Pricing, and learning this business

I am moving forward on learning the business aspects of my business. I am slowly--too slowly in my opinion--working my way through a stack of small business and art business books.
I had this one in my stack from the library for a while. Its due back soon so I figured its time to read it.

Originally published in 1997 some of the price structures may be a bit dated. One thing I did not like is it spent too many pages on this type of craft= this type of pricing structure. Especially since they all sort of equalled the same amount. I think a nice generic list and description would have worked nicely. I didn't like this because I had to read through a lot of redundancy before getting to those little gems of information. Like which crafts actually need to be priced differently, and why.

And this book has gems of information! The biggest and shiniest being establishing a studio rate versus just paying yourself an hourly wage. The second biggest gem is value vs. price.

There are lots of great and useful forms in the back of the book, there are at least two I will be making copies of to use.

Yes this book is worth reading.

I borrowed this one from my library--love the library!

Friday was full of win!

First of all Friday was my 21st anniversary, that was great.

then I found out that  my Chicken Hutch, or "shack" as they called it won first place in the CoolTools Antiques Mold contest!

They gave me a lovely write up on their blog:

Blog on CoolTools about the antiques mold contest

By calling it a shack I have started spinning up some other ideas of little houses along a theme.
They took some lovely pictures of my chicken shack also!

Learning Business

Books!
Originally uploaded by Zoeowyn

My personal collection of art business books. 3 in this stack are library books that I keep checking out and one day will purchase. There are a few persinal meaning/law if attraction quantum books in there because these help me to find my focus. The rest are busimess sales and marketing. Time yo start reviewing them learning and applying.

The first book I am reading through is a little magazine supplement the dos and don'ts of Etsy. So far nothing new: take good pictures, be as descriptive and detailed as possible. I purchased some craft magazine to get this, and its not been helpful to me. Its good for a complete newbie, but not someone who has been on Etsy for a bit and has already learned this.

Hinges

I've been playing with hinges based on the online class by Wanaree Tanner from CraftCast, and I cannot recommend it enough!

I've modified the concept a bit, but I'm not making anything dramatically uniquely me (these are still obviously based on Wanaree's book design model), I am learning and practicing a technique and seeing where I can go with it. Im rather loving hinges.

Im also rather loving this whole CraftCast thing. Its a lovely conglomerate of my love and my studies. You see, I've spent the past 2 years becoming an "expert" in online distance education. I am 2/3 of the way through a Masters in DE program (I've received two graduate certificate in DE, and currently am "done" with the school bit). And of course crafting. I love teaching craft classes, better students, after all they want to be there.

Alison Lee is brilliant having gotten into online hybrid delivery of course materials. Hybrid, thats the mix of synchronous, being there when the class is recorded, and then asynchronous, being able to download and access the course at any time. Makes me wish I had thought of it.

I haven't signed up for any more classes, but that is a function of having to finish finals and write papers, more than anything else.
I have my eyes on the classes by Michael DeMeng -I love his book Secrets of Rusty Things.
And improving my resin with the glowing effects presented by Patrik Kusek

Im excited I have chosen to stop pursuing one education (the MDE) for another (improved jewelry making skills and marketing).

So excited the table is clean!

So excited the table is clean!
Originally uploaded by Zoeowyn

Its May and I'm back!

I've learned a lot these past two semesters. With the bulk of it this most recent semester. I am more educated, but in reality I have no further interest in using my degree. (Not too good since I paid for it out with my dime.) I realize it has not, and will not in the foreseeable future add to my employability.
I have also discovered its time to find out how to really make what it is I want to do a reality. A viable reality.

So I will be using this blog for that journey, because that journey involves art daily: crafting and painting and clay. It involves teaching creativity to kids, and finding it for myself.

This journey involves actually learning and applying marketing and business techniques.

My goal is to get back to art.

As Picasso said "art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."

Well I have discovered that art soothes my soul, and can bring me back from deep dark depression. This says to me it is not a luxury but a necessity.

And it all starts with a clean desk.

Annual Valentine crayons

So this year we made crayons again!

Not so many since kiddo #1 is now in middle school.

We did manage to create the most awesome rainbow crayon, only to not be able to repeat it again.

We made a great mess as usual

But we also made a lovely collection of crayons, they are always a surprise since they do not look the same when in the pan-all the cheap wax rises to the top and blends

Making stuff

Squirrel!
Originally uploaded by Zoeowyn

I've been making stuff, art stuff, jewelry stuff, clay stuff. Im really enjoying the process.

I know quite a few polymer artists work in the same processes, but I thought I might share anyway.

I love the bright colors of clay, and they mix all together and make other colors

Sometimes I leave the colors alone, like I did with these cute little squirrel and acorn charms

I really do fall in love with the colors. Sometimes I have a hard time determining if I should keep the straight colors or if I should take them to the next level.

polymer pens out of the oven
Originally uploaded by Zoeowyn

These pens were just yummy combinations of color when they came out of the oven. One of the things that was so fun about these, they all worked out so well, and they were all made from my scrap cup collections. I have a few yogurt cups that I toss small left over bits of clay into. Sometimes I blend those scraps together to make other colors, sometimes they are just that blended bits. The pens are sitting in an accordion of folded paper board I use to support them while curing in the oven.

Well after staring at the pens for a few days I decided they needed to go to the next level. Im always a little nervous taking my work here. Especially if I fall in love with it in straight colors. Once of the reasons I think its nerve inducing is I take those wonderful colors and completely cover them in paint. I use acrylic paint. Sometimes I use black, like I did here, and sometimes I use brown or purple, or rust. Ive even tried white, but those never seem to work the way i think they should. SO I cover them completely before I go back and wipe off the exces paint. I really only want it in the crevices. I use a combination of paper towels and magic erasers to do the job.

They really start to begin to almost glow after cleaning the pain toff. The colors are framed and begin to pop! If I want brighter colors I will scrub over them again with the magic eraser some more.

After the paint dries I buff the work over with gilders paste. Sometimes I use more than one color. There used to be only a few metallic colors available at the craft stores, but now there are a wide selection of colors available online. So these final pens have been buffed up with the metallic paste and coated in polyurethane to seal it all in.

And once this entire process has been done Im always glad I did it.