It's all about packaging

Hi everyone! : )

I'm super happy that I got to have two days off because of the Easter holiday at my new (and awesome) workplace.  My head is filled with new ideas for patterns and colour mixes for Spring and Summer and yesterday I got in my mailbox the new beads that I ordered, yay! I was all hyped this morning when I got up but since the sun never showed up, I won't be able to make my photoshoot today and show you some of my new designs…. :S I hope I'll have at least one day of sunshine, I can't wait to post new items, it has been way too long…! :) I have some delicious greens and luscious purple awaiting in my studio, I can't wait to share! :D

Since the time is gray and dull - but hopefully and slowly spring is getting warmer - I decided to focus on packaging. I'm always troubled on how to present Kirameku on a visual level for it's branding. This project is so dear to me, so close to my heart is seems I'm having a hard time making some basic decisions, compared with any of my customers where I always get a clear sense of which directions they are heading and have a clear idea of what they want. I guess Kirameku is really not black and white because of it's multitude of inspirations and that's very hard to depict all at once, especially since it's about both jewelry and artwork.

For now, this is the packaging I have for my earrings and rings. It's cute, but not quite where I want it yet. For my earrings I have some transparent plastic ring holders with a pearlescent sticker and a sturdy metallic box and bleu ribbon for my rings and necklaces.

I want to upgrade both my packaging for when I'll be shipping and on my table at my craft fairs this year. After all, it is all about presentation, therefore all about packaging.  I really want you guys to have a lovely experience when you'll open up the envelope from your order but I want to keep things ''simple'' if I may say, so to have as less waste as possible. I think goods are now way too over packaged. I've seen more then once two plastic bags plus a cardboard and a little foam for one simple item…! (And no it wasn't a precious and delicate item like a glass teacup that could break easily.) We have to think about our planet! I really wish I could have my thank you cards on plantable paper, but unfortunately I can't ship any seeds with Canada Post regulations - which also makes sense in a way. If ever you guys have some green ideas, please feel free to let me know! :)

Craft fair season might not be quite here yet, but it does take a little bit of planning ahead - depending on the size of the craft fair of course. My craft fairs for this year are of ''medium size'' (if I can put it that way) and I wish one day I could attend the One of a Kind Show in Toronto, but Kirameku is still too small to attends such an event. I wouldn't be able to fill their huge tables - for now. And believe me there is plenty of stock at home. I guess when you attend such shows you really need a big atelier, in any case much bigger than why I have right now. I keep my fingers crossed that temperature and time will be on our side this year as I really want to go see the event myself. It seems like a fabulous salon and I heard they have some great finds! :)

Here's a picture of my kiosque last year at Henryville at the end of the first day. As you can see there was a lot of improvement made from my first craft fair but I still have much to do! Last year I made some tiny displays out of upcycled wooden boxes and they turned out great. Next improvement : more levels! I think I need many improvements done on my presentation before I can thing about attending huge craft shows like the OOAK.

I'm hoping of having this great display for all my artwork as I want to triple my stock from last year (and it will feature the artwork I you saw in this blog post). And you can see that for now I can't really go bigger than an 8 feet table with my inventory. The tricky part is always to have something light and not too massive on your kiosque to block your client's view and with a dozen of 9x12 artowrk, it is going to be a big challenge. Oh well, let me start with the packaging and I'll get back to displays later as we go.

On this everyone, enough said about packaging and displays, it's time to go grab a bite.

On this, happy Easter everyone! :)

* M *

Yay Spring! :D

Hi everyone!

I can officially say that spring is now in Montreal! : ) Like I've promised, I'm adding more pictures about my little city. Here, let me show you what our second day of spring looked like….

Yup, yesterday morning we has a snow storm here ( about 10cm). Thankfully the weather was quite warm so it was really nice outside once everything had settled. It was just a bit hazardous on the sidewalks with the ice under the snow but hey, I got plenty of vitamin D : ) And it was worth the wait, this morning the sun is high and bright under a beautiful blue sky, spring is finally here! :D

Also, I was thinking a lot this week on how I could make my blog more useful to you and I decided to include a new ''Ask me!'' section. I was thinking it would be nice for you guys to have a space dedicated to you, where you could say what's on your mind. I've been on Etsy for 5 years and have been studying arts for more than 7 years, so I thought I could give back and share my experience with you on those. What do you say? : )

And now a bit about business….
There's a few new things at Kirameku for spring and I hope you enjoy our latest additions. I want to give you delicate pastel hues that would fit with those brad new skirts and tshirts that you've bought.

Like I've mentioned quickly last time, Kirameku is now on Wanelo, a combination of pinterest and fashion. It is a great tool and I'm still trying to figure out how to adapt it to Kirameku, but slowly I'm getting the hang of it. Please take a look and don't hesitate to post your favourite piece from Kirameku's on our Wanelo's page!

Stay tuned, I've got plenty more models coming up your way and a few giveaways too! : ) On this everyone, happy Spring…!!! :D

* M *

March Giveaway!

Hi everyone! : )

I'm sorry I've been buried under web design these past couple of days as my classes are coming to an end. I lost some work time because of my flu - do not attempt to code a website with an infernal migraine and irritated sinuses, you'll just mess your code up, I can guaranty you - so I worked super hard to pick up things and add the finishing touches this week-end. If ever you are interested, I'll post you the link to the website once it will be online. What do you say? : )

But, I didn't forget about you dear readers : ) In between classes I've been in contact with Kelly - a lovely blogger - who published an article about Kirameku and hosted a small giveaway. It's the first time I ever had a giveaway hosted on Rafflecopter, and I am more than curious to see the final results!

