Literally yours.com(e)

Loving the chalk letter artworks of Dana Tanamachi! Her entire...

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:56:02 -0500

Loving the chalk letter artworks of Dana Tanamachi! Her entire video series can be watched here.

Though it is just on the foot path, next to the ocean, between...

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:03:34 -0400

Though it is just on the foot path, next to the ocean, between town center and seal colony walk way, with its two huge doors wide open, showcasing the tote bags and t-shirts printed or being printed, I still need a signboard for Literally Yours Studio this summer. Probably some posters to hang, some leaflets to hand, and maybe even some ads to send too…

Well, you gotta start from somewhere. Seda and Asiye from the renowned design studio Apartman send me this photo couple of days ago. I am totally pleased with it! Now it is my turn to figure out how to produce it.

Don’t worry, I will keep you posted :)

RT @aycacavas: Photo: Found an old blank t-shirt left on my closet! :) http://t.co/XIqUmN1O

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 10:49:13 -0400

RT @aycacavas: Photo: Found an old blank t-shirt left on my closet! :) http://t.co/XIqUmN1O

Literally Yours Studio. Literally!

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 02:10:00 -0400

Aaron told me a story. Couple of days ago, a customer at Coopers Catch was looking at our postcards that were resting on the counter. He took one, and put it in his pocket. Aaron said: Hey mate, they are for sale.

And he replied: Oh, I thought they were free. Because, here, it says ‘Literally Yours’.

I laughed. Not because I was surprised but because that was exactly what I had in mind at the start. I had planned this brand to be literally Selva’s one day because at that time she was making plans about quitting her job as a copywriter and moving to Brazil. I was afraid for her, she would be all alone in an brand new country. That’s why I got so excited when we came up with the note bag / shirt list idea because once I started doing the Kaikoura and New Zealand versions, the layout would be tested, Etsy store would be established, logo and the wordings and the packagings would be ready to be implemented for the different parts of the world. She could easily be writing the Brazil version and be selling the t-shirts to pay for her long accommodation in Itacare.

At the same time in another ad agency in Istanbul, Seda was making plans to go to New York to study the latest web technologies; and Asiye started searching fashion MBA’s in London. Hey, if they wanted, we could make the London and New York versions of these stuff too! That’s how we found Literally Yours, a brand that would be literally ours whenever and where ever we needed.

Of course this was before I found out how much capital is needed to earn a half a decent profit from the sales of t-shirts that were printed by someone else; still how expensive it would be to buy your own screen printing equipment and actually how hard it is to screen print, maybe not for an art director, but for a copywriter who was not even allowed to cut the brochure dummies back in the agency.

But everything changes. Selva met with a man with a handsome moustache halfway to Dali’s; Seda & Asiye decided to establish their own design agency in Istanbul, and I, who does not know what she wants and where she wants for such a long time that she does not remember since when she wants, ended up moving into this new house two weeks ago.

And though I had a roller coaster relationship with this brand child of mine for the last couple of months -you can say it from all those non-existent blog posts here- and though most of the time I was inclined to pour gasoline over everything than trying to put more energy to it and, despite the fact that pushing this brand harder was on my “I Should Be Doing” list rather than my “I Am Gonna Do” list, here I am, totally by coincidence, somehow own one of the best spots on our world as a design studio, inside a clean huge empty two car garage opening its doors to the main street of Kaikoura with incredible sea and mountain views!

How could this happen? I was making interviews with tvnz in Auckland just two months ago. Was not me who believed that writing copies for an agency in Istanbul till 3 in the mornings were way more important than printing t-shirts in Kaikoura according to my “Can I Save the World Scala” just 3 months ago? What in the world did I do to deserve such a cool studio?!

But then, maybe it is not for me. It is for you. Just as the name suggests, this is Literally Yours Studio too.

