Hello all,
It has been quite some time since our last post, but we are still here!
We had our craft fair back in November, and it was a success! We didn't make a mint by any means, but we had a great time, and interacted with some great people, some crafters, and some non-crafters.
Soon after the craft fair started the onset of Holidays. The Holidays always keep us busy! Over the Holiday season, we had a few sales, but nothing major, most of our holiday bustle comes from family events. You know, the kind of events in which you sit around a table at least once and eat until you fill that you will burst. Then after that someone asks if you want something for dessert. You then knowingly make a horrible decision and say of course, what do we have! This of course lasts a couple of days or at least until the leftovers run out.
Anyway, the Holidays have been good as they always are, and this year is nearly over and a new one is fast approaching. It Was in January of 2012 that we changed from our original name of "A Charmed Life" to Polymer Yay! So we have had nearly a whole hear under our new name, and we have so much fun with it. It is just a hobby, but it is a hobby made out of love.
During this year on August 19th we celebrated out first Etsy Shop birthday, even though the name had changed the items we made, and the thought and care we put into the items remained the same, and the still do. As A Charmed Life, we tried to add other items beside jewelry to our shop, but with little to no success, most non jewelry items were quickly pulled from the shop, after deciding the new non jewelry items did not meet the quality we wanted them to, nor did they go with the name "A Charmed Life". So after some debates, Monique of Polymer Yay! said "We need to change the name of the shop" Jimmy, being stubborn was reluctant to change the name of the shop since he had started the shop, and come up with the original name. After some thought and a little time, throwing names around Jimmy said how about "Polymer Yay!". We thought about it, and we made items from Polymer Clay, and the items we made were cute and fun, so it made for the perfect play on words, and it has been that ever since.
The year has been wonderful, and changes galore have come over this year, and these changes have been far more successful than any from the days of A Charmed Life. In February Monique in her first true experiments with the Program Adobe Illustrator created the little owls that we now use everywhere. Jimmy will occasionally adding clothing or props to them, but the actual drawing never changes from the originals done by Monique. For the first month or so of being Polymer Yay! our logo was only the text portion, no illustrations of any kind, just a couple of fun fonts. We have come so far.
I mentioned other ideas, and successful changes that have occurred over this past year. We have begun to add new items to the shop, that are not just items made out of clay. We have kept one thing though, that we try to make sure that new items we introduce were related to polymer, which in case you didn't know, is a type of plastic. So through out this year we have been able to add vinyl cut decals to the items we make. We have only sold a couple, but we have only introduced a couple of designs, and we hope to add more as time goes by.
We have also introduced digital items to the shop. We have added our Graphic Design services to Etsy, and you can order a pre-made shop banner or have us custom make your shop banner, for your Etsy shop. These items are not made of any type of plastic, but I claim that since the computer contains plastic, it counts :P
We do have some ideas for other things we will add to the shop over time, some that may or may not have anything to do with polymer, but one thing will remain the same. If we are not happy with it, we will not sell it.
We have been so happy to be a part of the lives of anyone who reads our blog, views our shop, or buys one of our items. we get very excited when one of our items goes to a new home. We love hearing from our customers that they loved the item, or they gave the item as a gift and the recipient loved it. It makes us feel great, that a little item that we created, made a difference in someone's life, even if it was only a minor difference, that small bit of joy makes us happy and is a large part of why we do what we do.
I know this has been a long, text heavy post, but we wanted to make one, and now we have.
We hope that everyone has a wonderful time in the New Year that is at our doorstep. We look forward to seeing you there, and making more for you all to see.
Also, we have not forgotten about our "Your Idea Out of Clay" Contest. We will shortly look through the entries we had and we will choose a winner, and notify them. If you entered, it could be you. It's not to late to enter until we have posted a winner on our Facebook, which is where you can find the information about the contest (or our previous blog post)
Happy New Years Everyone!
-Polymer Yay!
