facing reality

I don't know anyone who likes tax time, but even though I usually get a refund, I very much hate it. Like many creative types, I have no interest in practical matters like staying on top of the accounting. I pretty much keep my head in the sand all year until it's time to add up all my expenses in order to do the taxes. That's when I find out whether or not I made a profit. After happily running my Etsy store all year and feeling like sales have been good, it's always a rude awakening to face the numbers. It's gotten to the point where it's illogical to continue unless I can make my business into something that generates some income for my family.

So I've been doing some soul searching and some scheming and have decided to give myself one more year to make it work. During this year I have a few concrete measures I plan to take to try to improve my efficiency.

stop wasting time

Time is money, right? So I am becoming acutely aware of when I am wasting it.

I have always made lots of trips to the post office, sometimes with just one measly package, and stood in line FOR-EVER! No more. I can't believe I waited so long to get a postal scale! I love this thing! It saves me gas too, because I buy the postage online and the mailman just takes the packages from my doorstep now.

A little harder to quantify, but keeping the office & studio more clean and organized is another of my measures. I just hate spending time and energy trying to find a certain fabric or trim, even just my scissors, while the clock is ticking. 15 minutes at the end of the night folding and putting away will keep it under control (I hope).

I can't do a full-on assembly line approach to my sewing now that I've decided to stop doing shows (that was last year's hard-learned lesson) and shifted to a mostly made-to-order business. There are a few tasks I can combine, though, to make the assembly process a little quicker. One thing that takes time is constantly changing the threading on the serger for different stitches. So I've started consolidating steps like rolled edging which I use on anything ruffled. When I have one thing to do on that setting, I'll go ahead and prep for future projects that I am reasonably sure I'll get an order for, like ruffle-butt bloomers. This way I'm not committing to stocking entire garments as I can use the pieces on any size, just cut them down accordingly.

keep on top of the accounting

I really should be adding up my receipts and expenses monthly. Duh! So I know if I'm veering off track. Bad me for not doing it sooner!

stop over-buying fabric

Every time my husband comes in my studio, he remarks on how much fuller it seems. How can that be if I'm selling at a decent clip in my Etsy store? Well, because my eyes are bigger than my head when it comes to buying fabric. I overestimate how many items I can physically make in general, and I buy without a always having a specific project in mind. I have been acquiring fabric at a faster rate than my actual sales. This is the year to go the other way and use up what I already have and be more selective about what I do buy.

stock certain supplies

This is counter intuitive to what I just said above, but now that I have a good feel for what I sell a lot of and what I tend to run out of all the time, it made sense for me to stock up on certain supplies like elastic, eyelet trim, and packaging. It's cheaper to buy these things in bulk. It's a time and money waster to have to run out in the middle of a project for more lace and then to pay a premium.

rethink what I sell

This is a hard one because it really is the core of the problem as much as I hate to admit it. I can't compete on price with mass produced children's clothing. I pretty much charge the the maximum amount the market will bear for, say, an appliqued onesie. Yet these onesies take 3 hours or more to complete and if you subtract the cost of materials, I pocket minimum wage at best for my work. People like them and can tell they are better than something from Walmart, but do I want to continue on this trajectory to nowhere?

pursue other creative endeavors

I have a lot more ideas than I can actually execute for my little store, but I don't want them to languish. Knowing what the profitability of my handmade business is, taking more breaks from it to pursue other things doesn't seem so bad. Actually, it's kind of freeing. The world will go on if I take time off to do a little freelance work in the apparel world or try my hand at a book proposal. Maybe I can even go for more walks or work in my garden.

Sigh! The reality-check of tax time!

why i'm not having a cyber monday sale or any other sale anytime soon

And so it begins. The turkey has barely had time to cool on the plate and the mega sale season has begun. I'm in awe of how many people are willing to camp out at stores, stay up all night, wait in lines, endure crowds in search of "deals". It all just makes me sad.

