As I work to get my online handicrafts venture going, it makes sense for me to blog about another of my talented cousins. Stacey, of Stacey Lyn Designs, and I are cousins in law, I guess? Our husbands are first cousins. Here's a link to her Facebook Fan Page, and another to her Artfire Shop. Right now the items in her shop are crocheted scarves, hats, baby booties, and cell phone covers. One of her trademarks is a crocheted seven petal flower that she uses to embellish her winter hats, headbands, and custom ordered dog sweaters.
On her blog she's also got pictures of vinyl lettering projects, quilting, embroidery, sewing, and paper arts, and she also writes articles for EHow on crochet and decoupage. My favorite item that she's made lately are a pair of baby ugg booties. I know how to crochet, but my projects are never that cute.
I confess I did quite a bit of spying on Stacey as I put together my own business plan. The handicrafts market is not an easy one to break into. When I did a lot of knitting and crocheting, I looked into selling my work and was immediately scared off. There are just too many people who know how to do these things and are selling their work for barely more than the cost of materials, if that. Getting established in the business means working hard to find the right niche to market your items at a cost that pays you a decent wage. Stacey also showed, through her blog, how much it helps to scavenge items that you have lying around. While she uses yarn and old clothing and boards being sold off at a bargain from Ikea, I've started scrounging in bargain bins at bead stores and snapping up deals on Ebay. It presents an interesting creative challenge to then figure out how to make a nice product - I'm not yet as good at it as Stacey is.
Head on over to Stacey's shop and become one of her fans! She makes beautiful, quality items.
No comments:
Post a Comment