Felt: back on the menu

I've finally delved back into the world of felt. If feels good! I made up a new pattern, for a narwhal, and I'm really pleased with the result.  Keeping this post nice and brief, because the pictures do all the talking for this cute little fella:

Oh and for anyone wondering what on earth a narwhal is, and if such a thing even exists, Google it!

Knowing when to admit defeat!

Any returning visitors may have noticed that my blog's makeover is well under way! I'm very pleased so far and would like to thank my wonderful best friend for helping me to bring my doodles to life for my header. Check out her blog, Creative Therapy, to see some of her own artwork.

Besides bringing getting my blog shipshape, part of this whole effort has been about opening an online store to start selling some of my pieces. Etsy seems like the obvious choice, but I have been reluctant due to reading a number of horror stories about how nasty things can get if you get copied/are thought to have copied someone else.

Having thought this over and decided to take the plunge anyway, I was today searching for similar examples of my cat ring to determine how much to charge. To my dismay, I found my answer, in the form of a ring that looks exactly like mine. In every way. It is the same. Don't believe me? Check it out here.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by this. The buttons are obviously readily available, as are the ring backs to mount them on. I knew when I made the first one that if I could make more, people would buy them...it's just a shame someone else realised that before me! And indeed this shop has nice long list of sales, of black and white cat rings and even necklaces (yes I had thought of that too!).

The upshot of this is that I can't now sell my cat rings on Etsy. Which does make me sad, and worries me about selling any of the other rings too - seeing as they are all made from easily available buttons too. On top of this, it reinforces my fears that a) there's no such thing as a new, unique idea out there any more and b) it's pretty easy to copy someone else's idea even if you don't mean to! Which make me very reluctant to put my felt animals for sale on the internet either.

I am sorry about the long post, with no photos. Well done and thank you if you managed to read this far! I needed to get this one off my chest. I admit defeat and wish the Etsy seller above the best of luck - I take my hat off to them for being able to make money out of this lovely product. So, if you fancy one of my gorgeous cat rings for your own, get along to their shop! Just remember you saw it here first.

It's a ring thing

After the success with my first cat ring, I decided to make more!

I managed to get some more cat buttons, in black as well as white. Along with an assortment of other buttons I thought would work well, I broke out the glue...

Closely followed by the camera...

And then I found a pretty awesome prop to make things even more fun...

I'm still working on my photography! I had some issues with reflection on these, both on the hand prop and the rings themselves. But I'm pretty pleased with my results. What do you think?

The A to Z Challenge

I've just signed up to the Blogging from A to Z Challenge which means that throughout the month of April, I will *supposedly* be posting once a day, and yes you guessed it - I have to use each letter of the alphabet as my inspiration. In my excitement to sign up, despite reading the directions twice, I forgot to label my blog as a craft blog, oops! It's a shame because I know I already browsed the list specifically for craft blogs so I'm sure many other people will do the same. But never mind...

It is my plan to spend time between now and April giving my blog a big makeover, opening an Etsy shop and generally getting my creative butt (and the rest of my life for that matter) into gear. I'd like to really start sharing my creations with the world, let's hope it's ready!

Well, this was just a quick one to share that exciting news. As promised, I have been making more jewellery and will post about it all just as soon as I have finished sorting and editing my pictures.

Good luck if you have also signed up to the A to Z challenge - I am looking forward to visiting lots of other blogs taking part, so please drop me a comment if you visit me and I will be sure to return the favour!