The good thing about selling your crafts is that its an opportunity to perpetuate the cycle of creativity.
The difficult thing though is deciding how to price your work.
Looking around at those who sell similar items through on-line sellers like etsy or Ebay or Facebook groups can give you an idea of what people are asking. But check up and see if they are actually selling those items at that price.
Then decide if you want to join this market or if you want to keep things more local at shops or at bazaars. If this is your path you may need to modify your prices to reflect the local market or mark up put on by shops.
But there is also the formulas you find on other blogs for how to price your work.
Some say you should take your costs and triple them and that is your sale price. But what about if you craft like me with a lot of salvaged and second hand materials. Here is an example:
I recently began making sleep masks. A quick search on-line and I found prices ranged between $6.50 to $25.00 with very little difference between one mask and the other.
When I price things I use a formula that takes into account not just material costs but time spent as well. But when I craft something I seldom just make one so I end up guestimating how long it takes to make a mask. Instead I try to pay attention to how much time it takes me to get 10 of them done or how many I can do in an hour. (depending on the craft)
In general when I get that figured out, I can take my material costs (as if I was buying stuff new) and add for my time. I tend to value my time at $18-$22 an hour.
The time that is lost in the process is time spent developing a new design, and time spent on label or package development. In this case I modified the patterns I found to make the masks more comfortable, I also designed a care label to print and attach to all of the masks.
So:
Fabric & elastic cost $1.50
Label printing $.07
Time to make @ 25 minutes at $18/hour
and I more or less came up with $10 each as being a reasonable cost for these in my area.
At present I only have them in one shop and they do a mork up from my $10.
But if I want to sell them at other shops that want 50% I may not be able to afford to sell them in those outlets.
As far as on-line marketing goes I am sure my price makes them very competitive.
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Provocations
They say that true art provokes a response in those who view it. positive or negative.
But I think there are many thing that provoke such responses that are not art. Such as clothing, make up, a cliff, water fall, potholes in the road. (though typically no one has anything good to say about that last one)
So even though my skulls elicit many responses and some excitement from people that see them I try not to use that as confirmation that they are specifically art. But I do like the stories people share with me when seeing them.
Last night a man told me about seeing a muskrat racing along the beach, running so fast the breath was whistling from him as he ran. It was a very interesting story that made me want to know more about why the little rodent didn't just head straight to the water if he was seeking safety.
LOL I love the stories people tell me.
Like hearing that a Lynx skull provides no meat worth eating.
Or the way someone else learned about cleaning skulls
Or how they learned about skulls in biology class and they want to test their skill.
There is always satisfaction in that, even if they are slow to sell.
But I think there are many thing that provoke such responses that are not art. Such as clothing, make up, a cliff, water fall, potholes in the road. (though typically no one has anything good to say about that last one)
So even though my skulls elicit many responses and some excitement from people that see them I try not to use that as confirmation that they are specifically art. But I do like the stories people share with me when seeing them.
Last night a man told me about seeing a muskrat racing along the beach, running so fast the breath was whistling from him as he ran. It was a very interesting story that made me want to know more about why the little rodent didn't just head straight to the water if he was seeking safety.
LOL I love the stories people tell me.
Like hearing that a Lynx skull provides no meat worth eating.
Or the way someone else learned about cleaning skulls
Or how they learned about skulls in biology class and they want to test their skill.
There is always satisfaction in that, even if they are slow to sell.
Thursday, June 16, 2016
processes and creation
So here is my story of the week.
The other night/morning I had trouble getting back to sleep at 4 am. It was the light levels bothering me. Well living just a hop skip and a jump from the arctic circle we have no dark this time of year.
Normally this doesn't bother me but for some reason it was bothering me then.
So I decided I needed a sleep mask to darken things up a bit.
I began where so many of such ideas start for me research how to sites.
I like image searches because I can sort through the stupid ones, the ugly ones, the blogs, videos, DIY, Instructables, and Pintrest (which is just annoying and useless).
And from the research I found the dimensions which was my main quest. I also saw the expected construction style of 3/4 layers sandwiched between various kinds of fabric.
From there I headed out to my sewing studio.
I had everything I needed and more.
First I tried some fabric that I had some fusible backing on with the felt I planned on putting in the middle. Well that did not work. as I fused the two together the top fabric began to pucker and pucker and pucker. I have no idea why.
ok then I cut out a sample of my pattern from it anyway to get an idea of if the size was right. it was cool.
time for attempt #2.
just some scraps I had and more of the felt.
Oops no elastic. But I did have ribbon available.
so I whipped up a sleeping mask and took it back to bed.
ZZZZZZZ
it worked great. and now I was inspired.
So I took time to dash out and buy some elastic as tying a ribbon at the back of my head is a pain. (Literally as I always catch some hair in the knot.)
When I got home I made two masks with slightly different sizes of elastic. and while they were not too tight they did pull right across my eyes. I had seen some versions where they covered the elastic in fabric and others where they used two bands of adjust able elastic. But I did not have the hardware and the fabric covering seemed too fussy for me.
