Making a Website.....

Ok, if the truth be told it's not that new a website but here's the story. Once upon a time I used to sell via www.blackwillowtribal.co.uk where I offered tribal belly dance costumes and accessories.  I would import bits and pieces as well as pick up things here in the UK and incorporate them into well made and affordable costumes for those who weren't interested in making their own.  The site brought me a lot of work, particularly custom orders for headdresses which I absolutely adore making.

After my son was born some three and a half years ago I found that the recession bit deep and hard and although my site was looked at as often as it always had been, the orders were dropping off.  I also wanted to add things to the website that I couldn't unless I paid my hosts more to do so and the more I weighed up the costs of running it and the pros and cons of other websites the more I felt in favour of getting rid of it.  So last September I closed the website down and ever since I've needed to get in touch with all of those linked to me and let them know.

I'll try and cut this a bit short.....I'm currently rebuilding the site but with a slightly different slant as I sell via Etsy now when I'm not at events in real life, plus there is Facebook and Twitter and blogs and.....well, you get the picture...but I want people to know that I'm still here and that I'll happily make them a bespoke tribal belly dance or fusion belly dance costume or just a headdress.

This weekend I had a go at manually changing my A records (with a new registrar as the previous registrar had Detagged the site cos I didn't know then what I know now about claiming your domain) in order to point the domain at the new site and today was a little annoyed to see it still wasn't live until DOH!  I realised looking over everything again when the kids were in the bath that I had missed out one number of the new IP address.  Silly me!  I've rectified the mistake and hopefully by the end of the week www.blackwillowtribal.co.uk will be back up and running again.  Fingers crossed.

Headdress Sneek Peek

I made a couple of headdresses last night.  To be honest I'm not sure if they're finished yet, but I took some pictures anyway.  I might add some jewellery, I might not - I'll see how I feel when I sit down with them again on Sunday evening....

Sneak Peek

I have a couple of vintage items that will go up on Etsy in the next couple of days, two of them are vintage Banjara anklets, usually used by Tribal and Fusion belly dancers these days as other body costume parts.  There's also a really delicate lapis necklace.  And for the non-vintage lovers I have a new cuff and will soon have another in the same fabrics and lace but with extra embellishment......

Oh, and there's a headdress that I need to get a good full headshot of.......

Earrings

If you've worked out my process yet then you will have worked out that my earlier post about fly fishing feathers
was going to lead to a blog about how I've made something from feathers like those I mentioned earlier.

I've made a few pairs tonight and once the glue has dried I can get them finished and get some pics up to show you what I've done.  I've yet to decide whether they go onto the Blackwillow Tribal site or the Etsy shop.

Bindi pics

Ok then, here are the picture of my recently made bindis.  I'm not sure I'll have time today to get them measured and described for the Blackwillow Tribal website, nor will I get any up in the Etsy shop, so that's a job for tomorrow.  Here's a sneak peek in the meantime:

The bindi pictured above is SOLD

The bindi pictured above is SOLD

They've all had some extra bling added in the form of Swarovski crystals and are backed with clear vinyl.  I'll let you know once they're up on the websites.