It turns out that launching a mini-business is quite a lot like camping. You need a load of stuff whether it's for one night or for three months. In this case, I need it all in about three weeks.
This week-end was all about my upcoming market stall. When I wasn't busy making or unravelling pot hangers, I was thinking about displays, pots, plants, stamps, paper bags, business cards, social media, prices etc... throughout the day, and at 4am!
The insomnia had to do with the fact that since I hadn't yet received my rope, I was busy designing things in my head that I couldn't test. In the morning, Chris convinced me to go get some small amounts for the local crafts shop so I could start working on my ideas.
Suffice to say, the perfect designs in my head didn't quite come to life as I imagined them. Not to worry, the good thing about having no time is that one makes decisions on the go.
I had imagined that I would combine some elements of knitting with the standard macrame stuff but I soon realised that whilst the idea is good, I would need a lot more time to bring it together. After some unravelling, I delved back into classic macrame and started yielding some good results and a couple successful prototypes.
Since I am making pot hangers, the question of pots was also getting fairly urgent to resolve. The first question was whether the hangers would be sold with or without pots. In any case, I would need some for the display so might as well sell them at the same time. So the next question was, what pots?
I could go cheap as chips but it wouldn't look any good or follow Bec's suggestions to get some really nice pots one shop sells in town and sell them for a small profit. The pots are beautiful but pricey and if I'm honest, I actually felt that people would be buying the pot with a macrame hanger chucked in for free, rather than the opposite. Also, I wasn't thrilled with the financial risk of it all.
So, after a Bunnings to the local garden centre, we decided on two sizes of simple terracotta pots. Neutral and classic, you can't really dislike them. They just are 'The Pot" par excellence. They are cheap but much nicer than plastic ones. And since the market will have a spring theme to it, we decided that we would plant herbs into the pots and create little hanging kitchen gardens. The whole thing would look nice, smell nice and create a lovely package.
The biggest turnaround that happened though was pretty major and quite a leap of faith. All week-end, I was working with cord that was much smoother and prettier than the bulk order I was awaiting. This made me feel increasingly worried and down. I just felt that I would put a huge amount of effort into something that just wouldn't look that great because the cord was just kind of ... blah.
I had been nursing an idea in my head about using my beloved T-shirt yarn by Wool and the Gang. It is soft and easy to use and comes in great colours. Suddenly, I realised that I could make a test with a few scraps from a project I had made last year. I knotted it up in a couple of minutes, and breathlessly asked Chris to confirm what I already knew, it looked way better!
After a quick calculation, we realised that not only did it look better, it turned out to also be cheaper. Even though time isn't exactly on my side, I still made the decision (very quickly) to order a few different colours and return the initially ordered rope when it arrives.
With the colors I have picked (a red-ish pink, a peacock blue/green, a bright yellow and white), my display should look bright, springy and festive. Now, I just have to wait a few more days for all the yarn to arrive before I can get stuck into it.
I still have loads to do. When I finish writing this, I am going to open up photoshop and start working on a logo. Today, Bec came over and I was able to ask questions and get her opinion on a lot of the decisions we had made over the week-end. She also told me that before her first market for House of Bec, she had exactly 5 days to set herself up from scratch.
With that in mind, I try not to worry and keep enjoying the ride.
Oh, and I have a name for it all... 'Oh Josephine', in honour of the beautiful Josephine knot that started it all.
This week-end was all about my upcoming market stall. When I wasn't busy making or unravelling pot hangers, I was thinking about displays, pots, plants, stamps, paper bags, business cards, social media, prices etc... throughout the day, and at 4am!
The insomnia had to do with the fact that since I hadn't yet received my rope, I was busy designing things in my head that I couldn't test. In the morning, Chris convinced me to go get some small amounts for the local crafts shop so I could start working on my ideas.
Suffice to say, the perfect designs in my head didn't quite come to life as I imagined them. Not to worry, the good thing about having no time is that one makes decisions on the go.
I had imagined that I would combine some elements of knitting with the standard macrame stuff but I soon realised that whilst the idea is good, I would need a lot more time to bring it together. After some unravelling, I delved back into classic macrame and started yielding some good results and a couple successful prototypes.
Since I am making pot hangers, the question of pots was also getting fairly urgent to resolve. The first question was whether the hangers would be sold with or without pots. In any case, I would need some for the display so might as well sell them at the same time. So the next question was, what pots?
I could go cheap as chips but it wouldn't look any good or follow Bec's suggestions to get some really nice pots one shop sells in town and sell them for a small profit. The pots are beautiful but pricey and if I'm honest, I actually felt that people would be buying the pot with a macrame hanger chucked in for free, rather than the opposite. Also, I wasn't thrilled with the financial risk of it all.
So, after a Bunnings to the local garden centre, we decided on two sizes of simple terracotta pots. Neutral and classic, you can't really dislike them. They just are 'The Pot" par excellence. They are cheap but much nicer than plastic ones. And since the market will have a spring theme to it, we decided that we would plant herbs into the pots and create little hanging kitchen gardens. The whole thing would look nice, smell nice and create a lovely package.
The biggest turnaround that happened though was pretty major and quite a leap of faith. All week-end, I was working with cord that was much smoother and prettier than the bulk order I was awaiting. This made me feel increasingly worried and down. I just felt that I would put a huge amount of effort into something that just wouldn't look that great because the cord was just kind of ... blah.
I had been nursing an idea in my head about using my beloved T-shirt yarn by Wool and the Gang. It is soft and easy to use and comes in great colours. Suddenly, I realised that I could make a test with a few scraps from a project I had made last year. I knotted it up in a couple of minutes, and breathlessly asked Chris to confirm what I already knew, it looked way better!
After a quick calculation, we realised that not only did it look better, it turned out to also be cheaper. Even though time isn't exactly on my side, I still made the decision (very quickly) to order a few different colours and return the initially ordered rope when it arrives.
With the colors I have picked (a red-ish pink, a peacock blue/green, a bright yellow and white), my display should look bright, springy and festive. Now, I just have to wait a few more days for all the yarn to arrive before I can get stuck into it.
I still have loads to do. When I finish writing this, I am going to open up photoshop and start working on a logo. Today, Bec came over and I was able to ask questions and get her opinion on a lot of the decisions we had made over the week-end. She also told me that before her first market for House of Bec, she had exactly 5 days to set herself up from scratch.
With that in mind, I try not to worry and keep enjoying the ride.
Oh, and I have a name for it all... 'Oh Josephine', in honour of the beautiful Josephine knot that started it all.
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