Thursday, 17 December 2009
Sorry no new pictures
Hi,
My laptop and camera are no longer speaking to each other and I need professional help to fix it. So no current pics I'm afraid.
The shop is going strong. We got through the summer season without too many hitches and we managed to survive the economic crisis (or Krize as we refer to it in Turkey).
We have been busy throughout the run up to Christmas with lots of card sales as well as jewellery gifts.
I have been experimenting with soap and candle making too, more about that later and the Christmas Pot Pourri which I blended myself with ingredients bought from the the excellent hebalist here has been a winner. I'm trying to get round to bottling the refresher oil I made to go with it, but I'm not happy with the bottles I have. They are too big really, but they were all I could get in this small town. The local chemist went out to his store room and spent 10 minutes finding 50 small bottles for me, but I still think they are a little big.
The rose oil soaps all sold out and I had to make more. I packaged them in pink muslin with a handful of rose petals, they smell divine and lots of people bought them to just put in their knicker drawers! I have a huge jar of lavender soaking in vodka even as I write and I'll probably end up using my bottles for the lavender water I hope to produce soon.
I've been felting too. I found some lovely merino wool in the local wool shop and I crocheted little rounds and felted them, then turned them into some gorgeous brooches. I try and make my own version of traditional Turkish crafts and felt production and the making of little felt trinkets is a traditional Turkish craft, but there's precious little of it going on here. All the shops seem to prefer to buy from India and China and most of the gift shops don't sell anything made in Turkey at all, which is pretty tragic really. There is felt available here in Fethiye, but it is very rough and made from goat hair, it is then dyed some pretty lurid colours and you have to pick bits of twigs and seed and even (once) a bit of goat poo out of it, so its not that pleasant to work with and its impossible to produce any delicate pieces with.
Plans for the new year include a small range of hand made natural cosmetics (I've been 'experiementing' so much in the kitchen that its a chore to find any pots and bowls that aren't full of soap/wax and bit of herbal stuffs). A greetings card calender, so my customers can order their special hand made cards in one go, more recycled products and glass painting, which I've also been trying my hand at. In Jan/Feb and March, I still have several hundred paperbacks from the hotel and I'll be selling those too in the run up to the new summer season. We still have to sell enough to pay the rent every month and the winter is long and hard and all the locals are feeling the effects of the dramatic reduction in interest rates here. So its all busy, busy, busy...
My laptop and camera are no longer speaking to each other and I need professional help to fix it. So no current pics I'm afraid.
The shop is going strong. We got through the summer season without too many hitches and we managed to survive the economic crisis (or Krize as we refer to it in Turkey).
We have been busy throughout the run up to Christmas with lots of card sales as well as jewellery gifts.
I have been experimenting with soap and candle making too, more about that later and the Christmas Pot Pourri which I blended myself with ingredients bought from the the excellent hebalist here has been a winner. I'm trying to get round to bottling the refresher oil I made to go with it, but I'm not happy with the bottles I have. They are too big really, but they were all I could get in this small town. The local chemist went out to his store room and spent 10 minutes finding 50 small bottles for me, but I still think they are a little big.
The rose oil soaps all sold out and I had to make more. I packaged them in pink muslin with a handful of rose petals, they smell divine and lots of people bought them to just put in their knicker drawers! I have a huge jar of lavender soaking in vodka even as I write and I'll probably end up using my bottles for the lavender water I hope to produce soon.
I've been felting too. I found some lovely merino wool in the local wool shop and I crocheted little rounds and felted them, then turned them into some gorgeous brooches. I try and make my own version of traditional Turkish crafts and felt production and the making of little felt trinkets is a traditional Turkish craft, but there's precious little of it going on here. All the shops seem to prefer to buy from India and China and most of the gift shops don't sell anything made in Turkey at all, which is pretty tragic really. There is felt available here in Fethiye, but it is very rough and made from goat hair, it is then dyed some pretty lurid colours and you have to pick bits of twigs and seed and even (once) a bit of goat poo out of it, so its not that pleasant to work with and its impossible to produce any delicate pieces with.
Plans for the new year include a small range of hand made natural cosmetics (I've been 'experiementing' so much in the kitchen that its a chore to find any pots and bowls that aren't full of soap/wax and bit of herbal stuffs). A greetings card calender, so my customers can order their special hand made cards in one go, more recycled products and glass painting, which I've also been trying my hand at. In Jan/Feb and March, I still have several hundred paperbacks from the hotel and I'll be selling those too in the run up to the new summer season. We still have to sell enough to pay the rent every month and the winter is long and hard and all the locals are feeling the effects of the dramatic reduction in interest rates here. So its all busy, busy, busy...
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