anyone making/marketing a craft? Share your work here

I tried to browse all of the "farm income" topics and didn't find exactly what I wanted to ask.
I just wondered if there were others who produce (or intend to) a marketable craft as part of their income. My husband is a bucket cooper and bowl and spoon carver and I am a weaver and teach it and rug twining. We probably wouldn't suggest either to someone just starting out but it allowed us to stick with our principles while giving us most of our income (small, but livable for us) for more than 30 years.

I work pretty much full-time from my home studio as a longarm quilter.

Wow, don't see/hear of many coopers these days!

We're only just starting out and nothing is set in stone yet but I think adding value (via a craft) is important for maximising profits. I'm intending to acquire some skills so that I can produce and sell charcoal, willow baskets, bowls and other wooden tableware, gates, fence posts... Probably a few more, and the list may change in response to my aptitude! Preserves are an option but it seems like every farmers market is saturated with jam etc. Cordials and alcoholic beverages are a possibility although licensing is probably going to be expensive.

Sam White wrote:Wow, don't see/hear of many coopers these days!

We're only just starting out and nothing is set in stone yet but I think adding value (via a craft) is important for maximising profits. I'm intending to acquire some skills so that I can produce and sell charcoal, willow baskets, bowls and other wooden tableware, gates, fence posts... Probably a few more, and the list may change in response to my aptitude! Preserves are an option but it seems like every farmers market is saturated with jam etc. Cordials and alcoholic beverages are a possibility although licensing is probably going to be expensive.

He apprenticed to a bucket cooper at a local state park that represents Ozark crafts and continued to work there making hand carved wooden spoons and bowls as the steady sales item. Coopered buckets are beautiful and useful and long lasting but actual sales are few at the price he needs to get for his time. We are fortunate to have some of the wood he uses on our land and a network of friends who know if they have a fruit wood or walnut tree get blown down or die he could use the wood for spoons. I use hemp warp for my weavings and a lot of times shop the local thrift stores for weft materials to recycle into placemats and table runners and rugs. Sounds like you have a great variety of ideas...good luck!

Jorja Hernandez wrote:I work pretty much full-time from my home studio as a longarm quilter.

Thanks for responding...Are you able to sell from home or go to craft shows? I think I have seen a longarm machine ...amazing tool.

Judith Browning wrote:

Jorja Hernandez wrote:I work pretty much full-time from my home studio as a longarm quilter.

Thanks for responding...Are you able to sell from home or go to craft shows? I think I have seen a longarm machine ...amazing tool.

Judith, 99% of my business is the service: taking in the customer's top and quilting the three layers together. They supply the top, backing and sometimes the batting. Most of my customers buy their batting from me and I keep several varieties in stock. The 1% mentioned would be commissions - an entire quilt made from scratch - fabric selection, cutting, piecing, quilting and binding. Those are very expensive but I do get a few orders every year.

I don't attend craft shows or even have a website (and folks are really harping at me to get off my dead arse and do one of those). Aside from handing out a few cards here & there all my business is word-of-mouth. I also don't have customers come to my house. We live off the pavement, don't have a 'street address' on account of there ain't no stinkin' streets , the road is frequently 4WD only and my dogs aren't fond of strangers. I have a pick up & delivery location at a friend's shop in town and I go down there at least twice a month for local work, my out-ot-town and out-of-state customers use UPS or the mail.

Longarms are not cheap and there's definitely a learning curve, but they pay for themselves pretty quickly once you're up & running. Feel free to PM me with any questions so we don't put the rest of the forum into an off-topic coma. Here's what mine looks like, also an example of a high-end custom quilt job.

i'm a professional artist and craftsperson, i've made my entire income from the sale of crafts and art pieces...which is...well its lean.
ooo that an odd jobs, i love odd jobs =)

but mostly just from my craft work, which i seem to switch medium every few years, this is good for me but maybe not as good from a business POV, which whatever.
i have about twenty mediums that i am quite good at, but i get scatterbrained often by too many mediums.

i have skills as a potter, a sculptor, and painter (all these are what i studied in college)
but i also work with paper making, and book binding. making blank books, and my own journal books and painting books was one of the ways i was making a living. also making paper from plant fiber, working with fabric, sewing, batik...ah theres some more things i have done for crafts to sell. my current medium is feathers, and some times i work in copper and with jewelery.

