Saturday, November 1, 2008

Welcome to Craft Day

Hello all,

Welcome to my little business venture, Craft Day.

The idea is to take everything I loved about being the Crafts Director at Camp Nawakwa, expand it to all my favorite arts and crafts, and make it into a business.

I'm not selling stuff I make, although if there is ever a point in my life that I have time to finish enough projects that I have EXTRAS to sell, that would be cool.  No, what I'm planning is to hire myself out for parties, where I will teach everyone how to do a craft or three that they have selected for their party.

I envision age groups from kindergarten all the way through adults: maybe you and your girlfriends have been eyeing up all those cool hand-made scarves and wishing that you had learned how to knit when you were a kid - well, hire me for the afternoon, tell all your friends to bring a snack to share, and have a Craft Day party!  I will bring all the supplies needed to teach you and your friends to knit.  Or more traditionally, instead of hiring a clown or a magician for your second-grader's next birthday party, hire me!  I will bring a big table, tarp for the floor, and ALL the supplies to make whatever you want: seed bead jewelry, hemp jewelry, friendship bracelets, sculpey clay figures, tie-dye t-shirts, iron-transfer t-shirts, puff-paint hats, origami, buttons/pins, hair accessories, and other things that I'm still thinking up.

In addition to offering all materials, supplies, and clean-up, I also plan to take pictures once the kids are working, and upload those pictures both to this site as promotional material, and to Craft Day's Picasa so that parents can order prints.  I might even lug my computer around with me and just burn the pictures right to a CD for them.

I don't yet own a big folding table, chairs, tarps, or nice craft supplies like a button machine, craft pliers, a big bead organizer, etc. but I am hoping to start with some small business first where I can just buy supplies for those first few parties so that I can get a feel for my profit margin and what it actually takes for me to do a party.

So tell your friends!  I am up for anything, and since I'm just starting out my prices are totally negotiable.  For my first few clients, I'd like to discuss what they're looking for, go out and estimate a price, and then discuss with them what they are willing to pay.  This will help me figure out how to advertise my pricing in the future, and I will remain open to feedback via e-mail and comments on this blog!

Thanks for reading, and I hope to hear from you soon!