Am feeling at a bit of a cross roads business wise - do I expand my range further or do I specialise? I seem to be being drawn down 2 specific routes - homewares and babywear. As much as I enjoy making the accessories and don't want to give it up entirely the commisions I get tend to be more baby focused and there seem to be more outlets locally for handmade baby clothes. There's also a definite market for make to order baby items and it appears Mum's wanting to learn to make their own.
The plan I'm considering going with is to sell the baby items face to face as there are more baby focused markets locally than craft shops but also take commissions online from my website
Sneakily Previewing
These are 2 sets I've made recently for a customer from a pattern from Piccolisimo Designs - they've a fantastic range of preemie and newborn items you can either buy ready made or from patterns
I also like the idea of homewares - producing specific ranges of cushions, vases and lampshades covered in knitted or crochet fabrics and fitted to particular colour schemes and ranges. Strangely enough the vase below has grown from the development process of a cardigan design for a customer. The vases and homewares will appear in the future in my online Frooly store:
But I also love the challenge of taking the yarns and fabrics I discover in charity shops and end of line bins and creating all manner of accessories and designs that are suggested by the yarn itself. I'm currently experimenting with hair accessories, knitted bookmarks and mobile phone holders. The 2 shown below are really bright and summery and will be in my online shop at Folksy soon!
Planning and Plotting
Have discovered another joy of blogging! I came on here with lots of confused thinking and just typing out my ideas to the world at large has given me a more concrete plan!
Baby items - Sold at specialist baby events
Accessories - Will be @Home on Folksy
Homewares - Will be @Home on Frooly
Focusing on June Bugs!
To give myself more of a making and posting focus have joined the "June Bugs" daily listings club on Folksy - although am setting myself a realistic target and aiming to list on alternate days. So to celebrate the start of "Flaming June" - think its more "Cloudy June" here though :-), here's a quick selection of some of the beautiful items the June Bugs have on offer today:
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| Bits and Bobs Crafts |
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| Ciren's Call |
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| Nofkants Curios |
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| JCU Designs |
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| The Sock Warren |
Great to see you back in the daily listing club Bev. Great choices from the June Bugs. Your scarf is fab. Good luck with all your shops and fairs
ReplyDeleteGemxxx
Welcome back to the daily listing clubs and it sounds like you have had some serious soul searching, but have thought it through very carefully.
ReplyDeleteThank you for including my embroidered plump puffin today, he looks like he is standing guard in the middle of your blog. LOL!
Natalie x
Thanks for including my sock bunny, I hope you decide what to do soon x
ReplyDeleteI guess all that rumminating and wondering this or that, by the end of the blog it seems that you have sort of decided where you want to go with your bits and bobs - all the best and hope each and every one works out okay for you x
ReplyDeleteThanks for includng my Canvas. Natalie's Puffin is perfectly placed as if perched on top of the Lighthouse!
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