Make It

Design Salon Annual Holiday Sale

The Boston Design Salon, a group of female designers I participated in while I was in Boston, is having a holiday sale this weekend. Eighteen of the Boston area's top women designers will be selling their products, including home accessories, jewelry, ceramics, rugs, pillows, children's clothing and stationery, at the Kingsley Montessori School in Boston at 26 Exeter Street (between Newbury and Commonwealth).  Saturday, November 15th from 10am to 5pm.  All are welcome! Here is the vendors list:

Albertine Press – www.albertinepress.com
Angela Liguori – www.angelaliguori.com
Dreaming About Giraffes - www.dreamingaboutgiraffes.com
Etcetera Media – www.etceteramedia.com
Filzfelt – www.filzfelt.com
Flauxy – www.flauxy.com
Gallardo Works - http://gallardoworks.com
J Hill Design - http://www.jhilldesign.com
Jill Bent Bags and Pillows – http://www.jillbent.com
Jill Rosenwald– www.jillrosenwald.com
KMI Design – www.kmidesign.com
Lucie Wicker Photography - www.luciewickerphotography.com
M. Flynn Accessories - http://www.mflynnstudio.com
Mittenmitten – www.mittenmitten.com
Pikme – www.pikmepapers.com
Plank - www.plankdesigns.com
Pilgrim Waters – http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5093046
Tess & Tallulah - http://www.tessandtallulah.com

Lessons learned from Open Studios

Open Studios...was...slow. I made a few sales and got a few inquiries from storeowners and even had someone tell me they had bookmarked my Etsy shop. The down time also gave me lots of time to ask Elisabeth plenty of stationery biz questions and admire the great little treasures in the studio.

It was helpful to see what people responded to, even if they didn't make a purchase. And my new mirrors were a hit. I sewed up some pouches for the mirrors last week but I only had about a dozen finished by Friday night, so at the last minute I grabbed a bunch of mirrors and decided to offer them with pouch ($10) and without pouch ($5). The without pouch mirrors ended up being my bestsellers. Go figure. I will definitely offer this option again at Art Beat. Additionally, I had a bunch of cards in sets, but I think I'm going to break up the sets and only have individual cards for Art Beat based on my experience at Open Studios.

Look for some of my leftover inventory to make its way to Etsy later this week!

Art Beat 2008!

Yay! Just found out I was accepted as a vendor at Art Beat in my own neighborhood of Davis Square! This is a massive music and food and craft festival in the middle of the Square that I've attended every year we've lived in the neighborhood. Hopefully next weekend's Open Studios will give me an idea of what to expect. I'm a little clueless when it comes to how much inventory to bring, how much cash to have on hand, etc.

May 17 + 18

Yes, it's chaos as usual here at Rifferaff headquarters. Slightly more chaotic lately because I'm pulling together inventory for my first open studios event! Last week Elisabeth graciously invited me to share her studio space for the SOWA Art Walk on May 17 and 18th. I'll have a little table in Black Pearl Press' studio with a selection of cards, journals and some other new things I'm trying to pull together before then (including some paper-covered boxes).  Hopefully you Boston-area readers will swing by the event and say hello. Elisabeth's letterpress studio is amazing and worth checking out in person. Here's a look at the behind the scenes action today.

These are some fabrics I printed last summer when I first started experimenting with screen printing (It's an early version of "Dots"). I pulled them out of the bottom of a storage trunk to put them to use for a new product idea.

Blank paper coasters from Elisabeth (she's so generous!) + a leaf-shaped paper punch = another new idea in the making. A classy twist on decoupage coasters.

And a tiny embellishment on chocolate envelopes.

South End Open Studios

Yesterday I staffed the Mod Green Pod office for South End Open Studios. (It's going on again today so any Boston-area people should go check it out) It was fun to be on the other side of things this year. Last year I was an attendee and this year I was representing the company. Open Studios is such a fun event. Not only do you get to meet customers- and they get to see your product up close- but you also get to know the neighbors in the studio and spy into their personal studio space. No small feat in a building where very few people keep  a  regular 9 - 5 workday. I have to say my favorite part of the day was checking out other artists and creative companies in our building. Companies such as...

Morgan and Milo - They have an amazing office space, very sleek and modern. It looks like they combined two studios to make one large office and separate stock room! They design adorable kids shoes that I wish came in grown up sizes.

Gallardoworks - Emily Gallardo has the studio directly next to ours. She has a line of stationery that she sells mostly wholesale. She's been a great source of information to me as I think about doing a line of screen printed papers. She's done the Stationery Show for several years, she has sold to the big chains and the local boutiques.

Black Pearl Press - Elisabeth was amazingly friendly and helpful as well.  I felt guilty for hogging her time yesterday with so many other customers in her studio but she was perfectly happy to chat for 20 mins or so and answer my questions about her company, the art of letterpress, and the stationery business at large. She also really boosted my confidence when she said she'd be interested in a collaboration once I got my screenprinting operation underway! How's that for motivation.

I highly recommend visiting open studios events to get a dose of inspiration and get a chance to speak one on one with creative professionals who are doing the kind of work you want to do. One thing that was consistent in nearly all of the studios was that artists were very well organized. It's a lesson I really need to take to heart as my home work space is so ineffeciently organized that I usually need to take 20 mins to tidy up before I can get anything done. I need to rethink my organizational system and this may mean purging my craft closet of some of my jewelry- and batik-making supplies that I haven't used in a while. Any takers?

Notes from Open Studios

This weekend I visited the Somerville Open Studios. Open Studios is a time for artists to open up their homes and studio space and invite people in to view their work and chat. The weather was perfect and I was happy to see lots of people walking around on Saturday and Sunday visiting the different artists all over the city of Somerville.

On Saturday, I mostly visited home studios and artists displaying in common areas like retail stores or churches. These artists were mostly crafters, and there were lots of ceramics and jewelry items for sale. On Sunday, I visited a massive studio complex and saw mostly paintings and photographic works. Interestingly enough, I had much more fun on Saturday than I did on Sunday. I believe this is partly due to the fact that I am more interested in crafts and Saturday was very craft-heavy. But I also think the atmosphere played a role as well. The artists I visited on Saturday mostly were people who did crafts as a side project. It was not their main source of income and they seemed very happy and eager to interact with potential customers. On Sunday, the studio complex was gorgeous, with what seemed like an endless amount of artists spread over several floors in loft style studios. But the art and the artists were not as welcoming. The atmosphere was more formal, which made for a much different experience.

Somerville Open Studios is an event that happens only once a year, if an artist is going to participate, I expect they'd want to make the most of it and interact with as many people as possible. After spending two days exploring this event and viewing art in all different mediums, I have some thoughts to share on what makes for a successful open studios:

1. Have a good attitude. Simply making eye contact and smiling to potential customers goes a long way.
2. Do good work. It seems obvious, but I think it's taken for granted. Make sure that if you are asking someone to pay money for your work you've done the best work you can do.
3. Be unique. Some medium are more popular than others. I saw alot of jewelry, ceramics and paintings in the different studios I visited. If your medium isn't wildly unique (interestingly enough there were no textile artists participating in this event), then make sure your product and/or presentation is.

I found out about this Open Studios event in a free local newspaper. Other resources to find out about arts and crafts events are craigslist and craftster