How To Sell Your Crafts

The cash register rings, and the person across the counter from you smiles as they take the bag you're handing them. As they walk away beaming with excitement, they're chattering with their friend that this is exactly what they were looking for, but just haven't been able to find.

You're beaming with that deep sense of satisfaction that comes from knowing someone else just walked away with one of your crafts, with a big smile on their face. You're reminded again that starting your own craft business was one of the best things you ever did.

For years people were telling you that your crafts were wonderful, and you should sell them. They told you that you had a real gift and that you should share it through your own craft business. Turns out they were right, and you're sure glad you listened to them. Now you're doing what you love, and making money at it.

As you read the above paragraphs, do you have that sense of longing to have your own craft business? Do you want to be the one hearing the cash register ring and watch people walking away with your crafts smiling as they go?

The difficult part can be just knowing how to get started. How do you go from the idea, to actually selling those crafts. While I can't cover everything in this article, I can give you some basics as to how to get started.

Decide On A Craft To Sell

One of the first things you need to do is come up with an idea of a craft to sell. If you don't already have an idea, there are lots of things you can do to get an idea. Here are just a couple of ideas.

* Solve an everyday problem - Look around you and see what it is around you that's a problem, and come up with a solution for it. It doesn't have to be complex, just something simple. For example, at our house, we always have tons of pens everywhere. You could come up with a great idea for a nice looking pen holder. There are lots of everyday things like this that can give you ideas.

* Improve on an existing product - Look at at a product you already own, and do a variation of it. Take the idea of a paper towel rack. You could make really fancy paper towel racks and sell them. Maybe make a set of kitchen items centered around a theme. Paper towel rack, napkin holder, salt and pepper shaker holder. This would be improving on something that already exists.

Decide On The Price Of Your Craft

Something else you will need to do is price your craft. This is where a lot of people make a mistake. They don't consider all of the expenses really involved in producing a craft. You need to consider not only the cost of the supplies, but also the cost of being in the show, gas, and lodging if you are staying away from home. Make sure that you take into consideration all of your costs when coming up with a price.

You also need to determine how much you want to pay yourself an hour. You certainly have to be realistic, but you don't want to short yourself either. You really do need to get paid.

When you come up with a price that you think is realistic, compare it to other products that are similar to see if you are in the ballpark. Also, ask friends and family for honest feedback. This can be a great way to get an idea if your price is likely to work.

Decide Where To Sell Your Craft

Third, you are going to need to decide on where you will sell your crafts. You need to consider the types of crafts you are selling, and fit them to specific shows. If you are selling items that don't fit into the show, you may spend money for space, and end up not selling anything.

There are lots of smaller shows that you can get started with, in order to keep the costs down. This will also enable you to test your products and prices without too much investment.

There are lots of websites that will help you locate craft shows. Just type craft shows into Google to find some of these sites.

You can also check with schools, churches and farmers markets to find more possibilities to sell your products.

Once you get rolling you will have more ideas than you can follow.

About the Author

For more information on selling your crafts visit Sell Your Crafts.

The Benefits Of Craft Fairs

Craft fairs provide some of the cheapest, and most fun, entertainment every Saturday in parks across America, as well as precursors to various holidays, especially the Christmas shopping season.

Craft fairs provide an opportunity for sellers as well as shoppers, and is a place to see the season's best in decorating trends, new products and inexpensive and unique gifts to purchase for yourself, your home or for presenting to others for birthdays, parties and holidays.

In many towns across America, fairs are huge events, with hundreds of booths set up for people to display their crafts and creations. Many times, fairs also offer foods, drinks and bake sales as well, a great time to enjoy tasting and filling up on confections that tempt the senses.

Craft fairs are an American tradition that serves to bring crafters and buyers together under the open sky or a gymnasium roof, though location doesn't really matter when it comes to one of these events. Kids, and adults of all ages flock to them even if they're not intending to buy anything in particular. It's an event that brings smiles and excitement to everyone and allows the sharing of ideas and creativity.