Here is a new model of the Dangle & Drop Earrings that you can win! Don't you think the colours are great for spring? :) Click the image to participate! And quick, you have 6 days left to enter the contest.

Also, Kirameku has open up on Wanelo, so if you ever wish to follow our latest fashion additions or to share your favourite piece, please visit us there! : )

On this everyone, best of luck for the giveaway! :D

* M * 

Valentine's goodie : Interview with Sweet Lee's Rustic Bakery

Hi everyone! : )
My flu seems to have calmed down for a bit, so I'll take this chance to post my delayed goodie for Valentine's day : ) Here's the interview with Sweet Lee's Rustic Bakery…! :D

I've met Liana and her brother Greg back in 2010 at the craft fair at Dawson college. They had a table full of yummy goodies that kept tempting me…! After one bite of their salted savoury scones, I was addicted! Over time their business slowly and surely grew as they went from fairs to events. They finally opened up their first bakery in St-Henri in 2011. In January 2014, they opened the year with a bang, introducing their relocated gorgeous bakery. I decided to go take a peek at 4150 Wellington street and I met with Greg by a freezing February afternoon.

How did you start that wonderful adventure?
My sister Liana always wanted her own bakery. She would talk about it a lot and I realized she was in it over her head. I told her : ''You won't be able to do it alone so I'm going to do this with you'', gave her a hand at least. We then started furnishing small cafés, doing small orders, fairs and soon enough we needed a retail space. Then we started looking for a little space, starting out small, try not to go wild. And then we found a spot in St-Henri and stayed there for about two years and a half. When we decided to go to Verdun, it took us almost a year to get the new place ready to open.

We started with small amounts of our own savings. The first event we ever did was a neighbourhood gathering. We were selling baked good and had invited a few of our friends that displayed their art. I guess you can say it's where we got the very first taste of Sweet Lee's.

Describe Sweet Lee in three words (or maybe 5): Heum…. a rustic bakery…. ? (laughs) 

Well, I guess… natural, hearty and homy…. And definitely original, different.

Why the move from St Henri to Verdun?
We couldn't expand as much as we wanted over at St Henri, even if we were well established. We only had two seats and it was cramped, with not a lot of space to develop our products too. It wasn't what we wanted. It took us almost a year to find this new place, we looked in Verdun and St-Henri but since St-Henri is growing in popularity, the price of rent skyrocketed ( 2 to 3 times what is used to be…! ) Also we had been living in Verdun for a time and with our hyper busy schedule is a very good thing to be close to home. Now we have to get used to all that space and the seating spots, I guess we're almost like a restaurant now. Also we went from 2 employees to 8 so it's a good change.

Why opening a rustic bakery?

We like knowing what we eat. We're not into ''pretentious-looking'' food that is overly priced or decorated. We like food that looks like food and that tastes like it's supposed to be. We also put the lowest amount of ingredients as possible to make it as rich in flavour as possible. We want to make it as healthy - even if we serve a lot of deserts - but we don't want to add ''garbage'' like preservatives in our food.

How long did it took you to set up Sweet Lee's ?
We evolved over time, like we had our business cards redone 6 times, tweaked a bit the logo. But you've got to go with the flow I guess. Adjust with where you are heading at a certain time. Now we have a more refined look than our previous location which was more of an old country home look. But we always had the same mentality over all these years.

Moo, Love & Green

Good morning everyone ! :D

I take a few minutes this morning to tell you all about my precious brand new buisness cards, that were finally delivered to my house this week.

I was super lucky, as both Etsy and Moo have a wonderful partnership and made for sellers a wonderful deal...

We were offered a 50 free buisness cards - like, Omg ! - since we were sellers on Etsy. No need to say, I had discovered Moo`s last promotion too late, as they were giving away 250 buisness cards about a year ago, to anyone who was asking for them. The only thing I actually had to pay so far, was the shipping, wich was pretty cheap, about 6-7$ for Canada.

The only thing was, I had to wait for a long time because of the shipping option I had chosen, and it would take about a month for them to get to me. I loved the cards so much, I wanted to have them right away ! :D



And of course, I was super happy to see that Moo offered a green version of the cards, so we can be more eco-friendly with a 100% recycled buisness cards. Cuz yeah, 50 buisness cards is a lot of paper, so imagine 500... ! The paper turned out to be thick and nice, with a nice effect and is very soft to the fingers, it has a smooth, yet a bit cardboard like texture.



Moo had a wonderful after sale service, as the confirmed my order, offered me a short, but oh so reasonnable time span to modify my cards, if I ever had the need to. The also sent me an email telling me that my cards were ready and that they were about to ship. In the end, I only had to wait for a bit more than 2 weeks to get my cuties ! I was really suprised of how fast the process turned out to be, as I would have suspected a huge amount of orders, especially because of Etsy`s promotion.

To make the cards were a piece of cake. Although I would simply underline that it was a bit hard to crop the images exactly like you wanted, but in the end I am super happy with the result. I came in a wonderful packaging, wich I will let you discover by yourself, and I also ordered a free sample of everything that they make.

The samples are awesome, so is the choices of papers and size. I just love how Moo indicates where you can add your design and to what extend is the product customisable - if that is even a word lol ! They indicate wich type of paper the sample has been printed on and gives you one sample wich a picture and one with colors so you can actually see the quality of the print.



My opinion ? I just fell in love with Moo twice ! I love how this compagny is fun, funky,simple, helpful - they have buisness stories to help you out when you are starting , great tips and examples of how you can use their products in different ways - and treats it`s customers like a princess ! :D

So, needless to say my friends, I totally recommand Moo if you ever need to have anything printed out ! :D

On this everyone, have a wonderful Valentine`s day week-end ! :D

* M *