its become more and more difficult for me to turn my work into money...but i still work at it when i can. when i was really into going out in the world and travelling alot, and things were much easier years back to do that sort of thing. there were more music and arts fair, more cheap booths, easy show up that day and get a table at a market....

or free (get in with someone elses booth)it was all easier, and i was really determined and worked at it all the time and did make a LOT more money than i do now...and even more than min wage job. random vending and selling crafts was more acceptable....and ga$ prices make it impossible for me lately. i mean impossible..even if i wanted to go travel to some show or fair, and thought i could get a table for selling, thought i would end up with more money than it cost me to show up for the event...ahhh well...being out here doesnt help. i used to live by seattle and did a lot of travelling, that area was much kinder to artist...and there were a lot of people in those places who would support my work...

Leila, regarding the fiber arts portion of your (very impressive!) skillset two things immediated popped into my mind: N California is a target-rich environment for high-end quilters and those guys & gals LOVE hand-dyed fabrics of all types, especially batiks. You might want to attend a couple of big quilt shows and get a feel for what's selling, trending, etc. Booths are expensive but the successful vendors do very well.

not trying to be negative about the possibilities, but my sense is here that everyone you meet has got a bunch of craft skills themselves...and doesnt have a lot of extra money.

there are exceptions and places you can go, but its more difficult than any where i have been to sell anything at all...and especially a flooded market of craftspeople.
i have certainly tried here and there, but its quite difficult to afford booths in anything i have looked into (and a lot of those people do NOT make their money back- not like it should be).

i sell through a gallery here, actually i should go talk to those people soon. but for doing it...randomly ...its not very good. i've sat out some long days here trying to sell work and not sold a thing. that wouldnt happen in most places. the farmers maret here, most of the farmers markets around are very very difficult to get a booth at...they dont give booth to craftspeople either, though people keep saying they want it...but ...yeah theres a long waiting list for a farmers market booth and they dont take crafters.

but it would be cool to do some batik again, i havent for a long while. i dont even now if i have a jaunting tool...somewhere...in some big box of random art supplies.
we (with some friends) used to buy blan shirts, hoodies, silk scarves, baby clothes and then batik them and sell them in a market

Leila, that explains your beautifully artistic living fence ...looking like an artwork in itself. I have always wanted to try that along with "twig" furniture but as I get older I have resolved to enjoy someone elses successes and not feel like I need to try everything my self. Thanks for posting.

awww thanks =)

yeah i ve wanted to do some cool willow walls...furniture too, and been totally into the idea for a while. actually i really just...started thining along that line...i mean this was the first project i ve done like that...and i thought...i would make some furniture too...but havent yet gotten around to it...

well i think you should try if your curious, i really dont think the furniture would be too difficult to make...once you got the knack for it.

leila hamaya wrote:awww thanks =)

yeah i ve wanted to do some cool willow walls...furniture too, and been totally into the idea for a while. actually i really just...started thining along that line...i mean this was the first project i ve done like that...and i thought...i would make some furniture too...but havent yet gotten around to it...

well i think you should try if your curious, i really dont think the furniture would be too difficult to make...once you got the knack for it.

I'm trying more and more to tie my craft to the land and things that grow here and we certainly have the saplings but my obsession for a while now has been growing natural dyes...weld, woad, madder and cosmos and dying what I can. Bodark chips from my husbands woodworking and onion skins from my friends organic onions are beautiful permanent colors and the processes fit in with a farm oriented lifestyle.

ooo thats cool. i ve never done any work with natural dyes...but i have been curious.
i got some indigo seeds...my friend sent them to me...was thinking about planting it...and an indigo dye ball....but ...think i will wait till another time later.

i'm in the middle of too many projects atm. but getting to a nice point of wrapping some things up...

so many crafts so little time!!!

