A Hand-Made Christmas Sales Success Story

This is a story about a Scottish craftswoman, +Eunice Wilson, who is having a runaway success with her hand-made Christmas gifts made from upcycled leather. Think product, timing and luck….because the idea of hanging books around your neck, off your ears or on your wrists doesn’t immediately seem such a clever one. Unless that is, the books are miniscule and exquisite. Product, tick. 

Handmade Books Pendant £18-23

                                                                            
Eunice Wilson, a book freak if ever there was one, hit on the notion of making tiny books out of recycled material into jewellery and cufflinks and they are proving hugely popular in the run up to Christmas. Timing, tick.

Eunice’s big break came when

A handmade gift for a royal baby?

Handmade shoes using recycled materials "Emily" £89

I think I cooed like a wood pigeon when I first picked up these handmade baby and toddler shoes. The quality is superb, they are unbelievably soft and there's an underlying feel of permanency to them.
These shoes would last for generations. Neatly packed away in their luxury handmade cushioned boxes, they are the stuff of family heirlooms. Vevian is the place to go, I reckon, if you want a present for the next royal baby. Listening Pippa?

They are designed and handmade by Vivienne Lopez (see below, at her work bench).

When I discovered from Barbara Pani, who runs anecdotes design in Folkestone's cultural quarter (yes, it does have one) that the shoes are partly made using discarded materials, I was hot in persuit of the story. 

Vivienne later explained to me how she uses recycled materials in her handmade baby shoes.  She is fortunate in being allowed to take away the so-called spaghetti pieces left over after the soles for women's shoes have been cut out of leather sole boards by Gina Shoes. Full marks to them. Vivienne then spends hours grouping the pieces by colour because leather being a natural product, no two pieces are ever exactly the same. That done, she works her magic cutting, hand sanding, polishing and buffing.

   

"Emily" in the presentation shoe box made with recycled cardboard

The recycling of materials does not end there. And this is what I find so utterly charming about Vevian. Yes, owner Vivienne could buy in the cardboard needed to create the cushions inside the beautiful handmade shoeboxes. But instead she corrals her nearest and dearest to collect cereal boxes, packaging etc which she then cuts on a press machine to the correct size. The shoeboxes are gorgeous in their own right and are the perfect presentation packaging. 

It is no surprise that these heavenly shoes have featured in Vogue and at the relaunch of the children's shoe department at John Lewis' Oxford Street flagship store.

Vivienne is a mother of two small children; she launched the brand in 2008 and runs it with the support of her husband and extended family. The shoes are not cheap costing between £89-£95 pounds a pair, but, honestly, what price heaven for baby feet? And especially when recycled materials have been so inventively used in the process.

From top left clockwise, Matthew £95, Emily £89, assorted shoe boxes and Jessica £95  

http://www.vevian.com

A Great British Wrap-up

Artist Karen Green's "The Painter's Pantry" produces a smorgasbord of deliciously innovative items out of recycled materials for artists.  She paints too and I couldn't resist reproducing her portrait of the swaddled Peruvian baby above. The theme of swaddling, or wrapping, is key to much of what Karen otherwise makes - flawlessly sewn material wraps for storing artists' tools using upcycled fabric.

"I just find great satisfaction in being able to make someone’s ‘rubbish’ into beautiful items to be loved again." Karen Green  

It is with other peoples' "rubbish" that Karen creates a larder of goodies for artists which includes wraps for brushes, pencils or pins and needles collections. She also packs away buttons into spice bottles, creates sewing boxes out of spice racks and hand stitches sketch books.

Pencil Wrap £10-12

Paintbrushes Wrap £12-15

       

Pins and Needles Wrap £5-6

Karen is a trained primary school teacher, artist and screen and stage costume designer with a very thrifty streak! She literally haunts charity shops for swatches of lovely cloth that she can use to create the wraps and is a big supporter of buying local. Upcycling just comes naturally because she has always reached for the nearest leftovers to make her creations.

Networking for Craftspeople

Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Since I began writing this blog I have been struck by how many craftspeople are failing to put themselves out there!

It pains me to see artists and makers of handmade goods red nosed and shivering as the fickle public idle past their stands barely bothering to make eye contact. Going to markets or selling your goods through the odd shop or two isn't enough to promote a craft business; all sorts of strategic strings have to be added to your bow and networking is one of them.

Networking is vital for lots of reasons, not least for bringing you into contact with people who can inform, inspire, enthuse and chew the cud with you.  You'll meet other professionals in different fields, people you can discuss your problems with informally and who may provide new sources of business at the same time.