So dear friend, if you live close to Kaikoura, or planning a visit down here, please do know you have a place here. Maybe all you want is to sit for a couple of hours, listen to the waves and think, or you want to discuss an idea feverishly, or you always wanted to put your hands on a screen printer just like the old me 6 months ago but didn’t know who owns one and afraid to ask the professional printers who you knew would be answering no, please come. I have equipment here that is sitting idle most of the time.

if I come to the postcards, t-shirts and tote bags, yes they are all literally yours too. But only if you are willing to buy :)

See you soon.

Literally yours,

Ayca

Two years ago, today. Feels like yesterday! Still laughing at...

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:24:00 -0400

Two years ago, today. Feels like yesterday! Still laughing at Aaron’s cannotbelievemyeyes face he he heeee :D

One Great New Zealand, Ten Cool Postcards :) http://t.co/A8jjftv via @iheartfelt

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 09:02:26 -0400

One Great New Zealand, Ten Cool Postcards :) http://t.co/A8jjftv via @iheartfelt

In Kaikoura I made these postcards too!

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:29:04 -0400

Literally Yours Post Production - at the end, finally, at last - proudly presents Kaikoura and New Zealand postcards! Whew!

As usual, of course, two days after they arrived, all of a sudden came the lightning! “Oh God! I should include “sent this postcard to you” to one of the boxes!”

Well…

New footer copyright text: © _ © 2011 Literally Yours Limited. All rights reserved. And preserved...

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 00:45:34 -0400

Yesterday West End told me they sold 9 Kaikoura t-shirts in one week! O la la! :)

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 04:08:32 -0400

Yesterday West End told me they sold 9 Kaikoura t-shirts in one week! O la la! :)

In Kaikoura I made something out of trash!

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:43:59 -0400

When it comes to environmental issues, Kaikoura has lots to offer. First, there is Innovative Waste Kaikoura, where a group of concerned residents banded together with a common goal of reducing waste being landfilled in 1996. Then there is the Kaikoura Recycled Trash Fashion Show, one of the most iconic events of Kaikoura, which is unfortunately held only every two years. I was there in 2010, had lots of fun watching the show the hat I made from a vinyl record.

And also there is this Eco Art Fair, the exhibition of art and craft made from recycled materials. Last year I had wasted (in a good sense) a whole month to get ready for the exhibition. This year I was so busy with myself, I didn’t even notice it was near until the last minute.

If I may start from the last year, I have to say it was a challenge. The closest I got to creating something useful from trash was finding an old radio junked right in front my apartment in Istanbul, and using it as a high table.

I never got briefed about the subject too, I doubt anyone would be in an ad agency, so I was totally clueless. This is in fact the best suitable environment for creativity. Being new to the subject. I grabbed my notebook and my Aaron, and we started our daily trips to Innovative Waste Kaikoura, trying to see things differently.

- Hey Aaron, look there is an old tire!

- Eer, yeesss…??

- We can make a coffee table out of it!

- How?

- Finding out how is your mission. I am here to find the ideas! La la laaaaaa : )

- ?????!!

Of course we could not end up doing everything we noted down as can be done, but these are what we came up with for the Eco Art 2010.

A Coffee Table Out of a Tire

I knew it could be done! Aaron found the base from the dump site too, and decorated it with some bicycle chains to his taste. The problem was fitting the wood inside the tire, in which we got some help from a tire technician who supplied us some greasy material. I had to jump on top of the tire at some point, but after a struggling half an hour, we made it!

A Lamp From Old Record Covers

Actually this idea was not new. I had made something similar on 2009 as a New Year present for someone I didn’t know. It is a long story, and I better write about that later. Anyway, this lamp was a version of that original idea. I had seen some junk records at the dump, which I wanted to use to create some jewelry. But what would I do with all those colorful and cool record covers? Then I decided to make a lamp shade with them, calling it “The Light Music”. The final touches were painting the lamp base with blackboard paint, and chalking the name on it.

Candle Holders From Old Vinyl Records

Making stuff, especially bowls by heating old records is something well known all over the world. Just google “record bowl” and you will find hundreds of images as well as some very nice tutorials. Because of my unbending “Never do the same thing if it is done before” custom coming from advertising, I tried to find a different angle to the subject and came up with these candle holders.

