The name game

Happy New Year everyone!

Actually, it wasn't until I typed that greeting that I realized how appropriate this post is for the time of year. I've been reading articles about sales, business, and Etsy shops and I've decided to start fresh. My current shop houses kind of a mess of products and isn't very unified. There's some photography, some embroidery, and a random piece of something now and then. So I'm going to start up a new shop with a clear business plan, a cohesive creative feel, and (today's task) a new name.

I'm bad at naming. I love it, but I'm very bad at it. I went through about 10 possible names for my new cat before landing on the one I've had in mind for years (Daphne). As of this post (or at least this paragraph) I haven't chosen a name for my new shop. I'll share my research and thought process with you and hopefully come to a decision. I know I had a post about names awhile ago, but I'm going in a new direction this time. Let's get going...

So, what do I need to consider:

1. What do I want in my shop name?

• I know I want my shop name to be personal. I'd love for it to reference something I loved in childhood.
• I want it to reflect the kinds of products I'll be making. Something about stitches or embroidery should be in there.
• I don't want it to be super girly/cutesy.

Keeping those things in mind, here is my list so far:

-Two Hippopotamus Embroidery (a Frasier reference)

-Mouse Tail Embroidery (I envision a mouse whose tail spells the shop name. And a mouse tail is kind of like string, right?)

-Papple Pooce Embroidery (This is a shout out to my favorite book as a kid. I read all the words with "p"s because I thought it was funny. This one is apple juice...)

-Felt Forest Embroidery (I use a lot of felt)

-Felt Maze Embroidery (Going with the felt thing. I envision a maze a la Highlights made of felt spelling the name.)

2. What do buyers want in a shop name?

According to an Etsy article from a few years back these are some things to consider:

• It should be easy to remember and spell. I think that rules out Two Hippopotamus...
• Less is more. Use fewer words that flow well together. Etsy gives this example: “JessicasDesigns” works a thousand times better than something like “beaddesignsbyjessica.”
• Avoid trademarks. I'm good on that one.
• Make sure your name reflects the kinds of items you sell. Since I make fun things out of felt a fancy name written in a fancy script wouldn't be ideal.
• It doesn't hurt to include what you make in the title. Yay! I thought of this one on my own!

Here are a few more tips from Entrepreneur.com. Some are more geared toward more traditional businesses. The Etsy clientele is a bit different.

• If your business name tells your customer what you do you'll have less explaining to do.
• The name should appeal to the kinds of people you are targeting. This seems really obvious, but it's almost so obvious you forget about it.
• The name should conjure happy thoughts or memories.
• I'm including this one just because it's kind of funny. Don't use "Inc." after your name unless you are actually incorporated. No kidding...

At this point I've only narrowed down my options a little. I do have a favorite, but I'd like to hear what everyone else thinks. We have Mouse Tail Embroidery, Papple Poose Embroidery, Felt Forest Embroidery, or Felt Maze Embroidery.

I'd love to hear your opinions or new ideas!

Thanks for reading,

Alie

Ps- Sorry there aren't any pictures this time! And to give credit where credit is due, here are the links to the articles: Etsy's article and Entrepreneur.com's article

And we're back

I made the mistake of starting a craft blog the week before finals leading into Christmas. In the next week or so I'll be doing a photo revamp. Every successful Etsy seller will tell you that good photos are about the most useful thing you can do for your shop. I'll get researching soon and keep you posted.

For now I'll share my Christmas crafts.

I embroidered tea towels for my mom. My cousins call her Aunt Yummy because she makes delicious desserts.

My brother Ryan got an Ina Garten inspired apron. (A shent is a shirt-tent. Ina wears one always. It's usually denim.)

And my crowning achievement was for my brother's partner Matt. His immense Golden Girls knowledge means he needs his own felt Golden Girls. He's been holding them in front of his face and saying quotes all day.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Good News and Inspiration

Happy Sunday everyone!

Good news! I sold my first item on Etsy last night. Yay!

More food pillows to come!

We're continuing with a bit of inspiration from The Mouse Market on Etsy. I love food and I love tiny things, so this shop is amazing. Better yet, for my Columbia friends, it's local! I have a couple pairs of earrings from her and I love them. I'm just blown away by her ability to make realistic textures. What's not to love about tiny food?

Get ready to be inspired!

We'll start with this chocolate mousse cake. Can I just eat it right now? Wow.

She's creative with her food items too! Fluffernutter sandwich? Yes please!

If you've ever worked with polymer clay you'll be impressed by the texture of that bread. I'm just amazed.

I'm channeling my grandma here. She says she only likes chocolate in the form of german chocolate cake. Those crumbs are astounding!

