Archive for the ‘Craft business topics’ Category

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Playtime at the craft zoo

Saturday, March 5th, 2011

Well, not really. But sometimes when I’m experiment mode, I do feel like a little monkey. Just trying things.

I’m working on a new range of pieces, but still need to crack the method of fulfilling my vision. I decided to look at Shrink Plastic, it’s something I’ve had my eye on for a while, because it’s a flexible material that results in a strong acrylic flat piece.

What is it?

Basically it sold in sheets, about the thickness of 300gram paper, and you draw/ stamp onto it. Then you pop it into the oven and it shrinks (between 7 and 9 times) depending on which brand you use.

Attempts

My first attempt was an unmitigated disaster, I did not put it onto a baking tray and it overcooked. My dear husband says it looks like demon spawn and I have to agree. Anyway, this morning I had much better luck with it.

Shrink plastic steps

As you can see, there is still a lot of work. But I had a very enjoyable and productive day. I even got to draw a bit, something I haven’t done in an age.

Posted in Design process, Experiments, Process | 154 Comments »

Playtime: Balancing discipline and fun when running a craft business

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

My favourite part of the design process is to make prototypes. It suits my personality. I’m a dreamer and I like to figure things out. The problem is that often results in a lot of half-finished projects.

Last year my personal focus was to finish things. But knowing myself I also started building in a bit of playtime into my schedule every day.

The importance of playtime

Creativity

It’s the equivalent of staring at clouds. It may not look like you’re doing work but your brain runs in the background and all of a sudden, bam! New ideas start pouring out.

Improving skills

With this one I draw the analogy to the importance of play in the development of mammals. Similarly to, say, a lion cub, learning to hunt while playing. Playtime is important to me in developing my skills as an artist.

Note: this is quite a big field of study, so I apologise for the passing reference.

Failure

A.K.A Lessen self-imposed pressure. The short of it is, you’re not setting your expectations to finish something that’s polished enough to sell. Because you don’t worry too much about the end product you focus on the process and learn something along the way. (If you’re lucky.) Worst case scenario – you had some fun.

Evolution

It’s important to the evolution of your work. If you always consider yourself to be ‘on the clock’ while creating it stifles the progress of your work.

My playtime

Today I spent my playtime prototyping some bracelet clasps.

  • I’m really happy with how it turned out.
  • My idea’s evolved – I know how to make my rivets invisible now. It’ll look better.
  • The catch is a bit short, so I need to tweak that for comfort
  • I’m testing the piece. I know it’s easy to open and close with one hand.
  • I used to be a rubbish riveter. But I’ve been practising a lot. This was however the first time I riveted metal onto a soft object. So it was good to play around with the rivets to see how much leeway I have with leather.

I’ve been struggling to get some of my other bracelet designs to work. This base piece will solve those problems and hopefully I can turn those ideas into beautiful pieces now that I’ve figured this base design out.

Now, I really hope my new copper solder will arrive tomorrow. Because it will look so much better if the catch is soldered on.

The best thing about it? This one belongs me! Mwaahahahaa.

Posted in Craft business topics, My stuff, Process | 66 Comments »

Self belief. 2011 – the obligatory resolutions

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

Right. I’m not a fan of setting myself milestones when I have a choice. Instead I give the year a theme. For 2011 my theme is:

—  self belief —

I should explain. I have a strong belief in my work, creativity, intelligence and experience – but a tendency to be self-deprecating. Too much:

  • Oh, *I* like this, but will it sell
  • I make beautiful jewellery but won’t be able to make a living from it

I’m just going to stop it and say: ‘success is the result of sheer effort of will‘ instead.

Changing your mindset is a good start, but you also need to change habits and set goals.

Changing habits

1. STOP procrastinating.

2. Do the necessary first
Pack and ship orders then do the rest of your list.

3. Focus on what makes money but love the process of making.
I love making things/ having new ideas / working on websites – but neglect focusing on making money.  Perfectly fine if you’re independantly wealthy but not if you want to make a living from it. It’s a means to an end – not the end itself.

4. Plan ahead
Write a business plan (if you don’t have one) with marketing, online and product strategies. Redefine and evaluate if you have one. Do a little diagram and put it on your studio wall to help you see the big picture. Include timelines and profit goals on another piece of paper and put that up too.

5. Make daily to-do lists and order items by importance.
Compare it with your overall goals and strategies so that you don’t get lost.

6. Do things you don’t like first
That means doing it just after the necessary, like packing orders.

7. Connect and build a support network

I’ve lived in 4 countries the past 8 years and only one of my friends is into crafting. That means I lacked friends with the know-how to help me. One of the best things I did for my craft in 2010 was to join the Etsy expat team.

8. Don’t distract yourself.  I love twitter and chatting on the forums with my team mates. The problem is I often go there while I’m trying to finish something. (Like writing this post.) It breaks your concentration.

9. Check back and tweak

It’s easy to underestimate how much work/ time a certain task can take, so don’t beat yourself up, just amend your planning.

Check which things are eating your time and fix them. In example, it’s taking long time to edit hoe my posts display on this blog. So I will add that to my list of things to fix.

