Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Tell me what you want....again! :)

Hello again everyone.

I figure the response to the poll has been overwhelmingly 'preorder' so there is no need to keep on polling you for that one! I will put up listings for preordered people plus a couple for those who want to pounce.
So the next thing I would loooove to know is what type of box you want to buy. There is no guarantee I will be able to fill these just yet, but just to give me a rough idea of numbers so I can do my best to accommodate.
Till next time.....
happy spinknitcrocheting! :)

Friday, June 19, 2009

Oh, whatever shall we do with the samples?

Hey everyone, just found this awesome pattern on Ravelry that would beautifully use up the samples, especially when we start themes!
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/justify
Enjoy!!!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

For those interested in buying a box....

Hello again to all of you who have already voiced their interest!

Things are coming along quite well for our first box. Thankyou for your support, it has meant there have been plenty of business willing to contribute after seeing your enthusiasm!

At this stage the first box will go out early August and will cost $30 (this price was revised from $35 after checking post costs- thanks to Celia for her feedback!)

It will be sold on Etsy, which you will need to sign up for. It is free and is a secure site to purchase with credit card or Paypal. It is also the site where you will be able to find a lot of our contributors.

At this stage we would like to know from you whether you would rather preorder or be given a time and day that the box will go on sale. It would be very much appreciated if you can vote for what you want on the poll on the side bar- this is your box, tell us what you would like! :)

So what do you get for your money? A minimum of 20 sample sized products from our contributors that are all small scale, indie, Australian dyers, spinners and fibre related product producers. It is a mix of all sorts of items, like getting a lucky dip! We will be putting all of the contributors details on this blog so you can see what else they offer and we will make a video of a sneak peak of products included, so if you miss out on a box, you can still see what is out there for Aussie artisans.

I am sure I am forgetting details right now, so if you think of anything that I should be mentioning, please drop me a line or leave a comment.

Once again, thanks for all the interest everyone!
JD

For those interested in having their products in the box...

Ok, so here are the details for those wanting to have their samples put in the Ewe Beaut Fibre Box-


It is basically a box of samples from various Australian fibre designers who want to have their product tried by eager, addicted, discerning knitters, spinners, crocheters and fibre artists.It works by you contributing your products to the box then I distribute them to a bunch of buyers who know the need to feel a fibre before buying bigger amounts.


So why advertise this way? There is nothing like playing with a fibre to get the feel of it and to envisage all the exciting projects that could unfold from it! You will be able to target a wider range of buyers who might ordinarily be put off buying something that they haven't had a chance to feel and play with first.

It will go out once a month, you can join in as many months as you want, but to keep it fresh we will be having a theme for each month after the first month (August). This will mean that you can showcase different products for each month, keeping our buyers interested and allowing you to get as much exposure for your business as you want.


There would be a minimum of 20 samples in each box depending on the sizes of samples sent in, with a minimum of 20 samples being required from each business. If 40 samples are contributed, then you will also receive a box. You can send a variety of products (eg, mix of yarns, fibres, etc) or just one (say, just black alpaca fibre), it is entirely up to you. All products sent in will be featured on our blog site and a video of the fibres will be set up on youtube.

The pay off for you to advertise this way is that only interested buyers are targeted, you can get your name out into the knitting/spinning community more and there will be more ways for people to find your business through links on this blog site, so buyers can keep coming back for more! The box will be advertised in spinner newsletters, forums, Ravelry, other blogsites and we are also currently looking into getting it into bigger magazines such as 'Yarn'.

We will also hold competitions for buyers from time to time that will encourage them to blog about the box and your business on their own networking sites and blogs. You are more than welcome to run your own comps like this through our website where you can offer a full size version of your product as a prize for that month's blogging. More info of this will be available as we have the basics established first.

Now for the practical matters-
Each sample size needs to be big enough to be played with by our box buyers. A rough estimate is 20-25g of yarn, but it is totally at your discretion, you may even want to send out a few full size versions of your product as a one off for a lucky box buyer- this will be advertised on the site and the youtube video should you wish to do this.

As mentioned before, 20 samples is the minimum, but we will contact you if there are higher numbers of buyers interested from month to month to give you the opportunity to get you product out to as many people as possible.

Boxes will go on sale at the beginning of each month, August being the first, so products need to be received by late July for the first batch. You will also need to email me you logo and website link by then as well to have your info on the website. If you would like to offer any specials to coincide with your box product, just let me know and I can advertise that next to your logo and product.

If you are not a fibre producer, you can send in patterns, row markers and other related products, as these can definitely be included too.

All it will cost you is your samples and any postage to get them to me. (I will be in Sydney late June til early July, so if you want to drop them off in person, email me and we can make arrangements).

Make sure that each sample has a label on it with your business details and the name of the sample so that people know what to buy! Feel free to have fun with the individual packaging of the samples, but rest assured that we will be displaying your products beautifully in the box.

Box buyers will be able to purchase the sampler box on Etsy, which is free to sign up to and is a secure website to purchase on with credit cards and Paypal. At this stage we are polling our interested buyers (on the side bar) to see whether they would prefer a sale time to pounce for the product or a preorder system. We will run this for a week and then decide the best method.

If you would like to check out the overwhelming interest so far, there is a thread running on Ravelry.com in the group 'Australian Knitters'. The discussion is called 'Aussie only sample box' with the posts giving an indication of interest for this project.

For those who are now wanting to get involved, send me an email to either ewebeaut@tpg.com.au or jdrobbo@tpg.com.au and I will send you the address to send your samples to.

Any other questions feel free to leave a comment or send through an email and I can add the information onto this post.