My secret criteria

So I just started twittering about shops picked using a secret criteria. I'm not trying to be all clandestine or culty, I swear. I just don't want to offend any of the artists purposely excluded. Here I can explain better than in a tweet. Many of us know about the ridiculousness going on with the gift guides at 1000mkts, this is why I started this tweetstravaganza in the first place. And I do really believe the admin there have some sensible reasoning, (whether it works or not), for handling things the way they are. And hopefully if it works we will all benefit in the end. However, this is a very important time of year for the independant artist and many of us trying to sell our wares do this as our only fulltime business, (which makes it even more important!). So what we have are aprox. 2,500 artists at the site, 240ish being featured in the guides, with aprox. 12 being very heavily rotated. So I'm spotlighting artists not in the guides to give them a fair chance too!
Now also know that I truly am happy for the chosen few of the gift guides, and was really sorry to hear that thy're not really seeing any benefit from it. I also fear there may be a backlash towards them because of this, (technically what I'm doing is a backlash towards them), so I didn't want to blather it all over the message boards, or twitter, and I know no one really reads my blog.
If anyone at twitter is really, really curious about my first tweet regarding the secret criteria and happens upon this post, shhh....please keep it secret after all the artists of the gift guides are trying to earn a living too and I just don't want to seem like a jealous bitch. Thanks!

My Twittering Extravaganza!

A Twitteraganza maybe. It started with my dissatisfaction at the lack of variety in certain "gift guides" and has turned into a wild ride of silly searches, serious searches, and just plain looking for something "really" different and unique in the handmade world.
Here is a link to my twitter, follow me down this path of hilarity and nifty stuff.

http://twitter.com/TamaranDesigns

New York Festival

I joined a great new market at 1000 Markets last week. It's a regional market, I've been keeping an open for a regional market to join and somehow missed the most obvious one, (I'm from New York), for many months!

http://www.1000markets.com/groups/nyfestival

A special selection of casual gifts

Office "Secret Santa", the babysitter, your kids school teachers, the list could go on. Well, I've decided to put together a special selection of gifts under $25! Scouring the malls, department stores, discount stores, any store where you think you might find something nice that won't break your bank for these people on your list could drain so many hours from your happy holiday season, (they certainly did from mine in the past). And I don't know about you but I've always thought about how much money goes to waste every year on gifts that although they're reasonably priced really aren't ever going to be used, just more stuff to ad to the pile in the back of the storage closet. Well now you can have a one stop place for all of those "casual" gifts that will be used, appreciated and not break your budget!

Upping my blogging anti

I've been wracking my brain for two weeks now trying to come up with something clever, entertaining, or informational to blog about. I really want to blog on a regular basis, really I do. So I've asked for advice and got some, (really good advice too). And now I'm just going to jump in and start doing it. So check back regularly because there'll be no more posting once every now and then, (I hope).
Here are a few of the thing I've been working on for winter. I'll probably be talking about them and other things in my future, (and more frequently posted), blogs.

Summertime

Summer is almost here and I've been busy working on my new summer line. Late in the winter while giving some thought to what I was going to do with my skills once the weather warmed up I seriously considered just taking the summer off. After all there didn't seem to be too much one could make that wouldn't swelter in the summer heat. Then my friend requested a crocheted skirt for a wedding and the lightbulb went off. Beach coverups, lacy light shawls and wraps, and of course my everyday hats! That would great summer fare to entice my cusotmers. Well, I'm just starting to photograph the first large batch of goods and here are some samples!
They can be purchased at the sites listed to the right or you could always contact me for special orders: tamarandesigns@gmail.com

Bohemian Spring

One of my favorite fashion statements is bohemian, I love it's flowing ease. Fortunately it is in fashion about every 3rd year or so, not that I don't wear it in between, and this is an "in" year! This means that there will be a lot of smashing choices out there for me to refresh my wardrobe and the work I've been doing so far is quite boho so it will be popular too!

