Go Unique and Handmade!

I started my business shortly after getting massively frustrated over birthday presents - I love giving presents and always try to make them a bit different. Of course, if a friend has been kind enough to make a wishlist, that saves me a bit of trouble, but finding something special for those who don't was such a pain.

Of course, you could go for the latest thing - but then you risk duplicate presents. You can try clothes, but if you get them in the wrong size you can cause offense, mass produced smellies contain lots of irritants and colourants that can upset even the hardiest of skin types - even buying a birthday card can be dangerous as you'll find the perfect card which suits the person down to a T, but so will everyone else - the curse of the high street.

So I went online and searched for handmade gifts and to my shock found the sites that sold them either :

1: Sold 'handmade' gifts from abroad, where the only handmade part was someone sewing on a button.

2: Was a massive warehouse style craft-fair esque site where you had to wade through hundreds of listings of similar or poor-quality items just to find something.

This, I thought, isn't right - surely there needs to be a place online where you can easily find a selection of high-quality, completely handmade gifts made by UK people?

So I made one! (http://www.theemporiumoundle.com/)
We have a varied pool of items, but only one or two crafters for each - each of our items are in stock with us, tried and tested for quality and can be gift wrapped or customised. From cards to jewellery made from silver and seaglass, from handmade cold process soaps (made from UK honey and beeswax with absolutely no artificial colours, preservatives or scents) to gorgeous bags.

Everything is made in limited amounts, I can tell you the name of exactly who made each item so you are guaranteed to give something unique and wonderful - our testimonials page is a tribute to that! (http://www.theemporiumoundle.com/pages/Testimonials.html)

Pop over to our website to see for yourself! We offer wishlists, gift wrapping, custom orders and wedding favours - a fully personalised service where we strive for the very best.

If you are a local crafter and make something you think we'd love, please get in touch, too! We are always looking for unique, UK made crafts with something a bit special.

So What IS The Emporium?

Today I am going to try my best at explaining exactly what we do and why that is - it's a tricky one, as we do things a little differently than the majority of the big handmade gifts sites on-line, but we like our reasons!

Mission Statement:
We strive to seek out the best in quality hand-made items from skilled artisans, making it easy for you to find perfect, unique gifts.

Our mission is the ethical treatment of our suppliers to ensure that these artisans receive the appropriate reward for their talents.

Our artisans are primarily from the UK, with a passion for creating true craft and treasures.

For our customers, we want to offer quality items that are unique and customised to their tastes.

That's our ethos - when I started The Emporium I wanted to have a strong, ethical base. We are supported by The Princes Trust (Prince Charles' charity here in the UK) which means we are encouraged to put back in what we get out of the business and support each other. It's basically made up of four parts:


1. Quality
Rebecca (that's me) find the best in UK handmade crafts. She spends hours on Folksy, Etsy, Facebook and craft forums basically having a good nose about. She attends local events and fairs, chatting and seeing what is hot and what is... not.
If she finds a crafter she loves who is different, driven and makes gorgeous and quality pieces she will contact them and ask if they want to join The Emporium. Once products arrive, they are double-checked to ensure that they are perfect, then put onto the site.




2. Uniqueness
Because we are a small shop, run just by one person and without a 'bricks and mortar' base, we keep things small, cosy and personal. Uniqueness is very important to us - we love finding new and exciting crafts and things we've never seen before - way before the high street shops spot them and pump out horrible mass-produced 'adaptations'. When you buy from The Emporium you are buying a unique, handmade treasure.




3. Crafter Reward
One of the things that annoys Rebecca is the increase of crafting sites that seem to be there just to make money off the crafters selling - for example, a site may charge a crafter to join the site and have their own page, then charge them to list an item (and each time they list an item) then charge them a percentage when it sells. We don't do this - all our crafters are either paid at a fair wholesale price, or on a one-fee sale or return basis once the item has sold. If an item doesn't sell, it is sent back with our apologies. We want our crafters to receive regular orders through us, through our ever-growing loyal customer base - and not have to fight with hundreds of other crafters on crowded sites just to get a look-in!




4. Presentation and Personalisation
We believe that all gifts should be perfectly packaged with a personal touch. All our orders are carefully packed and labelled, double checked for quality. Our gift wrapping and gift boxing service is second to none - we offer a basic wrap or gift box, right up to a luxury wrap with satin ribbon and beautiful handmade gift tags, with several themes to choose from! (Just let us know if it is for a boy, or girl, for your Mum or the special occasion and we will wrap it to match - even hand-write the tag, if required). Because we keep all our stock here at base, we can check for consistent quality and maintain a high standard of service, with many orders shipped within 24 hours.

That's what we do - quality, ethical, handmade gift ideas direct to your door with a personal touch! But don't take my word for it - visit our Testimonials page for feedback from our customers and take a look at The Emporium, today either by clicking on any of the text links, or an image on this page.