Holy Shit Shopping

Wow, what an event! My last weekend at Holy Shit Shopping in Stuttgart was absolutely amazing! it was such a great way to finish off my year. 

To be totally honest when arriving on location I was a little sceptical.  The building looked more like a barn and the drive way more like a junk yard than a place for a designer fair.  But past all the rubbish was a cool hall.  At first I was scared no one would find the place as it was in such a wired location but boy was I wrong! I think they often have shows and events there, I’m not sure as we don’t live in the area.  There was actually a queue to get in on both days!  I didn’t have time to walk around to look at the stands but what I saw when building up the stand was very good quality stuff and all sorts of stuff too.  From clothes, to books, to art work, to jewelry, to porcelain, to name a few. Oh and bags of of course.

Here are a few pictures of my stand and from my stand looking out.  

 

 These were obviously taken before it became too busy. Still though you get a bit of a feel for it.

They do them in other cities as well, I’ll let you know when I’ll be participating again, this was the last fair for this year though.

So everyone have a great Christmas and a happy new year and I’ll be back in the beginning of the year with new stories, pictures, etc.

Funky New Bags

As promised here are a few of the new bags I made this week.

I really couldn’t tell you which is my favourite; they are all so different and unique.

If you had to pick only one, would you be able to? Which would it be?

 

 

Small purses

Sorry for the lack of posts, I’ve just been trying to catch up before the next and final fair of the year.  I don’t think that I will manage to do everything I wanted to do though. I’ve had many customers come here to pick bags, which is great but means that I’m not catching up.  I guess you learn from your mistakes; next year I will start earlier and also not finish so early…  I can’t wait for our holiday but the 22nd of December is too early.  It means that tomorrow, Friday the 19th is the last day for people from Frankfurt to come buy bags in my workshop.  That was not brilliant planing on my part. 

Anyway, I’ll stop complaining now

To be totally honest the last few weeks have been very intense but also great.  Sales have been great! It’s nice to feel that all the effort and all the work is paying off.  I’m hoping my last fair,  ’Holy.Shit.Shopping’ will be good. I’m hoping to add it to my yearly fairs, like Stilblüten and Museumsuferfest.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’ve also still managed to make a few more small purses, shoulder bags and messenger bags.  Here’s a picture of the small purses, I love the new materials I got recently, they’re very colourful. Tomorrow, before packing for the fair I shall post some pictures of the later.

BBbbbrrrrrrrrrrr!

My second Christmas Market!

Last weekend I had a stand at the Hayner Weihnachts Markt (Christmas Market) in Dreiech-Dreiechenhain, which is about 15 minutes away from Frankfurt.  It’s a lovely little town with an old castle ruin and a moat. It’s also quite famous for it’s Christmas Market as it’s quite big in comparison to the size of the town but also as it prides itself  in having many stands sells handmade goods. Unlike Frankfurt for example, though big the market here is full of ’schnick-Schnack’ as the Germans would say, which kind of means cheap and tacky junk.

I participated last year as well (click here for last year’s post). I was even at the exact same spot as last year, which I always think it’s a good thing as it helps people recognise you.  A few people even came by to say ”Hi!” and say that they had bought a bag from me last year. Though I prefered my display this year, it was simpler, which meant that you could see the bags better.  People were less scared to touch them, open them, appreciate them with this type of display. It felt more like a little shop that a stand. All in all it was a great weekend, though VERY COLD!  I had my long-johns on and several layers of sweaters, I even had a little electrical heater, but still come 20:00-20:30 I was frozen through and through.   

       

 

Only one more fair now before Christmas, so I’m sewing again like mad.  Will post some pictures tomorrow of some of the new bags.

200th post

Wow! 

Already the 200th post! 

Well, maybe not already, as it’s taken me over a year to get here.  During that time you have seen a LOT of my work. You’ve read about my ups and downs. You’ve seen pictures of my best and worst fairs, of some of my trips, of many custom made orders and even a few of the less photo-shy happy-customers.  You’ve been there with me during the really good times and the times when I thought that might throw in the towel and call it a day.

I hope you are all enjoying my blog and will continue to read about my escapades. I hope you feel part of it too.  Actually a few days back when at Stilblüten I was really pleased to meet a young woman who says she reads my blog regularly, even asked how sales had been so far in Karlsruhe…  I was really touched.  Sadly I’ve not heard anything about how things are going on down there.  I hope they are selling well.

Please feel free to make comments or suggestions about what you would like to read about in the next 200 posts! It’s always great to read what people think. Also a personal thank you to Caf for all your comments; they make me smile each time!

200! 200! 200! 200! 200! 200! 200! 200!