We pay for cheap merchandise in so many ways other than the purchase price. Quality of materials is the first to go. And it's no secret that the workers in these far away factories are not paid living wages or given benefits (I know, I used to work in the apparel industry). The the environment pays for the cheap prices by being over-harvested and polluted in the production process before the stuff gets shipped across the globe using fossil fuel. And finally, with fewer jobs to go around in our own country because labor is cheaper elsewhere, we go into debt as a nation to support the resulting jobless and bail out companies that make stupid decisions so we won't lose even more jobs. So we pay for all this cheap merchandise on the backs the downtrodden, our environment, and indirectly our own selves.

One thing, among others, that I will never buy is Chinese cashmere. The environmental devastation caused by the overgrazing of China's grasslands is just mind boggling. This article from the Seattle Times was published 8 years ago. It's a miracle that this resource hasn't been completely gobbled up yet (literally, the goats are eating each other because the grass is gone). There will be a point sometime soon when it won't be possible to make a lot of things.

Call me a curmudgeon, but this is what I think about when I see all the ads and sale signs. I'm sad to see my Etsy friends succumbing to the pressure to get buyers' attention by putting on sales that they can't really afford to do. I'm disappointed that the Etsy powers that be are encouraging this mentality in our handmade community. I feel this undermines artisans by cheapening the product in the eyes of the buyer rather than promoting what's wonderful about handmade items and why they are worth more than something mass-produced.

Sooooooo, this is why I have not done a Black Friday or Cyber Monday sale or any other promotion except for a modest coupon for members of my Facebook page celebration my 100th Etsy sale. I'm not willing to use cheaper materials. I will continue to use my American Apparel onesies and tees which are made in the USA and are soft and thick. I can't compete on price, so I'm not going to try. If something costs me $10 in materials takes me 3 hours to make like my bird purses or my appliqued onesies, it's going to have to cost over $30. I hope my original designs have value to people, but if I can't sell the stuff for that, lowering the price won't help me in the long run. I'll give it all away to loved ones who will enjoy it if it comes to that.

It's impossible now to get through modern life without buying some mass produced things (although some brave souls have tried it). I just ask that you consider buying some portion of your holiday shopping from a small independent merchant (like me!) this season. There is plenty of cool stuff to be found if you're willing to browse on Etsy or one of the other handmade sites and your money will go to a person. The Etsy Kids Team blog has 10 reasons why you should buy handmade if I haven't already convinced you. And if you're still here at the end of this paragraph, thanks for listening to my rant!

into matryoshka dolls

I don't know why, but I'm into Matryoshka dolls, also known as Russian nesting dolls, at the moment. I guess I should say I'm STILL into them since I wrote about them a while ago here.

They just seem so festive for the holidays to me. I found these great matryoshka doll items browsing around on Etsy:
Antique Russian nesting dolls from amberfilikins (oh darn, they're sold!)
Matryoshka doll letterpress birthday card from dutchdoor
Mother-daughter nesting doll pendant set from shoplolli
Matryoshka doll bobby pins from MelissaAbram
Kokka Japanese import matryoshka doll fabric from MoonaFabrics
Hand printed matryoshka doll kitchen towels from CuddleCanvas
Matryoshka doll baby quilt from SweetnCozy
Tiny needle felted matryoshka doll from CattaDolls

And I've been working on my own items for chirp & bloom.

I made an applique onesie and big sister tee in time for the last Clover Market of the season two weeks ago, and I think they came out pretty cute. People liked them at the show anyway, so now they are in the shop.

It was fun to finally use some of the floral ribbons from my trip to the NYC garment district and it was my first time using ink jet printable fabric sheets by Jaquard. I really wanted something realistic for the face, so I created the image in the computer and printed it out. I did a wash test and the ink ran some which wouldn't do at all. So I tried again, and heat setting it with the iron, then soaking it in salt water. That brought the color down a bit, but I like the more antique look and when washed  again, the ink didn't run. See? Even in a small business you have to do quality control testing. I'll add to that that I've tested the best way to finish the edge of ribbons and ric-rac. Between Fray-Check and singeing, singeing wins as long as the content is polyester. I use a Darice craft wood burning tool for the singeing and it works great.

