Embroidered Collage

A profitable art business is no longer one of my goals.

You probably wouldn't have noticed anything different if I didn't tell you.  I will be creating and blogging and selling on Etsy with a professional attitude and doing a certain amount of promotion, just as you've seen in the past.

All of the differences are behind the scenes.  I have invested a great deal of time into figuring out how I should build up my art, fitting what I want to create into what will be good for the customer, from selecting price points to keywords to subject matter.  I've researched and considered, abandoned and retried, and made long-term plans.  All this with the goal of making a profit, even just $1 after expenses and deductions, within the next five years.  I just haven't blogged about much of it.

I won't be doing that part anymore.

I never actually dreamed of being an artist.  I never seriously considered making a living this way.  I was intrigued by this microcosm of a business for the same reasons that I chose to pursue my MBA.  I wanted to achieve a profit for reasons that had little to do with the art itself and that, well, that gets into the problem of "making something that no one needs and few want," as I read somewhere a few months ago, and the general difficulty of the path.

I did and do dream about creating beautiful and amazing complex artwork with embroidery and collage.  I would love to be written up in FiberArts magazine someday.  This is going to take a great deal of education, practice, and growth.  I need an outlet for what I create in the meantime and want people to enjoy my art and occasionally vote with their pocketbooks as to its value.  But I don't need to be making a profit overall in order to do those things.

I will still be creating art, but I will also be doing something else.

I have dreamt of being a writer at many times during my life, not of novels, but of non-fiction.  I considered taking technical writing for my next career path before I chose to pursue the MBA.  I still want the concept of communication to be a backbone for my future studies and career, whether in a corporate organization as one aspect of my duties or as the core of my being self-employed.  Building up my abilities and reputation is just as slow a process as becoming a profitable self-representing artist.  There are just as many fears and doubts associated with it.  But there is the benefit of more income potential and the advantage of being a business I actually want to run someday.

Writing and arting will hopefully remain sidelines and essentially hobbies for many years to come as I pursue my primary career objectives, but they will both be present.  I'm not giving anything up.  I'm realizing where my priorities lie.

An additional plus for the art side is that this decision has freed me to think a little differently about what and how I'm creating.  I'm expecting more embroidery in the future and also an emphasis on samplers, although I'm not 100% sure about that last yet.

ACEOs seemed akin to blasphemy when I first heard about them - artist trading cards were being SOLD!  Changing the name to Art Cards, Editions and Originals seemed a superficial trick that avoided the issue that these artists were commercializing a friendly pursuit. My attitude changed over time. Why shouldn't an artist sell work of a specific size and call it an art card, emphasizing its collectibility? Because there was a culture that traded works of that size as well? The one wouldn't hurt the other as long as no one sold another artist's work that was intended for trade only. So my approach came around a full 180 degrees and I even bought some cards from artists I admired.

And now I will be adding ACEOs to my Etsy store!  But not until November 1.  This week they are free treats with a purchase of another artwork.

I have always been more comfortable creating when I have an outlet for what I create. I need to keep playing with the idea of bands of color and design on a small scale so I can build up my visual sense to accomplish more dramatic works on larger scales and using the art card format satisfies me. This has been the driving force behind many of the cards you've seen over the last month, letting my play support my efforts for artistic growth.

I could have traded them, of course, but after doing some looking around on Etsy I became convinced that offering ACEOs would help keep my shop active as my available art time contracts further with the upcoming arrival of an infant. They would also provide a lower cost introduction to my work. I know that I've started purchasing more original art since I started looking at the ACEOs already listed for sale!

I will continue to create cards for trade but they will be in different styles than the ones I list on Etsy. All my cards for sale will be in the "Strata" series and individually numbered. While I will use various media on paper such as watercolor, collage, and acrylics, I will probably not add stitching to any of them. Each will be packaged in a stiff plastic sleeve and be listed for $7 with free shipping to anywhere. If I ever do create embroidered cards I will likely make a separate category for them.

During November I am going to show you some of the artists on Etsy who I have purchased original ACEOs from, or would like to do so. In some cases, their previous successes helped convince me that this endeavor was worth trying.

I just received my 100th heart!  It's a really cool round number because it means 100 people think my art is worth checking up on again later.  That's a really nice feeling.  Unfortunately, it means nothing in terms of actual sales, or really anything in terms of potential customers, either.

