Have you ever thought about creating a physical product? The task seems a bit overwhelming to most of us. Today’s guest took the overwhelming tasks of product creation to a whole new level. Not only did she hone in on her target customer, but she ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to validate her idea! Simply brilliant! 

Today, we are talking with Mariah Clark. She’s been designing bags for more than 6 years and prior to that, she has spent more than 25 years working with yarn. She has a degree in Apparel Design from Virginia Tech and she even spent time in Paris, studying couture sewing! She is the owner of Stitch Amour, a brick and mortar yarn shop in Waynesboro, VA. Her new venture is Laurie Laine knitting bags. She’s here today to talk about the design process, the Kickstarter campaign and the popular Duo bag!

 Listen to the episode as Kara and Mariah discuss:

• How Mariah went about getting feedback on her bags
• The development process behind the Duo bag from Laurie Laine
• The target market for her bag and why that was important
• What makes her bag different
• How she decided to use Kickstarted to test the validity of her bag
• Her best practices for running a successful Kickstarter campaign
• How she systematizes her processes to accomplish her goals
• Why knowing your customer is important

You can pre-order the Duo bag at www.laurielaine.com.

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Ravelry/laurielaine

Do you love working with beautiful yarns? And have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at a yarn manufacturing company? Then join Kara Gott-Warner as she goes one on one with her guest for today, Amy Gunderson. The topic of today’s discussion is the yarn industry and Amy has a few insider tips for you!

Amy, who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, is the creative director for Universal Yarn. When she's not at her day job, she spends her time doing freelance design work for a number of publications, as well as doing tech editing for indie, knit and crochet designers. She's also a freelance graphic designer, focusing mostly on crochet charts. She is the author of two books and has been published in most major knit and crochet magazines, including Creative Knitting and Crochet. She's also done some teaching and article writing for magazines. On today's show, Kara asks Amy for her perspective on the yarn industry.

Join Kara and Amy as they discuss:

• What it's like to develop a collection for a yarn company.
• What attracted Amy to the world of yarn.
• The magic of taking some yarn and turning it into a garment you can wear!
• The different approaches people have to knitting.
• The blend of art, tech and practicality in knitting.
• Amy's role at Universal Yarn.
• How Amy started out- designing patterns and submitting them to magazines.
• The process of creating a new collection at a yarn company- how the elements all work together.
• How themes create parameters and so help in creating a collection.
• Who determines the color palettes for each season.
• The freedom Amy enjoys in her freelance design work.
• How collaboration between designers can add new dimensions to design.
• Ways that you can break into the design world as a new designer.
• Amy's awesome, simple advice about how to make it in any work situation.
• The challenges that freelance designers often face.
• How knitting can teach you patience.

Links:

Amy on Ravelry: Amy Gunderson

Free giveaways from Universal Yarn: www.powerpurlspodcast.com/universalyarn

Amy's blog: www.universalyarn.com  – go to the Blog option.