How Enviously Fabulous

A few days ago, I was describing my new business direction to a woman I'd just met. When I said my intention was to produce about forty bags, bracelets, and necklaces a year, she said she would consider that a hobby not a business - a comment I found rather interesting because I can't imagine either of us making forty of any of these items as a hobby, at least not in one year. She seemed like a new things as opposed to a repetitive things kind of person.

For me, it's a marketing approach. Creating - and advertising that I create - labour intensive, one-of-a-kind pieces in limited quantities pulls together many of the elements I've learned about myself over the years while developing an enjoyable, creatively satisfying, and - over time - financially rewarding business. It's not a hobby. Rather, I'm on the first rung of a ladder moving in an upward direction. As my work becomes known and recognized, supply will remain consistent and demand will increase meaning that prices will too. That's the theory. My goal is to advance my work to the point where it sells for what I consider it's worth or - LOL - even more.

This way, there's no cookie cutter art or mass production. YES YES! Those are so NOT me. Looking at the products for sale in some Etsy shops makes me shudder. The stock is all the same thing, different color. I love the many varied ways in which you can fill a similar blank canvas. I could spend an entire year filling 24" x 24" canvasses if it allowed me to follow the what if journey in depth and - being honest - if I had some place to sell the pieces. If I chose to do that, most likely I would put guidelines on the project such as creating one a week just as I am with the purses, necklaces, and bracelets which are just another form of canvas. That said...

... one a week of each might not be the best working method. Although I'm aiming for forty a year, I can tell that switching back and forth just might not be the most creative or efficient way to work. It stops flow. A better approach may be to create several of each product before switching. I'll explore that idea next week when I focus on making jewelry. What's most important to me is that there is a balance between work and play. I'd like every fourth object - or at least twenty-five percent of what I produce - to be for me.

gwensews wrote - The Designer group I belong to is making sweater coats, inspired by KatWise. Her Etsy store shows a lot of beautiful sweater/coats made by piecing in a similar manner that you are doing.

Thanks for the links. This designer's name was new to me and then I picked up the latest edition of Belle Armoire and the very first article was about her work. Synchronicity - although I do read the article writer's blog and wondered if I might have heard of her there AND... I went back and checked the article in Altered Couture to see if the author - Joan Knight - mentions Katwise and no, she says, lately, I have been on the hunt for beautiful sweaters... as if the process that inspired me is new to her. ANYWAY - Katwise's pieces are quite amazing and how enviously fabulous that they sell out in minutes at her Etsy sales. Good for her. I appreciated this quote from the article:

I like to spend an authentic moment with every piece I make and capture a little bit of spirit in it. This is why I can't imagine ever hiring anyone to sew for me. I am much too engrossed in the creation process. If I passed it on to someone else, I would feel like I would be compromising the magic too much.

That's how I feel. I want to create one-of-a-kind pieces that evolve organically as a result of me exploring an idea, a thought, a journey. Of course the pieces will have similarities. That can't be helped when you're working in your style and making more than one of the same kind of thing BUT... they will also have individuality because each one will begin and develop in its own way.

On her website, Katwise writes that she holds an Etsy sale every couple of weeks and posts about forty new sweaters. OH MY GOSH! She obviously has her method down pat after making thousands of them and just as obviously I'm a long way away from that level of skill and ability seeing as it's taken two full days so far to make my pieced cardigan and it's not done and is much much smaller. LOL - maybe I need the tutorial pictured above but I can't see myself sewing a lot of these. One - or one now and then - is fun.

My friend Wendy was over last night to quilt. She trimmed the edges of her latest quilt ready to add the binding. At the most, Wendy sews two hours a week at my house. Some weeks, it doesn't work out. Typically she comes twice a month or four hours a month so you can understand why her latest quilt took two years to complete. She doesn't rush and she works on one project at a time. She says it's important to keep quilting fun because this is her way to relax from a busy job. AND...

... she doesn't think that she'll have any use for this extra batting cut from the side so she's giving it to me. And now - LOL - I'm storing other people's scraps too only these will make a good ten or more bags. One woman's junk is another woman's treasure.

Edited 6:40 - this paragraph disappeared when I posted. Weird.

The sleeves are in and the side seam pinned. So far, it looks great. I'd like to finish this today if possible. I'm singing on the worship team at church on Sunday and it'd be fun to wear it then. I just need to sew the underarm/side seam and add the fringe at the bottom - JUST! Have a great weekend.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - inspiration

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Personal Growth - Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track. Don't assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil! Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life! - Proverbs 3: 5-6

I'm completely convinced of an unequal and opposing force that just loves to burst our bubbles. Since yesterday's viewers didn't even look at the whole house, it's a good guess that they're not buying it and - checking the multiple listing site - the last two units on our short list have been sold in the last two days. There are currently no condo units for sale in the area where we want to buy which leads to questions. What will we do? Where will we go? This appears to be - LOL - another "the land between" experience. After a tiny pout and a few tears, I am choosing to trust that God knows what we need and that it will come about as I wait expectantly except that it just got a little harder. Did I do something stupid like pray for patience?