If you want to create these on your own, I suggest you first to watch some record bowl tutorial videos on youTube to have some idea about the practice. Then, get some 45’s, shape them to a bowl. Get another record, heat it, cut into strips long enough to cover the candles. Re-heat those strips, and quickly shape into a ring around the candle, and keep it firm for 30 seconds or until the record strip becomes stiff again. Then all you need to do is to glue the rings to the bottom of the bowl.

Some bracelets and rings from Old Vinyl Records

After my google searches, I also realized that creating jewelry by baking vinyl records was not something new. But it was new to me, so I did some anyway! When I was playing with them, I wanted to see if I could be fast enough to make a knot to the record strips. I was planning to cut those knots to create some earrings. Then I discovered I could use the knot without cutting it to make some bracelets and rings.

The trick is being very fast to tie the knot. But if you are not, you can always re-heat the vinyl for a couple of seconds and try again. I also used a fine nail file to smooth the edges.

A Mirror From an Old Computer Screen

Last year, I was working at the internet café, Global Gossip, surrounded by computers. That’s why the first ideas I noted down was all about creating new stuff from computers. Turning a screen to a mirror was one of them. So I asked my boss Dom at GG if he had some screens that were broken or not working anymore. He gave me three. What I did was, opening the screen, taking out everything including the wires, and the screen itself. (I later took those mechanic junk to the dump and found out that if you want to leave a whole computer screen you have to pay a little fee, but if you want to toss only some parts of it, it is free!) I washed the remaining case, dried it, sand it, and finally spray paint it. Then I took the case to a glass man where he measured the screen and cut a mirror for it. What was left to do was gluing the mirror inside, and reassembling the screen with the nuts I saved at the first place.

One last thing to add. When I came up with this idea, I of course wanted to check it first to see if it was done before, since I was attending to an ‘art fair’. I could not found a similar example, but I came across a legend that was linked on thousands of web sites. One point in time, someone asked a question on a web forum. “How can I turn a computer screen to a mirror?” When I first read the title, I thought damn, it is done before! But after I read the rest, I was both relieved, and could not believe my eyes! Because he also added: “I tried to scan a mirror but it didn’t work!”

Of course it is not all about me me me! Here are some of my favorites that are created by very talented artists attended Eco art Kaikoura in 2010.

The badges and jewelries created by Jennifer Kemp. The one with the “SOLD” sign in fact bought by me!

A mixed media. I unfortunately forgot to note the name of the artist :/

And my al time favorite, the beautiful paintings of Karen James on old rusty handsaws!

I already wrote I could not attend Eco Art 2011. None the less, this week I visited the exhibition to enjoy new recycled art pieces.

I loved the works of James Baker from Monkey Business Creative Carpentry. This one is called “Soundwave”.

These two pieces are called “Nature is my Entertainment” and “Nature is my TV” respectively. Very cool, isn’t it?

And here James is explaining Aaron how he made the Soundwave.

I adored these puppets made out of socks by Mare Simpson.

Among these peg dolls I tried to decide which one is me and ended up with the third one from the left in the middle row, lol!

Also, Karen James was there with her new paintings. One day one of them will be mine, I promise!

Before heading up to the studio to do some screen printing today, I would like to add some eco art/recycling ideas that lies on my notebook since last year lacking the courage, talent and the time on my side, but may be useful for you, dear friend. They are all literally yours to carry out!

A Key Board Out of a Keyboard

The idea is simple and lies within the name of the product itself. Take a keyboard that’s not working anymore, and turn it to a wall hanging that you can hang your keys. This could be super cool for a backpackers with lots of keys for their rooms.

A Container for Socks

Old big Coffee tins glued together and hanged on your bedroom wall for storing socks in it. Of course it is called “Life Socks!”

An Arm Chair

Take the arms of a display mannequin, and place them to a retro arm chair instead of the original arms.

A Pencil Box Out of an Old Laptop

Take out all the keyboard parts from the laptop, maybe paint the inside, and use it to store your pencils. The moment I find a junk laptop, I will do this for sure!

