I'm Excited!

Let me begin by saying I don't normally blog quite this frequently but due to me not blogging at all for a month I have a lot to tell you all about! Thank you for reading :-)

Ok, so I had been feeling a bit below par mid January, what with being ill etc etc. In November I made the decision to stop doing the smaller craft shows. For 3 months I had been doing a craft show near enough every 2 weeks. I enjoyed doing the majority of them but it wasn't worth it for the cost of the stand, petrol, car parking, my time there for what I was making at them. I found that at the local type craft shows you could be thrown in with anyone - being called a 'craft' fair didn't necessarily mean everyone was selling craft. There was a jumble sale at one and as you can guess, people's expectations of what they were willing to spend would adjust accordingly. So all in all, not really worth it. I'm now aiming at galleries and more upmarket "proper" craft shows that actually sell craft and where you have to be selected to get in as they are really attracting my target audience.

I'm delighted to have been selected for 'Sock' which is a craft show in nearby Loughborough and is rapidly gaining a great reputation, despite only being in its second year. But this also presented something of a dilemma as I'm not entirely happy with my display and I want everything to be perfect to give me the best chance of making money at Sock (and any other future shows). Never fear, help is at hand!

I mentioned in an earlier post about my being on the Enterprise Inc program, which has provided me with 2 brilliant mentors. I met them both separately yesterday. Bill is great and always coming up with exciting new ideas for me to try out to expand my product range. Rachael owns a gallery and has a lot of experience with displays and retail and she gave me some really good advice/ideas for my display. One of the suggestions was genius in its simplicity but is something I would never in a million years have thought of. However I can honestly say I'm really excited about the prospect of 'getting back on the horse' as they say and can't wait for Sock. All I want to do is start making as quickly as possible! However, I'm still recovering this week so will have to wait until Monday. There was also maybe a possible mention of me having a 2 page spread in a craft magazine!!!!!!!! Really hope that pans out as it'd give me lots of great publicity and would just be fantastic!! Fingers Crossed!

Over and Out,
Jenny (and her rediscovered motivation)

Mary Queen of Shops

Well now, as I said, January has been an exciting month for me. Not least because of my exciting opportunity with Mary Queen of Shops!

Through a Society of Designer Craftsmen email I was made aware of a great opportunity. The producers of the television programme ‘Mary Queen of Shops’ wanted up and coming designer/makers to produce pieces to help change the fortunes of an independent retailer by giving it an edge over the high street with interesting products and pieces.

I applied (with my lovely new photos)and was thrilled when I was selected as one of only a few makers to go down to London, meet Mary Portas and the shop owners and show my work. The craft day took place on 14th Jan 2010 in Kingston upon Thames. It was a long but exciting day, with a lot of filming.

It was a bit nerve wracking to be pitching to Mary and the shop owners, especially in front of a film crew but it went quite well and I was able to talk confidently about my work.

Unfortunately my work wasn't picked to be stocked in the shop as they had changed the theme of the shop to 'new and old' and picked pieces that reflected that. I did find out however, that we hadn't just been selected by the tv company and that Mary herself had selected us, which is a big deal! The clip will probably be edited to only show the makers who were selected, but there is still a chance my work might be featured on the show when it airs this spring. I've been invited to go back down for the relaunch of the shop in early Feb, but it's a bit too far for me to travel (nearly 3 hours each way)so I don't think I'll go. Fantastic day though, really enjoyed it and met some other interesting makers. Will hopefully have some photos of my work being filmed if the man emails me.

Over and out (until tomorrow because I have more news!)

Time to Catch Up

Apologies for lack of blogging this last month, I have been busy and poorly in what seems like a never ending circle. Still now recovering from something particularly nasty that left me unable to hold any food down for a few days so I'm not feeling my best - please bear with me!

Well to catch up - December was eventful for me, I had commissions coming out of my ears and had just launched a range of Christmas decorations so it was pretty hectic getting everything ready on time. I also managed to get my work photographed professionally by the lovely Joanne Withers from Nine Photos (www.ninephotos.com)I've posted a few of my favourites..........






More to tell you, but that's for another post!
Over and Out (for now)

Post 2 - Not Enough Time

So here is my second and final post of 2009, originally posted 10th December 2009 (and then I was busy!)

I know it’s not been long since my last post but thought I would just keep you updated with things.

I’ve barely made a dint into that foot high to do list. I’ve been quite poorly this week so haven’t had chance to get much done. I’ve sold quite a lot of my Christmas decorations over the last week or two so I wawt to get some more made so that I have some for my own tree this Christmas!

I’ve started experimenting a bit more with the shape of my vessels and managed to get quite a bit of commission work done which was great. But sadly the pr to do list still remains mostly intact.

I’ve been updating my accounts and closing off the November accounts and looking at getting a business bank account. I know I need one but it’s all so daunting when you suddenly see all these terms and conditions and different interest rates etc etc. Each of the major banks have several different Business accounts that you can have. It’s a job knowing which one to go for. I think I will probably end up sticking with HSBC, as I have my current account with them. Also, in the studio today a lot of the 3rd years were complaining about their respective banks and the terrible service they offered. Good old HSBC didn’t get anything but praise so I think that’s cemented my reasoning! I guess I can always change if they’re not up to scratch.

Now I’d best get back to the mind boggling world of Excel spreadsheets. It’s been so long since I learnt about the Excel formulas at school that it’s proving to be a challenge getting to grips with them again. Steve (from the Enterprise Inc team, who is helping to teach me about spreadsheets) must have the patience of a saint. He made all the spreadsheets and formulas for me, all I have to do is learn what they do and input the correct information, but we’re constantly finding issues that need ‘tweaking’ with the spreadsheets to help tailor them better for my business. I’ve no idea how he’s managed to cope with teaching me about each new spreadsheet, I would have given up long ago!

Best get back to business,
Over and out.

"My First Post"

Changing over from blog.com to blogspot.com and copying over my 2 posts!haha!
This post was originally posted on 5th December 2009:

Hmmmm, the first post, a slightly daunting prospect!

For those who don’t know, I’m Jenny Creasey a ceramicist currently living in Leicester. MY current work is a collection of porcelain vessels, all designed to reference and imitate paper. After graduating from a Design Crafts course at De Montfort University in Leicester I’ve now gone on to become Artist in Residence there and am working hard setting up my own business. I’ve also won a placement on the fantastic Enterprise Inc program, which gives me office space and a LOT of support in setting up my business.

We (businesses on the Ent Inc program) have a lot of talks and workshops put on for us covering all sorts of business-related topics: finance, marketing, HR, etc. This Thursday just gone we had “How to Write a Press Release,” which was put on by The Phoenix Partners. The workshop itself was very useful and informative, but it was the one to one talk I had with Rachel from the Phoenix Partners that really sparked my interest. We came up with a number of good ideas for my work and how I could use it to generate my self some publicity. It was also a really useful exercise to think about what I wanted to get from any publicity and where I’d need to think about sending my press releases in order to achieve those aims.

I’m used to writing a lot and I really enjoy it, but press releases have me stumped. I find it really difficult to big myself up in third person (“Jenny’s work is absolutely fantastic because….”) without feeling like a prize idiot! With the ideas Rachel and myself came up with I’m going to have to just suck it up and get down to business and start approaching companies with different ideas. It’s scary but exciting though. Following the chat on Thursday I now have a to-do list about as long as my arm! Set up a blog was on my list, at least I’ve crossed one off now!

Over and out.
Jenny