Handmade card news from Blue Eyed Sun

“A shining example of how to successfully grow a business from a very small beginning” - is what the judges said after meeting Jeremy Corner and hearing him talk about Blue Eyed Sun Ltd  which is a regional finalist in the manufacturing category of the the British Small Business Champions  Awards 2007. 

Started by artist Jo Corner and her husband Jeremy in a Brighton bedsit in 2000, Blue Eyed Sun designs and produces beautiful handmade greeting cards for design-led retailers around the world. Now, it employs ten staff with its own workshops and sells thousands of cards to shops around the world including John Lewis; Fortnum and Mason; Cards Galore and Fenwicks. Their handmade cards are sold trade only and are currently only available to consumers through their stockists. 

Blue Eyed greetings cards are upmarket and include Glass Enamel cards containing removable fridge magnets that are hand-fired in Blue Eyed’s own kilns and Suncatcher cards  (winners of  Gift of the Year Award for Best Cards for Design-Led Shops) which have a detachable hand-painted decoration to hang in a window, make into a hanging mobile or put on christmas trees. 

Jeremy Corner said: “Blue Eyed’s focus  is on designing and making the most  gorgeous  cards, keeping our products fresh and turning orders around very quickly. These three points keep our customers happy and keep us one step ahead of the competition.” 

In support of his company’s industry, Jeremy Corner has for the last three years been the keynote speaker at the Ladder Club, an annual event  run by the Greeting Card Association to help new card publishing start-ups. 

The British Small Business Champions Awards (BSBC) are the only national awards exclusively for small businesses. Established in 2003 by the Federation of Small Businesses to celebrate the achievements and raise the profile of the UK’s small businesses – there are four million of them. 

For handmade card trade sales please telephone Blue Eyed Sun Ltd on +44(0)1273 823003  www.blueeyedsun.co.uk/the_company.html                  

Blue Eyed Sun have launching a lovely new range of handmade cards called VELVET. Available to contemporary shops looking for extra special handmade cards, there are 80 gorgeous handmade designs covering all major occasions including birthdays, numbered birthdays, weddings, new babies and Christmas.

This contemporary handmade card range features beautiful watercolour drawings, with each greeting card individually hand-glittered and sprinkled with sequins. All VELVET cards are 160 mm square, come with a colour co-ordinated pearlescent envelopes and are cello-wrapped and barcoded. Available in sixes, these beautiful designs RRP at £4.00. With fast turnaround of orders and friendly service as standard and agents across the country, this card company is a must have for your shop.

Blue Eyed Sun designs and manufactures quality contemporary handmade greetings cards in Brighton, England and distributes them wholesale to the retail trade in the United Kingdom and around the world. Please note that we do not sell to the public.

Telephone Blue Eyed Sun on +44 (0)1273 823003 or visit www.blueeyedsun.co.uk/velvet.html

Extract taken from Crafts Beautiful magazine article featuring Blue Eyed Sun – September 2002

Have you ever wondered; how does an aspiring card maker go from practising their hobby at the kitchen table to seeing their creations on the shelves at Paperchase or even Harrods? With hugely successful companies like Hallmark around, you’d be forgiven for thinking such ambitions were pie-in-the-sky. Not so it seems. With more and more ranges of handmade cards appearing in our shops the future has never looked rosier for the independent makers with original ideas. Even people who never saw their crafting as anything more than a hobby have found themselves propelled into the industry by the huge demand for quality hand made cards. We’ve talked to three such crafters who’ve taken their hobby to the high street and discovered the secrets behind their success.

ALL FIRED UP

Brighton based card company Blue Eyed Sun was started two years ago by artist Jo Kirby with her partner Jeremy Corner. Their designs feature water coloured backgrounds with exquisite enamelled decorations, each one fired by Jo herself. You’ll find them on sale in top-end stores like Selfridges and Fenwicks, but making a living wasn’t something Jo initially set out to do, and the business emerged through a series of ‘happy accidents’.

“Since I was a child I’ve made cards for family and friends all the time, but it was very much a hobby,” says Jo. She discovered by chance their commercial potential: “A friend and I were running a tiny second-hand clothes shop in York. We wanted to utilise every available surface, including an interior door that we decided would be great for displaying cards. The trouble was we didn’t have any money to buy any stock, so I made some instead. They ended up becoming the best selling things in the shop!”

Originally a jewellery making technique, enamelling is the art of fusing glass onto metal, and was a hobby Jo’s father introduced her to when she was young. “He had a kiln that he would sometimes get out on rainy days,” she recalls. “About twenty years later whilst clearing out the loft he discovered the old kiln, and was about to chuck it out, but fortunately at the last minute offered it to me.” Having created some similar cards to the ones she sells now, Jo observed that of all of her designs it was these that attracted the most comments.

DOWN TO BUSINESS

With the shop eventually closing for various reasons, Jo moved to Brighton and in 1999 decided to go into business selling something she could make. “There were lots of possibilities but in the end cards were what I chose.” Her initial step was to take a range of cards to shops around Brighton to get some opinions. “We also had an appointment with the card buyer at Fenwicks who gave us loads of good advice.” Having taken the comments on board and revised the designs, Jo and Jeremy were ready to enter the marketplace, and the first collection by Blue Eyed Sun was launched at a trade show called Top Drawer in May 2000. The venture has blossomed rapidly into a thriving small business that now sells to shops across the UK. While the backgrounds are mass printed, the trademark enamelled motifs continue to be fashioned and fired by Jo.