SELECT@Bath Reviewed...

This time last week we were in the Assembly Rooms, Bath expectantly waiting for the next potential buyer to walk around the craft trade fair.

I guess we knew it was going to be a disappointment for a while, there were several indicators: the S@B website was looking decidedly the same as last year, the number of exhibitors seemed low and the quality of exhibitor was nowhere near that of BCTF. But we'd committed; I must admit, we put off making our final payment on the trade fair 'til the last minute, I just thought that there might be a chance it was going to be canceled and I was worried about loosing the money. It seems a few of the exhibitors I spoke with during the fair had one the same.

The rooms were open while 9:00pm on the Saturday for set-up so we didn't have to leave YORK too early; I drove down in one stint, no stopping and we arrived at 6:45; it doesn't take very long for us to set our space up we have this honed now; then off to our guest house and out for dinner.

We arrived at the Assembly Rooms at about 9:30 the next morning, we needed to fold brochures and trade price lists; at 10:00 the rush DIDN"T happen and all day there seemed to be more exhibitors than buyers.

Of those buyers that did come many were with children and it seemed more of a day out than a buying or looking for new suppliers spree. One wonders why the buyers don't seem to take this trade fair seriously, some people put it down to location, it's not ideal for parking &c, but I think it is too close behind BCTF and in a time of year when shops and galleries have spent their money and now gearing up or concentrating on selling. At BCTF buyers want everything ASAP, here they seemed happy with delivery in June or whenever! I don't think many of the exhibitors here are inspiring too; too many shared stands, too many magazines and publications, some like the craft and design magazine just leaving unattended tables with piles of magazines!

Monday was better than a very uninspiring Sunday, we had some great interactions with a number of municipal galleries &c. The halls were empty of buyers by about 2:30 and we had to wait 'til 4:30 before we could pack-up.

So why did we do it if we thought it wasn't going to be a success? Well, we love visiting Bath, you get a short break in a beautiful city and can put it all on the businesses accounts.

Will it happen next year? I'm certain it won't, the aisles were too wide, there was too much space and not enough exhibitors or buyers. If it does go ahead, we couldn't justify doing it again. It's a shame really because it's one of the few fairs that gets exposure in the south-west, though most of our orders seemed to come from Wales this time around.

BCTF Reviewed…

I am late writing this! We finished BCTF on a good Tuesday for orders and when we arrived at the studio on Wednesday Sophie had begun the transformations for her exhibiting her installations at York Open Studios and the place was ‘a little’ topsy-turvy.

We don’t need to prepare so much now for trade fairs, we have a stand design & layout that we are pleased with for the moment; I know how everything fits into the back of Landy and Harrogate is so close to home that I was able to do the set-up alone whilst the girls continued to make all the products for display. I can set up the stand in half an hour – lighting, posters, shelving; it’s as simple as that.

We arrived early on the Sunday and displayed our wares, then waited for the buyers to arrive which they duly did, queuing to get in at 10am. The format is usual, many of them walking around with a big bag, notebook and pen in hand; they take a quick look at your stand, look up at the name board and make a note of your name and stand number if they are interested in your products, then continue on down your isle.

Sunday was a good morning and lunch, we were surprised as normally it is a couple of hours before the buyers start buying; we were busy up to about 3 in the afternoon, then things slackened off and the first day the finishing time was 6pm!

I noticed at this trade fair that there was far more people wearing visitor badges rather than buyer badges. We have done BCTF for four years now and usually the exhibitors have badges printed with “Exhibitor – business name” and the buyers have “Buyer – business name”, visitors could be students, people doing a “recce” for potentially exhibiting next year &c. But this year there were far too many visitor badges and in many instances the buyer badges were handwritten with the business name.

I do think that we are still in the grip of this recession, we were taking plenty of orders but in many cases the yield per order was down; last year many first-time buyers were happy to meet our carriage paid amount - £200, this year many of the first-time orders were c£150.

The general turnout format for buyers/visitor goes like this – Sunday, (mainly) larger independent galleries, gift shops &c; Monday, many museum and visitor attraction representatives and Tuesday seems to be a mix. We noticed this year that, people (buyers/visitors) were far more reluctant to handout information than they have been in past years (could this be due to the amount of spam email people are receiving – maybe); generally the information was going in one direction, from us to them.