You can find a myriad of things at craft fairs, and the bulk of items offered are homemade. You can find everything from quilts to dolls to homemade soaps and candles as well as candy, wall decor and clothing to wood and metal sculptures and designs. Such a fair also displays items knitted, crocheted, pieced or woven, and the sky is the limit to the number of unique and thoroughly delightful products that proud men and women fondly display at each individual craft booth.

Craft fairs aren't only for women, and more and more men are not only attending these events, but also creating products for sale at national fairs. If you want to sell your own items, make sure you know the rules and obtain an application that can oftentimes be found at the local city Chamber of Commerce, the sponsor of the craft fair or local craft stores.

Craft fairs can be a profit-enhancing endeavor for many, but be aware that fees for setting up booths can also take a big chunk out of your profits. Make sure that you have enough items to make your booth worth the effort. Don't try to sell your crafts at a flea market or swap meet, as you'll more than likely lose money. Stay away from festivals as well, as your products will be an afterthought and not the main attraction.

Be aware that booth fees may range from single digit prices to hundreds, even thousands of dollars, depending on location, sponsor and type of craft show that is being advertised. Always read the fine print if you're considering paying for booth space and if possible, ask around for advice from veteran craft fair participants. Whether your selling or buying or just window-shopping, craft fairs provide plenty of entertainment and opportunities for both.

About the Author

For more information on crafts, try visiting http://www.craftguidance.com - a website that specializes in providing craft related tips, advice and resources to include information on craft fairs.

Is Craft Really Art?

During my 21 years of teaching art and craft in secondary colleges in Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria, I have constantly heard hot discussion on what constituted art and what was craft. Questions fly around: is painting fine art? Is craft really art? The answer often depended on what medium the debater was using when expressing their own creativity.

I made the distinction thus: art is when you generate an image, idea, concept or design using your creative skills; and craft is the medium that you choose to express your creative design with. Craft includes painting in various mediums, sculpture, ceramics, fabric, photography etc.

Those who believe that Art should simply come from a deep seated soul and simply burst forth, using whatever is at hand to create it, may have trouble with my definition.

Another regular question I get asked is Can you teach creativity? My response is yes. Of course there are people more skilled than others and some have greater natural abilities than others. But basically, creativity can be taught.

My experience with teaching is that the more structured you are, the greater the creative skills become. I no longer believe that you simply have to express yourself, whenever and however you wish. Those who are prepared to build on basic skills such as observations, drawing, colour, and tone, will more quickly come to a creative solution to a problem.

And that brings me to another point. If you have a problem to solve, you not only are more likely to be creative, but you can also expect more satisfaction from your endeavours. So how do you find a problem when all you want to do is paint a picture? Van Gogh certainly had a problem he wanted to solve. He wanted to capture the aggressive movement of light and colour in an ever changing landscape of wind and rain and dust. He did not go out simply to paint a landscape, he wanted to solve a problem.

I think this is the biggest dilemma of teaching art in schools. Teachers try to teach a skill such as ceramics or silk printing, but the results are often most unsatisfactory because students were not given a problem to solve.

Let me give you an idea of what I mean. I wanted to teach a class to use air brush to create a strong design image on a large canvas. They were not told what the medium was going to be. First of all I collected a large number of balls and had the students draw groups of balls for 4 hours (over two weeks). This was their research. I specifically made them aware of drawing the negative space (background) as well as the positive space (the actual balls).

Once the research was completed I gave them the problem to solve. They had to create a design using two colours only which emphasised the negative space. The best designs came from those students who began to treat both the positive space (the balls) and the negative space (the background) as abstract shapes. By using a light box, they got the shapes more and more simplified until a truly beautiful and creative balance of two colours was achieved. The final job was the craft, the airbrush and tape technique.

So,is craft, art? Well, I do not think so, as I see a lot of good craft with no real art awareness. But I do believe for you to be successful and produce worthwhile work you have to marry both art and craft in a sensitive and insightful end product of your Work of Art.

About the Author

Barbara Gabogrecan is a renowned author and award winning artist, having won 7 of the Australian Gift of the Year Awards, where she combined her art and craft into exceptional product. http://www.paintingandcraft.com