Back At It

Well back to work I went.

Just got home from gluing some more rings at Dads, this will be the last lot of rings for awhile so I had better make it last lol!

Business is pretty slow at the moment although that will hopefully change soon!

I caught up with my old pal Maxim who proposed that I sell my stuff at the Brisbane Suitcase Rummage Markets!

This is a market held in the centre of Brisbane city where you can sell your wares from a suitcase! So essentially a whole concregation of peeps with suitcases :p

The stallholders ticket was only $25 which I see as a good gamble to see how the first market event will go! Maxim also offered to be the stallholder for free which was really nice of him!

So if you are in the vincinity you should definitely check it out!!!

Busy Busy Busy

I am at this weird stage where I am busy but not busy... I guess its because it isn't physical work, just stuff on the computer.
I have started my Made it store (coshwash) and also my Etsy store (etsy store) and have, in 4 days, made my first sale in both of them. Unfortunately thats all that I have made :( I guess I knew it would be slow going and all but ugh. Im just a bit over lurking on my computer and the numbers that aren't looking so great... I am currently housesitting and don't have any of my things with me which is starting to irk me because I want to have a crafty day so it gets my mind off things.

Sorry for this being such a negative post! Alright I will start looking on the bright side! PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY BUYING MY STUFF! Its a good feeling! I just hope they like it! It has been a real challenge learning how the selling process works with these things! Well perhaps challenge isn't the right word, but it has been an experience none the less :) The only thing I dont like is etsy and made it taking a commission :p although it is only minor which is good. I really need to get my head out of this rut and focus on designing new things!

BYEEEE!

Etsy Opening!

I have now opened my Etsy Store!!!
How exciting! Man it took a lot of work. I haven't actually sold anything in the two days it has been open but I have had over 40 views on my listings and shop :) Still feeling positive about it and I know my things are more expensive than the other peoples but I have better materials. There I said it. I know what they're using, I've used it before and I believe my things are of better quality... Hm now I sound a touch self-righteous... Le sigh. I'm just saying that I will give it a few months until I decide what to do with prices. I still have my made-it store to start up and get running too! And then I would eventually like to hit up the markets! I have lots of plans for this business venture but it all takes time and patience.
Oh wells. No pic today sorry folks :(

Selling Season

Selling Season is back!
I uploaded a whole new batch of rings hot off the press :p So happy that I finally have some new stock up! Not to mention the amount I now have! I am very pleased.
I didn't put all of my stock solely on Facebook this time though. I figured it's about time I tried to start up my Etsy store... Talk about nerve-racking! I have been photographing my little heart out which was SO BORING! But I managed to get through it, now I just have to do the editing tonight and tomorrow and look for a way to display the size of them. I also don't know how much international postage is, so I guess it's off to the post office for meeee!

I have had a few sales lately ^^ mostly requests to make things; which is highlyencouraged! I like having to go out of my depth and actually look for things to make something in particular, I guess it allows my inner hunter and gather to come out :p

So the gluing saga ended well. We had a procession line going to get the all done as quickly as possible to avoid the resin drying on us! They have all stuck and are sturdy and solid! I am also really pleased with my ring bases! They are SO SO SO much better quality than the previous ones! They also look SO much better! <3

Ok well I'm off to dins with Dad.

Laters.

New Product!!!!

Spirits are getting a bit low in regards to the business... I know its not supposed to be go go go! But I have only had one sale in the last week and its a bit meh. I know that I haven't put my rings up yet and I still have more earrings to go on but yeah... Its just a bit frustrating I guess...
Anyways I didn't start this blog to have a whinge... OR did I *shifty eyes*

No. I did not. The last few days I have been trialing some new products! Woohoo!

THESE:

Are my latest venture :)
They are 100% hand made out of wool and old buttons!
Their insides are made of recycled wool scraps so essentially they are 100% wool! Yaaaaay! They're pretty cute in an odd sort of way...

Oh and I forgot to mention they're brooches!

So thats that. I haven't actually put it out to the public eye as of yet because they're the only four I have made atm... But I do hope people like them, I like them because they're something different and hand knitted which is always nice...

Apart from that I had a commission for a charcoal, this is it.
Junior.

So thats my life so far into this week. Hopefully business picks up but if not I dunno, I guess I will just have to work out some new strategies. Right now I am experimenting and playing around with different wools with different textures and thicknesses... The thick stuff is hard to work with thats for sure!

Laters Skaters!

Rain Rain Go Away

There has been nothing but rain today... It makes it dreary and dark and I never want to get out of bed :(
We tried to go on an adventure today to the Cupcake Espresso cafe` but MAN did we get disappointed! It was raining so heavily and we had to run up the street and across the road and up another street only to find that it was closed :( Talk about devastation!