What to do?
I did not have wider elastic and that seemed like it would be uncomfortable. So I added triangular tabs to the sides of the masks. This had a secondary effect to my benefit. I could add the tabs and not fuss with trying to stuff the strand of elastic in the sandwich and worry about getting it just right and not displacing the layers either.. it also meant that I could complete all the main stitching on the mask its self and add the elastic as a last step.
So ten masks later and I was ready to see if my regular shop in downtown Fairbanks was gonna be ok with selling them.
And there they are ready to go.
Yeah. I have some hope that they will move well and even bought enough elastic to make 20 more.
The other night/morning I had trouble getting back to sleep at 4 am. It was the light levels bothering me. Well living just a hop skip and a jump from the arctic circle we have no dark this time of year.
Normally this doesn't bother me but for some reason it was bothering me then.
So I decided I needed a sleep mask to darken things up a bit.
I began where so many of such ideas start for me research how to sites.
I like image searches because I can sort through the stupid ones, the ugly ones, the blogs, videos, DIY, Instructables, and Pintrest (which is just annoying and useless).
And from the research I found the dimensions which was my main quest. I also saw the expected construction style of 3/4 layers sandwiched between various kinds of fabric.
From there I headed out to my sewing studio.
I had everything I needed and more.
First I tried some fabric that I had some fusible backing on with the felt I planned on putting in the middle. Well that did not work. as I fused the two together the top fabric began to pucker and pucker and pucker. I have no idea why.
ok then I cut out a sample of my pattern from it anyway to get an idea of if the size was right. it was cool.
time for attempt #2.
just some scraps I had and more of the felt.
Oops no elastic. But I did have ribbon available.
so I whipped up a sleeping mask and took it back to bed.
ZZZZZZZ
it worked great. and now I was inspired.
So I took time to dash out and buy some elastic as tying a ribbon at the back of my head is a pain. (Literally as I always catch some hair in the knot.)
When I got home I made two masks with slightly different sizes of elastic. and while they were not too tight they did pull right across my eyes. I had seen some versions where they covered the elastic in fabric and others where they used two bands of adjust able elastic. But I did not have the hardware and the fabric covering seemed too fussy for me.
What to do?
I did not have wider elastic and that seemed like it would be uncomfortable. So I added triangular tabs to the sides of the masks. This had a secondary effect to my benefit. I could add the tabs and not fuss with trying to stuff the strand of elastic in the sandwich and worry about getting it just right and not displacing the layers either.. it also meant that I could complete all the main stitching on the mask its self and add the elastic as a last step.
So ten masks later and I was ready to see if my regular shop in downtown Fairbanks was gonna be ok with selling them.
And there they are ready to go.
Yeah. I have some hope that they will move well and even bought enough elastic to make 20 more.
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
passionate rant
Ok this is a political rant and if you don't like it don't read it.
When I here those superlatives thrown around they are almost never true.
"worst shooting"
" deadliest Mass Shooting"
These should be carrying the tag "not sanctioned by the US government"
Massacres of natives by far exceed the numbers from Orlando. But we did not consider those acts of terrorism. To me these are as sickening as anything that happened in the last year.
Then we have those people who say we should respond by assuming all people of that religion are people to fear and we "should" take care of them. Whatever that means.
Oh wait...
Internment camps, because all American citizens of Japanese decent were assumed to be guilty of complicity with the enemy. And the Aleuts were similarly uprooted and moved out of their homes because of fear mongering.
So is that what some people thing we "should" do? Lock up people wholesale because of their heritage? Where does this thinking stop? There are those in the conservative white side of things that are not unhappy about the target picked. Because "those" people are not "normal".
And what about those "lazy" people that suck off the teat of America's handouts. I have heard they should all pee in a cup before they get a food stamp or an unemployment check. But the single mother who got laid off because of budget cuts or the minimum wage earner who owes tens of thousands in debt. The family who lost their housing because place the rented has been sold to a new owner and rents have tripled.
I have taken unemployment, I have been homeless and literally living in a tent on the river or couch crashing when the weather got cold, because I could not find a job. I have used the food bank to provide food for children who are not getting enough to eat at home. I do not use drugs, or alcohol, or even cigarettes. Lets not just assume its all about illegal drugs!
The path of fear leads to isolation leads to hate and leads to more violence. Be not afraid of every stranger.
When I here those superlatives thrown around they are almost never true.
"worst shooting"
" deadliest Mass Shooting"
These should be carrying the tag "not sanctioned by the US government"
Massacres of natives by far exceed the numbers from Orlando. But we did not consider those acts of terrorism. To me these are as sickening as anything that happened in the last year.
Then we have those people who say we should respond by assuming all people of that religion are people to fear and we "should" take care of them. Whatever that means.
Oh wait...
Internment camps, because all American citizens of Japanese decent were assumed to be guilty of complicity with the enemy. And the Aleuts were similarly uprooted and moved out of their homes because of fear mongering.
