This time of year usually brings in the biggest sales. Whether your sales are being affected by the economy or not, you should be keeping records of what items are selling and what’s not. Over time, measuring your sales by item details will help you learn where your strongest growth in income will come in [...]
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Getting written about in magazines and newspapers can bring you lots of extra business. Marcia and Bill Finks create handcrafted figures from rusted steel. Their pieces have appeared in numerous national publications. Their pieces were in Robert Redford’s Sundance Catalog and their art has appeared on Oprah, House and Garden Network and the popular TV [...] Someone asked me what a fiber artist did, since I was using that descriptor. I told them that the term fiber artist sounded more exotic than weaver. It’s a small promotional edge but hey, every little bit helps. How are you describing your craft business venture? Maybe adding the word artist will dress it up [...] Life’s a circle. Years ago, I left a good, but boring job, to take up weaving and selling crafts at craft shows and to craft stores. I began writing books on starting a craft business which led to creating a publishing venture and then traveling around to speak to groups of craft artists needing help [...] Otis has been awarded a $130,000 grant from The Getty Foundation to create the Woman’s Building project as part of “Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980,” the largest collaborative initiative ever undertaken by museums in the region. The Woman’s Building was a major site of feminist art activity, especially during the 1970s, and has a significant role in art history. Research will begin in 2009, culminating in a scholarly exhibit and catalogue in 2012. It will include roundtable discussions among scholars and artists who took part; a timeline and a list of artists involved; and Otis educational programs connected to the exhibition. Leading the project are artists Sue Maberry and Meg Linton of [...] says Edward Gunts in the Baltimore Sun (10/30/08). The planned Charles North renewal area includes the state-designated Station North arts-and-entertainment district. Planners see it as more than “a typical neighborhood revitalization struggle”; they envision the area the way it was 100 years ago – as a regional center. In addition to new housing, shopping and park areas and “Asia Town,” plans include a design district where architects, planners, artists and others could have offices, showrooms, galleries and meeting space; a center for design students working on urban projects, shared by MICA, Morgan State University and and U. of Maryland; and high-density housing, including a “live-work-study tower.” (Thanks, Cultural Policy [...] The awards were presented by BCA, FORBES Magazine and Americans for the Arts on October 30, 2008, at a black-tie gala at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. This national list was initiated by BCA in 2005 to recognize ten companies that have exhibited exemplary recent support through grants, volunteer programs, matching gifts, local partnerships, sponsorships and board membership. The Ten for 2008 are: Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Houston; Brown-Forman Corporation, Louisville; Emprise Bank, Wichita; First Tennessee, Memphis; H&R Block, Inc., Kansas City; Limited Brands, Inc., Columbus; Northwestern Mutual, Milwaukee; Sweetwater Sound, Inc., Fort Wayne; Wachovia, Charlotte; and Zions First National Bank, Salt Lake City. Read online about their contributions to the arts in their [...] The show is an installation featuring portraits of 11 young San Francisco writers who developed their poetic voices in WritersCorps, a creative-writing program serving 15,000 urban youth. throughout the city since 1994. Visitors to the gallery can view short films, listen to audio recordings, respond to writing prompts and even exhibit their own writing. Multimedia artist Katharine Gin and sound artist Kjell Nordeson have been working with the poets for a year to create the portraits. The show runs November 7, 2008-January 24, 2009, with a reception November 13. You can watch a four-minute trailer of the films on the WritersCorps Web [...] It’s part of a project by SAF that includes a publication and a multimedia Web site based on collected stories about the experiences of Latino immigrants. The exhibition shows in Durham, N.C., November 13, 2008–January 4, 2009, in the Krebs Gallery at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, a partner on the project. Immigrants illuminate their reasons for coming to the U.S. and the obstacles they face once they arrive. In particular, the project focuses on farmworker families in the Carolinas and their dreams for the future, their traditions, their educational aspirations and their challenges as they try to pursue higher education. A November 13 panel discussion includes project participants who shared their stories and those who documented [...] Tune in on the Web to listen to Cook talk to WUNC’s Frank Stasio on “The State of Things” about “Face Up: Telling Stories of Community Life,” a documentary/public art project that grew out of local conversations about neighborhood goals in Southwest Central Durham. The