FeldieJournals' 2nd Anniversary!!

The shop started in March 2015. The first journal I sold was to Jeopardy. It was a whopping 3 cm A5 one with the deep red kimono pattern, ivory Sinar Spectra pages and linen thread - see below. I can't remember what the end papers looked like. Maybe I'll ask Jeopardy - it's still standing unused in the corner of the bookshelf!

Well, two years and maybe many more to come, God willing. I'd broken even in mid-February and then I had to go for another haul, so here we are back in the red for now! There is paper, PVA glue, clear plastic and maybe even a guillotine to get... I have a 3-foot stack of fabric now, so I should be set on that front. That's 80 fabric patterns!! 80!

In terms of development, I've come a very long way from college and the first journals. Style, craft and materials have all improved noticeably. My stitching is much tighter. There are far fewer blips in the glueing, thanks to Auntie W. Last summer, the pen loops and elastic came about, thanks to Sea Lemon (you can find her fantastic tutorials on YouTube), and the bookmarks were added. Next, printing the shop story on the front end papers, which A Jr suggested. Then came the pockets (first Sea Lemon, and then modified to clear pockets) and flatter pen loops (thanks, Leuchtturm). I even ran a workshop in February! Who'd have guessed!

In terms of online business and marketing, I started the shop on Etsy and then moved it to Wix, Facebook and Carousell. Wix seems the most flexible, but Etsy has more (North American) traffic. Pinkoi turned down my application. I have considered Handmade fairs in Discovery Bay, but they are too far. I have tried D2, but their costs were too high - a 50-50 split of the sales seems steep. The latest online developments are the Bitly URLs and the ready-made journals section of the shop - check it out.

What an amazing journey. Thanks for keeping me company. Thank God for keeping me afloat.

❤️

2015

2017