Kaliko Journal is a free newsletter about natural dyeing, textiles, art practice, and life by Ania Grzeszek. This publication is divided into two sections: ”Plant Dyeing” and “Studio Practice”. You can manage your subscription by clicking “Unsubscribe” at the bottom of the email and opting IN and OUT of the sections that interest you. This is also where you can pledge your financial support for this publication, which would help me continue to sustain it.
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I hope your Sunday is as bright and warm as mine. I’m sitting at the studio, waiting for the dye pots to deliver colourful results I commissioned them with, and I though I will use the time to finally say Hi after a prolonged summer hiatus.
Summer was busy and stressful, with a tight budget (as always) and loads of projects. The biggest one, our holiday house in the mountains, is still going on and we made considerable progress over two weeks in August that we spent there. I will share more photos in the future (or check my Instagram) but it’s slowly coming along and we’re very excited about it. I am making a patched curtain for the house as we speak, hence tending to the simmering dye pots, and if everything goes right, which it never does :), I will be able to install it next month.
Other than the never ending construction saga, I was lucky enough to make some more bags for yarn shops around the world, took part in a yarn market for the first time since years which felt great, and taught many workshops for various business clients. If my work life could always look exactly like that, I would be one lucky lady. Or maybe it can?
If I could allow myself to really dream, that would actually be my dream: working for business clients in different capacities and developing personal projects to share with (not sell to) like minded people.
Don’t get me wrong, the direct connection to a single customer is a beautiful beautiful thing. I’ve been running my online shop for 6 years now and I am not taking it for granted. But what I don’t see being talked about much is how difficult financially it is, and in the long term also limiting. How to put it in words without sounding ungrateful? I don’t know, because I really am so grateful to have this direct bond with my customers. But I am thinking over and over again, that I would like to have this bond without the commercial aspect of it.
Selling B2C (business to customer) means big volume of many small sales. To really make it work you need to do a lot of outreach, marketing, brand building—if you ever tried it, you know what I mean. Also, a lot of admin, bookkeeping, invoice writing and general OPs. It obviously has perks, too. What I learned in my time as an indie shop is that this is the most direct way of testing if the product is good or needs refining. Staying small and direct helped me become a better business person with better products and a much better teacher.
What I learned over these past 6 years is that I truly enjoy making people happy and inspired with my work. And also, that it doesn’t stop feeling awkward to take money for my products, even though I know they’re great. It gets easier, but not easy. What I actually like doing is making things and connecting with people. And after this summer I finally experienced, that having an actual shop is not the only way to have it. Because these past 6 years made me tiiiiired. I am already on the other side of the burnout (finally!) but I am not willing to go back to the grind I lived through when starting out. I am dreaming of big chunks of work spaced over longer periods of time, work sprints if you will, and time for my creativity in-between. I had tasters of that over the years but this year it started to feel sustainable.
Sure it’s possible to have that as a thriving business serving single customers but I think you need a business mindset for that, which I don’t have and don’t crave. This summer I worked almost exclusively with business clients who booked me for events they organised or ordered our handmade products in bulk for their own shops. That was fun! And felt great! More of that please.
It took away the procrastination (as a protection from the unknown), made me work focused on the task at hand, knowing that there’s an actual invoice waiting to be sent when I’m done. Oh the lightness of that feeling after years of working on things that may-or-may-not sell. Don’t ever take the secure paycheck for granted. Truth to be told, this summer went so great that I don’t think I will have to worry about the studio rent until the end of the year, and this is something that I rarely experience.
My dream life is as an artist that gets booked, either for events or for commissions. I was asked recently if teaching big groups doesn’t get boring? No, it never gets old, the energy is so different every time and I am always having a blast meeting new people and introducing them to new ideas.
Let me give you an example: the last workshop of my summer teaching spree was a class for members of a black FLINTA outdoor community. It was a part of their “experience weekend” sponsored by Adidas and organised by a young and talented agency, and botanical dyeing was a kick-off activity. I got to talk about what I love and know a lot about in a dreamy rural setting with a super fun and energetic group. For that event I prepared Adidas socks that we then bundle-dyed, having their weekend plans in mind. The next day involved a hike as well as a herb-and-mushroom-picking walk so they could wear matching-but-different socks as a group and bring a bit of nature into nature. This gig left me feeling so energised and buzzing. The production of the event itself was really beautifully and inspiring. I mean, have a look:
Now I am back at the studio, with another wholesale order waiting to be processed and another business event I was booked for on the horizon, and I am grateful to not have to take on more work then that. I want to finish the curtain for our tiny house and have enough headspace to come up with new projects that lit a spark in me and have enough time to pursue them without worrying about finances. This indie business journey means always being in flux and I really like the place I am at right now. Let’s see how it goes from there.
Thank you for reading, as I am typing this, this post still has a title “How to make cotton rug paper” because it was supposed to be about something else (oops). But I’ve been so quiet for so long and then I went on a tangent and apparently that’s what I had to share this week.
I will send the tutorial next time. Until then <3
PSA: Because of the popular demand, I scheduled three last public workshops for this year that you can book here. I am open for private bookings, be it from business clients or groups of friends but there will be no more open workshops before early spring 2024.
Lovely read, thank you. Gappy you had a good summer. I moved from being a solo maker/seller to teaching botanical dyeing a few years ago and like you feel a lovely buzz and energy and, as you say every group us very different. Look forward to hearing more...