My business is growing up ...

Before I am going to tell you about all the important changes regarding my embroidery business, I am going to tell you about all the exciting upcoming events! This autumn will see me lecture for MEDATS on the Bamberg Imperial Vestments, for the Weavers Guild of Springfield MA and the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design. More lectures are probably going to be added in the next few weeks so make sure you are subscribed to my newsletter and check the lectures page regularly. During my summer break, I was visited by Stephan Kuhn, the art historian, and we had lovely discussions about academia in general and medieval embroidery in particular. My husband and I visited Salzburg and saw the most amazing piece of medieval stumpwork embroidery. More on that in a future blog! I've also been invited to visit several museum collections. Fingers crossed, COVID-19 numbers stay low and I can actually make travel arrangements. And as the second run of my Medieval Goldwork Course starts today, I have planned the third run: sign-up on 03-01-22 with a planned start on 21-03-22. And now on to the changes and a HUGE SALE!

After 10 years, my embroidery business is finally passing the turnover threshold of €22.000 and this means that I am required to add 19% VAT to everything I sell from the first of January 2022 onwards. Germany loves it when small businesses grow up! Think of all the cool stuff the government will be doing with the approximately €4750 in VAT I will generate for them next year :). It will also mean that I will start to have to pay into my state pension plan again and pay for health insurance. So, whilst I will probably no longer modestly supplement household income each month, I will have a modest pension to look forward to in 2045!

On the upside: I will be a fully-fledged business! This means that I qualify for funding and/or loans. That might come in handy when my research into medieval goldwork embroidery progresses as nicely as it does at the moment. So far, I have always been self-funded with no financial help from anybody. Because I simply did not qualify.

But it all comes with a downside: from midnight CET on the 31st of December 2021, I can no longer sell anything to people in the United Kingdom. When the UK left the EU, she did not set a VAT threshold for small businesses. This means that from the first Euro I make in the UK, I need to pay VAT to the Treasury. This means that I will need a UK bank account and an accountant to run my affairs. This is not worth it for small businesses like mine with a predicted turnover of €25000 in 2022. This is why so many of my colleagues already had to stop selling to the UK. If you are in the UK and you think this sucks, please write to your MP. Thank you!

Does this mean that UK embroiderers cannot get taught by me in the future? On paper: that's indeed the sad consequence. However, UK embroiderers could ask an embroidery pal anywhere else in the world to purchase for them and then ship the goods on. I am also still set to teach at the Alpine Experience next year (Nadine is working on the schedule at the moment) and they are able to have me on the French side of their business.

And now: on to the HUGE SALE. Although many craft businesses saw an uptake in sales during the pandemic, I did not (apart from my courses, that is) (and incidentally, the only brick-and-mortar shop left in my area closed down too!). This is mainly due to the fact that I sell most of my goods to people outside of Germany, and indeed, outside the EU. With postal services severely disrupted and parcels becoming very expensive, my webshop simply imploded. As a small one-woman webshop I was already not able to have the same competitive prices as the big girls had, so adding 19% VAT onto my existing prices just doesn't make sense. Therefore, I am selling off most of my stock at a 50% discount! That's wholesale price. That's very good news for you!

What's included:

- kid leather, beetle wings, bead finals
- perle, stranded cotton, silk threads and silk ribbons by House of Embroidery
- blackwork threads
- bracing needles
- embroidery hoops, embroidery fabric, aqua trick markers
- monogram stencil sheets
- embroidered jewellery, embroidered food covers
- & lots more!

Not included are: metal threads and slate frames (they just don't have much of a margin) and my kits, ebooks and embroideries (they will be available in the future too, just with 19% VAT added; so you might want to shop for them now :)).

Purchases can only be made through my webshop. Correct reduced prices are stated on the product pages, no need for a discount code. Whilst stock lasts. Sale must end midnight 31-12-21.