Creating With Your Own Hands
When you choose to create, you are choosing to bring your own style and flare to a project no matter what the creation. Often these creations benefit greatly from the personalized touch to a project that would otherwise been standard and even boring. For example, a personal web site is kind of like a mirror into who we are. Having a professional web site created for your business is great, but creating a personal web site yourself is way better than having a professional create one for you. Even a business web site can sometimes benefit from having added personal touches in addition to the professional design.
Another popular self-creation process that is all the rage these days is that of crafting. Today a person can literally create anything they want or need if they can imagine the design and fabrication. People can create their own soap at home; their own candles at home or even their own clothes at home. The beauty of creating your own household items is that you get out only what you put in. Therefore, it is a lot easier to create your own all-natural products. All-natural products are considered to be more healthy and you know exactly what you are putting on or in yourself and your family.
People have crafted since the dawn of man. There have not always been grocery stores and department stores to shop at for our household and personal goods. At one time, the majority of merchandise you can find at a store or shop was first created in the comfort of someone's home. Even though much of the merchandise we buy today was created on a production line many items can still be created in your own home if you have the know how. Not so long ago all of our food was prepared and created at home. The modern age has brought us quicker, easier and more convenient methods of getting our food and household goods. Not surprisingly, many people are returning to making their own baby food and pet food as well. Health conscious people like to know where that food is coming from rather than taking a chance.
Creating your own electronic based project is a great way to save money and to create something with your own two hands. Nothing feels quite as good as creating a computer from scratch that first time and having it boot up and run for you. Many people also choose to create their own vehicles as a hobby. In the past, the most mechanical vehicle work attempted at home was replacing the old engine with a new or refurbished one. The body of the vehicle was already designed to suit your desired style. However, those days are far behind us now. Today, a person can order everything needed to create a complete vehicle from scratch.
Creating your and selling own merchandise is a growing trend, just look at the success of ebay. This trend takes us back to a day where things were not quite so convenient and life may have seemed a little better. Don't get me wrong, our modern conveniences are great and beneficial, but nothing beats creating something with your own two hands and seeing that something being used by someone else.
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Steve Thomas writes about creating and maintains a site dedicated to creative resources at www.createy.co.uk
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Which is Your Type of Art Form
Art in Latin means "skill" or "craft" and it is generally accepted to be "the product or process of the effective application of a body of knowledge, most often using a set of skills, which from concept to creation adheres to the "creative impulse" of the maker." As centuries of art study reveal, art has taken many forms and has touched upon many disciplines. From the creation of a painting to the design of a video game, art is now a much more generic term used to describe many of today's human creations.
Whether or not you consider yourself to be an artist or have an artistic nature as people often claim, it is interesting to discover that your skills and abilities can help you develop products or processes that could be characterized as a type of art form. Have you ever taken a picture, created a film, painted an image, performed in front of an audience -your mirror does not count- or even found a new way to use that old pair of jeans you have kept inside your closet? If the answer to these or similar questions is yes, then you are "officially" informed that you can consider yourself as a creator or better even, an artist! Even if this statement is not one hundred percent true, you got the idea.
Due to the technological innovations used today, new art forms have been developed and thus new ways for artistic expression. The birthday card you decided to create from scratch for your friend, the picture frame you decided to "transform" so as to make it a bit more contemporary, the song you recorded while playing at your garage with the band, are all different types of art forms and should make you proud of yourself and your abilities. Moving from the "classic" forms of art, like painting, drawing, sculpture , music, literature, printmaking, and architecture, to the more "modern" types of art forms, like film, photography , digital art, installation art, performance art, land art, fashion, computer art , comics, and video games, the human ingenuity and creativity found new ways of expression. People are today thrilled to discover the gratification of being able to complete the art project of their choice while using a variety of available tools.
Since within each art form a wide range of genres exist, like for example painting includes still life, portrait , or landscape, a work of art can be anything, from a representational painting to the abstract wallpaper of your PC screen. Whether the art form you like belongs to the category of fine arts or applied arts, the big issue here is that you are a creator, a designer , a painter, a sculptor, a craftsman, an artisan in general. If your art will make you rich one day is a matter of talent and luck, but during your project's creation and upon its completion, you will experience a life changing realization; you will feel capable of accomplishing almost anything. After all that amazing thing is your own creation!
