Girl Startup.

I probably should ellobarate on the artist bit…like “artist, designers, crafters, indie designers” etc.

I bumped the sound up a bit in this one, hope it’s not to overpowering?

Ammiki.com

Recently I joined thecreativeempire.net a creative business group to help me harness my skills and grow my business. I sort of poured out my heart in there, laying it on the line. And for me it was really cathardic, it made me realise a few things about myself and where I am headed.

I find it hard to know where I exactly fit in to the scheme of things with my business. I enjoy my creative side with Nomuu and just recently created Ammiki, and so you would think I would want to hang out with creatives all day long, but the truth is I  probably tend to gravitate more towards entrepenurs and startups. I tell you why! A lot of entrepures have very similar traits to me, and that is they are very ADD inclined, usually very open and down-to-earth and I don’t feel judged for coming up with a million ideas, I connect with those telling their stories, and how many things they tried and failed at. I am not sensible when it comes to buisness. But what I lack in sensibility I make-up with passion, character, and creative solutions. I always find solutions to a problem and nut things out. Usually that means, I find someone else to do the things I am not good at or do not enjoy.

Typical example of this, is that I get someone else to sew my bags. Yes that’s right I have someone sew my bags, the reason being is I hate to sew, and I would rather spend time developing ideas, creating fabric designs and developing bag designs. I utilise my best skill-set, and let others do what I am not good at. And as an ADD entrpenrial type, I would never get any of my ideas off the ground if I did not work like this. Now I can’t articulate as well as scoutie girl in regards to why one must uterlize their best skill-set  to grow a creative business, so feel free to  pop over to her blog to read more with her blog post defining indie craft movement. which pretty much sums up how I feel about obtaining help.

The other thing I do is I hire a programmer, for things that I cannot do or don’t want to. I mean a I lot of things I could figure out myself, if I wanted to, (more…)

Do you get the gist, that nothing ever is enough for me – he he! I’m positive I have ADD

I thought I would  let you see what else I am to, I was going to just show you when it was ready, but since I haven’t progressed with animating after two weeks, I thought maybe some behind the scenes stuff would  be of interest.

I am animating a little 30 second ad for Nomuu messenger bags, because I had this quirky brainwave that “hey I haven’t done animating/video in a while, I miss it, lets do an ad for Nomuu”. Sometimes I feel like I am channeling Michel Gondry (I wish) director of Enternal Sunshine and many more asweome video clips  and movies…but what I mean is, more in the sense, that he has all these ideas, and then he sees them come “to life” which is what I love doing. I have these ideas, create them, get them out of my system and then move on to the next thing.

So anyway, the idea is to have a 30 second clip of my bags. I imagined that I would have 10 seconds of each of my bags in a different scene, with my fabric background. Because I design all the fabrics, I can bring my fabric to life so to speak.I lot of my ideas especially in video revolves around nature. I think have an obsession with it. Anyway, the main one that stood out for me was the forest messenger bag, I could evisage a forest animating and a little fox and maybe a few other animals or birds coming into the scene.

So below is the animation WIP (work in progress). That fox was just a stand in…don’t ask me what he is doing The forest was created first in illustrator and then brought of to Adobe After Effects and animated in there. Some of the object where animated in Flash and brought into Adobe After Effects.

Now I am trying to animate the fox it self. I have not done frame-by-fram animation in such a long time, and I have to admit it’s not my favourite thing do, because I am too impatient. But I think I will get there. The trick is to observe how something is done. So for example I recorded my dog (which looks like a bear) and how she moved…I also have a great book called “The Animator’s Survival Kit” which is very handy. Now as you can see I am very rusty and to be honest I never was very good at frame-by-frame animation at uni either. But anyway, I think I will get there.

So I started of scanning in some very rough and poorly done sketches, the below was not the final run

Then I went into Illustrator and Flash and drew up the fox and refined walk cycle. ( click image to see WIP walk cycle, yes he looks a bit muddled at the moment). I created the fox animation in Flash and did what’s called a frame by frame by animation. Which means basically you draw out the main steps of how a fox would walk. Usually there are 12 frames per second in animation. So if I wanted the fox to walk differently over time for 5 seconds then I would probably have to draw out 30-50 frames (so each one is drawn slightly differently). But with a simple walk cycle you can just repeat it so can reduce from 8-20 frames (or even more).

Click on image to see WIP animation

So I want to animate two other bags, but for the time being maybe I will just concentrate on getting this one finished. I want to work on it some more tomorrow…maybe finish it off. Not sure what I am going to do about sound. I imagined forest sounds…maybe I can go out with a dat recorder into the forest? The song I play over the top of it at the moment, for inspiration is Lisztomania by Phoenix

Anyway stay tuned for the final

My first foray into animating was at uni many years ago, you can see my first ever animated piece here and can see how I draw on nature…and forests for that matter – he he!

Hey, I thought it best I just get this out there, warts and all and see if anyone is interested in submitting to a new curated gallery site I created at http://ammiki.com

The writing does need to be fine tuned, but I guess it’s better to get something out there and see if anyone is interested.

The concept is a little different to handmade stores because Ammiki embraces not only independent designers but also collaborations and small cottage businesses.

The reason I have started this site, is well actually because I am  stuck in between a rock and a hard place. I love design, I love being independent, I love creating things for myself and others, but I also know my limitations. I am a designer by trade, that’s my art. I am in fact terrible at sewing, knitting and all that jazz. But I still love creating, coming up with concepts, seeing ideas come to life,  but in some peoples eyes I am not truly a “handmade artist” because even though, I design all my fabric from scratch, cut out all the piece work, seal the seat belts, cut out all the lining, iron on the stiffening to bags, technically some may see that because I get help with the sewing that I am not really a “handmade artist”, fair enough. I mean I don’t necessarily agree with that, but I also don’t like stepping on peoples toes, and want to  actually  embrace the way  I work. I am actually proud of how I put nomuu bags together, I took the skills I am good at, and then looked at the other skills that I am not so good at and came up with a solution to still get my bags “out there”. I want to say it loud and proud, that I thought of entrepreneurial solution to a problem.

