When I first saw the craft project that my daughter brought home, I was taken by the intricacy in the design. That my little one could create something so apparently complex yet beautiful was inspiring.
As the next few weeks went by, I felt the urge to try my hand at it. It was a special time, learning from her how to do this wonderful thing and make this complicated final product.
I created some for fun, just to see what they would look like in differing patterns, sizes and materials. I decided to hand-craft a few for friends as gifts for their baby showers to go with the traditional booties and blankies.
The response from the other ladies attending was surprising...lots of oohs and aahs and wows! What stuck in my mind most was one friend's comment, "You MADE those! They are so pretty! You could sell them!" Another friend asked if I could teach her students how to create them so that they could use them as decor for prom.
As I started to move from the just-for-fun mindset into entrepreneurial mode, I discovered the wonderful process of determining what a finished product should look like. I needed to put myself into the customer's mindset...focusing on what I would want to see as an appropriate level of craftsmanship in a product I would be willing to buy myself.
It was important to not only look at the materials, but at the process. A key element was finding ways of increasing efficiency in the process of crafting. It was imperative that I determine a process that maintained quality but decreased production time.
Having the right tools matters as well...with a new venture, it is a challenge to even know what the "right" tools might be. Experimentation with process and a variety of tools lead to many "dead" ends before finding what worked best for me.
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