THISTLE COTTAGE STUDIO AND NEW DIRECTIONS FOR 2010
This, my first full year selling online on ETSY.com, has been a blast!
And a challenge, and a massive technological learning curve for a strictly right brained person like myself!! I could not have done it without the techno-support of computer wizard, Tim Adam of TimAdamDesigns also on ETSY!! He has been an invaluable source for mentorship and coaching for many artists learning to follow their creative bliss, and actually make a living doing what they love. I'll give you the link to Tim a bit later.
This year has also been a learning experience with regard to custom orders, and how to go about it, or not. While I do offer custom orders in my ETSY shop, I accept them at my discretion. If any of you reading this blog, have worked on custom orders, you know that your customers can be VERY SPECIFIC about what they want, OR, what they THINK they want!!
Despite countless hours of emails, honing details down to the last hat pin, I have found that I can easily end up spending more time CONVO-ing with the customer, than it actually takes to make the hat!! And when the hat is finally done, and all elements of design and materials have been approved, including sketches, there may still be a less than enthusiastic reaction when the package is finally delivered and opened!! Then, there is the customer who tells you HOW to put a design together. While their interest in their custom order is perfectly understandable, know that it can become overly obsessive very quickly, leaving little or no room for you, the designer, to work the magic that makes you the designer you have become known for!! IF you choose to take on custom orders, be sure you have unlimited time and patience, and are willing to spend untold amounts of time with your customer. You MUST, however, take the reins of control and set some ground rules right off the bat!! Otherwise, you're in for a very long and ardous ride, that does not come close to compensating you for the time invested.
In your shop announcement, and CONOVS with your potential customer, set those ground rules down in stone. Be certain you know your boundaries, of what you will and won't allow. For example, offer choices of color scheme to the item, BUT, keep in reserve your right as an artist to put those colors together as you see fit. Allow some exchange of ideas, to be sure, BUT, let your customer know in no uncertain terms, that YOUR creativity is holy ground, and that their trust in your artistry is inherently important to the success of the piece!! Your custom customer must also be wide open to variation as you see fit to make the piece work.
Don't be afraid to have these very frank and open discussions with your customer, otherwise, you will spend untold hours working on something that you think is wonderful, only to find that your customer had a very different vision of what that piece would look like when it arrives. Even in the best of circumstances, when I owned my brick and mortar shop in a very upscale college neighborhood, custom customers could be very demanding, and even communication face to face didn't always yield the result either of us were hoping for!! So, it is far more challenging doing it via email. Alas, ye olde telephone proves to win in the end as the best form of communication, when it comes to custom orders.
Then again, you may also decide not to offer custom orders in the first place.
I will share a few successful custom order photos, that in the end, were appreciated by my customers. I thank them both for the trust they, in the end, placed in my work, and for the 100% customer satisfaction "feedback" rating from all of my customers this year in my ETSY shop.
That link for the best online selling tutorials from Tim Adam is www.handmadeology.com. Tell him TCS sent you!!
This first hat was designed for my dear friend, Barbara Stassi, a Red Hat Society member, who has more joi de vie than anyone I know!!!
Thanks Queenadaritz!
And the second hat was for my new best friend Marty Scholtz, who wouldn't leave the house without a gorgeous hat on her head!
Thanks to these two very classy and liberated ladies!!
In my next installment, coming very soon, (in about a week or so), I'll be sharing some insights into the exciting new direction and inspirations for 2010 that
I will be indulging in my shop. As my background is deeply rooted in apparel and costume design, you can be very sure that what's coming will be a flood of ideas that have been ripening on the vine for some time!!
There will be hats, to be sure, but there will also be fashion, wearable art jackets, dresses, coats, and costumes!!
It's going to be a fabulous year, and my scissors will be cutting into some of the most beautiful fabrics from my own Personal Reserve Collection, that I've been hoarding in storage for 25 years, waiting for just the right time to make their debut!! Just wait until you see what's coming!!!!!
HATS OFF TO YOU!!
