lace-oriented paranoia barterdom

I've been adding quite a lovely little assortment of vintage laces to the Blood Pudding Press shop, just in case you're interested in such affairs. The hand sewn and hand crocheted laces are selling like lacey little hotcakes; not so much the machine-fabricated laces, but those are pretty too. But now I've been gripped by sudden lace-oriented paranoia re: what if I misidentified some laces because maybe I thought they were hand made, but they're not; maybe they're some kind of bobbin business and I will be sued for misrepresentation of lace or lace defamation.

I kept the lace I could use to bind poetry chapbooks, but some of the laces were too thick or not the right style/texture to suit my bookish needs, so I used some of the profits from selling those laces in order to buy more bindery materials for me. I indulged in a small, non-traditional shopping spree of bindery. Usually, I stick to ribbon, but this time I went for braided jute thread, eye tape, and and adjustable bra straps! That's right, I'm going to try binding some lucky upcoming chapbook with light blue bra straps. I got them from a lingerie designer who is going out of business.

Speaking of lingerie, some of the laces I still have available might make perfect trim for vintage look lingerie or handcrafted lacey garter belts or tiaras or scarecrows constructed from lace and more...

So visit http://www.bloodpuddingpress.etsy.com/ for all my lacey delicacies and of course poetry, too!

In semi-related news, I had a little idea the other day and am wondering if it is a good one or an unreasonable, frivolous, silly one. It has something to do with the barter system. I was going to elaborate upon my motivations for the matter, but don't have the kind of time to be extensive. In short, though, I was recently given this hand felted bag as a gift of sorts and it is not quite my style:

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Even though it is not quite my style, I do think it's pretty artsy/crafty/nifty and appears to have much careful attention devoted to its handcrafted creation. I did a little research on the brand, which is Rising Tide, and they specialize in 100% sheep's wool hand felted handbags, using a technique where they continually scrub and agitate the wool until little barbs in the fiber adhere into a durable and unique creation. Most of their hand bags sell for between $30-$50.

I thought about offering the bag for sale in my etsy shop, but since I didn't make the item and it's not an art supply, I wouldn't feel right about that. I then thought about offering it for sale on ebay and I still might do so. However, somewhere in there the idea of bartering or trading occurred to me and that struck me as more appealing. I've always been a fan of art trades when it comes to poetry chapbooks and suchlike, so why not extend my bartering tentacles? I even thought about adding some sort of little barter section to this blog, but I don't know if anyone else would be interested in the least. Anyone?

Like I could list some items I might be interested in trading TO others, as well as some items I might be interested in trading FOR (i.e. poetry books, waitress dresses in size 6ish, supplies I could use towards making poetry chapbooks such as paper, cardstock, or ribbon for binding, artisanal soaps, gourmet truffles, Bigfoot parapharnelia for my hubby...) Seriously, wouldn't the barter system be fun or am I just some kind of a kook? Anyway, we shall see...