Make It

Days 98 - 101

98 - 1/24/08
99- 1/25/08
100- 1/26/08
101- 1/27/08

So in the time since my last post, day 100 has come and gone! I've enjoyed blogging (almost) daily so fear not, the updates will continue, though I probably won't try to keep track of the days anymore. Knowing that I have you blog readers to report to has been a good  motivator to get stuff done.

I've been printing on the new screens and....screenprinting is hard. There are so many things that can go wrong in this process, from the designing on the computer, to the film making to the screen making to the ink mixing to the actual printing. Of course I wouldn't do it any other way but I've encountered challenges at every. single. step. of this process. But I'm stubborn and I'll keep at it until I'm an expert.

The screens look great but they're significantly bigger than my previous screen. As a result I'm having to get used to the pressure and amount of ink needed to print on these bigger screens. It's a learning process. I did get two smaller screens made and those are SO much easier to print with. I've come up with a bunch of gift tags and an idea for a card/envelope (yes, printed envelopes may be returning) set that have redeemed my faith in screenprinting. In the meantime I'll just keep printing on the bigger screens until I get it down.

Day 96, 97

96- 1/22/08
97- 1/23/08

Last night I attended this month's Boston Design Salon meeting for female design entrepreneurs in the Boston area. What a great group, I highly encourage any female designers in Boston to check out an upcoming meeting (info on how to get on the email list here). Last night's event was hosted by a store owner in the South End who talked about the process of setting up shop. I chatted with several stationery designers making plans to show at the National Stationery Show in NY. I think I may try to visit the show as an attendee, no way I'm ready to exhibit my own stuff yet.

The big news today is that I got my screens! Matt worked from home today so that he could help me pick up the screens (also he really wanted to see me drive). Not only did I drive for the first time in four years, I also had to parallel park for the first time ever! We made it there and back without incident and Zipcar was a lifesaver. The screens look amazing. Hemlock Ink did a great job and had great customer service, I would highly recommend them if you're local. I'm awaiting my delivery of paper later on this afternoon then I can get printing! I've got three 30 x 40 screens for my designs, three 30 x 40 screens for Black Pearl Press, and 2 small screens for gift tags (my designs).

Hemp twine I picked up at the craft store over the weekend. I had some smaller screens made for gift tags, I'll use these to string the tags.

On the way home from dropping off the Zipcar, we stopped in a new bakery and picked up a loaf of Tuscan Tomato bread for lunch. Amazing.

Day 95

Day 95 - 1/21/07

Spent some time today playing around with a Christmas present, a Wacom Bamboo tablet! This thing is so cool. It's a little tablet and pen that allows me to draw in Illustrator as if I were using pen and paper. My drawings are immediately turned into vector images. It will make translating my doodles into repeating patterns so much easier.

Days 92 - 94

92 - 1/18/07, 93- 1/19/07, 94-1/20/07

I ordered $600 worth of French paper. This does not buy as much paper as you may think it does. I don't mind paying a premium for a sustainably made product from a small American company, but it's hard to pass this price along to the customer in the form of gift wrap- something most people see as dispensable anyway. I know $4/sheet seems like alot for giftwrap. Pricing is tough, especially when you consider the wholesale side of things.

Speaking of sustainable, American-made products, it seems to me, if this was more of the norm, we wouldn't have ourselves in the midst of a recession. Everything happening in the American enconomy right now only convinces me more that living small, simply and supporting small local businesses when you can is the most sustainable way to live your life. Why can't our government get it together and  promote and support this kind of lifestyle?

I was pleased to find out my two-year old Zipcar account is still viable, so I'll be renting a car later this week to pick up the finished screens from Hemlock Ink. I hate driving and haven't driven at all in over 4 years, so this should be interesting...

