No “Day” Job? Oooooh, time to make money with my art/craft (stash/knowledge/fill in the blank).

Seems I have read or been reading this in just about every group, hobby or professional for months and certainly these last few weeks in several of the more active groups.

We all know how much trouble I can get into when I try to respond to “Universal You” although it is pretty much a given someone will take it personally and get into their own snit and a tizzy.

Time after Time, those who have had some or great success talk about the work involved and then are blissfully ignore – their extremely hard earned experiences banished into archives instead of worked on Needlepoint Pillows you have to look at every day.

Want to “teach” or “author”

So here is what may not have been said FIRMLY enough

IF one takes a realistic look at those who are supporting themselves with ONLY their art – well unless you are very lucky or already well established in the teaching/publication circuits – let’s just say that don’t you think a WHOLE lot of other people are thinking like you?

A “rant” about discount coupons that radically reduce the earning of a teacher, while maintaining the benefit to the sponsoring shop is just such a perfect example of a teaching what not to do and frankly for any one purporting to be in the BUSINESS of (fill in your area of expertise) to even be in this position is well beyond my ken.

The situation described? Well the teacher agreed to accept a PERCENTAGE per student and then the Shop, in order to fill seats gave out 50% off coupons. The shop continues to get not only the same, but the greater advantage of the sales generated by the excitement of the class (and efforts of the teacher), the teacher hardly got enough to cover their expenses much less make a living.

How to avoid this?

At the very least a better written agreement SHOULD have safeguards regarding Teacher compensation.

There should be clauses in the WRITTEN Teaching Agreement for a MINIMUM for UP TO X number of students and so much per student there after to a MAXIMUM.

That WRITTEN AGREEMENT, should include a clause giving the jurisdiction where disputes will be resolved and of course much more.

Please don’t bombard me with all the trite and untrue concepts of why it is good to give away your services. Unless one is also the seller of the profitable items, those misconceptions just don’t hold up in today’s environment (and I am not at all sure they did as recently as 5-10 years ago)

WRITTEN AGREEMENTS are what protect you from the insidious effects of such discount coupons imposes without your consent by the class promoter (LYS, Event Promoter, etc)

You, as a teacher or author or artist are alimited resource NOT a mass produced item that can be duplicated no matter what the demand.

Be professional and invest in the resources to protect yourself.

A well written contract/teaching agreement is more powerful then an AR-15 to defend yourself from the robbery without a gun of an unreasonable arrangement.

You can decide, as I did a decade ago, to teach basics primarily for the love of the craft and not expect to be compensated for much more than your expenses or peripheral benefits (i.e., demoing a technique and selling the tools or supplies directly)

Or, as the ranter said accept that you “need to find a real job”

HTH

Wheat

One question asked fairly often has to do with fulling, felting and other things that result in color smudges, runs and as mentioned today at Crochet Partners – Murky colors – Last weekish, it was a Quilt Thread bleeding conversation in QuiltArt group

Really the question has two “sections” how to prevent this from happening, and what to do when it does
Next, now is as good a time as any to give another Tuesday Tip aka/ Stock Answer for often asked questions

If you are having this problem consistently or hope to prevent it in the future – there are several things you can try. The easiest precaution and sometimes the antidote is use something like Carbona Dye Grabber in the first (has soap) run thru the felting process – well to be honest, it is the only one I have found which works consistently well – Its box is picture to your right.

Carbona Dye Grabber

This might be a good time to disspell the age old solution, Lemon juice probably will NOT work – yes, it gets recommended all the time for everything from clothing to beads and sometimes seems to help… So let me repeat LEMON JUICE is NOT really a solution ot the Color Run problems. Although some will continue to claim it words for them. And, yes, some will believe it works for them so as a libertarian – they are equally entitled to their opinion.

Lemon Juice no longer usually works for Fabric/Yarn/Fibers is that the the “traditional” lemon juice/citric acid originated BEFORE Polyester and the EPA did not exist back in the day when this method was first (possibly centuries ago) stumbled upon. Today’s dye formulations are often not responsive to the “lemon juice” method of dye stabilization.

Almost any fiber will, at the first washing or two, “leak” a bit of color – that is not all that abnormal for a small amount of “color blending” and in fact that is often one of the “charms” of felting, the merging/melding of colors.

It really becomes a problem in felting when the yarn used has not been properly finished and so has far too much excess/loose dye. And, there are colors (Blacks – Red – Jewel Tones – and others) that are more likely to be a problem. Ask any Counted thread person about Running Reds …

Happily there are some products out there that can/do help and are easily available.

As a person whose close predominates with Red, Pinks, Black, Denim and other Darker colors, I use these all the time. It also helps to “train” children and others to use them ALL THE TIME. As any wife, mother, gi or college student doing their laundry for the first time… Failur to sort is just asking for trouble – however if the situation requires, well, Dye Grabber can save a heap of unhappiness.