A Mirror from a Bicycle Wheel

Cut a mirror at the right size, and glue it behind the metallic wheel.

A Smoke Alarm Clock

I should be doing this years ago! Get a smoke alarm and implement the mechanic parts of a clock at the back of it. This could be a great present for my dear old art director friend Murat “Abi” Lafci, who used to set his watch’s alarm to limit his smoking to once every hour. : )

If you want to open a store specializing on recycled design, here is a brand/domain name idea: USED TO BE A.COM

You can implement it by dividing your new recycled products to what they used to be once. Used to be a tire, used to be a computer screen, used to be an alarm clock, used to be copywriter, etc.

And finally, here are some very useful websites and online stores from all over the world I came across on recycled art and design. Some found ways to turn trash into hard-earned but definitely well-deserved cash!

Literally Yours even disposed at the dump,

Ayca

Turning 35 and not knowing where to stop!

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 06:36:00 -0400

Finally the day I have been wondering for over 20 years arrived. I always wondered how would I be when I am 35, where would I be, would I be famous, successful, how many children would I have, how many books would I write, or even, don’t laugh, how many life’s would I rescue? Since I was grown not like a plant with the background memory of exactly how far it could reach the sun, but like a naïve human being, without a clue, believing I can be what ever I want. Yet, even in my wildest dreams, I could never foresee myself being in a small coastal town of New Zealand, establishing a design company, getting my hands dirty with screen printing ink, thinking new ideas full time, working at a fish and chips shop part time, and being the copywriter of a new born agency in Istanbul as I am trying to create time for it by waking up at 5.30 in the mornings.

Now I am thirty five and here I am!

So, my present for me is not feeling that old at all! : )

For almost 25 years, I have a tradition to celebrate my birthday with the same three people. With my oldest friends, Gokcen, Ipek and Fusun. Ipek and I was born on the same day, Fusun is a couple of days later, and Gokcen have two birthdays, one with us, and the real one in September because we always wanted to include her to the party too! So, my presents for them are three “Sweet as what?” tote bags. The answer is obvious, duh! Sweet as Ipek, Sweet as Fusun, and Sweet as Gokcen, of course. I had hand painted them by using two laser cut stencils. They are very rare and special because they belong to the old days –actually 6 month old days – I had no experience about screen printing. Happy birthday babes! :)

My mom’s present for me was a 4 colour screen printing press! I said was because I had it a couple of months ago. And I said present because I don’t want to confess that I lent money from my mom to buy a screen printing press at the age of almost 35!

Aaron and Dan’s present for me was carrying that huge baby and setting it up for me.

My present for mom is spending more time with her. When I was in Istanbul working insanely as a copywriter, we could see each other every month or worse, every two months. Now I am thousand miles away yet we can talk almost every day.

My dad’s present for me is being a dad, asking me when I will be returning back all the time, calling me ‘by beautiful daughter’ and asking me write a report every months on what I have been doing. My present to dad is one of the first t-shirts I printed. It should arrive Istanbul at the Father’s Day. Good timing! : )

Coffee’s present for me is being such a good dog! My present for Cof Cof will be a huge bone and a chewy toy. Good girl!

Seda and Asiye’s present for me is making me write the copies of a plumping brochure on my birthday! Arggh! My present for them will be forgetting it is my birthday and writing it.

My present for my brother who used to charge me a fortune to look after my cats whenever I went on a holiday is a revenge! I will arrange the details with him privately. His present for me is being super passionate about his private project “Playing for Nature” and waiting for me to get out of the country before he became famous!

Aaron’s official present for me is a 3.5 hours beauty treatment package from Kaikoura’s awarded Indulgence Body and Soul. My present for him is stop being the old me for a day and not yelling “What? Am I not beautiful enough already!!” Hahahaha :) Aaron’s unofficial presents are putting up with my dark moods, being there for me, giving me head, foot, back and head massages without much complaint, and just simply being my best lover, like he always declares.

