End of year evaluations are held by the big guys. By important people. By company managers. By Prime Ministers, hospital managers. Or at the very least by ordinary managers. I used to think this and I couldn’t imagine that one day I would make one (I just hoped I would).
Anyway, I was certain that if one day I make one I wouldn’t say the usual crap ‘ It was a hard year but we accomlished a lot’ sentences meant to be encouraging but sounding cliched. I believe we should concentrate on the positive things. We’ve got plenty of those, listed below.
WINTER
January is usually a quiet month, especially in this business. The fairs are over, customers have spent all their money and we’re wrecked. Which is not a problem because some of my best ideas come in this calm, stay-at-home period and I just have to realize them during the year.
Last January I made two important decisions. One was to open a showroom at Paloma and the other was to start making big bags.Yes, I know the second one doesn’t sound like a big deal, but believe me, designing and creating a bag like that isn’t an easy thing to do. You could write a short essay on how to find a professional and reliable manufacturer, where to source the best materials and any other questions that might come up in the product development process, etc…..(if it’s an evaluation report let’s have big words:) ) I definitely won’t write an essay on it, but there’s a blog planned, so be prepared!
So back to the plans. By all means I wanted to leave the home workplace. I knew I needed a place where I could ‘go to work’ , where I can show my stuff and myself to the public. A place which is only mine. This is how Paloma came into the picture and we started the negotiations.
In the meantime you voted on facebook how the RothAniko big bag should look. And by Valentine’s day the birdy video was finished. This had the added bonus of me making it together with Tam谩s and we both really enjoyed it. (This is already our third video together!) Of course what else could I say in a public blog. 馃檪
Encouraged by the success of the January bag vote I came up with a new question in February. I planned to continue the big city collection and I was curious which city you would like to see next. Barcelona came first – so we went there on holiday in August. Although we almost stayed at home…I’ll tell you about our little adventure later.
Can you see that bright little room upstairs? That turned into my showroom at Paloma
Keys belonging to Room 6
SPRING
Spring means renewal, new start, these kind of things….Clich茅 I know, but what else can I do, my life is like this.
I got the keys of the showroom at Paloma on the 1st of March, 2015. After two weeks of drilling, hammering, plastering and painting, my dream had come through, I had my own showroom. It turned out just as I had imagined. We showed it to the press in May, and then we had a superb opening party. I even made a blog entry about it, as I started my own blog in March, which was another big plan realized – one more tick off the list. More than half a year has passed since the opening and I don’t regret my decisions, I’ve got a lot of positive feedback which I’m grateful to you for!
Spring renewal applied to the fair season as well. WAMP restarted, and by this time people were hungry for new stuff – for instance, a cool RothAniko big bag.
The third but not so planned spring renewal plan was to find a new workshop. My seamstress couldn’t handle the volume of work and I needed to find a place with bigger capacity. I wouldn’t say it was easy, for weeks I was checking out smaller and bigger workshops, and when I was ready to throw in the towel, finally I found ‘the one’, who I’ve been working with since then. I love them because they are professional, flexible and they can handle the busiest periods.
Paloma, at the beginning of March 2015….
…and this is how it looked after a mere two weeks
By the opening party in May…
…you made yourself at home!
SUMMER
Summer was about dark blue bags, the brand-new wallet, about the rabbit girl and getting prepared for the winter fair. And also about the almost cancelled family holiday.
My big project for August was to dream up and create my hopefully soon-to-be opened webshop, the design and running of which was an ambitious undertaking for me since I’m not a webdesigner. Luckily my husband is one, so I got a lot of assistance from him. The whole process has been going on for more than a year with an IT girl and I plan to launch by spring at the latest! I bet you are curious, because I really am!
When the dark blue bags were ready, the wallets were in their final design, the calendars were gone to press for the winter fair – what’s more, the 16-month diary was ready, too – I thought everything was on schedule, it was time to relax. I had the hurray-we-are-on-holiday feeling a couple of hours before I should’ve had. I took it too easy when packing….really only a little bit, because I left only one thing at home, my son’s ID. The lack of which meant we couldn’t board the plane heading to Barcelona. We were left with the taxi going home… After we recovered from the shock and I stopped blaming myself, we got ready again and two days later we were happily flying to Barcelona to 脡v谩s.
We made dark blue bags in big size….
….and in small size
We made a really unique diary with many extras for 16 months use
The rabbit girl
My favourite wallet has been to Spain before me
Barcelona as I see it
AUTUMN
Finally I started the collaboration with Panka Milutinovits! By September all my products for the Christmas fair were complete, so everything was ready for the photoshoot. Panka did the styling and shooting and I waited for the result anxiously. I was blown away by the photos. They turned out to be exactly what I wanted, and as I can see from your comments you love them too.
While I was busy with the photos, building the booth for the fair and recaptivating Ervin, my mum dilligently packed, packed and packed while watching Among friends on telly. She wrapped each DesignByRothAniko product in cellophane to protect them from the dust of V枚r枚smarty square and the steam of mulled wine and fried sausages.
My favourite photo by Panka
And your favourite choice has been the girl with the red hat for many years
We were building the booth at V枚r枚smarty square for three days, this view was the result of the first day
I saw you enjoyed visiting me at the Christmas fair 馃檪
WINTER
On the 13th of November (a Friday!) the Christmas fair at V枚r枚smarty square opened, you know the story from this point. Selling here, selling at WAMP, in the meantime getting my presents and a little bit of getting into the Christmas spirit as well.
The 24th of December arrived and I was only busy with the family. Two weeks together! Total relaxation. It happens rarely, but feels so great! I enjoy tremendously visiting family members for three days straight, everywhere new smells, flavours – and I stayed silent about our own Christmas supper…
And we’re back at the starting point. It’s January, customers have spent all their money and I’m a little bit wrecked. But it was worth it! I achieved many of my plans, one of which was the opening of the Paloma showroom which was a turning point for me. Another positive change is that I started working with more people who continuously inspire me and vica versa. Luckily plenty of new products were born in 2015 and apparently it’s not only me who love them.
In this stay-at-home calm period I go on weaving new plans. Some of which I will share with you in the next blog. Those who are interested in brand new DesignByRothAniko developments click here next week!
We were just getting into the Christmas spirit here
Christmas as Panka and I see it
Goodbye 2015!
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