Selling in Shops Nationwide

It's funny how businesses change over time. When I was doing Nice day Designs full time I felt torn about selling to shops, it seemed like so much money to hand over in commission. The truth is I wasn't that realistic about the amount of hours I was spending out in the cold trying to sell my work at markets. I wasn't paying myself for that time, and I think looking back I was too exhausted to make smart decisions about my business.

Now that I've scaled things back a lot I can make the work that I enjoy making and pass on the chore of selling onto someone else. A few months ago when I went through a period of unemployment I put aside some time to make tonnes of handmade cards to send to various shops around the country. It was a lot of work doing so much all at once. I think the concentrated working time had a two fold effect, it honed my card making skills really establishing an aesthetic. As well as that it gave me a clearer idea of the true cost of in labour and materials of the cards, without a sustained run at any craft it is sometimes hard to  calculate these things.

I'm happy to say that I'm now selling in several locations throughout Ireland, and still looking for more venues, so if you are a craft shop owner please get in touch. Thanks to all of those who have already agreed to sell my work, you guys allow me to focus my energy on what I really love doing-making stuff!

List of suppliers;
Chez Le Fab-Limerick

Lucky Lane-Limerick

Sheelagh Na Gig-Cloughjordan

Baobab Cafe-Celbridge,Co.Kildare

Coffee Time-Co.Donegal

The Ennis Bookshop-Ennis

New Badge Designs

With a new lease of life have come some new badge designs-actually I tell a little fib, I did these a while back, but I only posted them on Facebook and forgot to update the blog. These are just a starting point to give people an idea of what they can order. basically we can put any image and text that you want, your(and our) imagination is the only limit. For a full list of prices for party badges head over here, and to view the full album of designs head over to our Facebook album here.

I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into some new designs, and being less hampered by having to do PG rated designs, when I was trading at the market it seemed crass to sell anything too naughty given the presence of children. Hen and Stag party badges are meant to be rude and silly!

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Nice Day just got a little Nicer

It's been another long break away from Nice Day Designs again, things have changed a little, actually quite a lot since the last time I posted a few words here. I'm still happy with the move that I made to Ennis 18 months ago, and I'm living quietly and happily in my cute little old house.

Recently I decided to wind up this business again, but just the custom badge orders, as much as I love making crafty things and selling them at markets, the endless struggle was a little too soul crushing. I now have a partner in crime to help with all these saucy hen party orders. This is Neil, who is also my partner, you may recognise him from this post last year about a music video that we worked on together. Here's him with his 'Neil' puppet that I made for him. We'll both be at the helm answering emails and sending off your party orders. He's also quite a funny guy, so expect some new whitty one liner designs to come soon. He makes me laugh, he seems perfectly suited to the haiku style of the 1" gag pin.

We also write things together, so expect some links to fun and philosophical video, sketches of fantastical worlds, and generally this blog taking a slightly different direction. It's nice to be back, it's also nice to have company, I do hope that some of you are still reading.

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Button Collars

I mentioned before that I have stopped making crafts for sale. I do still have some leftover from when I had a market stall and was selling in craft shops around the country. I had just made a bunch of these button collars as I was coming to the end of Nice day Designs. Which probably sounds a bit strange, but I was always working on new designs, and this was one of the last to make it past the prototype phase, but I finished them too late to really try to sell them properly. When I was tidying my studio I found a whole box of them that needed the clasps sewn on, but apart from that they were ready to go. 

Instead of the price tag of €30 which I had calculated for them I'm not selling them at €15, just because I'd be happy to see them sell rather than have a bunch of new necklaces for my personal collection-not even I need that many button necklaces!!

Here's a few photos, but if you'd like to see the full range just head over to the Facebook album and leave a comment if you would like to purchase one, I am happy to ship worldwide.

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Supplies Shop

One thing that I still have tonnes of is supplies. When I moved house 6 months ago I was somewhat disciplined and sold off a lot of buttons and fabric, but I couldn't bring myself to get rid of all of it. I had lived in that house for seven years so there was a lot of clutter and unwanted life garbage that was clogging up my space. Moving was a great excuse to sort through it, downscale, see what I wanted to keep, and see what was good for selling. 

I reopened my Etsy supplies shop a few months ago and have been tipping away with some sales without having to put too much effort into it. I should really be less lazy and do a few days of photography and listing and properly figure out what I have. For the moment I have about 100 listings of buttons, knitting supplies, pincushions and other miscellaneous items. If I was a more organised person I could easily bring that up to 250, I'll get there eventually!

