Me & My Stuff

A friend popped over the other day and snapped this picture of me. 

 Me, surrounded by the stuff I proudly make and sell. Wearing wellies...

I keep organised with my work and storage space. Pretty much everything is a custom build and fit to make it work for me (all the shelving is 800mm deep). I have a good work flow now and I'm really enjoying having some products I have put a lot of effort into designing and making. 

Is your workplace organised and tidy?

Maker Of Fine Wooden Garden Items

 The last few weeks I've been working really hard to increase my stock levels of all the items I sell (as well as the more unusual one off items I sometimes make and sell). 

I'm trying to make sure I have a full range of products out there, including different sizes and types of tool boxes, 3 different wire bottomed baskets and potting trays in 5 different sizes. 

There are a few items that I end up making a lot less on, but I enjoy making and think they're a quality product. They also help to complete the range of items I make. I'm trying to see myself more as a "brand" than a small manufacturer. 

One of those is my seed boxes, I do these in two sizes and sometimes in reclaimed materials as well as the carved fronts. I'm currently making a batch with the carved fronts to them, all the carving is done by hand. This helps me be a better craftsman and also has a lovely handmade feel to it. 

Hopefully I'll be able to list these boxes for sale by the end of the week. I need to slice them all open now, add the hinges and dividers, then give them a coat of Danish oil to finish them. Once that's done I have some magazine article work to do and then more stock to make! 

What item would you like to see me make and stock in my shop?

Last Chance To Order For Christmas (hopefully)

So, Christmas is fast approaching, so time for my last bit of shameless self promotion!

When you're a small maker/producer, the increased buying around Christmas makes a huge difference to over all yearly sales. 

Obviously this year has been harder due to postal strikes, but I've been using the same courier my dad uses, who has a regular pick-up slot booked every day, and they're still saying stuff will get there for Christmas. 

New Seed Packets

As I spent my free time last week writing out seed packets with the same bits of information on them I was thinking how I should modernise the process a little bit.

I looked online and saw that to have a label I could print on would cost me about 0.5p a sticker!

How I wish I'd looked sooner!

Never mind next year just got easier! And I still have lots to bag up for this year. I'm going to send some packets to some friends and with every craft item I sell on Etsy I'm going to put a packet or two of seed in there as a bonus (although at the moment I'm working on a bigger job so only have a few things listed).

What do you think to the new packets? I hope the instructions will help anyone new to gardening as well.

Should stop my bad spelling - hopefully!