The happiness and fear of signing up for a Kickstarter

So you've signed up for a kickstarter, you don't know if it's going to be successful. That is the emotion you need to first make peace with. But you can everything that you possibly can to make the ride enjoyable and stress free and put all you've got into it.

Not like me though! I signed up and a month later I launched. Most people plan a bit better than that. I will say however that I have the best partner for work. My husband basically put all of his work aside to help me on this journey. So you if you have a positive person helping you and little, it goes a long way.

First is was about planning for the brand, and then how to weave it into a story that touches the hearts of people. I find that I'm rarely interested in the product that has no depth to it. Yes you might buy an odd thing, but the real value comes from how much you have bought into the story. Every time you wear the accessory you cherish it because you remember a story. To me that adds value. How you feel every time counts. I wanted this to be a big part of my story.

The birth of Full Circle

My connection to India and the folk art I grew up with has always been my everlasting source of inspiration. So i went back to basics and decided I wanted to work with a craft and art form from home that has always inspired. Meeting were then set up to meet the people from the M.Rm.Rm Cultural Foundation for I had baskets woven by them for my wedding and still use them! They sold their woven magic in their beautiful shop Manjal.

Photo Courtesy M.Rm.Rm Cultural Foundation

I then began to find a way to work with them and how their basket could part of my project. They are not a charity so they didn't want money just sent to them. I decided that my scarf, whose pattern was inspired by the arts, crafts, sight and sounds of Chettinad would be packaged in the boxes made by the craftswomen of Chettinad themselves. Full Circle seemed to be an apt name for this.

Work before a Kickstarter

For those of you who don't know how it works, the idea is to launch you idea convincingly though the story in you video. You can offer a reward to them in return for this support. My idea was pretty straightforward. You support my idea, you get a scarf of you choice! That was it. 

I worked on the numbers for almost a fortnight, yes it isn't my strongest ally! Then when the numbers worked, it was all about bringing the images and video together. I was lucky to have a generous friend who gave me her time an advice and made my video. (This is crucial!) A good video can make or break your story. 

Day of Launch

The D Day had come. Pressing that button to say you now have 30 days to make this happen will make you nervy but its exciting. Till this moment it is not real. The first week is a mixture of hope, despair, excitement and utter glee when someone supports you from a corner of the world! 

A month of this kind of emotion is hard to explain but when your goal is close you can almost taste it its a wonderful feeling.

After the 30days...

When you know that your Kickstarter  is a success it was equal measures of joy and relief for me. It gave a new confidence in my own work and a reason to continue. That my work is worth the time and energy I put in it my love for pattern brought joy to more people! 

Sharing my work has been the hardest for me, as everyone is afraid of a critic. Kickstarter was the most public way I could do it! Putting yourself out there and being judged is part of the process and all I would say is do it when you are ready  for the feedback and to do the work!