Catching up again

The story through May…

Deb continues to weave her magic as a new range is designed (the summer 2011 womens range) with Carla, Aunty Ruth, Aunty Florence & Erin. The support of TAFE Outreach has ensured the learning continues in its flexible and collaborative approach. The group is also supported by Mindi, Sandra & Mardi through the sewing & design process. Nellie continues the design workshop also with some new students engaging & Camilla's weaving group is also growing.

We have a visit from Cassandra from the Bellingen Emporium last week. Cassandra provided a lot of insight to the fashion industry as we discussed a broad range of industry topics including the essential timing of delivering a range to the marketplace, ideas for gaining access to the market place, quality control, product development, process line and designs.

With the guidance of Lesley from ANTaR we further developed our cushions to a product that we are all very happy with. Lesley also gently encouraged us to include the girls dress range for the next catalogue, although it was quite a scary decision to make (it is the success that we are afraid of – too many orders) we unanimously decided to go for it.

We have connected with several suppliers as we search for the businesses we’ll be happy to work with through coming years. There is much to organize as we make connections with fabric wholesalers, art supplies, stores for distribution, screen makers and designers.

We have also been very grateful for the support offered by the very talented Bronwyn Bancroft. A few contacts have led to some very fruitful conversations with suppliers.

Marcia & I attended a great workshop at ETC in Coffs Harbour for the North Coast Innovation Festival. The workshop discussed developing Indigenous business & we learned a lot about support available.

And today… I've been reflecting today on the importance of this project for the social wellbeing of our community. The core group are all working so closely towards the same goasl now & some very strong friendships have been forged. Everyone in the group has such a wealth of knowledge and skills to share and that’s exactly what happens every day.

Together we shared a beautiful meal today at MiiMi House (thanks Vicki) and programmed June our big month of change. This month we will have the workspace open every day, we commence producing our cushion range for the ANTaR catalogue (anticipating orders hint hint blog readers) and increasing our sewing population. The project has certainly given us all something to look forward to every day.