New Members:

[#1]

Hello to all our new members. Helo bawb!
Please feel free to introduce yourselves here.

I'm 'Bopa' - but, just to confuse you all, you will often see me signing in under other etsy IDs (most notably sewmuchfrippery).
My 'real' name is Rosemary and I live in Abermaw/Barmouth, Gwynedd. 'Bopa' is my much loved 'alter ego'!

[teabreaks]

Hi Yvonne...welcome....I am in Port Talbot....waving to you wherever you are.

[ancienesthetique]

BOPA... GUESS WHERE I WAS BORN?? dolgellau..I used to have loads of friends in barmouth and fairbourne.. it's such a beautoiful coastline the mawddach esturary,...
so cool to meet you.. is barmouth still the same?? we used to go there loads in the summer holidays and sometimes cycle there if we were feeling particuarly energetic.. oh the sanddancer days too!!
take care vx

[ancienesthetique]

CTM..that's areally good way of supportiing the japanese at the moment..good idea..
i'm living in central france at the moment but am born and bred welsh!
vx

[victoriasponge]

Bopa and CTM Thanks so much for the compliments regarding my shop..I don't know how I managed to list over 600 things....The scary part of it is that I have that much stuff to list !!!

[teabreaks]

victoria sponge....love your shop...somewhere I have a platform ticket for LLanfair.pg.....it cost me 3d (old money) and is about 4" long !!!

[teabreaks]

question for those of you who have a lot for sale.....do you find that some of the older stuff gets buried in your shop and never looked at? I want to try listing a lot more of my work but am worried that it will have a detrimental effect on the longest listed items......

[NightshadeWales]

Hello teabreaks, I adore your artwork!

My grandparents on my father's side were from Port Talbot, not sure which part though.....I absolutely love the steelworks, such a fantastic building to look at.

I'm originally from Kidwelly, but I left there when I was 16 (not sure why though, I love the place, especially the castle) and have lived in Llanelli for the past 21 years :o (easy to work out my age there)

I'll wave to you next time I pass though Port Talbot :)

[victoriasponge]

Hi teabreaks...I have over 600 items listed in my vintage shop and almost 200 of my drawings listed in my other shop, gogokittenart...I thought it might be too much and like you thought maybe the older things wouldn't get looked at or bought and be forgotten but that isn't the case....I actually seem to sell my older posted items more...

[LazyNathalie]

HI all,
I am not welsh, i am french but lived in Wales for 5 years in between Cardiff and Newport (I hope that counts). I am now back in France but still have a lot of friends back in Wales whom i visit once a year. Wales is a lovely country and so green with such different sceneries. Impossible to stay away for a long time! I love the welsh lovespoons ....so romantic.
Hope to see you all soon.

[victoriasponge]

Hi Teabreaks.....Thanks for the compliment regarding my shop......I love old tickets....I have hundreds of them.....I don't know how much 3d is in old money or new money.....

[teabreaks]

Victoria sponge...3d is probably 1c !!!! certainly not much more !
:LazyNathalie.....welcome....
Haunted attic ...next time you come along the M4 and across the Neath river look up and I am right up the top !!...lol.....
I have a cousin who lives in the High Street in Kidwelly...small terraced cottage style house....
Went to Swansea yesterday...a lovely day....bought some nice paints...so need to get painting and listing more....

[NightshadeWales]

Such a beautiful day today, I haven't any plans, so I may just potter around in the garden and take some photographs.

teabreaks - not sure where High Street is, but your cousin is lucky to llive in such a sweet village. Can't wait to see your lovely new paintings with your Swansea bought paints :)

Does anyone know what I can do with a faded black velvet coat (apart from throwing it away or recycling it) I love the coat, but it has lightened to a dark shade of brown on the shoulders, are there any special dyes I can buy for velvet, or does anyone have ideas for upcycling it to hide the fade?

Thank you

Yvonne :)

[teabreaks]

not sure how to help with your coat.....hope you can find a solution...

[BopaJones]

Helo bawb - Hi everyone!
Gosh, these threads have all moved on so fast! Apologies for having been out of circulation for a few days. I have had a busy few days at home - then, to cap it all, have had difficulties accessing my etsy account for the past two days. It has been reported but is occuring intermittently. Fingers crossed that it's now fixed!

Hi ancien. Dolgellau is one of my favourite Welsh towns - and my sons go to Ysgol-Y-Gader, Dolgellau. I can't imagine that either Barmouth or Dolgellau have changed much since you lived here. My sons often peddle the path between Dolgellau and Barmouth!
I loved your Friday night treasury - naughty but nice! As my hubby and myself both work from home, Friday night doesn't seem to have quite the same allure in our house!!

