Earlier this year I was approached by a clothing company out of Los Angeles to make my framed yoyo pieces (made from their own fabric) for store displays in their 9 retail locations around the country. It was really exciting and kind of terrifying at the same time. It is something I would definitely love to do, but I also work a full time job and I was worried about being able to complete it on schedule. They purchased 2 pieces as samples and sent me fabric. The fabric was absolutely the most soft and comfortable fabric ever, but it was jersey (think t-shirt material) as opposed to my normal quilting fabric which is stiff and firm. The yoyos came out beautifully, but took a little bit more time than usual. The sample pieces I constructed were used for walk-through concepts for a seasonal store display. When the “higher-ups” saw my pieces with their own fabric they LOVED them.
They actually loved them so much that they wanted to make the yoyos an even more important part of the whole look, not just in the small frames. Unfortunately, what they had in mind was entire yoyo quilts as a wall covering. This is unfortunate because I had already been worried about being able to finish the smaller framed pieces. As much as I crunched the numbers and had friends and family offer to help, there was no way I’d be able to get that many yoyos done within a month. I had to turn down the offer and walk away. Although I didn’t get to complete the project I was still very excited that I got to be part of the project at all. I was really honored that they contacted me, purchased from me and we got to work together on the project for a while together. I’ve had a couple other offers in the past from larger companies (snowboarding company wanting to use my artwork on their snowboards, and another company interested in buying 600 of my grass journals) but neither of them had gone as far as this project. After all of these experiences, I’m confident that someday I will have an offer for a big project that will fit perfectly for me.
The pictures above are not the fabric supplied by the company, but for a yoyo sets like the one pictured here.
WOW!!!!!Boy does that ever give you options for your future!
These are so beautiful!
Such a good experience and you’re right – you’ll definitely find the big project that fits you just right – like Goldilocks! :)