So is that what some people thing we "should" do? Lock up people wholesale because of their heritage? Where does this thinking stop? There are those in the conservative white side of things that are not unhappy about the target picked. Because "those" people are not "normal".
And what about those "lazy" people that suck off the teat of America's handouts. I have heard they should all pee in a cup before they get a food stamp or an unemployment check. But the single mother who got laid off because of budget cuts or the minimum wage earner who owes tens of thousands in debt. The family who lost their housing because place the rented has been sold to a new owner and rents have tripled.
I have taken unemployment, I have been homeless and literally living in a tent on the river or couch crashing when the weather got cold, because I could not find a job. I have used the food bank to provide food for children who are not getting enough to eat at home. I do not use drugs, or alcohol, or even cigarettes. Lets not just assume its all about illegal drugs!
The path of fear leads to isolation leads to hate and leads to more violence. Be not afraid of every stranger.
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
The learning curve
We all know a learning curve is the correlation of trying something the first time and the number of attempts to do really well at it. Sometimes urgency demands we figure out how to get good at something really quickly other times it takes great patience and many tries to get it right.
My latest experience with this is cleaning beaver skulls. I have a few in the freezer from a trapper I know. And last year was not a good year to get them all boiled and cleaned and ready for painting, but this is the summer it will happen and is happening.
Now I have been boiling and cleaning lynx skull for a couple of years and have gotten pretty good at making quick work of the job especially after they have been boiling about 90 minutes.
Now beaver are certainly a different critter. I have bought precleaned/bleached skull of these treee eaters so I thought I was somewhat familiar with their heads.
90 minute is not enough time to soften all the connective tissue and cartilage in a beaver skull. 2 and half hours is not enough. A 3 hour minimum and then make sure they are well cover with water the whole time.
I also figured out to separate the bottom jaw from the top and clean it first. The collagen congeals if it cools down and it becomes more difficult to separate from the bone. The bottom jaw will split in half as the connective tissue holding the two halves together will get soft enough.
When working with the top half I remove the large slabs of meat first and then scrape the joints and stuff in back.
The tree eaters seem to be built with way more shock absorbers than lynx have so there are more bones that are a little less fused or kept as semi separate sections. More bumps and more holes.
I now clean out the brain and nasal areas quickly in the process and so many of the holes seem to lead to these two areas.
OK enough of this detail. I know few people ever will need this info.
My thoughts about this whole endeavor in general. I clean these skulls because I use them in my art. Buying them cleaned gets expensive quickly.
I can get them raw from local hunters much cheaper. However they do take up room in the freezer all winter since I do boil them outside.
I boil them outside because everything I read about doing this said it smells bad.
I think it is not that so much as we feel like they should smell bad. Or else an aversion to cooking something you have no intention of eating in a kitchen space.
For myself I use an old rice cooker and a burner under the pan outside because I have no room to cook 3-4 skulls in a pot at a time.
Dental tools are amazing. especially scrapers that let you get to bare bone without damaging the bone but get rid of clinging tissue.
If you run across this and you are looking to clean a beaver skull I hope these notes help shorten your learning curve.
My latest experience with this is cleaning beaver skulls. I have a few in the freezer from a trapper I know. And last year was not a good year to get them all boiled and cleaned and ready for painting, but this is the summer it will happen and is happening.
Now I have been boiling and cleaning lynx skull for a couple of years and have gotten pretty good at making quick work of the job especially after they have been boiling about 90 minutes.
Now beaver are certainly a different critter. I have bought precleaned/bleached skull of these treee eaters so I thought I was somewhat familiar with their heads.
90 minute is not enough time to soften all the connective tissue and cartilage in a beaver skull. 2 and half hours is not enough. A 3 hour minimum and then make sure they are well cover with water the whole time.
I also figured out to separate the bottom jaw from the top and clean it first. The collagen congeals if it cools down and it becomes more difficult to separate from the bone. The bottom jaw will split in half as the connective tissue holding the two halves together will get soft enough.
When working with the top half I remove the large slabs of meat first and then scrape the joints and stuff in back.
The tree eaters seem to be built with way more shock absorbers than lynx have so there are more bones that are a little less fused or kept as semi separate sections. More bumps and more holes.
I now clean out the brain and nasal areas quickly in the process and so many of the holes seem to lead to these two areas.
OK enough of this detail. I know few people ever will need this info.
My thoughts about this whole endeavor in general. I clean these skulls because I use them in my art. Buying them cleaned gets expensive quickly.
I can get them raw from local hunters much cheaper. However they do take up room in the freezer all winter since I do boil them outside.
I boil them outside because everything I read about doing this said it smells bad.
I think it is not that so much as we feel like they should smell bad. Or else an aversion to cooking something you have no intention of eating in a kitchen space.
For myself I use an old rice cooker and a burner under the pan outside because I have no room to cook 3-4 skulls in a pot at a time.
Dental tools are amazing. especially scrapers that let you get to bare bone without damaging the bone but get rid of clinging tissue.
If you run across this and you are looking to clean a beaver skull I hope these notes help shorten your learning curve.
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