Art Business Housekeeping

December is a busy month for most people, but it's also a good month to attend to some year-end art business housekeeping tasks. Steal away 15 minutes here and there and you'll be off to a great start when January rolls around. Here is my list of suggestions of categories to work on this month, one at a time, as time allows.

Update your website
Most of us finish our website and then stop thinking about it once it's published and uploaded. If you haven't updated yours in a while to reflect new work, a current calendar, new workshops, etc, take a bit of time and make certain it's up to date. Pro Tip: Set a reminder on your phone to update it at the end of every quarter (or more often!) Websites that are updated regularly rank higher in search engine results than websites that are stagnant.

Review your business cards and other promotional material
Business cards often need updating too. Sometimes the image on it might not reflect what you're currently doing, or you might have a new blog or a new email address. Take a business card or postcard out now and check to see that everything on it is up to date and that you're happy with it. If not, spend the time to correct it. Then order new ones so you have them on hand for all of the holiday gatherings you'll attend. Pro Tip: My favorite place to order business cards and postcards is Moo.com. The cards are high quality, you can have different images on each card for no extra cost, and their "moosletter" is chock full of great info for marketing and promotion and they offer coupons and discounts. Get 10% off your first order with this link.

Update your mailing list
When I go away to teach I take a notebook with me so I can collect email addresses from my students for my email newsletter. What I often forget to do when I get home is transfer those names to my emailing list program (I use Mailchimp). December is a great time to make sure that your emailing lists are up to date Pro Tip: If you haven't added a widget for an emailing list sign up to your website yet, now is the time to do it. And if you haven't signed up for my newsletter yet, please do!

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Update your Etsy store or online selling platform
Check to make sure that all of your listings are up to date, your prices are correct, and shop and shipping policies are current. Pro Tip: Review your descriptions and labels. These two things are the most important (after good photos) in getting found and getting sales.



If you'd like to join my online mentorship group with tips, tricks, and homework like this all year, please sign up for my mailing list above to receive notification of when it starts in early 2016! 

B2B Monday - Retire Your Art

Happy Monday! This week's tip will help you prepare for the coming new year with some cash in your pocket and some space in your studio. Evaluate the inventory of your art to see which pieces can be "retired" and sold for a lower price than you'd normally offer. You may find that you've moved on from certain pieces or series and are ready to let them go. Having a sale, with a definite beginning and ending date, can clear space in both your studio and your mind to explore new directions. The holiday season is the perfect time of year to offer a sale like this.

List work, with prices and photos, on your blog, website or in an Etsy store or other online venue. Advertise your sale to your email newsletter list and on social media sites. State that the sale is on pieces that you're retiring and emphasize that each piece is being sold at a price below that which it would have normally sold. Add an ending date to your sale to create a sense of urgency. 

Come the new year you'll be ready to work, knowing that the older, retired art has moved on to good homes, freeing your creativity!

The store is now open!

At long last, and after some much appreciated nagging from my daughter Sam, my etsy store is once again fully stocked and ready for shopping. I added some gyotaku fish prints (which come matted and ready to frame) and some collage jewelry. I have a few more items to add this week and then I can cross something big off my ToDo list.

Please head over to Etsy and check me out!

AED - gifts

The stomach bug that I haven't been able to shake since mid-October knocked me out again yesterday and I missed making art and posting. Grrr. Today I worked on some fun, pretty bracelets so I can start populating my Etsy store again, just in time for the holidays.



I also did some writing today and plan on a lot more of that tomorrow. I honestly feel like, if the days were longer or the business work shorter, that more art would be happening. It's certainly not from a lack of ideas, although the disastrous mess in my studio is certainly hampering my enthusiasm at the moment. Can cleaning/orgainzing/sorting/putting-away count as creativity?

Bricolages - part deux

The bricolage assemblages are done! I'm not certain what they "mean" or what they're "saying" yet. I tend to work very subconsciously and all of that needs to filter up before I can figure it out.

I made small shelves with balsa wood, painted them and then distressed them before attaching them to the illustration board. I used both glue and small screws to attach the shelves.



I auditioned a number of found objects for the shelves. In the end I used found chess pieces that I bought from Judy Gula in Houston last year.




The empty morphine vials came from a Facebook friend's etsy store.



The cardboard letters and vintage Japanese card came from another Facebook friend's etsy store. Etsy is the best. So is Facebook.







It's very tricky to photograph framed art because of the reflections on the glass and harder still to photograph shadow boxes because of the depth of the frames and the shadows they throw. These difficulties were compounded by having to use just one photoflood, since the other blew during a marathon photo shoot recently. B&H will be delivering new bulbs on Tuesday, so I'll set up and shoot again next week.

Now open - come on in!

I've been talking about an Etsy store for just about three years now. I've finished some cool new jewelry and posted it here.



I'll be adding more items to the store as I finish them. I have plans for a variety of categories, including more jewelry, small mixed-media art and collages on paper. Stay tuned!



Another goal on my list for the year ticked off, woohoo.