Featured Shop of Week 12/19/11

This week I am featuring Etsy.com shop EweniqueDesigns.

EweniqueDesigns' luxury soap is made using the cold process method of soap making, where sodium hydroxide is mixed with oils and butters resulting in a chemical reaction which produces soap. Only small batches are made at a time, and each bar is carefully cut by hand. EweniqueDesigns has developed recipes/formulas that result in soap that produces a silky, bubbly lather that gently cleans the skin. Each soap is made with fine vegetable oils and shea/cocoa/mango butters, scented with fragrance oils, and colored with body safe oxides and ultramarines or natural powders like spirulina or cocoa powder. Some may include extra additives like goat milk, oatmeal, calendula, or salt for an out of the ordinary soap. These soaps are different shapes and textures, and most will weigh a little over 4 ounces. EweniqueDesigns strives to create soaps that are a delight to the senses - fragrant, beautifully colored and textured.

The process of making useful handmade items that are both pretty and practical is enjoyable and satisfying. As well as being a soap maker, EweniqueDesigns quilts and knits. Over the years, EweniqueDesigns has made numerous quilts, knit afghans, patchwork bags and pouches. Now these items are being shared with you.

Week of 10/28/11 Featured Shop

This week I am featuring a very good friend of mine, Abigail Patterson who owns Kreative Knittings on Etsy.com

Meet Abigail:

I’ve always loved making and creating things growing up. Both my mom and grandma were crafty however, neither of them knitted. I was home schooled, so crafts were a regular part of my curriculum.

I started knitting about 8 years ago when a friend from Poland showed me how to knit a scarf. Because of where she is from, I learned the continental knitting technique where you hold the yarn in the left hand. After knitting a few scarves, I put the needles down for a while. I eventually got married and continued running my busy dance school. Once in a while, I would knit a scarf, but that’s all I knew how to make.

During the summer of 2010, I decided to take some knitting classes at The Knit Studio in Jackson. My first project: a hat. I made it and it turned out pretty well, so I made a few more trying out different patterns. I fell in love with the idea of making something handmade and using my creativity in a new art form.

Little did I know, a friend was watching my Facebook posts about knitting and she asked me to knit her and her daughter matching hats. I did, and she loved them. She then came to me again around December and asked me about making her some specific knitted items for her photography business. So on a whim, I agreed and began discovering all the different kinds of yarn fibers that you can knit with.

It’s now been a little over a year that I’ve been knitting and selling things and it has been a fun experience learning different patterns to knit.

I love making hand-knit items, especially custom orders. You can find me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kreative-Knittings/163440713692537 and follow me in all of my adventures in knitting. All orders made on Facebook will be directed back to Etsy for the final transaction.

This Week's Featured Shop

This week I am featuring gogogorobot from Etsy.com

Meet Halley Proctor, owner of gogogorobot.

Hi, I am Halley Proctor. I live in West Palm Beach, Florida. Although born a writer, I like to surround myself with the tangible worlds I imagine. I am are inspired by strings folded in curious whimsy or knotted in symmetry searching for order, how easy knees can be skinned and how complicated they are to mend, how an accessory can be subtle or the main attraction, the smell of dusty books and reading non-timestamped notes along the edge, transformative vintage clothing and dancing around to the records the wearer might have.

All of my items are in one way or another environmentally friendly, whether it is the handing down of a vintage item from one hand to another or the yarn that I twirl. They are all thrifted, antiqued, or destash leading to the reduction of the demand of a product and therefor reducing its reason to supply. By reducing the supply of a product, there are less gas emissions used to create and ship as well as the resources used to mass produce. All handmade items are one of a kind (OOAK), although limited variables and geometric standards cause some of my items to be similar to others. Basically, I don't use any patterns. My materials are all second hand. I either pre-design or make as I go.