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Costume design for Mustang Hobo

After finishing up with Nice Day Designs it took me a long time to figure out my relationship with my own art. I was burnt out, dry of ideas and no longer sure if I ever wanted to pick up a sewing needle ever again. I tentatively made a few pieces for myself and friends over the couple of years, but waited a long time before embracing a large project again. I only wanted to do it if I loved it, I needed a real passion project to get me going again. One that I have been working on lately is being the costume designer for the music videos for Mustang Hobo, a funk/jazz band based in Scarriff.

The bassist is my partner, so naturally we've been talking at length about the creative process, his ideas for his band, and what artistic direction they want to take their videos. It seemed like a natural evolution of both our relationship and our conversations that I would work on them with him. I like how his crazy brain works, and he likes that I can somehow make his ideas a reality.

The most recent one that I worked on was the song 'So You Think I'm Crazy', which shows the curious journey of a man into the afterlife, which is populated by craven woodland fairies, of which I am one. My direction was pretty specific, he wanted fairies but not the glittery pretty kind; something rugged, textured, and hairy. As is the case with all bands there was pretty much no budget, so this lack of funds informed my decision to collage different fabrics together to make woodland pixie hoods. I used these pieces to accessories a cast of extras all dressed in browns and earth tones.

That's us just as we shot the last scene

The couple of days that I was on the shoot, there were seven in total, were loads of fun, I got to style all of the extras, and it was great to see ideas go from paper, to creation, then to final cut. When I saw the final edit I was pretty blown away with what the Niall Coley, the director of photography, came up with, I didn't expect it to be so beautiful and lush. We'll be making more, and the ideas have gotten even bigger and crazier. I've already started working on the next one, but it's all hush hush, I have to say though, it's pretty darned cute!

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Hosting a House Sale

A couple of months back after my break-up I had a double fold problem, I had way too much stuff and way too little money. The logical solution was to sell my stuff and try to make some cash. Easier said than done sometimes! A friend of mine said they had organised their own house party clothes sale to much success and I decided to give it a shot. I had lots of really good vintage clothes in varios sizes and styles from when I used to do clothes upcycling. I knew it would be a fair bit of work but what else did I have to lose, the rent had to be paid.

At the time I had an empty second bedroom downstairs beside my living room, so this was a perfect location for the shopping room. I borrowed some clothes rails, a changing room screen, and a full scale mirror to help with this transformation. I also used a large bookcase to display the shoes and bags in a boutique style manner. Just the day before I decided to put out some of my craft stuff in the living room in case anyone took a fancy to my own handmade pieces. I used some of my market shelving and suitcases to make the display look more appealing. I also had some bunting left over from my birthday to add a festive atmosphere to the evening. My friend Dee even painted a large paper dress to hang on the front door to with some cute balloons to make the house stand out on my street. 

In the lead up to the sale I photographed all 200 and odd outfits on a mannequin and uploaded them to Facebook with all the prices and sizes. This way I drummed up lots of excitement about the evening and also made about €150 in pre-sales. This took tonnes of work between taking pictures, coordinating outfits, and also writing the descriptions, but it was really worth it. I also invested in beer and wine for the evening, trust me, people shop more when they are a little tipsy and they have some tasty food to nibble on. It cost me about €70 to provide this, but it was worth the extra outlay. If you are thinking of doing something similar I would recommend that you undertake this with a friend, both so you can divide the labour but also so you have a greater variety of clothes on offer, most people would not have the type of collection that I had.

All in all it was a successful evening, I didn't sell everything but I got rid of a lot of unwanted clothes that went to better and happier homes. It was a really fun night, and it's something, space permitting, that I would do again. If it was something you wanted to do yourself, maybe look into using your local bar or community centre and a group of you do it together.

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Product Photography; a lesson in staging

After

Sometimes I can get a little lazy when I taking photos, especially when I'm up to my eyes making work. Over the years I try to make the extra effort and it always pays off, and then I slip back into being lazy again. While looking at the work of Rachel Corcoran I realised that my photos needed more than a little sprucing up. Last week I took some very middle after the road shots of my new writers 5x7" cards and listed a few of them online. Today I did a whole new set up and I think they look far snazzier. Simple props like this large sand timer and some old books really helped enhance the mood of the cards. 

Before

After

I did the same for the original series of paintings that I did. I had quickly snapped pictures of the mounted pieces while they were still in their plastic (what was I thinking!!). With a few simple props of my paints and this antique skull and books I made this photo much more interesting. I didn't use any fancy camera or lighting, these are all taken on my Samsung Galaxy S3. I know it's a lesson I learn over and over, but it is really worth the extra 20mins or so coming up with a good initial set up, after that it's plain sailing.

