Introduce yourself & say Hello!

[LynnBaileyPrintmaker]

The Made in Devon team is a little over a year old and is still evolving...

So whether you are brand new or have been a team member a while, do pop in, say hello and tell us what it is that you do. What is it about being creative in Devon that is important to you? What would you like from this team?

This team can evolve into whatever matters to you! If you don’t see a discussion you would like to engage in – why not start one yourself! Ask questions, offer advice, get something off your chest – get involved and see what happens....

To get the ball rolling – I am Lynn, a printmaker in Exeter and part of Double Elephant Print Workshop. Mt Etsy shop is coming up to 3 years old in July. I’m pretty pleased with how it’s going – but I had v modest aims of selling one print a month, & v happy to have exceeded that. It was partly the colour of Devon soil that encouraged me to move into the area – but that’s a longer story.....

I’ve noticed this comment in the origin “welcome” thread from Ren from Fairysteps and think it would be a good idea to reiterate it here -

“For all members...

If you click on the 'Subscribe to digest' link on the left hand side menu of this page, you will receive all updates that happen within the Made in Devon team!

A great way to make sure you don't miss anything!”

BIG FAT DEVON WELCOME TO ALL.

[mazedasastoat]

Hi, I'm Kate. I live close enough to Start Point to be able to hear the foghorn when the mist rolls in. I've lived in this area all my life. I feel a great connection to my home place, generations of my family have lived & worked within a small radius of where I am, & I've never lived more than 9 miles away from the house I was brought up in (where my mother still lives) It's the same element that makes the soil red and makes my blood red, the land really IS in my blood & bone! :-)

[Former_Member]

Hi Everyone! I am Cathryn & I live in Plymouth. I have recently moved back 'home' after living in Australia for a few years!

[LynnBaileyPrintmaker]

Wow Kate! That's an amazing story. You will think me to be a right foreigner ;-) I've only lived in Devon for about 20 years.... I'm from East Anglia really, but much prefer it here.

Greeting to Cathryn too. My other half's a Plymouth "boy".
Has living in Australia influenced what you do here at all? I think both me and Kate would be attracted to the colour of the soil in central Australia, but I don't know what the rest is like.

Thanks both for popping in to say Hello :-)

[mazedasastoat]

That's OK Lynn, my better half's still a "stopover" as he's only been here 30 years! LOL One of our dogs came from Boston in Lincolnshire... the heart of the flatlands. Odd place, they put warning signs up for bends in the road that you don't even need to slow down for & call something a "hill" that's lower than my staircase! I found it faintly depressing, kind of colourless & nothing but swamp & sky.

Gearing up for a couple of weeks of madness with the Easter grockles... just because we need 'em doesn't mean we have to LIKE 'em!

Greeting Cathryn, welcome back from the land of Oz!

[greynellycrafts]

Hi everyone,
I'm Lynda and I'm based in Plymouth, but I'm 'working on' moving to the outskirts...ideally somewhere on Dartmoor! I've lived in Devon all my life and I just love it!
I'm married, with a 15 year old daughter and a slightly bonkers Springer Spaniel called Trigger! I started my business just over 3 years ago and I sell on both Etsy and Folksy. I also love to take my 'makes' to craft fairs in the area...it's a great way of meeting like-minded people and I've made some really lovely friends along the way!
Thanks for the invite to the team x

[BeadedPerfectly]

Hi I'm Carol I live in Okehampton with my husband and two cats, within walkin distance of Dartmoor which is fantastic.
I've been making stained glass for about 18 months, although I love anything 'crafty' and oft en have trouble sticking to one thing! A comon problem I'm sure.
Looking forward to this 'local' Team.

[Former_Member]

Hi I am Luna and I have to say that I have been hoping to join an active Uk team since I started my Etsy shop a couple of years ago. I have learnt such a lot from the Etsy set up and would love to share knowledge and support with Devon craftswomen and craftsmen.
I have lived with my partner and children in Devon for the past 28 years and previous to this studied for my fine art degree in Exeter and then Falmouth. Devon is my home and Exmoor which I see from my house the place that I go to for inspiration.
I made the move from painting to printmaking about five years ago, in fact I visited the Elephant print studios about 15 years ago and got my first taster of this skill that I have come to love.
I sell through a local gallery art/craft fairs and on Etsy. The last two years have been about setting up and selling as a professional artist,
looking forward to meeting you all
Luna

[POPARTsculpture]

Hi ,I'm Zerina and it's great to be invited onto a local team. I have been living in the beautiful Town of Dartmouth for 13 years. I am a paper engineer and have designed many popup books and paper model books over the years . I wanted to get into greeting cards and so decided to start selling on etsy about 15 months ago.

Looking forward to chatting to you all!

[LynnBaileyPrintmaker]

Lovely to see new people introducing themselves. “Older” members – do pop in to say hello too...

Lynda, if you know of any craft fairs coming up anywhere do mention them in this discussion https://www.etsy.com/teams/15348/made-in-devon/discuss/13647214/ I know there are other people who enjoy taking part in them too. Plus there could also be mileage in starting a discussion about Folksy, Notonthehighstreet and other online selling venues too. It would be interesting for people to share their experience. (Etsy is my only online outlet).