Welcome LazyNathalie - it's great to have you as a member of the team. We look forward to chatting to you again.

Hi MyHauntedAttic.
Have you solved the velvet coat problem yet? It's difficult to know what to suggest without seeing it - but you could try buying some cotton or silk-type knitting yarn in variegated tones of black and brown - preferrably a yarn that has a striped effect - so that you can have black at the bottom of your knitted or crochet piece and brown nearer the top. I would then be inclined to try crocheting or knitting lacy panels to fit over the shoulders - with perhaps matching lacy panels on the pockets if the coat has any. That should work OK - and could look like a 'tried shot' rather than a patch up job!

I will be back later on the chat thread as 'sewmuch'. I have promised Molli, in particular, to respond to her comments re. the eisteddfod. I haven't forgotten ...
Speak to you all soon.

[BopaJones]

P.S. My HauntedAttic: if you don't knit or crochet you will have to try 'PlanB'!! I would try to get hold of an attractive cotton machine-made lace fabric and dye it the colour you want - perhaps using a tie dye -type technique so that you get lots of variegated browns and blacks. Worth a try - it it doesn't work you don't have to attach it to the coat - so the coat will be no worse than it is at present!

[NightshadeWales]

Thank you all for your replies,

That sounds like a great idea BopaJones, I will definitely give it a try.

Have a wonderful evening all

Nos Da

Yvonne :)

[BopaJones]

Or a nice antique hand-made lace panel would do - especially if it's already marked and/or damaged (not so sacrilegious then to dye it!)

[BopaJones]

Hi Yvonne, We cross-posted! Hopefully you'll manage to renovate the coat. Let us know if you do! Nos da.

[NightshadeWales]

Oh wow, yes! That sounds perfect too.

I will keep a look out for some lace panels, that will be so gothic, I love it!

Thank you so much for your ideas.

Have a lovely night :)

[Former_Member]

HI! I'm a Yankee with Welsh ancestry. I spent my third year of University at Swansea and have such fond memories. I live in Australia now with my husband, but I keep dreaming of getting back to Swansea one day!

Maybe some Welsh shopping will tide me over :)

[Former_Member]

hi Jellie Babies 09, I lived in Felindre a tiny village 7 miles from Swansea for 18 yrs and 4 yrs on the Gower , your right it's a great, friendly place and the beaches are beautiful

[BopaJones]

Hi JellieBabies - good to meet you. Welcome to our team. All the Welsh universities seem to have a friendly community spirit, with so many ex-students yearning to return! Yes, indulge in some Welsh 'retail therapy' for now ... it should tie you over!

Hi Yvonne. My imagination has been working overtime. You could also add some bands made from the same lace or crochet panels - with buttons at each end, to look like epaulettes. That would be very gothic! Some wonderful antique gold or silver filigree buttons (one at each end) would work wonderfully well! I can't wait to see the results!

Hi teabreaks. You were asking about older items in your shop getting buried if you list new ones. No, in my experience, that won't happen - the older items will be no more 'hidden' (in the sense of where they appear in search results) than they already are. But adding (or renewing) items will ensure that those new items do at least appear fairly near the top of the search results. That will bring buyers into your shop - and, in my experience, it is the recently listed/renewed stuff that usually gets hearted the most - or is likely to appear in a treasury etc. All good for business - and getting your shop 'profile' out there.
As for actual sales - well that's a bit more cryptic! Buyers will often surprise you! Once they are in your shop they will usually have a good rummage around and will often find something 'from the back of the rails', as it were, to purchase - i.e. something that was listed months ago! So, no, listing new items shouldn't 'hurt' the sale of older items. Quite the contrary. It's just a case of getting buyers into your shop to begin within - window dressing, if you like.

I have been having a lot of intemittent problems with signing in over the past few days. Hopefully that's now ironed out. Fingers crossed ... If so, I'll be back shortly.

[BopaJones]

Hi Kathy - we cross posted! Good to meet you too. It's lovely to have you on board. So many new faces all of a sudden. It's so refreshing to see so many etsians with a Welsh connection.

[Former_Member]

Hi again Bopa, good to meet you too,thanks for favouriting so many of my items. Sorry I keep dropping in 'n out of these discussions but I'm not sure how to carry them on as I don't seem to be able to find them again!!!! Do feel twp sometimes, is it just a matter of clicking on my threads in the left column?

[teabreaks]

Hi Jelly beans! Kathy...I am in Baglan...Port Talbot...not far from you...waving at you from my window. One of my Uncles lived in Felindre but recently moved nearer into Swansea as his wife was training to be a doctor at Singleton hospital.....
Jellybeans...if you come over to Wales, we will all have to meet up !!