final thoughts

this is the last post on the buyers market classes. overall, i'm very glad i attended the classes and would recommend the classes to any artist looking to become more professional in their art. the classes and the info learned has been running through my head since we returned. there was definitely a discouraging note among the vendors at this show, "worst show ever, no sales",etc...
but again i'm glad i went.
i have also decided to make some drastic changes to my company. for example i raised my prices. i've decided to take my pride in my craft and price my goods in accordance. my goods are all individual and take time, knowledge and talent to make. it will be interesting to see what the response to the price change is. i think the reason i feel like i'm not making any money is because my goods are way under priced. i'm not wal-mart, so my goods should not look or be priced so!
i'm also working on some new designs and new products to add to company....which will be reveled on april 3.
be sure to check back to see whats new

buyers market pt. 2

on the second day of classes we learned about gallery relationships and pricing. both were very informative. i learned ways to get galleries to order from you, good ways to follow up, marketing tools. the pricing class was also great. i learned my prices will most likely change, upward. i learned many other things in this class, but that is definitely the main point that has implanted in my head.
in other news today, check out the visitors that have been chillin' in my backyard all day
(those are moose)
also today i've been working on getting photos taken and hopefully add more to my etsy store in the next few days. my goals are to post items daily- to get more traffic and make some sales!!i'm trying so new photos, just from the eyes up, not the whole face. what do you think?
tomorrow- my final thoughts on the buyers market

home sweet wyoming

last week corey and i visited phili, for the buyers market training classes.
(well, i was taking classes, corey just wondered the city)
ABI works with buyers market and the rosen group to help prepare artist for the jump into wholesale. my classes consisted of gallery relationships, wholesale 101, booth design, pricing, and many group panel discussions.
wholesale 101 and booth layout were both presented by bruce baker. he was a very dynamic and engaging speaker. i definitely got info from his classes which applied to both wholesale and retail.
his class also helped me to determine i'm not ready to move into wholesale yet. i feel i need more time refining my line and also expanding it. one point stressed by more than one speaker was to have a wholesale only line and a retail line, to prevent competition with the galleries. this is something i want to do before i attend a trade show.
the booth design class also had great info for my summer lineup of retail shows, which i just finished applying for. the line up (if excepted) is:
jackson hole art fair, july and august
sun valley
vail
boulder
park city
now i just need to find a way to get a little cash flow so to pay for the booth fees!!!
more on the buyers market tomorrow!!

thank you thank you

i'd like to announce that i've received a lovely grant from the state of wyoming! this grant will pay in full for me to attend the buyers market wholesale training class in feb. in phili!
this is great as money is tight (for everyone i'm sure) and because this puts me one step closer to my goal of becoming a vendor for this show by feb. 2010!!!!!
so a big thanks to the state of wyoming for this very helpful grant!!!!

office work

today is a day filled with paperwork, bill paying, web stuff.
so exciting!
but, one highlight, today is also the day for wedding stuff, which is fun.... sometimes. today we get to decide on a guess list and reception stuff.... so kind of tedious.
but... please check out our wedding blog. i figure about twice a week i'll try to up date and post stuff. kristaandcoreygetmarried.blogspot.com/

scary, very scary

over this past weekend, i had a scary but very fortunate experience. i was up early Saturday morning, around 5:45am ( i am a breakfast waitress too) and went into our garage looking for something and was meet by a garage full of smoke.
the garage is used mostly for storage and my dye studio, not for storing our cars. in my dying of fabric i use portable hot plate burners, which one had shorted out, heated it self up and started to burn the hat set on top of it. luckily, wool is naturally self-extinguishing and had been used for fireman's blankets, so the fiber had just smoldered. which is very lucky as we have many chemicals stored in the garage and our closes smoke detector is not working, so the situation could have turned for the worst.
so just a quick reminder of those of us that work with heat, flame, chemical, etc. to be cautious with our equipment. i would have never had thought of my burners shorting out and almost burning down our house, but you can bet they'll never be left plugged in when not in use from now on.

hello new year

i realize its been the new year for a few weeks now (where does the time go?) but i still feel the need to acknowledge it. so here we are. my current activities consist of deciding what shows to apply to for the summer season. also planning my trip to phili for the buyer's market visiting artist program. afterward, i will be one step closer to my goal of being a vendor at this show by next year!!
the timing is good, as i feel i still need a little time getting my work more refined to move into wholesaling and this training course should help!
corey and i are in total wedding planning madness right now, but it should slow down here once we get contracts signed and everything lined up! i'm going to start a wedding blog, if anyone is interested in seeing whats going on with the wedding. also a way for people to rsvp without all the paper and postage trash!
on a more serious note, i'm sure most artist and crafters have by now seen something on the new laws going into effect in feb. the consumer product safety improvement act- this is very serious changes that will put most crafters out of business. i'm asking everyone, artist or not, to take action and sign petitions, talk to others, just spread the word and get others involved! here are some important links
etsy's site
CNN money site
a blog
and if you just enter CPSIA petition in google a whole list comes up.
even if you think this don't effect you or your craft, don't forget those of us who's it does!