Folk By The Oak

Today we have a guest post by Sarah Braithwaite of Dottodot Design Ltd who tells us all about her experience this summer at Folk By The Oak.

Last Summer I attended a Folk Festival called Folk By The Oak (www.folkbytheoak.com), which is held yearly at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. They have a huge tent there with people selling not only vintage clothing and bric-a-brac, but also people selling things they had made themselves. I soon started thinking that I would like to have a stall selling things made from my prints which I had started to get printed onto fabric by this time.

After emailing the organisers with a brief outline and some pictures of the kind of thing I would like to sell, Caroline got back to me saying that she had seen my website and really liked the feel of my work and would I be interested in creating some artwork for them for their Acorn stage! This was a really exciting opportunity as there could be a lot of exposure and also that I would get the chance to design something that was totally my own design as the brief was luckily really loose.

As the banners were a tall skinny shape to design into, I thought it was a good opportunity to try a Totem pole inspired design, which incorporated the acorn, Oak tree and woodland creatures theme. Caroline and her team were overjoyed with the artwork which was an amazing boost to my confidence. It really proved to me that you should just do your own thing and hopefully people will like it too.

This is what the Banners looked like during the day

and at night…

While all this design work was going on I was also planning what I would sell on the stall. I selected a few of my prints which I felt worked well as a little collection and began to plot out what I would make from them. I read somewhere that it is a good idea to have different price brackets. At something like a market or craft stall it said you should have a few higher end pieces at £20 plus, some more affordable things at £10 and under and then some pocket money pieces at £5 and under. This seemed like common sense advice as festivals can be a costly day out with food and drink so people are careful with what they buy at these events. The best seller of the day was the little lined purses. Another thing which sold well was the artwork of the banner design. A4 ones sold out! People were also happy to buy the makeup bags for under £10 too.

One of the best seller purses in “Happy Garden” print

We also had some beautiful vintage Danish chairs on the stall which my friend Jacqui had covered in the prints we were featuring. These generated a lot of interest, got some great comments and really added to the look of the stall too. We felt it looked really strong and concise as we had only used six prints which complimented each other, some busy, some simple, some large in scale and some small and the colours were from the same simple palette.

It was quite nerve racking when the doors opened, I suddenly had a horrible feeling that it was a strong possibility we could go home without selling one thing. But it wasn’t long before people were buying bits and pieces and that is such an amazing feeling! The difference is that these wonderful customers are not buying things because they are your friends and family, but because they want to own the lovely thing you have designed and made from scratch, it’s a huge compliment. In future I will always try to buy something, even just a card, from someone who is standing behind their stall as it’s a little thing to the customer but a huge thing to the seller and I now know how that feels!

We really had a fantastic day on the stall, the atmosphere was buzzing, the weather was hot, people were in great spirits and the music was amazing as always. We would love to be invited back again next year so fingers crossed.

Module 3 on the ABSPD course really helped me see all the different ways that you can get your patterns out into the world, I was really interested in the manufacturing part of the course, which surprised me as I hadn’t thought about this as a professional possibility for myself before.

Since the festival, I have been in talks with a shop to have them stock my collection. I am currently looking into getting my pieces manufactured as I think they need to be the best quality possible. It was great to start off with little things I had made myself, to see how my designs would be received, but I think they need to be top notch and of the best print quality to be in a beautiful shop like the one interested in my designs.

It was great to see my design up there on the Acorn Stage, with crowds of people in front of it. The organisers were really pleased with it too and so kind and grateful that I had designed it for them, the feeling was mutual as I felt so priviledged to have been asked.

I am currently working on a print for an upholstery company, can’t wait to see what that looks like in the flesh too, hopefully it will be as exciting as my festival experience.

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My name is Sarah Braithwaite and my company name is Dottodot Design Ltd. I have been working as a graphic and print designer for the commercial Childrenswear market since 2000, which is such a great job as I get to design characters and patterns on a daily basis. However, I have always dreamt of developing my own prints and designs, hoping to see them on all kinds of surfaces, not only clothing, but also stationary, homeware and gifts. I’m inspired by anything around me, I love big bold patterns and love working with strong but simple colours.

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