glittergoods

I didn't want to cook tonight anyway

Being interviewed by my friend Megan for design*sponge's guest blog is definitely the internet highlight of the day (the bunny-in-a-cup photo randomly pasted into chat about dinner plans by husband comes in second, so that tells you what kind of internet day I've had).  Her whole series of interviews with crafty businesswomen is really interesting, so check them out if you haven't already.

I was thinking about the materials-sourcing question Megan asked me while looking at the case of pillow forms in my kitchen today.  The box had been hanging out there for a couple of days, unopened, because I was pretty sure that once I cut the strapping tape, any hope of reasonable pillow containment was out the window.  Also, you would be right to point out that "reasonable" might not be the exact word to describe my storage system of keeping the box in the middle of the kitchen, taking up half the floor space (to be fair, the kitchen is small.  But still.).

I finally went for it yesterday, knowing that I needed to get the last few pillows of show prep finished & out of the way in order to move on to other things.  The pillows were vacuum-packed, which, you know, yay for packaging efficiency, but is pretty daunting when the pillows that are already filling up half your kitchen are promising to double in size.  And never fit back in their box again.

I like to think that I have, over the years, adjusted to the idea that wholesale pricing means bulk purchasing, which means bulk storing, which means lots of trips to Ikea & no hope of spare elegant minimalism ever in our little house.  However, most of the things that I have stored, up to this point, have been individually smallish &/or flattish.  Not so when it comes to the bag of condensed pillows that starts off, before reinflation, larger than my four year old.  Ordering wholesale supplies is already a little bit of a leap of faith, where you have to believe enough in your product to think that you will actually need 50 pillow forms or 6 dozen shirts or 40 belt buckles, that putting the money up front is worth it, that you won't burn out on the idea, that you won't discover a better product at a better price the minute you've pushed the order button; it doesn't seem fair that it should be so physically awkward, too.

I mean, it's not like they won't fit in the garage (I think), but it's also not something that people warn you about when you go into business, that one day, there you'll be, in your best pair of work-clothes pajama pants (I totally confessed to this in the interview), wading through a sea of blank pillow forms just to get to the coffee pot.

box-o-bracelets

A (big, huge) part of running a tiny handcraft business is PR, which, unfortunately, is not something I happen to be a big huge fan of doing, mostly because my time is pretty well used up with the making of stuff, the parenting of kids, the trying to have a conversation with my husband now & again, &, lately, the obsessing over fabric.  However, sometimes everything falls into place, I catch an opportunity at the right time, & I get in on some cool stuff, like the latest thing I've been working on:  a big batch of my star felt bracelets going off to be part of The Sampler's* goodie bag at the gift lounge thingy for the MTV Movie Awards (you know, when celebrities get to go into a room & be given lots of presents just for showing up & being famous?  Yeah.).

I've already sent in some superstar tees in adult sizes, & now I'm getting to ready to send these:

Because I have no idea who's going to be getting these, I tried to avoid too much pink glitter, so they're a little more understated, colorwise, than my usual batch of wristbands.  (My standard bracelet customer is female, but every now & then a guy will pick one up & look completely fantastic in it.  It seems to be self-selecting:  if a guy even thinks of trying on a glitter wristband, chances are he can totally pull off the look.)

Turns out that having to put a zillion snaps on a whole bunch of bracelets is the perfect moment to listen to Alicia's interview on CraftSanity, which I recommend as a charming & inspirational way to pass the time. Those of you who have heard it will know why it was amusing to listen to while I was doing assembly-line style work. I am slowly figuring out a good balance between my work crafting, which is often "mass production" (although really, how "mass" can it be when it's just me doing the producing?), & my pleasure crafting, for which I often choose painstaking, one-of-a-kind projects.  I find different elements of each type of work satisfying, although there's always some place in the middle of any kind of time-consuming project that I wish I was doing the other thing.

With this out the door & nothing too "mass" coming up next, maybe now it's time to take time to plant the tomatoes I picked up at the annual Tilth sale, maybe get started on that next quilt I've been thinking about.  Relaxing, painstaking, rewarding stuff. 

*I've been a contributor to The Sampler for a year & a half now, & it's a pretty fun gig.  Tons of Sampler info on the website, or you can listen to Marie's recent interview on CraftyPod.