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Kadence Buchanan writes articles on many topics including Arts , Beauty , and Jewelry
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How to Cut Down Your Competition When Selling Your Crafts
As a crafter and a small businessperson, you can do your own craft marketing or pay someone to do it for you. It's a balancing act. If you do it yourself, you must go to shows or run your own store or website. The more time you spend doing that the less time you can spend crafting.
Giving up some of the retail price of your craft items, gives you more time to devote to your art and generally a broader market reach for your wares. Gallery and shop owners advertise, promote your work and provide a place with regular hours where your work can be viewed by many more people than you can reach on your own.
However don't think of these approaches as the only options of craft marketing. They are merely the two ends of the spectrum: from doing all your own craft marketing and as much crafting as time allows; to using all your time crafting and paying your marketers.
Along the spectrum are a myriad of other approaches, some very simple, some quite high tech. If you're looking for a better way to sell your craft items, try thinking outside the box. Go beyond the traditional methods of craft fairs, galleries and retail shops.
Below are a few craft marketing approaches that have worked for me, as well as some intriguing ones I've read about, but haven't tried personally – yet.
Breaking Away from the Pack
After three years of doing craft fairs and flea markets, I noticed several negative aspects. My work was being copied by other crafters who saw it at the last show.
I had to keep coming up with new ideas to differentiate myself.
I got tired of lining up alongside and competing against very similar products.
Plus I got just plain tired. Craft fairs are a lot of physical labor.
I needed a better venue and couldn't afford to pay a retail shop or gallery up to 50% of my sales. I needed to think outside the box and break away from the pack.
Leverage Your Relations with Other Crafters
One positive thing I did take away from my years of craft fairs was a lot of new crafting friends who are also struggling with craft marketing. We help each other out as opportunities arise.
One very well established ceramicist participates in a huge annual expo that draws importers from throughout North and South America. He wanted something bright and colorful to dress up his booth and draw people's attention, so he asked if I would like to display some of my oilcloth bags. We both did well and it was pretty exciting to think of my bags traveling to another continent to be sold.
My crafting buddies and I send each other business. They order business cards and signs from me. I recommend them and sometimes display their work in my little shop (no commission, no charge). When they have their own shops, I know they'll do the same for me!
Brainstorm Tie-Ins to Local Organizations
Brainstorm how your products can or could tie-in to some organization. If you do any craft that lends itself to personalization, such as embroidery or fabric painting or silk-screening, think about approaching local clubs or businesses and offering items with their logo. With their permission, of course. Logos are copyrighted material.
A tote bag that folds up into a pouch had been a big seller for me at craft fairs. The unusual thing about my design is that the pouch is custom designed. I've applied pouch designs using three techniques: screen printing; or printing on fabric using either Bubble Jet Set or Lazertran Silk decals and my computer printer.
I have made these for my local garden guild who needed gifts to give to a visiting group and I have also sold them to a moving company who gives them to customers as a token of appreciation for their business.
Craft Marketing Tie-Ins to Other Products
While other crafters are talking to gift shop owners about placing their gift items alongside all the similar work of other crafters, think about where your products would stand out and, at the same time, enhance what the store primarily sells.
For example, if you do make jewelry or crochet scarves, offer to assist a dress shop with their displays by accessorizing the mannequins. A nicely put together outfit increases the eye appeal of the individual parts.
If you make oilcloth tote bags, make some up with bright tropical fruit and vegetable patterns and see if your local farmers' market would let you place them for sale near the checkout. Add a sign: “Choose not to pollute - with our sturdy reusable market totes.”
Take your wine gift bags to liquor stores and see if you can work out a similar display deal. Your dried flower arrangements, decoupage trays or hand made candles would give a more attractive and real look to display rooms at a furniture store.
Barter for Space
Once I was approached by the owner of a card and gift shop in a neighborhood mall. She had seen and admired my crafts. She thought they would complement her store's inventory and that my existing clientele would bring traffic to the store. She offered me a very modest salary and a small corner of the store in which I could display my products.
It seemed like an ideal match; but it was doomed from the start. [This was before I understood the importance of tie-ins and one person's product enhancing – rather than competing with - the other person's.]
My products dressed up the store. Traffic increased significantly. I honestly worked as hard to sell her merchandise as my own.
Then one morning, the owner came in and told me to remove myself and my crafts by the end of the day. My sales had been very good while hers had increased only marginally. It just didn't seem like a good bargain for her. I had most of the benefit.
