Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Want to Wholesale Your Handmade?

Wholesale can be a great way to boost your sales, gain exposure, and generate a steady income if you're looking to craft full time. I saw this thread in the Etsy forums about Wholesaling and thought it would be helpful to those thinking about branching out and doing some wholesale.

Here's a few questions to think about when setting up your wholesale program:

1. Your minimum order? By price or items?

I offer a fairly low by price minimum first order and no minimums on reorders - Why? I want buyers to be able to try out new items and see what works for them. I sell all over the country and some items just do better in different locations. Chances are if your goodies sell like hotcakes they'll be back for a larger order next time around, you want to build long term relationships with your shops & buyers. They might not always need to purchase $300 worth of goods from you but simply want to restock for a full display. Full displays and product runs help to sell products.

2. Your price point (% of your retail price)?

Wholesale is generally 50% off retail prices, this is quite standard, be sure to price your items so you're still making a profit, if you find you aren't getting paid for your time & materials or certain items are in higher demand, its time to up those retail prices. If you sell necklaces on Etsy for $8, wholesale will be $4 + your time & materials. You probably want to double, maybe even triple your retail price. Boutiques have to double your wholesale price in order to pay for the merchandise and make a profit.

3. Your pricing tiers?

I don't offer pricing tiers, just a straight discount since my items are relatively affordable at both retail & wholesale prices. I think pricing tiers would work best for higher priced items that are made in more limited quantities such as high priced bags & jewelry. If you'd still like to offer your items at really affordable prices such as the $8 necklace this might work for you as well - don't offer wholesale pricing just offer tiered discounts such as 10% off $100 order, 25% off $250 order, etc.

4. Your return or buyback policies, if you have them?

No returns or buybacks. I think it might be best to offer an even dollar amount exchange. If a buyer had purchased some items that are not working for their shop, they might exchange for different items equal to that pricing amount.

5. Do you include suggested retail pricing?

I include wholesale price and suggested retail pricing in my wholesale catalog. Suggested retail pricing should remain relatively consistent between your Etsy shops, b&m shops, & craft shows. Your shops don't want you selling the same items for cheaper, even though they may mark it up higher than your retail price - that seems to be just the way she goes.

6. Do you put suggested retail price on the product?

I leave all hang tags and packaging unmarked, shop owners will often mark up past your retail prices and that should be their choice. From what I've seen, most shops with stick with your suggested retail pricing. Plus they may have their own barcodes, labels, etc that they want to add to your existing packaging.

7. How do retailers place orders?

I have a line sheet in my catalog that buyers can mail in or fax, offer wholesale direct on Etsy through a wholesale section, or just invoice via Paypal - Paypal has a nice invoicing tool available. Accept company checks as well, some buyers don't want to pay with cards and prefer checks for book keeping purposes. You might want to offer Net 30 terms and send your customers a bill. In most cases its best to get paid up front for all wholesale orders. If a buyer is serious about purchasing with you and has worked with small labels or designers before they should expect to be billed up front.

8. What are some creative ways to approach retailers?

Most accounts I've gotten simply from marketing online. I've also found offering wholesale direct on Etsy to be quite helpful. Of course, you can always mail a catalog & press pack, or approach neat shops in person - find out who the manager or store buyer is ahead of time and make an appointment. If meeting in person, be sure to bring some samples and a catalog, they want to see all your cute goodies!

9. How much do you charge for shipping & handling?

You might want to offer a shipping discount for wholesale, its a nice way to give customers a break. Charge a flat fee or just simply calculate based on location. I offer a flat shipping fee for wholesale, my items are relatively lightweight even in big bunches and well, it's just easier that way.

10. How quickly do you fill orders?

Turn around time varies depending on pending orders but I try to have about a week turn around time, two weeks at the most. Customers don't like to wait forever, so try to be prompt and stay within deadlines. Not sure if you'll have time to meet a deadline? Over estimate and try to come in under your deadline!

If you think you're ready to Wholesale, take the time to get together a nice catalog & linesheet, it gives you a professional look and helps to outline all your information and product offerings.

Be sure to include:

Photos of your items & descriptions - What is it? What is made out of? Size? Pricing?

Keep in mind your branding, if you have particular color schemes, fonts, logos, make sure your catalog reflects that.

A line sheet - include names of your pieces, a brief description, quantity, pricing, & totals. This is also a good place to outline all your wholesale terms discussed above.

Tell your buyer something about you - who you are, what you make, and any other quirky info!

Where else you sell your work - shop names & locations.

Any noteable press!

Hope this little overview was helpful! Anyone else have some great advice or tips? Be sure to leave your wholesaling wisdom in the comments below!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Portland’s ‘young creatives’ tough it out - msnbc.com

Many well-educated adults willing to stay in hip town even without a job

The Associated Press

updated 5:32 p.m. ET July 25, 2009

PORTLAND, Ore. - Ceramics artist Heidi Sowa had her eyes set on Portland for years. The city was not too big, had a cohesive arts community and plenty of easygoing and helpful people.

Within weeks of arriving, she landed a gig making costumes for 8-inch puppets in "Coraline," a 3-D stop-motion animated movie. Her job ended last year, and the movie opened in theaters earlier this year.

Now, at 26, Sowa is living on unemployment, sleeping in a single room apartment and eating from a refrigerator in a studio she shares with other artists under a bridge ramp in Portland's industrial east riverbank.

And she's not planning to go anywhere.

Like thousands of well-educated young adults who have flocked to Portland, she is determined to weather a recession that is testing their affection for the city.

The newcomers, called the "young creatives" by local economists, have helped give Portland the reputation over the past two decades for being one of the hippest cities in the country. They have been lured by the city's brew pubs, bicycle and mass transit culture, access to mountains and seacoast, and a tolerant, off-center way of life.

Now, they are trying to hang on while hanging out.

'Easygoing and helpful'
Sowa cites the city's love affair with bicycles and mass transit, its scale and its mood for her decision to stay.

