Hi Sunday is offering 20% off everything in its MakerPlace store Oct 12-26
Meet Christine Tsang, New York City-based founder of Hi Sunday Collective decorative candles that exude a fun, yet minimalistic-cool flair.
Christine believes that the details of home decor can make every room as unique as the person in it. Their candles, Tsang says, focus on aesthetics, good vibes, and good scents--all to create the ultimate at-home experience and help you relax after a long day.
It all started in her home during the pandemic when she began experimenting with coffee and teas, which inspired her hand-poured “Home Cafe Series" scented jar candles. Her creative “flavor” combinations expanded from there and continue to grow. Her love affair with the art, culture, and flavors of the city she calls home influenced her entire collection) of her candles many are named after her favorite streets and places in her NYC hometown). Learn how she took her celebration of place to a thriving business, how she goes from inspiration to final product, how she carves out time for the business side of her craft, and pick up some great tips for selling handmade goods.
Minimalistic-cool snowflake candles make a sophisticated winter holiday decor statement
What drives you to create what you do?
I am truly inspired by the culture, energy and creativity of city I grew up in, New York City. Combining my love for art, fashion and the eclectic food scene, I continue creating decorative candles to make home styling interesting, and I am always developing fragrances with a creative spin on the Asian flavors that I grew up with.
What is your creative process and routine? What gets you “in the creative zone?”
Everyday life inspires me and my products. The ideation comes from something I have experienced or want to experiment with. A lot of my sculptural candles are the answer to “Wouldn’t it be awesome to have ________ as a candle or decor piece?” I love home decor themes and that’s where it starts. Many of my candle fragrances are a product of flavors I love and the creative combinations all come from real-life kitchen experimentations.
The creativity and ideas always hit without notice, but the research and development is much more planned and my favorite part of the process. To bring my ideas to life, I spend a lot of time researching, going through trial and error, and sourcing everything.
It goes something like this: Idea > Answering the questions: “How can I make this physically possible?” > “What supplies do I need to create this?” > “Where can I source all this?”. After I have everything I need, I start the experimentation process until I get to the product I originally envisioned. Finally, I love giving each product a name!
What's your must-have while working on your products?
I am three-drinks-at-all-times kind of girl — something to hydrate, something to energize and something sweet. While I am working on something administrative and at my computer, I love to put on music — chill covers of popular songs. When I switch over to pouring and packing then I like to put on YouTube vlogs about travel or food.
What do you love about MakerPlace? Why are you excited about this platform?
I think it’s very exciting to be able to sell on a platform built by a company who understands creativity and do-it-yourself processes. Not only is the community already like-minded, but more likely to appreciate your products more, knowing what it took to create something from scratch or by hand.
These elegant pumpkin candles are almost too pretty to burn
What tips do you have for fellow sellers to get the most out of MakerPlace and selling handmade goods online?
A lot of times we get carried away by making the product and lose sight of the business end of things. I highly recommend carving out time to run the numbers and look into marketing. I believe it makes the biggest difference between being a crafter and a small business owner. Know your brand vision, price appropriately and don’t be afraid to take the risk.
What unique challenges do you face as a maker of handmade goods and how have you handled them?
Time is the biggest challenge as a maker. A lot of creations take a lot of time to make, from the lengthy development process to the actual production of each item, and there’s also the back-end administrative tasks, front-facing customer issues, and all the things in-between. Solo-preneurship requires you to wear many hats, and to handle this issue, I block off time slots and days for specific tasks. Giving myself deadlines is also such an amazing thing! It allows me to prioritize my time daily with a goal date in mind. It’s easy to get frustrated and overwhelmed with so many things on your to-do list, but breaking everything down and batching helps so much.
What advice do you have for new sellers struggling to get their first sale?
First, don’t give up hope! If you believe in your product, it will eventually reach the right audience. Before any product goes live, I always ask myself “Will I buy and use this?” followed by “Will I pay $XX for it?” Objectively, I am part of my target market, but if you’re not, put yourself in their shoes. If it's a double YES, then it's time to troubleshoot. If the problem is not the product, sometimes, it’s just a photo issue, and photographing it in better light or a different crop makes the difference between “add to cart” or not. Give customers the assurance that your product is valuable (through imagery, descriptions, example usage) and worth the purchase. Awareness of the current market will 100% help you make your sale!
Shop Hi Sunday on MakerPlace and receive 20% off everything October 12-26
Follow Hi Sunday on Instagram at @hisunday