I use my skills of knitting, crochet, spinning, sewing, etc. to earn money, but not by selling my wares-I teach handwork to children (and occasionally adults). For he most part, I could not earn a living wage selling the things I make, because these activities are time-consuming and few people would be willing to pay a fair price for them.
However, my husband and I are planning to get his hand-cranked sock knitting machine up and running this fall, mostly using unraveled thrift-store sweaters for yarn, and sell socks at our school's holiday market. That has the potential to be quite lucrative. We'll see.

hey-
you may all know about this already but i feel inclined to point this out for anyone who may not know of this resource-

http://www.etsy.com

is a great site, i've been operating a small store there. i have been working on a webpage too, but i think i've gotten more traffic there than any of the web page projects i have done in the past or current....

it offers a nice simple service to artists and craftspeople to list their stuff online without having to set up a whole website. its basically...like your own mini webpage....they have the layout and you just upload your pics and fill in your info.

well its one way...not like i have made huge sales there...but i have had some traffic, cause they are getting bigger and more traffic, and have gotten some people to contact me through there who bought some of my other work that i didnt have listed.

well anywho...just for anyone who might not have seen that site already.

ooo and here...a shameless plug for my work =)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/leilahamaya

well i dont have much listed at the moment, and nothing totally within the farm crafts theme...

lately i have been thinking again about getting back into the paper making and book binding...that was my main craft for a long time and could be done by growing fiber on the land and working with it.

especially i have been thinking about making seed paper again. i have done it before, a long time ago, and actually have a LOT of seed atm. i think i could make some recycled (easier than starting with raw fiber) paper cards...that had seeds embedded in them...and sell those....well its on my list of ideas that keep coming up....so been thinking about it...it would be small cards that could be mailed to people and then they could plant the card and it would sprout plants.....

Thea Olsen wrote:I use my skills of knitting, crochet, spinning, sewing, etc. to earn money, but not by selling my wares-I teach handwork to children (and occasionally adults). For he most part, I could not earn a living wage selling the things I make, because these activities are time-consuming and few people would be willing to pay a fair price for them.
However, my husband and I are planning to get his hand-cranked sock knitting machine up and running this fall, mostly using unraveled thrift-store sweaters for yarn, and sell socks at our school's holiday market. That has the potential to be quite lucrative. We'll see.

Are you teaching with a drop spindle? Kids are really receptive to craft I think.
I have done more teaching less craft as my wrists bother me more and more from years of weaving and handwork (hauling wood and water probably doesnt help). I love the idea of unraveling thrift store sweaters to knit into socks. We have a friend who does the same and he knits hats.

..... Leila H..... I have browsed Etsy and have friends who sell there and say the same as you. They especially like it to sell one of a kind things . If we ever get a computer at home where we could load some pictures instead of this kindle that is kind of like a big cell phone, we probably will both do that. good advice for everybody. thanks.

..... Leila H..... I have browsed Etsy and have friends who sell there and say the same as you. They especially like it to sell one of a kind things . If we ever get a computer at home where we could load some pictures instead of this kindle that is kind of like a big cell phone, we probably will both do that. good advice for everybody. thanks.

they really make it easy to join up and list stuff.
making a web page is pretty tedious and involved at times...

but with etsy...its all laid out super basic. you could do it in an hour or two...if you have your pictures ready....
i do think they are providing an excellent service for people, with very little time invested you could get at least some online representation....
and they are getting more and more traffic....which is great cause they are representing people who wouldnt other wise be able to sell online....or wouldnt know how to plug in to selling online....

and you can sell some interesting stuff....not just art...one of my friends on there sells her homemade tinctures and even seeds??? i think she sells her seeds on there...including a lot of wildcrafted stuff...as well as supplies. i have been thinking to start listing my supplies...a matter of taking pictures and listing them...but i am a bit over stocked on raw supplies atm...and dont have a lot of money. !! so think i am going to start listing my crafting supplies on there...theres a lot of craftspeople there so maybe selling the raw materials might even be better???

anywho yep,
she sells seeds and home made tinctures on there. a lot of that stuff is wildcrafted...and fairly straightforward thing for her to gather it and ship it out.

she has some interesting things, i've bought some miners lettuce seeds from her from here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/fungifantasy

but yeah, i think its a really good deal. not like a huge amount of sales (though some people i talked to were actually doing that) but its something thats quick and easy to get your stuff online.

i am actually doing some pics and web stuff with my art right now. or at least...i had been- time for a break.