Back to those printable fabric sheets- they are so cool, my daughter wanted to try them too, so we had a couple of friends over to do her craft idea here.

team spirit at the clover market!

Last Sunday was the final Clover Market of the season and my last show for the year as well. I decided not to do any Christmas shows, because if I've learned one thing after doing six shows since May it's this: shows are a lot of friggin' work! Family life is busy enough during the holidays!

a dear little customer checking out Penelope

I don't seem to have the discipline to pace myself with product production between shows. I routinely do all-nighters before each one due to insecurity. Did I make enough new stuff? Do I have enough of a certain item to make an impact? Am I just too lame for words? Once I'm there, though, and the customers start coming in, it becomes fun and feels like it's worth it. In my previous life as a designer for a clothing company in New York City, I never got to chat with customers or see their reactions first-hand. I really value the insight meeting the customers gives me and I feel less and less like I'm blindly making stuff and hoping for the best.

One of my new products: lavender sachets. Finally a use for my precious vintage tablecloth scraps- boy do I hate to waste good fabric! I'm using the lavender I brought back from Willow Pond Farm in June. Gosh. it smells good! Teacher gift anyone?

Michabella

This particular Clover Market was extra fun, not just because of the stellar fall weather. I got to pal around with several members of some of the Etsy teams I am on. Michelle of Michabella from the treasury-curating team, Curation Nation, was there with her jewelry collection. I love her pendants made from geode slices and her lucite filagree earrings. Her fool's gold pendant is on my Christmas list... honey, are you paying attention?

Beeps' Peeps

From the Etsy Kids Team, Brita of Beeps' Peeps was there. I enticed her to come to the show because Ardmore is such a family place. It seems like every other shopper there is pregnant or is pushing a stroller-

Beeps' Peeps

the perfect audience for her play mats and cheerful, kid-friendly accessories!

funretro

I was looking forward to meeting Natalie of funreto, also from Curation Nation. I cannot tell you how many times I've used her cool vintage pieces in my treasuries. I don't know how she does it, being a full-time teacher on top of running a busy Etsy shop, but she does it well.

Almanac Industries

I am such a sucker for letterpress! I met Jacob & Whitney of Almanac Industries at the Brandywine Arts Festival in Wilmington and loved their aesthetic which is masculine and vintagey..

I mentioned the Clover Market to them and they actually jumped on it and did the show. I hope to see them again next time.

youngest member of "team chirp"

My dear husband and kids have been such troopers while I've pursued this craft show adventure. I did not realize the impact it would have on them, having to endure my frenzied hysteria before each show and my neglect of household duties, not to mention the early morning set-up duties. Yay for team chirp! Now back to a normal life for a few months at least ;)

what a difference a year makes

I've been getting my etsy shop ready for the holiday season and decided to renew this cardinal coin purse that I'd allowed to expire after last Christmas. I remember thinking at the time that the picture was really awesome and that it was a good seller (I sold 5).

2010        vs.       2011

I've done a lot of product photography and editing in Photoshop since then, so I was alarmed when I renewed it and saw it next to the newer items in my shop. EGADS! What a dark, sad photo, standing out like a big ol' bruise! This is a typical newbie Etsy seller mistake and a rampant one on Ebay as well. Pictures just look more appealing brightened almost to the point of overexposure.

A little bokeh goes a long way too. That's the blurriness in the background that you can get if you open your aperture up a lot. I'm lucky enough to own a lens for my DSLR camera that has a 1.8 aperture (smaller numbers mean bigger when it comes to apertures), so I set my camera on aperture priority at 2- 2.5 and shoot away. If you have a point & shoot, there is usually a macro setting that you can use for coseups of your item that can help achieve a little bokeh also. If the background is too in focus, you can work around it by moving your item farther away from whatever background you are shooting against.

