Workspace Blues Two

Last night my husband and I were discussing yesterdays blog, (amid hysterical laughing about my lack of workspace) and he asked if my little business has a board of directors? Imagine laughing at a six foot dining room table as my total workspace, i.e., studio. Without missing a beat I responded that yes of course I have a board and each member has a very distinct job and purpose.

We are empty nesters however we are now owned by two cats and a yappy little dog. While this may not sound like a houseful of small children, trust me, they all act like little children. I take full responsibility for their personality quirks.

Our two cats are mother and son although the hissing that emits from "mom" is no testament to their relationship. The son is huge, actually twice her size and full of himself most of the time. He is who I call my "honey man," and I am the only person in the house (husband or visitor) who is worthy of his attention. My honey man does actually have a name, Krazy Kat, and he spends every waking hour on my heels no matter what I'm doing, he's there. This goes for crafting, shipping, listing and of course housework - he's there! When I'm working he is not above landing on the table to check everything out - sniffing the glue so to speak. Krazy is in charge of "Quality Control" and "Shipping." When not busy with his chores he finds the most comfortable spot on the house waiting for his next call to duty.



On the other hand, our dog, Miss Louise is completely in charge of "Personnel" and "Security." She keeps the cats in line, is always one step away from breaking up a "hissing contest" and always but always keeps her eyes trained on me. During my work sessions I cannot keep the television on - because my dog watches it and barks like crazy when any, and I mean ANY cat or dog appear on the screen. If there were a more successful marketing strategy I don't know about it, because you would be amazed how many commercials contain animals - both overt and covert! Needless to say Animal Planet and Pet Network are out of the question. And by the way, she also barks at animated characters as well as the gecko!



So such is life, all my creative juices are expended on a dining room table and my little board of directors are busy...when not asleep!

Please check our my CremeMagnolia Etsy Store to see what my little crew and I do all day!

Throught the Eye of the Lens

I like art of all kinds but I especially love art that is created through the lens of a camera. I have thousands of images that one day will become art via print or canvas. Today I put several limited addition pieces in my Etsy Store that are some of my favorites. Over the years I have sold many of my photographs that now hang in client homes or offices.

All my photographs are original and copyrighted to protect not only myself but that of my clients.

I hope you enjoy what I see through the lens of my camera.


Peony in Spring


Monet Style Field of Flowers


Daisy times Three

Visit my CremeMagnolia Store as these prints are available on both Canvas and Kodak Archival Paper. Each photograph is a limited addition and comes signed, numbered and certificate of authentication.

The Art of Pricing and Marketing Art

Artists are just that, Artists! We don't like the business end of selling our wares, we don't like filing or any kind of paperwork for that matter, we rarely keep receipts, and most of all ~~ we would rather create art than market our art!

Marketing art is an art all unto itself.  Pricing our art is quite another story! I'll address the latter and finish with the former.

Most artists spend hours on end in almost complete solitude creating their art. By that I mean that the whole house could be in a complete tumult, kids screaming or a fire breaking out but when an artist is creating they are locked in their head. Self-representing artists are, in my opinion the most creative of people and the most insecure about their work. By that I mean: is it finished; is there anything else I can do to make this piece better; will anyone like it enough to buy it; how much is it worth; are my prices too high; are my prices too low; who is my competition; how will I market my art...and on and on.

Pricing is one of the most difficult aspects of creating art for sale. Finding out who and what your competition is, is one of the key factors to pricing. What venue an artist uses, be it a brick and mortar store, self hosted website (and that in and of itself opens another can of worms), art and craft online venue or craft fairs, just slapping a price on the piece isn't enough. Pricing could be the amount of time spent on a piece; it could be the amount of materials used in the creation of the piece or a combination of the two. As an artist myself, I am lucky to have little or no overhead AND I'm finally retired ~ so I can discount my time to zero as it's the creation itself that gives me pleasure so my selling price is predicated on materials alone. Not all artists are in my position. My advice to all artist is to study pricing the old fashioned way, with pen and paper ~ and a fast browser helps. Do searches on the internet specifically for artists who create in the same medium, check out their pricing and write it down ~ or copy the URL to NotePad. Keep a list so you can refer back to it. Your marketing will depend on your pricing and I'll address that post haste. Put your insecurities in your back pocket once you have done a LOT of research and put a price on your piece and forget about all the nagging questions above. That's your price and stick to it!

Marketing for the self representing artist is unfortunately a necessary evil. The internet has opened so many ways to market that the choices can be mind boggling! Making the decision to self-host a website is one of the most difficult in that SEO (search engine optimization) comes into play as well as the design of the site itself. A simple search on Google for "art" nets a result of 1,200,000,000 results! How do you get seen under the behemoth weight of results. Marketing, marketing and more marketing. Simply having a Face Book page or Twittering until your fingers bleed won't raise your rankings. It takes hard work, writing blogs, visiting and participating in complimentary blogs (it's not enough to simply post your link ~ it's in poor taste), writing articles, joining groups and creating enough attention to yourself that others will link to your site. Finally, not everyone is adept at website design or speaks html. The template based websites typically won't get the job done as they are very limiting by their sheer nature. If you are going to self-host your own website ~ branding is critical. By that I mean everything about your site should be cohesive, from your logo to the actual display. Branding is a subject for another blog!

Showing and selling your art on a site that is created especially for art and crafts creators is probably the easiest way to promote one's self. However, there are  many, many out there and again, it takes good old fashioned research to find the one that's best for you. A few things to keep in mind are: how much traffic does a particular venue have: what kind of success do they enjoy (easily found out by simply checking out the other sellers or by reading their forums); is the venue in line with your personality or selling ability; and finally, what kind of competition will you have on the venue.

Simply listing your art on a community venue created for artists won't guarantee you sales. Again, study what marketing capabilities a particular community has. Be it forums, groups or back links to other artists, there are a lot of ways you can market your art on a pre-built dedicated community. Finally, make note of the tools available to you in any community cause if it's too difficult or too time consuming...let's face it, you're an artist, not a marketer!

Check out my shops

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