Boom Box Bindery is underway! In January I signed up as a seller on Etsy.com. Yesterday Josh did a bang up job on the Boom Box logo and today I posted my first item. For about three years now, I've been mulling over what the name of my bindery should be. Boom Box Bindery came to mind during some brainstorming this past September and it has had some staying power. The product focus of the store will be books, boxes and cards.
As can be seen in BBB's first posted item, Josh and I will be collaborating a bit. He did the screen printing on this book. I came up with the idea for these little books when I was thinking of a shower gift for two of our friends who are getting married next month. They will be getting the two books pictured in the middle ground of the photo below. One of them has the same cover, with the word "lists" on it, while the other has the word "ideas" printed on it. Josh and I have written down many lists and ideas in our few months of marriage, and I thought it would be nice for our friends to have official books for this purpose that are easy to keep handy because of their size.
One of the many neat features on Etsy can be found under the "Custom" tab on the navigation bar. This brings the craft shopping patron to "Alchemy," a spot where they can request custom items. The requests come in varied specificity. You'll find a post in which someone is just dying to have the very same brown sweatshirt as so-and- so in such-and-such a movie, next to a post for a general gift for grandma. I have put a few bids on projects for those people looking specifically for books or boxes. I also bid on projects that are vague, where people describe the person they are trying to find something for, and request any and all suggestions. Most of these have upwards of 20 bids on them, so I'm looking at my bid writing as an opportunity to gain some experience interacting with clients.
Now that my online selling presence is somewhat of a reality, I am increasingly excited to make new work and get selling! In addition to working on items to sell on Etsy, one of my new goals is to join Orange Blossom Ink in sharing a table at the upcoming arts and crafts show to be held at Cottage Industry. I heard that there was going to be a Sailboat consignment event going on across the street on that day and decided I'd try to work some nautical themes into one or two items. When I actually read about the event I realized it is Sale Boat rather than Sail which turns out to be upscale children's consignment... so children's themes it is!