Sharing Primitive Skills

We have a new member of Rising Roots Collective, our worker-run collective based at Oran Mor Community where I live. We are so happy to welcome Keven Statwick, a primitive skills artist and teacher!!

He has been involved with teaching and demonstrating primitive skills since 1998. He works with local organizations like the Boy Scouts and Oran Mor Community to share the wisdom and knowledge of primitive peoples so we can carry these valuable skills on with us. Among other things, Keven is skilled at making and using bows and arrows, primitive pottery, flint knapped arrow points, stone knives, leather tanning, drums, and he even welds beautiful metalworks!

Keven frequently joins us at Oran Mor Community to help with work projects and to share skills with us here. We plan to have a Pottery Making class this year and he would love to share knowledge on any of these skills. Please feel free to contact us if you have a particular interest in primitive skills so we can plan a class or workshop!

Contact us at 417-250-9252 or oranmor@speedymail.org

See Keven’s work on etsy here – risingrootscollectiv.etsy.com

And check it out in person at Farm Fork and Fiddle, a local co-op shop in Gainesville, MO. www.farmforkfiddle.com

 

Amazing Artists

Being the small business owner and handmade crafter that I am, I just LOVE finding new talent and supporting other small businesses! I spend a lot of my time on etsy.com – working on adding listings, tweaking my SEO, learning from awesome people on the forums, and recently I started my own Etsy TEAM! We call ourselves Positive Empowerment and you are invited to join us.

Today I want to share with you some Amazing Artists from our team.

Kyria Kalata is a life coach who sews beautiful children’s clothing and she makes adorable jewelry! In her shop, Duchess Boutique, you will find a variety of helpful planning sheets and workbooks that can help you organize and simplify your life.

1 Year Goal Planner

Next meet Cheryl Barnet of Cherendipity…

Fiber Art Plum Designer Purse

I am so enamored with her one of a kind, totally unique designs! Cheryl uses a variety of natural and organic textiles for many of her designs. She loves implementing lots of texture and vivid colors to create her amazing handmade purses.

Unique Red and White Shoulder Bag.. perfect for Valentine’s Day!

And last but definitely not least, we have a girl who is after my own heart. Her name is Celeste and she’s a theater girl and makes gorgeous crochet apparel!

Black Lace Crochet Shawl

Adorable Pink Crochet Slippers

Thank you to all of my wonderful teammates for being joyful and amazing! I love you all! Thank you readers for supporting me and supporting handmade small businesses! We are making names for ourselves and it’s all thanks to the amazing support from every person who takes the time to shop handmade!

LOVE,

Desiree

 

Giveaway – Win a Hand Painted Wood Brooch!!

This adorable wood brooch could soon be yours!

One day I was walking in the woods when I found this beautiful freshly fallen Cedar pine branch. I was hit with a jolt of inspiration to turn this branch into something wearable and artistic! So I took it home and with the help of my love Carlos, we cut it into pieces. Then I got to decorate each of them and create these awesome one of kind works of art on each one! They are preserved with all natural linseed oil and smell refreshing like a woodland hike!

To ENTER to WIN –

Go to this link http://apps.facebook.com/easypromos/promotions/65094

It’s simple. Just like my FB page and then click the big ENTER button!

Have a fabulous day full of joy and love!

Desiree xoxo

Branding my Handmade Business

Lately I have been putting a lot of thought towards my small business in hopes of writing up a sort of business plan and growing more prosperous with it in the future. Right now I feel like it’s all pretty mysterious…

Branding is what sets a company apart from everyone else, so when somebody sees my website, online shop, blog, business card, etc. they know it’s Re-Grow Roots (my business)! Right now my branding is totally incohesive. Snce it’s been done a million times before, I have been looking for advice online. I found a wonderful article on handmadeology.com here – Handmade Business Branding

Step 1 // Write a mission statement. This is what I came up with…

I believe that change is a powerful and necessary element of life and each of us has the ability to create a positive environment. What we buy and how we live our life effects the world around us. That is why I am dedicated to creating handmade, eco friendly clothing, accessories, and art to uplift your mind, body, and soul.

What do you think??

Step 2 // Describe your products.

Natural, handmade apparel, accessories, and art made with love for the hippie, bohemian, and folk at heart.

Step 3 // Describe your target market.

This is something I am still gaining insight into, so it’s in the works but I have a few people in mind… men and women ages 18-35, nature lovers, environmentalists, bohemians, income level??

I found this wonderful article about envisioning your target market – http://www.imaginativebloom.com/2010/11/24/how-to-identify-your-ideal-customer-by-april/

Step 4 // Business or Product Name

Re-Grow Roots

Step 5 // Tagline – A short message that conveys your mission statement

Handmade crafts for the hippie, bohemian, and folk at heart.

Eco-friendly handmade apparel, accessories, and art for the heart.

Hmm… I want something sorta catchy that really speaks to the heart and soul of every revolutionary environmentalist! I feel like this business is an extension of my life and my life is a revolutionary thing. 🙂 Maybe I’m thinking too hard… so I’ll call it a day for now.

Handmade Salvaged Wood Brooches / Pins

On a walk in the woods several months ago, when Summer was in full swing, I found a beautiful freshly fallen Cedar branch laying on the forest floor. This was the beginning of a beautiful relationship between me and many itty bitty pieces of wood!

