We started out in 2006 when Sam Whetton organised the first Craftwerk in Auckland and asked if Charles and I would like to have a stall. Sam is a friend of Charles' and they had worked together in a group soft sculpture exhibition back in 2005 in Whisper Whisper gallery. I forget the name of the exhibition though. Anyway, she was probably expecting a lot more soft toys but we ended up making a few felt brooches, some pencil earrings (real pencils) , and a whole lot of pixelated badges. It was a really last minute effort by Charles and I (mostly done the day before and on the day). We were late and we forgot a table cloth or price labels. Despite that, we made $100 and we were super excited. We decided to keep doing them and we got a little more professional along the way (although Charles has been promising business cards for awhile now!). Check out the gallery photos at Craftwerk. We were at the first one - despite being no photos of us, promise!
Shortly after starting at Craftwerk, Esther from Toggle got in touch with us and asked if we'd sell a few of our things through them. Of course we said yes and we are now selling our Gummi Bear Earrings, Gummi Bear Necklaces, our ever popular Scrabble Necklaces, and a Felt Hedgehog Brooch. Check out our stuff on Toggle here. Toggle have been awesome. They are great at promoting their website, which of course has a flow on effect of promoting us. They're really active out there in the craft world and are always coming up with new ways to get their website known. I hope all their hard work is paying off, they deserve it! And of course the stuff they sell on their site is AMAZING! I'm particularly a fan of their Ask Alice record cushions and JB Bones' war embroideries - I want them all. They also have a blog here.
We are currently selling some of our products at the shop at Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts in Pakuranga. I'm haven't been out there for a few months though, so not sure if there is anything left there. We also had a monthly stall there for their summer market days. It was a really good chance to get to know some other crafters who we usually don't have the time to talk to at Craftwerk.
Um, what else? We've been mentioned on the Pulp blog (actually a really awesome blog, especially for design objects and such). Also mentioned by Anemone and lilysmakebelieve who are fellow Craftwerkers.
We have sold a few things to a gallery shop in New Plymouth - Whitecube Artspace. I was quite excited about that one because I spent a large chunk of my childhood in NP and so it has a special place in my heart.
I have a few other things to follow up on as well such as a shop in the states that wants us to sell some stuff to them. A woman named Allana Owen is setting up a shop soon and is going to be in touch with me about selling there soon (I hope!). I really need to get working on producing things more often so I can go out and try to find other stockists. Finding time with the stresses of uni can be hard though.
There are a few other bits and pieces, we were recently mentioned with a small piece about Toggle in the Sunday Star Times recently which resulted in a bit influx of sales for our Scrabble necklaces. Also on Sunday 14 June our scrabble necklace was on What Now, although the kids watching it probably don't have the means to jump on the internet and buy one.
So that pretty much brings us up to now!
