You have probably seen the recent craze for animal cushions… a somewhat cross between a plush animal and a cushion. Ridiculously adorable and popping up in perfectly styled kids’ rooms around the globe. Today’s feature business is ‘kupukupu kids’, run by the lovely (you may have noted that I only like to celebrate business people who stay humble and pleasant amongst the success) and wonderfully talented Laura. She takes incredible joy in each style, pattern and colour and solely uses organic cottons and eco-friendly inks for the beautiful characters below and lovely lines of kids apparel.
Laura – kupukupu kids
Perfect cushion characters
Read on for Laura’s insight into the kupukupu kids world….
1. How did kukupuku start?
I started kupukupu 3 years ago with my women and men’s casual
apparel shop. I actually haven’t studied sewing or pattern making, but have sewn clothes for my dolls growing up and then for me. In fact I studied Philosophy and then Communication and I was working in press departments for a long time. But one day I decided to quit my job and open my first shop on Etsy… I needed a change in my life… to spend more time with family and friends and do things that I really loved. After two and a half years with kupukupuapparel, I decided to open kupukupukids, with a totally different style. My adult collection is all smooth and neutral and with kupukupukids I love to play with colors and forms in the fabric patterns as much as I can. Ii is one of the parts of my job that I like most, to design the fabrics! After six months, I’m so happy to have opened this shop. I really enjoy it!
Confetti organic cotton Baby Blanket
Organic Cotton Duck plush pillow
2. What happens in a day behind the scenes of kupukupu?
As I work at home, I start my work day just after breakfast. The first thing that I do is check my shops, see my messages and renew my items. After that, I sew sold items and package them or take photos of new items, edit them and upload them to my shops. I like to dedicate the morning to do this, and to reserve the office and design tasks for the afternoons. My mind is more creative and communicative in afternoon and nights, ever since I was a child. Before lunch, I love to dedicate one hour to practice yoga. Stretch the body and relax my mind.
The afternoons is the best part: create, design, talk with my customers and attend the social networks, that is a big job, as well. I spend a big part of the day thinking about that. As a journalist I know is an essential part of my bussines and I try to take care of it as much as I can. After that I try to rest, stay with family and see friends, but I have to recognize that my mind is always in kupukupu. It’s like my little baby!
3. How do you stay motivated on a tough day?
I always try to have in mind what all of this means. I started this project with my boyfriend, Jordi. He is a great illustrator and has a shop on Etsy too, suPmön. We needed to be the owners of our time and dedicate our days to make things that we really love and also spend more time together. Now we both work from home and we share a great part of our job with each other. For instance, he’s the drawer of all of my plush collection and also the little duck of my logo. Now we are living the kind of life we want, even though we have had many difficulties and we’ve had some bad times. I’m not going to say this is not hard, because it is, but absolutely worth it.
Greatest First Moments Gift Pack
Dandelions organic cotton T-shirt
4. What is your favourite part of developing your own business and brand?
When you are developing your own business, you’re planting the seeds to your future and you can see how it grows day by day and that’s beautiful! It’s like your baby. All your efforts are directed to make sure it grows well, strong and healthy. And you are happy doing this because the benefits of all this work are yours and nobody else’s. When working for other companies sometimes people don’t feel a project is theirs and sometimes they feel disappointed and frustrated because they work hard and sacrifice so much of their life for this job, but never see all its benefits. I’m not just talking about economic benefits. The benefits of having your own business are more than the money, it’s the freedom to live your own way and freedom to create and make what you feel is better.
5. Who inspires you on Instagram/Pinterest/blogs etc?
I specially like the work of Susan Petersen, from Freshly-Picked. I think what she does in social media is amazing. I try to learn as much as I can from her. And I also admire the work of Mr. Wonderful, a catalan designer that founded a successful online store of optimism products, with their presence on social networks and their blog.
Growing Stripes organic cotton long sleeve onesie
6. What’s your top piece of advice for balancing life with your own business?
Well, it is really difficult to disconnect both things, because if you love your job it is part of your life. I’m spend all day working, but I don’t feel like I’m working, because I’m just making things that I love. I think it’s really important that you love your business a lot, because I think there’s no way to pull the blind down, especially if it’s a young business. Yoga does help though… Anyway, balancing life with your own business is easier than if you work in a company with a fixed schedule. If you work like me at home and sell online, you can adapt that with your other facets of your life perfectly. You just have to reserve some days in the week and hours in the day to turn off the computer and get away from the sewing machines, even your mind is with your job all the time.
7. What is your favourite kupukupu product?
I try to feel satisfied with every product that I made, but there’s no doubt that you always have some of them favorites. I think mine is this…
Mountain Yellow organic cotton hoodie
Thank you so much Laura for giving us a beautiful and open insight into your world! This gift wish list just keeps on growing……
http://www.etsy.com/au/shop/kupukupukids
xx
Baby Bean Design 