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Post by zed on Jan 3, 2015 19:57:53 GMT
Just in case this EU VAT thing doesn't go away any time soon, I'm considering abandoning any ideas of more ebooks and rethinking selling fibres. I know from experience (mine and others') that it's not worth my time and effort to make batts/fibre packs specifically for selling/or in the hope someone wants them, but I've seen people do more 'generic' kinds of listings, which they obviously put together once someone buys them. I'm fairly certain what I think makes a good fibre/embellishment pack is different to what others want too So, I'm wondering what kinds of things you would look for in an 'inspiration' pack of felting wool and fibres/fabrics? What kind of weights do you usually look for or do you have a price in mind when you look? Would you try more fibres if they were available in a variety pack? And would you prefer natural or dyed, and if dyed, a variety, a colour theme or both options? Any ideas at all would be great
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Post by luvswool and dyestuff on Jan 3, 2015 23:30:47 GMT
In thinking back to when I first started felting--and it was needle-felting first--I was looking for fibers I had read about which were supposed to be coarser and good for needle-felt projects. I tried merino, too, but saw early-on that it was not as easy/good for needle-felt. My favorite was the Romney, and I got several bundles from a shop on Etsy which was fairly priced and hand-dyed. I fell hard for the greens! So if you were doing a pack aimed at needle-felters, you could include a few color ways as well as a felting needle or two. Perhaps a foam block.
For wet-felters, you could offer a variety of packages:
neutrals/naturals - 4 different shades of medium coarse wool neutrals/naturals - 4 different shades of merino wool dyed fiber packs: greens (4 shades), pinks…etc. nuno-felt packs: scrim and/or very lightweight silk, wool fibers, embellishments dyed and natural locks
I would probably keep modest prices to begin with, perhaps offering several price points for different kinds of spenders.
Just my thoughts, Zed. I have never tried to sell any of these items in my Etsy shop.
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Post by Teri Berry on Jan 3, 2015 23:42:44 GMT
Interesting questions Zed, I confess almost all the mixed fibre packs I have bought have been at places like woolfest and they were impulse buys. I think I was mostly drawn by the unusual colour combinations they had put together. I recall Oliver Twist made some interesting packs, it might be worth taking a look at their shop. www.etsy.com/uk/shop/OliverTwistsFibres?section_id=13366049&ref=shopsection_leftnav_2Things that have put me off buying fibre packs are: - Not being able to think of a use for >25% of the contents - you might be able to get around this by offering suggestions on how to use the contents or provide photos of things that could be made - Shops that offer to send a random selection of whatever they find at the back of the cupboard (i.e. things that no one else wants). I would much rather see a photo of what I will be getting Things that I like to see in fibre packs: - rainbow / parfait dyed prefelt sheets - rainbow / parfait dyed fabrics (cotton muslin, scrim and silks are all good) - threads - beads - locks - dyed silk cocoons (not so keen on carrier rods though as I can't figure out what to do with them) - dyed silk hankies - less experienced felt makers might like to see felt balls and ropes - textured / art yarns Have you considered offering a kit form, e.g. for a nuno felt scarf? You could include an instruction sheet for beginners and provide one of your beautiful carded batts and some dyed fabric? Or similarly your book covers would work well with this - include a copy of your tutorial and enough fibre / clips etc for someone to make their own book cover? My biggest problem with most fibre packs is that there is not enough material to make a scarf or some other project, if they were sold as a kit to make X while experimenting with different materials / fibres I would be much more inclined to play Personally I prefer acid and procion dyes over natural dyes as they don't tend to fade when exposed to light or when washed but I know there is a (false?) perception that natural dyes are safer and better for the environment. I think this choice depends on your marketing strategy. I don't have a price in mind for my impulse buys but I do look for value for money. However, I am prepared to pay extra for something that I don't think I can buy from WoW or easily make myself. Sorry, I have really waffled on, I will shut up now as I would really like to know what others think about these packs....
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Post by Teri Berry on Jan 3, 2015 23:48:58 GMT
Forgot to mention, I'm a sucker for any pack with Angelina in it, I just can't resist a bit of sparkle! BTW you are a bad influence... I am now busy filling a cart with things I know I don't need from Oliver Twists. I have no self control
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Post by Pandagirl on Jan 4, 2015 2:57:25 GMT
Zed, I want it all, so including something a little exotic to the new felter may make it irrestiable. I agree with Teri that offering ideas or a kit to compete a project is always good and including enough to complete a project is even better. I also like Cathy's idea of including four of a color way or complementary colors. A lot of people have trouble putting colors together, but know what they like when they see it and including embellishments also makes perfect sense.
