April 20, 2012

I'm late with my post again and today I am blown away with the fact that blogger has completely changed format. I hope it's for the best, but I'm not really sure how I'm going to do all the posts I normally do. Things just don't look right here.

Today I did a lot of sewing. I decided, that although I want to either live off my jewelry, or my designs, I still need to make money off my sewing. I may not like sewing much, but it's what sells the most so I'm going to make the most of it, while I'm growing my other businesses.

I made a new apron with some fabric I have a lot of. Sitting on the shelf, might as well get some use out of it. I have 2 versions of retro aprons, one is the Ruffle (my daughter's design) and the other is the Sweetheart (my design).

My pattern is designed to use a 15" piece of 45" fabric, so it's a little more economical and less expensive. So I thought I'd make the less expensive version.

I also made a few Chef's Aprons that I will photograph with different pockets. I don't have enough listed and I need to add some of my better fabrics, like the Beatles and some Biker fabric and maybe more versions of Star Wars. I'd love to add the new Marvel Comic fabric, but that's getting harder and harder to find.

I love to add more Bow ties too. This is a great time of year for men's gifts. Graduations and Father's Day. I don't think I can really give up any of the things I do. I think I just have to be happy, selling it all.

April 17, 2012

Today I had to spend the whole day working on my Bread and Butter shop. That doesn't mean I sell bread and butter, it means it feeds me. I make sewn Aprons Accessories and Housewares. It's not that I don't think they are wonderful, and that they are not worthy product to focus my attentions on. It's just that the older I get, the harder it is to enjoy sewing. As a matter of fact, I kind of hate it. I'm tired of fighting with ornery machines and searching for dropped pins or getting stabbed with them. I hate having to rethread the darn serger.

Anyhow, I thought I should show a little of what I make on my other shop. I focus so much on my flowers and my designs, and never really mention or show my sewing. Many of the designs there were made by my daughter. She is a whiz at designing patterns. Most of them she keeps in her head too. Although some of her new patterns she actually cuts with a template. She designed my Retro ruffle Aprons and the Vendor Aprons. I designed the Sweetheart Apron, the Chef's Apron, the Tie Shirts and the Bow Ties. I guess I'm OK at designing too.

My best selling designs are made out of Vintage Bedsheets, curtains or other fabric, like the Star Wars Apron that my daughter designed. It's my most popular item, and the picture above was not commissioned by me, it was modeled bu someone who loved it so much. I even had a college student use it on her video cooking show.

My second most popular is the Batman Bow Tie. Those guys really love Batman (and the Beatles). Bow Ties are becoming so popular now. I would make a standard tie, but I haven't designed a good one that uses little fabric yet. So hard to make with the vintage sheets, but I'm sure I would sell a lot of those too.

See, really cute, and something I could easily grow and make a good living with, I just don't really enjoy the sewing, and why shouldn't I do something I really enjoy?

You can stop by and see more of my work at poppysgardengate.artfire.com

April 14, 2012

I am so determined to accomplish as many of my goals as possible. I started this post to make a decision about weather to continue with my handmade floral jewelry, or go back to product design. I've improved my shop and my product line, and I've made a lot of contacts in the lighting industry. Contacts I haven't made in years.

I will say one thing. I planned to only prepare to go out and drum up more business. I planned to get ready to offer my jewelry wholesale and to contact clients for product design. This is what I have accomplished. Without actively going out and finding more work, I have made $800 more this March than last March. Not all profit though, I have reinvested a lot of in back into the business. But it's nice to have it to reinvest.

I can honestly say that reevaluating what I was doing with my business helped so very much. I increased my line of brooches, and have sold so many. If I reach out to the right audience, I can sell the headbands and bangles too, I'm sure.

April 12, 2012

Things were so different when I was a kid. It wasn't just that I was naive, the whole world was. Those of you who are older know. Those of you who watch Mad Men can see for yourself. No one even imagined that little Sally could suffocate in that plastic bag, or get addicted to those sleeping pills. What was the harm in that? Everyone was innocent back then. I'm recalling how I loved my baby seal skin hooded jacket and my baby alligator purse. I didn't know back then that someone was killing babies. I don't even think my family who bought them really realized it.

OK, so today I just killed a bunch of ants that were trying to get into the cereal and my crock pot. I'm not a Buddhist after all.

Today I did some more photography and listing of my flowers. But as promised, I'll review what I did for my product design business.