project blended an artist’s residency with collaborative documentary exploration and art making in community settings. Cook was a visiting artist at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies and he joined Stasio on September 12, 2008, to talk about the intersection between art and social [...] Bill Ivey, former chair of the NEA and newly appointed head of the Obama transition team for arts and culture, will join AftA Government Affairs staff, national arts leaders and elected officials for the Webinar, beginning at 2 p.m. The online seminar will include a review of possible cultural-policy direction at the White House, the newly elected members of Congress and the changes in state leadership and ballot initiatives. The Webinar is free to AftA members; $125 for others. Also, on the AftA Action Fund site you can send a letter of congratulations to the new Obama administration and appeal to them to begin working on their campaign pledges in support of the arts and arts [...] Blessed Unrest Paul Hawken, one of the wisest men on earth in my opinion, has published a new book that I’ve just finished reading. Titled Blessed Unrest, the book describes the convergence of the environmental and social justice movements, and “how the largest movement in the world came into being.” I’m consistently looking to update the blog posts here about craft business related matters. So you’ll notice that some of the posts on selling crafts, finding craft shows, art in public places and other topics of interest to craft makers will now show a variety of contributors. If you have a blog about craft business [...] “We may, just possibly, also see a time of refreshing openness, enlightenment and creativity. The arts and the artists will not be seen as the enemy. Perhaps art will be explored in order to discover the greater truths. When FDR was ushered in with his landslide in 1932, what followed was Frank Capra and Preston Sturgis, Woody Guthrie and John Steinbeck, Dorothea Lange and Orson Welles. All week long I have been inundated with media asking me, ‘gee, Mike, what will you do now that Bush is gone?’ Are they kidding? What will it be like to work and create in an environment that nurtures and supports film and the arts, science and invention, and the freedom to be whatever you want to be? Watch a thousand flowers bloom! We’ve entered a new era, and if I could sum up our collective first thought of this new era, it is this: Anything Is [...] Snoflake and Dagg and Stacey would like to invite you to a TRUNK SHOWhosted by Nathalie-Roze & Co.Date: Thursday November 10, 2008Time: 5:30-9:00 pmLocation: 1015 Queen St. E at Pape (map)Contact: 416-792-1699 | info@nathalie-roze.comThe [...] IMPORTANT DATESSubmissions Accepted: Oct. 1 – Nov. 15, 2008Exhibition: Dec. 6 – Jan. 4, 2009Opening Reception & Awards: Dec. 6, 2008 @ 1 PMRules & Regulations: www.whitbystationgallery.comOnce a year Whitby’s art gallery has a special [...] Cedar Ridge Creative Centre [...] The Craft Revival website is headquartered at Western Carolina University. Anna Fariello, leader of the state-funded project, says visitors to the site are finding a large archive of materials from the Craft Revival of the late 1800s and early 1900s. She says. “Without the Craft Revival, much of the work of the mountain crafts [...] CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS/DONATIONS:Precious Gems and Cedar Ridge Creative Centre invite artists to donate work for a fundraising silent art auction. We are requesting donations of fibre art, jewelry, stained glass, photography, paintings, drawings, mixed [...] On November 8 and 9, New Hampshire Made, a statewide organization promoting products will cosponsor the first New Hampshire Open Doors, a statewide, self-guided tour of open studios, workshops, retail shops, wineries, restaurants, and other businesses that showcase products grown or made in the Granite State. See NHOpenDoors.com for more details. Find more craft festivals and [...] There are many ways to sell your crafts. Here is a list of possibilities: 1. Sell crafts on eBay.com and Etsy.com Dear Sellers! Below you’ll find a handy index of all the useful How-Tos about Selling on Etsy. We’re calling it the Seller Handbook. We’ll be adding all new how-tos for sellers to this index. You can also search the Storque tags for “Seller Handbook” for a chronological list of all our published how-tos related to Selling. Your Shop 101: How-Tos for Getting Started on Etsy
Alchemy and Custom/Reserved Listing How-Tos
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 [photo by missplum]Advertising How-Tos
 [photo by Earmark]Business and Pricing How-Tos
 [image by NewDuds]Promoting & Marketing How-Tos
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 [image by MiNDJACKET]Social Networking, Blogging, Podcasting & Video-making How-Tos
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 [image by iheartmoustaches]All about Etsy & Site Features
Comment below and let us know what other topics would be helpful for sellers! If you’d like to write a how-to for the Seller Handbook, pitch to the Storque editors. [...] The second video in the series “The 10 Most Asked Questions About Selling Crafts Here’s the text from the video to help you get your [...] | |||||
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