Hopefully this year since I've retaken the photo, my little cardinal purse will be even more popular...

art star craft bazaar 2011

Finally the day came yesterday to set up for my first craft show ever, the Art Star Craft Bazaar in Philadelphia. After many sunny, dry days in a row, we awoke to overcast skies and a 50% chance of rain. I was still excited to get underway, because that's a 50% chance of no rain right?

sketch by Curtis Harkin AIA

I had willing help from my family in the hectic weeks leading up to the show and extra hands the day of to help with set up.  Mom & Dad were there keeping the kids in line and toting loads of stuff up the long incline to the top of multilevel  Penn's Landing. I do feel so fortunate!

Here's how the booth came out after set up. Not far from my husband's sketch, right?

My photographer friend Heather took better pictures than I could. You gotta go see these and the rest of her work.

I enjoyed a few hours of nice traffic, enthusiastic reactions (many high-pitched "aaaaaaw"s), and my first sales using my handy-dandy card reader from Square installed on a smart phone generously loaned to me for the show. Then about half-way through, it started raining and continued off and on for the rest of the afternoon. Most of the lookers and buyers fled except for my diehard friends from New York who stayed to help with take-down.

the Ben Franklin Bridge as seen from Penn's Landing between showers

I took the slow period as an opportunity to check out a little bit of the show, not as thoroughly as when I attend a show as a buyer, but enough to see what good company I was in.

Some cool applique pillows, much different from my own birds and flowers, from dirtsa studio. Where would you ever be able to find anatomical hearts and frog dissections emblazoned on pillows besides an indie craft show? Certainly not Pottery Barn!

Festive buntings from Sweet Old Etcetera. I can totally relate to her vintagey fabric choices.

Some purses that caught my eye from hello bluebird, a brick-and-mortar boutique from Reading, PA that features indie crafters.

Back at the booth we packed damp clothing back into their plastic bins, leaving the tent and tables behind in hopes of a better day Sunday. We had an amazing dinner at Cuba Libre in Old City which was walking distance from the show. I felt more optimistic after a good meal and a glass of sangria...

This morning brought drizzle and a forecast of thunderstorms. That's when I decided to leave my wares home, which we'd brought inside to air out, and abandon the second day of the show. As an indiepreneur, every decision is such a risk. Do I do the show and risk drenching my product? Or do I stay home and risk missing a not-as-bad-as-I-thought day? I felt a little sheepish carting my tent away as most everyone else was mopping up the puddles and preparing to make the best of it, but by then there was no turning back. I emailed the news to any friends that might have planned to see me Sunday and bit my lip as the weather steadily improved throughout the day. I finally lost it when a friend called from the show wondering where I was. I am feeling such regret right now!

What a learning experience, though. It was such a bigger undertaking than I ever imagined between making all the product, getting the display engineered, and figuring out how to take credit cards. As much work as that was, the organizers, Art Star Gallery & Boutique owners Megan & Erin, had so much more to coordinate between gathering volunteers (thank you lovely Lisa who looks like Lisa LaPorta on HGTV), arranging security, and making the process organized for us vendors. All the while they had smiles on their faces. I am choked up with gratitude and a feeling that I let everyone down- friends, family, Megan & Erin, by wimping out on the second day.

One thing is for sure though, I will do another show next season. It ought to be much easier now that I have the tent and all the logistics worked out. And next time I will ignore the Weather Channel and be tougher!

the rainbow connection

I've had this sweet song in my head for a few weeks now. I seem to be into rainbows at the moment. They are so cheerful and remind me of my 1970's childhood. I am compelled to make some rainbow purses. (Just listed here in the shop).