Shane’s present for me is having his birthday tomorrow. His partner Jo’s present for me is inviting us to their weekend party at Marlborough Sounds. My present for them will be not make their life miserable by nagging about why we could not bring Coffee with us. Honestly, I still don’t understand why in a country like New Zealand where everybody seems to have a dog, a holiday house would refuse us bringing her?

Fran and Shawn’s presents for me is looking after Cof Cof for the weekend. My presents for them will be “In New Zealand I” bags and t-shirts because they will be in a tour on October.

Tracey and Dan’s present for me is a vampire novel, which is the best present for a book worm like me. But to be honest, I was expecting a different present. The same present I gave them last year. To be off work on my birthday. Oh well, at least now we all know what they will not be getting for their next b days.

My present for the sneaky designer in me was letting her give a try to some of the ideas last week, including the “In New Zealand I”. Her present for me is, to my surprise, not doing a bad job actually.

Seda and Asiye’s presents are playing with these drafts and making them ready for screen printing. My present for Literally Yours will be burning some of the images to screens and printing them on tote bags next week!

Literally Yours’ present is being literally mine, Seda’s, Asiye’s, Seden’s and Fusun’s. Who is Fusun? More information about this will be available soon.

Being endorsed, supported and accepted by the two cool design stores of Kaikoura would be a super great present, but unfortunately they chose not to. My present for them will be proving them wrong by working harder and creating better stuff.

Yet, Kaikoura i-Site’s super cool presents for me are placing Kaikoura postcards & tote bags on their shelf’s, and wearing Kaikoura t-shirts in Canterbury colours on the biggest international tourism fair they attended couple of weeks ago! They told me they got lots of good comments and everybody loved the t-shirts! : )

Since the subject turned to t-shirts, The West End Shop’s present is putting all Kaikoura t-shirts I printed on display! There are not much, less than 40 actually on various sizes, so if you are in Kaikoura or will be here in a couple of weeks, find them at the 64 West End, at the right just at the entrance. My present for them was using the postcards as price tags ;)

Even after all these beautiful presents, I still have some birthday wishes. My wish from Mr. Blood is to be my creative director for one day and honour me with his feedbacks on “In New Zealand I” idea before I start printing. After all I am just a Turkish copywriter who only saw maybe one fourth of the whole country in two years but still wishing to capture the essence of whole New Zealand and squeeze the lot in one single design. The perfectionist in me is screaming for an insider opinion.

My birthday wish from the secret billionaire who does not know what to do with all that money is to send me to Shillington College of Australia. They have this brilliant graphic design course which lasts only 3 months, unfortunately costs AUD 14.000! Otherwise my and Aaron’s present for this stubborn designer in me will be taking her to Auckland early in the next year and securing a privileged space at the Media Design School, hopefully not as a part timer for 2 years, but a full timer for 8 months.

My wish from the crazy scientists is to beam me up to Istanbul for a couple of hours. Come on! I have been waiting for this my whole life! I just want to see mom, dad, and the girls.

My wish from the strongest sorcerer is to work out his magic and make me a guitar player right here right now! I definitely lack the discipline to be one on my own.

Well, these are my birthday wishes. The birthday fishes are the same and available at Coopers Catch ;)

Ayca

Literally yours since 09.06.1976

Happy birthday Asiii!

Mon, 30 May 2011 09:40:38 -0400

Today is the birthday of Literally Yours art director Asiye! The last time we were working in the same agency, side by side, she was a spring chicken in her very late 20’s. Now she is 31.

Ehehehe :)))))))))

Here comes an uncompleted lyric for this special day:

Dear calendar, you are thirty one

I told you thirties would be fun

Show me when you’re ready to turn the page.

But this time I won’t change the subject,

Cause it’s fine or gonna be perfect,

Cause this time I’m the subject of the change!

Literally yours copy and lyric writer,

Ayc.

Coopers Catch ad for Kaikoura Star

Mon, 30 May 2011 07:19:00 -0400

Kaikoura Cold Water Classic Surf Competition is on this weekend. And this is a print ad I designed - God, even writing feels wrong! - for the best fish and chips shop in town, the Coopers Catch!