Day 91

Day 91 - 1/17/08

Today I went to Hemlock Ink to drop off the film for my Jigsaw pattern. I already had this film because when Standard Screen made my first screen they sent it to me. I'm having the screen for this pattern remade because, if you recall, I was having some inconsistency with the printing. I think this is because the screen they burned it on was too small. This time I getting it done on a larger screen which should result in more consistent prints.

If you're in the Boston area, I highly recommend Hemlock Ink for getting screens made or for tshirt printing, which is their main business. Damon, the owner has been really good with the customer service side of things, answering my questions and even fixing some blotchy spots in my Jigsaw film, making it good as new when we thought it may be unusable (using nothing but a wet q-tip and a sharpie). He was in the midst of printing out the films to make my other screens and took me on a tour of his workspace while I was there. Screens could be ready as early as tomorrow! My boyfriend's car recently died and is out of commission so I'll have to come up with a plan B to pick up the 6 huge screens and two little ones to bring home. Zipcar, maybe? Three of the screens are for my Black Pearl Press collaboration, so you'll be seeing the results of that shortly.

Meanwhile, I'm ordering my paper today. I'm mixing things up a little bit. I'm getting white and kraft-colored paper once again but I'm also getting a few additional colored papers, plus cardstock to use for business cards, gift tags and who knows what else.

Day 88,89,90

88 - 1/14/08, 89 - 1/15/08, 90 - 1/16/08

Thanks to those of you who emailed to take me up on my business card offer. I've chosen a couple of crafters to work with and we've already started corresponding about ideas. I will share the final results when the cards are printed.

I got a call from the shop making my screens today. They were expecting the blank screens to arrive today from the manufacturer and they will then burn the images into the screens by the end of next week at the latest. Though they said they'd most likely be done much earlier in the week. I'm actually going to stop by their shop tomorrow to drop off a film I have for the Jigsaw pattern, which I received with the screen that Standard Screen sent to me.

I have come up with a few new product ideas lately (I'm always coming up with ideas). I want to do paper-covered boxes like this and colored patterned file folders like this. Also Nancy sent me a link to a die-cutter which may make envelope-making much easier than my earlier attempts, so I may reconsider making those again. The first step is obviously getting the screens and then printing some paper but I have a billion ideas for what to do with that paper. Trying to take things one step at a time ("enjoy the journey" and whatnot).

In the meantime we're also dealing with some intense snow and some perfect homemade pizzas. I shoveled snow for the first time ever on Monday. While I was out there my neighbors (who I'd never met before) came over to help shovel and salt the sidewalk. They went on the sno-blow the sidewalk for the whole block (if I had waited 30 mins I probably could have gotten away with not shoveling at all. Ha!). I think snow brings out the best in people who don't have to drive in it.

Day 87

Day 87 - 1/14/08   

It took a while, but here's where my wholesale order from last year ended up. Cut and Paste was one of the first online handmade boutiques I discovered many years ago (I think they even pre-date Etsy) and I was so honored to be contacted by them!

I think alot about wholesale vs retail. I really admire the business model of Maria of port2port press. Maria does a bit of custom work, releases limited edition designs once a month, does artist collaborations, and runs a card of the month club. What she doesn't do is sell large amounts of cards to retailers. In this way, she keeps her product limited so that customers have to come directly to her to purchase it and she gets 100% of the profits. I really admire that aspect of her business and I'm always thinking of ways to incorporate that into how I'll build my business.

One way to do this is by doing custom work, and that's where you come in. I want to start doing custom printing of business cards and stationery and then eventually gift wrap sized sheets and fabric. But I need some practice before I put myself out there for paying customers, sooo I need some volunteers who want to get free stuff.

If you have a small business and need some business cards made, email me at rifferaff at gmail dot com.  I'll screen print you 100 one-color  business cards (of your design or I can help you design it) for free. In exchange, I'll want to get feedback from you about my ideas for pricing, packaging, and the process of coordinating a custom job.  Please include a link to your store or pics of your work  in your email and I'll pick two or three people to be my guinea pigs.

