A Year On My Own

It almost slipped by unnoticed but as I was walking to a client's house this morning I remembered that yesterday was an exact year since I was made redundant from my day job and forced to become a full time freelancer! It is in fact the first time since I graduated that I've gone a whole year without being on payroll somewhere and I have to say it feels pretty good. A lot of that has to do with being sat on the sofa in my lovely little flat, in a leafy suburb of South Liverpool, the cats on the balcony, the sun streaming through the windows and me devouring a packet of coconut macaroons. But the rest of the good feeling is to do with being my own boss and deriving my (small) income from purely creative work for the first time ever.

I'm not going to turn this post into some 'You can be a millionaire craftsperson just like me!' piece, beause I'm not, I don't think they exist, and I'm certainly not someone to be telling other people how to do anything (with this exception, I draw your attention to my current position on the sofa stuffing my face with macaroons; this is NOT how you increase sales or drive traffic to your website.)

Whoops.

I am just going to point out that my ability to do this has been made much easier by two things. One is my wonderful boyfriend who has a much more sensible job than me and so keeps us on the right side of the rent every month (thanks!). The other is the wealth of other small and independent businesses operating in Liverpool who provide opportunities for me, and other creatively minded people, to make a living from their practice. One of the virtues of being a relatively small city is that communities of like minded people, be it in craft, music, arts, theatre, food...etc. grow quite naturally and make everything seem much more achievable than they would if you were stuck out on your own trying to make it happen by yourself. And being such a small city word of mouth does a lot of the work for you, friends of friends of friends are an invaluable source of business!

So, just to finish I would like to thank, in no particular order, all the people and businesses who have kept me in baked coconut snacks for the past 365 days;

Open Culture

Made-Here

Really Now

Capstans Bazaar

Kirsty Doyle

Bluebird Tea Co

Craft Creative

Blank Note's Super Summer Fair

The Liverpool Craft and Design Show 

 Also the Merseyside Etsy Team for sharing your knowledge and experience with us all.

And finally anyone who has ever bought anything from me, ta!

A Flock of Bluebirds

At the end of July I was contacted quite out of the blue by someone I used to work with about a potential commission for their new business. Since I worked with her in Liverpool Krisi had set up her own company, Bluebird Tea Co, with partner Mike and they'd been busy building a following at fairs, festivals and events all over the country. (You can read more about their story on the brilliantly written blog ThatBluebirdGirl.) Obviously in July we were all thinking about Christmas, right? Well, I know I was, and so were they because they very kindly asked if I'd be interested in making some decorations for their Christmas gift packs!

As I'd never done anything quite like this before in terms of the size of the request (currently 320 birds!) I tried to keep the designs simple but interesting. Fortunately Bluebird have a very strong brand identity so there was a lot to work with, and we decided to create a little felt bluebird the reflected the company but would also be something special to hang on your tree. I started with some Pinterest research, and then a bit of scribbling.

 I tried out a few shapes and stitching samples.

 When I had a shortlist of four birds I sourced materials, costed each design and sent the samples off to the guys at Bluebird.

After a brief back and forth of messages on Facebook we came to a final design, and I soon got to work!

How I go about cutting repeat shapes is constantly changing as I try to find the quickest method.

Production line.

Sepearating batches of bird parts into bags has been very helpful.

Perhaps I would get more done if I didn't waste time doing things like this?

Nearly there!

See all those threads? I have to tidy them off, one by one...

A stack of finished birds, complete with my labels.

If you want some funky loose leaf tea and a little handmade birdie too then keep an eye on Bluebird Tea Co's website for their Christmas gift packs or go and visit them at one of the many events they'll be doing. (I did spy on their website that they'll be stocking up Turl Street Kitchen in Oxford with their teas, so if you're in the area you should get down there, the food is delicious!)