We just wanted a cupcake and a coffee! As it is the queens birthday here everything has decided to be shut...
We then drove over to Darby st, another cafe` area, and FINALLY found a place that was closing within the hour. Le Sigh. All of this in the pouring rain. I hate rainy days when I actually want to go outside.

Not Impressed

I am not impressed with the silver coated earring backings. Nope. No Siree.
They bend FAR too easily and they doing go on smoothly like the surgical steel ones.
Needless to say I will not be purchasing them again...

I was supposed to be having a full on work-a-thon today but because I stupidly cleaned my little heart out yesterday (I vacuumed like there was no tomorrow) and because, as I recently found out, I am super allergic to dust mites my face is KILLING ME today! L
It feels like there is a balloon under my skin that just keeps getting bigger, pressing into my skull... Essentially I have super bad pressure migraines. Le sigh.
So today I am just trying to do what I can without causing too much pain, computer time has to be limited which sucks because I did my new product photography today and was intending on editing and uploading. I guess it’s going to be a long and slow day in the office today...

On the plus side I am sitting here with a lovely hot cup of tea in my jammys and wearing my favourite nebula ring ^^

My little bro, Pumpkin, is chilling with me today... Well he has no choice seeing as he is our resident rabbit. He gets in very naughty moods at times but overall he is a pretty good little buns.

Alright back to the products. I have made HEAPS of earrings! Sooooo many! I am a happy little gumnut! The product photography, in my opinion, isn’t as good as the previous batch because I don’t have any nice wood grain surfaces here (the previous lot was done at Dads.) so I used the pebble concrete outside. It looks pretty OK but defs not as nice as the wood grain. My other problem at the moment is Etsy. I’m not sure if I should pursue my store on there yet or just stick with facebook... I was thinking of just doing a few items but even then I don’t really have any doubles of stock because this has been a major experimental batch! I might start it next week and just see how this lot goes selling... I am thinking that I will upload them in batches of 10 every second day. That way they aren’t all going up at once and people can stay excited :p
Well I had better get a wriggle on! The day is waning and my sister is coming to visit for her 21^st! I feel so old!

Ciao.

Cabin Fever

Got me some supplies!
And since yesterday... or the day before I have been working my ass (and fingers) off! Have got most of the stuff done but I needed to order more earring findings and still need to take the rings back to dads to use his boat resin to glue them! It seems the only thing that is heavy duty enough to work! No matter how many times I tried the araldite just kept snapping off when excessive force was used. And yeah I guess that would be alright to a certain extent but I really do want the best and most durable products.
My fingers hurt so much, even typing is a challenge... :(
On the plus side of this creation binge I have made HEAPS! So so so so so much! I made a little trip down to spotlight and bought up big and came home and just went nuts on the material stash! And I really love a lot of them! They so prettyful ^^
Here's a bit of a preview of what I have been up to:

A few of the earrings I have so far :)

All of the goods :p

Because it has been raining I have just been sitting inside doing this for the last 2-3 days, I am going a little mad and really need to get out of the house or something!
I am also planning on house sitting mid-June so the thought of packing all this stuff up and lugging it with me isn't particularly appealing...
For right now though I do believe it is DINNER TIME!
ciao.

Post Grand Opening

The sale went quite well!
I sold 8 of the 12 things that I uploaded! So thats more than 50% gone :)
I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out considering I was expecting like 1 sale hehe!
It was an excellent experience I must say, both exciting and scary at the same time with crazy thoughts like 'zomg I hope they dont hate it all!' 'What happens if no one buys anything!' 'AH MY FIRST SALE!' hahaha I had fun at the very least!
Now my plans are to head on home (I'm still at dads where the interwebs are fast and free!) and get creating, I have quite a few packages full of supply-goodness waiting for me at home! Not to mention I have to package and send off peoples purchases!
Le Sigh. In other words back to work and NO SLACKING!

And So It Has Begun...

Alas the sale has started! Talk about a stressful take off too!
I had all of the product photography done and it had gone like the breeze and then it seemed that the biggest decision I was going to have to make was whether to put the products in their own albums or to just put one photo of each product in a simple 'For Sale' album. I went with the latter...
So as the clock ticked on it eventually reached 4:55; five minutes before the sale was supposed to start and my delegated uploading time! I had carefully selected the best photo out of each shoot and had just hovered my curser over the upload button when OF COURSE there was a blackout. Yep. At first I was like 'Woohoo my laptop still has battery life!' until it dawned on me that the maker of the interwebs is powered by electricity... Now fortunately the power was only out for a minute but even so the modem was not impressed and refused to restart. It took about 10 minutes to get the thing going again! 
Once I had finally uploaded my pics it took a futher 7 minutes to write in the descriptions because highlighting to copy and paste wouldnt work :(
I then thought it would all run smoothly from there on in but no. After about 20 minutes and 1 sale later I realised I hadn't put postage on the price! So again I had to rush and do that in case someone got angry about it! No one did of course but I come from a retail background where some people get VERY angry about the smallest of mistakes...