Flickr

Custom Made

I was contacted recently about making a custom made wristlet for a wedding.  I was excited, I am always flattered about being allowed to make something for someones special day.  The only issue this time was that I was meant to use the same material as the dress.  When she arrived I thought that she had gone mental as the material I was meant to use was still in the form of an actual dress…  I felt like it was such a pity to take apart a beautiful dress.  But she explained that she had bought the dress especially to have something made out of it.  Worst than cutting through a beautiful dress though was the type of material, it was made of satin and a delicate polyester that stretches in all directions.

At one point I almost gave up, all I wanted to do was cry as nothing was working.  Last night after undoing my work twice I decided to take a break before I threw a tantrum.

This morning I picked up where I had left off, but I don’t know if it was the coffee, the morning light or the night’s sleep but everything seemed to fall into place.  I’m really pleased with the result! We had discussed maybe making a little bracelet out of the remaining beaded sections.  In the end I used most of the beaded sections for the wristlet and didn’t think there would be enough left.  I used the rest to make a broach for her jacket.  I hope that she will like it, it’s obviously not something for everyday but I think that it looks really beautiful and will make her jacket look really special.

Before

After

 

 

Stilblüten

Last weekend was Stilblüten #7.

Wow what an event, it was great!  There were some great participants and soooooo many visitors and super funky music.

I had made quite an effort for my stand.  What do you think, do you like it? The idea behind it was that it was meant to look like an entrance hall where you need to stop and pick the handbag that best matches your outfit before leaving the house. What do you think, is that what it looks like? You had the hat stands full of bags and a mirror to check yourself out… I thought it looked nice, though I would have liked to have everything in pink.  The only problem was that it didn’t all fit into the car…  luckily it wasn’t far from where I live so I walked there with the last bits. But in a couple of weeks I’ll be participating in a fair in Stuttgart so that wont be possible, it’s a two hour drive…

 

I have to apologise though because I didn’t really have time to go around and take pictures once it got going.  This was taken before the doors opened, when I had just finished setting up.  It was very busy and to be honest I am totally pooped this morning. I’ve unpacked and rebuilt everything again, then checked that everything was up to date with website and spreadsheets…  I think that I might even give myself the afternoon off, though saying that, I have to be at work for 16:00 so it wont be that much time off. Oh well, that is the luxury of starting your own business I guess

Last weekends fairs

I’ve promised myself not to dwell on Saturday’s experience.  So let me just say one thing, before driving 2 hours to a fair, one should do their homework better than I did.  It was a total waste of time.  Sure there other participates were lovely and we all had a good chat but that wasn’t the goal of the day.  Of course it’s nice to meet new people but I was hoping to sell lots of bags. I mean this is the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, right?  This is a business not a hobby, I need to sell bags.  Either there was a lack of publicity or it was done too late, I don’t know what the problem was but there were simply not enough visitors to make the day be worth it.

Sunday was very much ’same, same but different’ (as they say in Thailand).  There were very few visitors there also but at least those who came were the right clientele and appreciated the work.  There other participants were also very cool, so the whole look and feel of the place felt much more professional than that of Saturday. It’s just a pity that there weren’t more visitors. Still though at least those who came seemed in the shopping mood.

 

The other participants included Susanne from ‘designe, kleine!’ Other than running her shop she also makes all sorts of cute and imaginative stuff; like a little snowflake pin ‘in case winter doesn’t come’.  Or a bookmark in the form of a dog weeing, the wee being a yellow ribbon that saves your page. (top left)

Silke was also there, she makes coat hangers out of Fuss-ball figurines. She’ll even paint them to look like like your favourite football team, they’re great gifts for guys.  (top right) For the girls she makes lovely Christmas decorations (below left) she stitches old images onto material and then frames them.  Visit her Dawanda Shop.

Die Naschwerkstatt (above centre) were also there, they had also participated in ‘Shopping under the Lemon Tree’ with me and a few others last spring.  They make tasty bio jams, chutneys and cakes in glass jars. MMmmmmmm! You can even order some of their tasty treats online, visit their site.

Hannah with her cute creations for children had a very cool display (above right). She will also be participating in next weekend’s Stilblüten. Visit her site.

  

The Mädels Frankfurt (or the Frankfurter girls) were also there, they also make children’s stuff, but have a very different style (above left) .  They print really sweet sayings onto t-shirt, scarves, etc. See their creations. Last but not least you could pick from Philipp’s funky Christmas and Birthday cards (above right). Visit his online shop.

The atmosphere there was really nice and relaxed and they make great coffee. So it was a nice Sunday. Now I need to prepare for next weekend’s fair, which I’m hoping will be VERY busy.

I do apologies for the quality of the pictures.  it was very dark and dreary outside so inside was also rather dark.  The pictures I took with flash I find too bright and the contract too strong, whilst those I took without flash are too dark for my liking.  I really should do a photography course, so that I can make better pictures for you.