GREEN!

Yesturday I was working with some beautiful green material I bought recently. It is an amazing colour! Well, I think so anyway. It’s a wool mix and really soft to the touch. I have had to use a sew in interfacing though as it wasn’t keeping it’s shape as well as denim does. I love the look though.

At the Michelstadt fair last weekend, one of the stands was selling beautiful ribbons. I just couldn’t resist and had to have some. I’ve already used some of it on two of the bags I was working on yesterday. One is a messenger bag (bottom, left) and the other is a shoulder bag (bottom, right). 

I also love the little cow button. I got some of those last week and sewed them onto a little book and purse-set which I had made especially for the fair. I thought that it would make a nice little Christmas present, it went right away… So, when I was in town yesterday I wanted to buy more. Sadly, there was only one left I should have bought them all up last week as they are/were so sweet. That will teach me not to hestitate so much.

The problem now, is that I’ve run out of strap so I can’t finish off the bags. I’ve done as much as I can and now they’re just lying there waiting. I know, I know, it wasn’t very good planning but I went to buy some yesturday, but the shop had run out as well. I’ve now ordered a whole roll so hopefully it will last a little while. I’ll take pictures when I’ve finished them and you can tell me what you think.

 

Michelstadt, the market

At the weekend I had a stand at an arts & crafts market in Michelstadt. The town is lovely actually and if you’ve ever in the area you should take the time to explore it. It was also a very nice fair with all sorts of beautifully crafted articles for sale; such as handmade glasses, candles, jams and preserves, dolls, hats, cards, etc. there are simply too many to mention. I could have spent lots and lots of money. But I managed to control myself, well to a certain extent!

Here are a few pictures of my stand and me . The response to my bags was very positive. Everyone appreciated the fact that they were one-of-a-kinds. They also loved the prints, the colours and the special little details. I had made little note books and purses especially for the market, I thought that they would make nice Christmas presents. Everyone seemed to think the same, they went like hotcakes… I have another fair at the weekend and need to make some more. This time I will take pictures and post them, so you can see what I have been up to!

Getting ready!

Everything is packed is ready to go, well not quite, the brochures are still printing! It didn’t take too long to pack this morning for tomorrow’s fair/market as it will be indoors and tables are included. Which means that we don’t need to pack the tent/pavillion. Which in turn means that setting up tomorrow will be easy and quick! I’m kind of glad that it’s indoors too as the weather isn’t too good. Anyway, I’ve packed about 4 bags of each model so customers have a wide variety to choose from. Plus for fairs I have lots of little bits like make up bags, agendas, note books and a whole basket full of little purses.
I’ll post some pictures on Sunday or Monday and tell you about how well it went!

designe, kleine!

I went to check on my box yesterday… It’s not what it sounds like!

There is the coolest little shop in Sachsenhausen called ,designe, kleine!‘. It’s on Brückenstrasse, a street with lots of local designer shops and trendy cafés. In this cool little shop, up and coming designers, such as myself, can rent a little box to display their wares. When the owner sells something she gets a small commission on top of the rent price. It’s very affordable and a great opportunity to display what you make. I think the concept of the shop is really clever. The design of it is also super trendy.

My little display box is right when you come in, you can see it in the left hand picture, right at the front. I love that round handbag on display actually… Here’s a close up picture of it (right). The front is made of brown tweed, whilst the back is stiff blue denim. It is decorated with a bird print on beige linen. The final touches are a brown ribbon and a row of little wooden beads. This would suit just about any outfit, be it casual or dressed up. It would suit a denim jacket just as well as a trench coat or a leather one. If by any chance you have fallen in love with this bag but live abroad and can not make it to the shop let me know! I’m sure we can sort something out.

Plus why not check out the ‘designe, kleine!’ website! And if you’re here in Frankfurt you should definatly pop around and see it for yourself!

A happy customer with her round handbag

Here’s a picture from a happy customer proudly wearing her round handbag!

She came to my place to pick one but found it hard to pick just the one! She said she would be back again, especially with Christmas being just around the corner. They do really make great presents.

I think she made a great choice! This black and purple handbag is so feminine. It’s elegant enough for an evening out but still funky enough for the day. She was also lucky that I had the matching little purse to go with it!

The Art Saloon!

