I met Lisa Dawn White of Full Moon Flowers at the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts this summer while strolling down Allen Street. Her amazing botanical collages were so intriguing I was drawn into her booth for a closer look, and I’m glad I was. I had a chance to chat with Lisa recently and asked her what she felt was working for her, and she had several tips she was willing to share.

In addition to collecting and creating all the materials used in her work, creating collages, running an etsy shop, and doing several shows a year, Lisa works full-time as a research manager at Penn State University. Needless to say, time and efficiency is really critical for her to keep all the balls in the air and have a sense of balance too.

“I’ve been doing this for 5 years, but this is really the first year that I felt like I had any efficiency in making and marketing my work. It’s nice to be able to not only save time, but have some inspiration left at the end of the day.”

Lisa has found that by dividing up the year into different focused activities, she saves time and energy. She primarily uses the winter months to create her collages and jewelry. Summer is spent harvesting her botanical materials and doing shows. And fall is when she works on creating her own paper, another vital aspect to her original work.

“I found it hard to balance creating new work, collecting plant materials, and doing shows all at the same time. Now I plan in advance to keep things more balanced.”

She also found that working on a series of pieces that use the same components, but are different in size and composition, helps her keep materials organized, saves time, yet keeps each item unique.

Because Lisa does a lot of shows, she purchased a truck to use specifically for shows. She keeps this packed with her show set up materials, tent, etc. to save time. Now it only takes 30 minutes to pack up for a show, and she adds, “I have fewer trips to the chiropractor too!”

Lisa’s upcoming shows are the Chestnut Hill Fall for the Arts on October 4th, Centre Furnace Mansion Stocking Stuffer Sale December 3-5th, and the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen Winter Crafts Market in Boalsburg December 5-6th.

Do you have a tip to share about:

• Your process
• Finding inspiration
• Time management
• Advertising
• Marketing your work
• Networking
• Working with clients/customers
• Finding resources for your work

If you do, and you would like to share it through Handmade in PA, contact me!

Elizabeth Sterling and her husband John market their one-of a kind furniture and jewelry boxes at shows in the Northeast and Midwest, through their web site, and their etsy shop, so wabi sabi. Elizabeth shares her life and love of all things handmade, homemade, and homegrown in her blog so wabi sabi.

And I couldn’t agree more.

Sara, from girlscantell, has a problem with “social media gurus” who claim their one-size-fits-all strategies will build your business and net you sales. Rightly so, the whole idea of internet marketing in the age of web 2.0 revolves around building relationships, joining the greater community, and letting your personality shine through your brand.

How can you be yourself while trying to be someone else?

Seth Godin, the marketing legend that inspired Sara’s latest post on the topic, says you need to “find your voice.” He explains, “Don’t worry about someone else’s invented standards for new media, invent your own.” Be yourself, discover what works for you, and find the people who will help you fill in the gaps.

Every day I see tweets from people trying to get “hundreds of followers a day.” Or Facebook users complaining about being invited for virtual martinis and mafia games. Flickr users mindlessly adding their photos to every photo pool they find. Hey, if that’s what floats your boat – fine. But I have a feeling you have more important things to do. So make more meaningful connections with those in your network.

Be you! It’s so much more interesting that being someone else.That means actually checking out others’ links, commenting on their blog posts, dropping a personal email to someone who inspired you today. It means talking to people and not talking at them. It means making new friends, and keeping the old.

If you don’t make those meaningful connections by truly finding your own voice, it doesn’t matter how many followers you have or what influential people are signed up for your feed. You will be tweeting/posting/updating into the ether. Wasting your time when you could be busy in the studio.

Be you! It’s so much more interesting than being someone else.

On a more practical note, do your social media accounts represent you, your personality, and your brand? If you sell on Etsy or Artfire, is your profile completely filled out? Is your 160 characters of Twitter bio really saying something about who you are? Does your Flickr profile explain the inspiration & subject of your photos? Are your websites listed on Facebook?

It seems so simple but it is an oft forgotten step.

5 mistakes i’ve made (that you can learn from.)

by sara selepouchin

originally published on October 6, 2008 here at girlscantell.typepad.com (used by permission)

girlscantell's towels for seamstress

this week already feels productive, and it’s only monday, so, yay! yesterday afternoon, i picked my mom’s brain and we designed a new banner for booths at my upcoming shows. now i’m totally anxious to have some time to starting cutting, appliqueing and working on that.

lately, i’ve been giving some thought to the whole trial and error process so far in running my little side-project of girlscantell. i feel like i’m finally in a good place with my work and have a lot of my processes down. i have a ton of printing to do before i’ll feel ready for the holidays, but other than that, i feel really great about the upcoming months for selling my wares. below are a couple of the most important things i’ve discovered so far.