i am a 'crafter' but i have yet to really make much money. i save money at christmas and what not though. (: i also make my clothes and my childrens clothing, especially now that we had our mall collapse and there are no more stores here for stuff like that. i am working on setting up an etsy account but need to create more things first. my grand mother runs a craft show in october, i am going to be selling there and it will be my first real craft show. the things i have sold have been things people i know have seen and asked for as well as a few stuffed toys online on a sewing forum. i have taught children to sew and quilt for money as well. i think i could make money, i seem to have a knack for the crafts. i enjoy sewing, beading, painting, drawing, building things, making jewellery, making shoes, ect. hopefully something will come out of it. i am still fairly young yet and have four kids at home so i still have lots of time to get to it. looking forward to september when they go back to school so i can get some work done.

i may not have the patience for it but some day it might be kinda cool to sell hand-made bows(archery) made on-site
idk though cus ive never made any yet, just looks cool and kinda fun

otherwise, medicines and foods ready to eat or just needing heated up
i love the convenience of junk food like totinos pizza and chimichangas from walmart but obviously theyre not too healthy for me, would be kinda cool to have a tasty alternative(i do eat a lot of leftovers and sometimes get pretty creative but im talking a local, organic, frozen burrito or pizza

really just a bunch of ideas, im JUST getting into the whole process and havent yet even grown enough food to feed the household let alone sell, but maybe someday...

My unasked for advice would be to go for the fun and creative part and just enjoy making something. My experience has been that some of my best work was without that dollar value hanging over my head and the biggest damper on my enthusiasm would be six dozen placemats to weave for a wholesale order. Our chair maker friend says it takes ten years as a craftsman to really understand your medium and to learn to work with it consistantly.
I think artisan crafts/cottage industry definately fit in a permaculture lifestyle and can ultimately help financially. Good craft seems pretty consistant sales wise in our experience.

Judith Browning wrote:

Thea Olsen wrote:I use my skills of knitting, crochet, spinning, sewing, etc. to earn money, but not by selling my wares-I teach handwork to children (and occasionally adults). For he most part, I could not earn a living wage selling the things I make, because these activities are time-consuming and few people would be willing to pay a fair price for them.
However, my husband and I are planning to get his hand-cranked sock knitting machine up and running this fall, mostly using unraveled thrift-store sweaters for yarn, and sell socks at our school's holiday market. That has the potential to be quite lucrative. We'll see.

Are you teaching with a drop spindle? Kids are really receptive to craft I think.

Yes, I usually teach them to spin on drop spindles in 3rd grade. I agree, they are usually really receptive.

Me and the wife do hiking sticks.
Especially good sellers are pecan, persimmon, and black walnut. All of which are expensive wood but the 1" to 3" diameter limbs are not used for much.
15minutes worth of "work" go into a roughed in hiking stick
We have carved faces and all sorts of stuff on them but when it comes down to it you don't get anywhere near the money back vs the time you put in.

All I do is cut the length and sand down the handle part for about 18inches. Drill a hole in the top for a little jute string.
People are glad to pay $10-$15 each for these.
Usually I can make 4 to 5 an hour if I have all the materials gathered up. ( i.e. all the limbs cut off a storm downed tree. ) the more gnarled and vine wrapped the better.

Sam White wrote:Wow, don't see/hear of many coopers these days!

We're only just starting out and nothing is set in stone yet but I think adding value (via a craft) is important for maximising profits. I'm intending to acquire some skills so that I can produce and sell charcoal, willow baskets, bowls and other wooden tableware, gates, fence posts... Probably a few more, and the list may change in response to my aptitude! Preserves are an option but it seems like every farmers market is saturated with jam etc. Cordials and alcoholic beverages are a possibility although licensing is probably going to be expensive.

When my husband read your post he wondered if you were familar with a book called "Traditional Country Crafts" by Geraint Jenkins? It is one of his favorites. He apprenticed with a bucket cooper to learn that, but his spoons and bowls...treenware, are self taught over decades. He is always looking at traditional forms and ideas from every culture, which most often used hand tools.

Jay, sounds as though you've come up with a great home based business. Here folks harvest sassafras for walking sticks and for the TWO traditional local broom makers handles.

