How I loved my studio / home / shop ‘Tinkadoodle’ in Adelaide Road, Newtown, Wellington, where I created & hand made bright, colourful, one of a kind ragdolls – Deedee, Dougie – & the Kiwikids!
The shop itself was the front room of a 5 bedroom flat, created within a commercial building, that my daughters & I also lived in, with two flatmates who helped pay the rent. We moved to the shop from Nelson, where I had developed the ragdolls over 6 years, selling them at the weekly Nelson Saturday Market, various craft shows & retail outlets. I was ready to grow my creative enterprise, & hopefully generate an income for myself.
But what began as something I made for my daughters joyful playtimes, had evolved into something that became a ‘business’ – & looking back on it – became only ‘seen’ as ‘successful’ on those terms. But at the time I simply wasn’t aware of that. I was a typical financially challenged solo parent, who mistakenly believed that other people knew what was best for me. Mostly that meant, in their eyes, that my wonderfully bright & playful ragdolls should be a commercial business, existing with the sole aim of making money. BIG MISTAKE.
The other big mistake I made was not listening to myself. I didn’t like how it felt to be a ‘business’. I hated the commercial viewpoint imposed on my creativity, & the manipulative techniques of ‘selling’ were games I did not want to play. I was a round peg, trying to fit / adapt myself to their square hole. BIG MISTAKE.
There was lots of stumbling, falling down & picking myself up again. Some financial mistakes were made, but I did begin to find a way of being myself, & sharing my enthusiasm for my ragdolls (as opposed to ‘selling’ them in a manipulative way), & to begin being successful on my own terms. There’s a u-tube video interview of me in the shop at that time actually – in June 2008 – here’s the link if you want to check it out –
https://thesidestrip.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/the-best-ragdolls-on-the-planet/
or here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVA1QX0KSfM
With the help of a $10,000 enterprise grant in July 2008 , I was able to improve my little business, have a professional brand created, & a new website, which grew my sales steadily from this point on, building up a solid financial foundation. Then there was an economic recession. In November 2010, my christmas sales were down by 85%, & I was financially forced to close the shop in December. I decided to go back to being an employee, which unfortunately meant moving to Hawkes Bay – which impacted my teenage daughters quite negatively at the time. I secretly mourned the loss of my shop for a long time.
Now it’s 2019, & I’m looking to build a fully creative life again, focused around making, showing & sharing my creativity. My experience with Tinkadoodle taught me a great deal, & has hugely influenced how I want to have everything aligned this time, & as written in ‘project vw’ – have it be more about the creative work, & living my own creative life in my own way – & valuing that whether others do or not. If it matters to me, then it matters.
Writing this blog post, I fully realize now, & appreciate, how I did achieve all that with Tinkadoodle ragdolls, & it now gives me hope that I can achieve it again.
Vicky xxx
