Make It

Tax Time

For the past couple of years, I've done my own income taxes but this year will be the first year I now have business taxes to file as well so I just stopped in at H&R Block on my way home today and made an appointment for later this week. After going through it with a professional this year, maybe I'll have the confidence to do the business taxes myself in the future.  Now I've got to round up all my paperwork and a spreadsheet of my expenses and income to bring to my appointment.

A little sneak peek of my home studio is over on Poppytalk, Jan is showcasing the studios of the participants in this month's Handmade Market. I love using little boxes for storage and I'm expecially fond of the white boxes pictured here. They're from IKEA (2 for $7) and I gave them a little extra pizazz with the brown and white labels I made from cardstock and double-stick tape (my new favorite thing!).

One of the questions for my studio tour was about my inspiration board. It's funny, I don't really think about inspiration that much and I don't currently have an inspiration board. So far, I've got too many ideas in my head, I don't need to stimulate any more. My next three pattern designs I'm going to turn into silkscreens are all patterns I came up with when I was experimenting with block printing last year. So they may be familiar to those of you who have been reading the blog for a while. I've got such a backlog of stuff I want to do, so I say "no thanks" to the inspiration board right now.

Under wraps

Poor Matt, I've been stealing his books to use for wrapping and photographing. And because I sometimes retake pictures in new settings, I keep them wrapped up, like, permanently. There have been a few occasions where he's asked about a book and I tell him I think it's wrapped up somewhere.

I've been thinking alot lately about next steps. On the one hand, I want to really streamline my product line to a very specific set of items in specific colors. I think this will make it easier to present my products to stores and also looks more professional. At the same time, I want to print everything in every color and I have a hard time whittling it down to a few favorites.

I'm finding that being able to edit your own product line is an important (and unexpected) skill for a designer.  I've sort of just been adding colors as I come up with new ones, but there hasn't been an overaching plan or sense of cohesion. This is where a business plan would probably come in handy, I think now is the time to start writing one. It's important to give customers a range of choices without overwhelming them, all while keeping a consistent look to the entire line. I've got my next three designs already worked out in my head but I'm not sure if I want to introduce new designs until I feel like I've got this first batch all sorted out.

Orla's Process

I am a huge fan of Orla Kiely. I really admire how she has built her business around one signature pattern, her Stem print. She has a really skillful grasp of color and pattern, she's not churning out dozens of designs a year, but everything she puts out there is a hit. She's releasing a stationery line next month which I am very curious to see. I liked this little interview I found where she speaks a bit about her business.

"Each year, we do a new project," explains her husband, Dermott Rowan, who's also managing director of the company. "But we don't do anything unless it can be done absolutely perfectly." Perfection is what Kiely is known for. She qualified as a textile designer from Dublin's National College of Art and Design (NCAD) before doing a Masters in knitwear at Royal College of Art (RCA) in London. Now, twice a year, she develops a unique print at her design studio in Clapham which is then stamped in various forms (discreet to less so) on her bags, knitted shift dresses, floppy hats, coloured tights, coats, mugs, rugs, wallpaper, lampshades and more.

Read more here.

I haven't found many interviews with Ms. Kiely and I'd be interested to learn more about her business. Do you know of any others?

My dirty little secret

I have a secret love for websites where people write funny words over pictures of animals.

www.faildogs.com

www.icanhascheezburger.com

Did you know

If you're like me and don't have cable, you can watch the entire season 4 of Project Runway on You Tube here.

Fierce!

This show always makes me want to start sewing immediately.

The Etsy experiment

I'm re-energized by my new product photography set up. I took some more pics this afternoon and I think I will take all my future pics in this little spot so that I can keep some consistency among the photos. I've put a few new things on Etsy and will now starty listing or re-listing regularly (about 3 - 4 times a day) for as long as I can. I'm enjoying following the progress of this etsy seller who is currently doing an experiment in which she updates her Etsy shop 15 - 20 items a day for two weeks. The results are very interesting.

Cotton ribbon and product photography

Product photography is something I struggle with constantly. I had a little bit of a cleaning spree this weekend and after clearing out the heaps of clothes piled on a wooden trunk in the bedroom, I realized that the corner of the trunk was right under two corner windows with great natural light. The top of the trunk is a  dark wood that is a nice neutral, but not boring, background for photos. I paired this paper with some cotton ribbon I had ordered from Dunwoody Booth. I'm not a silk ribbon type of person, so I like finding alternatives for wrapping packages. Another one I really love is this ribbon.

Buying ink in bulk

This weekend when buying some more ink, I decided to go for the biggest container possible of white ink. It's the color I use the most-  either on its own or mixed with other colors- so I figured getting the biggest container made more sense than having to keep running back to the store for more of the smaller ones. I've come a long way from the tiny little containers I started with.

Nice Surprise

It was a nice surprise to see one of my card sets included in an article on wedding registries written by Grace of Design Sponge!

New favorite color combo

I'm really liking these colors together. I think my love affair with chartreuse + purple started when I saw this post on DesignSponge about the rebranding of Butterfield Market.

In other news, the featured seller section on Etsy.com is one of my regular reads. Today's featured seller interview is great and I love that he has Erykah Badu in his photos. Etsy seems to be making an effort over the last few weeks to feature a more diverse selection of sellers which I appreciate. I discover so many great shops via the featured seller section. The amount of talent on Etsy is overwhelming.