Monday, September 8, 2008
A Crocheted Baby
Website: http://TheCrochetedBaby.etsy.com
Blog: http://www.daley-travels.com/crochet-blog/
Products: crocheted baby slipper-socks and 100% cotton crochet bath accessories, items such as facial and shower scrubbies, soap savers, etc.
Country/Location: USA
Can you tell us something about yourself? I’m a newly retired grandma and indulging in a life-long love of crocheting. My grandma taught me to crochet when I was a little girl and while my time to devote to it has ebbed and flowed through the years of raising kids, etc.; since we retired in Jan 2007 I’ve been able to crochet as much as I like (mostly!) I was also diagnosed with cancer last summer so had several months of chemo and not having the energy to get up off the couch to do anything very physical – crochet was a lifesaver for me then. I can’t stand (or sit!) and just do nothing and don’t even own a television!
For now we have moved to Alabama to be near our oldest daughter while her husband is serving his second term in Iraq. She gave us our second grandson about 8 weeks ago and it has been SUCH a blessing to be able to be here to help her – I was even in the delivery room when he was born! We also have one daughter still at home (out of 3 total) who is 12 and whom we home school. She was one of our foster babies who was unable to go back to her birth family so we kept her – that was 11 years ago. She has some difficulties due to being exposed to lots of drugs and alcohol before she was born, but she’s doing all right – I’m even teaching her to crochet! J
What are your goals for your crafting? My short term goal right now is to build up enough so that I can take a 3-4 week trip this summer to visit our middle daughter in Colorado. After that, my main goal is to contribute to our fund to purchase a new RV and truck. We love to travel around the country and are looking forward to being able to do it full-time within the next year. The crocheting I do is definitely portable and I can continue to work my business from the road.
Where do you find the inspiration for your designs? Hmmm, not sure on that one – ideas just hit me. For my baby socks I guess I usually find inspiration by looking at different yarns and visualizing how they would look made up as socks. I recently made several paid of red, white and blue socks and wanted them to have the blue star field on the cuff with the red and white stripes on the body of the foot. It took some time to find yarn that would work but I finally had some hand painted and they turned out wonderfully! I’m brainstorming other ideas for ‘summer themed’ socks now that I know I can just get the yarn hand painted exactly to my specs! J
Describe your daily routine. I try to spend my mornings working on networking and promotion – Flickr, Project Wonderful ads and campaigns, free ads around the web, whatever I can find. Afternoons are when ‘life’ intrudes – errands, school with our daughter, whatever else needs done. Evenings are creating time. I’m a night owl usually up until 1 AM and that is when I get my best work done. The house is quiet and I can concentrate!
How long have you been crafting? Most of my life – I’ve done crochet, loom beading (another favorite), polymer clay, plastic canvas, sketching (just learning this one), knitting machine, scrapbooking, you name it – I’ve probably tried it!
Are you a full time or part time crafter? Fairly full-time!
What made you decide to focus on your crafting and make it a business? While we are retired and don’t “need” the money, I do sometimes miss the corporate paycheck I gave up. Since I love to crochet anyway – and build up quite and inventory while I was going through chemo – I decided to give it a go.
How do you market or promote your items and where can we see it? I promote my items on Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecrochetedbaby/ ; Project Wonderful ads all over the place!; I also place ads on as many free sites as I have time for (Jaabu.com; Kijiji.com; BuySellCommunity.com). From time to time I purchase ads on various sites as well. And of course – my etsy shop: http://TheCrochetedBaby.etsy.com . I also have a (lately neglected) crochet blog section on my regular family website - http://www.daley-travels.com/crochet-blog/ . I am also hoping to put up a dedicated website for The Crocheted Baby, but realistically speaking that’s a little lower on the priority list. J
What can you say about your choice of work? I started out focusing on baby socks for my store, but have added 100% cotton bath accessories such as facial scrubbies and makeup remover pads – and they are doing very well. Right now my shop is about 50% baby stuff, 50% cotton bath items.
What can you tell your other fellow crafters? If you believe you have something others would like, give it a try. Etsy is very easy to get started on – but it’s also very easy to get LOST on. Especially if you are selling jewelry. And I’d just like to encourage you to be sure you do *quality* work – whatever it is. I’ve ordered some things and was really disappointed in the quality of them – jewelry with extra string or wire on it with no beads; stuff that just looked like costume jewelry but wasn’t marketed that way, just stuff like that. Make sure YOU would really want to spend your money to buy what you’re selling
RESEARCH who else is selling what you’re planning to sell (believe me - *someone* will be selling it!) and see how they are doing, see what the market rate is at Etsy. You really need to sit down and do the numbers to see if you will be making a profit on your items. If all you care about is getting back your money – that’s your decision, but at least make sure you ARE getting your money back. It costs money to pack and ship your items too. And gas is certainly becoming a bigger line item!
I could go on and on, but the bottom line is to figure out WHY you’re doing what you’re doing and what YOUR goals are – then reach for them!
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2 comments:
How interesting, will check out that shop!
www.florcita.eu
her writeup is so inspiring, it's helping other artist too.
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