Hen Party Badges

I've been getting quite a few hen party badge orders lately. I think it's really helped having my details and price list for custom order badges on the back of my flyer. One the the traders at the market suggested to me the other day having a brochure of work that people could choose from. I thought this was a fantastic idea, so simple, I don't know how it didn't occur to me beforehand. For the past few days I've been putting together some designs that would suit hen parties. The idea being that people can then alter these images to suit themselves, changing the date,name and colours. I also will continue to do once off custom order ones, but at least this can act as a spring board for people to get ideas for what they can order. I forget sometimes not everyone else is image based, and sometimes people prefer the ease of ordering from a set selection, rather that the intimidation of endless choice.

I tried to cover lots of different tastes, rather than just sticking to my usual retro style. This was both hard and kinda fun to step outside of my comfort zone. I never normally get to design brash pink hyper girlie things, so it was a fun challenge. I also couldn't help but stick in a few alternative designs to offer a choice to those who are neon willy bearing bridezillas.

To view the full catalogue go to my facebook album, and to view a full list of custom order badges click here.

Custom Order Wall Hanging

I have arisen from my silence for a quick post to show you a custom piece I did recently. A regular customer ordered a wall hanging for her office, as her logo is a dolphin it seemed like the logical choice of subject. We decided on using lots of blues, and to have just as a cloth hanging on poles. I've never done this kind of thing before, and it was really fun. I included a piece of bonded lining on the inside to add some weight to the piece and to make it look a little softer. Most of the design is machine sew, and the felt bubbles are hand stitched on. The nice thing about patchwork pieces like this is that it's mostly made of offcuts from garments. In this there is a sarong, pillow case, dress, and sample curtain material, then backed with some blue gingham.

For anyone wanting to try something similar, I got a friend to make the poles from a new brush handle, door knobs, and some very handy double sided screws- all of which you can find in your local DIY store. In the finished piece there was a second pole at the bottom but it was under construction while this picture was being taken.

New Supplies and Custom Orders

As I mentioned before we went to see Twilight the other night, while I was out in the Crescent Shopping Centre I popped into the art and hobby shop. Usually they have lots of lovely paper but I was a little disappointed to see their tiny selection. It's like there is a city wide nice paper ban going on at the moment. While I was there I did see these two nice packs though, even though I'm don't really need any paper at the moment I picked them up anyhow. They were pretty reasonable at about 14 quid for the pair of them. I'm a sucker for nice paper and I feel compelled to buy any pretty ones I see, it's like buttons, or material! I'm some strange female anomaly, I can walk past designer shoes or dresses, but when it comes to lovely supplies I can't resist myself.

At the weekend I also got a couple of custom orders done. Val from Vals Kitchen asked me to make a bee brooch for her, which was loads of fun to make. I spent a while sketching on paper first so I could get the shape of it right. Also Magatha-Mag is an avid archer and she asked me to make a target brooch for her. I think this works really well as it looks almost Modrian-esque in it's minimalism, but to archery people it's a fun in joke. I have another order to do this week which is a cheese slice brooch for one of my fellow stall holders, I think she is going to wear it as part of a uniform, which I think is adorable!

Mother of the Bride

I was quite organised this morning and I took lots of pictures, here is the mother of the bride dress that I was talking about. I really should have gotten a picture of the original.It used to have a high necked frilly collar, and a zipper in the back. I've also taken it up quite a lot, and anything that looks fancy.

Busy-fest

I'm back into busy season again. Firstly the Limerick Riverfest is coming up on the May bank holiday weekend, I will be trading on the Friday-Monday. Last year there was a fantastic atmosphere and heavenly weather, hopefully this year at least equals it. This year it will be a little more complicated as my friend who sells clothes and jewelerry at the stall beside me won't be there for the first two days, so I'll be doing her stall too, eek. Last year I had loads of extra stock made but I still nearly sold out, so I want to be way more prepared this year.

I also really need to do an order for the shop in Ennis, Olive, but that keeps on being pushed to the back of the list. I got two very exciting custom orders, one a mother of the bride dress that is very funky that I'm really looking forward to doing it. The other is a bunch of things for a regular customer who is really into my fun colourful work which I love doing. I also got a call from a friend in the Limerick City council and they want me to design some invitations for an opening of the Robert Byrne Memorial Park on Clancy Strand.

It's a hell of a list, but I'm more than happy to have lots to do rather than nothing.

Wedding invitations

I've decided I'm going to open a second etsy shop selling wedding invitations. I've done a few of my friends weddings, and my sisters, but I don't have any representation of this online. There is a thing on etsy called Alchemy, which is basically where people request stuff and then sellers make bids to make their item for them. There are a huge amount of people looking for custom wedding invitations, and they are willing to pay pretty good money for them. I figure, like my cards, they will be a bit left of centre, but that's the whole point, if people want traditional there are millions of sites doing that. I got my first custom order yesterday, for a punk rock save the date card design. What got me thinking about all this is that I'm doing my friends Laura and Richards invitations for them. I figure I'll do up about 10 different samples, post them in the new shop, and then start making bids and hopefully I get a few orders. I like making cards, it's quite methodical and precise, and custom orders are always fun because they make me think outside the box. This will all have to wait till after the move, but I figure it will take about a month to 6 weeks to get properly organised.

What I'm up to

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In answer to my question what do I do now...custom orders.I'm working on a black coat at the moment, that's making me miss the callouses on my fingers I developed before Christmas(there is lots of hand sewing in it and it's hurting my silly girl fingers).I'm getting another delivery of a large custom order tomorrow, about 5 pieces. And also last week a friend was saying she has picked out lots of things from her wardrobe she wants me to revamp. So when it rains it pours, and I'm delighted. I really like doing custom work because it makes me think outside the box, towards what the client wants. At the moment the coat I'm doing is meant to be unusual but restrained enough to wear to work. It's been a challange but I'm enjoying it. I called the market man, Tom, and I found out the Sunday Market starting back in April, so I've one month to get cracking on lots of new stock. I think that will be fine as I've lots of time off in the restaurant coming up, the are doing a refurbishment and I'm taking a few days off too. That said, I hope I won't be linking back to this post the week before the market when I'm moaning about doing all nighters trying to get work done.