RAINBOWREVOLUTION-LEARN FROM THE BEST(DUST TEAM)

Today im feeling very honoured to give you an interview with one of our best-selling shops from the DUST team(Down Under Street Team), Leanne from Rainbowrevolution.
Leanne makes colourful scarves and wraps and other beautiful rainbow items and i hope you will enjoy reading about her experiences as much as i do!

•How did you get into making scarves and dying?

I have been using dyes for quite a few years now…all sorts of things from bedspreads to clothing, curtains …anything that needed a bit of colour always went into a dye bath or got painted in some way. I remember first doing the classic tye dye styles when I was a kid at school. I enjoy doing scarves and wraps because I use a style of dyeing that is more like painting and I can get some really smooth blends between the colours which then creates new colours…I love seeing what colours appear between colours.

•What did you do before?

LOL I have done so many things but my work before creating this business was and still is to some extent as a Colour Therapist. I taught Colour Therapy subjects for some time in a Natural Therapies college in Sydney whilst working as a Colour Therapy Practitioner and Colour Consultant.

•Tell us a bit about your work as a Colour Therapy practitioner!

Well working as a Colour Therapist is quite fascinating. My main focus is to help people understand themselves through the colours that they choose and then work with that for personal growth. My main tool is Aura Soma which is one of the most beautiful forms of Colour Therapy that I have found. I have also worked with Coloured Light Therapy and have seen some amazing results. I find that colour therapy helps bring what is in the subconscious into consciousness and once this occurs we can work towards a life of greater happiness and peace within ourselves…clear away the layers that we don’t even realize might be holding us back from living as we are truly meant to live.

•When did you know you could do your business full-time? What kind planning did you do before the jump?

I have set out from the beginning to work in my business fulltime. I am a single mother of two teenage girls and feel very strongly about being ‘here’ for them as much as possible. The best way I could see to do that and to keep us all happy was to firstly do something I love doing and secondly do it from home.

•Where do you sell your products, what venues work best for you and why?

I sell my products all over the place now. I have wholesale customers all over the world as well as in Australia. Etsy has been fantastic for helping me get my products out there. All my international wholesale accounts have come via Etsy.
I also have a website which I think has been another good venue for getting myself known. For a long time in the early days I did a lot of markets and festivals which also gave me a lot of exposure.
I am finding now that online marketing is really shifting and social sites such as Facebook and Twitter are pushing me out there even further and more quickly.

•How did you hear about Etsy?

I actually don’t remember…I have a feeling it was while I was researching keywords and things for my website…I think it was truly a case of stumbling onto it.

•Worst business mistake you made? What improvements were the most helpful?

This has been the biggest learning curve of my life and many little mistakes have occurred along the way and I am sure there will be many more to come! One of the biggest mistakes would probably have to be with consignment. I will never do consignment again. I think in the early stages I was so happy that someone was interested in my work that I just said yes…very messy and challenging. Now I am much more discerning about who gets my stock..after all these are my babies..my creations….I want them to be loved and cared for. I like to be able to offer exclusivity to my customers so I don’t sell to two shops in the same area.

•What advice can you give people who just started or thinking about going full-time?

My advice is…HAVE PATIENCE! You have to allow at least three years to build your business. Don’t expect to set up your shop and then instantly have a full time wage. Be prepared to learn a lot and if you possibly can afford it hand out the jobs that you really can’t do to someone who can. I get an accountant to do my tax and I am about to get someone to do my bookwork. I get my mother to do my banking when needed. I also pay for ironing if I am totally overloaded. In the beginning it is very tempting to work very long days…be careful of burn out. You still want to keep loving your work!

•How do you get yourself through a creative/business slump?

Unfortunately this does happen…I think if it didn’t we would combust. I used to fight against it…kicking and screaming….but that never worked. Now I just let it be…If I have slumped I need to acknowledge that. I know it will pass and often a slump precedes a burst of creativity and energy. It is not in my nature to accept slumps gracefully and I do find it quite difficult to stop the creative cogs turning. To combat that I write every thing, every idea or design down in my big red book of ideas. That helps me relax because I know the idea will be there for me to come back to and not lost in the ethers somewhere!

•How does a usual day look like? How do you manage your time?

