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What a great studio space. Via WrenHandmade. I love the huge drying racks and windows.
The Revolution in Micromanufacturing
L-O-V-E this quilt. I've been wanting to make a quilt with a blanket inside instead of batting. I like the story behind this one
Mast Brothers Chocolate. I've never tried their product but the packaging has me sold. Via Oh Joy.
One thing I really want to do with my soap business is to differentiate myself from the competition. I really enjoy brainstorming ways to be different or bring a new angle to a familiar product or business. Sometimes I even brainstorm strategies for other businesses, what I would do in their situation, just for kicks.
My holiday stint at Zingerman's has been formative as I think about how to launch Rifferaff Soap. Working the phones, I got to hear what the customer wanted and how they ordered. And you know what people, love? Gift sets. People love to have the work taken out of gift giving, but they also want to give a thoughtful and unique present. They want the ease of a gift certificate but the thoughtfulness of a handmade item. And they want a good value. So I've kept that in mind the whole time I've been coming up with my soap ideas and I'm planning to be heavy on the gift sets. Another great thing about gift sets is that it gets me thinking about all the various audiences I can target (and as a result all the various ways to market) Mother's Day, Father's Day, new parent sets, holiday-themed sets. As far as I can tell, none of the soap makers on Etsy are really pursuing this route, so I think it will differentiate me enough to get some attention in the crowded Bath & Beauty category (2400 pages of listings as of today).
Gift sets allow me a chance to mix and match various elements like boxes, paper and ribbon to create a lovely presentation for each customer. This is something I've discovered I like doing and have a knack for. I'm currently thinking about how to pull together my first set for Mother's Day. I really love the look of tone on tone colors, so I found this dark purple box which I'm thinking of matching with this light purple ribbon. And I was thrilled to find these affordable handmade soap dishes on Etsy (pictured above), since everything else I was finding was made in China.
But, as usual, I'm getting a little ahead of myself before my product is even finalized. The next steps are to create one more pattern to coordinate with the two stripe patterns I currently have. Decide on what color papers and inks to use, and finalize my soap recipes. I'm giving myself a deadline of April 1 to pull it all together.
Tax time. Accounting is the one thing I truly wish I could pay someone to do for me. I'm always overwhelmed and confused by the process, plus this year I'll have to do taxes for both MI and MA. I don't even want to think about it really... And don't even ask me about quarterly taxes.
How do you deal with taxes? Do you pay someone? Use a service like Turbo Tax? Just do it the old fashioned way? Any free online resources or book recommendations would be greatly appreciated. (Photo credit: Flickr)
Wow, you guys really like your rectangle soaps. I don't think there was one vote for square. I'm glad I asked!
In other news, we're moving. Here's the story: Matt and I already had to commit to renewing our lease for the next year (even though it doesn't expire until Sept 1, more than 6 months from now) which forced us to think about our living situation. We haven't been thrilled with our current place. If you recall, while still in Boston, we found it online and had a friend look at it and never had the chance to see it in person before signing the lease. Now that we've been here 6 months, we know we don't want to stay in our current place; so when we heard a friend's mom had a rental that was opening up later this year for slightly less than what we currently pay, we jumped at the chance to see it.
It's in a building that was formerly the local chapter of the Humane Society. There's a small upstairs sleeping loft and a very open living room and kitchen on the first floor along with the bathroom and another little room. Yes, that's right- there's a separate room on the first floor that will not be used for sleeping, cooking or lounging. So what will it be used for? Rifferaff! For the first time I will have my own room for all my projects (and mess) and be able to close the door on it at the end of the day.
It's a little "quirky" with no sink in the kitchen and gray vinyl flooring. But the landlady is very open to us doing projects like painting and gardening (there's a massive back yard) and the space has alot of potential. (The sink situation will be taken care of before we move in, we cook too much to not have one.) The one thing that gave us major hesitation is its location, 3 miles away from downtown where I work and where the university is. Given that we are currently within walking distance of almost everthing we need and only drive to do laundry and go grocery shopping, it's going to require a major shift in our relationship with our car, unfortunately. But, everything else was so tempting that we decided to go for it. Unfortunately after getting all jazzed up over our new place, we still have to wait out our lease in our current space and will move sometime around late August.
In the meantime, here are some pics we took when we went to visit. If you ignore the current tenants' mess, I think you can see how nice and open the space is, with great light.
This weekend I experimented with a new combination, adding honey and vitamin E to my soap base. The result: I think we have a major winner. I wrote on twitter that it passed my "ashy elbows" test, meaning that even hours later my skin was still retaining moisture in what are usually my most dry-prone areas. I've done alot of experimentation to try to find my magic combination of a soap that won't disintegrate in the shower and will also be very moisturizing. Matt even called it "luxurious," high praise in my book. Now that I've found the right combo, it's time to do a little production run and send out some samples (I'll be asking for volunteers later).
But first, I need to get a mold. Do you prefer square bars or rectangular bars? I prefer the look of handcut square bars from a loaf mold. But this is not the most reliable method, you basically rely on your eyes to estimate where to cut to get a 6oz bar or a 4oz bar. So I think I'll get some molds with pre-made score lines. You mix up the molten soap, pour it in, and then when you pop it out you'll get a large slab of soap with score lines across the top. Use these lines as your guide for cutting the soap to get a perfectly consistently-sized bar every time.
Square soap seems higher end to me, but I wonder if you guys have a strong opinion either way.
Genius idea from Jill Bliss: multi-purpose labels with her logo on one side and address/contact info on the other. Use it as a return address label on mailers, or stick it on scraps of decorative cardstock for business cards. I love seeing ingenious cost-effect ideas like this for small businesses. I may have to borrow this one. Via the Coin-Op blog.
Coin-Op is the blog of Pinball Publishing, an eco-friendly printer in Portland, OR. They print for lots of artists who may be familiar to you from Etsy, which is how I first found out about them. I'm loving their Pennywise line.
I really want to get some of the Pennywise business cards printed up to use as thank you cards with orders. I'm thinking a huge printed "Thank You" on one side and I'll personalize them with a rubber stamped message on the back. 1000 cards for under $200 sounds good to me. And they're eco-friendly! And a small arts-friendly biz!
I printed two new patterns and wrapped some little soaps just to see how it would look. My wrapping skills are a little rusty. As you can see I'm keeping it simple for now since I'm using the drawing fluid method. I'm thinking of getting rubber stamps for each the soap names instead of handwriting them as I did here. What can I say, I love stamps
Another dud here. This one is sad because it smells amazing but it did not result in a pleasant shower. I used paprika for the coloring, which I had read in a book that you could use for orange coloring. It just made me really itchy in the shower though so I don't think I'll be using that again. I did use turmeric for the other bar and didn't have any problems with it on my skin, so I haven't given up on using spices for coloring. At least there's one upside: the scent I used - yuzu - is incredible. It's a japanese grapefruit and it's a really nice fresh-smelling citrus. I'll try this one again minus the paprika.
