the-papoose-story

The-Papoose-Story

The-Papoose-Story is the story of my journey back to who I am and to what is important to me.

I am Renske Carbone. My story is not unique although it is uniquely mine. Reaching a certain amount of success, I hit a brick wall; I lost the ability to enjoy what I was doing.

In many ways I have been very lucky in my life, although I also belief you have to create your own luck by moving towards the goals you want to achieve. Having goals is one of the prerequisites by the way!I moved to Australia in 1981, a teenager looking for adventures and sunshine. Together with my brand new Dutch husband I moved to Perth in Western Australia and settled down to building a life in a new country. And what an amazing country; not only was the weather great, after all I was used to the non-event of Dutch summers, but somehow my new country stimulated my creative juices to the extend of starting me on a long road of artistic endeavors, a road I'm still traveling today.

Bert and I called it a day after six years and we both moved on to new partners. I have now been married to John for the last twenty years and we're trying for another twenty! Anyway, soon after remarrying, I had the opportunity to go back to school and I studied full time at Curtin University where I did a BA in Visual Arts, majoring with a double major in Textiles. When I finished I was faced with the same reality as my class mates; no jobs in sight. Luckily I'm the enterprising type and with little more than energy and enthusiasm and lots of naivety I entered into the world of business. Making and selling my own products. Now there's a roller coaster ride if you're ever looking for a wild time!

My biggest strength was not having a clue about what I'd entered into, if I'd known I don't know if I would have started in the first place. I started working from home, moving into our own warehouse about six years later. By the end of 1999 I had made my first steps to overseas manufacturing and this is when the fun started. As all our products up to then were made from hand painted fabrics our main problem was supplying our customers fast enough. When we started to go overseas a lot changed; our capacity grew much larger and our product range grew too. And so it went for several years, more and more products were designed and made and we started to stock some off the shelf products too. In 2000 John decided to come into the business with me. I'd reached a mini crisis: too much to do, too many staff to handle and not enough time to do everything. John had been working overseas and I felt I needed him to be with me. We decided on a trial year to see if it'd work. And it did. As it happens, we are very compatible working together as we have very different strengths.

In 2002 we made another big step; we moved to Melbourne. Lock, stock and barrel! It was a big move which we ended up repeating twice more in the following three years. From house to house, warehouse to warehouse, it was a busy three years before we bought a place to live in Williamstown and rented a warehouse nearby. By this time we stocked a large range of products, mostly designed by me but we also invested in some generic products to complement our range. This is when I hit the wall; I lost all my energy for the business, every day was a drag, every decision one too many, every show too much effort. I contemplated stepping out of the business and getting a job, luckily my common sense prevailed. I know for sure I would've started another business within months if not weeks. We had spent a lot of time in China and I was starting to find that very difficult, the language barrier made it impossible to make personal contacts easily and everything had to be done through a third party, translating and organizing for me. I didn't realize until later that this is an important part of the business for me, a part that satisfies my innate need to communicate with the people I work with.

As I couldn't see a way out of the business, I made the decision that changes were needed in the business. I analyzed the reasons why I was unhappy and worked out the following points: I needed to be able to communicate directly with my suppliers, I needed desperately to get back to what I loved doing, and I wanted to feel a bit more useful in the world. I was designing for the sake of just producing new stuff to sell. Although that is what business is about, it was empty and without rewards. I decided I needed to work with small companies in countries where I could talk to people.

My first stop was Bangladesh. I met a lovely lady on the way to Frankfurt where we both were heading to exhibit at Ambiente, one of the world's largest trade shows. She introduced me to a friend of hers, who was also exhibiting there and it was with him that I started making a range of products, including leather bags. I was actually more interested in the embroidery the women were doing but couldn't quite make the step from their craft work to commercially viable product. The leather bags were very successful but ultimately production problems put an end to that range. It did give me a taste of working with a Fair trade company and I enjoyed the interaction knowing the actual people doing the work were benefiting directly.

The leather bag adventure took me to Nepal. I wanted to develop another range of bags, preferably knit/felted and I researched where I could do this the best. I'd learned by then it is better to work with what your suppliers have access to, rather than trying to source the base materials from far away. Nepal it was. Most of the felting I saw was done over there and there was also a history of knitting and crochet. I sourced four possible suppliers and 'tested' them. I sent all four of them a drawing of a bag design I wanted done with instructions for the knit/felting process and waited. One company was a clear winner, within a couple of weeks a bag was delivered to our warehouse. I was impressed even though the bag was just felted, not knitted. I contacted the company and told them I wanted to visit. We arranged a trip and so I was off to Nepal in May 2006. I was met at the airport and we talked away on the way to the hotel. This is when I realized I had contacted the wrong company! I was too embarrassed to say anything and went along with the flow. It is funny how fate works as this company turned out to be very right for us! (On my next visit I told Maheswor the story and he laughed his head off. I also went to apologize to the other company as they couldn't work out why I hadn't followed up with them.)

The-Papoose-Story started.

The word Papoose is an American-Indian word meaning swaddled baby and the reason I appropriated it is two-fold: the word evokes the feeling of soft, natural,warm felt and I like the word for how it looks written down.

John tells people I changed overnight; from a disinterested, tired and fed-up person I changed into a motivated, energetic and optimistic one. As I am reconnecting with textiles as a craft, I have reconnected with my passion for what I'm doing. Working with people who are kind, honest and very friendly gives me the high level of energy needed to run a business like ours. Going to Nepal to work is a pleasure. You should have seen me the first time: I was surrounded by felt, wool, colour, girls stitching away, half finished samples and finished samples everywhere. I soaked it up like a dry sponge, I felt I was back where I belonged.

Since that first visit I've been back many times and have become good friends with the people I work with. This is how business should be. I know the workers all get fair pay and certainly get fair treatment, many are treated like an extension of the family. The workplace is light and airy, the girls work together in groups so there's plenty of chit-chat.There are absolutely no children involved in the production. Maheswor regularly organizes outings for the staff, the last one was attended by over four hundred people and employee awards were given out. I was told a good time was had by all!

As for me, I'm enjoying every minute of my job again. Yes, I still focus on developing new products, after all that is what business is about. But it is not an empty exercise anymore. It works three ways now; the retailers get beautiful and safe products to sell, Maheswor's team of women and men get to have the work and are challenged to develop their skills to new heights. I get to play with colour and textiles and I get to travel to a beautiful, peaceful place and spend time with gorgeous people.

That, my friends, is the story of Papoose. To make wonderful products from safe and natural materials for people from all age groups to enjoy. And above all, to make a small positive difference in the life of other people while conducting a business that pays my bills.

From The-Papoose-Story back to Papoose Home Page

footer for the-papoose-story page