"It seems a small enough but a big enough place," she said. "It's easy to meet people, and the art community is cohesive. People tend to be pretty easygoing and helpful, too. I haven't met many abrasive people."

Sowa is keeping busy with a whirl of projects and prospects, ranging from film pitches with a "Coraline" colleague to fashion corsets — she helped a designer create them in exchange for learning the how-tos of a trendy garment.

A Portland economist who has studied the "young creatives" says Sowa is typical.

"It's not as if it's great somewhere else," said Joseph Cortright, chairman of Gov. Ted Kulongoski's council of economic advisers and author in 2005 of a study of young people and American cities, "The Young and Restless in a Knowledge Economy."

Cortright said the United States soon will face a shortage of well-educated workers. Baby boomers are retiring, he said, and the rising percentages of women and college graduates in the work force are leveling off.

That, he said, will make winners of cities such as Portland that offer creative, entrepreneurial young people something distinctive, whether it is warm climate, cool culture, a combination of the two or something else entirely.

Cities with 'stickiness'
Charlotte, N.C., and Austin, Texas, are others that have Portland's "stickiness," he said, attracting outsize numbers of the 25- to 34-year-old cohort and keeping them.

High-tech entrepreneur Luke Sontag vows he'll stay in Portland despite a hard first year in town.

In September, Sontag led a crew of 34 high-tech workers on a latter-day "Oregon Trail" road trip, moving from Tulsa, Okla., in a convoy of rental vans and RVs, circling them at night on the western plains and building campfires to illuminate performances by the in-house band.

Within weeks after Vidoop Inc. arrived, the financial companies Sontag hoped to snag as customers were out of the market for his Internet security services. The layoffs started in November. The company, he said, was reincorporating, planning for new financing and workers.

In the meantime, he's plotting a company in mobile marketing with colleagues and living on savings. "If all went to hell with this, I would not be moving," he said. "I wouldn't give a flip if I had to pick up trash."

Living cheaply
Young creatives turn more often, though, to the coffee shops for work and their default job — barista.

Brodie Kelley, 29, is a comics artist and unpublished novelist who eventually landed a job behind a grocery store's deli counter. He tells a story about the competition for jobs slinging espresso drinks.

Attracted by an ad, he went into a jammed coffee shop, which he figured meant a thriving business and good prospects. Then the manager looked over the throng and said he'd begin taking applications: "But, first, is anyone here a customer?"

Some young creatives are nurturing enterprises on the cheap through co-working — renting space that's often loft-like with communal copiers and espresso machines. The environment is more businesslike than a home office.

CubeSpace, a prominent co-working spot, failed in June. Among the company's workers is Reid Beels, 24, a free-lance Web designer and programmer. He said CubeSpace was ideal for Saturday "code sprints," exercises in problem-solving that drew together otherwise independent high-tech workers.

These days, Beels said, he's doing his free-lance business out of coffee shops.

"I've been living very cheaply lately," he said. "I've still been doing enough work to pay the bills."

'I'm hanging in'
Hanging on in Portland is a month-to-month decision for 26-year-old Julia Sexton, who is originally from Florida. She came to Portland a few years ago to help a family member get married, and she fell in love with the scenery and the scene. "I couldn't believe this exists, the place I want to live," she said.

Hoping to work in interior design and architecture, she moved here for good last year. But she got laid off from a job in the sales room of a furniture builder in January. She sold her car, cashed her tax refund and hung on with family help.

"My grandma is awesome," she said.

By early July, she was working part-time and had a portfolio under consideration by an architectural firm. Her application, she said, is one of 41.

"I'm hanging in," she said. "I know this month's rent is paid for."

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32143201/ns/us_news-life/page/2/

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Giveaway! Prints from Laura Trevey!

Laura Levey is giving away some lovely original watercolor prints this month!
Visit her blog and awesome shop on Etsy!

Here's how you can win: (The awesome part - Everyone Wins!!)

I will post a "Painting a Day" for the month of April... and YOU will receive a free limited edition watercolor print, just for checking in!! You will be guaranteed a free limited edition print at the end of the month. There is no drawing to see who wins... Everyone WINS!!

To Receive your print, Follow these 3 easy steps:

1. Follow my Blog

2. Comment on at least 5 "Paintings of the Day" during the month of April.

3. You may purchase your print of choice from my shop beginning May 1st. I will refund 100% of the cost. All you pay is the shipping!

Laura Trevey @ Etsy
Laura Trevey @ Blogspot

Thursday, April 2, 2009

DC / VA Area Upcoming Events!

Be sure to check out these cool events if you're in the DC / VA / MD area!

Spring Bada Bing presented by the Richmond Craft Mafia - April 19, 11-4pm @ Plant Zero in RVA

- I hope to get some swag bag goodies in the mail for this show early next week! Haven't decided on what I'm going to send yet but The Craft Mafia ladies are giving away swag bags to the first 250 people that attend! Be sure to get there early to grab a swag bag!

Hello Craft - Summit of Awesome - May 1 - 3, Washington DC - Convene, Learn, & Show at the Summit of Awesome - there will be tons of awesome seminars geared towards running your arts & crafts business, cool guest speakers, workshops, & the DC premiere of Handmade Nation.

Art-O-Matic - will be celebrating its 10th anniversary with an extra long show in Washington DC from May 29 - July 5th. A huge variety of artists, crafters, performers, & musicians, a must see!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Etsy Finds: Southern Charm @ Oh Kirby

Woodland Sprite Print by Oh Kirby

Maasai Princess Print by Oh Kirby

Mary Queen of Scots Pillow by Oh Kirby

Henreitte Original by Oh Kirby

Horatia Print $12 by Oh Kirby

Stumbled upon a very cute shop today - I love Oh Kirby's paintings & prints, very simple yet lovely! Visit Oh Kirby @ Etsy - kirby.etsy.com

Also don't forget to check out the Oh Kirby Blog @ ohkirby.blogspot.com
I hear she's having an awesome giveaway!

