Home Based Craft Business.com

The story of Johnnie Nicholson is filled with curves and twists. A banker with First Interstate Bank… turned his world upside down in 1975 and moved from California to Florida to help his family after his father passed away. 

During this leave of absence from his job… he met Robert Hange… an old violin and hammered dulcimer builder. Bob took Johnie under his wings and taught him everything he knew about building flat top wood instruments. 2 and half years later, Johnnie, or J.R. for short, was trained and moved back to California to start his own company.

Since 1980 J.R. Nicholson has been in the business of creating exquisite works of art from wood…. which just happen to be musical instruments as well. He worked on making and selling his craft part-time for about 22 years. Now, he devotes all his time to this inde-craft venture.

Dance with the Wind

Grammy Award Winner Mary Youngblood has one of J.R.s' dulcimers and she also has one of his brothers Native American Flutes. What a talented family! 

J.R. is versatile with his abilities.  He creates Appalachian style dulcimers, a fretted, plucked instrument which is also referred to as a mountain dulcimer or just a dulcimer, and the hammered dulcimer, which is a hammer-struck, trapezoid-shaped instrument. Also in his bag of tricks are harps and something called a psaltry.

He and his wife are now both retired from their J.O.B.'s and have a little more time for golf. It seems if you are doing over 12 shows a year and making these labor intensive product… well, I don't think he is retired from working. They are just taking their part-time business into a full-time home based business. They get to travel together which is a bonus!

When you spend time talking with Johnnie it is obvious that he loves his work. He has an amazing ability to get this instrument into the hands of anyone who shows an interest.

The musical instrument is so beautifully crafted that it can be intimidating to even touch one… much less hold it in your hands and try to play it.  You also have to take into consideration that you will have an audience while trying to scratch out a few notes.   

Guess who picked up and played the dulcimer last year? Cindy Lauper…and I saw it on the Martha Stewart show! 

Someday he hopes to build a harpsichord. Do you know the difference between a piano and a harpsichord?  Listen to the show…. he explains it all.  I even get a lesson about playing a dulcimer. It seems to be a very easy instrument to learn, much easier than a violin.

Johnnie says even after all these years of making musical instruments… he isn't tired of it yet.  All the work is worth every minute. Lesson learned: Love what you make!

Marketing His Products 

The name of the company is Unicorn Woodworks and yes they do have a website   www.UnicornWoodworks.com but it's prices that are wrong and products they don't sell anymore.  He says it's going to be new and improved soon… but you can call him at 208-585-9659 for information.

Johnnie only markets through craft and music events that he shows at. That's it. He doesn't do one inch of advertising… ever. He has had several articles written by local newspapers after the show, but he doesn't advertise. Amazing. All crafters' should be so lucky. 

Oh…  and he tells us how he learned the lesson - Every thing is for sale and everything has it's price.  Even if it's your sample or your personal musical instrument. His biggest challenge at this point is having enough product for each show he wants to do… again, all crafters should be so lucky.

 

 [PCC] Show #4 - Interview - Johnnie Nicholson - Dulcimer Maker [32:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I made it! I have officially walked and shopped the 'Arts in the Park' Festival in Ely, Nevada. 

This weeks interview is with Mary Ann Plavi of Spring Creek, Nevada. This lady of many talents sells her 'magic carpets' at several shows in the area. The fact that she has some really neat ceramics for sale is a bonus.

Mary Ann - contact info:

775-777-8869

meshka@frontiernet.net

The colorful carpets or rag rugs are what draw your attention and beg you to touch. Digging through the piles of rugs, runners and place mats is so much fun… it's like finding a trunk of your grandmothers linens in the attic and reveling in the softy goodness of each lovingly folded piece.

What makes these rugs so much fun, are the "ingredients".  Mary Ann creates these little treasures from sheets and quilt tops.  Yes, the more colorful the better, in fact… children's sheets are her favorite!  

Mary Ann graciously sat with me for over an hour and shared her creative life. She gave up the goods on what it is like to create her artistic crafts and sell them… not for the money, because as she will admit… the pay ain't great, but for the love of crafting and meeting people.

She spends many days on end alone in her garage/studio - dying, sorting, tearing and weaving… oh and did I mention she also is a photographer, painter and ceramicist?  She will be sharing her thoughts about craft as therapy and how she jumped from fabric artist into the potters wheel… and didn't even see it coming.

These are the rugs I purchased… I couldn't help myself.

 The Rug called "Loopers"… you have to listen to find out why….

They are the softest rugs you have ever felt and would be so cozy underfoot in the bathroom or laundry.

Email Mary Ann… and ask for a Looper Rug.

Business Card Size Price Tags! Listen to the show for ideas that Mary Ann uses for marketing her business without advertising.

Technorati Tags: craft podcast, rag rugs, marketing a craft business, Ely Nevada, Arts in the Park

So… what are you waiting for? Click on the Pink Arrow to play or the tiny orange mp3 logo to download. Hey, and do not forget to get your crafty stuff out to play with while you listen.

 

 [PCC] Show #3 - Interview - Mary Ann Plavi - Rag Rug Weaver [47:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Packaging your products is like sharing a bit of your business with every purchaser. In the real world professional and creative packaging will help your business more than you can imagine.

