Setting up Shop
I have always made things, since as far back as I can remember, and in every medium going! Firm favourites were always sewing, painting and model making. I especially had a flair for the latter and have vivid joyful memories of being tiny, sat at the kitchen table making things with Mum’s homemade play-dough, then progressing to her salt-dough, leaving it out to dry and painting it.
My 7th birthday was the first time I was bought the magical clay that is Fimo. I had a starter set of twelve colours, some tools, varnish, hair clip bases, broach backs and gold and silver powder. It was AMAZING, I can remember taking each bright colour block out of it’s wrapping and placing them back in the styrofoam mounded display tray. (They subsequently stuck to the tray disastrously causing a lot of mess and anguish picking the blocks out again, but that is a mistake I have never repeated). I would spend hours on my creations, furnishing my dolls house with tiny plates of food, making jewellery or gifts for my parents. The wonder of putting my carefully crafted objects in the oven and waiting for them to cool down so I could varnish them was such a magical process to me. The longevity of the items I could make also opened a world of possibilities. Even though I was a kid with no money and couldn’t buy anyone gifts… I could make them thoughtful quality objects which would last!
Sorry for the waffle, I’m not as concise or eloquent as dear Oliver so I’m struggling a little to get to the point of this post. Thank you for bearing with!!
My idea for Little Toucan came about through my love for animal puns, cute tiny sculptures, and the gap in the market between cards and small thoughtful gifts. Sometimes you want to show someone your appreciation for them, but a card isn’t quite enough and you can’t afford an extravagant gift. This is where my little ‘toucans’ of affection come into play.
It is a fun and surprising way of putting a smile across those loved one’s faces.
To start I had a fun time sketching out what I wanted to make and then coming up with funny animal puns to go with them and writing witty product descriptions. Then evening upon evening I spent hunched over my tiny creations, trying my hardest to make them as exactly the same as I possibly could… I love a good challenge! The painting process was when they really came to life. I chose the brightest acrylic colours I could find and really stylised the painting for cuteness. Then I topped them off with a glaze of satin varnish.
I purchased the brown craft ring boxes from the Little Box Company. I love how unsuspecting and dull the brown exteriors are in contrast with the bright pop of colour when you open them. I carefully selected coloured tissue paper which would compliment the little critter in each box to make them stand out. To brand the packaging I printed out a bunch of colourful stickers with my logo on from www.moo.com and then tied everything together with contrasting coloured twine.
To ship the cute critters I purchased padded envelopes from Amazon and printed out address labels with my return address on.
Once all the hard work of making had been done I really enjoyed posting images of my products online and seeing the massive positive response I received from all my friends and family. It was overwhelming.
I created a Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr site all advertising my shop.
The pictures for my social media and shop I took on my iPhone, I set up a little photo-shoot booth on my windowsill with white paper and the lovely diffused winter light. I was quite proud of the photographic results. The only piece of slightly negative feedback I received from people was that from the pictures they didn’t really have a handle on the size of the models… In real life, they are only about a centre meter in diameter, extra cute!
I learnt a number of things through this whole project. I learnt how fun it can be to be creative and really concentrate on the quality of the objects you are creating, thinking about people buying them. Playing shop is fun too! I underwent this project during a particularly lonely and if I’m honest quite hard time in my life, and I can’t recommend enough giving yourself something challenging to focus on to help take your mind off the realities of life, it was a definite escape for me. That might explain to you all how I had the time and patience to complete this. Being creative is good for the soul. I also learnt that pricing objects is hard. For the hours and effort put into each character I should have charged about 5 or 6 times the price I did to earn minimum wage… but for me it wasn’t about money really.
I sold out of stock in the first three weeks! That was a surprise. Most of my sales had been in person to friends and family, but I am proud to say 16 sales were to complete strangers!! That surprised me. And scared me a little at the time. Friends and family always tell you things are great, even if they aren’t really, but strangers don’t need to care about your feelings. After every sale I would check in my shop daily waiting for negative feedback, but it never arrived!! Only positive!
The whole experience was such a fun one, right the way from designing the logo, to making the models to posting them to customers. I really love playing shop. And the money I made covered the cost of all of the materials bought. I am not a millionaire, and the hours spent on making these models I can never get back, but I’m ok with that. I am thankful for the whole experience and will always look back on it with fondness.
The shop is totally dry but if you want to check out pictures of the models feel free to check out my social media pages, they are still active and quite pleasingly accruing likes and follows from strangers. Some of my models are being pinned multiple times a day to peoples Pinterest boards which feels lovely!
Hannah
https://www.instagram.com/hellolittletoucan/