It's pizza, right? No. It's clay.

Waffles! Yum!

That icing is perfect. That looks like a real cookie!

And this isn't food, but it's seasonal. Happy Hanukah friends!

I hope you're as inspired by this as I am. I'll be back with photoshopping a banner design this week.

Thanks for reading,

Alie

Adventures in Screen Printing

Screen printing day! I have two screens and one frame with extra screen and cord. One of my screens is in use and the other is covered in ink. The ink is oil-based and the mineral spirits that are required to clean it off are pretty toxic. Seeing as a I don't have a well ventilated space and I do have an ill suite mate I decided to take a stab at assembling my own screen. I was pretty skeptical...

The supplies are all laid out. The fabric came on a cool foam board square. Yay free materials!

I cut off a piece of the nylon fabric. There's a deep groove along the sides of the frame that you push the cord into to hold the fabric in place. I didn't think I could get it tight enough...

But I totally did!

Time to put the photo emulsion on.

You apply the emulsion in a nice even coat across the screen using a squeegee-type thing. The emulsion is light-sensitive, so any part of it that is exposed to light will be "burned" permanently onto the screen.

When the screen is dry you put your design (printed on a transparency) on the screen. It's best to weigh it down a little with a piece of glass. That will keep it flat. Everything covered by black will not be exposed to light, so it will wash out and let the ink through.

Next you turn a really bright light on it for awhile. I usually go for about 40 minutes or so. It might not take that long, but I don't want to risk it and take it off too soon. The emulsion is too expensive for experimentation in my book.

Lucky for me I'm in film school and have access to good lights. Since most people don't have that access (neither will I after May), here are some light box building instructions.

After scrubbing the unburned emulsion in the sink the screen was ready!

Next I collected my gold water-based ink, my screen printing spoon, the squeegee, and a piece of black construction paper.

I put the paper under the screen,

put a line of ink on the top of the screen,

and pulled it across the design.

Unfortunately, the print didn't come out too well. I print my transparencies at Kinkos and they don't print very solidly. There are lighter lines in the transparency and that lets the light through. If you know of a different place to get transparencies printed let me know!

(This is a cell diagram, by the way)

But I want to show you a good-looking print too. I made a quick print from the screen I've been using for greeting cards.

Those lines were not intended, but it's the Kinkos printer. It kind of works on this print, but not so much on the cell.

I hope this was helpful and interesting to you! I'm a self-taught screen printer, so I'm still working on it. Don't be afraid to tackle it! It's not nearly as hard as it seems.

Thanks for reading,

Alie

Beaded Inspiration

I was listening to an episode of my favorite show (and hopefully future employer?) This American Life earlier today. It was an early episode from July of 1996. I was a little girl when that story was produced, but here I am fourteen years later, inspired to share one of their stories with you.

The episode was about obsessions. They were mostly about obsessive-compulsive-type behaviors, but the last story was about a woman named Liza Lou who spent five years of her life covering her entire kitchen with beads. They were tiny beads that had to be applied with tweezers. She spent almost all day, almost every day gluing beads. While this probably sounds horribly boring, I honestly think I would love it. The little repetitive things that result in something beautiful are what endear me to crafting. But five years? I'm not sure I could do the same repetitive task that long.

Liza says she liked doing it because of her curiosity. She wanted to know what a plate or a toaster or a refrigerator would look like covered in beads. She says working on the wall panels was a challenge because she finished one and knew what it looked like, but then had to do more of the same. But she did it. And now she's done a beaded backyard too! I'm extremely impressed. Check it out:

The whole kitchen. Wow.

Stove. Complete with towel!

They're GRRRRRR... BEADED!

What would water look like made of beads? There you go.

Every blade of grass is beaded.

The artist. You have inspired me Liza.

I'll be back later with screen printing! Yay!

Storefront Redesign: I need your input!

Thanks for coming back! I hope everyone is nice and organized (or thinking about it).

Moving on. I really need to make a nice cohesive look for my shop. As of now it looks like this:

It's okay, but not super exciting. Right now I'm calling my shop "Accordion Crafts". I'm not a fan of that title. Yes, I created it, but it needs to change. The only reason I called it that was because I liked the picture and I had to come up with something on the fly. This is where you guys come in.

I've been brainstorming new names based on pictures I have for the banner (the part that is currently occupied by a hand on an accordion). Once I decide on one of those I'll be able to take us through the process of making a logo, business cards, everything. But decisions are hard and I want your opinions. I think one of the most important things to do is get impartial opinions. Then you can get a better feel of how potential customers see the shop.

Etsy, as usual, has great tips on their official blog. Here are a few excellent banners they had on one post:

While non of these are quite my style they are indeed eye-catching! That's the goal here!

