Last week I taught 3 ladies from my guild how to make felt Bird houses.
There was rubbing
and rolling
and rolling
Cutting
and more rubbing
Then the really fun part, scrunching and throwing. Sorry to say no non blurry pictures.
After that they rinsed their houses and blew up balloons inside so the will dry nice and round.
Lynda made the hole a little bigger to use it as a bird feeder instead of a bird house.
As you probably know we have decided to pick a different artists for our quarterly challenges this year. This quarter I have chosen Stewart Stephenson http://www.stewartstephenson.com/home He is a Canadian artist that has a large body of work in a variety of mediums and styles. I think there is something for everyone here.
He has a gallery in Vancouver British Columbia Canada
It says he did some sculptures but I couldn’t find any pictures. I even sent them an email asking about them but got no response. If you find some please share them with us. Have fun with this.
Don’t forget there will be a post over on the felting and fiber forum where you can ask questions, discuss and post pictures of what you where inspired to make.
More on my felting weekend. We all meat at Maureen’s ( http://www.dreamspinfibres.ca/ ) A great place, she has so much fiber to choose from.
Three of us made hats based on a hat in Judit Pocs video. It seems to be gone from the internet. It was mostly about making a rug. This is Diane and Susan( http://www.suzannetowns.ca/ ) sizing up a template.
They made their hats on the first day. They like a really firm hat so their scaled up the template and added more layers than I do.
Susan added come great colour and Dian used some resists to reveal some fabric on the layer underneath.
Diane added a string of small felted yarn balls to her hat. The parts that stick down were up to high so the pulled them down and twisted them to get them in a better position.
On the second day I did my hat. I adjusted the pointy parts so they would be lower. and left the pointy top smaller.
I should have used a different colour yarn for the embellishments. The colour was much to close the hat colour.
Dian made another hat on the second day. I didn’t get any pictures of it in progress. the template was like witches hat.
I have to give one of these a try. I like the way it is folded in on itself.
Every artist who wants to sell their work needs to understand what marketing is and isn’t. Judging from the questions I’ve received, it is a total mystery to most people. I hope to be able to dispel some myths and ideas and help you to understand the basics to so you can devise a plan for your business without losing some of the mystery that marketing offers.
Marketing is not easily defined, because it is multifaceted and is used differently by many companies. The simplest explanation I can give you:
Marketing is an effort to discover, create, arouse and satisfy customer needs. It is a process of creating and communicating value, understanding your customers and their needs, teaching the customer what the differences are between your product and your competitors, and developing a demand for your products.
My intent is to not overwhelm you. It is a huge subject. I will try to keep discussion to those simple concepts that apply to artists.
So, what about selling?
Selling is the effort to devise tricks and techniques to get people to buy a product.
Marketing supports sales by providing communication, creative work, research, product development, and marketing strategies to name a few services.
There are no formulas or right way to create a marketing plan. Most of you work alone or have a partner. So, marketing and selling must go hand in hand. Yet, they are two separate sets of strategies.
This graphic depicts the different aspects of marketing. It is close to a traditional marketing model. However, as the individual business person you will be wearing all these hats and make decisions about how much time, effort and/or money you will put into each segment. I will address each one of these along our marketing journey.
Marketing is dynamic and changes as customer needs, wants and the marketplace changes. When I first started in marketing there were the four Ps of marketing– Product, Price, Promotion and Place. Today there are at least six.
Product – the items you make to sell
Price– the price you determine based on materials, time, distribution and other costs plus desired profit margin
Promotion – What methods you use to promote your work and the places you will feature it. This has been called the “face” of marketing because it determines how your potential customers will perceive you and your products.
Placement – Where and when you will present your work for sale
Positioning – Each artist should have a unique selling position for their products to distinguish them from competitors. It is a promise to the consumer to provide a particular benefit. For example, M&Ms — Melt in your mouth not in your hands.
PR/Publicity – How you tell people about you and your work using public media
People –For artists, it is your network of friends, family, colleagues, customers and you as a person and artist. This is particularly important when using social media.
