Shop for the Cure @ Atown

Atown is having a charity event tomorrow, Wednesday the 12th from 5pm-9pm, where 10% of store wide proceeds and 100% of the raffle donations will go to the Austin Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Amazing "pink" raffle prizes have been donated by many of Atown's local artists including this beautiful jewelry set made by myself and GemJunkie! 

 Stop by to enjoy champagne, chocolate and live music by Austin's own Marty's Music Menagerie. Special guest, Lydia Miller, will also be there to share her story.  As usual, don't forget to shop local while your there! I was in the store yesterday and there is a TON of new stuff including a special line of "pink" products that will be available for sale all month. I didn't miss out on this opportunity to make my own line of "pink" products. Check them out!

 

 Visit Atown at 5502 Burnet Road here in Austin. For more info check out their Susan G. Komen Facebook Event.

ATown Grand Opening

ATown is having their official GRAND OPENING bash tomorrow, September 9th from 5-9pm at their new store on 5502 Burnet Rd. Come stop by to shop local, grab free food and drinks from sponsor Rebuplic Tequila, and stick around for your chance to win a raffle prize from one of the amazing vendors listed below. All proceeds from the event will go toward Austin Pets Alive, one of my favorite local organizations. I'll be there with the hubby and new baby to support local handmade!

While your at Atown I highly recommend picking up one of the new Go Local Austin cards. With this new card you can get sweet deals at hundreds of local stores, restaurants and hot spots. It supports your local economy and helps the environment by replacing hundreds of paper coupons with one little card. You can use it immediately and as many times as you want for up to 12 months after purchase. For more info about the Go Local Austin card click HERE. 

Get Hammered @ The WonderCraft

Newborn baby and family made their second outing into the real world (outside of hospitals and shopping at Target) last night to visit the WonderCraft fashion event "Get Hammered". Our first venture was Austin Flea at the Highball back in July. We figured being a crafty family we better start the kid off early. For a few hours last night new mom and dad were able to enjoy a few cocktails with friends while baby Gabe enjoyed the stimuli of new sounds and color.

Gabe sported a mustache onsie by Beth of Paired Hearts in support of the handmade goods sold at the WonderCraft.

The WonderCraft hosted artist Teresa Basa and her beautiful collection of jewelry for Austin fashion week. Teresa was originally born in Chili, then moved to California and currently has a studio in Round Rock, TX. Her jewelry is made of traditionally dyed Chilean horsehair, copper, brass, recycled silver and re-purposed leathers. You can find her products online at teresabasa.com, at Parts & Labor or the Mexic-Arte-Museum here in Austin.

The "Get Hammered" event allowed guests to create their own personalized metal stamped jewelry in demonstration of the WonderCraft's new Craft Bar menu of make-and-take projects now available to the public. You can find a full list of the standard make-and-take projects available at the WonderCraft HERE.

This is the adorable metal stamped necklace I made. It is a play off my son's and my initials, TG and GT. I love how it turned out with the letters highlighted in marker giving it an antique look.

In addition to Teresa Basa the event featured several other vendors and artists including specialty sodas by Rollerfeet Sodas (now available at the WonderCraft), CHOCBite build your own candy bars, and Christie Mathis Ultralicious Photography.

Hubby and baby hanging out while I made jewelry and chatted with friends. I had to laugh at the fact Gabe kept himself content by eating his fist half the night because we forgot his pacifier. His dad went home with a huge slobber spot on his nice shirt.

Here is a preview of the awesome goodies available for sale at The WonderCraft including my recycled license plate ornaments and our new CD coaster sets featured below. Make sure to stop by and check out all the amazing handmade products available for sale from artists such as GemJunkie, Polished Two, Craft Chi, Paired Hearts, Baby Bolt, Lip Glossery and many more.

Wondercraft Grand Opening

The Wondercraft's new store is open for business today! After a long night of preparation and shorting vendor goodies the new brick and mortar store located on the corner of Cesar Chavez & Comal is now open. This adorable live-work space is centered around a craft bar where you can come, make crafts and hang out with friends. The space also features a variety of local handmade products available for sale. I recommend checking out one of their two open house events for Austin Fashion Week.