I would do a little homework and see what kinds of kits are out there, not just on etsy but on other websites. I've seen kits on outbackfibers. Com and Susannemorgan.com. Check on facebok for felters and what they are selling. You want to set yourself apart from the ordinary in order to grow a following. Don't be afraid to include some instructions or pictures. I would even drive them to the forum and your blog to get more instructions and ideas by including several website addresses. It will appear that you are giving them more than what they are paying for making the purchase a better value.
I hope that helps.
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Post by Pandagirl on Jan 4, 2015 2:59:19 GMT
Just remember to decide on a target audience, ie a new felter, that will help you make better decisions to begin with until you develop a following then expand from there as your following develops their skills. Just an idea.
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Post by Shepherdess on Jan 4, 2015 4:19:06 GMT
From what I have seen needle felters seem to want small amounts. Most seem to make small things so want small amounts of colour for the outside of pieces. merino is popular even though I think it is a pain for needle felting. I preferred coriedale. You can get that died now. Most needle felters don't seem to know what wool they are using. The ones that stick to it seem to learn. I don't want to insult anyone it's just what I have noticed. Colour themed packs in smaller amounts I think would to well. 10 grams per colour. I se them selling dyed wool by the 1/4 ounce.
Wet felters want larger amounts. I agree that kits to make a project sell well. You could make the book part of the kit. Or have kits with and without the book. For me it has to be very special for me to buy less than 100grams of wool. If you have wool you can make up a sample of varicose colour packs or kits and then make them up as needed instead of making them and hoping they sell. I think colour themed packs would sell well say 25grams of 4 colours.
and don't forget about spinners. Art yarns are very popular. If you can sell art yarn packs that might be good. Art batts and rollags are popular right now. anything with lots of colours and some sparkle. It a good use of your drum carder. Are you a member of fiber artists and yarn spinners on facebook. There are several selling groups too. People sell a lot through facebook.
Now I have been really long winded and tomorrow I will see all the grammar and spelling errors. Time for bed, night.
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Post by halay on Jan 4, 2015 5:37:52 GMT
Zed, this is a good idea - selling kits. I agree with all the suggestions that Teri, Ann and Cathy have given. You are good at dyeing, carding, mixing fibres etc. why not sell your skills?
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Post by koffipot on Jan 4, 2015 9:29:04 GMT
Zed -I think it's all been said, including your bad influence! Teri's advice to take some inspiration from Oliver Twists is a good idea, but beware! They have so much gorgeous yummy, stuff you'll probably end up buying rather than selling!! More bad influence from Teri Those batts of mixed fibres you sent me are great and very saleable. I haven't used any yet, but intend to have a solitary felting fest soon, so will let you know how I use them.
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Post by zed on Jan 4, 2015 11:59:35 GMT
I think Judith had the same influence over me not so long ago, a 'quick look' on World of Wool and suddenly there's £60 worth of stuff in my basket! Thanks a lot for all your replies and thoughts, I'll write these down. They're not far off from what I thought, really, but then, experience has shown that doesn't always help. I had mixed silk packs, 4 types of silk (hankies, throwster's waste, noil and carrier rods) all 20g each, (80g/2.8 ounces total) for £4/$6 you couldn't get anything even close to twice that elsewhere on etsy, but it still took ages for them to sell. I did a giveaway of enough wool, fibres, fabric, embroidery thread and delrin clip, along with the notebook tutorial to see how that would work, but didn't get feedback. I have tried to get feedback/do test marketing for other ideas/fibre packs, but unfortunately never got the feedback once the fibres/packs were received. One thing that always bothers me is how to do the fabric embellishments. Unless I am doing a specific nuno piece, I tend to use small 1 to 2 inch pieces of silk, organza or scrim etc, and tear it because this works well. So this seems like a good thing to do, a big variety of many small pieces of fabrics. But I worry it looks like 'scraps', like rubbishy pieces, even though I purposely tear pieces to use like this for myself. If I did do 'pieces' or strips of fabric, what would be good sizes to include (for embellishing, not the larger nuno/scarf sized pieces)? 5 inch square? one long narrow strip? The size thing is always a difficult area, I tend to see it as a waste of money to get smaller amounts of things, postage is more economical on larger amounts, and the less often you buy, the less postage you pay. Within the UK, I can send small/flattish amounts for under £1, and upto 1kg for £3.20 To the US/CA it's £4/ US$6.13/ CA$7.22 for 100g (so about 80/90g of actual fibre) or for upto 250g it's only £5.05/ US$7.74/ CA$9.12 But like Ann says, needlefelters tend to buy smaller, so do Americans, but then Americans don't tend to buy from overseas much even when they know it's half the price for some reason. If anyone has time, could you look at these and tell me what you'd change? Other thoughts www.etsy.com/transaction/162500958www.etsy.com/transaction/176697101I'm guessing the first thing would be make the batts at least 80g? Sorry for such a long, rambling post, but one reason I had for doing smaller sized batts was, as the kits were for wet felters, they'd be used just for the top decorative layer, and less fancy stuff used underneath.
