minutes of 3/25 meeting

our march meeting was held at unofficial SAPLING headquarters treehouse. in attendance were myself, siri, barbara (resplendent in her own clothing, top left, and more of hers on the mannequin, top right), amy, caitlin and erika (who couldn't resist trying on this new pink sirius confection with hand-crocheted straps).

our first matter of business was renegade. it was decided that treehouse/sirius/becky lee will be one booth, hodge podge and bobbi clothes will share, and 31 corn lane will have its own booth. raeburn ink and a.s.i.s. will also share a booth. applications were submitted by the april 1st deadline.



next i did a show-and-tell with some examples of work i have done for textile design at various freelance jobs. this is an area that seems like it could work for many of us as flexible additional income, so i brought in some samples to show those who weren't familiar. we discussed attending the print show in april, printsource, to check out some different studios.

we also set a date for our First Annual SAPLING Sidewalk Sale at treehouse. it will be sunday may 20 from 1 to 6: mark your calendars! we'll be selling samples and past seasons' stock, and maybe some lemonade and treats...

caitlin shared her idea for an open-source online picture collection, providing visual reference for artists and designers. she is still trying to come up with a name for it, and requests that anyone who wants to send her photos at caitlin@mociun.com

finally, we set the date for our next meeting as sunday april 29th at the 31 corn lane headquarters.

oh yeah, and while we were meeting, gertie made a new friend!

minutes of 2/4/07 meeting

well, our first meeting of 2007 was really fun and inspiring! we were hosted by lena at her lovely home in fort greene, brooklyn. in attendance were lena, myself, jen, caitlin, sherise and angie. oh, and of course gus and gertie!

our first topic was the introduction of two new saplings. first is angie, of a.s.i.s. (angela spencer's irresistable stuff) who participated in our sample sale back in november. she told us a little about her business and her goal of selling to more stores this year. the second is alisa, who is based in L.A. and will be one of our west coast correspondants. alisa is a multi-media artist and designer.

we also bid farewell (geographically speaking) to jen of raeburn ink. jen is moving to humboldt county in northern california and we will miss her, though like alisa and alice, she can still be an active SAPLING through the blog! we look forward to seeing how raeburn ink will emerge as a california company.

next we each reviewed our accomplishments in 2006 and our plans and goals for 2007. this conversation segued into one about designing textile swatches to be repped by a print studio, which seems like a flexible and fun possible source of extra income that several of us are interested in pursuing...

sales venues were also discussed. i personally am planning to open an etsy shop as a way to sell odds and ends and pieces that come back from consignment at the end of each season. several of us expressed a desire to transition from selling our goods on consignment to wholesaling them outright. caitlin advised skipping a season in order to make a collection of samples 6 months ahead (fashion week schedule), when stores are placing orders. we also talked about showrooms vs. repping ourselves, and sharing space during trade shows (ideally nearby but not IN the show as they are prohibitively expensive for most of us) to show our collections to buyers.

we are hoping to have another sample sale this spring, on the sidewalk outside treehouse.

finally, lena showed us her studio and gave us a sneak preview of her upcoming book. it may still be top secret so i won't say any more for now, but we'll keep you informed as it progresses for sure...

i think that covers it, but as usual, if i left anything out, please post it!