Friday, February 20, 2009

Men of Etsy : Eye Candy @ Gajillionaire

Meet Gajillionaire aka Brandon an independent artist from San Francisco, who has an awesome collection on Etsy full of beautiful pop art inpsired paintings & bright, vivid fine art photographs. His work has been featured in New York Times & Surface Magazine. Only one phrase really comes to mind when checking out Brandon's work - pure eye candy!

1. Tell me more! Who are you? Where are you? & What do you do?

My name is Seamus Brandon Kiel and I'm an artist who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. I've lived here for close to 14 years having moved here from New York City after graduating college at the University of Oklahoma. I began working as an artist full time about 5 years ago and am still chugging along.

2. I love your pop art paintings - A little pop, a little op, and a jolt of color. Your awesome technique & style reminds me of something I'd see displayed on hand painted surf boards or early skateboard graphics. Is there anything in particular that inspires your designs?

I love, love, love to research! I spend an inordinate amount of time in the stacks at the UC Berkeley and Stanford's libraries looking at Islamic architecture, Russian iconography, 1940's, 50's, and 60's design and graphics, surf and skate culture, hobo/tramp art, expensive foreign magazines, and basic graffiti (as San Francisco is a tag artist mecca). I process it all, digest it, and then send it back out through my own lens. I've found that the more I know and grow the more complicated my pieces become.

3. Your photos are lovely, you've been featured in many popular publications - can you tell me a little about your work for NY Times & Surface Magazine?

Limn Gallery in San Francisco carries the large sized, limited edition, more high-end cibachrome versions of these images and the New York Times found me through them. Surface Magazine had apparently seen something of mine that was installed in Milan and after a studio visit decided to do a story based on my work and background. Things have just slowly developed from there; I get contacted occasionally by a writer or editor either wanting more information or to cover the art in one aspect or another.

4. How'd you find Etsy & What made you want to open up shop?

I found Etsy one afternoon while looking to buy a gift for a notoriously temperamental friend. I googled "handmade art" and Etsy popped up. After being completely overwhelmed first by the depth of the pool I was then just bowled over by the intensity of craftsmanship and detail I saw in so many peoples work. It took me a bit of time to draw up the courage but I finally decided to dip my toe in the healing Etsy waters and have just been astonished by the reception and warmth of this community. If I am anything, it is detailed and meticulous about the work I produce and Etsy is a perfect environment for that. I'm surrounded by artisans and collectors who not only recognize but truly appreciate quality work.

5. Where else can we find your work? Online? B&M?

Well the hand painted "gajillionaire" pieces are only for sale right now through my studio and via Etsy. I have a more intricate version that involves photo collage and silkscreening that I may sell on here at some point but right now is only at Zinc Details in San Francisco. You can see those pieces online though at http://www.gajillionaire.com . The high end versions of my flower pieces are available at Limn Gallery in San Francisco, and William Switzer in Chicago and Miami.

I am an unapologetic art egalitarian and feel that everyone should have the ability to own *real* artwork that excites them and is well made. That's the main reason why I price my hand made pieces the way I do and why I produce small prints of my photography affordably. I completely believe that once you graduate college or get your first "real" job, in addition to shedding that lumpy futon, you should burn all your Monet, Ansel Adams, and Van Gogh posters. I think supporting real artists not only incorporates your aesthetic ideals in a more personal way but also involves you more deeply into your community. Buying a poster from Target will never be able to do that for you. Buy art from living artists.

6. If you could have lunch with any artist living or not, who would it be and why?

Oh wow, I love that question. I have too many really so I'll put together a lunch party. I'm obsessed with the 15th Century calligraphy of Maria Strick so she'd be there, Ross Bleckner more for his watercolors than anything else, Andy Warhol I think would be a great lunch partner, Louise Bourgeois for the glint in her eye and her straightforwardness, and Dan Flavin makes my heart expand so he'd have to be there. We'd have it at French Laundry and it would hopefully last until the kicked us out.

7. Please tell the blog audience 5 random facts!

I grew up on a farm in the Ouachita National Forest in a very remote part of southeastern Oklahoma now called Big Creek (the first reader to email me with what Big Creek is used to be known as can have a print of their choosing and I'll pay postage. Good luck.)

I spend a inordinate amount of time camping in the beautiful northern California wilderness. The more remote the better.

I'm getting married to the love of my life this July. I **cannot** wait!

I've been a Big Brother through Big Brothers/Big Sisters for close to 11 years now. My "little" is not so little anymore. He's just turned 18. That experience has been one of the best adventures I've ever undertaken. If you've ever thought about it, do it! You'll get so much out of it!

I love the work "hula hoop" spoken slowly in falsetto. It always makes me smile.

Find out more about Brandon & Gajillionaire:

http://gajillionaire.etsy.com
http://gajill.blogspot.com/
http://www.gajillionaire.com/

Hand Painted/Silkscreened Paintings on Poplar Wood with Epoxy Resin Glaze

Original $60

Original $60

Fine Art Photographs

Pincushion no. 53 Print $12.00

Matilda Poppy no. 33 - Sold!

Red Gerbera - SOLD!

Friday, February 6, 2009

V-day Spotlight : Cards, Art, & Love : JuliaAnna.etsy.com

Love is all you need Greeting Card Set by Juliaanna.etsy.com

Wish I were a Redhead 8 x 10 Print by Juliaanna.etsy.com

You & Me Greeting Card by JuliaAnna.etsy.com

Set of 4 Love Birds Cards by JuliaAnna.etsy.com

Find loads of cute V-day goodies, Prints, Cards, & Original Art by JuliaAnna from Detroit, MI. Her V-day goodies make me wanna write love notes! There's more where this came from - visit Julia Anna @ Etsy

Find more from Julia Anna here:

http://twitter.com/julieannart
http://www.flickr.com/photos/julieannart
http://julieannart.blogspot.com

If you're not shopping for V-day, buy this, because its awesome:

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Giveaway Goodies : I got mail from Moxie Photo & Design!

