Life Cycle of Making A Handmade Bag
Today is HOT HOT HOT! 4 months passes by since my last blog post, I'm such a lousy blogger and yes I did tried my best to make more bags for my 'still' 1 page Etsy shop (still remember that my last new year resolution was to complete 2 pages of items (56 items) for my Etsy Store... which seem so ambitious when I look back now. But..I've decided to continue fulfilling it by this year. It just seem more official now since I'm typing it down for this article...
Actually... does an average person ever realize that handmade artisan who sell their products online are not just using the time to make what you see in the product photo only?? In fact there are many roles and split personality that people like me have to perform before and after a handmade product is done.
So if you don't mind reading further I'll like to explain the following in steps of what I did by myself:
- Bag design - sketching bag patterns and consider the possibility of producing it
- Material sourcing and buying - find and match available material or go shopping or internet surfing for the necessary parts or suitable fabric in term of colors and patterns
- Material preparation - drafting pattern on paper, measure, cut, iron the fabric ( many many parts)
- Sewing / hammering / gluing - joining the bits and pieces of all the pre-cut fabric, iron interface/backing, attach zipper, bring out the wood block and hammer the snap buttons etc
- Testing - test the balance of the bag with acceptable weight items, checking all the seam and symmetrical aspect of the structure
- Photo shoot - wait for the brightest natural light (indoor), prepare the product model, setup the tripod and camera, make multiple angle shots per product model.
- Photo edit - load and edit the photos in computer.
- Copywriting - write description, specification and calculate the shipping cost of the item base on weight and packaging used, decide the price (headache)
- Product listing online - post the products online to my shop
- Social Media Marketing - Update my official website. Post photo to all my related social media account; FB, Twitter, Flickr, Pinterest, Blogspot, Instagram, deviantART.......*yawn
- ...wait for responses, 'likes' and comments.....which are my only source of encouragement before the item finally get sold. :)
The fun part for me is point 1, 2, 4 & 11.
And yes... I still remember that I bought some inspirational and pretty fabric which are still waiting patiently for me to give them some life...ciao
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