My usual day starts at about 6.30 am. I am up and I usually have a couple of hours on the computer attending to emails etc. The kids go off to school at about 8am and once they are gone I have my breakfast in peace! I am usually down in my workshop by about 9am. I try to have at least 3-4 days a week in production and 1 day a week to catch up on all the other bits and pieces. I usually finish my day by about 3.30pm when the kids get home. When orders are really coming in I do often work until about 6pm. It can be a long day but it is usually very fulfilling. Working at home presents challenges in itself. It is very tempting to look around your home and see all the things that need attending to but I have to say to myself that I am at work and the house work can wait until later. One thing that is on my list for the near future is to get a cleaner in regularly.

•What kind of dyes/dying processes do you use? How does it work?

I use fibre reactive dyes which are dyes that penetrate well into the fibre and not just sit on top. This makes them quite colourfast and fade resistant. Mostly I use a painting method to apply the dyes although I love to experiment with all sorts of processes. I recently started playing with making dyes from the flowers barks and leaves from my garden and surrounds.
This has been very exciting with some lovely results although the dyes are not quite as colourfast and I can’t get such a wide range of colours this way.
I usually paint one day and rinse and dry the next morning and then paint some more. I use natural fabrics such as cotton, hemp, silk, linen and bamboo.

•Random Question: At the moment i like the colour yellow, what does that mean?

Well…yellow is an interesting colour. It is a colour that a lot of people like but don’t feel comfortable wearing. It deals a lot with working with your fears and searching for happiness in life. It is a colour that helps us build self confidence and a bright outlook on life. Nervousness and day to day fears reside within yellow. Choosing it as a favourite colour can mean that you are wanting to look towards life more optimistically and positively and are feeling a bit more outgoing and happy.

--
Thanks Leanne for doing this interview with me, it has been very interesting and enjoyable!

Follow Leanne on twitter, http://twitter.com/rainbowrev
and her blog http://rainbowrevolution.blogspot.com
and check out her website and Etsy shop here,
http://rainbowrevolution.com.au
http://rainbowrevolution.etsy.com

1.ETSYVERSARY

Yay, my first Etsyversary! Reason to celebrate.

So, i had my Etsy shop/business for 1 year now, i think i learned a lot and i met a lot of great people.

Last year around this time i quit my day job and 1 year later i got a new one, part time, im working in a biscuit factory now.

Yeah, very fun, its stupid work, and the biscuits are dry and really hard crackers really.

Have to pay the bills some time.

I started giving my shop a bit of an overhaul, im adding more ready made sizes and colours to save shipping time for my customers, but there are still custom options available.



I also wanna add more and more items, i dont really have a deadline but i wanna have like 100-150 items in my shop soon, work up some inventory, improve patterns and pictures and organization.

I have added some new Eskimo Dresses to my shop, here is one, and here is the other.

More coming soon.

I also added some new colours and new styles.

What do you reckon?

What styles would you like to see more in my shop?

I will definitely add some jumpers(sweaters) soon, more hoody/pocket stuff.

And there is still 10-20% off my whole store til the 9th of October(Etsy time).

Im also planning on doing my FIRST GIVEAWAY on my blog soon, so stay tuned!

Too Many Mutha Uckers Ucking With My Shi-

Finally i got my computer back, after 2 weeks!!!
Jeezus, well, im not saying its Apple's fault, but im definitely glad to have it back.

Its weird to not have your computer for 2 weeks, i used my man's, but thats not the same, all my links and shit is on my own. On the other hand it was a nice change, coz it made me wanna be even less on the internet and the man's computer is also uncluttered from my own shit, so i got a bit of a breather.

---

FUCK, blogspot just deleted the rest of my post, WTF??! I never had that happening to me and i didnt even go into settings. Whats going on??

Jeezus, i will have to fix that later.. *mmph*

UHM, COMPUTER AND MY NEW FAVOURITE MUSIC CLIPS AND STUFF

Hey guys, i hope everybody is well!:)

My computer nearly died a couple of days ago, now im very sad.:(

Coz i cant use it and have to sneak on my man's laptop whenever he leaves the house and i will prob have to buy a new one.

And my car played up again this week, but i got a pretty good mechanic and it wasnt Too expensive. What i also like about that guy is that he always tries to explain to me whats wrong and shows me the faulty parts, to me, who has no understanding of cars whatsoever apart from that u have to put water and petrol into them.

But im not stupid and things start making sense to me! ha ha

Anyways, computer issues in what form so ever shud be pretty familiar to all of us. Coz we rely a big deal on them. And i never *cough* do any backups or such things.

Thats why i wanna use my blog more for backups of my favourite youtube clips.

