3 Random Tips and a Little Inspiration

Here are three tips and a little inspiration for you:

Affordable rubber stamps from your own designs

If you work in clay any kind, papercrafts, collage, scrap booking or any other art form where you use textures or rubber stamps, there is a business associated with United Cerebral Palsy in San Diego that makes custom rubber stamps at amazingly affordable prices. The company will make a 9" x 7" sheet from your design for $32.00 plus $5 shipping per sheet. If you have ever bought rubber stamps you know this is a steal! Plus the company supports the independence of disabled people through training and employment. 

Here is the company: http://www.readystamps.com/

Here is a related site that explains in great detail what to send and how the stamps may be used in clay applications: http://www.polyclay.com/ready.htm

wikiHelp

A little bird told me there is a new article up on wikiHelp about how to market your jewelry biz via the web. Who knew? Well, I did since I wrote the article… please feel free to add your own hints and tips to the article. If you are not familiar with wikiHow, it functions just like Wikipedia only it has step-by-step instructions about how to do just about anything. 

wikiHow: http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page

my article: http://www.wikihow.com/Market-a-Jewelry-Business-on-the-Internet

If you use iGoogle as your web browser home page, you can add wikiHow's "how-to" of the day… Today's entries were "How to Wash Makeup Brushes" and "How to Make Chewing Gum from Scratch."

Groups and more groups…

If you have surrendered to social media and are on LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. you can set up your own "Group" to promote your work. I haven't set up a group on LinkedIn, but have joined several that are related to the arts and arts marketing. I get weekly email updates that list conversations in the thread. Just by reading these emails I learned about podcasts that give step by step instructions about how to optimize a web page so it gets more hits, advice about pricing work, and discussions about every aspect of art theory and practice. I am enjoying the exploration right now… but by joining these groups I have expanded my connections with very little effort and in very little time. On Facebook, I created my own "Fan Page" or group- I post updates about shows, events and sales, post pictures and other info. It's free, and my group members are growing- I have 28 members woo woo! I definitely need to build on that… but it's a totally free way to let people know what I am up to. Let me know if you have any social media tips to share.

Now a little inspiration...

If you live within a day's drive of NYC, or ever come here for the weekend, you MUST make a trip to see the Tim Burton exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (up through April 26). There were loads of models, props, costumes, storyboards, etc. from his movies- those were all great. But what I loved the most was seeing pages and pages and pages of his sketchbooks, where I witnessed his development as a create genius from his childhood on. The exhibition screams in silence to every artist who passes through- DRAW dammit! It was amazing to see how much work he accomplished through his goofy drawings...

Let me know if you are coming, I am a member at MOMA and can get you in for $5.

If you can't come see it in person, here are some links:

http://moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/313

http://moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/timburton/