Our top nine Instagram posts of 2018
2018 marked our sixth full year in business - but it certainly doesn't feel like it! This year has been filled with milestones - from designing this website to working with the Tempestry Project to being recognized by the San Francisco School of Needlework to making handkerchiefs for Former President George Bush Sr., we've certainly kept busy!
Promotion image of our temari from the San Francisco School of Needlework Design
We've focused more on the back end of the shop - getting things coordinated across Etsy, Amazon, and this site, linking Facebook and Instagram, (figuring out how to use Instagram!) and neatening up in the studio. Though most of it doesn't show, it really has made things much quicker and more efficient, so hopefully in the new year we'll be able to spend more time stitching. We've got a cutting table for the linen - I no longer have to crawl around on the floor to cut fabric - and an industrial-strength bookcase for our needlecraft books, so it's much easier to reference things by topic, too.
A shawl of homespun so fine that the entire thing can be drawn through a wedding ring
From knitting and weaving with yarn spun right here in the studio to embroidering a wedding dress and beginning the Butterflies of the World project, the work that we have done has been larger and more daring than ever before. Jen got married in the custom dress that we spent all summer embroidering and altering, and since then things have settled down into slightly-more-organized chaos.
Jen and Rick at their wedding
We've also expanded the shop in another way - with two new employees! Though Melissa and Karen were new faces, it turns out that Karen and Jen are second- or third-cousins some times removed (we're still working out the genealogy) and Melissa and I were acquainted way back, though it had been years since we'd seen each other. They've quickly become family in more than just the genealogical sense, though.
In the Japanese tradition, temari are New Year gifts - a wish for brightness and beauty in the coming year
We've got a few big projects lined up for the next year and whispers of some other cool things coming down the line (which may or not include some goldwork!) so next year will be filled with even more projects than the last. The spinning's getting finer, the temari are getting more complicated, and the butterflies should be even more radiant. Here's to looking forward!