I haven't sold much on etsy, and nothing since I switched exclusively to stretched canvas work, but I don't believe it really has anything to do with the venue.  My style and focus have been evolved dramatically this year and I'm only now getting to a point where I can think about the customer in regards to the subject matter and visual appeal of my art as well as its format.  The wrapped canvases were always partially motivated by avoiding framing costs, but everything else has been driven by what I want to create without consideration for how it relates to a potential buyer. 

It doesn't help that a big chunk of the appeal of my work is (and is supposed to be) driven by texture and seeing that tactile sensation when you know you're not supposed to touch.  If I had a table and my work could be picked up, I think it would sell better.  But for the forseeable future my market is the internet or nothing, well one or two things, but not much.

Etsy is still an amazing and wonderful venue.  The focus on handmade items is great.  I love the set up of the listings and being part of a site that brings in search traffic from shoppers in a way that I don't here.  The cost structure is extremely reasonable, especially considering it's for a store, not an auction, and renewing a listing is simple.  I still have the usual gripes about things like a weak search engine, but etsy is continually evolving and improving and they're good at letting us know about it.  That counts for a lot.

If you've never visited my etsy store, then why not take a peek?  If you're interested in selling your own work, it's a great place to try.  It's not the best venue for many people, like everything else it seems to depend on time, your own promotion, and how your work fits with its audience, but it's an easy place to fall in love with.

It's still a thrill to see my art hanging on the wall as part of an exhibit.  I imagine it always will be.  I went to the opening reception for the MCGOPA "World of the Professional Artist" show yesterday evening.  It was less well attended than the Mixed Media Show had been last year, but apparently that's normal.  I chatted with a number of other artists that attended, mostly about technique and "I like your work."  Name tags are wonderfully useful.  So it was a nice way to pass an hour or so.

But the primary thing I brought away from the show was frustration!  I want my work to look better, to be better.  I want to be able to reach what I imagine in my head.  I'm not quite sure why this event triggered this wave of feeling, it certainly didn't come from anybody outside of me, but I spent the ride home thinking furiously about mostly nothing.  I know that it's time and practice and experiment and that I have the tools in place to make this journey.  But it's still frustrating.

I've added a couple options in the last few weeks and have found three local shows to put my work into between now and May.  The first one isn't juried, but the next two are.  I'll also be able to display it at the biennial exhibit of my Embroiderer's Guild chapter.  That one is primarily completed work from patterns beautifully stitched by the chapter members, but it will still be a great place to increase local exposure.

Giclee Prints - I'm selling reproductions of my artwork now!  I made this announcement before, in regards to Artwanted, but decided to switch printers to Finerworks since their set-up was more classy and it better fit the way I wanted my artwork to look.  I ordered a full-size 12"x12" print of Kite-Flying in Zandvoort to check out the quality and was very impressed.  I don't need to keep it, so if you want it for $20 plus shipping, just contact me.  The usual price is $30 plus shipping.  I also uploaded Dragon Scales and Snowfall and will be adding pieces as I complete them.

Cafepress - I opened up a Cafepress store as Pumpkin12pm, but instead of offering my full images on the articles I followed Sharon's example and am using detail shots of the stitching in my artwork.   For example, I'll likely use one of the pictures from yesterday's post once I am sure that Kalambah Jasper is complete.  I concentrated on the paper goods, but couldn't resist adding in the tile box, since I have a fascination with boxes.  I really need to order one of those for myself.  I still need to complete the page on my site that will summarize the information, but the store is open.

Please remember to subscribe to my Studio News blog if you are at all interested in purchasing my art, in any form, as that is where the regular customer updates will be.  I'll be keeping the majority of that information off of this blog.

Artistic Goals

1. Complete more of my One Hundred Footsteps, one layered piece at a time.
2. Answer the Take a Stitch Tuesday Challenge every week.
3. Develop source material in my sketchbook on a regular basis.
4. Study a technique or design principle every month.

Business Goals

1. Compile the records and effort to tell the IRS I am a business when I do taxes.
2. Redesign website to contain content beyond my blogging.
3. Turn the Studio News blog into a viable customer communication tool.
4. Enter at least three national juried shows plus the appropriate local shows.