It’s no secret. I LOVE instagram. Like most crafters I know, I am most certainly a visual person and a perfectly curated feed makes my eyes widen and my heart flutter. I’m a sucker for it, and I don’t even care. Aside from the visual appeal, I find that Instagram is a more positive experience than other social media outlets tend to be. You know what I mean? So as I am spending countless hours each week, happily arranging my carefully placed props in a way that looks ‘gram worthy, but not too forced (why yes, I do totally hang out on a faux fur rug, wearing jeans, with a perfect wooden tray that is holding a full cup of coffee, while crocheting my latest WIP that perfectly matches my nail polish, this is NOT staged AT ALL!), I sometimes find myself wondering what could set me apart from all the other crocheters-who-drink-hot-coffee-while-sitting-on-a-fur-rug-while-Netflixing? Hmmmm…. enter Heather and Rebecca.
If you have been following the Maker Mavens series, you will know that I love interviewing people who have really cool and interesting jobs in the Fiber Industry! I have interviewed Ashley and Eric Leither who create and sell gorgeous hand-turned crochet hooks, Assistant Editor at Happily Hooked Magazine Lee Sartori, Shannon who is the Indie Dyer behind Yarn Baby, and Katelyn Moll, Business Manager Extraordinaire! Read all their interviews HERE.
This week I was able to chat with Heather and Rebecca of Dear Ewe. Ready to read more about these friends-turned-business partners?
Pam: Hi ladies! Thank you so much for taking time out of your schedules to chat with me! I absolutely LOVE the brand that you are building, and I am so excited to learn about some of the behind-the-scenes type stuff. Shall we begin? Alright! What is/are your official job title(s)?
Heather: Our official job titles for Dear Ewe I suppose are business partners. In real life Rebecca’s job title is Graphic Designer and mine is Project Manager by day, Crochet Designer by night.
Rebecca: My official title: Co-Founder and Creative Consultant. Heather’s official title: Co-Founder and Crochet Designer.
Pam: So, although I can already see how this could be a match made in crafty heaven, how do you divide up the work between the two of you?
Heather: Although we collaborate on pretty much everything we do – working together until it’s just right for both of us there are certain jobs each of us concentrates on. I do anything with the website and most of the things with the finances, whilst Becky does all the graphics we use and sets up all the technical templates for products.
Rebecca: We work together on everything, Heather is the organizer, spreadsheet queen and crochet designer, I create any other designed elements, including all product designs and marketing. But everything we do is a collaboration.
Pam: How did you decide to take the leap from “regular” day job to Co-Founders of Dear Ewe?
Heather: We both still work at our day jobs as well as well as having started Dear Ewe. We decided to set up the business after a conversation I had with Rebecca about how there was very little choice of cards and gifts specifically aimed at crafters. Although many stores like Etsy or LYS may sell a range of gifts for crafters it’s only a small part of what they do and it’s not only what they do. We also wanted to tackle the issue that some of the items available to crafters are cheaply made or poorly designed despite being aimed at the creative market. Stuff that is out there is also not always appealing to younger generations of crafters or keeping up with crafting trends. Our vision for Dear Ewe is to deliver a range of unique, quality craft themed products that crafters or friends and family of crafters want to buy.
Rebecca: I already run a successful Keepsake business, Keepsakes by Rebecca, and wanted to create a business that celebrates creativity and Heather was the perfect person to do this with. Heather is a successful crochet Designer and Blogger, Keep Calm and Crochet On UK, so we combined our talents and created a brand that is inspired by crafters.
Pam: I love that so much! I think your style is what attracted me to your product right away. I love the simplicity of the designs. The font. The products offered. Everything!
Pam: So, what are the major components of your job on a daily basis?
Heather: On a daily basis we are both juggling Dear Ewe with working part time and looking after both our girls. Although we have Dear Ewe time during the week we get a surprising amount done after all our girls are in bed! We rely on Trello (Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes projects) to help us keep track of things we need to do and who is doing what, and we share a lot of information on Google Drive which makes remote working easier for us both. We also try to have regular meetings and phone calls so we can work through things quickly.
Rebecca: We ensure that every day Dear Ewe is seen on social media across all platforms, we also are always on the lookout for new stockists, so that customers can see and feel the quality of our products for themselves. We have new product ranges in the pipeline at all times, so on a daily basis we are designing and developing these.
Pam: I can verify that the quality is top-notch! If anyone is wondering what products I have personally tried, you can read my Dear Ewe product review HERE and see one of my photos below.
Pam: What do you enjoy the most about the job?
