Hey there, I'm Holly Marsh, the illustrator/nerd running the show here at hollymarshmallow.
I love to draw, and write, and I'm so grateful you're here to read the weird stuff that comes outta my brain sometimes.
Restocked: Dumpster Fire Embroidery Kits!
You might be thinking that the Dumpster Fire never left, or that WE have never left the Dumpster Fire, and you would be half right.
In the more literal sense, my Dumpster Fire embroidery kit has been out of stock for some time. Truth be told, it wasn't anything out of my control- it was 100% within my control.
I've been waffling with whether or not to do one of the following:
1 - Expand my few embroidery kits to incorporate more designs, or
2 - Discontinue the kits entirely.
If you've ever been curious about the product development process, grab yourself a seat, cuz it's story time!
Real Talk (or as the kids say these days: no cap): Embroidery Kits are kind of a pain in the ass for me to carry.
Think of most of the products in my line like my puppy Emperor Kuzco:
Yeah, I paid the pet tax!
Like Kuzco, they are cute, energetic, but not fussy and (hopefully) easily amuse you.
Now think of my embroidery kits like my Ragdoll cat Mr. Business:
We call this move "Mr. Business' Flop of Approval"
Mr. Business does not want a soft, fluffy, cat bed.
He wants a hard surface in which to rest.
Mr. Business will wake you at 5am by walking all 22 pounds of his glory across your abdomen, every morning, until you are compelled to buy an auto-feeder with a schedule (BEST purchase ever).
Mr. Business is a self-cleaning model, but is not top of the line. He gets his thick yet fine fur tangled in knots as he attempts to function in self-clean mode. He needs daily brushing, and gentle removal of knots in his fur or they will get worse, become painful, and he will become surly as you attempt to help him.
Embroidery Kits, while not a daily thing, require a lot of attention to stock and keep in stock.
To restock a kit, it's not one of those things where I just upload the file to my carefully vetted printer, pay them money, and through some logistical magic, they arrive in perfect condition with all components, ready to sell.
Naww, these babies go on a JOURNEY.
First, I check my inventory on existing components. I really try to buy in bulk, but JUST enough to cover how many kits a yard of my pre-printed fabric will be able to make (which is 15).
But that's not how bulk quantities work across the board for all the components here. It becomes the whole "hot dog vs hot dog bun quantities" scenario (thank goodness they fixed that eventually!). The embroidery hoops must be ordered in quantities of 6, the printed cover and instruction inserts must be a minimum of 25, and the skeins of embroidery floss?
The most well-known (in the U.S.) floss manufacturer doesn't really have an open door to apply for a wholesale account, and the distributor I used when running my previous handmade business has embroidery floss but they carry a different brand, and they very much have a minimum purchase threshold...let alone an annual minimum spend, and I haven't ordered from them since closing my handmade business down, so I imagine my account has gone dormant or was closed.
So for the embroidery floss, I usually have to go on the hunt for which retailer has all the colors that I need available at the quantities I need. Bonus points for the best price. I love, love, LOVE to purchase floss from my friend Lauren of Maydel, but sometimes floss availability and/or quantities make the purchase not possible.
"Why not just buy floss at the quantities they have and buy the rest of what you need elsewhere, Holly?" you might be asking.
Great question! For a neurotypical person, this might be a no-brainer, but for me? The amount of different components to order, keep track of, and then make sure I have enough of to assemble as many kits as I can is more than my squirrel brain wants to handle.
I didn't say "can handle," I said "wants" to handle, and for someone who is neurodivergent, that is a big difference.
OH! And don't forget to double check how many needles you have, and the plastic hanging bags that you cannot wait to run out of so you can explore plastic-free options, but come hell or high water, you're using the rest of those stupid plastic bags up!
Once I've figured out how many things of a thing that I need, I order the...things.
Then when everything arrives (a clumsy ballet of tracking numbers, counting received goods and cross-referencing the order confirmation email that requires me to hunt for it in my sea of an inbox, re-prints of too-green fabrics, etc.), I assemble everything.
And THEN I declare them ready for market. Yay!
So yes, I waffled with whether or not to restock these very high-maintenance babies. But with the state of the world and everything, I thought, "How could I NOT restock these?"
Sooo tl;dr these kits are a PITA to put together (unless I do a bigger pivot and go deeper into embroidery and craft kits which is not in my 1 to 3 to 5-year plan), so get them while they are in stock, because I'm still tired from counting and coordinating and assembling all the things.
GET YER KIT AND STAB SOMETHING A BUNCH OF TIMES TO CHANNEL YOUR RAGE
Leave a comment
