Hello everyone,
Wow! It's been a crazy month of personal changes and business. Lots to say this month!!! Here goes...
My Life
My father, partner and I have had our hands full cleaning out my ancestral home and getting it ready for sale. No move in my life has been so emotional or so much work. We found old steamer trunks in the basement full of wrapped Christmas presents from the 1940's and boxes of records of our family's wartime history. My families art, love letters and treasured possessions. What to take and what to let go of? A whole family's history left in the hands of it's two remaining members - my father and I.
I am happy to say that after weeks of work we have finished the job. Now I have some time to settle into a new apartment and to focus on my life again. I am looking forward to relaxing into my new space after all of the stress of moving and to feeling the creative energy return. My craft supplies are unpacked and waiting for me to dive in.
Wholesale Release
The exciting news about business is that I am finally offering Wholesale and Unmounted Sheets of my designs.
You have been asking me to do this for some time and I have been working hard to figure out a way to make it possible. I am still mounting and cutting all of the stamps myself - as well as running all other aspects of business - and I came across a problem. I just couldn't balance the volume of cutting and still have time for designing. Growing pains. Not a bad problem at all. It just meant that I had to clumsily stretch into a new faze of the life of my business.
After some brainstorming I decided to begin offering Unmounted Sheets of my designs both on my website and for Wholesale. My idea being that with less production work I might make some time in my schedule for designing. I know this last year was a very slow one for new designs. I apologize and thank everyone for being patient with me and continuing to support what I am building. Even when I wasn't new or exciting.
I released my new Unmounted Sheets to a list of waiting stores for pre-orders and am ordering from my manufacturers today. They take 3 weeks to process every order that I place so with shipping times included the sheets should be arriving to the stores in mid-October.
I feel vey lucky to have the Unmounted Sheets represented now in the UK (Oyster Stamps), Switzerland (Stempelseite), Austria (Bastelhaus), 2 stores in Germany (one being Stempellaedle), Australia and Japan (Zu's Studio)! What a spread!!! So thankful :)
A couple of the stores asked to not be mentioned yet so I will release a complete list of retailers soon... The Unmounted Sheets will also be available on my site in mid-October for anyone who wants to order that way.
September Sales!
These three products have been reduced by 50% on my site www.designsbyryn.com. For direct links see under each photo.
August Customer Creation Draw Winner...
Last but definitely not least is the winner of last month's Customer Creation Draw - Kaybee! Below is a pic of her entry and HERE is a link to her post. Thanks so much for sharing your art :)
I'm so glad to see that many of you seem comfortable with this new method of organizing the draw. It saves me a lot of time and is a great way to see all of your beautiful pieces showcased together. Thanks so much for sharing them! Keep em' coming!
That's it for now. Thanks for taking the time to read my post :)
Hugs!
Ryn
Sounds like you've had a very emotional time of it, both at home and at work, but I am glad to hear that you're all sorted now and ready for the next phase....excited for you that you've gone wholesale into stores & other countries, you deserve it!!! xx
ReplyDeleteglad to hear you are sorted. it must have been so hard to do all that sorting.
ReplyDeletesuch good news about your stamps going global. hugs xx
The world of stamping will be forever grateful that you are spreading your wares worldwide. Congratulations and best wishes for continued success :D
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on a first step to conquering the world with your fabulous stamps! And I'm thrilled to win the August draw. Looking forward to some new designs.
ReplyDeleteLots of things going on in your life Ryn, all those memories in the old house...making choices...and finally your move to your new house that probably soon will feel as a home. And what a news about distritbution of your stamps and stencils! Go on girl...go for it :-))
ReplyDeleteAll the best, Alie :-)
So many congratulations on your worldwide success of your stamps, it is so very well deserved.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your succes. Moving is always emotional and to deal with great family heritage, pff it must have been hard, fun and rewarding :)
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward too your new designs.
A busy time indeed! Full of adrenaline too probably. Hopefully you can relax a bit coming months. Many positive changes, growth :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the new growth! Great to hear the distribution is expanding (not that I had a problem with the old way, but if you can focus more on creating and less on administration, then- yay!)
I also love the full sheet option :)
Love your beautiful stamps and so glad we can now buy them here in the UK.xxx
ReplyDeleteYou are an amazing artist, love all your designs. Sincerely, Elaine Rico
ReplyDelete