Ahhh…creativity…what a world I love to get sucked into. I could play with creativity all day. I love everything about it. The messiness, the way it peaks my curiosity and of course, my favorite, the unexpected outcomes. There are a few things, however, that I take into consideration during this creative play time when I’m designing new Switches.
First, I try to be aware of how many different fabrics I need with a design. You see, the more fabrics a design has the more time it will take to cut, assemble + sew together. Just like a puzzle, the more pieces the longer that thing is sitting on your table! And since I use reclaimed fabrics I don’t have the same amount of everything. I also usually can’t re-order as specific print. So once that fabric is gone, that’s it…I’ve got to find a replacement. That means, if a design has a lot of different fabrics there can be greater challenge of having enough of a specific fabric on hand to fill all the orders. This aspect of using reclaimed fabrics makes the Switches a little more involved during the design process but also that much more unique + special.
The size of the individual pieces is another thing I keep an eye on when designing. That’s because the smaller the pieces are, the harder it becomes to cut fabric with my electronic die cut machine. And if I have to cut too many pieces by hand…well let’s just say I’d be doing pre-orders of 1-2 not 20 LOL! Sometimes, if the pieces are too small, the thread can fill up the small space, engulfing the piece so much so that it isn’t even noticeable after I stitch them down.
And lastly, my least favorite topic when talking about a creative process is time. The amount of time I have available to get the Switch done is pretty crucial, especially when the Switch is for a specific holiday…it makes it even more time sensitive. In order to have Switches in your hand by a certain date I like to mail them a week earlier. And in order to mail them I need several days on top of that to make them. Plus I need to account for the allotted time before that to design and make a prototype or sample…and that’s if everything goes smoothly and I have all inventory on hand! So now I’m looking at about 3-ish weeks ahead of when I want you to be opening your specially delivered Switch. Being totally honest, sometimes this is just too much of a time crunch for me to do it all. That’s when I recruit Michelle, at Michelle Studio Designs, to help me with the design process. This was especially helpful around the holidays when almost all of my time was being devoted to making Switch orders.
So there’s a little overview of the inner workings of my brain when I’m creating new Switch designs. It isn’t the same every time, sometimes an idea pops in my head and it just works so smoothly while other times it’s a process that takes more time + effort. But that’s the challenge + unexpected-ness I love about a creative endeavor.