Watch out for Number 2

This is my self discovery of the day.
When I get an idea I usually spend some time thinking about it, rehearsing the making of it, and then putting together the bit and pieces need to make it.

But then there are times like this morning.
I have some fleece scarves I made a few years ago that did not sell. They are spiral scarves and they did not sell because there were always at least five or more vendors with scarves that year.
So I decided it might be fun the have the twirls cascading down from the top of a fleece hat. Awesome plan:
Go inventory scarves and see what color fleece I would need to get. But hey wait! look I had fleece too. So I jumped right to the sewing machine and tried my idea. Awesome! Prototype looked cool and went together quickly and smoothly. 

On to the next one.
Here I tried some short cuts, that did not save me time, I also tried changing the stitching as I did not need stretch stitching on all parts of the hat.
 Ugh what a disaster. thread breaking and just a mess as my machine refuse to deal with 6-8 layers of fleece at a time. 
OK so a rethink. it had worked the first time, right. 
So back to the zig-zag on the heavy layers for hat number three and we were back to a sweet and easy project. 
SO watch out for number two, that is where short cuts and logical changes might really mess you up.

Back in the online game

Once upon a time...
I used to make things and sell them on Ebay. Then I lost my account because of a piece of paper I have yet to send them.
So I waited a few years and then tried Etsy. I had a couple dozen listings at one point in time but sold nothing and so I let the ads expire and waited again.
 I am back in etsy or at least I have a toe in the water. I really struggle with on-line selling.
taking good pictures, making attention grabbing ads, throwing enough search terms in the listing so people will find it...
But getting better at all these things is more likely to get me success in the electronic media market place than just local bazaars and shops.
So I am determined to dedicate time to learning better photography skills, writing good ads, being active in the promotion of my Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Alaskanbonesandbeads.
I am also determined to label the things I have for sale so people know me and can contact me. I am determined to put together my Artist page and keep my name easy to find.

Priced to sell

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.

finding like minded people. Communities within communities

Finding people who like what you like or do what you do can be difficult if you get too narrow in your focus. Some of you maybe asking why you should care about the support of other people doing similar things in your area. There are a myriad of reasons.
Competition: if you are showing or selling your work it is good to know you else is competing for the attention and the money. 
Cooperation: you can share tips about where to find supplies, how to market and how to avoid having side by side booths at the county fair.
Support: its good to know other people have the same thought processes and they may have experienced many of the same hurdles you have. 
Introduction: you can share information about other people in you local crafting community.

So how do you find these like minded people?
Networking. 
Be social when you are at vendor venues. Talk to the customers, but also the other vendors.  When you are not a vendor at a venue go and look around and introduce yourself. Almost everybody appreciates making more connections to people.

Have a card. Having business cards (even if you are not a business) means people can invite you to events you do not hear about through the usual channels. Hand them out and make sure you have an email address that people can use. if you have a webpage or FB page let people know. You do not need to have a physical/mailing address or phone number on the card. But and image and a few words that describe what you do is a great idea. 

Pick up cards too. This gives you a way to start looking at how other artists are marketing themselves. Maybe this can lead to a discussion or the discovery of a class about marketing for the artist. 

Have an on-line presence. You do not need an extravagant webpage to grab people's attention and Facebook is only one facet you should consider when developing your on-line space. Be careful though not to let the on-line pages become your focus instead of your art. Static pages that are rather like a super version of your business card but that do not need constant updating, unless you want to add to your gallery is a good plan. Make sure your business card and your fb page direct people to you webpage as well. On-line markets are also important to connect to all your other on-line media.

Go to events. The more you are seen the more you are known. Marketing at local craft bazaars and shops works great when possible buyers can meet the artist. Gallery walks and such get you known in your own communities.

We should not be afraid to make connections. We should not fear that what we do will lose the mystery or the magic because we are in touch with our communities. Reach out and find more reasons to make connections.

learning about marketing

Yesterday as I sat a very slow bazaar I had a conversation about marketing with someone who used to do it for a living.
He explained that for someone like me: basically a hobby artist the best form of advertising was exactly what I was doing. Getting out in the community, making connections on facebook, and etsy. Joining art clubs and guilds and associating with people with similar interests.
I do admit I need to spend more time on the Etsy store or explore the facebook store concept. But as a hobbiest I tend to ignore the value of the time spent on promoting since my bottom line is not compelled by successful sales. I do admit I prefer to have a busy sales day at a bazaar rather than not even recoup my table fee. But I do get exposure to people who may not buy this time. but maybe next time as my products are now in their mental catalog.
I am also working on some table cards to go with some of the more "complex" items or the ones that have stories or explanations.

So my take away for the slow day at the bazaar was to learn as much as I could from other vendors and to get some exposure for the work I do.

How to avoid becoming a horder

One of the hazards in seeing so much potential in everything is that everything then has value. And when something has real financial potential value we tend to grab on to it.
So how do you avoid seizing every stick, old t-shirt, empty bottle, or old bone and sticking it in a corner while mumbling "my precious, my precious"?

I try to avoid picking up things because it ought to be good for something. I avoid picking things up because I am "saving them from the landfill". I try to avoid picking up things that have a nebulous future potential.

*I have a specific purpose for the item. I will use (blank) for (this use) within the next (number) of months. Never the less I do bite off more than I can chew and I have to reassess now and then.
*I rehome things that others are more likely to use. If that means that I end up taking something apart so it has more potential use for them I will. If it means I cluster things into batches that go together so someone else can use them I will do that too. And for somethings, like that batch of t-shirts I picked up that were too small to wear and I never got around to turning into scarves there is always the thrift shops.
Even then I end up with stacks I have to make painful choices about. For example I have been collecting lamp and lighting parts with the idea that I would turn them into table top or floor displays for a wide variety of items at sales and shows. But really when it comes down to it. I never have time to assemble them and I go back to my perfectly adequate standby displays.