Of course, as a decent copywriter, I forgot to convert to paths and ended up re-sending the document literally at the last minute, but still, it went through and will be at the Kaikoura Star paper this Wednesday :)

And, yes, it is only 5 cm x 7 cm. Hmm, should I put this inside the portfolio I am planning to prepare for the Media Design School that I am planning to apply some time this year if I win the lottery, fingers crossed?

Literally yours,

Ayca

Box of complaints

Sat, 28 May 2011 14:55:47 -0400

Dear friend,

I know you are angry. You have every right to be. You were at that little town named Kaikoura last summer, and you saw those tote bags hanging at the entrance of the Global Gossip internet café, you liked them, you liked them very much, and you bought one. Either the “Bagpacker” or the “Kaikoura” one. And you started using it. Everything seems fine. But one day, it became dirty, especially if you tend to throw your bags on the floors just like me. And you washed it. And when you took it off from the washing machine, you realized that the colour was faded. It even took off on some parts of the bag. Just like these:

This is unacceptable! You have every right to be angry! I am too, very very angry. And sad. This is not my fault. Not really. Still, I am ready to take the blame on me. And here is the story:

When I decided to make those bags, I had no clue about screen printing. And I believe in profession. I believe in experience. I believe in handing the job to the experts. That’s why I saved an extra $600 dollars to pay to a professional screen printing company for the printing of those bags. I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted them to be printed with water based inks, so they would be soft to the touch, and more environmentally friendly.

And they looked perfect too. So I started selling them. And you my friend, ended up buying one. It never occurred to me to test them, to wash them to see if they would fade. Why would I? I had chosen the biggest screen printing company in South Island. Though it was two hours away from Kaikoura, I went there on the day of the printing. I saw the process, I saw their huge drying machines. What could go wrong?

Bu something did. And unfortunately, I only noticed it only after 4 months, right after I did my first water based screen printing. During those months, I had started to study and explore screen printing and learned that water based was the hardest ink to handle. It has to be cured / dried in a professional screen printing oven with airflow for 3 minutes at the same temperature. I cured the first t-shirt I printed in the conveyor oven I was testing, and I wanted to do a wash test to that t-shirt to see how good the oven was handling the curing process. But I needed another test subject to compare so I wasted the t-shirt I printed with one of the bags, a pink one, that was printed by that company. The t-shirt turned out to be perfectly fine, while the ink on the bag washed out! Actually, I was expecting the opposite. I was expecting the ink on the t-shirt I printed to fade out since, you know, I was very new to the process, and the bags were printed by a professional company.

How could this be happening? I put another bag that was printed 4 months ago inside my oven, this time I chose a green one, cured it for 3 minutes, and washed it. This time the ink was fine. It didn’t wash out. I washed it again. And again. And again. And again. It was still fine.

That’s how I understood that the supposedly professional screen printing company under-cured all those bags! How? But more importantly, why? Their job was so simple. I don’t mean simple “simple”, of course it requires experience, knowledge, know how, and all other bla blas that which I highly respect, but all they were asked to do is print a bag, and make sure it was cured. That’s it! Not a brain surgery. And that’s what they are for, for people like me who do not know anything about screen printing and need someone to do the job for them. They have all the expensive equipment. Why in the world a company betrays itself? Sabotages it’s purpose to operate? Where is their responsibility, not for me who paid them the money they wanted without a blink, but for their own heart? Doing something wrong is much more harder than doing something right. Why they choose the wrong way? I really don’t understand.

And when I called them to ask why the ink on the bags were washing out after the first wash, they told me they also suspected they would. That they knew they were under-cured. And they didn’t warn me. How? And why? I again have no clue. They asked me to send those two bags to them, the one that washed out, and the one that didn’t was out after I cured it. Of course I didn’t. Why should I? What can they do now that they didn’t do 4 months ago? And why should I trust them, to a company who never lacked the equipment or the knowledge but the love and the passion to do their job nice and sound?

