Book Club - The Handmade Marketplace and Grow Your Handmade Business

I have a lot of books. A LOT. It makes moving house a bit tricky, but they make my bookshelves look useful, it's swings and roundabouts. I'm the kind of person who will seek out the bookcases at someone's house to get a better idea of what they're really like. That's why I distrust e-readers, people hiding themselves away where I can't judge them for owning the whole Twilight saga. You are what you read.

Since I have so many, particularly of an art/design/craft nature I thought I might share a few recommendations with you from time to time, use my ex-Waterstones-WHSmith bookseller skills to help you find the perfect book for you and sign you up to a pre-order of Harry Potter while you're here. Do you have one of our loyalty cards yet? You'll earn one point for every £50 you spend, with each point worth 0.25p, so it soon adds up....

This week I have been going over the finer details of my business with a view to widening my customer base, gainign new stockists and so on. Of particular help in this task have been these two publications by Kari Chapin.

Kari is a business coach who has worked in marketing and publicity with various arts and non profit organisations, and has a passion for handmade and creative businesses. The first of the two books, The Handmade Marketplace, is a great guide to starting out in the craft and handmade sector. As well as her own advice she draws togther a wealth of other designers, makers and business mentors to share their expertise in the industry. 

The book covers the absolute basics, like setting goals and defining your business, branding, pricing your work, advertising, using social media, preparing for a craft fair, selling online and in shops.

It's a brilliant book if you are just starting out in the handmade sector, or if you're just thinking about it. It breaks down everything you need to think about before you begin, and provides lots of real life examples of people who have taken that route, what they did and what they might do differently.

One of the things I love the most about these books is the use of hand drawn type, because it takes me back to that other great literary institution, The Babysitters Club books (particularly the Summer Specials), classics.

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!)

Prize Time!

I promised in my last post that I'd do a giveaway very soon to celebrate reaching 1000 views on my blog. It's getting on for a year since I started this blog, and this coming weekend will be one year since my first ever craft fair, so lots to celebrate. As it stands I'm only 6 likes away from 100 on my Facebook page too so if anyone wants to help me out with that we'll have even more to celebrate!
If that wasn't enough I'm also working on two very exciting new projects with some great small businesses, and the Made-Here pop up shop in Liverpool, through which I sell my work, is relocating to an exciting new location in the city and it's even bigger than before! Could things get any better?

To mark all my good fortune I will be giving away this stripey purse and rosette;

Made in soft cotton ticking in red, and with one of my trademark 'surprising linings' it has a zipper top and a wrist strap for safekeeping of valuables, money, phones, cameras, haberdashery... The rosette is made in red and ecru ticking and isjust the right size for attaching to the pouch, and has a 1" locking brooch pin so you can wear it on your coats, hats, cardis, dress up your pets...

 What do you need to do to win? Just say hello! Leave a comment below, you don't need to follow my blog (but if you'd like to I won't stop you!) Do you also have some good news to share? Share it here,  or just introduce yourself, it's nice to know who I'm talking at to. And I know the prize is a bit female oriented, but don't let that put you off chaps, just think of it as a mother/sister/daughter/girlfriend/wife present you don't need to buy!

In two weeks time I'll put all the commenters names in a hat and draw one out for the winner. Easy!

PS. This giveaway is open to anyone, no matter where in the world you are!