At the end of last year we held the first Local Makers Forum, entitled “Making a business out of making” for artists, crafters, designers and food makers. It was a chance to talk about challenges and opportunities, and hear from a great panel with a lot of experience. We covered a broad range of issues, from product decisions, to marketing and sales, social and physical networking and legal considerations.

So at we all start 2012 with new ideas and energy, we wanted to share the highlights with you.  The videos were taken by chance as one of our lovely attendees had a camera along, and will hopefully be a useful resource for those who could not come, and a refresher for those who did.

Introduction by Alison Branagan, consultant for creative industries: Do’s and Don’ts when starting a business, including networking, marketing, cost and income streams, and practicalities such as law and accounting.

Mo Bacchus, a high-end handbag designer: tips on pursuing a making or design business – high and low points, and what to focus on.

Sinead Koehler, jeweller and founder of  The Crafty Fox Pop Up Market: how to get selected for popular markets, plus advice on marketing, presentation and product mix.

Anne Fairbrother, founder of the Brixton CornerCopia: how local food makers can compete – ideas for success from Anne’s experience of running a local food shop and restaurant.

Tim Sutton, portrait painter and founder of the Urban Art Fair & Lambeth Open, reflects on art and trade fairs: how to find the right ones and get the best out of participation

Big thank you to our panelists for sharing their knowledge and experience so generously!

On Tuesday 29 November, at Brixton’s Living Bar, we will be holding our very first Local Makers’ Forum, organised in association with Lambeth Council to help local makers. 

Local Makers’ Forum: Making a business out of making

Selling your work, or just starting off as a maker? Join us to discuss opportunities, learn from market experts and meet other makers and local businesses. All local crafters, artists and designers are welcome.

Doors will open at 6pm and the forum will start at 6:30pm.

The event

This will include:

• Business aspects of making, including how to start off your brand, product strategy, sales avenues (markets, fairs, online, shops) and business expansion

• Panel talks, plenty of time for discussion, and informal networking afterwards. Excellent chance to get advice, ask questions and meet fellow makers.

• Free buffet!

Our expert panel 

Alison Branagan, Creative Consultancy Alison guides makers, designers and artists on business strategy and enterprise skills, and is the author of “The Essential Guide to Business for Artists and Designers”. http://www.alisonbranagan.com

Sinead Koehler, Crafty Fox Market Sinead runs the popular Crafty Fox pop-up markets, and is a successful jewellery maker under her brand Galavant. http://craftyfoxmarket.blogspot.com/

Tim Sutton, Urban Art Tim is a prominent south London artist and the founder of London’s largest al fresco art fair, Urban Art.  http://www.urbanart.co.uk/index.php

Mo Bacchus Mo designs high-end accessories – her work is a hit with boutiques and she is regularly featured in fashion magazines. Mo also runs fashion events in Brixton.  http://www.mobacchus.com/

Anne Fairbrother, Brixton CornerCopia Anne (re)introduced us to the concept of ultra-local food which is the behind the hugely popular restaurant and food store she runs in Brixton Village http://brixtoncornercopia.ning.com/

 

PLUS: Product Surgery with Anita Thorpe, owner of the Diverse Gifts store on Atlantic Road in Brixton. Ask for feedback on your specific products or product ideas.

Tickets
While the event is completely free, numbers are limited. Please book your free ticket on Eventbrite to tell us you are coming ( http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/2506988470 ).
Note: no need to print your tickets, even though Eventbrite says so!

UPDATE: All the tickets were snapped up very quickly. We will post a summary of the discussions on this blog after the event.

Our first newsletter is out! It gives a round-up of what’s going on on the project, new makers, events, offers and asks.

As I mentioned in the last post, part of the Beta phase is about adding new features… So, we have started!