Customers are key. Marketers spend a lot of time getting to know their customers– who they are, their age, where they live, what type of lifestyles they have, how they behave in the marketplace, what they like or dislike, the avenues of communication they use, the places they shop, how they shop and their buying preferences. They use this information to formulate their strategies on how to approach the customer. This is obvious in the commercials on TV, magazine and newspaper ads or radio commercials. Or even the ads on social media. Information is constantly being collected to be able to target the consumer. This is another big subject we’ll address later.
Who is your customer?
While these pictures represent stereotypes, they are meant to get you to think more about who your customers are. It may be a combination of types of people depending on what you are selling. For example, fingerless mitts will likely appeal to a younger person who likes to text. For someone who spends a lot of time outdoors in the cold, but enjoys handmade articles a nice heavy woolen scarf may be what they want. An art scarf may be purchased by a socialite or fashionista.
Food for thought: While you are pondering your customers, think about yourself and how you relate to your customers.
We’ll continue our marketing journey soon. I’m looking forward to your comments and insights.
Hi, I’m Marilyn. I’ve recently accepted the invitation to be the fourth moderator of the Felt and Fiber Forum to replace Karen who left last year.
As long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated with textures—the grooved trunk of a tree, the delicate petal of a flower, the juxtaposition of smooth sand and a raging ocean wave. I’m a hands on person and have reveled in creating textures in a variety of mediums involving fiber.
As a young girl, my aunt taught me to sew which was great since I was able to make my own clothes to fit since I had long arms and legs. Later, when I had two boys of my own, I made their clothes.
Throughout my young adult life I continued to sew, design clothes, crochet, embroider, knit, played with string art, quilling and macramé. I also was interested in drawing and watercolor. But 3D texture was always the draw for me. And water. For many years I made paper, my specialty being textured paper sculptures. Of course, paper is fiber and requires water to process. I had wanted to be an artist, but coming from a practical family I was encouraged to go into business instead.
My college education was interrupted, but when I returned after my sons were born I waffled about my major. Most of my credits were in business so if switched to art I would have had to start over. My husband Craig gave me excellent advice. He was a marketing major in college and told me that no matter what career path I chose I would always have to market myself and a product. So marketing became my major.
It was more creative than I imagined and I was able to combine my knowledge of art and design as well as my love of writing into a career in corporate marketing.
I discovered felting when I retired a few years ago. It was instant love. Like all of my other creative endeavors, I researched and learned on my own. But now thanks to the wonders of the Internet and You Tube it was a much quicker and easier process.
When I found the Felt and Fiber Forum/Studio, I knew I found a home. I’ve learned so much from the wonderful cyber collective of felt and fiber artists from across the globe. I enjoy the camaraderie and look forward to sharing my knowledge of art, marketing and my creations. And, of course, continuing to learn and be challenged by all of you as well.
Last time I showed you my necklace with the balls inside. http://wp.me/p1WEqk-1WL Next was cutting some of the ball out.
At this point I still like the idea of a necklace but have no idea how to sting it. To me it needs a chunky chain or something to go with it. I suppose I could make some felt snakes for it but I like necklaces to sit fairly high so It would need a clasp and I don’t know how to do that. I decided to make it into a bracelet. I added a nice button that matches the inside of the bubbles. I did a blanket stitch around the buttonhole to stabilise it.
While I was in the mood I finished up 2 samples for a class I am teaching in May. This is a 2 hour class so it had to be small and fast. This is a class I don’t get paid to do so I am sort of testing out an idea too. I am thinking of proposing it as a class at an upcoming fiber event. I am writing instructions for it and thinking maybe I would make up some kits to sell.
The one a the top is an older one and the other 2 are the new ones. I don’t much like the pink and blue flower on but everyone I show it to likes it so I guess it’s just me. I think it’s because I don’t much like the fabric and it doesn’t have much texture and that’s what I like about nuno felt.
We would like you to meet one of our sponsors and a friend of mine Maureen Harding of Dreamspin fibres. We met a few years ago at a fiber conference and became friends. We live far enough apart that we only get together a few times a year but we always have a great time felting and trying new things. She doesn’t mention it here but she has a sale on select fibers at the moment.
Q-4 Three types of fibre you can’t live without?
Merino, silks, silk fabric but other fibres depending on the project
Q-3 Have you always been a felter?
I’ve been felting for 15 years, before that I was spinning and knitting.
Q-2 Two tools you use all the time?
