A note on doing less
And achieving more... (plus the answer to the most asked question in the shop the last weeks)
Thank you to everyone who joined me on Substack, what a lovely place to hang out :-)
A few months ago, I read a post on Instagram from Lisa Congdon about loud quitting (I looked it up so I could link to it. Have a read, it’s really good!) It resonated with me. I had gone through some really hard years. Whilst my mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer and needed all the love and care from me, the wholesale side of my business grew unexpectedly. With my husband away at sea for part of the year, and a busy household to keep together, I only just about managed to keep it all going (and growing). After my mum passed away, I felt exhausted and reading Lisa Congdon’s post, was like a light bulb moment. What could I give up on?
I started with quitting the studio. Though I loved my space in the Newhaven Enterprise Centre, it also meant I had to hire full time staff for the shop and often run errands in the evenings to keep the shop stocked and going. Quitting the studio and moving it back to 37 high street, also meant that I had to quit half of the shop to fit it all in.
I did that and it felt good. What else could I quit?
I took a good look at the business and how I run it and decided to quit my online shop that was connected to my website (onneke.com) and just sell on Etsy. It’s a platform that works really well for me and it saves an enormous amount of time not having to update my own web shop continuously. Next I quit my own wholesale website. This was a braver decision. I decided to make a pdf catalog for all my stockists instead and it turns out everyone really likes it (you can message me via my website to request one for your shop). I do still sell on Faire which also works brilliant for me. (I know there will be people, mostly male, who will find all of this very bad business. But I also quit taking business advice from other people.)
The business, I can tell you, is doing well and continues to grow :-)
The narrative that we use for small business owners is that you have to work really hard, all of the time. So it was a little controversial to also quit working 7 days a week. Sundays and Mondays are now my days off. What a revelation!!
On one of those Sundays, a sunny one, I tried out cyanotype printing with leaves and flowers from my garden. Cyanotype is a technique that involves laying an object on paper coated with a solution of iron salts before exposing it to sunlight and washing with water to create beautiful white and deep blue images, the white being the bit you covered on the paper. It works beautifully with leaves and flowers and feathers. It’s a magical thing to do and my prints came out so well that I used them in my Artwave window display.
I liked it so much that I wanted to take it one stop further for my autumn window display. I did another batch of cyanotypes with just different types of leaves. Now… the most asked question in the shop has been: How did I change the colours of the cyanotypes. What chemicals did I use? What magical potions??
The answer is a little boring and I have secretly quite enjoyed not telling anyone. But here we go…
… I photoshopped them …
If you haven’t seen the window yet, do pop by if you are local. It’s a beaut and still quite magical :-)
Thank you for following along,
Onneke x