Imagine this - chatting over breakfast coffee and croissants to a high street shop manager who might be quite interested to allow you a small corner of his shop front to help pull in customers....or to a small business owner who might commission you to make something beautiful and handmade as incentive give-aways for customers. Networking events mean meeting potential clients. They are not just about boozy fat men in grey suits showing off about their car dealerships and carpet cleaning franchises (not there's anything wrong with those...). They are fun to attend and present business opportunities you might never have dreamt of.

If you are not already networking outside your group of artist and crafts contacts then you should be.
Simply google "networking events" for your area and a vast plethora will appear. The Federation of Small Businesses and your local Chamber of Commerce are quite expensive to join (around £150 and £80 annually in my area) but they provide an array of fantastic help to small businesses for example in the form of legal protection costs, debit and credit card payment discounted transaction fees, a free business banking service with the FSB, discounted roadside assistance and free training...to mention just a few.

There are lots of other kinds of local networking groups and women's ones too and they are much cheaper to join than the Chamber of Commerce or FSB but without the same incentives to join. They put on worthwhile training events though and provide good opportunities to meet other people.

So take my advice, brighten up your (sometimes) lonely, hardworking day and do a spot of networking. And if you are doing so already, tell me about your favourite networking group and how it has worked for you.

Alex Piros - Recycled Paper Secrets

I am delighted to be back after weeks of camping in our new home amidst shoals of unpacked boxes and splinter-prone bare floorboards.   A highlight of my blog-off time was meeting Alex Piros (above) of "BeGoodStayGood" who produces hand-bound notebooks and pretty paper goods. Loveitback met up with her on a hot and humid London afternoon in St Pancras station hence the setting for most of the pictures!

Alex has a stunning smile and while in fact she is German, she speaks a flawless American accented English. One of the reasons I was happy to include Alex on this blog is that while her goods are not made 100% from recycled materials she is making determined strides in that direction, and is setting a great example. Her personal ethos is to tread as lightly as possible to reflect her vegan principles. 

There's a sort of deceptive simplicity to Alex's products that is rather beguiling.  The Flutter Book in the main picture above is made from folding and cutting an A3 size piece of paper; the end result could be used for a photo album, love messages or as a notebook. I loved the idea that  it could be re-formed into an A3 poster and that when you stretch it out, it flutters like a butterfly. It retails for a mere £4.00.

Secret Pocket Book

Another that grabbed my imagination was the Secret Pocket Book (£15.00) with a hidden binding and ingenious folding flap for holding/hiding anything you might want! It was a bit dark in the cafe so I have flooded the picture with light to reveal the folding flap.

The Joys of House Moving

Loveitback blog  is going on temporary hold while we move from Kent to Gloucestershire and will reappear when ......power and water are finally switched on in our new house; when an internet connection is sorted and when the headache-inducing wood varnishing fumes have evaporated.  

These pix show where we are "at" in June and why I am not holding my breath for a speedy resumption of the blog.

Dining Room

One side of the garden room (other side looks the same)

How to balance creative work with joyless admin

 

Jessica Hall's company Bluebird Designs does a great line in enamel jewellery using recycled silver.  I remember how vibrant and delectable her designs were when I visited her stall at the Renegade Craft Fair late last year in London. She had come a long way for that - because home and studio is in Incline Village, Nevada! 

Before she opened Bluebird Designs she took courses in jewellery-making in North Seattle, Hawaii and San Francisco. Her "original bird" was made at a weekend enamel workshop in Hawaii - and from then on she was hooked.

Jessica has always been conscious of recycling and buys her recycled silver from Hoover and Strong.

How does a woman working alone manage to balance the time-consuming demands of both the creative work and the joyless admin? Jessica says she's learnt to pay heed to the moments when the creative juices are flowing freely. But it's clear the business side weighs heavily.

 "I'd have to say it's a constant juggle ....there are days I just want to sit and cry and pull out my hair in frustration and exhaustion....but I realize how lucky I am to have found such a passion in life and have it be my career as well".

It is a source of admiration to me the way Jessica, and so many of her colleagues in the business, run their businesses single-handedly, battling with the bureaucracy and yet still turning out imaginative works of art.

Jessica has promised herself a sketchbook for her nightstand (bedside table for we Brits) so that the ideas that seem so often to come to her in her dreams can be quickly jotted down. Jessica's friends - please note!

Although Bluebird Designs produces a variety of enamelled animals, Jessica's best seller is  her "Signature" bird.
  

She's experimenting with various avenues for sales purposes but has an Etsy shop, her own portfolio website, sells through some retail outlets and makes a point of appearing at markets and fairs.

 You can sign up to Jessica's newsletter at the bottom of her home page right here http://www.bluebirddesigns.com/