Hello Mamas,
this update is long overdue and as a result there is now quite a lot of information that I need to share with you here and so please forgive me if it seems if any way abrupt or rushed , I really am just trying to get everything down in a manner that is easy for everyone to read.
As always I am more than happy for people to contact me to discuss anything they read here, you can get in touch via email [email protected] or via Facebook.
Orders for Sewing in February - March
There.Are.Delays. *sighs and hangs her head in shame * The remaining customers with orders that were schedule for sewing in January-February will have an additional wait of up to 4 weeks to have their order sewn. Note not everyone are likely to have up to 4 weeks extra to wait. Some customers will wait an extra week, others 2 weeks, and three weeks, with the last of the orders for the February slots being sewn within 4 weeks.
To these Mamas I am truly sorry for the delay. Try as I might, the complexity of the recent custom orders, and orders in general lately means most carriers are taking me several hours longer to sew than before and that is hitting my sewing schedule hard. I have gone from sewing 5 carriers a week to only managing to sew an average of 3.
I would totally understand if there are any customers who would rather not wait any longer to have their carrier sewn and would prefer to have a refund instead. If this is the case please get in touch I will be happy to return your wrap to you and refund your deposit payment in full.
Orders for Sewing in March & April.
How will these be affected by the delays mentioned above ? they shouldn't be affected at all by delays. I allocated only half of the slots for March-April and I will not be allocating any more for this time period.This will allow me to catch up with my schedule ready for sewing new orders in May-June.
The Next custom slot allocation.
March 24th . Full details will be posted here on this blog later this week. These slots will be for sewing in May - June .
I am hoping to take a break for a few weeks in July to spend some time during the school holidays with my girls and so the slots after the next allocation would be in July for sewing in August.
Auctions & Instock carriers.
I have at least 1 more auction for a custom slot or two planned before Easter. The date and full details will follow so please look out for updates on the Ocah Facebook Page & Group, and also here on this blog.
Lately I seem to have accumulated more wraps than I ought to. And so don't be surprised that if and when I feel inclined to do some weekend sewing there will be the occasional instock carrier made available with details posted in advance in all of the usual places.
In an attempt to be completely upfront and honest about the motivation behind my recent auctions I am happy to explain that after running Ocah for nearly 8 years this business is in need of an overhaul. It is time for Ocah to gently grow and develop and I am trying to raise the funds to do this without getting my family in to debt. I am mortified by the awful "washcare instructions" that get printed out and despatched with each new carrier. My DIY website was last updated in *gulp* 2011 ! most of the kids in the pictures have long since started school, and who buys a "Hybrid" carrier anymore ? But I don't have the skills or the time to do a proper job of updating everything and so I have employed 2 people that can do it for me. More details below.
Collaborations.
I have been in talks with some wonderfully talented Hand Weavers and hope to be able to bring you collaborations with one or two of them in the not to distant future. Vague ? Moi ? well plans are in place but the details need fine tuning and I haven't had a whole lot of time to go chasing these people who are themselves super busy with their own businesses. Suffice to say it makes me feel incredibly honoured that I get to work with these talented people and I hope that you will love what we have planned.....when we finally get it together.......soon I promise ; )
Price increases the Dilema ?
I wasn't sure whether I should share the following information, I have been mulling it over since before Christmas. I don't want people to think that I am being greedy or ungrateful because honestly I am not. In the end I decided to post this because I do think there is some value in people seeing just how hard it can be for me to make Ocah work.
It has become apparent in the past few months that despite the fact that I am now working extra hours in my studio I earn less than I did before. This is not a great situation to be in. Whilst Ocah is not a big business it does generate a much needed income for my family. Now that I am sewing an average of 3 carriers a week instead of the usual 5 that I was sewing before and despite charging extra for the additional design details people are ordering on their custom carriers ,there is shortfall in my income from sewing 2 less carriers a week.
I haven't found a solution to this yet. I don't feel that I want to increase my prices nor do I want to put a limit on what people can order from the list of additional extras that have come about in the past year or so. I don't have the answer for this yet but rest assured I am working on it, in the meantime if anyone has any genius solutions please do get in touch [email protected]
CPSIA Compliance so close ... yet so far !
One of the places that I enlisted outside help with Ocah was on getting the CPSIA compliance sorted. We have made great progress on this but we still have a way to . I won't bore you with the back story as to why it has taken us so long to get this far but what I can tell you that we have a test lab ready in Italy to test our full buckle design , but before they can do that we need to get our wearing instructions together, to do this we need photographs, to do those we need an Ocah carrier (or two) for these we need a wrap that does not promote another manufcatuers goods (i.e Girasol, or Artipoppe, or Didymos etc) for this we have a custom hand woven wrap on the loom as I type that ticks all of the boxes for being unique to Ocah. Once we have the wearing instructions produced we can send the carrier to be tested. In the meantime we are locating a low cost UK test lab that will be able to test each and every wrap fabric sent to me that is destined to be sewn and returned to either the US or Canada. I keep telling myself that soon everything will finally come together on the compliance and it will become second nature. Soon.
New and exciting stuff.
We are giving Ocah a new look and not a minute too soon. This is the second area of my business where I have employed the services of an expert. We have a lovely new logo in the works. A New Website is in production with a new online store. And we have New Packaging on the way too. These improvements make me really happy.
There aren't any planned closures on the website. Emails and social media should remain unaffected as the work on the improvements goes on behind the scenes
Finally before I sign off I want to thank everyone who supports by business whether this be by placing an order with me or simply clicking "like" on my Facebook posts. Your support is truly appreciated.
Kerry
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