Anyone interested?

Day 86

Day 86 - 1/13/08   

I got an early start this morning and put together a few new scrap packs and a new-ish product: sets of 12 x 12 paper that can be used for crafts or scrapbooking projects.

I've got a few more things I photographed this morning that I'm going to save to list tomorrow. I need to get in the habit of listing on Etsy regularly, everyday if possible.

Product photography may be one of my least favorite parts of this process. It's so tedious and frustrating.

Homeprinted labels: green for scrap packs, blue for 12x12 paper sets.

Labels in action

Sorting out and packaging 12 x 12 paper sets

Day 83, 84, 85

Days 83, 84, 85
1/10, 1/11, 1/12/08

Hi all, sorry to have disappeared for a few days (looking back, I realized I've dated the past few entries with 2007 dates!!). Life, work, and my newly instituted gym schedule - trying to go every other day- have gotten in the way of updating things here.

I had a revelation a few days ago and I'm reluctant to reveal the source of it because I'm a skeptic myself but here goes: it was a tarot card reading. Our friend Forest came to stay with us for a few nights and showed us his new woodblock printed tarot card deck and, our interest piqued, Matt and I asked to have our cards read. It was my first time having cards read and it was SO interesting. I asked about the future of my business and Forest pulled three cards that represented past, present and future. A fourth card represented a suggestion for how to approach the future. In short, my past card represented a satisfaction with and appreciation of achievements, the present card represented a disturbance or conflict (more on that later) and a future card represented success with an image of a bridge. The card representing the suggestion for the future signified that I shouldn't be so focused on the end result and should enjoy the process and the journey of getting there, if I do that, I'll find success.

So, back to my present card: as soon as Forest said it represented a conflict, I immediately thought of the screenprinting class I mentioned a few days ago. I have been really conflicted about the cost of it and the time investment. I see it as a great opportunity to get skills to further my business, but I also think I've done ok so far with learning on my own, experimenting and learning valuable lessons through trial and error (i.e. enjoying the process, not being so focused on how to get ahead).  Also, for some reason, I've been feeling like the class is going to take my attention away from the biz, right at the moment I was planning to ramp things up. I emailed the professor earlier this week to learn more about the class and still haven't heard back. So, I've decided to skip the class, it will be there next semester or next year if I decide I want to enroll (which may very well happen). For now, I want to get my hands dirty, start printing lots of things on my new screens, experiment with colors and fabric printing and just enjoy the journey, man.

Has anyone else gotten their cards read? I hope I didn't freak out any regular readers! Mostly I think the process let me bring to the surface the feelings I'd had about my business but wasn't able to (or didn't want to) express.

In other news, I'm slowly adding a few things to the Etsy store. I'm selling gift wrap in sets of 2 and in sets of 3, I've adjusted my shipping prices, and I've started a "seconds" category for printed pieces that are slightly off in some way (either color or print quality but otherwise usable). My new stickers I'm using for packaging are looking good, I'll take pics tomorrow during the day and post some. The decision to not enroll in the class has really invigorated me and I'm going to try to start listing more regularly and spending more hands-on time with the paper.

Day 82

Day 82 - 1/9/07       

On Monday I stopped by Paper Source and picked up a variety of ribbon and plain boxes to use for product photography and this morning I finally had the time and the natural light to take pictures. You can see all the results in my Flickr. I don't yet have the new screens so these are photos of the Jigsaw pattern in colors you've already seen, but I'm going to use them to replace the pics in my Etsy store and then photograph the new items in a similar way, so everything will look cohesive.

One thing that I find helps with continuity is using a white background. It also reflects light a little and helps to brighten things up. See below two pics of the same package shot on different backgrounds.

Here's my very sophisticated photo setup: a table in front of an open window with a piece of white foamcore. Turn the flash off, turn the macro setting on.

Many more pics at my flickr, click the link at right.