I have to say, I love free stuff, who doesn't? One fun way to try and score some awesome stuff is to enter blog giveaways, its a unique way to find other artists, for artists to promote themselves, and get some neat handcrafted or artsy goodies delivered to your mail box. I recently won a giveaway from Leah @ Moxie Photo & Design, her photos are beautiful and she has a neat variety of goodies @ her etsy store - photos, notebooks, mirrors, magnets, & more! I've been trying to find some neat picture frames thrifting but haven't come across any yet! I bought a few the other day just to bring them home and discover they were the wrong size, I suppose a should have measured! Silly me! The hunt is on and they will be hanging around the house as soon as I find some interesting and worthy frames! Here's my booty:

Leah is currently having another giveaway at her blog! Check it out here.
Be sure to find Leah & Moxie Photo on Etsy:

Photos & Goodies : http://moxiephotodesign.etsy.com
Vintage Goodies : http://moxiethrift.etsy.com

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Arts & Crafty: Budget-minded gifts at Etsy - latimesblogs.latimes.com

05:19 PM PT, Dec 5 2008

If you think of calendars as gifts that shout "I didn't know what to get you," check out these ideas from artisans at www.etsy.com.

Satsumalynn has a wall calendar inspired by Japanese textiles perfect for fans of letterpress. It's $44, and you can see a photo below. Another, CecilyInk had a $14 printed calendar, whose modern graphics in pumpkin, chartreuse and raspberry, sure to brighten the desk and mood of a co-worker. (Photo at right.)

Scouting around for deals on Etsy, you'll also find personalized teacher gift sets by saratams; a calendar that doubles as postcards by SureAsBlue; calendars with reminder lists by pixelimpress; and a letterpress calendar by SycamoreStreetPress that benefits orphans in Ethiopia. Also worth a look are artistscs28, InkspotWorkshop, pistachiopress and TurtlePapers (search for them under "sellers: usernames").

And if your list is bigger than your budget, try littlebrownpen, AnaPapeterie and bluetricycle. For $5, you get a PDF file that lets you print as many calendars as you need. They're perfect as party favors, too.

But don't wait too long to order. You'll find that supplies are limited.

— Jan Molen

Photo credits: Top, courtesy of CecilyInk. Bottom, courtesy of Satsumalynn.

Arts & Crafty: Budget-minded gifts at Etsy - latimesblogs.latimes.com

Arts & Crafty: Budget-minded gifts at Etsy

05:19 PM PT, Dec 5 2008

If you think of calendars as gifts that shout "I didn't know what to get you," check out these ideas from artisans at www.etsy.com.

But don't wait too long to order. You'll find that supplies are limited.

— Jan Molen

Photo credits: Top, courtesy of CecilyInk. Bottom, courtesy of Satsumalynn.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

District hopes to do well by doing good for artists - boston.com

By Kimberly Sanfeliz, Globe Correspondent | November 30, 2008

Amid the chain retailers hawking Christmas sweaters and mass-produced neckties, something new is sprouting this holiday season in Downtown Crossing.

Two local property owners, the Druker Co. and Northland Investment Corp., have donated four retail spaces along Washington and Bromfield streets to local artists, as part of the city's Downtown Crossing Economic Improvement Initiative. From the storefronts, the artists will sell their handmade wares - everything from sea-glass jewelry and children's clothing made from recycled men's shirts to hand-spun cotton figurine Christmas ornaments and photographs of Boston scenes - until Dec. 28.

Some 525 businesses call Downtown Crossing home, and about 230,000 pedestrians travel its streets per day, making it one of the largest shopping districts in the city. But the area is going through what Randi Lathrop, the Boston Redevelop ment Authority's deputy director for community planning, calls a transition period.

"This was the only shopping district for years" in Boston, said Lathrop, the brains behind the donated storefront plan. "It was going downhill."

The economic improvement initiative, launched by the BRA in 2004, was designed to reverse that pattern.

Though the number of empty storefronts is relatively low for the district, according to Lathrop, many are in its heart, where Winter and Summer streets cross Washington. The temporary art spaces, three on Washington Street and one on Bromfield, are prime real estate, and their visibility gives artists a chance to sell their pieces in a highly trafficked area beyond the niche market of galleries and weekend art shows.

Jessica Burko, a Jamaica Plain-based photographer and mixed-media artist, said that when the BRA approached her early this month with the offer of a space at 505 Washington St., she jumped at the chance. Burko is the founder of Boston Handmade, an almost 2-year-old collective of Massachusetts artists and crafts people who meet occasionally to network and who are all registered sellers on etsy.com, a crafts website.

Burko quickly moved to set up a bank account, get a postal box and credit-card machine, and put the word out to Boston Handmade members to staff the store during operating hours. The group spent the rest of the time renovating the space, which Burko described as "very raw."

"I was worried no one wanted to work, but I was wrong," she said.

The time crunch proved to be the main challenge for Jen Matson, who is responsible for the space at 34 Bromfield St. A board member of the United South End Artists, Matson said she was approached only about a week and a half ago. However, unlike the space Burko inherited, Matson's storefront once housed a Ritz Camera shop and was more retail ready, making it easier for the artists to move in. Matson is now focused on having the shop ready for the open house that each storefront is holding this Thursday.

Each of the four groups that received donated space - the other two are Alternate Currents at 604 Washington St., and JP Art Market at 439 Washington St. - is responsible for staffing its own store and being open, at a minimum, Thursdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Although the groups won't be charged rent, they must pay the electric bill and the cost of insurance. The artists keep 100 percent of the selling price.

"The expenses are going to be low, but it's a busy time of the year" for artists, Matson said. Many artists she works with spend December weekends at various art shows and are unable to leave their pieces in the store for long periods of time. "The main challenge is going to be coordinating everyone to staff and inventory the store."

Matson, a photographer, said despite the challenges, this project is a great opportunity for artists to reach out to a more diversified public and for shoppers to buy directly from the people who created a work they admire.

"Those of us who do art shows find that people really like meeting the artists," she said. "They love the story behind the art."