Instead, I woke up at 5 am for the next couple of days and re-cured all the bags they printed. It was a slow process, each bag taking at least 3.5 minutes, but at least I would know the end product would be perfect. I don’t believe in the boring motto that dictates if you want a job to be done, do it yourself, but this time I decided to.

So, dear friend, if you are one of those beautiful people that made me happy by buying one of the bags between January and April 2011, sorry to say, you may experience the same problem. All you need to do is drop me a message to info@literallyyours.com, and I will send you a new one, wherever in the world you are. If you didn’t wash the bag yet, and would like to learn what to do to fix it on your own, here are your options: 1. You can ask a professional screen printing company to cure the bag for you. Just tell them that the water based ink is under-cured, and they will know exactly what to do. 2. If you don’t have any access to those kind of companies, you can turn the bag inside out, and iron the printed area, WITHOUT the steam on, carefully, always moving your hand, without letting the bag burn, I know it’s boring but, for 20 minutes. This also will heat set the ink and the ink won’t take off after the washing.

If you own a bag that has Literally Yours logo inside, you don’t need to worry at all. It is one of the ones that I printed, cured, and tested. They are perfectly fine.

Literally yours,

Ayca

Dump and Dumper

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 03:45:11 -0400

Two days ago, Aaron and I did a midnight operation to Literally Yours Shop at Kaikoura. We had to re-arrange the front area to create space for the t-shirts we just printed! So this is how they look at the moment, both the shop and the t-shirts of course :)

Typically, you need to invest thousands of dollars to own a shop. But our essential materials are the untypical kind.

First the shop. We don’t pay any rent for it. We are inside the Global Gossip Internet Cafe, at the front area. All I spent is my precious time. I charge Global Gossip cards from 5 to 8 pm (it was till 10 in the summer tho) 5 days a week, and in return I own a huge space and the front shop window. Nice, innit? :)

The t-shirt display cabinet is $0, since it was an old closet that was lingering in our garage. Aaron took off the back and the front shutters. He was supposed to paint the one side with blackboard paint but somehow he got away with it.

The hangers I used to hang the t-shirts are $2 for 42. No, you didn’t read it wrong. We got them from the dump & washed inside hot soapy water. They were super clean but the metal hanger parts were a little bit rusty. So I took an old shirt that I used for test prints, cut it into lots of strips, and one night while I was watching a romantic movie, I started wrapping the hangers with those strips. It was one of those moments that I wished I was a much more crafty person because I could sense they would turn out so beautiful under the hands of a talented artist! Wouldn’t be nice to create some letters or little animal figures by just wrapping them around?

The little vintage desks are $5 each, bought from the Kaikoura Primary School. To clean every one of them after the years of torture of 6 year olds takes at least one whole hour though.

The display we are using for bags and postcards is again spotted by Aaron at the dump. Just $6!

The carrier bags we use to put our bags or shirts in before handing them to our dear customers are plain envelops. If you are living in a small town like Kaikoura, you have no way of finding blank paper bags. You have to order them from a bigger city, and you have to order bulk too! That’s why I ended up buying a pack of white envelops from the post office. All you need to do is cut a handle with a craft knife, that’s it! You can stick the top end of the envelope if it is a present too ;)

So, after all, the most expensive thing in this shop turned out to be the products themselves! The tote bags are 28 NZD. And the t-shirts are 35 NZD, but only because it is Easter!

Happy Easter little bunnies! Pek tabii ki 23 Nisan Ulusal Egemenlik Bayraminiz da kutlu ve mutlu olsun :)

What happens to your heart when you start cleaning your chest?

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 22:45:37 -0400

This is not the wisest way to start a business, but this is how we started. No, actually this is how I started. Because there wasn’t a “we” by then. There was I and my boredom in Kaikoura. And there was Asiye, Seda and Seden and their agency workload in istanbul.

And of course there wasn’t the slightest idea of Literally Yours on our minds too. In fact, there was a year old note on one my notebooks highlighting “Literally Yours” as a cool brand name, but that was it. It was one of the funny idea crumbs I used to sprinkle on various papers to find my way back to copywriting one day.