So that’s where Ammiki comes in, because to be honest I don’t really know any curated site that embraces collective and small cottage industries straight off the bat and expresses it loud and clear. I don’t know any site that says “hey we love handmade, but we love small independent businesses too”. I understand that Etsy has implemented this change, which is great, but hard for some traditional handmade people that have been on etsy for years to embrace and I totally understand where they are coming from. But I now feel I have to kind of justify myself each and everytime I  talk or want to submit my work to website, blogs etc and well I just being open and honest without feeling guilty for what I do.

So Ammiki says this, “we love handmade but we also love collectives and small cottage industries and entrepreneurial “think outside the square” solutions”.

I of course imagine this may not take off at all…not because I don’t think it’s a good idea…but whenever I think I have a brilliant idea, it never turns out to gain momentum like I think…so I could imagine this site will sit idle for a while – he he! But that’s ok…in the meantime I have a great gallery page to show off my work, but if you want to get your own little space…why not submit something? And bump my own pieces off the front page

Or if you interested in offering suggestions or want to help out with site…drop me a line at hello {at} ammiki.com I love collaborating

Well first off thanks to everyone who participated in my bag giveaway, the feedback was really helpful. Overall everyone said they liked my voice/personality. Quite a few wanted me to concentrate on giveaways and featuring other artists and others wanted me to stop talking about myself, but then on the other hand I got other people who said, it was great, because it feels like I was talking them to directly. I took it all on board, but at the end of the day…I came to the conclusion that I still have to be myself. I mean that’s what I do, I get all the thoughts that circle in my mind, and blurt them out on to a keyboard, which translates on to a monitor.  The other thing that annoyed some was my spelling and grammar, but yes that was a given I will try with that…really I will

You see my blog is like my inner voice, words just flow…just like right now. I’m not really thinking about what I am writing. I am just writing, and those words just jump out second after second and as soon as I try to change that, I will lose what just flows naturally.

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I need to rant!

I just purchased a few days ago, new epson printer inks which cost me $80 in total. I put the inks in, and found that prints were only printing a faint black.

So today I ring up epson, for a solution. They said “clean print heads up to 5 times” and ring back if that doesn’t rectify the situation.

So I did that, and it seemed to start fixing the problem..accept magenta would not work. But I also noticed my ink levels were now almost empty. Remember these are brand new inks…I haven’t even printed out anything apart for the test pages, which is just very small lines in a corner.

So I ring back epson to say a) it still hasn’t fixed the problem and b) now all the printer inks are almost at 0.

The reps reply was, that’s what happens when you clean the heads 5 times. OMG, what’s the point of cleaning them, if the ink gets wasted after the 5th time? So basically I have lost $80 worth of ink.

Epson will not do anything, even though I brought the printer 2 months ago. And when I said I would complain to consumer affairs (our dispute resolution for unfair transactions) they said, “yep just do that”.

I am so annoyed.

My rant is over

Why is that I don’t like to follow rules? I think I am a rebel. Whenever I go on a site, that has rules…I just want to break them:P

I don’t know how good this will be for me, if I want to set-up my own site with users. I want freedom, I want for people to be able to say and do what they want. I don’t want seclusion and yet I think that’s the key to success.

A place that I am selling at has rules and you have to follow them. I don’t like the fact that they force users to only link to their site. So technically I don’t think I am meant to have my own shop showing on my own blog, because you could technically “click and find” my site on there and that could mean fee evasion. I don’t know why I hate this so much but I do. It irks me. I want a site, that entices cross platform premotion, not segregration. I know shopping sites are a business, but I also don’t like totalitarian regimes. Am I being too dramatic here? Probably, but  that’s what makes me, “me”.

Do you think it’s possible to have a successful business without strict rules? Or am I dreaming?

If you didn’t already know, my goal and intention has not just been about selling bags, I have bigger dreams than that, hence that great quote yesterday, which sums up what I want to do.

“I want  the opportunity to build a company in the image I always wanted.”

Answer: The opportunity to build a company in the image you always wanted.

From: The Story Of Groupon: From Failure To An Industry-Changing, Profit Machine – with Andrew Mason

Nomuu Forest Bag

So it’s been roughly two months, since I made an effort in showing my designs to the “world” and I thought it was time to give an update. “Oh an update”, we all love the “updates”

So, it’s been an interesting ride and I have to say that I have been thoroughly enjoying it. Maybe I  could even say those special words…wait for it…”I love it”. It’s been interesting observing my progression. The thing that I have noticed, is my hightened sense of focus. I have never focused on something so much in  my life. Which is great, because it means I am on the right track. Everyday, I am thinking about my bags, and my other entrpenurial ideas and how to implement them. I think I should use that special word about now…wait for it “statergy!”. I am continually thinking about my statergy, my angle, my approach. I can’t say my statergy is working so far, with only three sales (update 4) ! But then on the other hand I know I need to be patient. That’s the one thing I am happy to do, be patient. I know these things take time, and it doesn’t matter if it takes me a week, a month or a year. I will get there, no matter what. There’s no other option.

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Brilliant Trees Collective has been a great supporter of mine on Twitter, but I’m not returning the favour because I feel obligated to. I honestly love her tea towl range. They’re awesome! Don’t you think? And a fellow Aussie to boot