Buying Local

The web has become a wonderful tool for buying supply's but waiting upto a week for items to come through before you can start making a order you have already got on isn't the ideal situation.

A lot of my fabric and wool comes from two local little shops. You'll find that most areas will have there own wool or fabric shop, sometimes even both. Every time I go in I find myself thinking "oh that will look nice for this design". Jewellery findings on the other hand are a little more difficult to get hold of.

I do admit that there are pro's and con's to shopping local. Sometimes it won't be as cheap as some of the on-line stores (sometimes it will). There is a friendly face to help you out if you do get stuck. I find that I get more choice in my local shops than some of the places on-line and after getting to know the people they now order me things they wouldn't normally stock.

For the odd things I use I use to order from a company called Panduro based in Sweden. Now the UK branch of Panduro has split away to supply the UK quicker and with more choice, they are called creativity direct and can cater for shops as well as home crafters.

You may find that making from scratch is also good. It may take slightly more time and energy but at the end of the day if a customer asks you what is in the product you can tell them exactly, that and it is much more satisfying when you sell that product. You won't be able to make everything from scratch, but even if it is just one product off a long list it is still something and it does give you the opportunity to make that item personal.