Don't need it... but I want it!

Remember this ring that I wanted?

Labyrinth Ring by Incalesco

Well, now I want this one instead:

Rain Drop Ring - One of a Kind by Incalesco

Erika has made a simple sophisticated sterling silver ring featuring a tear drop shaped sapphire blue cubic zirconia. Like a precious rain drop, the colour of this stone is beautiful.

I absolutely love the colour and the setting is lush!

So.... who's gonna buy it for me?

Missy Mao Mao hearts Cho-Cho Blossom

Missy Mao Mao: THE NEW RANGE FOR AUTUMN 2010 - OWLS WALLET

Check out the new brand new Missy Mao Mao range - it features our Cho-Cho blossom fabric :)

Fabric Printing at Spoonflower

We have been getting some custom fabric designs printed at Spoonflower so I thought I would share a few digital printing tips with you.

For the most part I have found Spoonflower to be a pretty good printing service. There are a few things you should note however:

Colour Matching

• Spoonflower requires artwork to be in lab colour. The colours you get on your computer screen / printer are most likely not going to match the colours actually printed by Spoonflower. I strongly recommend that the first thing that you get printed is the colour swatch that they have. That way you can look at the swatch to pick the colour that you want and be fairly sure that the printed fabric will match. The sample swatch can be found here. Rachel at Mamma Made has done a series of blog posts on preparing artwork to print correctly, she used a different colour swatch as a test print but the result is the same.

Edit from Spoonflower themselves!

Worth noting that we don't "require" LAB color files, but you will be less likely to see color shifting if you use a file in LAB color. Photoshop (full version) is the only commonly used program to support LAB color. TIF is also the only file format to support LAB color. All of which makes it impractical for most people. RGB files (the most common color format) are generally fine, although color-testing with swatches first is always a good idea!

• Spoonflower's digital printing can't produce a true black (especially over large areas). It prints as a dark charcoal grey.

• Reds are also tricky, they verge towards magenta rather than a true red. The red recommended by Spoonflower on the swatch is pretty good though.
  

Customer Service

• Spoonflower's customer service is exceptional. I had a technical issue with their marketplace, I sent an email at night Australian time and they had it fixed by the time I got to work the next day.

• Turn around time is a small issue. Spoonflower is based in the US and I'm in Australia so it takes approx 2 weeks from when I submit a design until it arrives in my letterbox. All designs need to have samples ordered for checking before they can be submitted to the marketplace, so this can make the process quite lengthy - especially if there are a number of colour changes / edits (a new sample needs to be ordered each time a change is submitted).
  

There are three more digital fabric printers in the US. I haven't tried the others yet but I may sometime during the year. True Up did a comparison of them all early last year. Price wise Spoonflower is the most economical.

I think that is all of the main points, overall I am happy with the quality and service from Spoonflower and if you keep the above points in mind you should get good results. I hope this has been helpful.

Grug Softie

One of the ladies at my ASG sewing group made this awesome Grug softie for one of her grandchildren. She made him up from scratch without a pattern.

I read Grug books when I was growing up and would have loved a toy like this for Christmas.

Off to Japan

I am heading off to Japan in a few weeks and preparations have begun in earnest.

I have the Lonely Planet Tokyo Guide downloaded onto my iPhone, I've been searching through numerous Tokyo map iPhone apps looking for the perfect map (there are some in the Lonely Planet guide but they are limited to places contained in the guide and you can't add in your own).

I have purchased the "How Much Fabric Reference Cards" from GwenHug to aid me in my fabric purchasing decisions.

I have been through all of Asking for Trouble's "Tokyo Shopping Guide" posts.

I am also thinking of purchasing the "Little Tokyo Shops Zine" from signsaysopen's Etsy Store.

If anyone else has any useful apps or guides that they can recommend I would love to hear about them.

Tattoo Dress

At the same time that I saw the dress in a shop made up in Alexander Henry's Skulls fabric I also saw one made up in the Tattoo fabric, so of course I had to find that fabric as well. Finally, approx 3 months after I actually cut out the fabric, here is the finished dress.

The dress was made using New Look Pattern 6457, view D. I changed the waist tie so that it ties at the back and is attached to the dress at the front. The original pattern had the straps tying up behind the neck but I though it worked much better if I changed them to be cross over with buttons.

Happy New Year!

I can't believe that it's 2010 already! Voodoo Rabbit's Etsy store is now 6 months old & it is chugging along quite nicely. The support we've recieved from the DUST team and also the Etsy Dark Team has been fantastic and it has certainly made a difference to us - not in terms of sales numbers but in motivating us to keep going.

We have been featured in a number of treasuries too. I've uploaded screen shots of them to our Flickr site here.

So what's on the cards for Voodoo Rabbit in 2010? More original fabric designs. The Spidery Web design is coming in new colours to Etsy very soon (see the pic). Lots of new fabrics from Japan - especially Kokka / Echino. We will also be stocking the brand new Alexander Henry Tiki Lounge range (due hopefully in April). Ky & Cloud will both be in Japan in February and we'll bring back lots of goodies for the shop.We are also considering making up craft kits - purses, sashiko (our own designs) and handbags, etc.

Happy New Year!