Back in the online game

Once upon a time...
I used to make things and sell them on Ebay. Then I lost my account because of a piece of paper I have yet to send them.
So I waited a few years and then tried Etsy. I had a couple dozen listings at one point in time but sold nothing and so I let the ads expire and waited again.
 I am back in etsy or at least I have a toe in the water. I really struggle with on-line selling.
taking good pictures, making attention grabbing ads, throwing enough search terms in the listing so people will find it...
But getting better at all these things is more likely to get me success in the electronic media market place than just local bazaars and shops.
So I am determined to dedicate time to learning better photography skills, writing good ads, being active in the promotion of my Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Alaskanbonesandbeads.
I am also determined to label the things I have for sale so people know me and can contact me. I am determined to put together my Artist page and keep my name easy to find.

processes and creation

So here is my story of the week.
The other night/morning I had trouble getting back to sleep at 4 am. It was the light levels bothering me. Well living just a hop skip and a jump from the arctic circle we have no dark this time of year.
Normally this doesn't bother me but for some reason it was bothering me then.
So I decided I needed a sleep mask to darken things up a bit.
 I began where so many of such ideas start for me research how to sites.
I like image searches because I can sort through the stupid ones, the ugly ones, the blogs, videos, DIY,  Instructables,  and Pintrest (which is just annoying and useless).
And from the research I found the dimensions which was my main quest. I also saw the expected construction style of 3/4 layers sandwiched between various kinds of fabric.
From there I headed out to my sewing studio.
I had everything I needed and more.
First I tried some fabric that I had some fusible backing on with the felt I planned on putting in the middle. Well that did not work. as I fused the two together the top fabric began to pucker and pucker and pucker. I have no idea why.
ok then I cut out a sample of my pattern from it anyway to get an idea of if the size was right. it was cool.
 time for attempt #2.
just some scraps I had and more of the felt.
Oops no elastic. But I did have ribbon available.
 so I whipped up a sleeping mask and took it back to bed.
ZZZZZZZ
 it worked great. and now I was inspired.
So I took time to dash out and buy some elastic as tying a ribbon at the back of my head is a pain. (Literally as I always catch some hair in the knot.)

When I got home I made two masks with slightly different sizes of elastic. and while they were not too tight they did pull right across my eyes. I had seen some versions where they covered the elastic in fabric and others where they used two bands of adjust able elastic. But I did not have the hardware  and the fabric covering seemed too fussy for me.
What to do?
I did not have wider elastic and that seemed like it would be uncomfortable. So I added triangular tabs to the sides of the masks. This had a secondary effect to my benefit. I could add the tabs and not fuss with trying to stuff the strand of elastic in the sandwich and worry about getting it just right and not displacing the layers either.. it also meant that I could complete all the main stitching on the mask its self and add the elastic as a last step.
So ten masks later and I was ready to see if my regular shop in downtown Fairbanks was gonna be ok with selling them.
And there they are ready to go.
Yeah. I have some hope that they will move well and even bought enough elastic to make 20 more.