10. Don’t overwhelm yourself.

I almost had a mini panic attack when I started my planning. So instead of freaking out, I gave myself a breather. Got a bit of help from my friends to calm down. Then I broke my planning tasks into smaller chunks and worked on finishing a few things to give myself a feeling of accomplishment.

It also helps to pretend that you’re making these lists for someone else (or even a team of people). Hey – deluding yourself can be a useful tool in accomplishing your tasks.

Posted in Craft business topics | 3 Comments »

Branding: where to start?

Monday, April 19th, 2010

When you start thinking about selling your handiwork you hit a mountain of to-do’s. For me, one of the most difficult and time-consuming, is branding. If you’re lucky, you have the start-up money to hire a professional but handmade artists often decide to do it themselves.

ColourLovers should be your first stop if you’re looking for colour inspiration. There are thousands of colour palettes to look at, and if you register you can create your own.

When I make jewellery, selecting colour schemes is easy as pie, but when I design onscreen my natural indecisiveness kicks in. I become bewildered with all the colour possibilities. ColourLovers’ Photocopa tool solves this problem. You upload an image and it extract the colour palette. Making it super easy to create a colour scheme that you know you’ll like.

Scrummy aubergine

I would never come up with this colour scheme on my own.

scrummy-aubergine-palette

Candy

The colours in this one will have to be toned down in a design. But it provides a good starting point.

You can grab the colour codes from ColourLovers.

candy-colours-palette

Blues and browns

One of my favourite colour schemes. I’ve done this palette before, but the colours on this one is much better.

blues-and-browns-palette

Be sure to check out Brandi girl – a life inspired by color. Her posts are always interesting and she often extracts color palettes from photos.

Feel free to peruse my colour palettes on ColourLovers.

Do you have any time savers or creative compasses for branding?

Posted in Branding, marketing & advertising, Design process | 2 Comments »

Tweet this: some Twitter advice

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

design-blogimage-tweetingbird-600by1005

I’ve been spending a lot of time on the Etsy forums the past few weeks researching the handmade marketplace. And I’ve seen a lot of posts from people asking questions or having problems getting Twitter to work for them. The two main themes emerging from the questions are:

  • I only have people in my industry as part of my connections.
  • What should I tweet about?

I’m going to start at the beginning.

What does Twitter do for your business?

The problem with new(ish) technologies are that everyone seems to be doing it. So a lot of people feel obliged to start an account without having a real goal.

The first step is identifying what the tool does – Twitter is a community tool, allowing people to share ideas, that is also used as a marketing tool by many.

What do you want to get out of Twitter?

If your answer is just: more views on my handmade items and building a business network, then you should definitely read on. And if you’re only interested in posting your own items – go get some paid advertising or find another tool that fits your requirements better.

Because Twitter is a social networking tool, it is a neat way of finding artists sharing your interests and getting your name out there but also a good way to get tips from experts in various fields without having to look for information yourself. Essentially building a business network – but that also means you should share your knowledge

Setting up

Personal or business? The advantage of using your business name is that it helps branding, narrows your interests and reminds you that you should keep it professional. But if you’re a well-known artist there is no harm in using your own name.

When you set up your account you will need:

  • A short description 160 characters – include your interests, what you make and which materials you use
  • A profile image – that gets cropped to a thumbnail

Branding

The biggest part of your brand will the content you tweet. But you can also use the profile image, upload a background image and change the colour scheme to fit with your brand.

If you are not a designer or don’t want to pay for one, Twitter has a lot of very pretty themes. Rather use their themes than having a tiled background that isn’t seamless. A professional look and feel is a bit more important than being absolutely on brand.

Getting and setting connections

The obvious starting point is to follow other artists and people you know and who works for Etsy, Flickr and other marketplaces. Don’t forget to check the profile pages of your favourites for their Twitter names.

Next look at handmade blogs and go follow them on Twitter.

Look at:

  • Related industries too, i.e. fashion, hand bags, make-up.
  • Your business – marketing companies, SEO experts
  • Design and web companies – Smashing Magazine, Colour Lovers

What should I tweet?

Do:

  • Retweet other people
  • Post links to interesting blogs, articles, good design and cool items
  • Visit the Etsy promotion forums – there are a lot of link exchanges

Don’t:

  • Feel obliged to tweet every five minutes or even every day if you don’t have something interesting to say. People won’t notice if you’re quiet but will get annoyed if you carry on posting boring stuff.
  • Don’t be (too) self absorbed
  • Only post links to your blog, product items
  • Post inanities

Give it time

Don’t try and do it in one sitting. Rather see Twitter as a way to discover and share your interesting finds with every day. When you add favourite products, spend time on Facebook or read blogs keep an eye open for Twitter links.

Building a network takes time.

Mind your manners

I found these articles very useful.

Thoughts? Comments or a link you would like to share.

You can follow me on Twitter too. I generally tweet about online business strategies, cool art, architecture – and yes – my blog posts and items.

Further reading

Update:

Cathrinette Rings posted her Twitter strategy on this Etsy forum post – go have a read. Her advice is useful, in-depth and backed up with results.  You can obviously also follow her on Twitter.

Fellow Etsian Crochet Gal: Twitter – The power of social networking

From Twitter:

Posted in Social networking | Comments Off

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