The great thing about an indie handmade business is that whatever is percolating in my mind, I can make, bring to market, and get a reaction to in a relatively short time frame. There is no having to predict whether rainbows will be a valid trend a year from now, no justifying my rainbows in meetings with executives, no waiting weeks to receive the first of many prototypes, no risking of other people's money to see the idea through. The immediacy of handmade is so so freeing!

 

The rainbows are fabulously satisfying to lay out and appliqué.

With this batch, I tried a new fusible web and am completely sold. I was using Heat 'n' Bond Lite, but I've switched to Lite Steam-a-Seam 2. It's lighter weight, making the finished appliques less boardy, yet still has excellent staying power. It also has a slight tackiness to the backing that allows appliqué pieces to stay in place or be moved around before ironing them permanently in place.

The indie biz down side: making my own production runs. Since I have my first craft show coming up, I need to build up some stock. By working in batches, I hope to save at least a little time just on the cutting. Still, I have the constant interruptions of stay-at-home-mom life, so it's hard to measure.

More delicious rainbows found on Etsy...

clockwise from top left:
rainbow bunting- therainbowroom
rainbow clippies- allthingsgirly
vintage 70's rainbow dress- stylebook
vintage 70's rainbow tote- jessamity
nebula mobile- thewonderlandstudio
vintage rainbow suspenders (nanoo-nanoo!)- forestdaydream
children's rainbow stacker bowls- applenamos
rainbow stack of books- thevintagecup

Cheers!

mass production- sort of

Well I've gone and done it now. I've applied to my first craft show and been accepted. On May 14 & 15, I'll be showing at the Art Star Craft Bazaar, an indie craft show in Philadelphia! I love attending indie craft shows, but have been too intimidated so far to be in one. How the heck am I going to fill a 10' by 10' booth with quantity & variety of irresistible wares? No turning back now!

I started production in earnest this week. My parents, sensing rightly that I'd bitten off more than I can chew, came up for the week to help out. Dad played with the kids & did chores while Mom & I sewed our little hearts out. Of course things didn't go quite as planned. The day job kicked in a with some urgent freelance work and my little boy caught a nasty bug and needed attention. A miscommunication with a supplier yielded a package of purse frames in the wrong size & color. For a while there it seemed nothing was going my way. I consider myself lucky I had help!

It was a good thing I had projects organized and ready to go before they got here. The plan was to focus on one product category at a time, starting with coin purses.

I prototyped a few new designs and colorways in advance to beef up the variety. We worked on the purses in batches, cutting multiples and performing each step on all before moving on. I have to say it's rather mind-numbing to work this way, but at least I had someone there to chat with.

There are a lot of steps to these darn things! There were no finished purses until the very end of the week.

Mom got bored and wanted to move on to onesies. We tacked labels into 50 of them while watching a Will Farrel movie one night. Then she begged me to let her design one, and I said OK. She came up with the crazy quilt heart which looks very chirp & bloom. Each one is slightly different and has recycled shirt fabrics, floral ribbon, and hand embroidery. She is a collage artist with her own Etsy shop after all!

Time management challenges, botched shipments, delegating work... it's almost like I'm back in the garment industry!

Since it's my first show, I have no idea how much to make of any one thing. I'm shooting for 6 per design, divided between 3 sizes, of each onesie. Maybe I'll do more if I finish early, but that's unlikely! There are still skirts, dresses, & hair accessories to go... Wish me luck!

new appliquéd onesies!

I must be so in the mood for spring because all I can think about are birds and butterflies and flowers!

I prototyped a couple of new appliquéd onesies this week for chirp & bloom. I couldn't decide on one colorway, so I did 2 for each. I do get requests for boy onesies, so I think the grey & blue birdies fits the bill. I just don't have a feel for sports themes or trucks and they would look out of place in my shop anyway.

