Backdrop Part II

This time of year I spend time getting ready for outdoor shows. Going through my travel tubs, checking supplies and making or ordering things I need. As I talked about in part I, I also work on my displays.

 I made small wooden stands for bracelets and I inspect them for any nicks and digs. Those that are scratched get a new coat of black enamel spray paint.

Then it is on to busts. I inspect them for any stains, places in need of glue or other damage. I also check to be sure I have the number and sizes (small, medium, large) I need as things get disorganized after doing winter indoor shows. Then they get packed into 2 bags.

I carry a tool bag with me to every show. I empty it out and check to be sure everything is in working order and that I have everything I might need at an outdoor show. I package some of the smaller items in baggies so it is easier to find things in the bag. Tools, level (to make sure my tables are level), shims (for really uneven ground), tons of various sized bungees, stakes and metal plates for the tent in windy weather, white duct tape and blue painters tape, zip ties, shop towels (super absorbent), rope, duster and a few other assorted itmes. Many a time my booth neighbor has benefited from this collection!

I also check my lights. I have 2 systems, one for when I have access to free power and then a battery system for when there is no power or it is expensive. After several tweaks last year to my battery system I have a new 12 volt led setup. We tested it in the driveway at dusk. It will get is first real test drive the first weekend in May.

Outdoor shows here I come!

Business of Art - Production Work

When you are doing your art as a way to make a living, production work is a necessary task. Early on, everything I made was one of a kind. But at some point you reach a level of sales where that is just not possible anymore. For me that was a number of years ago.

Simply defined, production work is making multiples of the same thing. Usually the copies are exactly the same, but often I just can not help myself from making at least one change on each item. The advantage of production work is that it is an efficient use of time. I can lay out components and then create multiples of the same or similar item completing one step on all items at a time.

In this example I am making multiple pairs of hammered earrings at once. I gather materials and lay them out. I add beads to copper headpins. In this case I am making slight variations so that each pair is unique.

Next I cut and bend the wires on all of the beaded components and layout the wire to create the hand hammered daggers and coil dangles. I hammer all the daggers at once and then create all of the coils. Another efficiency step is that the daggers and coils are usually created from the tops of the headpins I have cut from the beaded components. No waste!

When all the components are ready I create the earrings paying attention to the order of the dangles so that each half of a pair is a mirror image of the other. 

The last step is to prepare the earring cards and hang the earrings on their cards.. I create and print my own cards. I cut them using a paper cutter, punch holes for the ear wires and fold them. Again, this is a type of production work. Each card is priced and a description of the materials used is added. The finished earrings are counted and added to inventory and then set near my light box for photography.

Production work is good for popular items and for items that are similar in design. But do not fear, every piece I make is still given thought and care in its creation.

Business of Art - Numbers

 Another post in my series about the business side of an art business. Many assume when an artist is not doing shows they must have plenty of free time. If you are doing your art as a way to make a living then that is not the case. For me January is all about numbers!

My first task in January is to bring all of my bookkeeping up to date for the previous year and make blank ones for the new year. There are many methods you can use to keep track of things. There are off the shelf accounting programs like Quickbooks and Quicken, and programs specifically designed to track an artists inventory. When I started my business in 2001 I set up a series of worksheets in Excel and I have continued to expand on these over the years. My accountant says they are fine and no reason to change.

My spreadsheet system consists of 5 worksheets that interact with each other:

• Summary - Tracks income by type (instate, outstate, wholesale, consignment, shipping & handling), income and taxes by location (each city in WA has a different tax rate/code), overall monthly income/expenses and profit/loss.
• Inventory - each items cost (time, overhead, materials), price, # made, # sold, # instock
• Costs - monthly expenses, donations, theft, damage
• COGS - cost of good sold per month. Uses materials costs and number of each item sold. 
• Booth Sales - Tracks each show I do with what sold, # days, # hours, # sales and expenses. These numbers are used to calculate sales/items/$/cost/profit per hour.  I use these figures to rank the shows I do and drop out the bottom ones each year. 

I  collect all my data (go through credit card statements, checkbook registers, receipt files, etc) and populate any data that is missing. I should note here that during the year every Monday is book keeping day. That way this is not such a horrendous task. I also check the formulas in the worksheets.

My next task is inventory. I count all the items made. I am usually pretty close to what was recorded in my spreadsheet. Earrings are the place I can be off a few. Now I am ready to do local, state and federal taxes. Yippy skippy!

In January I also inventory my display items, make list of things to clean, repair or touch up  (stands, tent frame and walls, tables, shelves, table cloths, shutters, banners). And I take stock of supplies I need to reorder (bags, tissue paper, tape, ink, biz cards). I also make a list of items to make and the things I will need to make them.

Whew, tired yet? The month is not over. I also need to plan my shows for the year and get show applications out. I need to keep up with my business Facebook page, newsletter and blog, learn new skills and start making things. Being self employed is hard work. but I love it!!! Thanks to all my customers, friends and supporters who have made this dream a reality.

Biz of Art - Sorting, Counting and Pricing Supplies

Well I finally found my way home from Tucson! Now I have to sort, count, price and store all my new treasures. This will take me several days. I actually enjoy this because I like to organize things. I can see where many of you would find this very tedious.

I added a penny in the picture below for scale.  These are teeny tiny stone beads!! Starting at the top of the pic they are turquoise, green jade, malachite, turquoise, lapis, turquoise, coral, brown jade, coral and coral. I have so many ideas on how to use these beauties.

But before I can do that I need to count them. Yes, count them!! I need to know how many I have, divide that into what I paid so that I can get a price per bead. I lay out the strings of the same type next to each other to see if they are the same length. If yes, then I only count one strand. If no...then I count them all!! Why do I need the price of each bead you ask? Because when I create a piece, I need to know the exact cost of the materials that went into the piece. This number gets included in my pricing formula.

In this pic are about a quarter of the stones I brought back. From top to bottom they are snakeskin jasper, green brecciated jasper, red creek jasper, red pietersite, fossilized coral, amazonite, and opalite. I have finished sorting, counting and pricing the stones and manged to squeeze them into my existing storage. I organize most by color. One more step with the stone beads is to research the healing and mystical qualities of each stone. This information gets put into a summary document and is then used to create the descriptive cards I include with every purchase.

Knowing the prices per stone of the materials I use really helps me when shopping. As I was browsing in Tucson I would take the price of a strand, count the stones per strand and then use my calculator to see if this was in my price point. Usually when the salesperson saw what I was up to they would run over with their calculator to assist. It was also good for negotiating! They were eager to make sales!

Next up are the metal beads and accents. Same process as the other items. I am itching to start creating with all these new baubles, but this is one of those many necessary tasks to my business that must be done before I start creating.