Another thing you notice is a growing amount of representatives from other businesses try to sell you things such as membership to associations, insurances, publicity &c.

During the whole event we gained ten new stockists, but we must have met (some) 100 of our existing stockists; we debated (Ruth & I) whether it is worth continuing to do the event, our conclusion was that it is, if only to keep a presence and meet our stockists who we can’t get to see any other time.

We bought a MIFI (mobile WIFI) for the business so were able to keep “blogging” and “facebooking” during the event. This year the organizers gave us access to the hall’s WIFI, but it was uselessly slow.

Monday was a good day and Tuesday (usually a little slower), this year, was fantastic. Bespoke seems to be working really well for us, artistically, there seems nothing that the girls can’t achieve and our “literary” emphasis is getting us into many museums and visitor attractions.

Now the order-book is overflowing, this week we shipped over £3,000 of trade orders, don’t want to keep the stockists waiting too long! Though, it is difficult trying to keep that level of productive output for too long. The phone and email keeps pinging with new stockists and orders, it really does keep the team motivated. We need to “get a wiggle on” with these orders as we have SELECT@Bath (another trade event) in early May, so clear these trade orders before we catch another load. This is what it is all about, keeping busy, new ideas, new projects, new designs, new products; answering to no-one (but the tax man)!

Next review will be SELECT@Bath.

2010 - Q1 Complete

We've made it through a difficult couple of months, orders have been sketchy and the order amounts have dropped significantly after Christmas and New-Year; but we'd built up enough fat to see us through and now we're looking forward to the British Craft Trade Fair (BCTF) next week then Select@Bath early May.
Scotland's Trade Fair turned out to be rather good for us, not actually at the fair but after and we're aware of outlets and organizations who are intending to visit us at BCTF.

Late February was very quiet on the trade front and we had to entice trade orders with a discount offer weeks 3/4 of Feb. Retail sales through the website are well up on this time last year, we think it is due to all the Sumptuosity products being given as presents over Christmas.

We acquired a significant number of new stockists and this has helped though this quiet period, seventeen in total. Also, a number of new stockists acquired at Scotland's Trade Fair have re-ordered, a very good sign. A number of new stockists have come to us direct & outside of trade fairs.

Our marketing emphasis outside of trade fairs is definitely based on retail web mail-order sales and sales through the studio; we have a growing section of other British designers goods for sale from the studio and we appear to be gaining a reputation locally for good (predominantly hand crafted) cards; usable crafts (especially of a 'stitch' theme) seem popular, in particular Indianna McMillan-Parkers cacti plant pot pin-cushions; when we get get our next batch I'll put them online too. We also get a surprising number of visits from people we sell to or newsletter who live all over the country.



We've been busy on the designs and product front; we've introduced 37mm square badges into our range, they fit very well between the round button and rectangular brooches; the selection of designs will increase rapidly over the next few weeks, we need to have them ready for BCTF. We've designed a selection of rectangular brooches based on Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management; we're happy with most of the designs but need six or 9 in total.


I really want to get our Alice in Wonderland cards in production but I'm not yet satisfied with my images; I think I should seek the advice of a professional photographer and I have just thought of just the person. Everyone who sees the silk Alice pictures that Sophie has embroidered asks if they are for sale, maybe when I'm happy with the photographs of them.

We will be handing the studio over to Sophie mid April so she can use it for exhibiting space for York Open Studio, she has also had meetings with Father Tim of St. Lawrence and St. Hilda as we are in the very early discussion stages for creating a rather large alter piece.

We're looking forward to a much busier Q2, keep up to date with us through the website, blogs and facebook.

Tuesday in the studio...

A new week and month for Sumptuosity, we were in the studio early and sorting through yesterday's post, a few cheques included which is always great, though most of our remittances are electronic these days; there were a couple of telephone messages too, one existing stockist wanting to place an order, the second was a big surprise, our first contact from a National Trust outlet. Then a couple of hours later a call from a second National Trust outlet; it seems that they have all received their new catalogues which include our products, so two NT order on the first day of the month, not bad.

I had to go through my least pleasant task again today - chasing payment, hopefully, most chases seem genuinely forgotten or misplaced invoice &c.

Tuesday is always busy, firstly with administration of the electronically received trade orders received over the weekend and then with silk preparation - cutting, vilening, circling; the girls race away with their embroidery after a couple of days away; the studio shop was busier than usual again today (which is great), we're enjoying the people browsing and buying but strangely customers always seem to turn-up in droves during lunch time, interrupting our lunch!

