter Berries" set is a result of that kind of spontaneous shopping. And it's really one of my favorites now!

Last time it happened to me with these lovely fossil stones, when I was looking for hand made slippers for my boyfriend. I didn't find the slippers, and bought the fossils instead. How could I NOT buy them?? They have such an interesting texture, whole stories in them. Can't wait to see how these will turn out to be... I have already decided the name for one of them, even if I'm still not quite sure how I will make the necklace.

And what comes to other crafting projects... I'm dying to start a sweater for myself and find the beeswax (I found a place where I might find it). But I have promised to myself that I will have to wait until the whole re registration process is over at the university. I really really have to make some advance in my investigation these weeks, so I can't buy any yarns or other crafting materials to tempt me. Besides, going to the center just takes hours (in the subway alone, not even to mention the time I would use actually looking for the materials), it's too much for now. Mexico City is so huge that you can spend hours just sitting in the traffic or in puclic transportation.

My first Etsy sale!

I'm so excited! I made my first Etsy sale today. Thank you, Valerie!

I have sold quite a lot of jewelry in Finland, but it's still nice to notice that people elsewhere are interested in my creations too. Besides, at least here in Mexico it's believed that the first sale brings good luck... Hopefully it works for my shop, too!

Here is the picture of the lucky bracelet, called "Walking in the woods", as it was inspired by my favorite forest back in Finland.



Today was also a shopping day, as I went with my friend to Ciudadela, one of the biggest crafts market here in Mexico City. Actually I only went to keep company and help my friend to choose some gifts for her family. But you just can't go to Ciudadela without buying something... Everything is so beautiful, colorful and unique and there are crafts from every corner of Mexico there. I just love the Mexican crafts!

Well, this time I only bought a bag. And I needed it! I have been thinking of buying one for a while now, as I always manage to broke my bags. The one I bought doesn't have as many pockets I would need, but it is so big that at least I can carry a lot of books to the university (that's how my bags usually break - I guess I'm always carrying too much things in them). I found also lovely watermelon-shaped plates, but they will have to wait for the next time.

Winter creations...

So I promised to send here some photos of my crafts... Here are some photos of my "First Snow" jewelry set.