Before I go into my monthly income report, I’ve received several emails from people wanting to join the Furoku membership, so as promised, I’m opening it up again! I find it mind-boggling and buoying and humbling that folks are willing to travel with me on this admittedly undefined and slapdash adventure of mine. To sum up what was part of last month’s furoku, I receive the loveliest of comments from Kay:
Dear Sanae,
I received my first furoku and am totally delighted! Frankly, I did not expect much — I really joined to help you out in your big adventure but your furoku is worth every bit of my investment. Love reading your story, love the mini cards and yes, I did print them up on cream colored cardstock and they turned out beautifully! This was my first time doing something like that and it was easy with your clear instructions. Your artwork is gorgeous and I am oddly quite proud to be the owner of these original cards and can’t wait to use them. Not sure I like cutting out the envelopes but they are charming and really, the cards do need made to order matching envelopes. I was also touched by your donation of part of the proceeds to a worthy cause. And thank you also for the discount for fabric! This furoku was a big hit with me and I can’t wait until next month!
p.s. Cutting out the envelopes took very little time and they are so well shaped that folding is intuitive as well as professional looking. Also viewed the video and enjoyed it immensely!
It is quite possibly the most validating and motivating comment ever — thank you, Kay!! I know that I won’t nail it every month (and I’m sure that I probably didn’t even come close to nailing it for some of the furoku members…I promise to do my best though), particularly while I’m still working on book #2, but I have to tell you: I have so many ideas! My idea cup overfloweth. I want to be able to customize the monthly furoku as much possible and my ultimate aim is to create a very collaborative space. And guess what? The collaboration has already started…Per Kay’s comment, I included downloadable mini cards, and you can get a peek of one of them up at the very top (that little French bulldog up there is actually modeled after one of the member’s pups).
Then unbeknownst to me, fabulous Greta utilized Spoonflower to create this one-of-a-kind fabric with my designs (I made them copyright free in the hopes people will do exactly something like this) and sewed a dress!!!!! She sent me these photos:
Blown. Away. The Spoonflower fabric is cotton poplin, the pattern is the Geranium by Made by Rae, the skirt fabric is Joel Dewberry. I was so moved and was crying so much, K thought I’d broken a bone or something. Oh, I love the piping and the cute little buttons. Greta, I have no adequate words.
And other collaborations are in the works!! I have most of Furoku #2 done (it’s very different from #1), and I think this one will be really fun. It all still sounds amorphous, I’m aware, but can you tell that creative energy is abrewing?
Okay, onto the monthly income report. Aside from the one week of spring break, I’ve been channeling the kind of focus reserved for surgeons and snipers on book #2 (thank you SO much for the productivity tips, they’ve been super helpful!) and considering that I launched all this at the end of March, I kept my expectations very low. The total came out to a little less than $400 — $377.81 to be exact — but I’m flabbergasted that I have anything to report. I’ll reserve the details for members, but I had a couple of income sources in March. It’s daunting, seeing the $20,000 column looming over the tiny sliver of March 2015…However, Little Kunoichi
My hope is that by July, I’ll be in full membership website development mode. If you’d like to join to have a major say in how the membership site will be crafted and get a unique digital gift every month, I hope you’ll sign up if you haven’t already:
I’m still trying to figure out the whole tracking thing with subscriptions (technology is not my strong suit), so will keep the button up until the end of next week, and will re-open sign-ups mid-May-ish. A million thank yous for all the encouragement and support!! I am so very grateful.
I love what Greta did with your designs! How creative. And to think that I only used them for little gift cards. I wonder what is yet to come! You have created such a creative environment for all of us that we all get to stretch our inventiveness. It is well worth the $10/month!
Wonderful! Thank you Karen! The mini cards have been in heavy use around here too (K actually printed up a bunch to give out to friends and started a bit of an unexpected trend of exchanging cards). 🙂
Everything you do is so warm and inspiring and seems to grow in front of my eyes with all the potential. That graph, though, stands out like an impostor. Can I humbly suggest Sanaeizing the representation of your already amazing progress on this? Kid climbing a tree, gecko making his way across a ceiling, Ivy up a wall, moon across the sky, bread rising in the oven, bobbin filling with thread, ninja girl in leaping arc of attack towards that grey rectangle of doom or indeed anything that might suit you better. I’m so bossy and intrusive! You’ve just done so well in so many ways and will keep doing that, it would be glorious to see that graph transformed like you transform fabric and paper and the moment before an idea. Keep it up!