I was only supposed to be getting myself ready to present my product to potential clients, but somehow I ended up with paying clients. Not a lot of money, but some, and maybe more sales in the future. This was all from updating my linkedin resume. Not a bad idea to just add something once in a while. When I am done with my website, I will add that too. My portfolio website, that is.

What did I plan to do, that I didn't. I planned to loose weight so I'd look more professional. Nope. I planned to learn my CAD program so I could send clients, CAD drawings. Nope.

I did however learn to use the CAD program enough to make some rough base drawings and alter old drawings so I could work on Photoshop to finish the designs. About the only thing I did accomplish is to work on my website and even that isn't finished. Although it is very close. The way business is going this month, I'll have plenty of time to finish it too.

The big thing I have yet to do is make my resume. I have an old one that I need to polish up, things like explaining what I've been doing for the past 4 years. I need to take a peek at how resumes are written these days. Formats change like lighting and I haven't written one for 4 years. Progress is a fickle companion.

April 6, 2012

Amazingly, I got a lot accomplished today. I edited a lot of Flower photos of new product and listed quite a few too. I was able to finish my new Bow Ties and take really nice pictures of them too. I'm very happy that I bought the fabric and pulled these together.

Somehow the Bow Ties seem to relate more to jewelry, than Aprons or accessories to me. I really like making them. I need to find more fabrics that would be very enticing to men.

I also signed up for a social media blitz workshop at handmadeology. It's supposed to be for Etsy shops, but I think the basic info is good for anyone. First day was nothing I didn't know, but I'm sure it will get better. I'll let you know.

I really have to finish my two big things for my jewelry presentations, packaging and brochure. There are a few things I need to do to my flower jewelry website, but mostly that's good to go.

April 5, 2012

Today I had the opportunity to work for a good part of the day on a lot of projects. I don't get that often. I have been trying to put together some merchandise to photograph for a while, and I keep having setbacks. Granted, some of those setbacks are sales, so I can't really complain. Other setbacks are design projects that I'm getting paid for, and I can't complain about that either.

I did get a lot of photography of new items done. I have a lot more to do. And with photography, comes editing. I really like photo editing. I could do it for a living if I could find a job, but finding the time now has been difficult. I'm pretty pleased with my merchandise, but most of it really needs modeled photography. I thought I would be ready by this week, but I'm not anyhow. I still haven't crocheted my white lace headband for wedding yet.

I also made some new Bow Ties, well, not actually made, because before I got them finished, I had some interruptions. I bought some rare fabric in fat quarter that cost me $10 with shipping per fat quarter. I rarely if ever pay $10 a yard for fabric. But after cutting the fabric, I found I could get at least 10 ties out of each piece. At $20 a tie that's $120 per each $10 piece. Not all profit, because of other material costs, but still good odds. I suppose I should do a spreadsheet on cost/dollar per hour of my sewn items too.

I also came to the realization today, of what it really was that I disliked the most about my design career. There are so many people involved with your day to day work, that are basically sales people. I really don't like typical "sales people". Not that I don't sell, or have the ability to sell by con, I just don't like it. I'm pretty up front and honest, and in most cases, I don't see the need to tell stories about what you need from a person. I feel like I'm being fed stories by my client, and I really don't feel it's necessary. I think that sometimes, they are so used to playing the game, that they just don't know when to shut it off.

The thing is, I've known my client for a long time, and I really like them. Just wish they would be a little more open with the product, instead of telling me what they think I want to hear. The other issue is that I have great intuition, so I know when they're not being up front. That's my main problem I suppose. I can't be sold a line of goods from a salesman, because I know when it is a line of goods.

I guess if I want to do designs though, I'll just have to deal with it, one way or the other.

March 29, 2012

Today was one of those crazy days again. It was really all about designs today. I had a few flowers that I had to make for someone. So I finished a few of my new flowers at the same time.

Yesterday I receive my new yellow centers in the mail and they were so perfect. If I sell too many flowers I will be out of them, but I bought 2000 so I'm not sure how quickly I will run out. The beads are yellow painted wood rondeles taken from strings of never worn vintage jewelry. I love the fact that I have bulk new reclaimed beads. I have to try to do that again. I'm using these on my Shasta Daisies and maybe a few other daisy centers too.