Pool noodle and plastic window screening. (and ball brause)
Q-1 One fibre art technique you love the most?
I have to say felting. But also enjoy spinning and knitting
What is your business?
We sell wools, prefelts, fabrics for nuno felting, a few felting tools, mostly for felters.
Why and when did you start selling fiber?
It was an outgrowth of my interest in sheep and wools. Initially I raised sheep, learned to spin, learned to felt, and started buying other fibres wholesale for my own purposes. After a while I started selling fibres at fibreart venues and would make up articles to show what can be done with the fibres. People started asking me if I would teach them how, and this led to doing workshops in felting.
What kind of items do you sell?
As well as fibres for felters, I also sell felted articles such as nuno scarves, felted hats, and felted bags at various shows throughout the year.
What do you think makes your business different from similar ones?
We pride ourselves on our fast service, orders are made out the same or the next day. We offer free shipping on orders over $100 in North America. And we are always happy to offer assistance and advice over the phone, or email.
Where are you located?
Near Campbellford in Ontario
Where can we find you on the internet
I think every year I plan to be more organised over the coming year. I don’t think I’ve done too badly, I did rearrange some rooms to make my felting and craft stuff more accessible, so it should be even easier this year since I can now leave projects out and don’t have to spend valuable time tidying everything away. I’m going to keep writing notes and lists of things to do in my diary each day , so I don’t forget.
I really enjoyed the craft fair that I did, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to do more this year. Just working out how to find out where they are happening will be an improvement on last year 🙂 I photographed and printed out my ‘inventory’ of all the things I’ve made which makes it easier to keep track, so I’m going to keep up with that aswell this year. I used to upload everything to flickr, but I find it hard to use since the change.
I’d like to be able to work on a new e-book this year or at least more tutorials. As much as I love our weather here, it isn’t the best for taking photos, so that is a big hindrance in doing tutorials. The light in Winter can be perfect, but some days there’s barely 5 hours of ‘daylight’, so finding the perfect conditions can be difficult. The light in Summer is weird: pale, hazy with a yellow tint, so maybe it’s time to invest in a lightbox. I would also love to be able to get involved in community workshops, something which people will really enjoy doing, learning a new usable skill and giving people an alternative creative outlet and way to express themselves. Hopefully if I get enough interest I can also get funding. But if anyone has any openings for a felter one day a week, I’m open to offers 🙂
Two things I’d like to try out more with felting is embellishment fibres and using wool to create the ‘design’ or surface interest. I don’t think I’d ever be able to do anything like those gorgeous wet felted paintings, but I do enjoy using wool in a more controlled way to create an interesting effect.
I’ve been working on what I call my ‘other fibres project’ off and on for years, using embellishment fibres to add interest to felt. I made a few pieces with bamboo recently and enjoyed that a lot, especially adding texture and shape to felt, so I’d like to find time to work on that more.
Thanks for supporting us this year 🙂 Have you made plans for this year?
It’s New Years Day and I feel like I should say something profound but I haven’t been able to think of anything other than I hope your old year ended well and the new one will go the way you hope.
Last year I picked the words explore and persevere as my words for the year. I didn’t try as many new things as I would have liked but I did do some things, I did some small art works and took a boot making class on line. The boot making class brings us to perseverance. I have made 2 sets of boot tops so far and am not happy with them. I did adjust the pattern between tries and I am still not happy. the upper fits better but the Uncle is not right yet. I ordered more wool and will adjust the pattern again and hope that I am 3rd time lucky. so more perseverance this year too.
I think the other idea I would like to work on is self awareness. Trying to do the things I want and not what others think I should do. That sounds a bit selfish but I don’t mean ignoring other peoples needs just being more aware of my own.
Step one for everything is doing the new year sort and tidy. Nothing like working to make a mess. Everything is on the wrong place and its time to put it all back and maybe find better places for things. And maybe but only maybe, get rid of some stuff. I am not good at getting rid of things that might be useful. I have the packrat gene.
It’s not very exciting and I fear you may be getting bored with me telling you that I am making fingerless mitts again. Unfortunately other than getting ready for Christmas that is what I am doing. I did finish my exchange gifts and get them mailed off but I can’t show you the pictures until they are received.
These are two I finished yesterday. I have four more pairs in versus stages of being made.