The new face of TamaranDesigns

Introducing the lovely Denise, the newest face to represent TamaranDesigns. The dressmakers form was getting a little temperamental and we here at Tamaran felt we were at creative differences with it, so we began a search for a new face to represent TamaranDesigns. After an extensive family wide search we finally found someone whom we feel will be a perfect fit, the lovely Denise. Lets all give her a warm welcome!
And don't forget to check 1000Mkts. and Etsy, (links to right), in the next few days to see her debuts there!

Vive la Productivity!

I have been having a spurt of the most amazing productivity for the past week or so. Even with the hectic holiday recently past I've still managed to create a nice bunch of collars, cowls, and scarves, which is great since I will be doing the Indie Market http://buffaloindie.blogspot.com/ on Dec. 14th. I think the collars, cowls, & turtles are going to be very popular.

I joined a new marketplace!

Last week I joined 1000Markets! I read about it at a Yahoo group that I belong to and the moment the page loaded I had a good feeling about what I was looking at. So I joined immediately, well, it's juried so I applied immediately. It's still very new and "in the works" even, but it looks great, has a nice professional feel to it and I suspect it will be the on-line hand made "place to be" very soon!

http://www.1000markets.com/users/tamarandesigns

The 5 a day project

Well, having your model also as a family member doesn't, (unfortunately), put them at your beck and call and mine,(the lovely Stacy), is a busy woman whom I've not been able to get together with for over two weeks now. So, I've come up with a stand in for her until we can set up a shoot. I will probably use this acceptable model for stand in use from here on in. I will however be photographing all of these things on the lovely Stacey as well as soon as possible.
That being said, I've decided to try to post about 5 things a day to see what it does for sales. I will probably stick with this plan for only 2 or 3 days however because it really is a lot of work. So we'll see how it goes, I'll keep you posted.

The New Face of TamaranDesigns

I've been thinking for a very long time now about changing the look of TamaranDesigns, even before I decided to totally change my direction into fashion accessories, (of course once I decided to take this path a new look was even more desirous to me). Well, I believe I've finally come up with some concrete ideas, (now to actually implement all of them into one cohesive look). I've been using the services of the lovely Stacy for a few shoots now and have been very happy with her look. She has agreed to become the face of TamaranDesigns! Yay! She is also a member of my family so she's easy to get ahold of.

A new place to buy my work

On November 22nd the beautiful new Burchfield Penny Art Gallery will be open.

http://www.yournewburchfieldpenney.com/

Some of my work will be available for sale in the gallery store. This is very exciting as well as validating for me because, well, it's the gift shop of an art gallery.

Above are some of the pieces that will be there.

Rag-A-Muffins

I finally got some great pictures of my rag-a-muffins on a lovely model. Now everyone can see how versatile and fun they can be!

The Rag-A-Muffins

I've been working feverishly on my new fall/winter work. I'm trying to move away from all jewelry and into more accessories. I still need to photograph my new creations on models, (you just can't get a good idea of how something is going to look on someone any other way), but I wanted to share something now. So I've taken some photo's without the benefit of models, and here they are. The TeenQueen tells me these will be popular with the youth population so I'm keeping them a little funky, (I recall thiving on funky when I was her age).
Well, I'm off to make more rag-a-muffins and so much more for this upcoming fall/winter season.

Rag-A-Muffin Tie Dye

I am crazy about circles! It is by far my favorite shape, so it just seemed natural that I somehow incorporate circles into the rag-a-muffins. And what a better color scheme to use than a deep, saturated almost tie dye looking variegation.

Rag-A-Muffin Roses

This one gets a little fancy for a rag-a-muffin but I just kept seeing roses as I was working on it, so roses it was. And I'm very happy with the whimsical outcome!

Rag-A-Muffin Faded

This was the first rag-a-muffin, I love the pale, almost washed out color look, as if it's allready been a favorite of someones for a while.