What Kind of People Do Arts and Crafts for a Living

I've been making stuff for as long as I can remember. In higher I had professors who told me I should sell my creations. Later on a trip to London during my final year of college, where I saw the amazing creations up for sale by artists at Portobello Market, I was inspired to come home and starting time selling crafts.

A few months after I returned home, I participated in my first craft fair. It was the Alternative Media Expo here in New Orleans, in the fall of 2004, which highlighted work past a wide range of artists, creators, and makers. My creative business has evolved a lot over the years since then, but I've been hacking away at information technology ever since.

I started writing under the proper noun Miss Malaprop in 2006, and since and so I often go asked for my communication for new artists and makers. I've experimented with a lot of dissimilar ways to make a living equally an artist over the terminal few years, including selling on Etsy and other online venues, as well as selling at local craft fairs, art markets, and festivals. I've learned a lot during that fourth dimension, and hopefully some of what I've learned tin can help y'all likewise!

It's a marathon, not a sprint!

When yous're just getting started trying to sell your artwork, the amount of data out there, things to larn and things to do, can be overwhelming. Just remember, making a living as an artist or creative is a marathon, not a sprint.

Every artist has to find his ain way. I know some artists who brand a living almost entirely off of their Etsy sales. Some artists, like myself, have been much more successful with in person sales events, like local fine art markets, craft fairs and festivals.

Some creators have great success licensing their artwork. Other artists make coin by adding their designs to tangible items such as java mugs or greeting cards, either by paying to have the products manufactured for them or by using print-on-demand services like Redbubble and Zazzle.

Emily Martin, a.yard.a. The Blackness Apple tree is a great example of this. She has one of the near successful Etsy shops of all time (with over 50,000 sales as of this writing!), but her artwork has appeared on other objects also, and at present she even has a few books featuring her artwork!

Being successful in making a living as an artist is all about diversifying and figuring out which mix of products and sales venues works best for you and your fine art.

• Badass Creatives podcast – I created this podcast to share lessons I've learned from running my ain business, equally well equally share the lessons learned by other artists and creatives. In episode 007, I share the tiptop v marketing mistakes that I see many artists and creatives make that foreclose them from selling more of their work online. If you prefer video, I too have a free Skillshare grade about the aforementioned topic.

• My resources page! – I've written a lot of unlike blog posts over the years with free advice for artists and creatives. More recently, I've besides started creating Skillshare classes to help you out.

• Aeolidia's Shipshape Commonage – Aeolidia has been working with independent online shops for 15 years, and they offer lots of free tools and paid training for creative store owners, including an active Facebook Grouping and lots of bang-up blog posts.

• The Merriweather Council – Danielle from The Merriweather Council offers a podcast, online community, and online courses for Etsy sellers.

• Designing an MBA – Designing an MBA is a dandy site by Megan Auman, who has a background as a jewelry artist. She now offers up her own communication for makers who want to brand a living at it.

• Smaller Box – Smaller Box is another favorite micro-business site of mine. Meredith, who writes it, runs the successful t-shirt visitor Ex-Young man with her partner Matt. Their products feature their ain original illustrations and designs, but they have learned to grow their concern by outsourcing some aspects of their work. They likewise wholesale their line. She speaks frankly and honestly on her site, which I beloved. The site hasn't been updated in a few years, but there's enough of bully info in the archives.

Selling at Art Markets & Craft Fairs

Selling at local events, like art markets, arts and crafts fairs, and festivals, is where I've plant most of my own success as an artist. Information technology's a tough life, to be sure, and totally exhausting at times. But information technology can also exist really fun, meeting new people all of the time and selling your artwork in person!

Selling your artwork or crafty creations in person can likewise exist a great way to test what works and doesn't. Run across which themes or styles people respond to the most. Ask questions of your customers to find out what drew them into your booth.

I've written a book on this very topic! It's called How to Make Coin at Craft Shows, and information technology's available on Amazon.

