Flags and Folksy

I feel bad. I've been sorely neglecting my Folksy shop for quite a few months now. The thing is, my brain is so full of characters, creatures and adventures that there's not much room left for anything else. Quite frankly, having one shop is really enough, but organising and stocking two leaves me in a muddled tearful mess.

But I really, really do love Folksy, so I'm going to make much more of an effort from now on. Did you hear that, Folksy shop? You have it in typing now.

My absolute favourite thing about Folksy is that they're based in Sheffield - just like me. My other favourite thing is that it's a friendly kind of platform run by friendly people. I've met James, one of the Folksy folk (sadly I may never tire of that alliteration), a couple of times, once at a "Make It, Sell It" do at the British Library, and once in their offices with some other makers for a seller-feedback session. Both times he's been really open to suggestions and criticisms, and really supportive too (especially considering I only had two sorry-looking badges in my shop for about six months).

Personally, I think Folksy gets a hard time from a few sellers who complain about its lack of features and speed, and other technical things I don't understand about forums and things. I'm not sure people realise that they're not some huge global enterprise like Etsy, and that they are working really hard to give people all the features that they want. (Errr, actually I'd super-like a button I could push to rearrange my shop, please, but no pressure, it would just be a lovely thing to have all my cushions in one place and not scattered around the place looking unruly). I get the impression everyone who works there really wants to make Folksy great and help promote makers too – and I think they deserve a better shop than I've been giving them. So, in their honour, I'm going to pull together my muddled mind, wipe away my tears of twin-shop frustrations, and reward them with a shop that contains more than two lonely-looking products. I can't expect to sell anything if I don't list anything to sell now, can I?

And because that's lots of text and no pictures, and also because it gives me another chance to alliterate, here are two flags (flags and folksy... yey!) I made last week for my niece's idyllic wedding.

I sewed them from seemingly millions of carefully cut pieces of fabric, tea-dyed them, then printed on them, and gave them to the truly happy couple as presents, along with a sweetie buffet for their beautifully turned-out guests.

I'll ask if I'm allowed to post some photos here of the actual wedding, which was one of my favourite ever days, full of family, food, flags, fun and festivities (OK, I shall stop now). But in the meantime, you can see the bride's amazing work here >> (that's my niece you know, and I'm ever so proud).