Carol – I’m quite envious of being in walking distance of Dartmoor. I do get out with a walking group when I can and had a great 10mile walk in the Castle Drogo area last time.

Luna, if you were at Double Elephant about 15 years ago, it would have been the cold damp Old Bakery. We are snug and warm in the ‘lower ground’ of the Exeter Phoenix now. Random visitors are welcome on Wednesdays, other times need an appointment.
You have a well set up shop. It looks like you have everything necessary in place and have looked into things like SEO. Do you fancy starting up a thread/discussion along the lines of what your best tip for a new shop would be? I don’t want to swamp this team with my avatar all over the place. It would be good to have as many different voices as poss. My tip to you would be to measure in inches as well as cm. Amazingly Americans don’t understand cm and 40% of my sales go to the USA.

Zena, your pop ups are amazing. I love book art too and I appreciate that with the amount of work entailed your pop-up books are probably a bit more expensive than the average Etsy sale. But it could still be worth listing one or two to show off what you are capable of. People will happily buy the small things while lusting after the big things. ... I’ve been meaning to list one of my larger and not so easy to post items for some time now... just not got round to it.

[Former_Member]

Hi everyone, I am Angie and I live in Dartington and am a member of the Dartington Print Workshop. I spend an awful lot of my time building a boat with my husband and find that my printmaking time gets a bit squeezed! I find it quite hard to promote my work through digital media - it works so much better when people see it 'in the flesh' so to speak. I would really welcome any advice that members could give me as I am really new to this kind of thing. I have only just managed to set up a facebook page and am still not sure if anyone can actually see it - oh well, it is all a learning curve.
Thanks for inviting me to the team and I will try to become a proactive member. Dartington and Totnes Open Studios takes place from 23 - 26 May and our Workshop will be open on the Dartington Hall estate. Well worth a visit and take time to go round the beatiful gardens with its Henry Moore reclining woman and other unexpected delights.

[LynnBaileyPrintmaker]

Greetings Angie, great prints and lovely to see someone from Dartington Print workshop here. There are several good printmaking teams on Etsy too that you might find interesting.

Have just “liked” your facebook page. A good way of getting your FB page seen by others is to interact with and “like” lots of other pages yourself too. There is a thread already in the discussions about facebook pages. It’s a good start to find other team members’ FB pages and it could do with a bump up. https://www.etsy.com/teams/15348/made-in-devon/discuss/11679472/page/1

Do remind us all about Dartington and Totnes Open Studios in this thread - https://www.etsy.com/teams/15348/made-in-devon/discuss/14102416/
It would be a shame to miss it.

Re selling online. The only way to get around people not being able to pick up the items and feel the quality for themselves is to take more photos, close ups, oblique angles that show the texture, photograph from all angles, perhaps work in progress so that people can see how the printing plates are used etc...
You do need to get your policies in place. It gives potential customers confidence if they know how you would handle any problems. This self critique check list is very useful for making sure you’ve got everything in place. http://etsymentors.blogspot.co.uk/p/critique-your-own-shop.html

It take quite a while of persistent work to get noticed and start making sales. I'll let you into a secret... My 1st purchase was by a friend so that I could experience how the system works in practice, get that 1st sale out of the way AND get some necessary positive feedback. I think I've had sufficient number of sales now to be able to "confess" to that ;-)

[LynnBaileyPrintmaker]

Actually - a better open studios discussion thread would be this one...
https://www.etsy.com/teams/15348/made-in-devon/discuss/11792485/page/1

[colouritgreen]

Hi all. I'm Nicky and I live on the edge of Dartmoor in a run down house with a smallholding. We keep pigs, ducks, chickens and sheep - and from my small flock of sheep I get wool which i was, spin, felt, dye and sell as yarn or various woolly things :)
Thanks for inviting me - nice to see some locals :)

[Former_Member]

Hiya all :)

Thanks for inviting me to join the Made in Devon group. I have a passion for photography and I create unique pieces of jewellery and unique items of clothing here in Devon (about 5 miles out of Exeter) in the gorgeous countryside, where so much of my inspiration comes. Living with my partner and 2 daughters, our garden is an extension of us and is filled with magic and surprises….faery gardens, sweet little spaces, growing as much of our food as possible along with our dotty chickens for eggs :)

Being surrounded by nature and beauty fills me with such peace and joy, I feel very blessed to live in beautyfull Devon….aren't we all very lucky indeed :)

Loving all of your creations very much.

Thanks again and wishing you all a super time ahead….

Caroline, Aluna Fae xxx

[Former_Member]

Well Hello Devon!

I'm Sara and I run Sara's Texture Crafts, a supply shop for spinners, weavers, knitters and felt makers. So that means handling everything from fleece direct from the sheep's back to hand dyeing finished yarns.

I have been on Etsy for 7 years (on May 3rd), but it remains a smaller part of my everyday business.

I live just outside Exeter in Crediton and have been here for about 5/6 years now after a move back from the big smoke of London.

