Monday Morning - Papercuts on Display

Hello - I hope you had a good weekend!

The past week I have been working on some orders for my stockists, while looking for more stockists - which has led to me thinking about how customisable papercuts can be stocked in shops. I thought it would be a good idea to have an example papercut, with some information about how I create customised pieces and what is available so I came up with the following setup...

I used an acrylic frame to display the papercut and a small piece of bent acrylic that holds the signage and information - I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner! I have contacted a few interesting places to stock my work and now I'm just waiting to hear back so things can be taken further!

In other news, I mentioned on twitter last week that I would like to write a blog post about "The Truth about Selling Handmade" well, what I have experienced and know from my first year of creating/designing on a freelance basis anyway. Now, this topic is really important to me and I don't want to rush it and then feel like I should change bits later, so I will be working on this all week and it should be up by Friday - I hope you will find it just as interesting and as helpful as I do!

Hope you have a nice productive Monday Morning!

WIP Wednesday

This week I have been working on the Mr Yen Catalogue for 2011 and starting to get some ideas down for a promotional mail out to send to design agencies/companies and illustration agents looking for freelance design work for now until Christmas.

If you would like to stock Mr Yen products you can get in touch here and I will send you the finished catalogue....below you can see a few example spreads...

See you back here tomorrow for a Thursday Finds post!

{weekend goodness}

*New Stockist!*
mrYen is now sold at The Maisonette in Glasgow!

mrYen hand cut greeting cards & notebooks are now available from The Maisonette, which has also recently had a little makeover too!

{Images of The Maisonette borrowed from Made in The Shade}

{WIP Wednesday}

This week I am playing catch up after having a relaxing weekend off work...getting some things together for a new stockist, getting some notebook insides made up ready for papercut covers and experimenting with a new papercut quote.

Hope you're having a productive week!

{Monday Morning}

This is the first Monday after I have finished University and have decided to have a relaxing day off from doing any work. I still have work to be finishing for my exhibition, but I really need a day off to do nothing. I finished University on Friday, started my part time job on Saturday and worked all weekend, so today will be my first day off!

So.....now University is over and done with, I plan to work full time on developing my papercut products for my etsy shop, for stockists and making them available for wholesale...all while working part time to earn money for rent/bills etc. If a great design job or opportunity came along I would definitely take that too as I would still like to work on freelance graphic design projects.

As selling my products will now be a full time job for me, my prices will be going up but I will be introducing lots of new products too! I already have a few of these planned and ready to be brought out, but I am waiting until I can make sure it is all cost effective and I can plan to properly launch each new product at the right time and to the right audience!

I will be using this blog on a more regular basis now too as I have more time to do so, showing inspirational pieces, development of my business and the details that go along with it and I will still be keeping some of my regular features such as a Monday Morning blog post and weekend goodness posts.

Here's hoping that my papercut products all work out and that I can do this as a full time job as it is my dream to be self employed, creating paper products that have simple clean aesthetics and that are beautiful enough to be framed or practical enough to be used!

{Oh and below you can see I have finally got around to getting mrYen stationery printed and photographed with my new logo and branding on - which is a letterhead, notepad, business card and compliment slip}

{WIP wednesday}

Some recently completed work that has been in progress for a while has been getting some papercuts ready for a new stockist!

The papercuts below have been sent to Snug Gallery in North Yorkshire, which will be opening soon. The gallery will be opening where Hannah Nunn's shop used to be and will be managed by Ed Chadwick and Yvonne Hardman, so everyone who can, should go and visit as soon as it is open......but while you're waiting, why not follow them on twitter to find out when they open and keep an eye on the Snug Gallery blog.





*Other WIP that will be going on sometime this week will be a bit of a re design for the blog*

{weekend goodness}

weekend goodness is...... time to share secrets! So I said I had something planned in my last WIP Wednesday post here, now I can tell you!

mrYen papercuts will now be stocked in an actual bricks and mortar shop! -

Welcome Home Store in Glasgow, UK.



All the papercuts below have been sent to be stocked in the Welcome Home store, (They are in the post as I type!) which is:

"A multi-disciplinary gallery and store with an on site studio space for production, artist in residence schemes, exhibitions, events and workshops. Focused on making art, design and craft accessible to all, it provides a constantly evolving space for new designers and members of the public to create, learn and educate" (borrowed from the Welcome Home About section)

If your in Glasgow why not pop in to see them in person!

Thanks Mhari for this great opportunity!

Happy Holiday shopping!