Kimberly Sanfeliz can be reached at ksanfeliz@globe.com.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Transforming Art Into a More Lucrative Career Choice - nytimes.com

By MARCI ALBOHER

Some artists have begun to figure out ways to make money and make art — aiming to end the notion that “starving” and “artist” are necessarily linked.

Rather than seeing art as something to pursue in the hours when they are not earning a living, these artists are developing businesses around their talents. These artists are part of a growing movement that has caught the attention of business experts and is being nudged along by both art and business schools.

Living in the Internet era has certainly helped.

Claudine Hellmuth, for example, said that when she graduated from the Corcoran College of Art in Washington in 1997, career options for artists were limited. “You could teach, or do outdoor festivals, maybe get into a gallery,” she said.

At the encouragement of her mother, she took an intensive summer course in Web programming and design at George Washington University and then returned home to Florida, where she found work as an online designer. All along, she continued to paint on the side, thinking that her day jobs would support her. A layoff in 2001 proved to be a turning point.

“I now had the skills to use the Internet to my advantage,” she said. “I am so thankful that I left the art world for a little while.” With a little Web savvy, she says, it is relatively easy for artists to reach a global marketplace for their work.

In a blog post on the American Express Open Forum, Steve King, a small business expert with Emergent Research, cited Ms. Hellmuth as an example of trends that are creating new opportunities for artist entrepreneurs.

Mr. King said he discovered Ms. Hellmuth after her name kept coming up in interviews with artists for research his firm was conducting on artist entrepreneurs. Ms. Hellmuth’s success stems in part from the way she has created multiple revenue streams. She has an online store on Etsy.com, a Web portal where artists sell their work. She does custom illustrations for customers using photographs they provide. She licenses her artwork for greeting cards, calendars and other products. She has written two books about her techniques and has a third one coming out. She tours the country teaching both business and art workshops. And last summer she partnered with Ranger Industries to manufacture a line of products including paintbrushes, paints and canvases.

“When I am making the custom artwork for people, there are only so many pieces I can make in a week, so it really limits the amount of income I can make,” she said. By expanding into books and licensing deals for products, “then you have the potential to make a living.”

Through her business, Ms. Hellmuth said, she contributes an equal share of the household income as her husband, who works on the technology side of newspaper publishing.

Art schools, too, are starting to step in. At the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Fla., students can now major or minor in a program called “The Business of Art and Design.” Larry Thompson, the school’s dean, said he was inspired to create the program when he read about Dan Pink’s book, “A Whole New Mind,” which popularized the notion that artists, especially those who can marry left and right brain skills, the analytical and the creative, will be in high demand in the coming years.

“I am committed to destroying the myth of the starving artist,” Mr. Thompson said.

Alexander Niles, 14, a high school freshman in Miami with dreams of making it big as a musician, is young to be focused on making a living. But he has already become an entrepreneur.

It all began by accident, he said. He was late in handing in his choices for elective classes and landed in a course on business. For an assignment to write a business plan, he turned to his passion, guitars, and decided to create a business building custom guitars for other people, something he had already done for himself.

After refining his idea in class, Mr. Niles entered his business plan into a local competition sponsored by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship and captured the grand prize for South Florida, which allowed him to compete in a national competition in New York this fall.

The price for his guitars starts at about $2,000, and he expects to make a profit of around $700 a guitar. So far, he has made four, including one for a former instructor, Alex Fox, a flamenco guitarist who has endorsed Mr. Niles’s company. Mr. Niles has set up a Web site, but he does not plan to start filling orders until he has lined up other endorsements, finished his YouTube video and started establishing his brand through an advertising campaign.

Though Mr. Niles has years of school ahead of him, he said he planned to tend to both his music and his business along the way.

“If I make it as a musician, then my guitars will go for way higher than I planned,” he said, citing the example of Brian May of the band Queen who built his own guitar out of firewood with his father.

Mr. Niles and Ms. Hellmuth have learned on their own what Elliot McGucken teaches in his course, Artist Entrepreneurs, which he developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a grant from the Kauffman Foundation. Mr. McGucken’s course, now taught at Pepperdine University, rests on the principle that those who create art should have the skills to own it, profit from it and protect it.

“It’s about how to make your passion your profession, your avocation your vocation, and to make this long-term sustainable,” he said.

Tristan Hummel, 22, a senior at the Art Institute of Chicago, said he wanted to help create a world where artists could do art as their primary practice and still make a living. Three years ago, after reading that Chicago’s El trains were available for rent, he got the idea to bring artists together to create an art show on wheels. This fall, his idea came to fruition with “Art on Track,” an eight-train car on the orange line that traveled Chicago’s loop while displaying the work of more than 200 emerging artists.

Mr. Hummel now has several other proposals in process, including one to turn a 16-story garage into a sod-covered hanging garden art fair. “Hundreds of artists I know are working hard to cope with the fact that art is traded and sold in a medieval way where artists don’t get to determine the price and what kind of work they create.”

So are these artists selling out by turning to business for the answers?

Absolutely not, Mr. Niles said. “Yes, playing music is mostly about the art. But it’s important to think about what you’re going to do with it. You can play it in a bar, or you can be striving to take it to the top.”

Monday, October 20, 2008

HIP TO BE HOMEMADE ; Do-It-Yourself Art is Suddenly Cool With the Eruption of Sites Such As Etsy - istockanalyst.com

Sunday, October 19, 2008 1:56 PM

(Source: Albuquerque Journal) tracking

By Amanda Schoenberg Journal Staff Writer

Call it craft. Or do-ityourself art. Maybe independent design. Whatever the lingo, Albuquerque is buzzing with folks making everything from vintage-inspired note cards and crocheted hats to costume jewelry by hand.

If that sounds like a lot of country ducks and crocheted doilies, think again. Locals are taking traditional crafts and giving them a modern twist. That can mean handmade bags with zombie designs or vintage cards with caustic phrases.

Most craft in their off hours for creative release and extra cash. Many write blogs detailing their latest projects.

Crafters agree that the popular Web site Etsy.com has something to do with the craze.

