After waiting for what felt like an inordinately long amount of time, my sample arrived! I waited many weeks for this to arrive, and when it finally did, I was really nervous to open it. Having worked with my sourcing agent overseas, I know that she did her best to understand my requests, and I did my best to communicate them; we will see how effective we both were.
My first impression was, “my word, that is a lot of yarn!” And orange?!? None of my designs have orange in them; in fact, orange was the main color that I was trying to get away from. Oh no, oh no, oh no, I hope this is not a big waste of everyone’s time!
These colors are just not what I had in mind. I mean some of them are fine; the navy, brown, and even the light blue color, but orange? Just. No. I probably should have not opened this in the evening, because I find that my motivation, excitement, and grit seem to fade as the night progresses. I started picturing all of the 1-star reviews coming in…”This is NOT the same colors pictured!!!” and “Orange?!?! Really?!”
Ugh, I begin to feel pretty overwhelmed at the numerous changes that need to be made for this product to be right.
I will say, however, that the yarn quality is some of the softest, strongest yarn that I have ever felt. I have never heard of Milk Cotton yarn, but this stuff is pretty amazing and would be awesome for small amigurumi projects.
Once I got the garish orange color out of my head, I placed my monk’s cloth designs in my embroidery hoop, and then it felt like all of the discouragement melted away. Oh, my goodness. While I saw plenty of things I wanted to change, I realized something I have known all along (but seem to forget often)…I can absolutely do this. These designs are my designs. I have to start somewhere, and this is my starting point. I feel like the finish line is so far away, but this was a defining moment: seeing my product and the potential it holds.
That being said, I knew the art needed to be simplified and I wanted the designs to be more cohesive if someone wanted to make them for a nursery or a wall in their home. And it was at this moment, that I remembered that I was a graphic designer and could take what the artist sent me and truly add my personality to it.
The next piece of my golden sample was all of the contents that will be included in my kit: the embroidery hoop, the instructions, the notions: scissors, punch needle, punch needle threader, oversize needle, and needle threader.
The contents were more than okay; they are high quality, and I don’t have any changes that I want to make to them. I wasn’t sure if the scissors were going to be necessary, but after conversations with friends, I am convinced that when someone wants to try a new craft out and they purchase a kit, they want everything that they will need in that kit.
The last piece is the instructions and branding. This feels like such a big task, but I know that I will get the ball rolling on this so that it is perfect and I am proud of it.