When I started out as a dyer, my plan was to dye to match photos I’ve taken. I enjoy photography so the idea of using my pictures as inspiration for the yarn seemed like a great way to give my hobby a new layer of meaning.
Despite those best intentions, if I can be honest for a moment, I feel a little strangled. My shop has been open for almost eight months and I’m frustrated with how I’ve lagged behind where I thought I would be in terms of the variety of colorways I’m offering. Color matching dye to photos has turned out to be pretty challenging! Having the challenge is just fine, but at the same time… It’s been a slow process, much slower than I anticipated. Still getting established means I have to be careful about wasting supplies with failed experiments.
There are color combinations I want to do that don’t easily occur in nature—at least, not the nature I have convenient access to. I don’t have the means right now to travel to places where I could get photos featuring more exotically-colored subjects. Flowers are one obvious source of color but I’d like to avoid relying on them too much if I can. I’ve considered creating acrylic pours and using those as the inspiration (and selling the resulting pours too) but it’s not really feasible to pick that up right now. I don’t have a lot of space to work with and acrylic pouring is pretty messy, never mind that I’d need additional storage space for the canvases and paint.
Being up against this wall really started to bother me this past weekend, to the point that I’m up at one o’clock in the morning writing about it instead of sleeping. One of my color matching experiments ended up as a very lovely result that I think people would like. Alas, this result was not what I was after so technically it’s a failure. I don’t have a photo to match to it.
But does every official colorway I offer have to match a photo…?
I would very much prefer this weekend’s result to be a happy accident instead of a failure. It’s disheartening to see something so nice come out of the pot and think that I can’t use it because I positioned my business as photography-inspired. On the other hand, if I started offering colorways that don’t match a photo (and aren’t NDLB skeins), will my customers feel let down? Am I locked in? Does it matter? Can I just up and change my approach and nobody will care?
They say that variety is the spice of life. I want to get more into the shop more quickly. Am I sacrificing something if I make things a bit easier for myself here when I’m still relatively at the beginning of this business journey? I don’t mean to suggest that I’d give up on matching to photos—I honestly do have a ridiculous amount of photos I really want to use, so that would still be a goal—but if I end up with more happy accidents, wouldn’t it be amazing to share them, and keep making them, instead of relegating them to the reject pile? If I create a photoless colorway and then end up with a suitable picture later, couldn’t I update the colorway to include it?
Eventually, I would like to offer prints of some of my better shots in the shop, too. I haven’t been sure how or when that might happen. I always sort of assumed I’d phase it in once I already had a good selection of colorways matched to those photos. Possibly, it might be worth doing it the other way around: offer prints of photos even if they have no colorway yet, as a way to generate revenue that can be reinvested into the yarn. Maybe?
What are your thoughts on all of this? Please let me know in the comments!
I think you can have different “collections” of yarn. You can keep the photography inspired colorways as your novel collection but then have others with fun collection names such as “mad science!” Or that sort of thing! I firmly believe that if you are having fun with it, that will show and other people will enjoy it too. And again, it doesn’t mean you can’t also have your own unique photography collection.
Without minimizing how much you think and care about your business, I do wonder if you are putting too much pressure on yourself to perform to your own original expectations and may have lost sight a little of how much people DO and WILL value your work even if you expand your direction or modify things from your original intent when it works better for you. I say this not in a condescending manner, but from sympathetic experience. As an artist, this is an all too familiar stress that I have placed on myself and that I have seen others place on themselves as well. There are always times when you want put your foot down and do what you set out to do, but it shouldn’t be just because “that was the plan” and you don’t want to fail in your plan. Some of the most successful artists I know are the ones who keep revisiting what they are doing and seeing what works – from a business perspective, AND for themselves! – and knowing that the real creative process is an evolution of trial and error and experimentation. It’s okay! This is natural! You are an artist too, and you should explore all that comes with that. Your yarn is an art, and your business is an art business. You’re still figuring out what works for you and for your business and how best to capitalize on the things you enjoy doing. That’s normal and healthy. It’s not the same as giving up or letting people down – including yourself. You’re refining what you do and how you want to work and what you want your business to be.
So if a happy accident yarn turned out awesome and you want to sell it, do so! The “Happy Accidents” collection! Or “the mood swings” collection for all the yarns you made just to suit your fancy.
Go for it! You’re not letting people down for enjoying all the possibilities of what you can do :)
This is an amazingly thoughtful and supportive comment. Thank you so much for taking the time to write what you wrote! Splitting the yarn into collections sounds like a great idea (errmaagerrd more naming of things!).
You may be entirely right about the pressure I’m putting on myself. I so badly want to do well and I’ve been conditioned to place a lot of emphasis on being “perfect” and “on point”. The idea of relaxing and just having fun with what I do while still having it be a business thing feels pretty unnatural to me. But pushing outside of my comfort zone is what learning and growth is all about, right?
I thought your photos matching the yarn colours was novel and it looks great, but there’s no reason to limit yourself to that.
Follow your inner Bob Ross :)
Happy accidents all around! I’ve had a few, though the most recent set of happy accidents has been the most impressive so far (in my opinion).
I would love to see more colours. It is nice if they come from photo inspirations but I agree you should not need to feel 100% tied down to that concept. Especially given what you say about some colours not being easy to find naturally out in the world.
So, go for it!
Thanks hon!
I love your colourways, and the idea of Alberta’s colours being captured in yarn pleases me greatly. That said their is no reason you have to do solely that. Photo match when you can, but don’t let it stifle your creativity, I’m sure your customers will understand if you expand your reach a bit. I know I would love to see more ❤
I do think Alberta has a lot to offer in the way of natural beauty. It’s why I love living here and can’t really imagine being anywhere else! Though the photos I want to use do come from elsewhere too: trips to BC, zoo animals, my trip to New Zealand, and so on. I also want to incorporate macro photography when I can; the trick is figuring out how to get suitable subjects to photograph without breaking the budget!
Thank you for your encouragement!