As I had expected, a large part of my day was spent scanning images and re-doing scans of poorly scanned images. I now have the means to convert these images to jpegs to email, thanks to my friend from Adobe who gave me an old copy of Photoshop Elements. I emailed everything this afternoon, and I’ll be meeting with the manufacturer in CA early next week to see what the production cost estimates will be.
I also received more leather samples today, and I am happy to say that the pebble grained leather seems to be water repellent. Hooray! Unfortunately it’s also 20% more expensive than the other leathers. Boooo. The texture and color isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, though it wasn’t what I had originally planned for my bag aesthetic. I will likely buy this leather unless the leather guy can find an alternative for me. I am a bit bummed that I might not find a sleeker-looking leather that meets my criteria anytime soon.
And speaking of frustrating, almost every bag you see these days are lined with nylon material because nylon is durable, water resistant, lightweight, and inexpensive. And I can’t find recycled nylon anywhere! It looks like I may need to use recycled polyester for my lining instead, which works out ok I suppose. I am constantly surprised by the limited “eco-friendly” resources available to manufacturers. Now I know why the eco-friendly apparel and accessories are usually kinda ugly and frumpy: it’s because there aren’t any good materials to work with! I admire Patagonia even more now.
And now, as a business owner, I need to make a big decision. Should I give myself Monday as a holiday?
YES!
Have a good weekend!
Beware of the shred quality of polyester. Think heavy items and seam stress. Quite a problem in larger bags not so much in clutches.
What’s interesting is fabric vendors send you swatches with sewn-up edges so you don’t know there is a shredding problem. I’m working with the vendor to apply an eco-friendly topcoat to my shell material help prevent the fraying. As for the bag lining, I am still trying to find a recycled material that could work, but not having any luck.