But there was boredom. Did I say it? Yes. Lots of it. And there was time. Not much but I could always beg for some extra by getting up early or staying up late. But most of all, there were clothes, hangers of them, getting dusty, dangling from the back of the chairs, all hand picked over the years, loved so much that even travelled thousands of miles from Istanbul to this little town, Kaikoura. I was bored of seeing them, and mutually they were bored of seeing me too, in the same plain t-shirts and jeans. I could sense them eyeing me with their judgmental shiny & pricey buttons. Oh dear!

Things were quite the opposite back in istanbul. Since I exactly knew what I would be doing for the rest of the day - writing, re- writing, re-re-re-writing - I would wake up thinking only one thing: What am I gonna wear today? Bu in Kaikoura, I was stuck with the first question: What am I gonna do today? I tell you my friend, if you have this question on your mind and if you can’t find a decent answer, it is okay to end up siting on your pajamas all day long, surfing from one page to another, loosing the track of time and finding it back again only when you hear the engine of your boyfriend’s car coming through the driveway. I know it. I experienced it at first hand.

So I decided to sell my clothes. Hey, only some of it! Only the ones I wore not even once since I was in New Zealand. I could never take all of them back to Istanbul anyway. The airlines companies would charge me thousands of dollars for that much extra baggage. It took a couple of days to sort them out, kissing each one good bye, whispering this is for their own sake, they deserve to be worn every day. I arranged them nicely on my stall at the Kaikoura School Yard Market held every Saturday. I added a couple of duct tape wallets I made out of, duh, duct tapes. This was what I have been doing on those “What am I gonna do?” moments. Trying to find things I can do with my hands. See, I wouldn’t consider myself as a crafty person. That’s why I had to find highly descriptive instructions.

So, in one hour, bam! A wallet was sold. Which was cool! But also, one of my favorite skirts was gone too. I watched the lady who bought walking away with my skirt under her arms which was whisking towards me in that windy morning yelling in her silent but aggressive skirt language “What the hell are you doing!” I hushed her immediately! The lady turned back and asked: Did you say something?” I said: “No. I was just thinking… What was once mine, is now literally yours.”

Ayca

I shot the photos! But I swear it was in self-defence, oo-oh!

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:22:47 -0400

Here are some of the first photos of tote bags that I shot for the Literally Yours Shop at Etsy. I never played a photographer before. First, I rarely look good on photos which literally drives me mad, and second I was always surrounded by great graphic designers and photographers who know how to shoot great pictures.

Though I have been at professional photo shots hundred times before for print ads, I was never behind the camera too. Actually I was always behind the person who is behind the camera, checking not the quality of light or the image, but only the expression and the pose of the model. “Is it possible for her to hold the product a little closer to her heart? As if she can not live without it?” Yes, you get the picture.

But for those pictures I had to do it myself. Given the fact that I only know how to zoom, I had to wait for two days for a beautiful sunny morning. And I am lucky to have a beautiful back yard full of lovely trees, rustic fences, and river washed tree branches Aaron love to pick up from the beach.

And afterwards I shot them, I did little adjustments on Pixlr express, that my friend Ozan suggested me to use -thanks again bro!

After seeing the pictures, Seda told me she thinks they are great on one of our Skype conversations. Only the blue bag-packer bag looks a little bit too exposed, she said. Very very kind of her :) I have to do a re-shoot anyway since we are preparing some labels for the tote bags at the moment. More info about those soon.

Literally Yours, Ayca.

Literally Yours Shop on Etsy is open to abuse!

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:54:00 -0400

Literally Yours Shop on Etsy is open to abuse!:

I could never thought my first post on our so precious -that I can not have the heart to write for four months- website be such a lame and boring “wahoo! our shop is open!”, but if you wait for my perfection to be fulfilled, you may wait forever darling.

You have to start from somewhere. Better now than never. And yes, right now as usual, I am talking to myself at the mirror. First, I have to convince me.

Literally yours,

Ayca