Tattoo Bracelets Copyright Elaine Luther 2014

I’m building up stock for the craft show I’m in November.  These are my steel wire tattoo bracelets, part of my new bronze and steel line.

I’m also rebuilding my display, having not done a show in a while.  I’ve been researching displays, to find what will work best with this bronze jewelry and will write you a post today about what I’ve been finding.

LED Bracelet by Elaine Luther

I took a workshop in etextiles at the Maker Lab at the Chicago Public Library and made this super fun LED bracelet.  The on/off switch is the metal magnetic clasp, which completes the circuit.

This is a terrific intro to soft circuits for adults and kids with an attention snap long enough to do the sewing.

The library has a terrific tutorial and an animation, which you can see here:

https://sites.google.com/site/cplmakerlab/digital-toolbox/etextiles/led-bracelet

Most of the items you can find at the craft store plus Radio Shack (they have the LEDs) but you’ll still need the conductive thread, which is what’s acting as the wiring in this project.

You’ll have to order that online from adafruit or SparkFun.

Another tutorial can be seen here, at SciGirls Connect.

http://scigirlsconnect.org/page/high-tech-fashion

and click on Download the Activity.

For those who don’t know, SciGirls is a terrific show where real girls in junior high and high school choose a real world problem to tackle, with the assistance of a mentor who’s an adult woman scientist or engineer.  Great show, check your local PBS station or watch episodes online.

Back to the bracelet, it’s not the most successful piece in the world as jewelry, I’ll admit that, but it’s terrific for a first project in learning to make a circuit with conductive thread as the “wire” and working with LEDs.

To make it better, I’d use 100% wool felt, such as the great stuff from Magic Cabin or ____________ .  I could also have sewn some cut bits of felt for more decorative touches.

Bronze, Steel and River Rock Necklace Copyright Elaine Luther 2014

This line includes earrings, necklaces and bracelets.  It started as just my playing around and making stuff for myself to wear.  I’d test-wear things, make sure everything worked well, and pretty soon I had a line!

The part I want to tell you about is their reactions to the piece, “Society of Mothers…”

One of them laughed. (Hint: laughter, not really the right reaction.) The other one said, “Oh, I can’t even look at that one!”

I can’t really complain, it’s a difficult piece. So difficult, that apparently, I’ve never even posted a picture of it here on the blog. I was sure it was there, but I just checked the photo library and nope, nothing.

The title of the piece is “The Society of Mothers of Dead Babies.”

What I realized this week, is that I really can’t just show that one to people without any introduction. They need context.

It’s probably helpful if they know that that piece is personal, that it’s about me, my loss, my membership in that club.

Neither of these two people knew that about me, I’d just met them, and I usually don’t tell people about the loss of my daughter when I’ve just met them.

Maybe that means I can’t show them this piece either.  You’d think I would have known that, I suppose.  But I made the piece about seven years ago and I’m used to it now.

Is that at all useful to you?  Do you have difficult work that you have to be careful in how to present it?  I’d love to hear your st

I also have a totally new line of jewelry!  New pictures coming soon.  It’s all bronze and steel, very simple and elegant.  Also fun to make.

Fellow makers at Berwyn Makers, my local group, looked at the new line and helped me profile my ideal customer, where does she shop?  What does she wear?  How old is she?  That kind of thing.  They also gave me specific boutiques that would be a good fit and I’ll be approaching those shops.

How about you?  How’s your summer?  Making anything wonderful?

I gathered up all the links about my public participation project Motherhood, the Crazy Quilt: Love Ya Like Crazy/Driving Me Crazy and created a Pinterest board for them:

http://www.pinterest.com/elainelutherart/motherhood-the-crazy-quilt-project-by-elaine-luthe

There are blog posts, a smore flyer, a link to sign up for the workshop and a newspaper article, all linked in one handy spot, with pictures!

Find out in this profile of me, over at the Library as Incubator Project blog!

http://www.libraryasincubatorproject.org/?p=13805

How have I benefitted from being a member of Art Biz Incubator at Art Biz Coach?

Community and Support …nurture is right in the tag line

I’ve learned I work best when I have a team around me. My team includes my web designer, my graphic designer, my editor, my photographer, and now it includes Alyson Stanfield and everyone who’s a member of the Art Biz Coach Artist Incubator.

One of the things I like about working with a team is that it creates deadlines and gives me something to respond to. When you’re a solopreneur and things only happen when you make them happen, the more help and support you can get to make things happen, the better.

This past year for me has been about figuring out what I need to nurture in my life so that I can create more art, more jewelry, and take my business to the next level. I discovered I needed to nurture myself and find support elsewhere too.

