Vor einigen Tagen hatte ich euch bei Instagram My Soulmateplace vorgestellt und damit eine kleine Welle losgetreten.
Irina, selbst Mutter eines Sohnes, stellt wunderschönes Holzspielzeug her.
So schön, dass man es sich auch prima
als Deko in sein Zuhause stellen kann. Ich freue mich sehr, euch heute
noch ein wenig mehr zu zeigen, denn Irina war so nett mir ein paar
Fragen zu beantworten.Would you tell us a bit about you.
Who are you and what was your intention to create wooden toys?
My name is Irina, I'm 30y.o and I live in Russia with my husband and my 1.8yo son Daniel.
Since
I was a teenager I've been in love with stylish interiors and homedecor
things and when it was time to choose university to study in - my dream
was to study design-related discipline. But that time in Russia it was
not popular enough and it was quite expensive to take individual classes
to prepare for exams, so I decided to go into Finance sphere (as I was
quite good in math and related disciplines) - and graduated from one of
the leading Russian finance/economics universities also studying foreign
languages in another university same time (English and Deutsch (aber
ich habe fast alles vergessen Deutsch :)) ). After the university I
worked for 7 years as marketing specialist/marketing manager in biggest
international companies (it's Moscow branches) and felt myself
relatively ok)) then 2 years ago I went on maternity leave and started
to think how to use this time in a most effective way. Thinking from
time to time that I still have a chance to enter somehow my dream
industry...and in parallel trying to find in Russia (as shipping costs
from foreign shops are quite big..) modern and simple wooden toys for my
son...)) so that was the point of no return) I simply didn't manage to
find what I was looking for... that situation gave me an idea of
specific niche in which I could start: "toys that decorate you home,
homedecor you can play with". It's a kind of Mysoulmateplace slogan now.
The plan was to create a variety of simple, educating and beautiful
wooden toys in my favorite pure, dusty, natural colors and clear
geometric shapes.
Can you tell us something about the production.Where are the things made and who is involved in it?
All
the things are made in Russia by our historically talented and
high-professional woodturners. All the products are made of natural wood
and covered by AP-certified non-toxic water based paint or food-grade
oils/waxes. I lead the processes of developing/finding ideas, creating
sketches, developing color palettes (my favorite part) and of course I'm
involved in coloring itself - for me it's a kind of meditative process
:) also all marketing, sales and customer-related processes are under my
responsibility.
When you think about your products, what is especially important for you?
Are you planning other projects in the near future?
In
coming year I'm going to develop current project. But yes, later there
will be the second big project - if you have a look at our logo, you'll
see two "departments" stated under the brand name ;)
The purchase of you wooden toys is only possible via Instagram.
Will there be local dealers in Germany?
Yes!
we are currently working on it - and we already have agreements with
several stores worldwide, not only in Germany, but also in France,
Ukraine, Denmark and Japan. So there is a lot of work ahead till the end
of this year and even more - next year. Our goals are to increase
capacity, to lower the wholesale price and to find the ways to lower
shipping costs from Moscow to European both individual and wholesale
customers. We see a huge interest from European people to our products,
but often happens so, that they are absolutely ok with the price, but
totally upset with the shipping price. We have cases, when people ask
friends/relatives in Russia to order shipping to their address in Russia
and then wait till friends come to Germany and bring the box with
them)) so it's our challenge for next year to resolve somehow this
situation :)
Sarah von Tinybee hat mir schon verraten, dass bald auch einige Teile bei ihr im Shop erhältlich sein werden ;)
