According to the Etsy blog, the New European Union Rules on the Sale of Digital Items threatens to make small businesses like mine international law breakers starting January 1, 2015, unless we collect Value Added Tax (VAT) based on the VAT rates of the country where the customer is located, not on the rates of the country where the business is located. Etsy does not yet have a system in place for accomplishing this. All this hassle coming at a time when my family is really depending on my Etsy sales to put food on the table.
I may have to put my digital patterns "on vacation" starting January 1, until there is more guidance about this in terms that are practical enough to understand. I really don't know what to do about my digital patterns for sale on Craftsy, either.
I'm hoping all the "hoopla" will blow over soon. Meanwhile, I've started tatting around a cabochon, a very pretty blue Druzy. I'm sort of following CM-Handmade's instructions, but not exactly. I guess I'm already an International Law breaker as far as following tatting rules are concerned (grin). The tatting police will be coming for me! I already met one at a Tollway Tatters gathering earlier this year :) She was very, very nice!
Music from "The Nutcracker" by Tchaikovsky kept echoing through my head whenever I found time to tat this past week. Well, one reason is because I actually played some of that music on my cello in 2 concerts with the community recreation department orchestra this month. The other is that I was attempting to study some of the secrets of the Russian Ankars style of tatting from Corina's blog. Corina explains it very well.
My goal in learning ideas and techniques is to have more options to explore creatively. The brown earrings in the photo above are loosely based on the simple "Giddy" pattern from my Tatted Jewelry book, but I added more beads on picots and on the core thread, and wire-wrapped a charm to dangle from the bottom. The thread is 4 strands of polyester machine embroidery thread. So, I am mixing it up! I like the result, but controlling multiple strands of slippery thread is very challenging. I like working with my own hand dyed cotton best.
This week I also finished the blue necklace that features the dichroic glass pendant. It's the "Newcastle" pattern, also found in Tatted Jewelry. I used my own hand dyed thread combined with Lizbeth Wedgewood Dark.
Craftsy has their classes on sale through December 25, so you might want to have a look using this link.
Hope your holiday season is safe and happy!
Still needing finishing, the blue necklace with dichroic glass pendant is tatted in my own hand dyed thread Blue Streak with Lizbeth Wedgewood Dk in the outer round. The pattern is my original "Newcastle" from my book "Tatted Jewelry". The dichroic glass pendant is one I purchased from a local glass artist. To add a finishing touch to the necklace chain, I happily used my new wire wrapping skill to form a matching beaded spiral dangle, thanks to 2 Craftsy courses I've watched recently: Wire-Wrapped Stones, Crystals, and Clusters by Aga Kruk, and Make Your Own Wirework Findings by Lisa Niven Kelly.
Big item received in the mail this week is the Bead&Button Show class catalog, and guess who has a tatting class listed in it? Yep, that's my name under "Shuttle Tatting Basics"! My beading friends encouraged me this past summer to fill out an application and submit a class, so I did. My class got accepted! It's quite an honor since the Bead&Button Show is the largest consumer bead show in the world. Online registration opens January 6, 2015.
New hand dyed thread batch just added to my Etsy shop is "Stardate". People have asked how I came up with that name; well, the colors just don't resemble anything natural to planet Earth, and I'm a Star Trek fan, so there you are :)
