As you may have read in my other blog, I have always dabbled in different forms of art. Back in the early 80's I was a stay-at-home Mom with 4 young children. I often made little doll quilts and stuffed animals for my daughters. One day one of my daughters took a stuffed bunny I had made to school for show-and-tell. The teacher liked it, and inquired if I would make one for her to buy. Pretty soon, several of the teachers at the school were buying many of my little items.
I decided to try to participate in a local fall craft show. It went pretty well for a first timer! I was thrilled that others were actually interested in paying for my items. That started many years of doing local craft shows.
During that time, I also created my own mail-order catalog with many of my items. At that time, I had the cute little country crafts (mostly stuffed animals and dolls), plus, I had a collection of Southwest items, for which I created a separate mail-order catalog.
Those early catalogs were simple and basic. My investment was small (after all, I was just starting out!).
I mailed catalogs to shops I found listed in magazines or anyplace else I could find them. I also went to some shops to see if I could do some wholesale business. I will get into more details about those topics in later blogs.
As time progressed, I learned a lot (trial and error)...about how to market my art, which shows were the best, and how best to sell my art.
Eventually, I was making a pretty good living with my art, and expanded to out of state shows, more high quality shows and galleries.
Now, I would like to hear about how you got started! Please send your stories!
