The HANGA at Craftworld

This photo shows the mini display I have made for Craftworld. I took it there today and it looks good in the display cabinet. I will be interested to see how things go in the next few weeks before Christmas.

Browns Bay (November) Craft Show

This craftshow has been my best yet. The HANGAs are selling well and I will be extra busy next week making more to replenish my stock, as well as those that I am proposing to take to Craftworld

Investigating Craftworld

Today I went to Craftworld (www.craftworld.co.nz) at Westgate Shopping Centre, where I met with the Managing Director, Carl Dysthe. Carl approached me, after seeing my stall at Coatesville Market, with a proposition for getting some of my work in the store. He showed me the display cabinet he had mentioned, where I could set up a small display, as a trial, before committing to a rental booth.

I am keen to try this as a different selling venue for my HANGAs and feel the best time to do it is now, to catch the run up to Christmas. I made a commitment to go ahead with this and put a display in place before the end of the month - this means I am going to be very busy for the next couple of weeks!

The HANGA at Coatesville

The HANGA made its first appearance at Coatesville Market today, and again was very successful. My stock is now quite low so I will have to get busy making more for the forecoming events I have planned before Christmas.

Successful debut event

The debut of the HANGA brooch/pendant at Mission Bay, yesterday, was a very successful event. The weather was perfect for an outdoor event, attracting lots of people to visit and the whole place had a positive buzz. The only downside at the end of the day, was having the car towed home by the AA and wondering how much the repair bill would be - but at least it did not break down on the way!

The HANGA display attracted alot of interest and, in addition to sales, some very positive and useful feedback was gained. A number of people commented on the excellent display I had constructed, showing how the HANGA could be worn, and several others said I should register the name/idea to stop anyone else copying it. This is something that I had thought about previously and did quite a lot of research on. I had already completed an on-line application to register the name 'HANGA' as a Trade Mark but had not submitted it. For the last week or two I had been dithering as to whether or not I should but thought I would wait to see how the debut event went.

On the strength of the interest and sales from yesterday's event, I have now submitted the application to the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ), to register the name 'HANGA' as a Trade Mark.

HANGA table display

This is the display set-up I have made to go on the end of my table at tomorrows event.

Getting ready for Mission Bay

I have been working all weekend in preparation for the launch of the HANGA at the Mission Bay Art and Craft Market on Labour Day (Monday 25 October). Not only have I been busy making the HANGAs, I have also been working on a new set up for their display. All is going well but I am very pushed for time to get everything finished as I would like. I can see that I will be working every night this week, after I get home my from my day job - still, I only have two more weeks in this job, once I have left I will have much more time available.

Invitation - to the HANGA debut at Mission Bay



The HANGA makes a debut

I have issued the following PRESS RELEASE, to several newspapers:

Be the first to see the HANGA brooch/pendant - a stylish and practical fashion accessory, designed to hang your reading glasses, sun glasses or identity badges on. With the versatile two-way fixing pin you can chose to wear it as a brooch or a pendant, to best suit your outfit. This unique design by Claire Fairweather is hand-crafted from polymer clay, here in New Zealand – no two are identical.

Claire has been designing contemporary art-brooches as a hobby, since settling in Auckland from the UK, in March 2009. The idea for the HANGA arose from talking to visitors at craft markets and her desire to make her art and craftwork functional. She says: “As a wearer of reading glasses myself, this is a useful and decorative accessory that I genuinely use, and with its multi-functions the HANGA makes a novel gift, when you are stuck for ideas for something to buy”.

A limited number from the first HANGA collection will be making a debut at the Mission Bay Art and Craft Market on Labour Day, Monday 25 October from 10.00am – 4.00pm. You will find Claire’s stand on Row 1. Thereafter, she will be at Coatesville Market on the first Sunday of each month.

www.hanga.co.nz

Today I have bought the domain name www.hanga.co.nz, so I can set up a seperate website for promoting the HANGA.