Today is June 21, 2009, week five, and day 10 of my internship at Bagsmith. I cannot believe how fast the past few weeks have gone and I can honestly say that I have learned so much.  Every day brings a new experience and I cannot even begin to explain all the business knowledge I have acquired over the past few weeks.  I even surprise myself sometimes when I sit back and think of things that I have learned and I literally get excited about them. Today was no different.  Today is a very good example of what goes on, on a day to day basis at Bagsmith, and this is simply put best in one word “Innovation.”

Let me start by stating that every single sample design in the Big Stick collection can be described as nothing less than a masterpiece, a work of art that each member of the Bagsmith team has a part in.  It is an honor to even be able to see these items, let along lay my hands on them and work side by side with this team to make them into a final project.

Today we worked on a black and white Big Stitch Rug.  The tasks at hand were to apply the border that Jackie, a fellow employee, had crouched onto the outside of the rug, as well as attempt to tighten the spiral pieces of the rug so that when it is lifted it would not open to reveal the netting on the bottom.
After a few hours we managed to apply the border to outside and I must say it looked amazing.  The only problem was that when we tried to turn the border under it was not turning out as good as we expected. After brainstorming for quite some time and talking it over with Janette, one of my supervisors,  we decided that we should just leave the border as is and wait for Becca Smith, owner of Bagsmith, to inspect the rub and make the final say.

As amazing as the rug looked so far, even with border dilemmas, my tightening job did not look good.  I could not manage to tighten the pieces together enough that it would not break apart when you opened it, not only that it broke apart when you touched it, even worse!   Well being the “innovative” team that we are Jackie and I put our heads together to come up with a solution to the problem, well what we only could hope would be a good solution.   When I was done with applying this solution the rug was in no way going to be breaking apart anytime soon.

This is just one of the many aspects of the job I have learned. Expect the unexpected, always be ready to come up with new ideas that will in turn better the products and company. Something that Becca Smith and the rest of the Bagsmith team are always doing.

The thing I love the most about Bagsmtih is that while the work aspect of the job is always changing the people I work with stay the same.  I have never in my life met such wonderful, supportive people.  While being supportive may to some seem like something that would not go hand in hand with an office environment, I disagree.  Every day when I come in I can expect to be greeted with smiling faces, and the usual questions and discussions about life. “How are you doing today?” “Have you heard any news from Afghanistan?” and my favorite line of them all that we all are getting accustomed to is “No news is good news.” As silly as this may seem there is no better motivation to work hard for your employers than just knowing that the people who you are working for care about you on a personal level, and want nothing but the best for you. While the job itself is very much unexpected, in a good way, I know I can go in and expect nothing but the best company at my job.

On a final note I would like to congratulate Janette on the birth of her granddaughter, say hello to my friends all around the US interning with Pipn, send a hug to my supportive husband who at the moment is serving in Afghanistan and last but certainly not least a Thank you to my professors and everyone else who made my internship possible.  I feel like I just made an award show speech!  Happy needling!
-Kat Guanciale-Clift

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