*Remember that when you choose to pick up items to transform you maybe taking time away from another project you had planned. Does this new project have a better chance of being completed? Does this project have a higher monetary potential?

All that said, there are some things that either do not take up a lot of room or have many different potential uses. Wood is one of those things for me since we are in house construction mode. Trim pieces and moldings as well as the stray 2x4 are instant pick ups. They may not end up used in the house but then again they will be used.

*Stay organized. Keep like things together where they can be easily accessed when you are ready to use them or group all the items for a project into a "kit". So when you are ready to get it you do not end up searching high and low for a critical part.

*Keep it fun. If any project or potential project has become a chore or a burden it is time to free yourself. Donate the parts to others who can use them.

8 ideas for decorating the tree

If you just can't afford the shiny glass balls and the sparkly plastic tinsel and garland or if you want to make your tree a one of a kind work of art, here are some great ornament ideas.

Christmas ornaments

Some cheap/free ideas for homemade ornaments that can look very nice.
There are many ways to add sparkle and color to your Christmas without spending a bundle.

1.Use a heavy aluminum foil pan trace out stars and other shapes. color with permanent markers and punch a hole and hang.

2.Create stars from small "tin" cans. Cut off the upper rim and cut the sides into 1/4 inch strips down to the bottom rim. Cut some similar strips off another can, they should be about 1 inch long and 1/4 inch wide. twist and bundle the strips on the first can in groups of three, fours or fives depending on the number of strips and how tall you can was. wrap a free strip around the bundle about 1/2 an inch from the lowest end. crimp it tight. use pliers to curl the ends of the bundled strips. do this for the whole can. Use spray paint to add color. Be careful the cut metal can be sharp. The end effect can be very ornate. Try cutting cans of different sizes and stacking the stars to make a wall decoration. I use a tomato paste can or small juice can for my small stars.

3.Cut the 1/4 inch strips off a large can and punch a hole in one end. Twist them slightly and hang as icicles from the tree.

4.Use small scraps of wrapping paper to make origami ornaments. There are tons of directions on the internet.

5.Make large size beads out of magazines, newspapers, bread dough clay, or salt dough. String them into a garland. Find instructions at your library or on the internet.

6.Use ribbon as streamers and bows on the tree.

7.Cut the top and bottoms off of aluminum cans and use a craft punch to make shapes from the light gage metal. Use markers, finger nail polish or spray paint to color.

8.Use small scraps (6 inches or so) of heavy gage copper wire. bend these into coils, spirals, zigzags. Use baking soda to clean them. paint them if you want or leave coppery. string an few beads onto the hanging loop for extra color.



Many of these ornaments look nice enough that I have actually made and sold them at craft fairs and people could not buy them fast enough.

First glass ideas

As promised some of my ideas, spilled onto a place where anyone who wants them can pick them up and use them. I make no claims that these are original with me. Some may be modifications of something I saw or read about.

Uses for glass bottles:

Glass mosaics

Use pieces of broken bottles to create mosaic on a glass background so light can shine through.
Because bottle pieces are not flat they may need to be fairly small pieces in order to make it work. Use a clear adhesive and makes sure the whole piece is well glued.
Limiting factors will be colors as glass bottles have a fairly limited range of colors for the most part, but any glass can be used including old chipped or cracked vases and dishes.
For an opaque mosaic use wood or other back ground for tiling.
Can also use old tiles, dishes, stones and possibly even bits of old sinks and toilets.

Other bottle things.

Back to an old 70’s favorite of cutting the tops off bottles and using them for glasses of vases.
To make a fancy vase drill 4 holes near the top of a cut off bottle. Create a circlet with wire, beads, charms, and other stuff then wire the circlet to the top of the vase.

Run pieces of bottle glass through a tumbler to create “beach Glass”. They sell this stuff by the pound at the craft stores so you know someone is doing something with it. The surface is frosted looking and the sharp edges are knocked off
Fill the bottom of a clear vase with the tumbled glass to anchor flowers, use it to decorate picture frames and mirror frames.
Drill pieces (use water to cool as you drill, check web for more info) to use as beads.

Use a saw or cutter to slice rings from the bottle necks.
use these in mosaics, jewelry, or window ornaments. Maybe slumped in a kiln. but I do not know if they would stay round.

Create three dimensional “stained glass” decorations. use larger pieces of bottles where curves and angles lend to the 3 d effects.

Bottle glass can be used as the aggregate in concrete. Poured and polished as counter tops they become quite beautiful. Could also be done on a smaller scale for pathways and stepping stones.
Small pieces can be mixed into polyester resin. when shaped and polished they would be very interesting. crushed or small pieces could be swirled in and cast in poured resin table tops.

Slumping and melting:

bottles are slumped in kiln molds all the time, but what about pieces of bottle glass. This would lead to flatter pieces, but in random shapes to be used for mosaics and stained glass.
I also saw a program once where scraps of stained glass were put into a clay flower pot in a kiln with a clay saucer under it so when the glass melted and ran out of the hole it created a swirled glass disc in the bottom dish. Can this be done with bottle glass?
Dark amber and bright green with clear pieces could result in some great color combos.
I know some of the limitations on melting bottle glass is the temperature and mixing issues, but it could be an interesting experiment.

These are my glass reuse ideas for right now, but you never know what might spring into my head tomorrow.
Kat