Oh, I love your ideas about the graph – so so great, Janome Gnome (just typing that makes me happy)!!! I’m definitely going to do something more illustration-infused next time for sure! 🙂 And thank you for your kind words. This whole experiment is really good for me, I believe – I’ve always had a weird hang-up about making money through “creative” efforts and this keeps me very accountable!
Thank you so much for including my dress in your post!!! But, really Sanae, how many times have I begged you for original fabric? I still think about that adorable little goldfish you painted awhile back. The dress is 0-3 months. I made it for sale on my farmers market table, where I run my tiny little children’s charity.
Your dress is adorable, Greta! And thanks for correcting the info – I’ve updated the post! And yes! I’m working on textile design for sure but that’ll have to wait a little bit longer while I wrap up book stuff. 🙂
I’m already thrilled with month 1. I often post out little parcels and spend a fortune on uninspiring little cards. Now….I just print these beauties and away I go! So looking forward to next month. And don’t forget that the journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step…or the first $377.81. You will achieve this.
So happy to hear it, Evie! I’ve been finding my own mini cards extremely useful, which is a major bonus :-). Yes, one tiny step at a time…thank you for your staunch encouragement!!!
I signed up, and I’m so excited.
I know a book’s numbers (like pre-orders) have a lot to do with how well they do overall. Have you ever read the Happiness Project blog by Gretchen Rubin? I highly recommend you look at it. It’s got a lot of great info in general, but how she promotes her books is very clever, and from what I can tell, incredibly successful. She encourages people to pre-order (or order) at particular times. She does a cute thing where she warns up front the days she is doing “shameless self-promotion” blog posts. But as a reader, they don’t bother me, and perhaps (in your own way) you could do something similar? Just a thought to try and help you get your wonderful (I’m sure) books out there!
-Loren
I just listened to an interview with Gretchen Rubin! She has a new book out about habits that I really want to read (I’m all about habits). I haven’t perused her Happiness Project blog, though, and I will definitely check out her book promotion ideas, though I think she has millions of readers, which I sadly do not. Thank you for the suggestions and thank you for joining in on the furoku goodness, Loren!!
Loved the first furoku! Printed out the cards/envelopes on plain paper and they were great. People love receiving personalized snail-mail & these were a hit.
A couple of practical questions: Will the download capacity be available permanently or should I copy everything as we go? Am not so savvy with the copying of files. and Can you direct me to a website about printing on fabric? I am inspired by your last post & know someone who would love a tee with the cute doggy pic. Much thanks.
Hi Li! Spoonflower is one way to go about getting printed fabric: http://www.spoonflower.com/welcome. I’ve also transferred some of my own designs onto baby onesies using transfer paper like this one.
As for the downloads, currently I have a service that allows you to download until the end of June, but my grand plan is to actually have a site where all the gift archives live where members can download in perpetuity. Once you download it, it should be on your computer hard drive and if you do a search for “furoku” you should be able to find it. I hope that helps!
I’m working hard on furoku #2!
so happy along with you! what an amazing feeling that must be to see your illustrations printed on fabric . . . what an adorable dress:)
Thank you, Lucinda! So so fun to see my designs as part of a dress! I have a lot of other collaborative projects set in motion, so I’m excited to see how they all turn out 🙂
Hi Sanae, what a coincidence — I see my message reprinted here, and just happened to use of your cards today for a thank you note. Oddly enough, the purple sakura blossoms matched my washi wrapping paper perfectly. The first card I used was the bunny, attached to an Easter basket I made for a special little girl. These really come in handy! Hope you come up with some for summer and maybe Christmas. I would also love to print on fabric like Greta did. Is there a possibility that she can share how she does it? It would be fun to try something new.
p.s. I just visited Spoonflower and realized I can order custom fabric. So please ignore my request. But it still would be fun to try something new. Maybe stencils?
Hi Kay! Yes, Spoonflower is something I need to try too! Stencils could be fun, and as I mentioned in one of the comments above, there are inkjet iron-on transfer sheets that I’ve used with okay results. It doesn’t stand up to multiple washings unless you hand wash gently, but it looked great when I tried it!
I’ve been a quiet follower of your blog and illustrations for a while now. I work as a web developer (and I sew for fun). I’d love to see if I can help out on the tech side of your project. I hope it’s successful – I love so many of your illustrations!
Steph!!!! I have been desperately trying to figure out where to turn for technical help…I am in dire need! I will email you separately in a few days after I’ve taken care of some pressing matters. Thank you!