Episode 87 - Overcoming Challenges with Rose Mille

We talked with Bob and Michelle Jorgensen all about their products, business, and how they face challenges in our latest episode.

If you’ve used doublette, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with Rose Mille.

We love our German crepe paper, and we were excited to chat with one of the distributors of our favorite product on our latest episode of Paper Talk. Bob and Michelle Jorgensen joined us to talk about the behind the scenes of their business and to get our feedback about what paper florists most want when it comes to crepe selection. 

Michelle founded Rose Mille in 1998, and has long been a leader in bringing materials and workshops to crafters in many different disciplines. Listen to our conversation to hear all about the fascinating world of importing handmade supplies from Germany and more about what Rose Mille plans to offer next. 

In the meantime, we were inspired by Bob and Michelle’s scrappy attitude when it comes to making lemonade out of lemons—or in their case, snowman noses out of spun cotton that was supposed to be much bigger. Here are some of the creative ways they have met challenges that can help us all push ourselves more.

Repurpose Materials

Just like in the snowman nose example, Bob and Michelle have had to be creative sometimes when it comes to the materials that arrive. 

Their distributors in Germany source from small, cottage industries that produce handmade goods. That can mean that there is one person in a small village who makes carrot-shaped spun cotton, and if that person passes away without a child willing to take on that business, that product is just gone—or at least won’t be available at the same level of quality. 

But when a shipment comes in that isn’t quite right, Bob and Michelle try to salvage what they can and repurpose materials. The teeny carrot-shaped spun cotton becomes snowman noses.

You may make a paper flower that doesn’t come out quite right, or maybe you can’t get your hands on the perfect material for your project. Don’t give up! Maybe you can turn that flower into something else. Maybe you can use a different paper. A little creativity can go a long way.

Welcome Competition

Michelle shared the story of how they first started carrying crepe paper. You can hear all the details in the episode, but in short, they were the only ones importing German crepe at the time. 

Four years later, Lia Griffith started her partnership with Werola, the manufacturer of doublette. Werola decided to make some colors only available through Lia Griffith and no longer available through Rose Mille. 

That’s frustrating when you’ve been in the game longer, right? Well, Michelle kept a good attitude about it. “There’s room for everybody,” she told us on the podcast. She acknowledged that Lia Griffith showed people what to do with crepe, which they hadn’t been doing at Rose Mille. 

That kind of attitude gives you more room to move forward, which Bob and Michelle definitely are. Instead of bemoaning the fact that some color combinations aren’t available to them, they asked us which combos we’d like to see as paper florists. Which brings us to…

 
Ask Questions

We love that Bob and Michelle asked us what we and our listeners wanted as paper florists! There’s really no better way to get your customers what they want and to be successful as a business than by really listening to your clients.

If there is a doublette color combination that you’d like to see, or if there’s any other products that would help your art, email Rose Mille at [email protected]. You’ll hear in the podcast just how eager they are to hear from paper florists. Don’t be shy!

Listen to the episode now to learn even more about what Rose Mille has to offer and how they operate.

Here’s what you’ll hear when you listen to our conversation:

• New crepe paper and colors Rose Mille will offer this spring.

• More about the fascinating cottage industries in Germany.

• How they decide which products to offer.

• Other challenges that they’ve had to overcome.

Remember to hop onto our weekly meeting on Clubhouse on Thursdays at 7pm PST/10pm EST, and to join our Facebook group where you can share, connect, and grow with us. Please also consider supporting us on Patreon for even more great content like this.