Once again it’s Monday, and today is one of our favorite days of the week because we feature a seller and their handicraft. All of our featured sellers are artists, crafters, or hobbyists. We hope and pray that every Monday you will see some WONDERFUL finds and get inspiration from their ideas. In order to keep these features as fair and uniform as possible, every store has received the same questionnaire.
Let the MADNESS Begin!
Tell our readers a little bit about yourself.
Clydaz-e & Crew is just my Mom, Diana Blair and myself Heather Bauder. We are both life long hobbiests! From early on my Mom was always teaching me how to crochet, knit, paint, and build things. She says she wanted me to be a creative soul, to be independent, and to always see the possibilities. I tell her know that she did too good of a job on the independent part, lol. In January of this year I was let go from my job of 9 years and have made our shop and my photography my #1 priorities. I will not let the loss of that job be what breaks me.
Tell our readers a little bit about the history of your store.
Our store: well it all started in early 2009. Mom had a tone of fabric and didn't know what to make so I kept commenting that reusable tote bags would be a great thing to make with all of the excess and we could start by giving some away to friends and family. Months and Months went by then she bought a pattern and started to sew. She went crazy sewing, making up to 6 bags a day. I would take them to work with me and hang them in my cube for co-workers to fall in love with. After a couple months I started helping her pre-cut the bags so they were ready to sew upon order until September. She was sick and I had an order from a co-worker I really wanted he to get done, so while she was sleeping I sat down and started to sew. I had sewn things like scrunchies in middle school but nothing since. As they say the rest is history :-) By the end of October I was designing my own laptop sleeves and mini purses and have been creating my little heart out ever since. Our product line has grown as I challenge myself and now includes coffee cuffs, purses, sleep masks, and even homemade soaps. You are probably wondering where the name came from, our pets! Clydie, Man-e, the daisies Clydie like to wear on his ears, and the Crew covers our other four lover dogs Saddie, Jackson and may they rest in peace Ashley & Chancers and of course my two kitties Slyvester and Houdini Bababnini.
Tell our readers what makes your store UNIQUE from all the other stores that sell a product similar to yours.
What doesn't make us unique I ask :-) Granted you can get the same kind of items in other shops but seriously what other shop will you find skull purses, floral totes, handmade soap, scrap book tags, dog / cat cartoon coffee cuffs, zebra laptop sleeves, cemetery / landscape photography, one of a kind art / mazes and upcycled denim bags all in one convenient place? We are our own little flea market.
Top of the list would have to be my photography! I just love it when I am out and am able to experience something beautiful and come home and find I was able to capture it in a photograph. My hope is that people feel what I felt when I was there. Second on the list would be the coffee cuffs, they are just so much fun and a great way to reduce waste.
Feature one of your items and tell the story about that particular item.
Our featured item is our upcycled denim blue jean bags. It all started with an issue of NatGeo (the only magazine I subscribe to), a few months back there was an article about water consumption for everyday items and it really struck home when I saw that it took on average 2,900 gallons (yes, gallons) of water to make a single pair of blue jeans. Granted that covers everything from growing the cotton to final production but I could not help but feel it was a total waste because most people own multiple pairs of jeans. Personally I have probably 5 or 6 pairs but can only fit into one right now, the rest are on reserve for when I get back to walking. So I made it my goal to upcycle, reuse, repurpose, and reinvent every single pair of blue jeans I can regardless of the size. The upcycled denim blue jean bags are just one of my ways to accomplish that goal.
Tell our readers if you do custom orders, designs, etc. If you do, what kinds of services do you offer for custom orders, what are your policies regarding custom orders?
Absolutely!!!!!! We love custom orders, actually our first Etsy sale was a custom order for 45 of our wine totes to be given away as a bridal shower gift. It was very exciting. I love the process of picking out fabrics and fitting a customers style. Ever item in our shop can be a custom order, we even accept custom orders for new ideas or improvements on an old classic. Our policy for custom orders is that we like to get all of the details nailed down on style, color, fabric, production timeline, you know all the what nots. Then we post a custom order deposit for orders over $20 for 50% of the total order to cover supplies. For custom order under $20 we list all the details of the order with photos of the fabrics and samples. Payment of the order or deposit is required within two weeks. For orders requiring the deposits a final custom order will be listed once the order is complete and payment is again require within two weeks. With in 5 business days of the final payment clearing the completed order will ship and for the under $20 order they generally ship within one week as the production time is much quicker. If it happens that a custom order is canceled after the deposit is paid, production will stop but no refund is given as we need to cover the supplies.
SPECIAL OFFER FROM CLYDAZEANDCREW:
Free coffee cuff with any $25.00 purchase through November 15, 2010, just put "Cellestial BeadWorks Blog" in notes to seller
Find Clydazeandcrew Here:
Stores:
Blog:
FaceBook:
Email: hsbauder@gmail.com and/or clydazeandcrew@gmail.com
Our "Monday Madness" slots are open to any artist, crafter, or hobbyist that has an online store. If you would like to submit your name and store to be considered for a Monday feature on our blog, please contact us here.
***All images and links are used with the artisans permission & are sole property of their owner***
1 comment:
Clydaze, has beautiful shop and beautiful bags!
All my best wishes to her :)
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