Tell us a bit about yourself?
My name is Samone, I'm almost 30, recently married and live out in the 'burbs in Melbourne's outer east. I grew up in the country near the Great Ocean Road, so I guess that's where my love and connection with the beach comes from. I am a sun bunny, and am struggling a little with this cold winter weather! I love coffee, chocolate, baking, design and typography, and noisy eat-too-much dinners with my family.
Can you explain your craft/art and the material you like to use? I am a graphic designer, and I am pretty much obsessed with type and paper. I love original quirky illustration, and combining colour, texture, pattern and beautiful papers into my designs. Drawing is also fun and I love to draw basic pencil or ink drawings and fill them with colour on my Mac. I'm a bit of a computer geek, but I'm ok with it.
Where do you get your inspiration and what is your creative process? I love trawling blogs and MadeIt, seeing what other people are doing, what the latest type styles and fashion colours are. Ideas brew in my head for a good couple weeks before they manage to get out onto paper or onto my computer screen. Sometimes I can visualise a whole project completely before I even put pencil to paper, and other times I will set out to do what I can see in my head, and it turns and develops, takes its own course and becomes completely different to what I was expecting. My day job inspires me (I work in cross-media marketing), as do my friends and family and some of the funny things they say, my favourite songs which change every day, and my husband's silly ideas about wacky cards or invites often turn into something fun!
How long have you been creating and how did you get into craft/art? I loved to make stuff when I was a kid, and my awesome mum taught me how to cook, knit, sew when I was little. We lived in the middle of nowhere so weekends were spent collecting flowers to dry, or pinecones to paint. I remember my first ever easel and canvas set, and my brother made me a cool box to store my paints in which I still have. My grandma was the creative one in my family and I spent hours practising to draw roses the way she taught me. Becoming a designer was a way to make my passion commercial, studying fine art and design at uni led me to where I am. And combining all the drawing, sewing, crafty stuff with design is just fun!
How did you come up with your business name? Red Letter Studio just kind of happened, it was one of the first names I thought of and it stuck! It just works, invites are usually for a 'red letter day', it's says 'letter' in there which relates to the snail mail aspect... and I could visualise a logo which worked in my head
What resources 'have or do you' use to help your creative pursuits (i.e. groups, classes, shops, websites etc)?
Scouring blogs, magazines, websites for inspiration and to spark new ideas, and I can spend hours at paper shops and craft stores, or in newsagents in the design & fashion mags sections, and I love a good handmade market.
What's your best advice for someone starting up?
Be persistent, and be true to yourself and what you like. It's easy to be discouraged and doubt yourself, and compare yourself to what's out there, but don't! Find a niche, and stick to it, develop your own style and stay true to what you love about your work. And if it's not fun anymore, don't do it! If you're not into something you're creating, others can see it too and it's not a good look.
Do you have any advertising/promotion tips for sellers to be successful?
Networking and making mates online in the blog world is not only really fun but a great way to get your name out there. A website definitely helps, or just a facebook and/or twitter and a blog, along with your MadeIt store. I love reading about the lives of other crafty people, and finding out about the person behind the brand, and putting a face and a character behind where my latest handmade acquisition comes from makes it a much more meaningful purchase, so I guess create some presence of yourself within your brand, add some personality.
Can you share any lessons that you have learned the hard way? Be careful doing custom work for people without taking a deposit first. And think twice about sending big parcels by regular mail, sometimes registered post is worth the extra bucks!
What do you like to do besides creating? Reading, baking, going out to lunch or just coffee with my mates, seeing live bands or arty films, going for a jog with my hubby... or sometimes an afternoon nap or a hot bath is the most appealing of all!
What is your favourite music, television show, film, book, website? Music - Sarah Blasko, Daniel Merriweather, Little Birdy, Angus and Julia Stone, The Gossip TV - True Blood and reruns of The Cosby Show Film - The Goonies, Lost in Translation, Drop Dead Fred, Kill Bill, Reality Bites Books - the Twilight series, The Time Travellers Wife, The Power of One, the Harry Potter series Website - 100layercake.com/blog calicoandco.blogspot.com frankie.com.au melbourneepicure.blogspot.com
and... MadeIt of course ;o)
What would be your perfect day?
oooh: a sleep-in, a brisk walk, coffee and poached eggs on toast, a movie, long late lunch with sweet white wine in the hot afternoon sun. spent with someone special.
Who is one of your favourite madeit seller, explain why in less than 10 words? Myrtle & Eunice - I have a thing for tea towels at the moment