So far I have made three sales which I am very pleased with :)
It has been a really good experience so far and a great prep for future business. I guess it has been a good learning curb in what to expect and have pre-prepared, like product descriptions!
Just got a fourth sale! hehe!

Au revoir Hombres`

Sale Tomorrow!

SALE TOMORROW!

Getting a bit nerve buckets... <3
Just did my product photography which was easier then I expected, now I'm off to the editing program!

All in a days work

I call it 'freaky chicken' hehehe it always makes me giggle. I drew it for a friends birthday tomorrow, i'm not sure if I like it yet because it just seems so comical to me! Then again some of the looks chickens get are pretty comical.

When I was little my best friend was a white chicken called Sarah. Probably explains a lot about me :p

Don't forget to fear the fuzzy!

OH MY GOSH

H'ok. Well.

Sale day will be June 1st :) Its going to go for 3 days! woohoo!
So starting at 5pm Friday I will be uploading the individual pics on my facebook shop page... www.facebook.com/coshwashdesigns ... Then people can just comment 'sold' or something similar and private message me for payment details!

This is going to be a massive test for me especially if nothing sells... I might be a bit devastated lol...

I also have VERY limited stock so I guess we shall see how it all goes... I'm also worried about the products quality-wise... I have been having problems with the glue so i'm really hoping that it finally works! I mean it is pretty heavy duty but its not AMAZING! Which worries me slightly :(

Heres what will be going on sale:

Bit of a shitty photo...


Heres a better one instead:

GRAND OPENING!

I do believe I shall have a grand opening sale for the launch of my Facebook store... coshwash designs

I was thinking 50% off all of the products I have so far, just so as it is an introductory offer and people can see the quality and not have to pay full price. Oh! Not to mention everyone loves a sale :p

So my usual prices are going to be:
- 19-25mm (the usual size) rings are $7
- Larger ones are $9
- Earrings are $10

I think this is reasonable, I will review it in 6 or so months depending on sales and demand. I am really hoping that this works out... I've put a lot of effort into it and I don't know, I guess its just become a dream. Haha I hope I'm not sounding too dramatic :p I just want people to like what I make...

Later I think I might start selling my drawings too. Although they are a real pain in the ass because they are charcoal and it is the WORST thing ever! It smudges so darn easily and unless framed it pretty much just gets destroyed :(

At the moment though my biggest obstacle seems to be the stock itself... I just don't seem to have very much of it! I have 11 products... I am still waiting on stock to come in the mail! Does this seem to be way too little? I DONT KNOW!!! Then again it doesn't seem too much or too little...

Hmm... If Oki was taller she would be wearing this right now.

Titled

I arrived home last night at my Dads and had some HUGE cat cuddles from my little cat prince! :)
I got some more this afternoon when we had a cat nap together.
My little cat prince's name is Franklin, he is quite the adorabubble one <3
Oki joined in on our nap time too, she pretends to hate Franklin but really she loves him... sometimes.

I also finished and framed a picture for Dads birthday which

is tomorrow. Gosh I've been a busy little bee!

 It's done in charcoal and was supposed to be a kingfisher but looks a lot more like a kookaburra.

Now I didn't just start this entry to ramble on about my day, no, I came on here to tell you about what I'm making! Wooohooooo! More the materials than the actual product...

Alright, so I try to source as much as I can from Australia (where I live) and majority of my materials are successfully obtained from here but alas at times it is just plain easier to source things from overseas. Easier and cheaper...

The material that I use has all been locally sourced from retailers over the years, so it's relatively old and the odds of there being any of it left in the shops are low. Given this, at the moment I guess I would consider the patterns quite unique.

Both the earring and brooch backings are from Australian retailers and suppliers.
The silver earring backings are 100% surgical steel, even my super sensitive ears are pretty good with them! So I was quite impressed by the quality.
The gold ones are gold plated and I haven’t tried using them yet so I’m not really sure how they go, but they seem to be good quality as well. The only problem that I found with the earring backings was that I tried several different sellers and of those only one actually sent them with backings, the others only sent the posts! Talk about frustrating!

