we had a great meeting yesterday hosted by the lovely alice and moriah of Feral Childe at their studio near the gowanus canal. they gave us a tour of their spacious digs and we discussed ideas for storage of fabric rolls and bolts. in attendance, besides a & m, were hanna, jen, caitlin and me (cal).
hanna had to leave early so she shared her windmill energy update, a 'green' printer she found, and an eco friendly t-shirt resource. she also told us about her wool project to benefit the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary and we are going to have a fleece processing/drop spindling workshop at her house sometime in august.
we also discussed last thursday's field trip to the Clarke-Ford Center in Bushwick, which is a sewing center that trains immigrant women in English, sewing and business skills, among others. they offer sewing contracting services for designers whose quantities are too small for regular factories. i found out about them thanks to jenny of saltlick who also works with them. caitlin left 2 samples for the ladies to sew, and we will see how their quality and pricing look next week. they said that their prices are based on a wage of $10 per hour. if things work out as we hope, we'd love to make a cute hangtag with info about the Center so the consumer will know and feel good about where the item was made.
alice and moriah shared a hot tip that a fabric store on broadway near franklin is going out of business and selling off lots of fabric for $2-3 per yard. there will likely be a field trip in the next two weeks so that bigger quantities can be bought, which will lower the price even more. if you want to go, contact caitlin.
the need/desire for some early fall sales was also discussed, and two ideas debated: one is the Atlantic Antic on september 17, which is a street fair that features local craftspeople. jen is already doing it, and has had a good experience in the past. the other idea is to organize a group sample sale, possibly at caitlin's studio, or Feral Childe's loading dock (in conjunction with their local Open Studios weekend) or a manhattan location. we tentatively said this could be scheduled for mid to late october, in case some people want to try both. anyone who is interested in either option please let me know.
jen shared her goals of taking Raeburn Ink into the home furnishings market, which would enable her to focus more on the prints which are her main interest.
finally, we talked about ideas for future meetings, such as:
-assigning a theme in advance, so that we all can prepare and bring info and ideas pertaining to theme (such as PR, sustainability, goals etc)
-bringing unwanted materials/supplies that someone else would likely want to exchange
-working on a project together, such as an 'exquisite corpse' round-robin thing where we each bring a t-shirt, bag or other item and everyone does something (embroider/paint/bead etc) for 10 min then we pass to the next person, or someone teaching a workshop
-bringing items to show what we've been working on, and if desired get feedback/advice
-philanthropic projects, like cat toys for the shelter hanna volunteers at, or the wool project
i think that's about it; if i remember anything else (or anyone else does) i will add it. the meeting concluded with a dip in the nearby pool for alice, jen and caitlin!
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