Depending on the types of shows you lot plan to do (indoor, outdoor, a mix of both?) and what types of fine art you sell (paintings, photography, handmade jewelry?), your setup needs will vary. There'southward tons of information online specific to the art market brandish needs of certain artists, but be certain to check out my v Craft Bear witness Must Haves.

Selling to Stores & Boutiques

I've both sold my own handmade work on consignment to other shops and galleries, as well equally representing some other artists through my online shop and at fairs and festivals, so I've seen both sides of the coin.

For artists who do art, like paintings or photography, getting gallery representation is a different abortion than for arts and crafts artists who make functional goods that tin be sold in clothing boutiques or gift stores. For the latter, check out a great post written past my friend & former bazaar possessor on How To Get Your Work Into Stores.

My friend Casey Sibley, who sold her line of handmade homegoods and accessories at shops beyond North America, also has a popular series of Skillshare classes on this topic:

• Wholesale for Your Handmade Business | Part I: The Nuts

• Wholesale For Your Handmade Concern, Office 2: Building Linesheets and Catalogs in Adobe InDesign

• Wholesale for your Handmade Business organization, Part Iii: Get The Word Out!

Want to acquire more nigh breaking into the world of selling your artwork wholesale? The web log Designing an MBA has a lot of bang-up information on wholesale, from the perspective of a jewelry artists who wholesales her work.

How to Approach an Art Gallery for Representation

Excuse the sometimes shaky camera work and sound quality of this video, because artist Cedar Lee lays out some really great advice, from the heart, on how to arroyo an art gallery for representation:

A lot of craft artists offset out selling online on Etsy. But it is not the merely online venue that can be good for selling your art or craft. I've used a variety of different eastward-commerce platforms over the years. In addition to Etsy, I accept also used Storenvy, and when I ran an online boutique selling work by a variety of artists I used the CoreCommerce platform. While working at the marketing agency FSC Interactive, I worked on client sites that run on Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace and many other eastward-commerce platforms.

For an artist brand-new to selling their piece of work, I would say that Etsy is probably your best bet to start out with. Give it a get, only experience free to explore other options forth your fashion. Here are a few classes about how to kickoff selling on Etsy:

• Building an Etsy Shop that Sells: Strategies for E-Commerce Success

• ETSY 101 – Shop Set-upwards and Promotion

• Selling on Etsy: How to create a successful online store

Every bit y'all grow and start selling more, I recommend creating your own website. If you only sell on Etsy, you're subject to whatever changes Etsy might make. And if you simply rely on traffic from Etsy to drive your sales, that can be a problem if something changes. There is no ane right east-commerce platform for everyone. Here are a few classes about getting started on Shopify, which is one of the most popular ecommerce platforms:

• Shopify - Setting Upwards Your Get-go Shopify eCommerce Store

• Build your Shopify eCommerce Store step by step

• Creating and Selling Your First Product using Printful and Shopify

Every concern is different. If yous need some one-on-i advice to figure out what'south best for your biz, bank check out my consulting packages.

Photographing Your Products

Apply natural lighting and a neutral background to brand your product photos pop!

Ane essential key to successfully selling your artwork or handmade goods online is corking product photography. If you don't already have a knack for photography, yous will either need to learn how to take meliorate photographs of your products, or be willing to pay a good photographer to do and then.

Crochet designer Kristina Turner offers a great 20-minute video course, Production Photography Nuts for Your Handmade Business organisation, which is specifically designed to help you learn to have better photographs of your handmade products:

You'll demand to make sure you testify your products in the best light possible (literally). Adept, natural lighting is key to a great production shot. You can build an easy DIY lightbox, or find a spot outdoors or nigh a window to have your photos. Yous don't want direct sunlight which will create harsh shadows, but you don't want your products to look dark or blurry either.

Writing About Your Products

Some other fundamental function of selling your handmade products online is writing great descriptions, and giving your products good titles and keyword tags. A good production clarification will non only help a potential buyer understand everything they need to know well-nigh your production earlier they can make the decision to buy, but information technology volition also assist search engines like Google to observe your product listing.