I visited the Art Saloon, one of the shops that sells ALEX bags yesterday. I love the shop; she has loads of cool things in there. One of my favourite things she sells, other than my bags of course, are frames made of old wood, they’re really lovely. I should have taken a picture, sorry didn’t think of it at the time… The address is so good as well, Fressgass is a really renown street in Frankfurt but the shop itself is in a quiet Gallery…
My goal was to pick only a few really good shops through out the city, but she isn’t selling very much so the question is; do I leave them in her shop or do I try and find another one? It is getting close to Christmas so I want to be part of the rush, so maybe a busier store would be better. But at the same time I just sent out the press release with the name of her shop, so I guess I should see if that will make a difference…

What do you think??? Any suggestions???
Oh, by the way I have gotten one response back from the press release that I sent out yesterday, one newspaper has already gotten back to me saying that they would publish it for €249. I thought the idea of a press release was that they would print it for free; I mean you are supplying them with a ready-made story… Oh well, I hope some of the other newspapers and magazines do want to publish it… For free! I will keep you posted.

the ‘Press Release’

I’ve been told that I should send out a ‘press release’ to build up demand for my bags and to make people aware that there is something new out there…
I have never done this before. To be honest, I thought the shops would do that. But you know what these are my bags, I want to sell them and I want the shops to buy them from me so there needs to be a demand for them. I need to build up the hype!
So, I’ve been on the internet looking for sites on ‘how to write a press release’ and found a few helpful ones. I thought I would share these with you:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/A4288944
and
http://toolkit.prnewswire.com/GA/index.shtml
Anyway, if you are going to write one in Germany the layout is slightly different, I found a few examples just by typing ‘presseinformation’ for the search, but I didn’t find any ‘how to sites’. Of course, you could have this done professionally, I saw lots of sites that would do this for you, even send it off to the newspapers for you. But at the minute I don’t have the budget for it.
I’ve now sent mine off to a friend to correct my German spelling. It would’t make a very good impression if I sent it off full of spelling mistakes!
In the mean time, I will search for all the newspaper addresses here in Frankfurt and then just send them off. I will let you know how many actually respond and how many add it in their papers. And of course I will let you know if it helps!

Getting started!

I think that starting your own business doesn’t have to be that difficult, you just have to do a lot of research and take the plung! And of course, not be scared of making mistakes.
I have done all sorts of jobs over the years and have always worked hard for my bosses. My last job in Cardiff was great, I was PA and loved it. But when my husband mentioned moving back to Germany I said that I would only come back here if I could start my own buiness. We have lived in Germany before, so I speak the language well, but not enough to work as PA here. The last time we moved I sent out about 200 CVs hoping to find a good job, but ended up working in a shop. There’s nothing wrong with that, except that I wanted more! I am very driven and wanted more resposiblity, more freedom.
So this time it is great to have his support and financial help while the business gets started. I know that he secretly hopes that one day the business will go so well that he can stop working all together, but I think that’s a little bit of wishful thinking!
Anway, for me what took the longest was the paper work simply to be allowed to be in Germany and to operate my own business. This is the first step you will save if you want to start up in your own country. After that it’s pretty easy all your need to do is register your company and bingo you’re in business. Well, there is the fact that I work from home so I didn’t need to rent a workshop or shop.
My biggest investments so far have been in a good sewing machine and a laptop! The website I created myself on dreamweaver. It took forever to understand and get it going but I am pleased with the result. I went onto a few forums and asked their opinions at first and got lots of helpful feedback. Then I have to read up on hosts and picked one. There are great sites out there that really explain from start to finish what you need to do. I think the trick is also to know when you need help and to stay open minded to ideas and suggestions.
The concept for the bags I already had from my sister, she makes and sells them in Canada already. She was genorous enough to share her patterns with me and we spend a few days sewing together last time I was back home. It was really great!
Sewing I had learned from my grandmother. It sounds silly but when I was younger we used to make my barbie clothes, so it wasn’t too difficult to then start making bags. It’s not like I had to learn how to sew.
I guess that is the secret, you need to start a business in what you like doing!
So my new tackle is Blogging!!!

Introduction!

Hi everyone!
This is my first attemp at Blogging so be patient with me!
My aim for this Blog is to keep you up to date with what is happening with my handbags. For example I plan on adding pictures of fairs and markets I participate in, new bags, new patterns, new materials, cools sites, helpful forums, etc.
But also I will let you know about what it’s like trying to start out your own business; the ups and downs of it all! At the moment I do everything on my own from website design right on through to selling the bags at shows. I am learning about it all as I do it.
Anyway, I hope you will come back often and add comments!
Alex