I look forward to meeting you all and finding out more about you.

Sara x

[MarcWinArt]

Hi, I'm Marc born and lived in Devon for a large part of my life-not many places I'd rather be! I've had my ETSY shop for about 15 months so if anyone wants to give me some pearls of wisdom on appearance, marketing etc. etc. all gratefully received.

[LynnBaileyPrintmaker]

Greetings too, to Nicky, Caroline, Sara and Marc!

You all sound like "proper-job" Devonian to me.
It's been great to meet so many talented people beavering away locally.
And I hope you are enjoying finding out about each other too.

Marc - there is definitely a need for a shop critique/advice thread. Would you like to start one? It would be good to have all those tips and bits of advice to be found in one place.

I shall be going quiet for a few days now. I'm teaching all weekend. But I will be back to see how people are getting on.
Perhaps some of the other members will get more active over the weekend and you can help each other out....

ta-ta for now...
L

[Former_Member]

Hi Lynn thanks for first thoughts on shop. I had a look at your shop and noticed on your about section thjat you had a stand at the Windsor Contemporary Art Fair, I am taking part in the Reading Art Fair run by the same people in two weekends time. This is my first big stand so would love any thoughts on the best ways to m ake this event work for me ? Also the threads and conversations arnt coming to me automatically?
all the best
Luna

[LynnBaileyPrintmaker]

Good luck with Reading Luna.

Last year at Windsor was the first time I had done an art fair too. The good sign from your perspective it that I have committed to do it again this year!
The people who run the Reading & Windsor contemporary Art Fairs do seem to be better organised than many of the other art fairs that I have read about. Talking to other people who do these things, it seems that it can take a few times before you get to be established at these things. So be happy if you break even, going into profit would be fantastic. There are other benefits you gain from doing these things in addition to direct sales at the weekend.

Makes sure you have plenty of attractive business cards for people to pick up. Have a comments book where people can leave their details if they would like to be added to your mailing list (think about starting a newsletters if you don’t already do one). Be prepared to chat to people and really enjoy yourself. That desperate look of despair because you are not necessarily making the sale you hoped for is really off putting. Organise your stand so that you have a handy little area to stash away all sorts of things that you think you might need – flask of tea, nibbles, small cut lino block to help explain what you do, yet more business cards, carrier bags, receipt book etc.
Perhaps make room for a photograph of your press or studio set up. Like the example lino block it’s a conversation aid.

Work out how you are going to hang everything for best effect before you get there, so that you can get it all up quickly with minimum stress. I had everything drawn out on graph paper – but I am rather nerdy.

I only broke even on this first attempt. I saw some other established stands doing very well, and I was also aware that some did not sell. My partner came with me and we had factored the travel and B&B in as part of our “holiday” fund. My partner helped me set up on the Friday, had a day trip to London on the Saturday and was around to be helpful when needed on the Sunday. But mostly I sent him off to people watch on Sunday (thankfully something he enjoys) rather than bunging up the limited space in my stand. I just texted him if I needed relieving for a while for whatever reason. If you are on your own, you will find the other stand holders friendly and helpful anyway.

Don’t forget to tell us all how it goes for you!

L

[Former_Member]

Hello all, nice to meet you.
I live on the Bere Peninsula and have been here for about 8 years...I have no intention of leaving, it's lovely here. I've been selling on Etsy since 2009. I'm a jewellery designer-maker and traditionally trained metalsmith and have been exhibiting and selling since 1993. I qualified as a school teacher in 1994 and currently teach jewellery part time at Plymouth College of Art. I'm also in the final stages of taking an MA in Design at the University.

This is my website www.fluxplay.co.uk,
I also like to blog: www.fluxplay.blogspot.com
and I have a specific tumblr-blog for documenting my MA work; www.mariawhetman.tumblr.com

I also have pinterest boards! http://www.pinterest.com/fluxplay/my-work/

[Former_Member]

Lynn you are a star, thankyou for taking so much time to inform and advice about the Reading Fair. I went for Reading as we can stay with family close by to save costs. Yes I will let you know how it goes. Which dates are you doing Windsor ?
all the best
Luna

[LynnBaileyPrintmaker]

Greetings to Maria too. Fluxplay is a brilliant name. Love what you are doing, so have clicked "like" on your facebook page. Hop other people pick up on the tumblr and pinterest options - I don't do them, or I'll never get any work done!

Luna, Windsor take place in November. I'll announce it in whatever art/craft fair thread seems best at the time.

Re your previous question that I missed earlier, I think the Team thread digest gets emailed to you weekly if you've subscribed. So you might not have been here long enough to get one yet...

[Former_Member]

Hi everyone! I'm Nicola and I live in Ilfracombe. I've been selling my jewellery on Etsy since 2007, and I also sell prints of my paintings in my other shop KiandaStudio. I live with my partner, our 11 year old son and our mad Hungarian Vizsla. I love Devon ~ moved here from the Midlands about 8 years ago and there's nowhere else I'd rather be :)

[JainMcKay]

Hi I'm Jain, I have only lived here a year but I love it. Nice to see so many active members locally.