I’m back on the blog.
I’ve been off for 2 months because I’ve been busy in a good way.
May went buy fast. I’m out of school because of a worker’s strike. May was mostly about spending time with family. I spend a lot of time at school, this is the opportunity to spend some time with my people.
I also had the opportunity to push my brand’s launch date forward. What brand? Well, I ran an accessory brand officially for 3 years and I stopped because I had to focus on school. My 2nd year of studying Law was tough So I decided to commit all my attention to my books. That’s if I wanted to graduate with decent grades. At that time, I desperately wanted to. There were other issues with the business that I’ve learned. I had really bad pricing- I’m talking less than 30 percent profit from pieces that took me hours -often days to make. I also mixed my business and personal finances which was a disaster.
In my mind, I was never going to go back to making jewellery again so I packed up all my equipment and materials back home. I sold off some of my things and gave some of them out. I was over it. I kept making jewellery for myself and my mum. I love jewellery and so does she and that kept me practising a good number of my skills.
Late last year, I made some earrings from myself and my friend, Abi bought them off me. She was insistent that I start my brand again but I shrugged it off.
Then, in December I made a lot of things for myself and my best friend who needed jewellery for her vacation to Zanzibar. I posted a photo of the finished pieces and the response was amazing.
I sold some pieces and I started to toy with the idea of starting my brand again. In January, I decided I would start after I was done with 1st Semester exams and the business would be in full swing by Summer after my final exams.
Things didn’t go as planned. ASUU went on strike and so I decided to push the dates forward. I designed the brand identity and then put together over dozen pieces for the first form. 4 of the pieces were pieces I already designed for myself or my friends in the last few months. I picked out the pieces that made the cut and then got to work on stocking my inventory.
Putting together my brand identity, settling in to a new job, celebrating friend’s birthdays and Zikoko’s Hertitude kept May booked and busy.
I picked 11th of June as my launch date and so the first 2 weeks of June were spent in a frenzy of making sure everything was set. The printer almost made me cancel the launch. But my packaging ended up coming in time and I launched on the planned date. I spent the rest of the month dealing with dental issues, relearning how to drive and practising design software-Sketch Up.
Renikeji, my brand is alive and kicking. I’m grateful for the immense support I’ve received. I was at a pop-up market about a week ago and it was amazing to see the response to my work. I have so many things planned. So, follow us on Instagram to shop and stay up to date.
This is is long story short, because as usual the big stuff and small stuff all take up time. I’ve also spent a lot of the past few months thinking. I’ve been thinking a lot about my future and all the things I need to do to make things happen for me. In these times, it’s easy to feel left out or inadequate in comparison to the constant stream of successes we are privy to. These past few months have also been about centering my vision. I’ve been growing myself some courage. I need to have a lot of it for the tough decisions that need to be made in the coming months. For a girl who has tried not to ruffle feathers all of her life, it’s been a slow harvest. But there is fruit.
In the next month, I’ve got a number of blog posts planned. I’m super excited about showing you my top picks from Salone de Mobile- the biggest design event in the world. I’m interested in knowing what you think about my thoughts on Interior Stylists.
Till next time.