With 20/20 hindsight, it might have worked out if I had suggested working on commission rather than for salary. That way, there would be less suspicion about where my efforts were placed.
I still thought bartering for space could work and decided that, if I found another opportunity, I would accept no salary. I also wanted to make sure that our products didn't compete. I came up with an idea but when I asked my friends for their opinions, they looked at me like I was crazy.
There is a small water treatment, garden and pool supply store nearby. Most of the
time, the owner is out on jobs and his wife tends the store. But with young children at home, she frequently needs to leave at a moment's notice and would simply lock up the store, posting a “Back in 10 minutes sign”. Customers were getting so frustrated that they were going to the competition.
I approached the couple and suggested I could open the store earlier, tend it until the wife arrived and stay until 2:00 so she (actually we both) could leave and run errands as needed. In return they would give me a small corner where I could display and sell my crafts. They loved the idea.
It has worked beautifully. I decorated my little niche like a garden to tie in to their pool and garden products – little wicker table and chair, a trellis on which I can hang some of my things, fake stairs going up along the wall (which I use as display shelves) with a trompe l'oeil door at the top.
OnLine Craft Marketing Co-Ops
This is something I haven't tried and which I'm a little leery of. The idea is to join other crafters on a website devoted to craft marketing.
Online craft marketing is hard enough without having five or six other crafters' works on the same web page. It's sort of a minature craft show, without providing you the opportunity to stand out too much.
But more of these craft marketing sites are springing up. I think many crafters simply don't want to devote their efforts to online craft marketing, but want to see if there's any money to be made that way.
There are many co-op craft selling sites that you can locate with a web search. One has the improbable name of Stars and Infinite Darkness. Other sites are Wholesale Crafts and eCrafter.
Whether online or off, if there's a will there's a way to improve your craft marketing. Be imaginative and think outside the box.
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By: Eileen Bergen: For more ideas and tips on selling your crafts or starting a craft business, visit my Craft Business Guide
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The Wonderful World of Arts & Crafts
Isn't it amazing what an artistic hand can do with a few pieces of paper?
Anything, from beautiful 3D flowers to scrapbooks that preserve the life-stories of families for generations to come, can be designed from such a simple and basic material. An even more amazing fact is that an art using such basic materials can be downright expensive! If you're like me, you're always open to new ideas of how to save a few bucks.
Let me share a few dollar saving tips with you.
1. Save - don't toss
Christmas, birthdays and holidays are a bonanza for the paper crafter. One of my favorite items to save is cards. I create gift tags and even small gift boxes from these often-tossed greetings. Next time you're gathering a mound of wrapping paper to throw away, take a second look. Does it have potential? Save yourself a bundle, and store some of it away.
2. Ebay
What in the world isn't available on ebay? "Wanna be" crafters are a dime a dozen, and often their failure to stick it out becomes a boon to the hard core crafter. When they get tired of storing supplies they know they'll never use, you're in luck. Keep a sharp eye out for these purging ex-crafters, and be ready to cash in on your good fortune!
3. Spy those deals in disguise
There's an old saying, "Never judge a book by its cover." Well, if you've priced photo albums, you know that covers can be pretty darned expensive. The real value of an album is indeed in the cover. A great way to cut costs is to buy an inexpensive album, throw away the inside pages, and fill it with your own pages fit into plastic sleeves. Instead of paying $30.00, you'll spend maybe $10.00. Watch for ways to convert less expensive products into the material you need.
4. Bulk up and swap
We all know that buying in larger quantities usually saves us money. The next time you go to Sam's Club and spy a product that you only need one of, go ahead and buy the bulk quantity. Invite your crafty friends over, and swap these items for things they have an abundance of. Trade your way to a savings.
5. Get the freebies
One of the greatest expenses for crafters can be patterns. Those who don't buy patterns usually purchase crafting magazines for fresh ideas. Why not get online, and find free patterns? There are a number of sites that catalogue patterns for your convenience. When you need a fresh idea, join a forum where others who share your passion are ready and willing to share their ideas.
Paper crafts are amazing works of art that can bring joy to the creator and a sentimental tear to the eye of the receiver. Such a beautiful art doesn't have to empty your wallet.
Take a look at my blog to see what I mean.
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john savage has an unbounded enthusiasm for the world of arts and crafts. Click Here to visit my blog and discover how to make easy craft projects .
