Handcrafted. Honestly.

There's been much talk around the innertubes (regretsy.com, among others) of whether an Etsy shop's items (ahem) are actually handmade--as in, by the shop's owner. I pretty much tell you in each spindle's description how it was made. How I--with my own hands and power tools and paints or stains--make them. Now, I want to share a bit more of my process with you.

The pic on the right is the actual sketch of this design. I started with a yin-yang, then began adding some vines that I originally saw as thicker and more ropey. I actually drew them in a bit thicker. Then I wandered off to get a cold drink and when I returned, the hearts bloomed. I sketched the design on the whorl and began painting. The hearts were more of a coral. The vines were all bright citrus green. I was going to add some striping in funky colors to the shaft. But I saw red and black. Not coral and green. Just to be sure, I added some red and black to the original sketch. Just to be sure. And I was. I carefully scraped all of the green vines off and repainted red and black. Black and white striping for the shaft? No. No white on this one. More curly vines on the shaft, with touches of red. But it still needed stripes, I could see them. Ahhh, there they are, on the edge of the whorl.

pssst: I know it's been a long while but I'm excited to be working on new designs and filling up the shop.