What would you like to purchase for your business?
I’ve got most of the big machinery that I need but I’ve got a couple of things that I never seem to manage to save up for!
Firstly, I would like a new Cricut machine, one that I can design my own templates and stencils for that I can then use in my pottery.
Next, I would like a thermal printer for all my address labels (this would be so useful at Christmas when I print masses a day)
I would like one of those wind out sunshades that you attach to a building (I’ve forgotten what they are called - fruit and veg shops used to have them in the past), to keep the direct sunlight off of the studio in the summer.
Nothing at the moment. Bought a Cricut Joy Xtra, takes A4. Plenty big enough for what I want. Still learning, even better now bought a iMac and proper printer as the design space works on the new iMac.
Happy with the embroidery machine. The only thing I could do with is an electric die cutting machine. Not far off getting that maybe the end of June. The auto die cutter would save having to crank a handle, drives me mad.
There’s a sewing machine called an Irish sewing machine which would really suit my work. Apart from being almost as rare as hens teeth they go for thousands when they do come up for sale.
A workshop would be fabulous! As it is I’m off out to my little workbench in the back of my Kangoo, which is all set up for product photos again today. I have to re-photograph all the ones I took yesterday, with a less busy background. This photography malarkey is harder than making the things!!
I’ll take one of those Cricut machines - it wouldn’t be imperative for my business but it sounds like such fun!
Oh for a sewing machine that would do embroidery. I’d also like a Juki industrial that wouldn’t shudder to a stop when I try to sew through too many layers.
A heat press for applying interfacing would be totally amazing and an assistant to cut out all the interfacing shapes for my pieces would be a delight - I currently spend all day Monday doing these things and it’s no fun.
Of course I absolutely need a new very large studio with a huge cutting table, brand new adjustable dress making forms (so I can actually start to make my own clothes - my current work table is too small and my dress form was a cheap eBay buy whose legs fall off when I move it) and as much easy access closed fabric and yarn storage as a proper shop would have (in the design of an old fashioned haberdasher shop). Plus lots of great cute tools and decor, places to hang quilts, a design wall etc.
There, I think that’s it - this would all make me happy and is not at all likely to happen
I fancy one of those circular-saw machines that you lower down on frame-lengths to cut mitres. I’ve tried cutting mitres on small-scale frames by hand, and it really just doesn’t work too well. Once cut, the assembly of them is not quite so bad, I can already do that sort of thing; but cutting tiny and accurate mitres with a hand-saw, eewww, it’s tricky.
The other thing I fancy is a printmaking press, even though I don’t do much in that field; I made some monotypes a few years ago and it was great fun.
P.S Debbie, many thanks for the feedback.
I would have to buy a top of the range printer so I could sell prints instead of originals, other than that a small house with a garden big enough for a separate workshop would be perfect! Preferably somewhere rural and unpopulated and with a view… I don’t really want much.
Yes; when you move the hand-saw back and forth, you don’t always get a totally flat cut; so that when you try to marry up the two cut faces of angled wood, they either bow out or there’s a gap. The 45 degree angle really has to be spot-on, and the faces of the wood must be flat. So frustrating cos I could probably do the whole job in our workshop…
I would buy an embroidery machine, I don’t know much about them apart from a good one is more than I want to pay for my business, it would take an awfully long time to recover the money through the books but would save half the time, I wouldn’t use it for everything but could have some bears with machine embroidered paw pads perhaps. They are so expensive but if anyone can recommend one that would work for my bear pieces that would be brilliant, it would have to be very simple to operate as I work better with needle in hand than I do on machines. It’s my 60th this year so perhaps I might have a treat…
I’ve tried to persuade my photographer brother, but no go! Anyway, I’ve had to give up on half of my photos for today - it’s so windy the van’s rocking too much and my earrings are swinging all over the place I don’t have light anywhere else, so I’m downgrading my wish list to ‘cheap light box’.
Thank you Carole i will look at that one, i wouldn’t want a combo, i have 2 sewing macines, one in sewing room and the other in the summerhouse, i always find combo anything isn’t as sturdy and good as single use items…just frommthings we have had in the past.
As it is I’m off out to my little workbench in the back of my Kangoo, which is all set up for product photos again today. I have to re-photograph all the ones I took yesterday, with a less busy background. This photography malarkey is harder than making the things!!
I don’t have light anywhere else, so I’m downgrading my wish list to ‘cheap light box’.