With the ring bases I was pretty much forced to source from overseas, although I will be reviewing this and looking for new suppliers because the language barrier and confusion can get a bit much at times. But in the end the prices of the ones here in Australia are just so inflated that it become ridiculous! And they are the same quality so unfortunately there are no real perks! If there was a real difference in quality and not just price I would definitely source from here...

Alas that is the story so far.
Oki keeps looking at me...

You Don't Know You're Beautiful

Flooding houses are the worst. Also I can't get One Direction out of my head :(

MY SUPPLIES ARRIVED!!!!
Thats pretty exciting :)
Not all of them mind you but a good deal of them ^^
At least i can get some designs sorted and stuff!
Speaking of which here's what I had a play around with...

Some prettyful materials! And now I'm not just thinking rings and earrings but brooches and some other cutesy things :)

Here are some ones that I started making, at this stage just playing around with different materials and techniques.

In the background you will notice my GIANT PILE OF MATERIAL! Haha! I've had it for so long that I can at least say my things will be unique :p
And that is what I have been doing today! I'm now off to check the mailbox! Woohoo!!!
This still doesnt make up for downstairs flooding but it is a good distraction!

BECAUSE YOU DON'T KNOW YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

I want a cookie

Le Sigh. Still waiting for stuff to arrive before I can start creating...
On the plus side I have made my work space at home :) Getting all sorted and ready to roll, oooooh yeeeeah!

A friend who has some of the samples I made said that she has been getting positive feedback on them so I'm pretty pleased with that, I mean what more could you ask for :)


Here's an adorable picture of a kitten to brighten your day ^^

<3

Don't judge me on the crapness

So I thought it might be wise to show you a photo of what i'm actually making.
These are the first and experimental batch so they're really not perfect by any means and the photo is very blah... But at least it gives you an idea and the gist of things :)

So there you have it, my first batch of rings and earrings! Hope you like them ^.^

Toodle pips!

Interweb Frustration

ARGH!Ordering stuff and things over the interwebs can be so frustrating!!!
I'm so used to the way 99% of the internet conducts their transactions that when i'm faced with something SO BEHIND it become incredibly frustrating...
One of the suppliers i'm buying from has this 'system' which seems to involve waiting a really long time to do anything! They send you an invoice so you're like 'woohoo! all done!' but then they dont do anything, just list it as 'in progress'. They then, after a few days, decide to list it as 'order to be shipped' but still dont take your money out of your account OR send you a final invoice they keep saying to wait for... Le sigh.
Its not a big deal but it just makes the little things so frustrating. They had also cancelled my first order and didn't tell me :(
Welcome to the world of business i guess...

Ok Rant terminating now.
I'm really looking forward to getting home and opening my many waiting packages ^^
Today i have been playing Syd Meier's Pirates all day instead of leaving the house :p It's an annoying game but addictive non the less!

The Second Beginning - Coshwash Designs

Been awhile hasn't it.

I've been a busy little bee!
I have gained some dreams and aspirations and although I'm still a little lost in my own world I'm on A path, I’m not sure if it is THE path but at least I’m on one :)

So for the latest chapter in my life I have decided to finally create a brand/design/an outlet for my creativity. It has been an itsy bitsy brain egg for quite some time and I have finally put it in motion! It has been a huge and amazing learning curb too! I never realised that starting something could have so much work involved, and man have I been researching my butt off!

It has been a crazy old path so far and I’m only just beginning!
Want me to tell you a little about it?



It is called Coshwash Designs and it is starting off as handmade jewellery and other cute so and so’s. I haven’t actually had anything to sell yet but sourcing materials has been an adventure in itself!



Here’s a bit about the process so far:
For the first time in my life I have had to deal with wholesalers for bulk materials, I have really tried to keep my supplies Australia based to ‘keep it local’ so to speak, but in some cases that’s just not an option. It has been a struggle to try and convey what I want through email and either have them not understand or just not even receive a reply.
My first lot of materials came from good ol’ eBay... They were expensive and at first quite disappointing. They did however provide a starting platform and give me an idea of what I do and don’t want from things, and yes I was kind of upset at first because, like anyone just starting out, I figured it would all work out first go, it took me awhile to appreciate the process for all it was worth.
I currently have a whole lot of materials on the way to me now and I am mega excited to start creating! It has been frustrating trying to source everything and not be able to see and feel it and I am still quite apprehensive as to what quality the materials will be but I am trying to stay optimistic and improvise if need be, practice makes perfect after all and eventually I will get it right... Eventually :p
Now alls i need to do is recieve the supplies, make my creations, take some awesome sauce photos and get them out there for people to see! I am really having trouble containing my excitement, after sourcing everything it's weird not having anything to do at the moment...


So that’s it so far. Expect a lot more posts once I get my lil' paws working, I can’t wait!

Ciao!