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Newbie Craft Show Exhibitor Advice

While this advice is relevant to established arts and crafts business owners, it's particularly useful for brand new startups.  Part of the whole gig for many arts and crafts business owners is exhibiting at craft shows.  Before you decide to whether to participate in a  particular arts and crafts show, try to attend it as a shopper.  Then you can eyeball the crowd and perhaps find a participating vendors who will share with you their impression of how worthwhile the show is to attend.

Of course, take all of this with a grain of salt.  Some artists and crafters may not want to encourage any additional competition or they may just have a booth layout that doesn't encourage sales.  While their experience may not be all that great, the show itself may be a winner for you.

One of my latest articles hi-lights taking the opportunity to add some holiday crafts to your product line for craft shows in 4th quarter.  And here's some just posted info about the Holiday Arts and Crafts show at the Butler Institute of American Art  in Youngstown, OH.

Image: © Hannamaria| Dreamstime.com

Newbie Craft Show Exhibitor Advice originally appeared on About.com Arts / Crafts Business on Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 07:01:56.

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Advice for Showing at Craft Shows

Wow, I've run across a bunch of good etsy.com info lately.  Here's part three of a series on marketing yourself, specifically pre-craft show preparation, which will also be applicable for online selling. 

You can access all three articles in the series by following this link.

I also have a ton of info (step-by-step basics) available on how to set up an etsy.com shop.

Also, check out my articles on how to set up an ArtFire.com studio.

Advice for Showing at Craft Shows originally appeared on About.com Arts / Crafts Business on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 18:22:57.

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Etsy Posts June Figures

Etsy.com has their June 2010 figures up. While sales went down slightly from the prior month, June 2010 sales dramatically increased from June 2009. Check out all the stats at the etsy.com website.

Additionally, there is a great article on the etsy.com website about the Handmade Toy Alliance's fight against the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. 

Etsy Posts June Figures originally appeared on About.com Arts / Crafts Business on Sunday, July 25th, 2010 at 13:31:27.

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Rio Grande 2011 Catalog Available

Rio Grande's catalog containing their gems, findings, displays and packaging for 2011 just arrived in my mailbox.  A separate catalog contains tools and equipment.  If you're not familiar with Rio Grande, I highly recommend you check out their website.

While many artisans feel Rio Grande is strictly a jewelry-making resource, even if you don't craft jewelry, work in PMC or metals, you'll probably find some cool stuff that will come in handy for your arts or crafts business.

Think you might want to expand into jewelry making? Tammy Powley is the Jewelry Making Guide at About.com. 

I've also written a couple of articles on the subject:

Basics of Soldering Making Jewelry Using Cold Connections

Wood Jewelry Mold

 Luba V Nel | Dreamstime.com

Rio Grande 2011 Catalog Available originally appeared on About.com Arts / Crafts Business on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 at 16:00:15.

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Economy's Effect on Crafting

I recently found an article onEntrepreneour online about crafting being a silver-lining in a bad economy.  Dated March 2009,  much of it is still very relevant. The article specifically mentions green crafting, scrapbooking, sewing and child crafts.

Many of my arts and crafts buddies are still erring on the side of caution when it comes to buying raw materials - basically,  looking for existing inventory items that can be modified to work in new projects.  I know I have really cut back too. Used to be if I saw a great price on some gemstones, even if I didn't particularly need them, I would purchase them for potential future use. 

Economy's Effect on Crafting originally appeared on About.com Arts / Crafts Business on Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 20:43:06.

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Arts and Crafts Writing Jobs on Monster

Monster.com recently posted jobs working for Examiner.com writing on different arts and crafts related topics such as beading, knitting and pottery. I know absolutely nothing about this employer so I'm not endorsing the job, merely making anyone who may be interested aware of the fact that monster has these postings.

Certainly if one of your goals is to be published in a craft magazine such as Bead and Button or Fiberarts (to name a couple), getting writing experience to add to your resume can't hurt.  Like all things in life, completely check out the job requirements and payment arrangements.