A large post run this afternoon and our first purchase shipped to Russia, seems they appreciate Alice in Wonderland there too.

More trade orders arriving electronically as I type, time for printing and filing.

Saturday in the studio…

More selling than making today.

I was at Leeds Metropolitan University studying Marlowe's Dr. Faustus and how to recognize a an early 18th Century Diva - specifically Francesca Cuzzoni with tour of St John's church thrown in too (buildings as primary sources) for the afternoon.

I checked in with Ruth at lunchtime, we had an important delivery to ship - samples to the Museum of London, which had been posted. By all accounts it was difficult sitting at the sewing machine for more than quarter of an hour as the studio was inundated with customers; Sophie was cracking on, head-down as usual, and there were some three trade orders almost fully embroidered and ready for assembling and shipping.

I arrived back at the studio around 4pm and it was indeed, full of customers; time enough left for planning next weeks production.

Sophie's latest creation for our cards project is the image of The Queen of Hearts:

Thursday in the studio…

Phew - Shakespeare's Globe theatre trade order is complete, a mammoth task! We've made the same mistake as we did last summer with a huge Jane Austen Centre order, namely, doing it all in one go, quite repetitive especially when there are only four quotations and four colour ways (specified by the Globe); we won't make that mistake again, we'll stagger the production between other jobs. I think the girls need a well deserved rest from making bookmarks now for a couple of days. I have to say though, it does look good as a completed order.


The festival of quilts is starting 1 March, the Quilt Museum and Gallery will be staging ‘Inspired by  the Past: Traditional Practice and Contemporary Conversations’ and ‘Breakthrough' by Contemporary Quilt. It begins on the 27th March for a few months, Ruth & I have tickets for the opening on Thursday 25th. If you're coming up to York for either of the exhibitions do consider paying us a visit here at the Sumptuosity studio, we're only 5 minutes walk away and have lots of things in our studio shop as well as our products.

Wednesday in the studio…

We are bogged down with bookmark production at the moment, 240 for Shakespeare's Globe and a large amount for Kelmscott Manor too. The girls will need a rest from making bookmarks for a couple of days, still, lots of other things need embroidering and making-up.

We took another four trade orders yesterday, three responding to a promotional offer I put out to our existing stockists a couple of days ago and one is another follow-up from Scotland's Trade Fair. It seems as though a few potentials are holding off until Spring, many are looking for delivery dates around the 25 Mar; one order had specified delivery for 25 May so I politely replied asking if the May had meant to be March, it was a good job I did!

I emailed one of our stockists images of our Alice in Wonderland cards yesterday and they asked to have some added to their order, things are looking promising so far for the card project, Sophie who has done the designs (and is creditted on the rear of the card) is quite excited. I've sourced the 300gms card, envelopes and cello sleeves, one of our card suppliers for the studio shop (Gail Kelly) was very kind in providing us with valuable information which saved much time; thanks Gail.

Tuesday in the studio...

February came over rather quiet after Valentine's, so, time for some promotion...

I contacted our stockists this morning with a promotional offer and by the close of day we had five new orders and a much healthier February order sheet; so this evening was spent preparing project folders, printing orders and invoices.

I use the Project Centre in Microsoft Entourage for Mac, it's great for pulling all the relevant emails, files and documents together for each particular order, priceless!


Oh, we had our first internet purchase from Russia today - Alice in Wonderland is popular all round the world it seems.

Saturday in the studio…

Sometimes a short day for me in the studio as I am now a student I sometimes spend Saturday mornings at York St John’s or like next week the whole day at Leeds Met.

Today was an important day for getting a particular order out to our Cambridge stockist and I failed! We had two visits yesterday, one expected from our friend Jo from Cumbria and the other an unexpected visit from Brian an ex-colleague of Ruth’s at 5:00 with an invite to the pub, which meant bumping into Vikings and inviting them to the studio (in full costume of course).



But, due to a late night, effects of alcohol, university and an invasion of some 10+ Vikings (with photograph as promised), most of the day was used up so I shall have to spend an hour or two on my day off to get the order delivered on Tuesday (still on schedule!)