This does not mean you have to look corporate or have expensive commercial style packaging.  Not at all.  But creating every piece of your promotional material to co-ordinate and send a specific message about you and your business is of utmost importance.

Packaging your products with style and yet adding tiny subtleties to advertise your business is really important for your marketing scheme. 

How do you create a unique packaging idea? 

Let's talk about how you tag your art.  If you are using commercial stick on price tags that look like something used for a yard sale… well this could be the reason you're getting yard sale prices for your work.

How about some creative ideas that will be unique just for your product line? You could design one of a kind tags for each product.  This could be tedious and a real time waster.  Cute, but unnecessary.  

How about heading out to your local office supply store and picking up a box of vanilla colored tie on shipping tags.  The come with a nice clean string to use, but you could replace that with a ribbon, torn strips of cloth or raffia.  These tags could be customized by you with a simple stamp and a handwritten description of the product. 

Or… I just heard about a crafter who makes recycled art. Her tags are cut from cereal boxes.  Cute!

I used a tag that I printed on my home computer.  It was styled after my business cards. The tag was exactly the same size as a business card, but the design of the tag was a bit different.  

    You could use your business cards as tags, but I go into the reason why not below. 

Here are some samples of business cards that could be used as price tags. 

Each one has my website, phone number and email addy so that a customer could save the tag for future purchases.

The two tags I designed below are a much better solution.  You can have them printed or print them yourself using the same artwork as your business cards.  The big difference is…. the tag has a small area at the bottom for the price. Your customer can then cut the price off when giving the item as a gift and your information is still attached.  

Use a hole punch and use your creative juices to add a string or ribbon of some sort.  

I print mine on gloss photo paper, this gives the card a gift tag quality. By printing these cards myself, I can design many styles and run them off as needed. I usually print up about  500 cards - which is 50 sheets of paper. 

Then I run them down to Kinkos or other printer shops and pay to have them cut.  It's about $15 to have them cut.  

I found this paper at Sams Club for $19.50 150ct
and
online at DealSurprise.com priced at $24.95  150ct

This may seem like an extravagant price with paper, ink and cutting. But I find that having the ability to print of 50 or 100 of each style I want and then having all the styles cut a once… this gives me a ton of different styles of tags to use.

This is a great site to order all sorts of custom goodies that all match.  

VistaPrint.com 

Are you using plain white plastic bags for your customer purchases?

Or… heaven forbid - grocery bags? 

Have you ever purchased something at a great little boutique and marveled at the package you left with.  Obviously, you love the product or your wouldn't have thrown down your hard earned pennies. But… the extras that they pile on is often amazing. Wrapping each item in tissue - bound with a cute seal with their logo - and everything put into a gift bag with more tissue and ribbons.  

Really, do you get free gift wrap anywhere in the mall anymore? 

Then… when the gift receiver sees the bag… they know they are going to receive something very cool from their favorite gift shop, just by seeing the bag. It's like adding to the specialness of the event and the anticipation.  This is an easy marketing tool to add to your war chest.

Several years ago… I had a consignment gift shop. We sold country gifts when country was still cool. 

• The walls were covered with cranberry and beige gingham fabric.
• Every window had a grapevine wreath with a cranberry gingham bow. 
• The business cards were bordered with cranberry gingham.

Do you see where I am going with a theme? 

The packaging that we used was very simple.  We used brown gift bags (like paper grocery bag paper) with handles. These came in two sizes. We also used the lunch bag size for small items.

Each item was wrapped in cranberry/beige gingham checked tissue.  The bag was lined with the same tissue. The handles were tied with raffia and a business card was attached. This card was designed to be folded and used as a gift tag.  

During our free time, we would sit and stamp the bags with a logo. We had the stamp designed locally and it was very inexpensive. So, even if the purchase was not for a gift, the purchaser would inevitably save the wrapping and use it for a gift some other time.  Now the item they gave didn't actually come from our store, but the bag still had a small bit of our stores information right on the bag.  Still more free advertising. 

Resources for the products I used:

Brown Paper Gift Bags 

Gingham Tissue 

Raffia 

Whoooh… I know what you are thinking. I can't afford to spend money on free gift wrapping.  For every purchase?

Well, my friend, you can't afford not to.  Break down the cost by piece and add that as a direct cost of supplies to each of your products.  Now, the customer is actually paying for the "free" gift wrap.  Cool huh?  

Now… you need to start searching at some great suppliers on line. Their are many to choose from, so shop around.

I found metallic bags and tissue, hip young graphics on tissue and some very interesting ideas to use for ribbon.  Spend an afternoon shopping for your "look". Then get thyself to Wallie World and pick up a bin to hold your packaging supplies. Every craft show event will be even more fun now, because you are offering your customers an extra bit of love!   You will be a hit.

P.S.  Remember to check out the BlogHer discussion on CraftSanity.com .

The session was called " The Art of Crafts" and I found it fascinating. I want to go next year.  They covered topics such as:

• Pricing Your Products
• Copyright infringement - when someone steals your ideas.
• Going to the next level - Can you design products for big name manufactures?
• And the big question…. Are you a crafter and an Artist?

• I give my personal views in this episode.

If you have any interesting ideas about tagging and packaging… leave a comment.  I love to hear from you!

 

 [pcc] Show #2 - Packaging Your Craft Business [22:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download