Earn my living as an artist

I was getting a tattoo, and the artist was making small talk, asking what I do for a living. I told him I was a fiber artist, and he asked me to design, make, and dye custom t-shirts for him to silkscreen. His initial order is only 12 shirts, but it’s for the premiere of his clothing line, so it could turn into something HUGE!

My sister is talking about moving back to our little hometown. I mentioned this to M and said that I was jealous. He replied with “Why don’t we move there instead of looking for a place in Milwaukee? You can open a craft store and art gallery.”

I was taken by surprise, not just by his willingness to move to a tiny town he’s never even visited, but by my excitement over the idea of having a store and gallery of my own. This is definitely something to think about.

Mixed results here. The laundry sinks are available for ~$20, but the type of faucet I’d like is aout $200! Guess I’ll have to make do with a regular old faucet for a while.

I should be able to afford a laundry sink and cheapo faucet on my next paycheck, so I hope Eric will be able to install them quickly. Hooray for (nearly) free studio space!

Ugh. I started looking for part-time studio space yesterday. Because I do all the sewing and embroidery at home, I only need space to dye fabric and yarn for a couple of days a few times a year. All of the studios I’ve found require a lease and are at minimum $200 a month! Yikes!!

I may post an ad to Craigslist.org, but that makes me a bit nervous as well – you never know who will respond.

Wish I knew someone with an unfinished basement I could use.

The new yarn store I went to this weekend said they would LOVE to carry my hand-dyed yarn! Now I just need to find some wet studio space, and I’m one step closer to being self employed!

But it’s been either raining or too windy to do this outside each and every day since I got it. Argh!

I bought the supplies on Saturday and began construction on my outdoor tealights. Unfortunately, the spray paint I purchased is for “indoor decorative items only”, which I failed to notice at the store. So instead of being done, they are waiting for me to buy some spray-on polyurethane sealer so that the paint won’t wash away in the rain.

I should ask M if he’d run to the hardware store for me today. Hm.

For something I might actually be able to duplicate and sell more of! Thanks to Merlene.

I’ll be heading to Home Depot and garage sales this weekend to make a prototype or two, then bring them to the folk art store up the street to see if she’d like to carry them there.

Must calculate net cost plus labor first this time!!

My friend Todd gave me an idea for a wonderful series. Now to get the motivation to start on it…