After a design review of the Alice in Wonderland cards on Friday, we concluded that a couple of changes were required: we didn’t need the text under the image, the image needed to be square, the border needed to be twice as wide and we agreed the photographic quality needed to be better; this was resolved with more and different lighting. The end result is much improved, don’t you think?



Hurray for the weekend… website updates and more.

Thursday in the studio…

This morning I had to perform one of my least favourite tasks within my role in Sumptuosity – chasing payments; we may hear through the news that the recession is (supposed to be) over, but from where we sit in the small craft business I can confirm that this is not the case; more and more stockists seem to be stretching their payment terms beyond 30 days; thankfully, it’s not often we have to do this and it didn’t take too long then it was back to the more usual ‘stuff’ in the business.

We have an unusual sales opportunity coming up in the middle of March, the Alzheimer’s Society will be selling our products in a craft fair with KPMG Leeds; more ‘hi-res’ images required for the marketing material; my job for tonight; if it goes well, there will be many more sales opportunities with the society.

Six packages to post today, we’re soon going to need a pull-along shopping trolley if we keep posting so many packages together! All the Scottish Trade Fair orders (apart from those wanting delivery in March) are now dispatched.

Sophie has created six Alice in Wonderland images, we’re determined to turn these into cards, here’s my first pass at the card design:


I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the images.

Wednesday in the studio…

We have had a number of new trade stockist orders this month, many of which are follow-ups from the Scottish Trade Fair; one order arrived on Sunday was paid for Tuesday and asked if we could dispatch that day (holidays/Cumbria &c)! We weren’t able to as we had other commitments but it has been dispatched today, how’s that for service? Quick turn-around of orders is one of the key aspects of our keeping the customer satisfied policy.

The Sumptuosity fairies are flying with the embroidery, we’re very much up-to-date with our trade orders at the moment, apart from Ruth with her Kelmscott & (huge) Shakespeare orders; Sophie and Alanna will soon be embroidering to fill the stock boxes rather than for orders. It feels strange since last month was so very busy with trade order emails pinging on the computer two & 3 times a day, the emails are a little slower this month (especially after Valentines day); it all evens out over time, though it’s very easy to start to get a little concerned when you go a day without a stockist trade order (which we have today) until this very second when the email pings with an order from our stockist on the Wirral; now the world’s a good and happy place.

Sophie has an order on the go at the moment with forty Alice in Wonderland mirrors and 50 Alice in Wonderland rectangular brooches, phew! Another stockist emailed today wanting ‘hi-res’ images of our Alice in Wonderland mirrors for a national newspaper article! Anyone would think there was an Alice in Wonderland film due out or something!

Customers have been in & out of the studio on a regular basis today, it’s the Viking Festival here in York it’s quite surreal to be looking out of the window and see a group of Vikings walking by (what is the collective noun for Vikings – comments please) and if we get any of them in the studio shop I promise I’ll take a photograph and publish it on the site!

Today’s postal mail included a notice from HMRC about the 2010 Employer Annual Returns today; every time we receive mail from HMRC we automatically perceive it’s going to be a problem… Even before we open the envelope, we really have to get out of that frame of mind as I keep hearing “Tax doesn’t have to be taxing!”

Any one who has a business telephone number will agree with me on this – we don’t half get a mass of time wasting telephone calls each day: Titan Telecom, Commercial Power (currently the biggest culprits) and RTA (asking if we’d like to sell our business)! Does any helpful soul have any suggestions how we can stop some of these calls? We must get in excess of ten per day; does anyone else suffer this problem!

All-in-all a busy and fruitful day; do read Ruth’s blog about her invite to the opening of the NTU lace archive, we had a great time yesterday evening and I’m so very proud of her and her achievements.

Thoughts on a Trade Fair...

We recently attended the Scotland's Trade Fair at the end of January; I was very excited beforehand as we already had some 30 stockists in the region and was ready to make a big improvement on this. The trade fair was to run from Sunday to Tuesday and from past experience generally Sunday is good for business with larger independents, Monday is good for municipal galleries and Tuesday is usually smaller independents.

At this trade fair, Sunday was good but Monday and Tuesday were poor for orders and my initial response was downbeat; however, the inquiries and subsequent orders since the trade fair has been fantastic. A common thread seems to be that our beautiful vibrant silks will make a welcome bright change to the usual tartan and tweed.

It just goes to show, that you should never count your chickens...