Carbona Color Run Remover

For your already completed projects or are guy who did not intend to have pink jockey’s but did need to get that great Red Sweatshirt clean, it may be worth giving Carbona’s Color Run Remover a try. It has especially worked well for me if I had not yet machine dried the fabric (felt, cotton, wools, whatever – a QuiltART List acquaintance recently saved a wonderful project where some Red thread had “run” (even before washing) It also seems to work well on pretty much any plant based fiber.

Hope this helps keep your colors less murky, whether felting or laundering

Wheat

NOTE: I do not sell these products (but I probably should and will have to look into that for my e-tail store http) Nor, do I receive any benefit other than a free sample package at a trade show (CHA) 5 years ago. Although If they offered me a few coupons, I would not refuse

I had pretty much convinced TH that I “deserved” a road trip – especially since I could not attend Maryland Sheep & Wool this year.

After looking over and seeing several people I REALLY LIKE will be vending, and since it it only an hour or so’s drive – and we have been talking about a Day Trip to Gettysburg….

That was until I read the “registration form”.

Okay, $10 non-member fee seems reasonable. Maybe even more if there are exhibits

But Pleassssssse – In what universe (and certainly in THIS economy) would anyone be willing to pay an additional “Non-Participating Attendee” fee of $65 PER DAY – PER PERSON (so now we are talking $150 just to drop in on less than a dozen vendors and maybe see of the usually excellent exhibits? ….

For that amount of money I could fly Southwest to Orlando for the CHA Craft Super Show this weekend

What were they thinking…

Wheat

Are you teaching or selling at an event? Do you want to make it easier for those traveling (this is vacation season) to find your shop?

Did you know that if your customer (and it is vacation season after all) so that customer may not be a local) has your 9 digit zip, that is all they need to enter for near perfect directions to your shop using MapQuest

They do not EVEN need your street address (unless, of course you use a PO Box for mailing)

I have not tried with either google or yahoo or any other ‘mapping” sites, but really might it not be worth the time to add those five characters to your web sites, email signature and other forms of marketing and promotion?

If you do not know your 9-digit zip, you can find out at the USPS Zip Code Lookup.

Hmmm, I WONDER if putting your 9 digit zip code into your key words would could help or hurt your search engine placement.

Just some things to think about.

Wheat

At least one or twice a week, some version of the question

Rather than continually trying to remember what I want to say – it is time to write the Wheat Wrote WHAT!?!? perhaps less than gentle stock answer in the form of a Sunday Sermon, about Getting Started in Publishing.

To give a bit of context, this is very general, and is really geared to only one tiny consideration in your journey to Pattern Authoring Professional. HOW and WHERE you plan to publish is NOT the focus – The PATTERN itself is.

Each time I see the “Getting Started in Publishing” question, it always seems best to start the answer by quoting the lovely, generous, and by anyone’s standard a rather successful knitting pattern author/publisher and distributor Jackie E-S of Heart Strings FiberArts,

“There is so much more to pattern authoring, than just the design”

I always like to start by asking the aspiring pattern author

It may be something I can do now, but what I have spent to earn over the years from Professional Pattern Editors is worth every penny it cost to have that experienced counsel.

IMNHO, The BEST place to START is the book that while “apparently” intended for Quilt Pattern Authors, is easily applied to all pattern types…

Nancy Restuccia’s

For “YARN” users, your second (but only one of MANY ) stop should be is to downloading a copy of the Designer Guidelines PDF offered at the Craft Yarn Council’s YarnStandards.com for information about the most commonly used abbreviations and some help with sizing.

BOTH of the Above you need to read, and keep re-reading “until your heads stop hurting” and then go back and read them again on at least an annual basis.

EVEN if you are NOT a YARN user, you can benefit from reading this document – after all, yarn is use a way to make fabric and other pattern authors for sewing and quilting USE fabric so much the same information “would be a good idea”

Now get some patterns from some of today’s top designers – preferably ones who also teach and/or whose work is often found in independent shops (your local shop) LSO’s Local Shop Owners are a tough crowd and they can not afford to carry what will not sell. Patterns sell because they are well-written, teach and oh yes, show something you or I want to wear or won

Study what is the same in each of them. Look for and make a list of the traits you find “common to all”

Make notes on what you WISH was in a pattern.

Think about how and when it is needed – remember Jean Leinhauser’s comment this past week in her Yahoo Group about some patterns putting special pattern instructions at the end and not up front where they may be most needed – forcing the consumer to “look around” – although if it means the user will have to read the directions before starting, I might have to rethink this one

There are many aspects of “packaging” or the nicer word: PRESENTATION (caps required)

And that is just the start… before you know it, you will be like me, with a 2 inch notebook – at least 1/2 of which is “universal” for craft pattern PRESENTATION – the other half is specific to the craft or at least the primary supplies (Yarn, Thread, Fabrics, etc)

Last but not least – I am told there is something to be learned for both Designers & Pattern Authors from the articles included in this blog’s entries in the It All Just Business category has been helpful to many.

Whatever path you choose, I truly wish you the best of success

Wheat

P.S. No I do not publish or share my notebook of check lists for pattern editing and preparation, any more than The Colonel is going to share his list of secret spices.