As for the rest of the day, I spent it finishing up designs for a client. I got the request at the end of last week, but I was finishing up the last of their drawings from the last request over the weekend. I didn't get all the specs for this project until Monday. I worked all Tuesday on my own items, sewing and flowers, so I didn't get to even think about their project until Wednesday.

I did some sketches on Wednesday, because it's hard to draw designs if you have no idea of what you're making. I sketched up five different concepts, most of which would have two to four different variations. They were easy to do, because they were based on plants, and all I had to do was sit on the porch on a beautiful sunny day and look around me. Late in the evening I started working on them a bit.

Today I spent most of the day finishing the drawings. And rendering them. I got the project done at 11pm. These late nights are killing me, but I think that these projects will come in clusters. Mostly, only this time of year. The nice thing is that for my other business, this is the slowest time of year (next to the dead of summer).
Last year at this time I was eating the spring grape leaves and visiting the local food pantry. Foraging is not bad you know. It can be healthy, but we don't have a lot to forage for here.

I wish I could show you my designs. But I will when they get into your local stores. For now they are proprietary.

March 27, 2012

It's getting so close to the end of my four months. I'm finding that I've given myself too many tasks to do. The reason I am not accomplishing my goals though, is that my workload has increased so much that I can't finish everything. I wish I could have just focused on getting it all done, but I had too many sales and unexpected design clients.

Last year at this time, things were so slow, that I had to sell a lot of my jewelry to make ends meet. Oh well, next year at this time when I have loads of money, I can buy new jewelry, right?

The thing I regret the most is that I didn't have the free time to learn the new CAD program. I can do a bit on it, and I can take what I've done into Photoshop and alter, but most of my drawing has been on Photoshop.

I also wish I had finished my design website. I plan to contact some more people soon and want to have it up and running smoothly. Wish I could put on some of these new designs. I guess I can put some of the rejected ones. As soon as I'm finished with the new client designs I need to finish that site. I can make a decent living just off the drawings, not even including commission from the sales of product.

When I look at my old designs, compared to now, I have grown so much. It's a lot due to the freelance work, and partly due to my time on Etsy and Artfire. I've been exposed to so many techniques and styles by working there and seeing so much, that my work has improved greatly. It has only served to improve my product design and still influences future designs and trends.

March 10, 2012

I know I should be saving my new found money to fix the car, but it's been so long that I've had a bit extra, that I'm spending it. Not on frivolous things, mind you. I'm spending it mostly on supplies and one extra little thing.

I bought a glass cutter that I've been eying for a long time. I want to cut my beer and wine bottles and make glasses, vases and rings for wind chimes out of them. I even have a microwave kiln that I might try to melt the rings with. I think I need to get some kiln paper though. I'm very excited about this whole recycling my bottles thing. I know it will take a while to do them perfectly, but I can always put the bad pieces in recycling.

I also bought some supplies for the future of my business. New business cards, beads for flowers, and I think I'll make my design website legitimate. It' will only cost $10 a year. Can't believe I couldn't afford even that.

Now on to finishing my design website and renewing old contacts.

March 9, 2012

What will the Spring bring this year? It's so pretty already. I feel hope in the air. Sales are much better than last year, yet not enough to live on. Not even as much as the year before. My sales were down $3000 last year. But at least I made a profit. Many sellers operate at a loss.

Last year at this time, my sales were so low that I had to sell off a lot of gold jewelry to pay the bills. They were mostly things I inherited, which makes it kind of sad, but I still have some things. A few years ago I sold almost my entire crystal collection to pay bills with. I did save a few pieces for me.

I have a confession (yes, another one). At one time I was earning close to 100K a year as a Design Director. I really wanted to teach, but was afraid I couldn't live on 40K a year. Silly, we live on much less than that now. I guess my fear was the nearly $600 a month in student loans. As I've said here before, I have already paid off my original debt and still owe more than my original loan. Now they expect payment of $1000 a month. I am in forbearance now, but once I get decent income there are repayment programs available. I'd just like a decent interest rate, not the 9% that I got locked into 17 years ago.

I would really love to have a decent car. Actually that means I would love to have a car that functions. Decent to me means it runs and it stops. We have one that doesn't run and one that doesn't stop. We're filling the parkings lot with junkers. Still debating scrapping them and going for another try with the proceeds.

Here's to the hopes that this spring sprouts enough green to give us some wheels so we can fly. I hate relying totally on the kindness of others. I wouldn't mind taking a bus if we had one to take. Country living is wonderful but the transportation stinks.