Telling stories well-nigh your artwork and describing your products online equally if you lot are talking to a friend about them will assist give your product listings a personal touch on. Shoppers who love handmade art want to know the stories behind the artwork. Talk about the materials you used, what inspired this piece or how you made it.

Be sure to also include bones descriptive details like the size of the object, what the color is (colors on calculator monitors may vary from screen to screen, but writing out the color in your clarification will likewise help Google to find you), and who the object is meant for.

If it is a functional slice of fine art, like jewelry, wearable, or an object to be used in your home, talk about how it could be worn or used, or what you might pair it with. Pop fashion site ModCloth does a great chore of giving descriptive titles to their products and making a potential shopper envision how they might incorporate it into their lives.

Check out their product description page featured above for a pair of Swedish Hasbeens shoes. Notice how they gave the shoe a descriptive proper noun - "Mary'due south Relish Every Step Heel" - that tells a story, instantly.

Their production clarification also tells a story, but includes details about the shoe, including the color, and what information technology's fabricated out of. And then they likewise requite styling suggestions about what to article of clothing the shoe with.

Marketing & Branding Your Products

How yous bundle and display your products is role of marketing. I consistently used these cobalt bluish organza jewelry bags , stuffed with a business card, to package my jewelry when I sold information technology at a local result or online.

Marketing and branding is a huge, HUGE topic with and so much to cover, I couldn't maybe mention it all here. It includes everything from creating a brand for your fine art business concern, to social media marketing, networking at in person events, to advertizement and search engine optimization (SEO).

Personally, learning the nuts of SEO and understanding how Pinterest can drive a lot of traffic to websites accept been the biggest game-changers for my business. Most of my website traffic comes from Google search and Pinterest. I too have a few Skillshare classes on marketing your creative business organisation:

• DIY SEO for E-commerce: A Search Engine Optimization Intro for Artists, Makers and Online Shops

• The Power of Pinterest: Larn A Pinterest Marketing Strategy for Creative Small-scale Business Owners

• Marketing for Artists: Learn the Pinnacle v Marketing Mistakes Artists & Creatives Brand

Many of the articles and podcast episodes here at Badass Creatives also cover various aspects of marketing. In episode 024, I share all of my Instagram tips and tricks, and in episode 003, I share my DIY tips for getting publicity for your projects:

Get All Your Ducks in a Row

At the finish of the day, if you want to brand a living equally an creative person or crafter, you need to remember that you lot are likewise a business person. Unless you are lucky plenty to exist hired to create art full-time for some other visitor, you will have to learn some business basics and treat your fine art or craft similar a company.

Business organization regulations vary wildly depending on where you lot're located, so information technology's best to seek out a local lawyer and an auditor who are familiar with the local rules. It's also important to note that many areas require you lot to carry a certificate of insurance if you're running a business out of your home, and some craft shows may even request to see your proof of insurance. In episode 036 of the Badass Creatives podcast, I talked with lawyer Wesley Henderson about the legal nuts of starting a new small-scale business organization, such equally forming a legal business entity like an LLC, as well as the bones kinds of contracts a small business might need to protect themselves.

If you're based in the United States, the U.S. Pocket-size Business Administration can be an amazing resource. They offer Small Business Development Centers throughout the country. I turned to my local arrangement many years agone when I was just starting out and they offered guidance too every bit grants to assist become my business to the side by side level. More recently, I've fifty-fifty partnered with my local chapter to teach classes on occasion! I definitely recommend reaching out to contact your local SBDC.

My friend Melissa Capps is a bookkeeper and advisor to artistic business organisation owners. She'due south run her ain Etsy shop and handmade business for years, and she has more than 14 years of experience in restaurant bookkeeping and management industry. When I was fix to switch to Xero for my ain bookkeeping needs, she walked me through the basics in a few one-on-ane Skype sessions. I interviewed her about understanding the financial side of your creative business in podcast episode 022:

Questions?

I hope all of this information has been helpful. If yous still have questions, let me know and I'll try to answer some of them in a future weblog postal service or Skillshare grade!

pendletonhises1939.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.badasscreatives.com/blog/how-to-make-a-living-as-an-artist-crafter