Just ask Anneliese Steen. The executive at the New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union started making jewelry when her doctor suggested she needed to find a hobby to reduce stress. A few pretty beads quickly turned into a house full of turquoise.

Before she knew it, Steen was selling her wares on Etsy, an online marketplace for handmade items. "Etsy's been phenomenal," she says. "It allows you to turn your pastime into something that isn't a money pit."

Etsy explosion

At Etsy, sellers have profile pages where buyers see their work. Like eBay, the site earns a portion of proceeds.

Touring Etsy's handmade designs can be overwhelming or exhilarating, depending on your tolerance for Web browsing. There are more than 500 Etsy sellers in the Albuquerque area and 1,250 in New Mexico, according to Etsy spokesman Adam Brown.

So far in 2008, more than 3.3 million items have been sold on the site, harnessing the growing market of handmade, do-it-yourself accessories, clothes and home dcor.

The Etsy world is young, educated and employed. About 96 percent of buyers and sellers are women. The average age of sellers is about 35. Most are college graduates who consider themselves parttime artisans.

Albuquerque jewelry designer Alison Armstrong, 34, who creates bright baubles with names like "Celebrity Meltdown" and "Swooning in the Cha-Cha Lounge," says Etsy has changed the market locally and worldwide.

"I don't know of a crafter who hasn't opened up an Etsy shop, and quite a few artists operate only an Etsy shop and don't have a 'traditional' Web site," she writes in an e-mail.

But Etsy's popularity can make it difficult for jewelry sellers to stand out, Armstrong says. Others say many inexperienced sellers price their wares so low it is difficult for other artists who make a living off their work.

Physicist-cum-milliner

Spring Griffin, 33, a freelance writer and mixedmedia artist, is doing her part to kick the local craft scene into high gear.

Etsy: eBay for arts and crafts - guardian.co.uk

Etsy, the website which provides an online marketplace for artists and crafters to sell their handmade goods, has proved hugely popular since launching three years ago. It now boasts more than 1.3 million members and has even been touted as a potential successor to eBay.

But in an interview with the Guardian's Tech Weekly podcast, chief executive Maria Thomas said the company needs to focus on a number of challenges before it can reach its potential.

Among the problems she highlighted was fraud, which has been a growing concern for the site's buyers and sellers. In recent weeks there have been a number of accusations that unscrupulous vendors are passing off other people's handmade work as their own – an allegation that the site's community of artisans and crafters take very seriously.

"It's an important question and one that Etsy going to have to get smarter on," Thomas said. "We're still a relatively small enterprise – certainly compared to eBay – but that doesn't make the question less important."

Fraud has become a major issue the web's leading marketplace site, eBay, but Thomas – a former executive at Amazon and US radio broadcaster NPR – said that it was something that Etsy needed to understand properly before it became a far bigger problem.

"We have to learn from eBay and Amazon about planning for the long term. We're going to be investing and learning around the issue of fraud. Etsy will, as a venue, do the best we possibly can to prevent those things from happening."

Based in Brooklyn, New York, Etsy started in 2005 as the brainchild of college dropout Rob Kalin and friends. Early backing came from angel investors and the Manhattan-based Union Square Ventures, but earlier this year the company took part in a $27m funding round led by Accel Partners. Thomas joined shortly afterwards as chief operating officer and soon replaced Kalin as CEO.

She said that the company would continue bringing in new staff to boost its team, which also includes chief technology officer Chad Dickerson – a former Yahoo executive who spent three years working in the company's advanced products division.

"We need some people who have experience working with consumer-facing internet sites and building to scale," Thomas said. "Chad is among the first of what will probably be several hires."

Etsy makes money by charging for listings and taking a small commission on every sale. Its members have bought and sold $56m of goods so far this year.

Monday, September 8, 2008

The Ambassador of Handmade

By PENELOPE GREEN

MILWAUKEE

THE entrepreneurial spirit of the modern crafts girl should not be underestimated. Faythe Levine, a 30-year-old gallerist, collector, maker and all-around booster of the indie-D.I.Y. crafts movement began six years ago with some sock monkeys and a handstitched felt owl.

Today, Ms. Levine, whose tattooed arms are twined with more hearts, flowers and lettering than a crewelwork sampler, is the proprietor of a crafts store and gallery, as well as the prime documentarian and patron saint of what she calls the handmade nation. She is cited in academic journals, quoted in magazines and newspapers, appears on TV and has been a keynote speaker at arts symposiums.

Back in 2002, however, Ms. Levine was a sometime artist who made punk rock zines. That year, she organized an art show of sock monkeys in her home, sock monkeys being universally appealing objects requiring not much medium, she explained, mostly just socks. She had 80 submissions, most of which sold.

The next year, she began making stuffed felt owls and selling them online; the success of the business — she had orders for 200 at a time — wreaked havoc on her neck and back. Before long, she found herself knee-deep in the alt-crafts world, attending its Lollapalooza-like events and becoming a part of a tight, mostly female, quasi-political community.

“I was going to all these fairs and I remember thinking: Something big is happening. This has to be documented,” Ms. Levine said. “People were writing about it, magazines were starting,” she said, referring to publications like ReadyMade, which started in 2001 and contained projects like Slayer T-shirt pillows, as well as newer magazines like Make and Craft.

“Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft and Design,” a feature-length documentary that she financed largely on credit cards, will be shown at festivals and museums early next year. The film (handmadenationmovie.com), which has a cute-spooky soundtrack by Ms. Levine’s band, Wooden Robot (that’s Ms. Levine on the musical saw), portrays the handiwork of groups like Houston-based Knitta (which ties knitted “graffiti” tubes around street lamps) and Jenny Hart’s Sublime Stitching company in Austin (which produces and sells embroidery patterns of space aliens, hypodermic needles and human organs).

It is a sweet-toned record of a new and growing community, one with its own esthetic, lifestyle and economy. “If you don’t like the culture you’re in,” said one young woman at the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago, voicing the movement’s anti-industrial, anti-institutional and highly entrepreneurial manifesto, “you have to create your own.”