Heather: I enjoy the role because I get to split my time between creative and organizational tasks. I love having that duality, it keeps things interesting! I also love working with Rebecca it’s very motivating to work with someone else who is creative and that shares the same goals. I also love seeing something that has been just a concept or a 2-D image becomes a real life actual thing; I get such a kick out of seeing our products in the flesh.
Rebecca: It has to be seeing our products come to life, we have been so lucky to be able to work with fantastic suppliers, who have supported us so much on our journey. Working with one of your best friends is also pretty awesome!
Pam: I can imagine! Sometimes being an entrepreneur, or crafter, can be isolating. Having someone to bounce ideas off of must really help with getting the creative juices flowing! So, what would you say has been the most difficult part of starting up Dear Ewe?
Heather: The most difficult part of starting up Dear Ewe is just how big a learning curve it has been for us both, working together is completely different to being friends and that’s something we’ve both had to adjust to – but we found that talking is the key there. And there is so much behind the scenes stuff that goes into setting up a business that we’ve had to learn, some we knew, some we found out after we started, so that curve I mentioned has been really huge. But we have learnt so much in the process and come so far from where we started in such a short period of time – it’s all been a bit of a whirlwind!
Rebecca: Juggling time is by far the most difficult part, there is so much that goes into starting a business.
Pam: Tell me about the decision to go into business together.
Heather: Well it’s just possible that there was gin involved when we first came up with the idea of going into business together! Initially we talked about making some greetings cards for makers – and before we knew it the idea had morphed into a whole store of products inspired by crafters for crafters.
Rebecca: Like Heather said, the initial conversation was at a gin tasting night, gin is certainly very inspiring! Heather and I have been close friends for nearly 8 years, we are both creative souls and both very driven individuals, so once the idea was in our heads, we just went with it and Dear Ewe was born!
Pam: Hahaha! I have heard many stories where decisions made that way haven’t turned out for the best, but this was certainly not the case for you two! How did you decide on your shop name?
Heather: Well that’s a funny story! Dear Ewe…was so many other things including very random names like Blue Mammoth before we came up with Dear Ewe!
Rebecca: We chatted via Messenger for hours and hours, throwing so many names around, we wanted something that involved the idea of wool or yarn, because Heather being a Crochet Designer was the basis of where the idea came from. We also wanted a name that represented gifts but not just a gift to give somebody else but gifts that you can buy for yourself, a bit of a ‘you deserve it’ kind of thing. I was listening to BBC Radio 6 and they were chatting about something (can’t remember what it was now) and they just said ‘Dear You’ and the night before we had been discussing using ‘Ewe’ but hadn’t quite got a name that sounded right. When I heard ‘Dear Ewe’ it just sounded perfect, I text Heather straight away and we both agreed it worked.
Pam: Wow! Talk about the right place at the right time! I really think you nailed it with the name. It’s perfect! Now, can you tell us about a project or accomplishment that you consider to be the most significant so far.
Heather: Aside from the fact that we’ve started the business from scratch I think we are both really proud of the fact that we’ve been featured in several UK magazines and have signed up our first stockist of our products – only two months after launching! We hoped, but never dreamed it would happen.
Rebecca: I’d say everything we have done has been a major accomplishment. This time last year, we hadn’t even discussed the idea of starting a business and now we have an e-commerce site, have stockists, have an ever growing social media presence and are developing what we hope you agree are some pretty awesome products designed by our own fair hands!
Pam: I more than agree. My Christmas wish list is growing by the minute! What is the one thing you wish your customers knew about what you do?
Heather says: I think what I’d love our customers to know is how much thought we put into every aspect of Dear Ewe. To them it may be just a (lovely) mug but the idea of what our products and how they should be is at the heart of everything we produce. Dear Ewe’s purpose is to create well made, well designed gifts for crafters, to create a brand that is exclusive to crafters that also respects and values crafting. We also listen to what the creative community want – everything is Crafted with care just for EWE, because EWE matter!
Rebecca: What Heather said!
Pam: Ok. I always end with a fun “bonus” question. Are you ready? What’s your favorite ’90s jam?
Heather: My 90s jam has got to be ‘All that She Wants’ by Ace of Bass – just because I have fond memories of singing my heart out to it with my best friend!
Rebecca: Wonderwall by Oasis, so many memories!
Pam: Heather and Rebecca, thank you so much! I love your products so much, and I know that everyone else will too. It was great getting to know you a bit better, and I can’t wait to get some of your prints for my office wall!
To stay in touch with the team at Dear Ewe, you can follow them on their BLOG, FACEBOOK, or INSTAGRAM. While on their blog, make sure to check out their ‘Sheep on a Shelf’ Competition! It runs December 1st-12th 2-18 and looks like so much fun!
Shop their best selling Little Ewe crochet pattern, Granny Square Mug, and WIP bag.
Until next time!
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