Day of the Dead Treasure hunt!!!

The Mexico street team in Etsy is back! To celebrate the Day of the Dead, we decided to organize a Treasure Hunt tomorrow, 1st of November. Here's how it works:

The shops that participate in the hunt will hide the following image in one of their listings:

You task is to find the image in these shops:

http://www.alexca.etsy.com/

http://www.caracarmina.etsy.com/

http://www.colibridreams.etsy.com/

http://www.justinejustine.etsy.com/

http://www.kismetcreations.etsy.com/

http://www.nahuatlv.etsy.com/

http://www.panoptica.etsy.com/

The image will hidden in the shops on Saturday, November 1st and you have until November 2nd to find it in all the shops. To win, you have to submit either the listing IDs of the items or the item links where you found the picture. You should send this information to mexicoteam on Etsy.

The winner is the one who finds all of the images in the stores. If more than one person finds all the images, we will make a draw to determine the winner.

Why bother? This is your chance to win something nice and handmade! Each team member will mark one of her listings as "Reserved for the winner of the Day of the Dead Treasure Hunt". When the winner is announced, he/she can pick any of those listings by any team member, but just one. The winner will shop for the item on etsy, but does not pay since the prize will be delivered to his/her home all free of charge.

So here's the thing in nutshell:

1. On Saturday 1st of November, check all the stores mentioned in the list and find the listings with the skull image.

2. Send the information to Mexicoteam and wait until we tell who the winner is.

3. If you are the winner, pick your prize and shop for it!!

You have to be registered in Etsy in order to participate. Joining is free and easy! Check this link, if you want to participate but aren't Etsy member yet.

And finally, here are some yarn paintings I made for the Day of the Dead.

Painting with yarn, part 2

A couple of days ago, I finished a little yarn painting that I have been making whenever I have had the chance. It's called "Hummingbird dreams". I listed it also in my shop. Here is a picture of the finished painting:

And here one work-in-progress pic:

As you might notice, there are a little difference between the work in progress and the final painting. That's exactly what I like about the technique. At every moment while I'm working I can chance my mind and just rip some detail off if I want to. That is very practical, as I usually don't make any sketches beforehand (except for "the Meeting" yarn painting , as it was a custom order), or if I do, they are very very general. I never know exactly how a certain painting will turn out, and that always makes things more interesting. I just love to experiment how to make three-dimensional impression with pressing the yarn on the beeswax in different ways.

The technique requieres a lot of patience, as making just a one little detail can take hours. But I like that slowliness too. It makes you concetrate on the moment of creation, which is relaxing.

I have also been knitting. This time I decided to start the Christmas gift early. I'm knitting a hoodie for boyfriend again, and as he is quite tall, I know it will take a while to make (especially with 3 mm needles). I'm not hurrying too much with this, anyway - if it's ready before Christmas, I know he'll want to use it right away.

Painting with yarn

The very first yarn painting that I have sold, "The meeting", has been ready already from Saturday and was sent today, but I just haven't had time to put any photos here. This very time consuming technique is used by Mexican Huichol Indians. The yarn is pressed to the beeswax to make the painting, that's where the name comes from.

Here's how it all started: Ravyn was looking for things with her totem animals, so I send her this sketch:
And little by little, the painting started to take form...

And finally it was ready! I'm pretty happy about the way it turned out.

Here are some details, you can see more in my Flickr account.

By the way, I decided to allow also anonymous comments, at least for a while, so feel free drop me a line (but no spam, please!)

The Fox hoodie is ready...

Actually it has been ready for couple of weeks already, but my official photographer - known also as my boyfriend - couldn't help me to take the pictures until now. But here are finally some:

Yarn: La Cusqueñita ( 45% acryllic, 40% alpaca, 15 % wool)

Needles: 4 mm
Pattern: mine

I'm quite happy with the result, even though I should have made the hoodie longer and the sleeves shorter. I shouldn't have taken the measures from existing hoodie. Well, you always learn something, don't you? Next time I'll just measure myself.

The yarn is a bit itchy (the blue Cusqueñita that I used for boyfriends hoodie for some reason tickles less). It helped a bit to wash it with softener, but that also made the sleeves even longer (and no, I didn't hang it). But I think I will use it a lot any way, because I just love the colour.

Oh, and I just had to start a new project, too. I think I'm getting really addicted to knitting (boyfriend thinks that too: "You just can't put your needles down, can you?"). I wanted to make a tunic, but as the yarn I bought (Emilia, Mexican yarn that is 100% cotton) seems to be quite heavy and not very nice to knit, I'll make just a top. It will probably stretch a bit anyway... The flower pattern is from Garnstudio's dress.

But these coming weeks I'll probably be concentrating more on yarn paintings (and studies, of course...) than on knitting. I finally got some chipboard and showed yesterday to boyfriend that I can actually use a saw without problems. Today I also got a custom order for totem animal yarn painting in Etsy. I so excited! I'm sure it will be just so much fun to make!

Some goals...

Here are some of my goals for this year:

- Advance in my doctoral thesis
- Find beeswax and start making yarn paintings again (and sell them in Etsy!)
- Go jogging more often and take longer paths - and exercise in other ways too
- Make my Etsy shop more prosperous

Ok, the last one is more like a wish, but I'm going to work for it listing more items, making a banner, trying to promote more and creating a new line of products (the yarn paintings). We'll see if that works!

Happy New Year everyone!