Sorry it has been so long since my last post. There has been so many things in the works and so many lessons learned.
I have been reading other people's blogs about art, business and felting and it has gotten me thinking. Why am I doing what I am doing...
February was a huge learning curve for me. I had been contacted about doing some felt pigs for a small publishing company out west and got really excited about it. I did two sample pigs but did not ask for a deposit. First lesson learned! Always ask for a deposit. I now have two storybook pigs that hopefully someone will fall in love with.
I started timing myself on my work and realized that I really undervalue myself and my work. Felting is a much misunderstood art form. My friend Laura wrote a fantastic
blog post on art and business that started this evaluation of artistic worth. Then I happened upon Feltoohlala's blog. When I first started needle felting this is the artist I showed my family to explain what could be aspired to. I deeply admire this artist's work. She wrote a wonderful piece on the artistry of
needle felting and what a dis-service we do to other felt artists by underpricing our work. New artists are a pretty insecure lot and I am no exception. I find myself holding my breath when people look at my work, praying they will buy it and when they don't I feel slightly crushed and questioning my worth. When I post a piece on
my etsy shop or on my
my meylah store I check it several times a day to see how many views it gets. Reading Feltoohlala's posting made me realize that I had to change my thinking.
Internet sales is time consuming and costly. I post a piece, pin it, wanelo it, tumblr it, revise it etc. Then there is the Facebook posting and tweeting, many times without to much feedback from fans and followers. I update
my webpage, make sure the stores and fairs are up and update the gallery sections. It costs monetarily and time wise. These are things I didn't consider when I opened for business a year ago. Now blogging....
I have had some pretty good success with consignment and wholesale locally but I am having to rethink my wholesale pricing (refer to former paragraphs). I am getting accepted into craft shows that were once places I shopped and there is a good possibility that I will have a couple of galleries interested. A local theater may want to use me for masks and that is thrilling. I get treasured and favorite on Etsy, I won a contest on Meylah and hopefully this will translate into sales.
I never thought I would find such an art form that excites me as much as wool sculpting does. I really have never been happier then I have been felting (besides being the pixie's mom). In fact I am so happy that I am thinking of letting go of my social work license. That's right, I am a medical social worker and I find myself thinking that I really don't want to go back to it. I really want to make this work because for once in my life I really really love what I am doing.
So that is all the random thoughts for this month...thanks for reading!
