Crafting A Business

I have always wanted to learn macrame, but never really had the opportunity as time was valuable, and with two jobs and a photography background, it never happened. That was until I got ill. I wont go into the details, but what I can say is I was bedridden, for over 12 weeks. In that time my boredom quickly evolved from watching movies, to feeling like I really needed to do something. Macrame! the perfect thing to keep me and my hands occupied. I learnt by watching several youtube videos and got to knotting. I experimented with knots and different types of thread, and literally covered the house in hangers. My friends loved them, including one particular stylish friend. I knew I had to find the perfect neon pink for him and was super happy to find some reclaimed jersey in a local craft shop- Perfect!

I managed to get a few hangers from that initial roll of hotpink thread, so put one on Etsy and forgot about it. It was about March 2020 that I made my first sale, then another, and I sold 3 before I decided to start an instagram page. I restocked my thread, finding more reclaimed jersey in hot pink and orange, these again were popular colours, so my journey into bright macrame began.

Things progressed, my plant collection grew and I began experimenting with dye. I had a commission come in and struggled to find the exact colour I wanted. Due to the nature of the recycled T shirt yarn- its a by product of the fashion industry, meaning that the colours and types of fabric these bright balls are created with, are often one or two runs so not every shade is the same. Eventually, with enough profit, I was able to buy a pair of Fiskars Scissors, this made my crafting so much easier. The scissors were sharp enough for me to attempt macrame feathers, and make wall hangings super easy to trim.

Lockdown in the UK meant that I was working from home, but as a photography technician at a college, my job was hard to do (its a practical role), so I had a lot of free time. Que me spending nights over the bath with a bucket, experimenting with various shades of dye and making some beautiful dip dye macrame hangers.

Still the hotpink hanger was a popular choice, I found a supplier in Turkey and went crazy introducing other colours. I launched a website, and put my hangers on a wholesale site. Soon I was knotting and knotting, and I made over 200 hangers in 2020. My colours range from pinks and oranges, to blues, yellows and greens. I have been commissioned to create hangers for two local bars, the most recent one requiring lots of neon, so I currently have neon yellow and lime green to name a few.

I have now returned to my job full time, so my free time is taken up with running hotpinkhangers. Along with a backlog of macrame hangers I need to make, theres my website to update, product photographs to take, and social media to maintain. I'm always striving to do the next newest thing, and I have a vision that everybody needs a neon hanger in their home. I have even made a giant one out of 63 meters of neon paracord- perfect for outside! I need the perfect pergola to photograph the hanger in- no such luck with a flat in the city.

I have two spots in a craft fair this summer, I need to get knotting so I have some stock to take to it. I plan on taking some plants, and plant pots too. My question is, what colour would you choose?