Some interesting stuff rolling around in this thread.
I got a bunch of free sheet copper at the end of my time in school last year and started making copper gardening tools. Supposedly copper has anti bacterial properties that are beneficial, and in trace amounts it is a necessary nutrient. I guess technically a finite amount of copper would be scraped off each time it contacts soil. All the wood handles come from saplings, trimmings, etc around the farm. I especially love cherry. I also did a set of cast bronze flower emblems that really seal the deal, but I don't have access to the foundry anymore. Have sold a few at the farmers market, but mostly to other vendors ha. Seems like most people at the farmers market aren't really interested in gardening, more in buying. I also agree with several others that it's hard to get the return for the actual time invested. If I ask what I really should get it sends people running away quick. I don't think I would do more unless I could find a source of scrap copper, as it is insanely expensive right now (350$ for a 4x8 sheet), and I used to live across the valley from Kennecott Copper mine, it's hard to use copper when you see the giant hole in a mountain, and all the pollution Rio Tinto causes.

Austin, that's absolutely beautiful!

Austin that is wonderful...hope you get a chance to pursue metal work...there is always a market for quality craftsmanship.

Thanks Judith and Jorja. These are as much fun to make as they are to use in the garden, and they are way easier to sharpen than steel! Excessive hammering is great stress relief, haha. I'd highly recommend it.

Coming on to this thread late but anyway....

I sell my items at our local farmer's market which allows homemade craft items to be sold.
Aside from produce I sell aprons and earrings and home made laundry soap.
I sell quite a bit of laundry soap, its cheap to make, and at $5 a gallon ( I collect used water and vinegar gallon jugs to sell it in and accept recyled jugs)
and at about 0.25 cents under 50 cents to make a gallon... I do well enough. 1/8 to 1/4 cup per load.... so its very economical for my customers too!

I make soap/bath products and Kevin and I do leather crafting, anything from whips to dressing out motorcycles. I'm looking for a good milking goat for making soaps, so far I have been buying the fresh milk from a friend or the health food store. I also make beaded jewelry. Kevin builds new homes so last summer work picked up a lot, we haven't had time for our crafts.

Another item I make is homemade vanilla extract. Very easy to make. I sell it in four ounce dropper bottles and I put a vanilla bean in each one, mostly for show. At 5.50 a bottle thats a pretty good price for vanilla extract. I will refill their bottle if they bring it back and that reduces the price 50 cents. I now have a following for it amongst local bakers.

Hi, Arrow and Kevin n Brenda...thanks for sharing your craft...I love hearing what other craftspeople are doing. Post pictures if you like.

Judith Browning wrote:Hi, Arrow and Kevin n Brenda...thanks for sharing your craft...I love hearing what other craftspeople are doing. Post pictures if you like.

I have a website tutorial at www.msbrenda.com I put this together together using very basic supplies one can purchase from Walmart just to make the concept of soap making vary simple for the beginner. I haven't worked on my site for a while due to unexpected health problems popping up but now after some surgeries I hope to become more active, taking small baby steps at a time to get back in the swing of things! I have recently started breeding meat rabbits and thinking about selling meat as well. My husband and I both sew to. We used to do custom leather work together, which before the 911 attack was a booming business and allowed us to build our home off the income from that business.

Hi, I started out trying to sell someone elses products, Buying Wholesale and selling retail. But there was so much competition on same items. Now I am a self taught artist, I create figures and Hand paint them. Now after 5 years. I can say that I support myself on it.
There are several failures and then I got going the right direction. Never copy anyone elses product!
I tried nice little local Shows and Farmers Markets. Then I realized that I had to expand my Base. Shows or Farmers markets that people get into for FREE, The people (shoppers)Dont pay as much as for Shows that shoppers pay a fee to get into.

I travel farther away from home now with my product. I attend, Western Shows. Cowboy Shoots. Hot Rod Shows. Gun Shows. Special events.

I always put up a sign MADE IN USA. I have to talk a lot to every customer about how my items are hand made by me. None are Identical and give them my card. Have a Website and Email address. NO PHONE CALLS.

I attended Cowboy Christmas in Las Vegas some years back. WOW people were dying to purchase something different.
This type of thing pays for Travel expenses, Hotel and profit.