Image: © Olivierl | Dreamstime.com

Arts and Crafts Writing Jobs on Monster originally appeared on About.com Arts / Crafts Business on Sunday, July 18th, 2010 at 13:47:33.

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Setting Arts and Crafts Prices and Niche Marketing

Now that we are half way through the year and fast approaching high-sales fourth quarter, it's important to know your target market and whether you want to sell for value or price.  This is a marketing basic. Ideally you try to spend your marketing efforts and money  reaching your niche - that particular client base who will be the most likely to appreciate the handcrafted and related price for your crafts.

On the flip side, if you sell for price rather than value, your marketing efforts should be directed towards a client base that will purchase a high volume of lower priced crafts.

Recommended articles on this topic:

Understanding the difference between marketing and advertising Tactics to beat saturation point Finding your target market

Setting Arts and Crafts Prices and Niche Marketing originally appeared on About.com Arts / Crafts Business on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 19:00:56.

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SNAG Partnering With Art Galleries

If you own an arts or crafts gallery, you have until July 15 to submit your proposal to partner with the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG) for the purpose of SNAG co-producing and/or supporting exhibitions in your gallery.

Access the complete exhibition guidelines via a pdf file at the link above. The requirements are pretty rigorous but for those art or craft galleries that qualify, is a great opportunity.

Note: have some of your art work at a quality gallery? Make the owner aware of this partnering effort. Good for the owner and good for you!

SNAG Partnering With Art Galleries originally appeared on About.com Arts / Crafts Business on Monday, July 12th, 2010 at 06:40:42.

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Paper Mache on Bravo's Works of Art

I was a late adapter with television shows such as Project Runway and Top Chef.  I think I started watching both (plus others)  in about their 3rd season, after Bravo ran a weekend marathon of Season One of Project Runway in 2006.

Not  that I'm a TV snob, far from it, but after a couple of years I had enough.  I really grew weary of the pack mentality of some of the contestants picking on others who they considered to be less talented, more annoying, geeks, because of  ageism, sexism - whatver.  (As an aside, I believe the producers knowingly throw odd/less talented ones into the mix merely to stir the pot.)

Anyway those two new horrifing design shows last year rang the death knell for me on watching these types of shows.   But as it happened, I was sick last week and the first four episodes of Work of Art were on so I watched them fast forwarding through the same, frequent, annoying diet soda commercial. 

Two episodes showed talented artist Abdi Farah doing some paper mache-like sculpture.   If you are interested in paper mache, check out episode 2 in particular to see him building a wire armature of a head-less human form and using crumbled up paper and tape to provide the shape.

More info about paper crafts:

Basics of Collage and Assemblage The Difference Between Collage, Assemblage and Papier Mache Collage Materials and Supplies

Paper Mache on Bravo's Works of Art originally appeared on About.com Arts / Crafts Business on Sunday, July 11th, 2010 at 15:11:04.

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Community Alternative to Running a Full Time Craft Shop

In my area we have a pretty expansive flea market that is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Two wings of it are air conditioned with more or less permanent flea market vendors.  Rather than incurring full time shop rent, these vendors are only paying rent for high traffic shopping days.

Flea markets aren't really the kind of place that most artists or crafters want to exhibit their wares - however, the Oakland Artisan Marketplace took the same basic concept, limiting the vendors to artists and crafters.

The story about how the marketplace come to life, with help from the Oakland, CA Community Economic Development Agency is very interesting and well worth a quick read.  In brief, started as a 5-year pilot program in 2000, the marketplace has grown in size and continues to thrive.

The artisan fee is quite modest at $250 for a full year or $145 for a half.   In you live near or around Oakland, you are probably well aware of this marketplace. For artists and crafters in other areas - consider approaching your city with a similar idea.

Community Alternative to Running a Full Time Craft Shop originally appeared on About.com Arts / Crafts Business on Friday, July 9th, 2010 at 20:14:10.

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