Nobody really seems to like my clip posts(apart from Alanna), which i cant really understand coz i LOVE funny/interesting/cool videos. But whatever, normally i bookmark them, but i cant bookmark anything on my man's computer or my head is going to explode from the messiness!

I came across some really nice new music lately by accident(dont we all love that), its all kindof modern folky, the first one is a bit punky too(And its my favourite; 'Low'(Monkey), this band is is so cool and they get a 100% for looking cool and a great video too)

Then we have Fleet Foxes(White Winter Hymnal) i think they are pretty popular right now, i watched a lot of clips of their tv appearances; and i think they are sweet, u dont get a lot of sweet bands anymore. So well done on them. Lovely video too, reminds of the stuff i used to watch as a kid.

Then we got 'Iron and Wine'(Boy with a Coin) i really like the sound of this one and i like the dancing, but not of the red lady, whats with that big skirt being in the way?:P

And then my alltime favourites in crazy stupidity 'Flight of the Conchords'(Ladies of the World) a kiwi band who is just funny.

Dont u just think that video is HOT?!:D

NON-RED PAINTINGS

I havent blogged for ages, just about over 2 weeks to be precise.

I really wanted to catch up with all my Etsy orders and do some organizing and stuff.

Also, we(the man + i) started to have designated OFF-computer days now during the week, Yeah, see, thats where i come to now, "Im a fuckin internet addict!" Im serious!

I spend so much time on Etsy(checking my shop, preferably every 5 minutes), on Twitter, on the Dust thread, on fuckin whatnot, i barely was getting anything else done, its actually sad and i wasnt able to stop, neither was i really productive, so off it went(the computer i mean).

I did that already a while ago, but wasnt be able to stick to it, due to time management problems, but now its on. Sometimes i wish my life was simpler(im working on it) a bit like "in the old days", well kindof, i wish id rather spend my evenings with my man in the kitchen to cook or write something, read, paint or just talk, "Make/Do" something, instead of just consuming, like telly and internet and stuff..

The weekend before last(like 2 weeks ago) i thought that there were too many red paintings in the kitchen so i decided to paint some 'Non- Red Paintings', i still had some canvasses around and my acrylics and off i went. Now i havent painted for Aaaaages, but im quite satisfied with my non red paintings, they freshen up the place. The are quite gradient and soft.

Also, i find it incredibly stupid(?) maybe kindof sad is a better word, if people say 'they Cant paint' if u can hold a brush then im sure u can paint, its like walking. Maybe u cant 'paint a portrait with life-like features' but that isnt really the objective is it, i think if u enjoy doing things then u Can do them, and the outcome doesnt really matter so much, or maybe its even nice too, im sure it wud be.

Btw, that fish painting is 'a halfnhour fish', another one of my home improvement projects, i had a friend once come over and thought my kitchen looked a bit bare, so i decided to paint a fish.

What have ur latest creative projects been? I wanna see pictures!

WELCOME TO WORM WORLD

GOOD WORM (Candy Dragon Worm)

BAD WORMS (also commonly know as serger worms; they tend to live and crawl out of ur sewing machine, the more u sew the more serger worms u get, if u dont vacuum them away regularly one day u will choke on them)

I adopted Snowball Worm, she made good friends with Brunhilde(in the middle) and sheep(well, that black sheep on the right). Now she spends her days with me in my cutting room, she is very content and quiet. Just lovely!

I also wanted to introduce u to The Worm Lady, but unfortunately i cudnt find a picture of her. This woman is a London poet who participates every second Tuesday in a poetry slam at the Foundry in Shoreditch.

Its crazy, all her poems are about worms, i can barely understand a word of it and shes got quite a following. I think her catch phrase is something like "..and they sway from siiide to siiide" with all her followers chanting along, its really quite a site to be seen and i highly recommend it if u ever get to East London on a particular Tuesday. The Foundry is nice for a drink too, aah the good ol' days!!

INTERVIEW WITH URESHII - LEARN FROM THE BEST

Im feeling very privileged to have gotten the opportunity to interview one of Etsy's Top Sellers, Emily from Ureshii, one of my most favourite Etsy shops and a very lovely customer too.

The interview is pretty in depth, but i really wanted to find out how some of those successful shops do it, so you better grab yourself a drink and some snacks and i hope you enjoy this read!:)

---

•What does your shop name mean and how did you come up with it?

