I'm on Etsy!

I have finally managed to put up some of my craft items on Etsy.  They have been doing fairly well so far for page views - only time will tell how popular my items will really be.  I am excited to have them up for sale but I wish I had a better camera to take more quality photos.  The only camera I have is a Nikon Coolpix S2 which is decent enough for everyday use but most of the items on Etsy are accompanied by high quality shots.  I have tried to be creative with my pictures, taking shots of my Fall pillows in a bed of fallen leaves for example, but I don't think my listings really stand out quite yet.  Until I get or can borrow a better camera, however, I suppose they will have to do.

Time to Experiment with Etsy

So I had a table at a craft fair today... didn't go so well.  I didn't sign up until Monday so I didn't have the best location, which was probably part of the problem.  The other problem I have experienced at this show and at the farmer's market is that people have a tendency to be very complimentary of my work but few choose to buy it.  They all comment on how much work it is to do all that embroidery by hand but they don't want to buy anything.  Sheesh.

I guess it's time to try another tactic then - selling online on Etsy.  I've had the account for a few weeks now but haven't put anything up yet because I was reserving my somewhat limited collection of items for craft fairs.  My next show isn't until the end of November, though, so I have time to build up some more inventory before then.  I'm hoping that selling online will give me a little more visibility and that people will be more likely to buy it online.  Who knows... I guess we will find out.

Success!!

 Well, today was the farmer's market - my first selling opportunity with my new crafts.  It was a rather small affair at a local church with about 30 different vendors.  What I liked best about the market is that it runs every Saturday from May - October and anyone who has homegrown/homemade items to sell can do so.  There is no table fee, you simply donate 10% of your profits for the day to the church.  That was especially good for me since I wasn't sure I was going to sell anything.

I did end up selling a few things, however (yay!).  I sold one of my smaller fall pillows and one of the hand-embroidered Christmas ornaments I had made last year.  Those two sales did not equal a huge amount of profit but I was satisfied to have sold more than I did at the craft show I did in Michigan last winter.  Grant it I only would have had to make $4 in order to have sold more than I did last year.... Not only did I sell those two items but I handed out several business cards and I have the promise of an additional sale to occur later this week.  Right before the close of the fair an older woman came up and was just "tickled" by my designs (her word, not mine).  She had been wanting a decorative Fall pillow to set in a chair but had not seen one that she liked yet.  Upon seeing my table she found not one but two she liked!  She had just made another purchase at the market so she was not ready to purchase from me then and there but she and I exchanged information and I am holding her two pillows and waiting for her call to come this Thursday evening. 

So, all in all the day was a success in my mind.  No I did not make a huge amount of money but I received a lot of positive feedback from people.  I think it would have been a greater success had the venue been more geared toward craft items.  It was a farmer's market, as I mentioned, so most of the tables were selling produce and baked goods.  I am excited that people seemed to like my designs and am very hopeful about the future.  Now it is time to start sewing Christmas designs for the holiday open house in November!

P.S.  I am thinking about expanding my embroidery projects to include some tote bags, not just pillows.  I think Halloween-themed totes would be popular (for next year, of course, since it is too late to make and sell them this year).  Any thoughts?

My website has been published!

The last time I had a website of my own was in middle school and my favorite page on the website was devoted to all of the boy celebrities that I thought were cute.  My new website is a little bit different... it is devoted to my budding craft business.  I used Weebly.com to create my site and it was surprisingly easy.  When my husband saw it he said "No offense, but it looks a lot better than I thought it would"... Thanks?  Really, though, I am happy with the way it turned out.  I think all of the pages I plan to have are there  but the content on them is a little bit sparse.  I need to take and upload pictures of my latest projects and once I do that I can call it fully up-to-date.

Click here to check out my website for yourself!

Breaking into the word of blogging...

Ever since November of 2009 I have toyed with the idea of starting my own craft business.  I have always loved arts and crafts and enjoy bringing an element of creativity to everything that I do.  This being said, I have no idea how to go about actually starting a business.... minor problem.  So, I figured why not start small?  Try selling at a few craft shows to get my name out there and to see what kind of demand exists for my product.  This was easier said than done.  After googling local craft fairs I found a number of them in my area but most of them wanted more than $100 to rent a booth.  $100!  There was no way I was willing to spend $100 to go to a craft show where I might not even sell anything.  So, I decided to try out a small scale holiday craft fair held at a local elementary school. 

Sadly this experience did not go well... I sold a single stretch bracelet to a little boy who bought it for his brother.  Grant it, the fair was not organized terribly well - only a select few of the vendors actually saw much traffic.  After returning home from this fruitless endeavor I was a little disappointed and put away the idea of a craft business for a while.  I got caught up in my job(s) and had little time or energy to do much when I returned home.  Then, in August my husband and I moved to a small town in Ohio where he was to be enrolled in Seminary.  This move had already  made a huge difference in our lives.  We went from living in a 1000sq ft basement apartment with very little natural light to a huge, 2000+sq foot house with all the windows we could possibly want.  In this new environment I feel refreshed and optimistic about giving my craft business another go.

Although I did not sell much at that disappointing craft fair last year I did receive some compliments on my hand-embroidered pillow designs.  So, I have decided to put some of my new-found energy toward developing that product line.  I spend most of my free time at home drawing up designs, transferring them to fabric, and embroidering my heart out in an effort to come up with enough finished products to be able to sell them.  My first big opportunity for this will come about next Saturday, October 16th at my church's Farmer's Market.  This market is not a huge affair but it does receive a lot of local traffic and it will be a great opportunity for me to get my foot in the door of selling at craft fairs.  Before Saturday rolls around, however, I have a lot of work to do.  I need to sew as much as I can between now and then in order to be able to have enough items to provide customers with a decent variety.  I am excited, however, about the future of my craft business and have high hopes for myself!  I hope you will join me in this journey and share with me my success and commiserate with me in my failures.  Thanks for reading!