First exhibition

Only two sleeps now until the Ladies first exhibition. The first pieces of the MiiMi Creations range (the cushion covers & girls dresses) will be on show at the annual ANTaR exhibition in Sydney.

Aunty Ruth, Deb, Marcia & Kerry are preparing to travel to Sydney for the event & cram in as much market research as possible while there.

On the homefront all of our dedicated team have been working tirelessly on our first real production line. The tedious stuff has started now & there is a note of exhaustion in the air as we go from being a hobby to a real life business.

Kerry is waving the stick (or pen, her weapon of choice) giving all of the ladies quotas and deadlines to meet. Deb has been structuring our TAFE units to make sure everyone has the opportunity for some really great learning as we go.

Our focus now compliance, ordering stock, keeping everyone going, bringing in more people and working on our production quotas...

It really is still exciting though...

Meeting with Tobwabba

Yesterday we traveled to Forster (NSW) to meet with the lovely people at Tobwabba Art. While Deb is practicing articulating the org's name (sorry Deb, had to include that !) the group are getting together some ideas about what to produce with the fabric that Tobwabba has generously donated.

Kerry & Kerrie at Tobwabba talked us through the process used to produce merchandise and the fundamentals of royalties. We have some great ideas for designs that we purchased from a local artist recently. Tim from the LALC provided morning tea which was much appreciated after 3hrs on the bus.

While a long way to travel (and thanks to our drivers Val & Alex who drove the former MiiMi Bus for Ngambaga) we gained some very valuable time to sit down together to discuss the coming months. Enough fodder for Kerry to complete the business plan.

The fashion parade and upcoming range was one of the primary topics discussed and we were able to narrow down the options to 5 garments (PHEW !)

So our main areas of focus at the moment: producing some prototypes for the new range (5 garments), building up stock of our cushions for ANTaR, building up stock for our market stall and as per every other day working through contracts, suppliers, ordering, process and so on.

The good news is that we're still having fun. Kerry has put her foot down about over working to make sure this feeling is maintained. (hoping talking in the third person makes that more authoritive)

Let the work begin

In anticipation of our many orders from the upcoming ANTaR catalogue Aunty Ruth and Aunty Florence have started our first production line to get out some of the cushion covers. Materials are flying in from all over the country as we prepare to build up stock.

This is really the first time that we leave the creative realm and move to the work side of things. It's all new & every day we get a bit better at what we do. BRING ON THE ORDERS !!

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.

overtime

Feeling on the brink of something really big Aunty Ruth, Deb & Carla work into the night getting the range completed. With results like this from the photoshoot to spur us on who could blame us all for being so excited about the progress.

More discussion about branding today - a great talk with Aunty Ruth, Aunty Florence, Deb, Carla & Linda around the table about what the brand would mean and the importance of maintaining support for MiiMi's core services to the community.

Brand name stumbling block

It's been a few weeks so I'll try to summarise what's been going on BRANDING:
A new stumbling block is the branding of the textile enterprise. Of course none of us are branding 'experts' so we're applying theories of common sense with a bit of experience in the mix.

The theory being applied is that all roads should come back to MiiMi - at this point at least, after all it is SOCIAL enterprise and therefore a business that has been established with the communities interests at heart.

The current concept - MiiMi Creations. Creations being very thougfully suggested by Nellie as a friendlier approach to the other consideration of MiiMi Enterprises.

The first draft - front and back of the swing tags is the image in the corner. Here Ole has taken the logo designed by Belinda and applied it to the swing tag template. The reverse side is the 'Bowraville' footstep which was designed by Ole. This aims to place the business - Aussie made, regional Australia so on.

DISTRIBUTION
Speaking of marketing distribution has become a topic in our focus. We have been looking at both local and Interstate distribution points. Some of our earlier runs of t-shirts are now in the local folk museum and the Visitors Information Centre. No sales as yet (as far as we know). Our next Producers market is next week so we will also put the clothing rack out there.
What is even more exciting is that a Sydney based service have shown interest in including our new range of cushion covers in their upcoming catalogue with the potential of worldwide distribution. I'm off to Melbourne in June with a suitcase full of samples to show around.

BUMS ON SEATS
So of course a new can of worms open - orders = a need for more people to sew... I'm looking into piece work checking the legalities while Deb, Carla and Aunty Ruth work hard to finish the rest of the range.
More next week...

It's happened

7.30am Saturday morning and everyone was eagerly waiting to get into our first fashion shoot.

Our first fashion shoot was a success, thanks to all involved. This shoot will help us to launch the first component of the range, yet to be named. This includes two components - one for young women and the second interiors.

Here Linda encourages all of the girls through the first part of the day. Not having done this before everyone was feeling nervous but as the day went along courage grew. Well done girls.

Behind the scenes at the fashion shoot the healthy catering kept coming. Everyone was excited to see what was coming out next.

By the time we arrived at the beach everyone was feeling more confident there was a lot more jumping around and even a bit of yoga.

Every shot was supervised by the day's creative directors Aunty Ruth and Deb. Sandra recorded some behind the scenes shots.