1. the inbox zero system has really made my system of packing, shipping and just generally staying organized really simple. i love gmail’s seemingly bottomless storage ability, but having a clean inbox is so much easier than constantly having to hunt and peck and search for what i need. i haven’t had more than 10 emails in there at a time since i started, and it makes it so easy to see what needs to be done this way. amazing. i guess my point is, you need to have a system. and then you need to improve your system.
2. better branding! lately, i’ve been investing bits and pieces into things to get my name on more things – this season i’ll have bags with the girlscantell logo for customers buying things at shows i’m selling at (a girlscantell first!), coupon cards, stamps with my logo for outgoing packages, and just other things i’ve always kind of wanted to have for girlscantell, but never sat down to actually do. i made a giant wish list of all the things i wanted this season, then i prioritized them in terms of how useful they’ll be vs. their cost and have been checking them off each time i have some extra cash that i can spend on these little investments. (lists are good.)
3. another aspect of better branding is consistency. i’ve been terrible about this in the past (well, maybe not terrible, but i definitely didn’t really have my shit together, i guess). things are falling into place more and more lately, as i’ve come up with some designs i like for my logo and have been sticking with them. this is, of course, easier said that done, since making decisions on something with limitless possibilities is hard! and, on top of that, you really have to decide what you’re all about to make these decisions.
4. don’t sell what you haven’t made. selling online, it’s totally easy to relist items you can make again before you actually make them. which means, when someone buys these items, you have to go ahead and actually make them. which, if you’re a busy person (aren’t we all busy people?), means it might potentially take a few days between when the order is placed, when you have a chance to make the items, and when you get to the post office. this is no good!
5. having dedicated space has been the ultimate luxury in running girlscantell. while i understand that not everyone has as much room as i’ve dedicated to this project (or lives by themselves, so therefore has no one to complain about taking over lots of space – it’s a little ridiculous the percentage of my house i use for making, storing and packing things), dedicated space is key. keeping materials, packing materials, finished items and everything in their own spots and organized makes life about 500 times easier. this totally goes along with having a system (above!), and they should really compliment each other and make it simple for you to get things done efficiently.

so, those are a few of my tricks. this season is going to be awesome. i can’t wait to share the new types of goodies i’ve been working on with you!

Based in South Philadelphia, girlscantell is a the brainchild of Sara Selepouchin. You can find her line of original, handprinted diagrams on useful everyday objects in boutiques and galleries in Philly, as well as online at Etsy (http://girlscantell.etsy.com) and 1,000 Markets (http://girlscantell.1000markets.com). For more how-to’s, new designs, advice and rambliness, visit her blog (http://girlscantell.typepad.com).

Confession: I had to look up whether it was “roll call” or “role call!” Turns out that’s a pretty popular Google query.

Today’s post will be a quick one. First, a short personal story from me. Then, a shout out to a new sponsor. And finally, a list of topics I would love for you to submit appropriate items for or personal stories/tips.

My husband was an incredibly smart man this Christmas. Among my gifts there was a gift certificate for coffee – having coffee out is one thing I virtually gave up to be able to stay home with my daughter – and the other was a gift certificate to the local yarn store! Even though this FREE YARN was burning a whole in my pocket, I lasted until today… two weeks, not too bad.

This store is totally intimidating to me because of its shear beauty. Shelf after shelf, stacked with chunky yarns, thin yarns, soft yarns, stiff yarns, yarns that are fuzzy, yarns that are smooth… pale colors, vivid colors, hand-painted, hand-dyed – so inspiring. The problem is it’s overwhelmingly inspiring! I had $30 to spend and my plan was to go straight to the loose patterns, pick one and find the right yarn for it. Too many patterns….and too much temptation to look at the yarn straight away.

Finally, I decided on a slightly thick/thin cashmere blend and bought 2 skeins. It has deep, opulent colors, from orange to violet to ruby to saphire.

I’ve already worked up a simple, everyday kind of scarf out of one skein. I have no idea what I’m going to do with the other! Suggestions? If you’re in the Reading area though, do stop by The Yarn Gallery in West Reading on Penn Ave. The staff is very helpful (and so are the two cocker spaniels!) and the selection is great.

I’m proud to announce that the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen has joined us as a sponsor! Please click their box to the right to find out about all the workshops they teach. I know there are several on my wish list…

Finally, here’s the “roll call” part of the Friday Roll Call. Each Friday, I plan to make a post like this one. It will include several topics for which I’m looking for suggestions: items, tips, techniques, stories. Please take a look at each item and let me know if you have something to contribute. If you’re included in the post on that topic, you’ll of course receive a link to your shop in the citation. This is a great way to get foot traffic to your site, as well as help out the Handmade in PA community.

Topics:

• Photographing items for sale. What is your number one, must-have technique? What is your favorite photograph of one of your projects? What sells an item in a photograph?
• Artisans in the Allentown/Lehigh Velley area.
• Artisans in the Erie area.
• Craft fairs. What are some upcoming craft fairs your participating in?
• Valentine’s Day gifts.

As always, thank you so much for reading. I look forward to your suggestions!

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