Andy has worked hard to make a few very useful additions to the site:

• Sorting goods: by price, date and alpabetically – this is very handy now that there’re so many goods on the site.
• Workshops: we’ve added a new side menu to help you browse workshops and corses by skill. Also there’s a new link on that page that will make it easier for anyone running courses locally to add these to the page if they are not already a registered user.
• Pretty  buttons for basket, mail and account editing: check them out in the top right corner. Great work from Carolina! You can now easily see if you’ve got new mail, and how many items you have in the basket.
• Users: you can now see users who have chosen to create public profiles. We have over 160 registered users (and counting) but not all of them create profiles). Create yours to appear on this page!
• Twitter and Facebook sharing: woo! Now it’s really easy to share any of the pages on Makerhood on your Twitter, or like them on Facebook – just check the bottom of each page. Use these well, please 🙂

More changes to come, in particular, you’ll soon be able to comment  or questions on goods and stalls – we will keep you posted.

If you have burning suggestions for new features, just add them in this forum thread.

Cheers,
Kristina, Karen, Andy, Carolina +++

Phew, it’s been a busy couple of weeks since www.makerhood.com went live in Beta! It’s been fantastic to see so much interest in the idea and lovely feedback about the site. Many new makers have asked to joined the site, and several have already set up stalls, adding to the great quality and diversity of goods on the site. It’s all go!

This project has always been a local community effort – and it’s been great to see this expanding and growing over the past weeks with more lovely local people coming on board. There’s also a growing number of requests from other areas to set up local goods sites, which is fantastic.

So, well done everyone on getting the site up and running in Beta. But really, this is where the work starts.

As many of you know, we decided way back in the project to open the site up early in the development process so that we can learn from the community about how it should evolve.  This is because we want to be as open as possible, and it is also likely to produce better results –  as we are all volunteers, it’s best to use our limited resources by building on feedback, rather than spend time perfecting features that turn out not very useful!

This project pilots a combination of ideas: hyperlocal shopping on and off-line, physical workshops, markets and events, community rather than business-driven approach, early Beta release going public… All these things are new to us (and as far as we can see, to the wider world too) so there’s lots to learn, improve, and make happen. We’re very excited about this!

So, what’s next?

Over the next few weeks we will be:

• adding features, based on learning how the site is used, prioritising the most important things that will help as many users as possible. Any suggestions are very welcome – please email us on hello@makerhood.com
• helping more makers come on board and more locals running workshops in the area to advertise on the site.
• organising more meet-ups – there’s been a lot of interest in “physical world”events and the first meet-ups have been a lot of fun. We will keep these going (see here for proposals on dates/regularity)
• participating in more workshops and events. For example, on 7 August we’ll be holding a collective knitting workshop at SW Craft Club’s Pop-Up in Clapham. We are also co-organising the Make It Grow It market showcasing local talent in Brixton (see here for more information and how to apply).

So there’s plenty going on!

How you can help

The project is open for anyone to join in and get involved:

• Volunteer: whatever your skills are we will welcome you on board – you can be part of the team organising events, help us manage the web portal, think of ideas for future projects and collaborations, work on PR,  look at the funding strategy… You can just spend a couple of hours or be involved on a regular basis.  Drop us a line at hello@makerhood.com with a few words about yourself.
• Buy something: however small your purchase, it will be a support for local makers who are starting off online. There’re plenty of gorgeous things, art works and foods to choose from.
• Spread the word: there is lots to do to publicise what is a very new idea for many people – shopping locally + online.  So if you support the values behind the project – promoting skills and creativity, supporting local trading, reduing the environmental impact of consumption – do help us raise awareness of the initiative. You can do that by tweeting about the project, sharing links on Facebook, telling people about the online marketplace and our events. You can also help us distribute flyers in your area.
• Keep the website fresh: Upload new items to your stall, and participate in the forums. Even if you’re not a maker you can take part, so do feel free to use these as often as you like.
• Help with resources: if you have other ways in which you can help  – be it a physical space for meet-ups and events, or a donation to support specific activities – that would be very welcome.

Enough from me today – look forward to seeing you all soon, on or off-line! 😉

… about Makerhood over on Laura’s blog. Do have a read.