A lot of trial and error and time goes into prototyping. The original design for the birdies had 16 birds! What was I thinking? There were so many and they were so tiny. It takes me plenty long to applique the 9. Then I thought it would be cute to have the odd one off kilter at the end, pecking at some crumbs. Just makes it more interesting.

The other time-consumer: getting good photos. It's an ongoing challenge for me. I am basically an amateur. I know what looks good, but how to get there is the problem.  I recently invested in a studio flash with an umbrella to boost my light indoors without glare. I still prefer the natural light to be dominant though, so I wait for sunny days and turn the flash way down to use as fill light. I wind up doing lots of editing in Photoshop never the less.

original shot straight from the camera

I prefer to err on the side of underexposure with digital shots (the opposite of what you would do with film shots) so all the color information is there and not washed out. But BLECH! The light wasn't as good as I thought and the studio flash didn't seem to help much. I had it turned way down to look natural.

final shot heavily edited in Photoshop

After several Photoshop operations it's good enough to use in the shop:
- increase exposure (+.52 in this case, but I've been known to go higher)
- select background only using selection tool (select onesie & clips, then select the inverse)
- using selective color tool, remove black from whites, neutrals, and from black itself (fiddle with the percentages)
- sometimes I'll increase the color saturation on the item a little too but I didn't this time.
- on top of it all, I increased the brightness by a little bit and dodged the bottom edge
- then there's cropping. I've started cropping to the ratio that Etsy uses for main shop photos 794px x 1000px. That way I have better control of what the shot will look like in the shop rather than being left to the mercy of Etsy's cropping.

I still may go back to the attic on a better light day and see if I can do better.

***update***

Ok- the sun came out I found a better spot to hang my clothesline. I knew something still missing from the other onesie photos! Sparkle. Can't beat good natural light (and a foam core reflector). Much less photoshopping was needed for this new photo.

1 year etsyversary!

Today marks the day one year ago that I got my Etsy shop up and running.  I just took a look back at the screen shot I took that day and had a little chuckle. I knew at the time that it wasn't perfect, but you have to start somewhere. I read some advice once that you shouldn't open a half-assed Etsy store "just because you can", yet you shouldn't wait until everything feels "perfect" either because then you'll never get there.

Here's what the shop looks like today. Over the course of the year Etsy made a few changes to the width of the page & the shop announcement section which I think are an improvement. I've been changing out the banner seasonally and I have more variety of products now. I still see plenty of room for improvement in my photos & thier overall consistency. I'm not sure they look like they're all from the same shop, and I'd like the color to flow more smoothly also. Still far from "perfect", but I think it's better, no?

front page exposure!

What a week! A few days ago I had an item featured in a front page treasury on Etsy, then last night my treasury "storybookland" made it there. Both are firsts that have eluded me this first year in business on Etsy. Having items and treasuries you've curated make it to Etsy's home page is pretty much the holy grail of Etsy shop owners. Why? Besides being featured in a major publication or blog, it's the biggest way to drive traffic to your shop. Shoppers land on that opening page, see items, and start clicking.

Since these two events happened so close together, I was able to compare apples to apples to see what is better: and item feature or a treasury feature. Hands down, it's having an item featured. And being on the front page in any form beats renewing items often which is what I was doing a lot of in early to mid December. Click on the Google Analytics graph above to see what I mean.

Ironically though, it was the constant renewing in December that resulted in actual sales. That's December versus January for you!

fun with etsy treasuries

All of us sellers on Etsy have to find ways to be found in the haystack of it all. One of the funnest ways is through curating your own and being featured in others' treasuries. It's sort of like creating a mix-tape was back in the day. You want to have variety, but for all the choices to work next to each other and together as a theme while at the same time showing off what good taste you have. And you can't include yourself in the group. But that's OK because if people think the collection is interesting, they click on the curator's shop out of curiosity. At least I do anyway!