The shop name means "I'm glad" in Japanese, I spent grade 11 in Tokyo and still have a hazy grasp on the language. I began using Ureshii as a username in forums fairly consistently, and my at-the-time husband gave me the domain name www.ureshii.org for Christmas. The name has become a bit of a mantra, its the way I want to feel about my work, my life, and the way I want others to feel about my clothes.

•A while ago i read on your Etsy profile that you girls met while working in a sweatshop. A Canadian sweatshop? What is that and how did that happen?

You have to think of 'sweatshop' in the most literal sense, as in sweaty in summer, freezing in winter. It was an online organic cotton business run in a converted semi-trailer. And yes, it was as glamorous as it sounds. This crazy red-headed tattooed hippie girl was managing the place. Things run awry from there.

•What did you do before Ureshii?

Before Ureshii I was working on my Undergrad in Sociology, married, and spending every minute of free time experimenting with patterns, fit, and sewing. When I finished my undergrad we moved home to BC from Quebec, I started working in the organic cotton business in 2003, and started Ureshii in one of its many incarnations in 2004.

•How and when did you decide that you wanted to design and make your own clothing line?

When I started Ureshii, I really did want to work on Made-to-Measure, but I was much more interested in vinyl, corsetry, and tailoring at the time. I had no idea how to build a customer base for that business, didn't get very far, but did do a lot of valuable experimentation.

Around that time I won enrollment to a dance mediation course. During the course, I was inspired to make an outfit for the teacher. Later she did some training in Australia and was really inspired to work on a line of dance wear similar to something she had seen there. I worked with her on some designs and she began selling our clothes at various events. The partnership didn't last, but sourcing the fabrics and colours, and working with the movement of the clothes have definitely influenced my creations since.

I took a job as a sales clerk in a clothing store and continued to work on my product line selling consignment and wholesale. I found dealing with shop owners stressful, so it is incredibly lucky that I stumbled upon etsy as a sales medium.

•Your shop has been very successful since you opened in July last year. Did you have a business plan, what kind of preparations did you take beforehand?

Did you have business experience or experience with selling online?

Ok, This is not going to be pretty, but I am going to answer honestly. No one should take this as advice.

I became really frustrated with my work as a shop clerk through spring and summer of last year. I have never been one to stick around at a job, but I was trying to prove that I could be stable parent/responsible adult/good employee material. I was working part time and working on the clothing line part time. Amanda was working at the cafe where she still works, and as a florist.

Looking for another selling medium, my ex-husband suggested etsy. (Etsy had always crashed my laptop in the past, so I was dubious.) I opened shop in June and my laptop died that night while I was signing up for a Paypal account. We didn't have the money for a new computer, so that was that.

Later in the summer, I found one Saturday I could _not_ go to work. I didn't go and quit/was fired. No plan. Our house needed a new roof, so I spent a month re-roofing.

Amanda's bosses must have heard a story or two, because the cafe owners gave us their old mac, and the flower shop owner gave us an old digital camera. I started working on my etsy shop, and listed my first item on September 26.

The real breakthrough was in early November when I realized that I could use the timer on the camera to take pictures of myself in the clothes. Since I had a lot of time, this was a good way for me to experiment with what I like in a picture, and how to emphasize the lines of the clothes.

•When did you, Emily, decide it was time to get help for your business, work with Amanda together?

By late November Amanda had been working really hard for a long time, and seemed to have no choice but to keep it up. I was spending much more time on Ureshii and being less of a housemom. Before Christmas we did the math, and realized how well Ureshii was doing. I think this helped take some of the pressure off, and we started to look at Amanda cutting some of her hours once the Christmas rush was over.

In January she started taking over some of the office maven duties, answering convos and shipping. In February she started taking over some of the cutting. She has learned very quickly, and only makes me feel a little bit guilty about the sad state of some of my patterns. Now she does all but the most complicated custom cutting.

•Do you both do Ureshii full-time now?

Amanda stopped working as a Florist in March, but still works a day or two each week at the Cafe. We need the coffee discount, so she's not allowed to quit!

•How do you girls share the work?

Almost everything gets tag teamed.

Customer service: Usually Amanda, Emily if she's feeling social (rarely).

Design ideas: We talk these over constantly.

Design and drafting: Emily, though Amanda has started redrafting patterns that should have been redrafted ages ago.

Cutting: Amanda, Emily when there's major custom work, and when Amanda gets worn out.

Sewing: Emily, and sometimes Emily's Mom.

