Plugging my other half's art and crafts

FatPete

Mrs FatPete does distinctive and unusual paintings and makes needle-felted creatures.

She had a bit of a disappointing craft fair today, so I thought I'd give her a plug here - some of her art does feature musicians/guitarists.

Apologies if this isn't allowed - if so, let me know and I'll remove this. Otherwise, please have a look at her etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/tortleart. 'Star' cards are only £1.50, or get a monster (complete with a very sensible COA that I'm responsible for).

...or just have a look and/or share the link.

Cheers.

guitarfishbay

I like the blue monster with the hat.

Winny_Pooh

The needle point stuff is great! So much fun. I wish I had more money to spend on nice handmade bits like that but our house is already stuffed with similar cutesy things.

If she wants to make money out of it then it may be worth offering to do people's pets. I've seen finished work by Americans on Facebook and the pets' owners and their friends love it. My wife would go mad for a good replica of our pet if she could afford it lol. 

FatPete

guitarfishbay said:

I like the blue monster with the hat.

That's The Scrotox - he has a face on the other side too.

Winny_Pooh said:

...If she wants to make money out of it then it may be worth offering to do people's pets... 

She does - especially dogs, in the chubby 'Pog Dog' style as above, and more conventional ones.

boogieman

FatPete said:

guitarfishbay said:

I like the blue monster with the hat.

That's The Scrotox - he has a face on the other side too.

Winny_Pooh said:

...If she wants to make money out of it then it may be worth offering to do people's pets... 

She does - especially dogs, in the chubby 'Pog Dog' style as above, and more conventional ones.

That is great ^  Can I ask how much would that sort of thing cost? PM me if you’d prefer. 

FatPete

boogieman said:

That is great ^  Can I ask how much would that sort of thing cost? PM me if you’d prefer. 

I think she charges about £20 for small dogs - they're about 2 - 3 inches tall.

ESBlonde

I have a lady in my staff who also had a disappointing craft fair Saturday. I think the fact that it was the first warm/dry day of proper spring had many people doing the things they were pressed to do like mowing the lawn, general gardening, kids to the park, washing the outside windows etc. Add to that the early morning news about bombs had some people watching TV news for developments.

So tell Mrs @FatPete that it's nothing personal and she has more stock to carry forward to the next event.

Nice stuff btw.

Fretwired

Excellent ... talented lady.

axisus

Great stuff! Particularly love all the felt creatures. 

fields5069

Sadly, people with incredible craft skills don't make much money because the public generally fail to see the work which goes in to producing such lovely items.

DefaultM

My wife has a craft business, mainly crochet. She'll spend weeks making huge mandala blankets etc but people don't even want to pay a price that would see her earning £1 an hour.

She's got a friend that resells gem stones that she's bought online in bulk, and she's doing well.
Maybe the answer is to just kill all creativity and order tat from China. 

paulnb57

@FatPete ;I like the "Star" pics, does she do commissions? I'd like something in that style of our Bastard Dog!.....

fields5069

DefaultM said:

My wife has a craft business, mainly crochet. She'll spend weeks making huge mandala blankets etc but people don't even want to pay a price that would see her earning £1 an hour.

She's got a friend that resells gem stones that she's bought online in bulk, and she's doing well.
Maybe the answer is to just kill all creativity and order tat from China. 

This, and/or produce quick-win items so volume can be maximised. My mum, who used to have stalls at local events and donate all proceeds to charity, used to sell scarves quickly knitted from that yarn which looks more like fisherman's netting, but used to get no interest in pieces of jewellery she had made, including some lovely beaded pieces featured in specialist magazines.

ThePrettyDamned

I'm trying to encourage my absolutely wonderfully creative other half to use her free mornings to craft silver jewellery. She makes some really lovely anklets, and I think there would be a market to sell for £35 or so easily, but they are time consuming to make and she would end up earning probably £3 per hour.

fields5069

Services are marginally more lucrative, but people generally want something for nothing. My wife offers Spanish tuition, and some cheeky mare asked if she and her daughter could have private lessons for the same price they were paying for a group lesson elsewhere - something like £4 each for 90 minutes. So £8 for 2.5 hours work, taking into account prep work. WTF? You're learning Spanish to use on your all-inclusive to Playa Cara for fuck's sake.

FatPete

@paulnb57 I'm sure she'd be delighted - would just need some good photos

paulnb57

Im just off to the hospital to visit the pink one Pete, Ill message later....

DefaultM

fields5069 said:

Services are marginally more lucrative, but people generally want something for nothing. My wife offers Spanish tuition, and some cheeky mare asked if she and her daughter could have private lessons for the same price they were paying for a group lesson elsewhere - something like £4 each for 90 minutes. So £8 for 2.5 hours work, taking into account prep work. WTF? You're learning Spanish to use on your all-inclusive to Playa Cara for fuck's sake.

Yeah but it's only talking in a language that your wife already knows for a bit isn't it. Do all the Spanish people get paid £8 for doing that? No, so she's already ahead.

Hootsmon

3rd pic.......Your wife is very talented and has some great tits

FatPete

hootsmon said:

3rd pic.......Your wife is very talented and has some great tits

Well somebody had to I suppose. Back in the winter she had some blue ones.

FatPete

Here are some monsters and their COAs - just to bring some silliness to your Saturday.

Please don't blame Mrs FatPete for the certificates as they're all my fault.