All treasuries wind up here (or go to etsy.com > buy > treasury) and make their way up or down the ranks as time and number of views dictate. I've never made it higher than page 4. Some treasuries go viral, make it to page 1 for a spell, get tons of views and hopefully sales for the featured shops. Some get selected to be on Etsy's front page for part of a day which is a badge of honor for curators as well as the featured shops. I've never had either happen to me, but I did win a "treasury challenge " this week hosted by Curation Nation, a treasury making team! I'm not on the team, but sometimes I enter their challenges just for fun since they are open to all. The challenge was to make a holiday hostess gift guide of which half of the items needed to be from team members' shops. It was totally enjoyable and got me looking forward to party season. I'm going to buy a few of these too!

Rustic Raffia Wreath Balsam Fir Sachet by bstudio

Pineapple Rhubarb Jam by bovinebubbles
Daring Young Girl Blank Moleskine Journal by marysgranddaughter
Calendula Castile Handmade Soap by Blushie
Personalized wine identifiers by HattieRex
Screen Printed Organic Cotton Kitchen Towel by ohlittlerabbit
Ceramic Drink Coasters by GlazedOver
Recycled Silk Kimono Tree Ornaments by SewnNatural
Vintage Wooden Teardrop Bowl by DovieMoon
Bird with Ribbon Letterpress Cards Set by pistachiopress
Blackberry Sage Soy Wax Candle by aBreathofFrenchair 
Sock Monkey Magnets Set by katieleroy
Maple Granola with Dries Cherries & Spiced Walnuts by marasmaples
Ceramic Bottle/Bud Vase by khphillips
Raspberry Sables by zugarhaus
Betty Crocker Vintage 1959 Entertaining Book by MatildaFairDesigns

Or just click here to view the actual treasury.

I've heard of some people who habitually put together a treasury every single day. I'm not one of those. I like to do a "rough" in poster sketch first. Sleep on it. Tweak. Sleep on it. Start over. And so on. If I made one a day, I'd have no time to actually make stuff for my shop!

On that note, I'm going to head down to the studio to sew something...

rosemary luckett's altered terrain exhibit

I happen to have a very talented mother, Rosemary Luckett. We just got back from the opening of "Altered Terrain", her first solo show at Touchstone Gallery since it moved to a better, brighter, spiffier location on New York Ave in Washington, DC. It will run until October 30th.

Touchstone Gallery

Rosemary is an innovative contemporary fine artist working in the conservative Washington DC area. No easy feat. Her current work is about the radical changes man has made to the land and makes connections between the altered terrain and the often absent people who transform it.

"Slipping Away" and "Eden" by Rosemary Luckett

She has worked in many media over the years, but the work in the show is primarily collage, drawings, and assemblage sculpture.

"Robot's Cradle" by Rosemary Luckett

My daughter actually named this one when Rosemary was stuck for a title: "Robot's Cradle".

Emma pondering "Lost" by Rosemary Luckett

Kids really respond to the work.

Initially children see the ducky imagery and think its funny, but when the contrast of the man-made and the natural is explained to them, they actually get the point. My daughter is only 9 and was captivated by the show and seemed to understand the metaphors.

"Halo" by Rosemary Luckett

Even my little guy who is not quite 5 yet wanted to get in on the action. He didn't seem to be into the exhibit at the time, but the next day he begged to be taken into grandma's studio to make some art.

"Wood" by my little boy

This is what he made.

It is a challenge finding your niche whatever it is you make. I read somewhere that when you make something unique, you don't want to try to reach thousands, but reach those very few out of a thousand that resonate with your work. Being in the generation I am in, my first instinct is to go online, have a website, use social media, etc. My brothers and I have helped set Mom up with a website, Etsy shop, and Facebook page. Mom, however, prefers showing in galleries, having open studio once in a while, and sending mailings to people who sign her guest book. It is true that it is very hard to sell fine art online. Nothing beats seeing the work in person. But if you can't be there in person...

I would love to know what works for other fine artists. Feel free to comment!