I’ve been trying to find ways to make a living using my crafts/art. So far, I’ve sold a few prints & hand-made journals, but selling is not my strong point. Besides learning to sell and setting aside my ‘modesty’ in order to push my products and sell myself, I need to find a few more things that come easily that may supplement the sporadic sales of art & notebooks.

Last weekend I taught a group of girls to make cell phone pouches out of felt and little notebooks using a simple pamphlet stitch. I had a blast. I’ve always liked teaching, but don’t feel like getting any teacher certs to be allowed in to public schools. I prefer to do things on my own terms.

I frequent a great stamp/paper shop in a nearby town square. The owners are fantastic people and I’ve spoken with the husband of the duo that owns the place quite a few times. I’ve shown the couple my art journal, and more recently, a book I made at a workshop given at Praxium Press. These folks are very encouraging, and I was told that I am more than welcome to teach a class at the store whenever I wanted. So, I suppose teaching in some way will be a good way to go. So this is definitely another area I need to explore.

I’ve been reading several successful crafters’ blogs and listened to their podcasts. Each one of them says at some point to write. Write what you know, submit to trade publications, your favorite magazines, newspapers… And if you’ve got a lot to say, write a book. Now, writing is something else I enjoy, but I’ve never really done much outside of technical documentation & user manuals at work.

Here’s to a three-pronged attack at my new career, and a few goals to keep me honest:

1. Come up with 2 article ideas (one craft-oriented & one misc.) & send a query to at least 5 magazines by Feb 2006
2. Set up 5 craft/art classes for the first half of 2006
3. Re-tool my website (this one) to feature my creative work/business first instead of the blog by the end of January 2006.

Wow… I’d better get started, eh?