Handmade Glass Beads

Making Money with Your Glass Bead Hobby

If you want to build a business around a hobby that you love, protect what you enjoy, and don’t let that get lost in the business. If creating original works is where your interest lies, there IS a market for one-of-a-kind pieces! Just keep in mind that your business may take longer to build than if you do production work.

I can see production work as a viable alternative in three different ways (perhaps you can think of more?!):

1. You see the work as a meditative activity. 
2. You want something to keep your hands busy while your mind is occupied with something else.
3. You want to hire someone else to do the production!

Be careful about deciding to do production work as a temporary measure if your preference is to create one-of-a-kind pieces. You may end up feeling stuck in production.

  You don’t want your work to feel like this!

Here’s an article that will give you further insights on the implications of choosing either production or original-only pieces:

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Selling Crafts - Production Crafts Vs. One Of A Kind Crafts

When you are selling crafts, at some point you will likely make a choice between creating production work and creating one-of-a-kind pieces. If you choose to become a production craft artist, you will develop a line of items that you make over and over, if you create one of a kind pieces, you will rarely repeat the same design twice.

Following are some considerations to help determine whether production crafts or one of a kind items are a good fit for goals for your craft business.

Creating and selling crafts on a production basis:
You’ll need to ensure your product is marketable and influenced by current trends and customer preferences. That means you may make design decisions because a particular style sells well.
Because you’ll be making the same items many times, you’ll give up a certain amount of artistic expression that you would have if you made one of a kind items.
You must be happy doing repetitive work and enjoy the production process. You’ll spend a lot of time creating the same design. If you don’t like the production process, rather than rejoicing in a big new order, you’ll dread the thought of a huge order coming in.
You will most likely sell your crafts primarily at retail and wholesale craft shows, and perhaps online.
Once you create some effective routines, you’ll be able to create a predictable work schedule for your time in the studio and your time spent marketing and selling crafts at art shows.

Creating and selling one of a kind crafts:

There will be plenty of room for creative expression, and you will be engaged in less repetitive work in the studio.
You won’t repeat your designs, so you’ll need to have no shortage of great ideas if you go this route with your craft business.
You’ll need to be comfortable with exploring new ideas and techniques for creating your work.
You may have a fairly erratic work schedule in which you work long hours to complete a specific project, and then have slower periods.
You will most likely need to network and build business relationships with galleries to have success in this venue.
You income may be less predictable and you may need another source of income to supplement your earnings.

Your choice to create production crafts or one of a kind crafts will impact most of your other decisions related to selling crafts. Take some time to determine which approach best fits your needs and work preferences so you will create a craft business that truly meets your expectations.

By: Lisa McGrimmon

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Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Craft business writer, Lisa McGrimmon, publishes Inspiri-Art-and-Craft.com, a comprehensive guide to starting a home based craft business. For more information on selling crafts, visit Lisa’s site.

Tags: business, creating selling crafts, glass beads, hobby, original artist

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 6:17 am and is filed under Handmade Glass Beads. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.