I now find myself working along the same Artist several times a year. We communicate on what shows are good and what shows are SO-SO. We all do the same thing. Creat a Nitch for ourselves as being Hand made. GOOD Quality is important. You will find yourself with people looking for you next year when that show comes around.

Best sales are the one where you hand the customer the item and they pay right there.

On an off weekend I do other things. But These larger specialty shows have allowed me the freedom to work for myself. It is nice to just drive to the corner Farmers market and Make money but that never worked for me. I was lucky to make gas money to get home from them.
Expand your customer base. You will find that people in other areas will Love your Artwork
Remember when the Carnival comes to town once a year. Everyone Goes. But if it is there every weekend. Less people attend it.
Make your product rare and collectable
Thanks
Jeremiah
Good luck. Hope this info can help anyone in it. PM me if you have any questions.

My husband's been a professional blacksmith for years and in our country shop we respresent many local artists. We just got our e-commerce site up and running and have been surprised and thankful that we actually got a fair amount of business in the 1st month.
www.thebackroadsmarket.com
it's very doable, but we needed a broader market than our small community can support, so we went e-commerce.
.
M

We live in a crafts rich area of the Ozarks and most of us work at home and then retail to shops and go to shows. One of the things that has been successful in this area is a yearly studio tour where visitors pick up a map in town and spend three days visiting county wide home studios/workplaces and purchasing craft. Ours is juried and limited in size. One of the guidelines besides quality hand made craft is that you are not ordinarily open for business. it's a fun weekend for all...we make some money...clean up the place for company and even inspire a few folks to life in the country. If you have a number of homebased craftspeople in an area I would highly recommend it.

First off, Jorja, seriously! Those quilts are beautiful! Since I love the feeling of being under a really heavy quilt, and it's raining while I write this, I could fall asleep just thinking of those quilts.

Second, my wife and I kind of did things the other way round. She has been making jewelry for about 10 years and selling at local craft shows and in small shops around town (salons and consignment shops do the most for us). We have only been on our little 1 acre "homestead" for 2 years. It's taken us the last 1 1/2 years just to get the place in proper running order. We've done small gardens for personal use but this will be our first season with a garden large enough that we are hoping to sell surplus off of. We found a local produce market that buys as much from local farmers as possible and the owner told me some of the things he needs more of so I used that and our family taste buds as a starting point. It just seemed to make more sense using the skills we(she) already had to give us a jump start.


This is a great thread BTW. I love how original everyone's craft ideas and skills are.

I support our family by sewing reusable cloth menstrual pads and selling them on various websites such as Etsy (www.mothermoonpads.etsy.com) DiaperSwappers, ClothDiaperNation, Facebook and others. My husband has dreams of turning his welding/brazing skills into a bicycle framebuilding business. We do not have a homestead yet, but it is part of our 3 year plan.

Cerridwen Philemon wrote:I support our family by sewing reusable cloth menstrual pads and selling them on various websites such as Etsy (www.mothermoonpads.etsy.com) DiaperSwappers, ClothDiaperNation, Facebook and others. My husband has dreams of turning his welding/brazing skills into a bicycle framebuilding business. We do not have a homestead yet, but it is part of our 3 year plan.

Reuseable? Wow.

If your Husband has not checked out some of the Custom Bike Sites, He should. Some of those people are Crazy with the prices. But if he does it right he could get a lot of work from those guys. Has to figure out the shipping. Pm Me if he wants a few names of sites for Bikes.
Good Luck

Jeremiah wales wrote:

Cerridwen Philemon wrote:I support our family by sewing reusable cloth menstrual pads and selling them on various websites such as Etsy (www.mothermoonpads.etsy.com) DiaperSwappers, ClothDiaperNation, Facebook and others. My husband has dreams of turning his welding/brazing skills into a bicycle framebuilding business. We do not have a homestead yet, but it is part of our 3 year plan.

Reuseable? Wow.

If your Husband has not checked out some of the Custom Bike Sites, He should. Some of those people are Crazy with the prices. But if he does it right he could get a lot of work from those guys. Has to figure out the shipping. Pm Me if he wants a few names of sites for Bikes.
Good Luck

He has gone through a frame building course (as well as technical school for welding) and has a lot of friends in the business. He has spent the last 2 years working up to the point where he is now. Thank you!