This week the business is six months old and I am now officially standing on my own two feet financially...gulp.This knowledge simultaneously sends me into a huge panic and makes me proud at how much I've achieved in those months.
Starting a business has been the steepest learning curve, much like having your first baby,you have to learn to adapt every day as your baby/business grows and takes on different needs,I've also had a lot of sleepless nights worrying about being the only bread winner.The nature of the business has shifted as I've learned what sells and where my passions lie.As it turns out I would really like to go back to university and study textile design but day dreams aside (Still not paid off my last student loans) I have bought myself a 2nd hand Mac and am on the long,very confusing road of teaching myself from tutorials, with the aim to eventually master surface pattern design and do something with my handwriting skills...
Starting a business has been the steepest learning curve, much like having your first baby,you have to learn to adapt every day as your baby/business grows and takes on different needs,I've also had a lot of sleepless nights worrying about being the only bread winner.The nature of the business has shifted as I've learned what sells and where my passions lie.As it turns out I would really like to go back to university and study textile design but day dreams aside (Still not paid off my last student loans) I have bought myself a 2nd hand Mac and am on the long,very confusing road of teaching myself from tutorials, with the aim to eventually master surface pattern design and do something with my handwriting skills...
Dealing in vintage turned out to be a perilous path...At points I couldn't bring myself to go to a car boot sale ...I know...Purely because all the fun was being sucked out of looking for vintage when you're thinking about it's resale value all the time. My contract ends at the lovely Design@44 this weekend :( and I'm considering the next best move. I have really enjoyed having a retail space that I can make look pretty but although I sold a fair few bits and pieces it wasn't enough to make profit.No discredit to the shop,vintage is a niche market and it's finding the right retail outlet. Bunting Workshop and I are doing a stall at the Derby Christmas night market on the 17th of November so come along and say hello.
One thing that I have discovered in my vintage dealings is how much better made things were back in the day.I can almost date things now by the materials and workmanship involved in the item and you can clearly see that as soon as China got involved, how products quickly became mass produced using cheap materials with minimal workmanship and craft.
I bought some vintage Christmas decorations at the weekend...which I may have mentioned once or twice...There were decorations in the box going back to the 1950s ...beautiful glass hand painted fairy lights and a Christmas fairy with jointed arms and original mercury glass baubles that were all testament to when things were made to last,when we treasured our belongings because we didn't have the mindset of new new new every year.
I raged a while ago about Ikea ...Deemed revolutionary in its day admittedly, now it just fuels the throw away culture we seem to have adopted.If I go to the Tip I want to climb in the bins after things I can see that could be reused and upcycled and it saddens me that we are filling the earth full of waste when it's so unnecessary.
Why have we let new become better when clearly things were made so much better in the last century? The tiny detail in some of those Christmas decorations speak of pride in the job and care in the design and that attitude is my inspiration for moving forward with the business.
Good things take time to create and when I'm panicky about my income, I will remember that at six months old babies can't even walk...