My local artist support groups that I attend are terrific, but they’re only once a month, or quarterly. With the Art Biz Coach Incubator from Art Biz Coach, I’ve got daily support. There’s a members-only facebook group where I can ask (and answer) questions, there’s a monthly group call with Alyson where I can ask questions.

As soon as I got into the member area for the first time, I realized this was going to be a resource I could learn from for a long time. And I also kept thinking, “I’ve got to tell my artist friends about this!” I’d read and think oh, “Anne would love this, Lisa would love this, I’ve got to tell them about it.”

And I keep wanting to blog about things that I read there, to share them with you, and then I remember I can’t, “oh right! It’s in the member area.” Because this is a program I really believe in, I joined the affiliate program.

Resources and Staying on Track

What’s my next step? I have a place to go when I don’t know what to do next, and then I have direction. I’ve just had a string of activities and was incredibly busy—I gave a speech, do do guest posts that happened to come out almost at the same time, I installed my solo show and launched the product line of shirts, cards, stickers and prints with images of the artwork.

The “hook” of having the show gained media placements for me, but then what? Once that rush-rush of all that (wonderful) work was over, I was floundering a little. What should I do next?

So I logged into the member area of the Art Biz Coach Incubator to see, okay, what do I do? I selected the Ramp Up Marketing Focus Area and selected the audio files and written guides to help me for exactly where I am now.

I’m writing my marketing plan using the form and guide from Alyson, so it’s not a stab in the dark, it’s comprehensive and strategic.

Inspiration
I have lots of role model artists to learn from and be inspired by.

How do others on this path make it work for them? What’s their story and what can I apply from their story to my path? There’s plenty of inspiration to be had, in the Inspiration Focus Area as well as mixed in with other posts and audio files that are actually about something else.

Speaking of audio files, there are a ton of audio files in the library at Art Biz Coach Incubator which are terrific for listening to in the car. I love being able to take my unproductive time – just driving somewhere by myself – and turn that into learning time by bringing along an audio file from Alyson to listen to on my iPod. Waiting in line at the gas station? no problem! I’m learning while I wait!

I’ve purchased audio programs from Art Biz Coach before and paid $27.00 per audio program. Now, for $37.00/month, I have unlimited access to everything new she creates for the Art Biz Incubator at the ArtBizCoach, plus everything in that large library.

I’ve read lots of books, but I’m ready for the next level, I’m ready for really specific information and help, and that’s what I’m getting from the Art Biz Coach Incubator. Are you ready?

Click HERE to join me.

Elaine Luther Art Stickers on RedBubble all artwork copyright 2011-2014 Elaine Luther

This idea of multiple income streams is something that keeps coming up for me as a smart biz strategy. I talked about it at the SEA at the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization Conference last October, in a roundtable, and at the Self-Employment in the Arts Conference (SEA) just last month, in a panel.

The obvious income stream for jewelers is to sell jewelry, but how can we add more income streams? Writing books, selling tutorials, teaching live classes or online classes are all examples of types of extras a jewelry artist can sell.

My friends who sew or quilt all sell patterns and/or kits.

Why add more income streams?

To reach more and different customers. Not everyone is in the market for jewelry, but that same person might be in the market for lessons in jewelry making.

I’m a big advocate of digital information products: a download for sale that you create once, and sell again and again. Patterns, tutorials and ebooks all fall into this category. The even more exciting thing about digital products is that you can set them up to sell on automatic pilot. My kindle book is completely taken care of by amazon. I wrote up, uploaded it to amazon and they take care of the rest. My only job is marketing. Isn’t that awesome? What could you create that you could sell as a digital download?

Quilter Ebony Love came and talked to our group, Berwyn Makers, about her business model. She talked about making each quilt “work as hard as possible.” Where she used to make one quilt and sell it, now she’ll design and make a quilt for a fabric manufacturer, then that quilt might get pick up for a magazine cover (check, that happened), then she might be invited to write a how-to article inside the magazine (check!) and then she can sell kits of the pre-cut fabric on her website to go with that magazine article (check!).

Of all the artists I know, Ebony is making her artwork work the hardest!

The picture above is my newest foray into the digital/automated sales world. My body of work, “Our Ladies of Perpetual Housework,” is currently on exhibit at the West Englewood Branch of the Chicago Public Library. People love these works and always smile when they see them. While most people wouldn’t have a place to display one of the original sculptures, they might like to own a postcard or sticker, or mail a card to a friend, or wear it on a T-shirt.

After much searching of options for offering these products, I chose Red Bubble. You can see my collection here.

What about you? What are your income streams? What’s an area you’d like to move into?