An eight-minute teaser that Ms. Levine posted on YouTube in 2006 caught the attention of the Princeton Architectural Press, which commissioned a book, out this month, with the same title as the film. (Ms. Levine wrote it with her friend Cortney Heimerl, another crafter and curator.)

As of this week, the YouTube teaser has had nearly 90,000 views. Meanwhile Etsy (etsy.com), the online department store for the D.I.Y. set, which claims to have had a million users since 2005, recently received a cash infusion of $27 million from a group of investors led by Accel Partners, a venture capital group that has also invested in Facebook.

Home stores like Urban Outfitters and, to a lesser extent, West Elm, continue to limn the handmade look — the woodland creatures, the deadpan-delicate drawings of nature scenes, “the whole cuteness factor,” as Ms. Levine put it — in many of their products.

Back in Milwaukee, though, Ms. Levine is just trying to pay the rent, cheerfully juggling commitments that sometimes help her do that and sometimes don’t: band practice; an artist’s residency; independent curating; the “Handmade Nation” book tour (Princeton Architectural Press is printing 20,000 copies, a huge number for the house); and other speaking engagements.

Then there’s the administration of Art vs. Craft, the crafts fair she started here in 2004, and running the Paper Boat Boutique and Gallery, a store she owns with a friend, Kim Kisiolek, which sells handmade objects.

She’d like to pay off those credit cards, too ($30,000 would about do it, she said).

For a year and a half, Ms. Levine and her boyfriend, Nathan Lilley, a guitar player in an indie rock band, have been living in a large, airy apartment above the store, in a hundred-year-old brick building that used to house a bar, once the requisite business on nearly every corner of her working-class neighborhood.

The apartment is filled with her “addictions,” as she calls her collections of handmade books, zines, records, paintings, drawings, Outsider art and objects like a crocheted anatomical heart by Merrilee Challiss, an Alabama artist, and a hand-stitched stuffed yellow lion she bought for $50 at a store called ReForm School in Los Angeles.

On a recent afternoon, Ms. Levine wore cowboy boots and a vintage Liberty print dress, its demure flowers a counterpoint to her extensive body art, much of it paid for by bartering artwork. This particular collection — of tattoos — was started when she was 17.

“I’m lucky my taste hasn’t changed,” she said, pulling off a boot to reveal her latest, a zebra face with a circus headdress that had been inked onto her left calf and was still a bit scabby.

The surface area of one’s skin provides a built-in limit for the collector of tattoos. If one collects three-dimensional objects, however, one is limited only by the ability to pay for storage.

“I have enough for four houses,” Ms. Levine said. “In dreamland, I would open a museum.” She pointed out some of her favorite objects, like a picture by Mike Brodie, a train-hopping photographer, “of my friend Jessie’s shack, which she built from garbage in North Carolina” and a sequined coyote pelt hanging over her bed. (“Sequined taxidermy, how awesome is that!”)

On a linoleum table in the dining room, a mushroom-bedecked vase, crocheted doily and assemblage of tiny carved wooden critters offered the complete ironic-cute dialectic that is the visual arsenal of the modern D.I.Y. esthetic.

“My whole place is saturated in it,” she admitted.

Ms. Levine grew up in Los Angeles and Seattle, with parents who were as much at home in the alternative world as she. Her father, Rick Merlin Levine, is an astrologer whose work is syndicated to AOL and Google; her mother, Suzanne Wechsler, is an organic dairy farmer.

“They were always pretty supportive of any creative urge I had,” Ms. Levine said.

Her “gateway drug” into the handmade life, she said, was the zine culture of the underground punk rock scene. That world, with its vegan anarchist collective restaurants and plywood punk houses, its handmade record covers and hand-lettered, stapled newsletters, and its network of fans connected by old-world skills like letter writing, was a Luddite’s paradise of 21st-century homemakers and do-it-yourselfers.

“Everything is mass-produced,” Ms. Levine said. “Here were these people doing things the hard way, making these amazing things. It was the incredibly awesome idea that people were taking the time to do this, and that I could do it, too.”

The democratic world view of the modern crafter — the unschooled, technique-and-judgment-free energy of it all — is what pulls many in. “I’m no seamstress, I can’t hem anything, and I’m too impatient to learn how to knit or crochet,” Ms. Levine said, “but I love just stitching.”

It is also what irritates old-school craftspeople, those who might have come out of the American studio crafts movement of the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. Yet their ideals are the same, according to Andrew Wagner, the editor of American Craft magazine, which redesigned itself last year in an attempt to bridge the two worlds.

Mr. Wagner, a founding editor of Dwell magazine, went on to say, “It’s still about working outside the mainstream, and making a living doing what you love. We saw this huge new movement, which Faythe is cast as sort of the poster child for, and it and the old guard weren’t communicating.”

There was, Mr. Wagner said, some real hostility: “The old guard was saying: It took me 20 years to master my craft, and these kids think they can start by just stitching owls.”

“It would be incorrect to say there’s nothing of quality coming out of the D.I.Y. world,” he continued, “but what they bring to the table is what’s important. Their energy is infectious, which is why I call D.I.Y. the punk rock of the craft world.”

In the current issue of American Craft, an article titled “DIY Grows up: The Political Power of the Do-It-Yourself Movement,” chews over the state of the crazy quilt it has become: the fairs awash in money from corporate sponsors, the huge market for the objects sold there and the confusion that has arisen for the makers.

Is a handmade object still subversive if buyers are willing to pay more for it than the maker could afford to pay herself? Do the tight bonds of the community and its micro-economies trump the appetite of mainstream culture for the authenticity those bonds and economies represent?

“The handmade look is definitely a trend everywhere, from the art world to the stores,” Ms. Levine said. “But I think it helps the community, because someone can go to Urban Outfitters and then to a craft fair and relate that look back. It makes it all stronger.”

Still, she said, “I do understand the turn-offs. If you see 100 owls, it’s hard not to get annoyed and bitter.”