Now I'm going to share my ideas with you and ask you to give me your honest opinions.

Idea 1: Bouncy Ball Crafts

Idea 2: Row House Studio

Idea 3: Either Winking Eye Crafts, Wink Crafts or Winky Crafts

Idea 4: Chain Link Studio

Idea 5: Something with this cool piano

Idea 6: 45th Street Studio

Idea 7: Alley Cat Crafts (because my name is Alie and I love cats!)

There you go. Please let me know what you think. Which do you like best? Should I keep a picture but change the name? I want to hear anything you have to say. Thank you!

Tomorrow I'll have a little screen printing walkthrough for you! Fun!

Thanks for reading and happy Friday,

Alie

Time to Organize!

I said I would start off with a quick overview of what I've already done, but I lied. Instead I'm going to do what I've needed to do for awhile: organize! I think I'll make this a process blog. I'm going to start from the beginning to hopefully find a successful way to create a successful Etsy shop. Let's get going!

First I just have to point out that March is National Crafting Month as well as the month of my birth. Hurrah!

Anyway, let's start with the before pictures. I love to organized, but I never really create a system that will help me stay organized. It's usually out the window within a couple days...

Since my entire living space is one room (on-campus residence is required at my school) this is the entirety of my craft room. As you can see it runs right into my food storage area, which means the desk often gets used as a counter. In fact, it did that just this morning (recipe here: yum!) Clearly there is absolutely no space for crafting here. Yikes!

The hutch is attempting to be organized (note the box marked "papers"). It's failing pretty miserably.

The drawers are pretty sad too...

And my felt stays in a thing under the desk. If anyone has found a good way to organize felt please let me know!

Time to organize. Luckily, while talking to my grandma on Thanksgiving I recalled that she (like me) is a keeper of random things. She is also an occasional drinker of fancy coffees that come in little rectangular tins. She, of course, had several and I gobbled them up!

Step 1: Acquire small containers that fit your materials. Make sure your containers aren't stuffed full so you can add to them later. You could potentially leave your containers as they are, but I pulled out my hot glue gun (new best friend) and construction paper and made cute little labels.

Step 2: Decide what materials you need storage space for and label your containers appropriately. I made tins for hot glue sticks, clothes pins, google eyes, etc. Then put those materials in their proper containers.

Step 3: Set your nice new containers aside. It's time to start clearing the junk off of your space. I like to take everything off before trying to organize it. Once my entire desk was clean I started lining up my labeled containers. Then I added the junk I cleared off, creating new containers as needed.

Step 4: THROW THINGS AWAY!!! I am horrible at this, but it is key! 'But what if I need that 1/2'' strip of blue construction paper?' Unless it's the last scrap of blue construction paper you have it's probably best to toss it in the recycle bin.

Step 5: If you need to, run to the store and get a couple organizational things. I have a paper stacking thing that I love (it's in the picture later). Once you've put most of your things away you'll know what else you need. Tidy as needed and you should be done!

After a couple hours of work I had a lovely new desk!

Labeled tins

Paper stacker

Big coffee cans for bigger things

Nice clean desktop. The coffee can here is an inspiration from Amy Sedaris. Poke a hole in the top and pop your yarn inside. Instant dispenser!

I already had that finished work container (empty kleenex box covered with construction paper), but I find that a lot of my clutter comes from the projects I haven't finished, but still want to work on. Hence, the unfinished work box.

I had quite a bit of room behind my labeled tins, so I put a few things behind them. I made sure to put labels on the wall behind them so I can remember they're there.

Not a ton of change here. Just a little straightening.

I had a few things in bags that needed a place. I've learned I can't have my tackle boxes of thread out without making a mess of them. Learn from yourself folks!

Lesser used things go in the bottom.

Use hooks or pins so your wall space isn't wasted! If you're in a dorm like me you'll have to skimp on that a bit.

In the end I couldn't find a place for my silk screens, but they'll just have to go to the closet. They're not something I use frequently at my desk anyway. I also couldn't find a place for the felt. It's still under the desk, but I put the lid on the container!

So let's recap and look at a little inspiration (I wish these were mine, but they aren't):

1. Get containers. Be creative! You can use almost any container for organization. Shoe holders and blank CD containers? Brilliant!

2. Throw things away!!! Better yet, recycle!

(this is almost too organized for me!)

3. Know yourself. Figure out what you do that ruins your organization and do something to help you change that!

4. You can be creative while organizing too! Have fun and make it pretty. If it looks nice you'll want to show it off.

Thanks for reading and good luck organizing!

Alie

Please feel free to share your tips for organizing your crafting space in the comments section!