MadeinausbyAlicia – The Contextual Essay

Where you can find MadeinausbyAlicia

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/MadeInAusByAlicia

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madeinausbyalicia/

Originally in my DA pitch, I had stated that my project was going to be a youtube channel where I would showcase my love of craft and DIY but before OP1 was even due this idea changed. I realised I had been ignoring important feedback from myself, which was I hated filming videos, but I really did want my DA to be about crafts and DIY. So, I decided I would focus my efforts into an Etsy store as the primary platform for my DA MadeinausbyAlicia.

I made a purchase from MadeinausbyAlicia today — My new starter pack

My Etsy store is filled with sticker packs and some scrunchies, which I design, make and post myself. As you may be able to tell from my starter pack I imagine my audience to be fairly artistic people themselves, and more specifically I really expect them to be high-school/university students. This is for 2 primary reasons, the first being many of the products I have created reference student life and the second being the trendiness of both stickers and scrunchies to young adults at the moment.

I have taken inspiration for my Etsy store from both The Corduroy Club and Slaap It. Both of which are doing similar things to my DA in that they sell a combination of stickers and scrunchies, and have a similar aesthetic to my own. I really tried to emulate a very similar aesthetic in both my products and my promotion on Instagram.

Instagram for Slaap It: https://www.instagram.com/slaap.it/

Instagram for The Corduroy Club: https://www.instagram.com/thecorduroyclubau/

Difficulties

I faced a number of different challenges in my DA, particularly in the Making stage which I discuss further in my OP3 blog. I struggled with analysing feedback, time management and trying to do too much all at once. One specific example is the ‘BCM Experience pack’ which was highly requested after I released the BCM114 and Digital media major pack on Twitter. When I first released the BCM114 pack on twitter I got an overwhelming amount of positive feedback, and many suggestions for other sticker packs people would love to see from my store. Which at first I thought was amazing, and so I decided because there had been so many requests for the ‘BCM Experience Pack’ I would make one, however, being a first-year student I simply lacked the experience to make the sticker pack a reality. I tried to get students to input ideas that might fill in the gaps in my knowledge but this fell very short. Though from the beginning in the back of my head I knew the sticker pack was not going to work I ended up wasting close to 2 weeks, all because I blindly listened to audience feedback instead of weighing up the suggestions worth and doability.

Screen Shot 2019-11-01 at 3.13.51 pm.png — My first posted of my finished BCM114 sticker pack and the announcement of my Etsy store opening which had 14 comments! (Sidenote: the name had to be changed from MadeinAusDesigns because it was already taken on Etsy)

Screen Shot 2019-10-31 at 11.01.18 pm — Tweeting out in the hopes of some feedback to fill the holes in my knowledge, and getting ZERO replies.

After this, I moved on and focused on creating products that I wanted to create and that meant I moved in scrunchies and more recently digital art which eliminates some of my work load upon upload to Etsy as they are just digitally downloaded by the purchaser.

Overall I am very happy with the progress of my DA, and I am excited to continue work on it far beyond the end of BCM114.

So you will see MadeinausbyAlicia online.

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