greenolive

classic ABC illustrations

You can't get more classic than this!

Classic colour combo – red and black.

Classic style – textured line drawing.

Classic subjects – Circus and Zoo.

I just love everything about these! I'm tempted to keep them for myself.

These fantastic vintage illustrations are from a 1955 children's book: ABC, 123. I've just uploaded them to the retroprint etsy shop and I don't think they'll last very long!

a photographic corner

There has been a flurry of activity in "photographer's corner" in the past few days. Thank goodness I say, we were in dire need of new product photos.

'Photographer's corner' is a dedicated corner in the studio, right by the northfacing windows that I've set up to photograph various products for the website, blog, online shop, catalogue, etc.

I've discovered over the past four years that if I don't have a dedicated spot to photograph, one with natural light and a bit of room to move, then photographs don't get taken.

We have a table, an almost-white wall, and a ready supply of appropriate vintage-style props at hand, so we can snap away when the light is right or whenever I remember that we need a photo of some product or other.

After some trial and error, we have settled into a routine: I style some shot, and then call for the photographer (Drew) who quickly snaps a pic or two. He then wanders off while I style some more...He has become very patient while I nudge a card slightly, tweak a bunting flag, artfully arrange some postage stamps, or adjust a garland circle. 

Afterwards I spend way toooooo much time downloading photos and adjusting them in photoshop. Why are designers such perfectionists?

Let's hope the new photos make a difference!

NEW black & white Tribal Weave fabric

I'm not really sure why, but photographing then listing products in the various online shops is my achilies heel.

It takes me ages to actually photograph the product in question, then after I've downloaded the photos and looked at them in iphoto, they languish for weeks waiting to to be uploaded to an online listing.

This Tribal Weave fabric in a very, very limited edition colourway of white on 100% black linen has just been uploaded to the etsy shop this morning.

You'd better get in quick – it could be weeks before another screenprinted fabric is listed!

(im)patiently uploading

I spent most of the weekend – well the hours when the mac* was cooperating – uploading products to our various etsy shops.

We have the original shop for the scarves and handbags, the other one for our screenprinted textiles, the one Drew opened for his leather stuff, and the fourth one which is for all the vintage paper goodness.

Most the the products I was patiently uploading were things that had been sewn, printed or made ages ago. They had even been photographed ages ago, their images sitting in iphoto, waiting for the day I would upload them to etsy. 

It was a marathon – selecting photos, batch processing them, deciding on titles, crafting product descriptions, coming up with 14 tags, confirming prices and then doing the whole thing over again.

I'm sure there is a better, quicker way. Upload something every day? Delegate the task of uploading to my business partner? Use a widget shortcut thingo? One of you out there must know!

We really shouldn't put off uploading. I mean, you can't sell stuff that isn't in the shop can you?

* The mac users among you probably raised an eyebrow, I mean, macs don't misbehave like other PCs do, not naming names people, but for the first time ever, our trusty mac had a few dummy spits. I think its on its way out...

etsy front page love

I just love the etsy community. Last Friday someone (who I didn't know) emailed me to tell me our fabrics had made the front page of etsy. I'd missed it – thank goodness for the etsy treasury archive on craft cult!

This treasury was on the front page around 9am on 17 September. This mix pack of our Zanzibar screenprinted fabric has proved popular in recent treasuries.

Two days earlier, the same fabrics made the front page again, this time in a different treasury.

The Gods must be smiling, the moon is in alignment, and we must have been very, very good – I've got no other explanation!

black lines

Black & White is a favourite colour combination. It always has been. Young graphic designers (well, at least this one) are taught that their designs must first work as a black & white image, then they can explore colour. 

Black & white is classic, traditional, stylish. It can look sumptuous and expensive. Modern and hard edged. Or textural and ethnic.

I found out last night that our Zanzibar screenprinted fabric had been included in this etsy treasury: black lines loves white canvas.

maybe less is more when it comes to etsy shops?

Following on from yesterday's unexpected burst of energy – so far its continued today – I intended to show you the revamped website. 

However, our photo batching software had other ideas, reducing photos to 12kb rather than the 40kb I'd intended. Of course I only discovered this once I'd uploaded the photos to the website! I wondered why they looked so dodgy! At about 7pm last night, after fixing about half of the photos I gave up. So maybe on Wednesday you'll get to see it...

But, I have been working on another business issue, that of an online shop. Or, in our case, FOUR online shops! Can you believe it? No wonder Drew gets confused and frustrated and hates doing any etsy stuff. You're probably confused too.

We didn't plan to have four etsy shops. And with two of us its really only two shops each isn't it?