Packaging and Shipping: Amanda, Emily only helps if there is a rush for the Post Office deadline.

•Em, are you an easy boss to work for?

Probably not, I'm very much a Virgo, everything I do involves "holding your mouth right." I'm pretty quiet and hard for people to read, but I'm working on it in case I ever have to be an actual boss.

•How does a usual daily routine look like?

I usually get up around 7 to make breakfast, pack lunches, make coffee and preside over the eating of breakfast. Amanda gets up a little later and presides over the getting dressed and grooming (though its summer now and all hell has broken loose food and grooming-wise).

Our work day really depends on our order priorities. We try to cut garments grouped by colour, to minimize thread colour changes. Amanda will cut based on what coloured garments need to go out soonest. I sew as fast as I can till shipping deadline, she ships like the wind, and then the kids come home from school. We generally do more cutting and sewing after dinner till around 10, watch TMZ, drink hot water, and go to bed.

•Its so great you’re able to do your business full-time! Im sure a lot of people on Etsy wish they could do their businesses full-time, what do you think are the most common mistakes people make?

I'm not sure I can offer any other advice without sounding smug, I apologize in advance for any smugness.

We don't have a lot of things that others consider absolute necessities. We're designing a life for ourselves around the small things. I think much of our acquisition oriented society is based on 'making up' for uncomfortable work and therefore home lives. Finding a happy situation means needing less, needing less is good for us and the planet.

Also, I came to etsy with a well developed product line in hand, which was a huge advantage.

•What decisions regarding your own business did you find successful, which ones didn't turn out as good?

Its hard to look back at negative outcomes as bad because you always learn something from your experience. You build confidence with every decision you make. Don't be precious about your business or your life, you don't have time.

•How do you promote your business?

Twitter is the only consistent promotion we're doing. I have advertised on craftcult, used google adwords, and facebook. We have set up a facebook fanpage, and might try a facebook ad directing to our fanpage in the future.

•How do you conduct your marketing research for new pieces?

We test our patterns ourselves, we have very similar measurements, but very different bodies, which gives us some insight into how our patterns are fitting. We also have a local long-time customer who wears our clothes almost exclusively. She is really helpful in pointing out things about how the clothes wear that we might not think of otherwise. We try to pay attention to our customer feedback, and make adjustments wherever necessary.

•How would you describe your style?

I would describe my style as fairly simple, colourful and silhouette based. I mix fullness with body-conscious fits to play with my proportions. Fabulous coats, and lots of shoes. Amanda has an entirely different style, more bohemian, whimsical, and earthy.

•Why did you choose rayon jersey material to work with?

I chose the rayon because of the drape, and the breatheability, and colour range.

•You have 3 kids and 2 cats. How the hell do you manage your time?

We don't really.

•What are your plans for the future? Do you sell wholesale? Where do you want your brand to go?

I don't have a plan. I am really enjoying how this is working now, it is such a relief to have something going so well that I can't imagine anything else.

We have some wholesale customers, but we find them a little bit stressful. We prefer to work with our retail customers.

•What do you do when you're not working on your shop?

I'm sorry, can you repeat the question?

•Were you good at school?

I was home schooled through to grade 8, didn't do well in high school and eventually dropped out. I worked as a secretary and office assistant (under false pretenses) for a few years and went to college, and then University at 22. Once I was there I thoroughly enjoyed it.

•Do you listen to music when you're working, if yes what kind?

If we aren't watching TV, we listen to MountainFM a Whistler radio station geared toward those of us who were teenagers in the nineties.

•Do you dress your whole family in Ureshii apparel?

Except for the jeans I wear mostly Ureshii clothes. Amanda wears a few of the tops. We both have definite wish lists, but for some reason we don't always feel like sewing in our spare time. The kids have Ureshii exclusive Pjs, and we do a fair bit of altering thrift store finds to fit them.

•Whats up with the obsession with vintage plastic bowls?

We have no idea what you're talking about. *twitch*

•And last thing, Canada is known for being just like the United States but colder and more liberal, with the only sight being the Niagara Falls. Why should we visit?

Canadians aren't really 'must see' kind of people, we're in denial about the tourist situation. We like it here, but we can't think why. Boys can marry boys. I know a lot of people come here because of that...

---

Thanks so much to Emily and Amanda for answering my questions and for taking these awesome pictures for me!:) Check out their Etsy shop here and you can also follow them on twitter here.