Re-Fashion
Monday, August 22, 2011 from 5-9pm
At the WonderCraft's brand new brick & mortar you will be able to 'refashion' something old with a screen printed design, so bring t-shirts, bags, or any item in need of some flair and we'll screen print it for free at the new Craft Bar. We will also have some cute things to purchase if you can't make up your mind what to bring.

Get Hammered!
Thursday, August 25, 2011 from 5-9pm
Among other things you'll have the chance to make personalized metal stamped jewelry.

Both Events will feature artist Teresa Basa who will doing an encore demo of her riveting skills and metal texturing while incorporating horsehair on the pieces created. They will have a selection of chocolates from CHOCbite, specialty sodas by Rollerfeet Sodas, photobooth by Christie Mathis, free drinks and other snacks.

More info, click HERE!

What You Need to Know About Consignment

Consignment is a good start or alternative to developing wholesale accounts with brick and mortar stores. For me it was the next logical step for my shop to find stores that would represent and market my merchandise outside of Etsy since I cannot afford to lease a space of my own. From my research, I've compiled a few helpful questions to ask yourself when considering consignment.

How to choose the best shop:

1. Where is the shop located? Start local as out of town consignment can get tricky with shipping & delivery of goods, etc.
   
2. Make sure you pick a store that has or has the potential to attract a huge number of customers. The more traffic the store attracts the better potential you have to make sales. If you are working with a newly opened store observe their surroundings. Are there other retail stores, coffee shops or restaurants that are attracting customers to the area?
   
3. Does the shop carry what you are in the market for? Make sure your products will fit in well with the other merchandise including your price range.
   
4. Visit the store. What is the atmosphere like? Are the products displayed well represented? Would you shop there?
   
5. Check out the other artists. Do you know anyone that sells there? You can even go as far as contacting some of the artists to get a better feeling of the store's representation and its potential.
6. How is the service in the store? Do you feel welcome and well represented?
   
7. How well does the shop market/advertise? Make sure that they are actively working to attract customers to the store.
   

Things to ask/know about your contract:

1. Who sets the product prices and what is your percentage or rate? A 60/40 split is pretty standard in consigning but each shop varies and can range from 30/70 to 50/50.
2. Are there any additional fees such as administration fees, rental fees, credit card fees, holiday rate increases, etc.?
   
3. How are you paid and how often?
4. How is sales tax handled?
   
5. How long is the term for your contract? A 30, 60 or 90 day contract is typical.
   
6. How are your goods handled? Does their insurance cover possible breakage or theft of your goods?
   
7. How and where will your items be displayed? How much space do you have? Are you required to provide any displays?
   
8. Will the owner contact you to restock or is it your responsibility to periodically check?
9. How/when will you receive back any unsold goods once your contract is up?
10. How is your inventory managed at the store? Do you get an itemized list of inventory sold with your paychecks or at the end of your contract?
    

Resources:
(1) "The Handmade Marketplace: How to Sell Your Crafts Locally, Globally and Online", by Kari Chapin, Storey Publishing 2010
(2) "11 Tips When Selling Through Consignment", http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol58/consignment.htm
(3) "Everything You Wanted to Know About Consignment Shops but Were Afraid to Ask", http://www.handmadenews.org/article/index.php?id=1034
(4) "How to Consign", http://howtoconsign.com/index.html

R&R Design Now at Atown

I am very excited to announce my first consignment contract! You can now shop R&R Design at Austin's newest lifestyle store, Atown on Burnet road. This adorable new shop carries Texas themed and local handmade apparel, jewelry, home decor, accessories, gifts, furniture and more. You can find some of my favorite products including bottle cap charm necklaces, wine charms, TX license plate ornaments, screen prints, upcycled owls and garden marker spoons. More new and exciting products to come soon!

I am so happy to be taking my shop to the next level with a represented storefront so please stop by and check out R&R Design at Atown on 5502 Burnet Rd. (at the corner of Burnet & Shoalmont Dr.). You can also find other local handmade artists such as GemJunkie, Merritt Gade Fine Handmades, Nepenthe's Bathtime, Amelia Beth, Smash Tag, and more.