I've spent the last couple of days listing all of my new items in my shop, hopefully by the end of the week I will have everything up in my shop. 

Before

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Show Your Mom Some Love

My cards have been selling pretty well lately at my stall, so I've been beavering away in the studio trying to get new stock made. My most recent batch was this vintage style set of Mother's Day cards. In case you didn't know it's on the 10th March, so you still have a bit of time yet before you have to go out and buy the Mammy a potted plant.

I think the bottom one is my favourite as it reminds me of all the hours I spent with my mum as a kid sewing. She started me on dresses for my Barbies with her scrap material, we moved onto things like bags, puppets and costumes as I got older. I was home a few months ago while I had a big sewing project to finish, it was really lovely to spend the day with her pinning and sewing, it brought back lots of fond memories. I'll definitely be sending her one with this image on it, I know she'll love it.

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New 1" Badge Designs

I know I've been very silent of late, I'll find my voice eventually, I think I'm still trying to get my head together after the hectic Christmas and disastrous New Year. I have been tipping away at making new badge designs though since I bought my new 1" badge machine. I felt rather silly the day it arrived when I realised that I had  no designs done, just a pretty machine and a load of parts.

I quickly realised that for the most part the designs for the 2" badges didn't transfer over, too much information in a small space. So I sat down for a about two weeks and scratched my head while living in Photoshop world. I've now taken to carry around a notebook for whenever funny one liners occur to me; too many times I've thought of something and not had a pen to hand, only to kick myself later when the idea slips out of my head/ear. 

I have recaptured my love of 1" badges, and have been really excited about coming up with new designs. I've gotten great feedback from friends, and I've had them for sale at the stall for the past two weeks or so and they are selling really well. I've already updated my wholesale prices section on this site, and over the next while I will be listing badges in my Etsy shop. I came up with 100 new designs; time consuming but worth it to have a good selection on offer. A good portion of them are book themed since they are for sale at my Bazaar Tales stall(go follow my new blog please, it's lonely blogging to nobody over there), and they've been selling very well. It's nice to marry my two loves of design and books.

Here are just a few samples, but for a full album of images just head over to my Facebook album. They are €1 each, or 6 for €5, I also made up these little sets of three badges for €3, remember when I was drooling over other peoples sets here. Even though people mostly buy them singly at the stall, of of them have been designed to be part of a set of three, as they look really pretty when they are worn in a set.

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1" Badges Coming Very Soon!

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I've been toying with the idea of getting a 1 inch badge maker for ages now, pretty much since I got my 2 inch one. But I was always put off by the extra investment; it's a whole new machine, cutter, and set of parts for a the smaller size. Even though the larger badges sell well as party favours, and they do pretty ok with my own designs too a lot of people wanted the smaller ones. If I'm totally honest I agree with them, in my heart I love the original 1 inch design, it's small, elegant and much more wearable, especially in multiples. Because of the the limited space it forces you to make an immediate impact, kind of like a haiku poem, short but effective. 

After much hemming and hawing I took the plunge and ordered my machine! I got 1000 badge parts, and also a new range of 1 inch earrings and rings, which I think will be loads of fun to play with. Looking at the maths I won't make as big a return on them, but I'm hoping due to popularity that they will sell better. I also want to sell them in themed sets like the ones below. A lot of people tend to wear them in grouped sets on their lapel, this way I can design and sell them in groups- also I think the packaging looks super cute!

My machine should be arriving in the next few days, eek!! You will find me surgically attached to my computer coming up with lots of new designs. I'm still deciding on pricing, the norm seems to be €1 each and  either a deal for a set of 3 or 6. After I do more research I'll figure out my wholesale prices too, but for the moment it's all about making pretty badges.

It's at this moment that I'm remembering my 16 year old self who went shopping every weekend in Dublin, drooling over the oodles of 1" badges, and adorned my army surplus jackets with them. I think my younger self would be rather pleased that I own two badge makers and a t-shirt transfer machine, and that I make some sort of a living out of it.

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Doing my Accounts

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I'm doing my accounts all day today and tomorrow. This is my definition of hell! I have a box of receipts, bills, and my market notebooks and it's in complete chaos. I am not an organised person, I've just about trained myself to be disciplined enough to run my business, but my Achilles heal is the financial side. I always put it off to the last minute, and then each year I promise myself to have a better system, to not do this to myself again next year. 

Oh well, I'll just have to get on with it, wish me luck!

(At least the dulcet tones of Dominic West are keeping me company as he reads The Remains of the Day)

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