There's the original shop, greenolive, selling scarves. I live in the southern hemisphere and etsy is based in the northern hemisphere, so I'm always out of whack when it comes to the seasons. I'm knitting wool scarves and thinking about rugging up when most etsy buyers are thinking about Spring and flowers blooming. They sure aren't thinking about scarves!

The second etsy shop was greenolive textiles. A joint venture with Drew, and selling our screenprinted fabrics, its been the most successful in terms of sales. We've neglected it a bit of late, not relisting every day as you should, and have seen sales slow as a result. At least fabrics aren't seasonal!

Then came Drew's etsy shop, designsforhim. It sells his leather products, all made by him with no help interference from his wife. He uses recycled leather and sews each item on his vintage Singer sewing machine. The aforementioned frustration with etsy means he doesn't relist or update as much as he probably should.

The fourth etsy shop is a new one. I haven't even told you about it yet, retroprint. We were selling "vintage" book illustrations at a market and buyers kept asking if they could buy online. So retroprint was born. 

There it is. Our four etsy shops. It wasn't planned, more a case of organic growth. A reflection of our different interests, diversity of products, and possibly our confusion when it comes to business models. Or rather, do we have a business model?

What exactly do we do? What do we sell? How do we sell it? And how would a market goer in Melbourne even know about etsy? Would they be comfortable buying in US dollars when they live in the same city as the seller?

These questions all need answers. In trying to answer them, we've had to evaluate the who, how, why and what of the four etsy shops. One of the "hows" is how do you manage inventory and listings on etsy when you sell the same products at weekend markets? Its very time consuming let me tell you!

If I come up with any answers you'll be the first to know. In the meantime, any of you locals out there, how do you feel about buying via etsy in US dollars when you could also buy in person at a market?

Kids Type cushions

Another sleepless night (the fourth in five consecutive nights!), so rather than toss and turn in bed or watch infomercials on TV, I thought I'd be productive. 

Since it was morning in etsy-land, I thought it'd be the perfect time to list our new Kids Type cushion covers. (That's pillow covers to you Americans.)

If the design looks a little bit familiar that's because its the Urban Type design reworked for the children's market. We printed it in white on the three 100% linen basecloths from the original Kids Range: hot pink, baby blue and junior navy.

And the great part is that you can mix and match these with the fabrics from the Kids Range as the colours are the same! A stroke of genius that.

The cushion (pillow) covers are now available in the etsy shop.

We still have some of the newly printed Kids Type fabric available, so I'll list that too in the next day or so. Let me know what you think about this range. I'm already thinking about orange, green, purple...

photographing scarves: what do you think?

I really need your input dear readers.

I keep photographing my scarves over and over again, changing how I display or style them. And I'm still not happy with the photographs. 

As I'm selling online, its critical that my images convey the style, colours, materials, size of the actual scarf as realistically as possible. Plus they also need to make you want that scarf!

Etsy recommends using real people in the photos, as it seems buyers prefer to see scarves on people. There are etsy forum threads devoted to the topic. Believe me, I've read them! 

I've resisted this approach for several reasons: 
> I don't like my photography being taken
> I'm not to good with the self-portrait with scarf taken by the camera's timer
> I don't think Drew would look so good in scarves so obviously designed for women
> I don't have another, photographic female handy
> and finally, I don't want you, my customer, to react to the person instead of the scarf in the photo. 

And so, instead, I take a more abstract approach. Previously I have displayed scarves on my vintage dressmakers dummy. This approach has resulted in sales, but could more sales be made...? I'm not sure this is the best option for a sans-real-person-model photo.

Late last week I took some photos of scarves, hanging simple over a wooden hanger, or stylishly scrunched on a white background. It certainly makes the scarf the focus, but is it too stark? Too impersonal?

Here where your input is required...

1. Are you more likely to buy a scarf online if its pictured on a real person?

2. What do you think of displaying them on my dressmakers dummy?

3. And, what do you think about the more abstract approach: on a hanger, or stylishly scrunched?

Just leave your thoughts as a comment. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated. And I might just finally make up my mind on how I'm going to photograph my scarves in the future.

PS: its ok for you to tell me to get a life, it really doesn't matter which way the scarves are photographed!!

Urban Type cotton tea towels

It was only a matter of time wasn't it before our fabrics designs started to appear as products. I mean, it makes sense to let those who don't sew or craft have a bit of greenolive goodness. Don't you think?

Brighten up your kitchen and making washing up more fun with our colourful Urban Type Tea towels. They make great housewarming presents and hostess gifts.

These 100% cotton tea towels are available in four colours: orange, red, blue and burgandy. And they come packaged ready to give.

They are in the etsy store now.

What other colours do you think we should print?

Footnote: that was fast, we just sold our first set of four tea towels!