Painting on wood is very tranquil and serene to me. To make a craft from a natural piece of the earth, unaltered by any machines, is grounding. Here they are unpainted and unfinished…

My wonderful boyfriend helps me cut the branches into little slices. Then I hand sand them (that’s a piece of sandpaper in the shadow there), paint them, preserve them with all natural pure linseed oil, and attach a beautiful brass brooch back.

These lovely brooches are for sale in my etsy shop here – http://www.etsy.com/shop/ReGrowRoots?section_id=12045776

Have a beautiful and prosperous day!

Selling Wholesale – What I Have Learned

My small business is constantly a growing, changing, work in progress. For the past year I have been getting serious about it and I have learned so much regarding the intricacies of selling online, finding my market, and helping my market to find me. There is so much to learn, it can be overwhelming at times. Today I want to talk about what my recent wholesale order has taught me.

Price for Profit //

To be able to sell wholesale you need to have your prices high enough so that you can sell at 50% of retail and still make a PROFIT. This is key. If you lose money selling wholesale, then there’s no reason to even attempt it. I reworked a lot of my prices a few months ago which enabled me to go wholesale. To be honest, I still am not pricing quite high enough and I want to go back over all of my prices one more time very soon. As a handmade artisan, I am putting my heart and soul into every piece that I make. I design it, make it, photograph, post it on the web, share it, market it, ship it.. it’s all me! I deserve to get paid what I am worth and if I truly believe I am worth $20 an hour or $30 an hour, then other people will believe it too! There is an amazing workshop that describes “Pricing for Profit” in depth and here it is – http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2012/etsy-success-the-art-of-pricing-for-profit-workshop/

Simplify //

Until recently I have always created whatever I feel like creating. Everything I made was different, unique, one of a kind. I make up a pattern, make up a new stitch, and just go with the flow. I love doing this because it’s so interesting and entertaining to me. But for doing wholesale, this makes things really complicated. I was lucky to get a wholesale client that had a really good idea of what she wanted and just let me have some fun with my color choices. But she wants 10 of everything she ordered. This has taught me to create a quantity of items that are the same. Looking at my stock now, I see that there are certain items that I want to offer in various colors, but the same style. Take my chunky cowls. I have started creating the same chunky cowl in multiple colors of this chunky wool/acrylic blend yarn. All the same style yarn, same pattern, but a different color. This makes it really easy to offer wholesale! As I’m doing this order, I have been going through my stock and deciding which items I can offer in various colors and sizes so that I can offer to sell them wholesale.

Wholesale Price List & Catalog //

Once things are simplified and I have decided exactly which products I want to make in quantity, I will create a Wholesale Price List and Catalog to make the process quick and easy for buyers! There is a really awesome website that was sent to me by Iris of SacredStoneMalas that totally walks you through the process of making what they call a “Line Sheet”. This site allows you to put in an abundance of data about your customers, every product with price and pictures, etc etc… it’s WAY COOL! Check it out here – http://www.indiemade.com/resource/selling-wholesale-retailers-why-you-need-professional-wholesale-line-sheet

Get Noticed //

This is something I’m still working on. I know I offer a high quality product that is worth every penny and even more. What I make is something that many people need and want, the market is there. I would love to continue selling wholesale to online retailers as well as local retail stores so I will be working on a plan to GET NOTICED. A blog is a great way to do it, advertising through other blogs, social networking, advertising locally – these are all good ways. Another thing to do is to go into local retail shops that my items would fit in with and bring them my price list and catalog once I have them finished.

Always improve, FLOW, and learn //

Do your best, but know that there is always more to learn. The market is always changing so change with it, flow with it, and do what you love to do because it’s fun and because you love it. Things can get overwhelming, but because I really love what I’m doing, normally I stay calm and take things as they come.

Any questions or comments? I would LOVE to know about your experiences selling wholesale!! 🙂

Love what you do and NEVER GIVE UP!

I have a small business that I have been building up, perfecting, and loving for a few years now but I only recently began taking it seriously. For a while, it was more like a hobby because I truly do what I love to do, and I wasn’t making much money at it… so it was just for fun. I feel like I’m still building my foundation even now, but I have come a long way! I truly look at myself as a designer now and I view my “hobby” as a business… a SUPER FUN business!

I used to get down because I would spend hours a day learning and changing my SEO (search engine optimization), retaking photos, always changing this and that… and it would lead to very few sales. I felt like I was wasting my time. But whenever those feelings happened, I knew it was time to take a break and go for a walk or have a cup of tea on the patio.. something calming to clear my mind. Then I would remind myself that I am doing what I love to do because I love to do it, and not just to make money.

Money is a tool. It is just one possible way to attain what we need or want. The universe offers us ENDLESS possibilities so it usually does not help to sit and try to figure out HOW to make something happen. It’s best to just focus our energy on the result, and not how to attain. To me, a business plan is a waste of time. All the most amazing moments in my life have been totally unplanned. And today… I received a $500 wholesale order from my shop totally out of the blue!!

Lately I have been creating gifts for friends and family, rejoicing in what I love doing. I haven’t been thinking much about selling, just adding to my etsy whenever I feel the mood come on. I have been working towards achieving my goals – a community garden, finding healthy local food, playing music, and most recently we have been looking for an RV. I haven’t been concerned with how to get any of these things, but just doing it, living… and they all work out! A $500 wholesale order! WHOA! This is awesome. The site is http://www.butterflymama.com – check it out, very cool stuff. The owner sells fair trade, eco-friendly apparel from around the world.

I am so grateful! 🙂