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Love your Art
You have just found a beautiful painting that you know would look wonderful in the living room. So now you have it at home and you hammer a nail into the wall above the couch and hook the painting over it. Easy!
Pleased with your purchase you stand back. You tip your head to one side and then the other. Then you squint at the picture. Something is definitely not right but you can't put your finger on it.
If you've ever found yourself dissatisfied with the appearance of the art or family photos on your walls you're not alone. Many people make the same common mistakes that the eye can read as awkward but the individual does not know how to fix. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind when arranging art on a wall:
LARGE ART:
Large artwork will be a focal point so you should be careful to place it in an appropriate area. Where does large artwork look best? Try over a couch, behind the dining set, over a fireplace or on a feature wall. A feature wall is where the placement of furniture or the layout of the home naturally guides the eye to a wall - a great place to feature art.
SMALL ART:
Try to group small pieces if possible. Using similar or matching frames and matting make this look more pleasing. Otherwise anchor the small piece visually by hanging it low and close to furnishings so it doesn't appear to be floating on the wall.
GROUPING ART:
Whether you're creating a grid of equal sized frames or composing a collection of various sizes the rule of spacing is the same. Try to have them spaced approximately 3 inches apart. Try positioning them on the floor or a table to get a pleasing arrangement before placing the nails and measure carefully before making any holes.
HEIGHT:
Artwork should be hung with the center of the picture at eye level. That means the center should be about 60 to 66 inches from the floor. If you've visited a gallery you will see that the frames are not lined up by their top or bottom edges but that the pictures are all centered at the same height.
If the artwork is usually going to be viewed sitting down (as at a dining table or when viewed beside a couch) you would hang them at the sitter's eye level instead.
Artwork behind a couch should be no more than 8 to 10 inches above the back of the couch.
With these easy tips you should have no problem creating wonderful arrangements that will have designer appeal.
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Leokadia Angela has various online websites, e.g. www.leokadia.com
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Tips to Make Your Own Ceramic Wares
Need a new lamp in the living room? Instead of shopping around and hoping that you will find something which only resembles what you desire, make it yourself. It is not hard, really, once you have mastered the basic techniques of making ceramic wares. Once started, you will find no end of things of their children's development. The kindergarten boy or girl brings home drawings made on cheap paper -which in a few years crumble into dust, much to the parent's dismay. However, if these same drawings, so much treasured by parents, were done on tile, they would never fade; the colors would remain vivid and fresh as the day they were made.
Among the most popular do-it-yourself projects today is the tile-topped coffee table . In a fine furniture shop such a table would cost an absolute minimum of $100. Yet, the ceramics hobbyist in his spare time can produce just as fine a table quite simply and at one-fourth the price.
Similarly, when gift-giving time rolls around, you can present your family and friends with things no one else could possibly give them things you have created especially for each of them. Your gifts, though inexpensive to make, will bear the which can be made for the home and your own personal adornment. The most ordinary article can be given real, lasting beauty with a bit of imagination on the ceramist's part.
Take, as an example, a commonplace kitchen knife. Let us say the handle is broken. The blade, however, is fine steel and it would be a shame to throw it away. For the ceramist, this is no problem. Rather, it is an opportunity. All that need be done is to make another handle out of clay, striving, of course, to make it handsomer than the original.
These are but a few of the things you can accomplish after gaining a little background knowledge and practical experience. Stop and think for a few minutes and you'll be able to come up with many, many others. Just to run through the alphabet, there are: ash trays, bells, cigarette boxes, dresser sets, egg cups, figurines, gravy dishes, hat pins, inkwells, jam jars, lockets, mirror frames, napkin rings, ocarinas, pipe holders, quatrefoil wall plaques, razor holders, saltcellars, thimbles, umbrella handles, vases, window boxes, Yule cards, zipper tags for children which bear the wearer's name and address.
You could probably compile a similar list in short order. Perhaps, you will even think of a ceramic something that begins with the letter X. Many ceramists have turned their hobby into profitable sidelines by conceiving of new ceramic forms.
The vast majority of professional clay workers today got their start as amateur hobbyists, just like you. After they advanced far enough, they found that people were willing to pay for the ceramic goods they produced.
Of course it is nice to be able to make your hobby pay for itself. And it's even nicer if you can earn a living by doing something you enjoy.
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Mitch Johnson is a regular writer for www.curtains-n-drapes.com/ , www.solidceramics.info/ , www.goodbudgetholiday.info/
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