Arch, I've been away so not been able to keep up to date with threads..any more news on the recycled jewellery etc?
Oh, thanks for asking!
We raised £200 at the craft fair - £120 of that was the bike tyre belts, of which I'll be making more... many many more, or at least as many as I can!
Oddly, the jewellery sold less well - we sold a few of the cable things, and one pair of wooden ones, (but they were to my colleague). A couple of other colleagues are also buying wooden ones. I think that craft fair was overloaded with jewellery, so I'm not downhearted!
We've got a deal going with Bike Rescue for old tyres (which they'd otherwise have to throw away), so it's just a case of how fast they can be made (and sell!).They'd like to sell them at the Bike Hub shop.
Our centre manager has said she'd like to come to some arrangement whereby I sell them to the charity to sell on, so that I get a cut of each - I'd made the first batch pretty much for free as a donation and by way of doing some market research for myself (and they know this, and are happy with it).
Of course, the belts are one of the more time consuming things to make. We'll probably raise the price - we'd sold them at a tenner each as an experiment, which is cheap compared to someone like Velo-re, but then Velo-re belts have more decoration, and I needed to build some confidence in myself! And there are also moves afoot to make the process quicker with a custom press to install the chin link rivets.
It's all quite exciting. I'm also thinking up more ideas to use recycled materials....
Oh, and I think you put me onto Esty? I've been having a look at it, and it certainly seems like a good way to sell stuff, so perhaps when I'm a bit more advanced, I'll sign up! I met some friends for a Christmas drink the other day and when they heard about my plans, they said "Oh, you should be on Etsy!"