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Post by jwugg on Jan 4, 2015 12:18:31 GMT
Zed, I think those 2 kits are both lovely! A couple of thoughts I have: - the autumnal set has a lot of variety, it would take you quite a lot of time to measure & gather all the different yarns etc; lovely but I think you could offer a slightly smaller selection & not loose out - the beautiful blues set - I thought it was just the batts (& they were gorgeous!), your 1st photo needs to show everything included in the kit, I think. Maybe a larger amount of fibres & proportionally smaller amount of fabrics? Not sure.
They are lovely - you know Etsy, you'll need to get them on in quite a few colour varieties to start to get enough viewings for sales. & as you say, Etsy is still heavily American based & many won't buy from overseas. - Is there any private craft shop near you that you could offer kits to sell? On a sale-or-return basis maybe? You know those new trendy (ie expensive) wool shops etc.
Whereabouts in Manchester are you? I used to live in Altrincham!
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Post by Teri Berry on Jan 4, 2015 14:21:40 GMT
Love the kits Zed, the colour combinations are gorgeous, the only thing I would do differently is show and image of something you have made with a similar kit and add some suggestions of other things that could be made from the kit. A lot of people aren't as creative as the folks on this forum and find it difficult to visualise how the fibres can be used together. One other piece of advice I was given on here is to put all your measurements (weight and length) in imperial (American) and metric. I love the larger pieces of fabric but that is because I would turn them in to scarves and nuno felt bags. As Jill says, Etsy is a funny beast, the hardest part seems to be getting people to see your stuff, when they do the sales will come rolling in. On the bright side, lots of people may be leaving or stop selling to the EU due to the VAT MESS so there will be less competition for those of us left behind
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Post by MTRuth on Jan 4, 2015 15:19:03 GMT
You could sell fabric scrap packs for "mosaic" projects. I see a lot of people doing those now. They could be smallish squares say a couple of inches. I didn't look carefully at your listings but if you want Americans to buy, Teri's idea of imperial and metric is good. No one in the US knows the metric system and won't know how much it is when you list it in grams etc. I sell marbled silk scrap packs for $25 at the store. I can't remember how much is in them but not a ton.
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Post by Shepherdess on Jan 4, 2015 15:25:25 GMT
The packs are nice Zed I agree your first picture needs to show all you will get. Etsy is such a hard place to get noticed now. I think the problem is etsy not you or your product. You have to do some self promotion. For me that's always the hardest part. Posting lots of pictures ( I just made these. My new kit colours bla bla bla) on the facebook groups and then directing people to your etsy store or selling it directly. I see so many doing that.
I like to get bigger pieces too. but keep all my scraps. I really don't know what size for pieces that are not scarf length.
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Post by luvswool and dyestuff on Jan 4, 2015 15:35:04 GMT
In taking a look at Oliver Twists, that would have been heaven for me 2 or 3 years ago. They are newish--in business on Etsy since mid-2013--but the selection is amazing, with 420 items for sale. I believe that is one of the keys to their success--so many choices! I buy supplies on Etsy but am conscious of price points, no matter where the shop is located. I have bought from Greece, France, UK and Australia when the shipping is reasonable. There is a shop that sells great needle-felt supplies at reasonable prices, and I continue to order my felting needles and foam from them because of their pricing and great service.
The fiber packs you put together in the past look great, but take a serious look at your competition.
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