Today I mostly feel like journaling about the business.
We have tackled several hurdles in the last couple months. The first is Picture Frames. Doesn't sound too complicated, does it? Making the frame is the the easy and fun part. The problem was the backing. Of course, we could just make all our frames Wall Frames, with little sawtooth hangers on the back, but we weren't satisfied with that. I spent hours and hours searching the internet to try to find "easle backs" for our frames, so they could sit on a table. Besides that I couldn't find any that I liked, the ones I did find were way too expensive. But we finally settled on a solution that is fun and inexpensive.
Here's a sampling of some of our new frames:
A natural one with wormholes:
A slatted one that is one of our top sellers:
One with a little Coke detail:
And a one-of-a-kind one that we sold for the 4th of July:
We have had a lot of fun with our frames!
Next hurdle: Craft Shows.
I've already shared some pictures of our show at the Farmers Market, but here's another:
We had a great time there. I believe Tim did 6 shows there over the course of the summer. They were definitely a highlight. Our next step is to hit the road and do some real craft shows. Tim's cousin, Bronwyn, has spent the last several years on the craft circuit, and has given us lots of tips and leads. (She has a fun etsy store HERE).
My goal is to hit 3 shows this fall. I'll keep you posted how that goes!
Hurdle #3: Shipping.
The world of shipping has been quite the experience. I love getting online orders for small pieces...I can ship those pretty easily. Learning how to print labels online was a little tricky, but I've got that down. I've begun to get a feel for which carrier will be the cheapest depending on the size of my box. The big problem has been shipping our large pieces, particularly our large bulletin boards. They are so large that I could not find a box large enough, and the shipping charge was outrageous.
It may seem like a silly thing to commit to prayer, but that's what shipping had come down to. My prayer was that God would lead me to a solution. I've learned that he loves to come through for me, and it looks like he has done it again. This summer while we were visiting family, my sister, who is an interior designer, passed along some used boxes that she had. We loaded them up, and I never even really looked at them until we got home. They were art boxes...large and flat and unlike any box I had yet seen. Shortly after that we got our first online order for one of our bulletin boards. I cringed inside, wondering how in the world we would ship it. Low and behold, Tim discovered that it fit almost perfectly inside one of these new boxes. With some minor tweaking, he got it to work. What a relief! But that's not all...the box was sized just right to knock the shipping down to a manageable amount.
Tim photographed the box, including the factory stamp, and sent it on its way.
With a little research I was able to find the company that made the box and get in contact with them to get a quote to have some made for us. I can't wait to seal the deal, and have our own supply of boxes waiting to be filled and shipped. Yes, God cares about cardboard boxes, and he cares about me.
Bit by bit we are learning the ropes of owning our own "hand-made" business...and we are very eager to see where God takes us with it!