Ms. Levine, who receives hundreds of submissions from makers who want to be shown in her gallery, does see a lot of owls. “But even when I turn people down,” she said, “I want to send a message: Don’t stop. What matters is that people keep making things.”

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Hipster Hunting Ground - nytimes.com

July 13, 2008
Surfacing | Valencia Street, San Francisco
Hipster Hunting Ground
By GREGORY DICUM

SOME 15 years ago, Valencia Street was a forbidding mix of auto body shops, papered-over storefronts and hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Despite a smattering of Victorian houses and lesbian bars, few outsiders were drawn to this grungy edge of San Francisco’s Mission District.

Then came the dot-com money. Trendy coffeehouses arrived. Hip boutiques opened next to cool bars. And now the wide, low-slung street has become a gathering spot for the city’s latest breed of cool-hunting hipsters.

During the day, Valencia Street is alive with the kind of fashionable, do-it-yourself types who subscribe to ReadyMade magazine and shop at organic farmers’ markets. You’ll see them foraging for clever, handmade crafts at the Curiosity Shoppe (No. 855; 415-671-5384; www.curiosityshoppeonline.com), which carries items like coffee holders knitted from yarn ($18), deer heads carved out of wood ($450) and skeleton keys fashioned out of porcelain ($40).

Across the street is Paxton Gate (No. 824; 415-824-1872; www.paxtongate.com), a goth wunderkammer that carries an assortment of Japanese garden tools, mounted insects and animal skulls. And at Five and Diamond (No. 510; 415-255-9747; www.fiveanddiamond.com), a new boutique and tattoo parlor with a Gypsy carnival bohemian décor, display cases are filled with so-called “organic jewelry” and rings made from human bones.

A similar, back-to-nature aesthetic informs Valencia Street’s stylish new restaurants. Dosa (No. 995; 415-642-3672; www.dosasf.com), a bright and modern restaurant, marries traditional South Indian cuisine with fresh California ingredients. Named after the crepelike pancake, Dosa draws a lively crowd of Indian software engineers and tattooed musicians and artist types. Favorite dishes include chatni masala dosa (spicy eggplant chutney and creamy spiced potatoes, $10.50) and rava masala dosa (spiced Indian potatoes, onions and cashews, $11).

Down the block is Spork (No. 1058; 415-643-5000; www.sporksf.com), a retro-modern diner housed in a former Kentucky Fried Chicken. Instead of fast-food fried chicken, Spork turns out slow-food favorites like grass-fed beef burger ($14), Kona Kampachi sashimi ($13) and mussels and slow-roasted pork ($18).

The neighborhood cafe is Ritual Coffee Roasters (No. 1026; 415-641-1024; www.ritualcoffeeroasters.com), where the baristas take their beans very seriously. The crowd might include Web techies pecking on their MacBooks (Flickr founders held their early meeting at the long table) to pierced activists who wouldn’t be caught dead at a Starbucks.

At night, everyone seems to head to Amnesia (No. 853; 415-970-0012; www.amnesiathebar.com), an intimate, bordello-red lounge that serves a wide array of microbrews, wines and cocktails made from Korean soju. A small stage features a truly eclectic musical mix, including bluegrass, indie rock, jazz and Persian psychedelic.

Like the street itself, the bar’s lineup is full of surprises.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

New Arts Festival Aims to Get Away from the Traditional - Sungazette.net Washington, DC

by LAURA MANSILLA, Staff Writer

(Created: Friday, July 18, 2008 10:14 AM EDT)

Christine Stoddard is the organizer of the Neo-Indie Arts Festival, which will take place July 26 at Thomas Jefferson Community Center.

Many teens possess copious raw creative talent, but the opportunities to display it seem few and far between.

The Neo-Indie Arts Festival, which will take place on Saturday, July 26 at the Thomas Jefferson Community Center, hopes to change this.

Sponsored by Simply Lark Press, the festival is an alternative media outlet, and will feature the work and performances of local teens. Registration is still open to those who want to submit their art or sign up to perform their music.

Admission will be free, although participants are encouraged to bring spending money for the various jewelry and crafts that will be available.

“I noticed that there wasn't a festival that catered to underground arts or [was] geared towards teenagers. This is, hopefully, a way to highlight and emphasize some of their work,” said Christine Stoddard, an interdisciplinary artist and president of Simply Lark Press, who co-founded the festival along with Daly Martinez.

Stoddard dreamed up the idea for the festival while she was, appropriately, in an art class at Grinnell College.

“I tend to brainstorm a lot, and just thought, ‘Why not?'” she said.

Stoddard immediately contacted her friend, Martinez, who thought it was a great idea, and the idea began to evolve over time.

However, making the idea a reality wasn't easy. Funding was the biggest issue for the duo to face, as money for printing and advertising was difficult to obtain.

Finding a location to hold the event also proved problematic. But Stoddard and Martinez contacted local businesses and schools, and arrangements finally were made. The festival, which started out as a mere daydream, had become an actual event.

Highlights of the festival will include a Battle of the Bands, a 'zine-making workshop and a marketplace, which will feature alternative and do-it-yourself crafts.

“We're trying to get away from traditional, mainstream art to emphasize what is underground and interesting - even radical,” Stoddard said.

A fashion show also is in the works, depending on whether or not a sufficient number of designers contributes to the festival. And for those who want to grab a bite to eat, local students will be selling food as part of a fund-raiser.

From what Stoddard has seen, Arlington doesn't have a defined and consolidated art scene, compared to bigger cities like New York or Chicago. This is why it is so important for Arlington to emphasize the talent of its young people, she said.

Although the focus is on the younger set, the festival is open to people of all ages and welcomes the attendance of families.

“We want this to become a tradition,” says Stoddard. “So, I plan to hand out surveys and include a raffle drawing, as well. There is no way to gauge how many people will show up, but if we have at least one hundred, I'd be willing to try again.”

For more information on the festival or to register as an artist or performer, contact Stoddard at simplylark@gmail.com.