Kari Chapin - The Handmade Marketplace: How to Sell Your Crafts Locally, Globally, and On-Line

KARI CHAPIN

Illustrated by Emily Martin (a.k.a. The Black
apple) and Jen Skelley

The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by
publishing practical information that encourages
personal independence in harmony with the environment.

Edited by Deborah Balmuth and Dale Evva Gelfand
Art direction and book design by Alethea Morrison
Text production by Jennifer Jepson Smith

Cover and part opener illustrations by Emily Martin
Spot illustrations by Jen Skelley
Border and frame illustrations by Alethea Morrison

Indexed by Mary McClintock

2010 by Kari Chapin

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other without written permission from the publisher.

The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the author or Storey Publishing. The author and publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information.

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210 MASS MoCA Way
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Printed in the United States by Versa Press
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Chapin, Kari.

The handmade marketplace / Kari Chapin.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-60342-477-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Handicraft industries. 2. SellingHandicraft. I. Title.

HD9999.H362C53 2010
745.50688dc22

2009049212

dedication

To my amazing husband, Eric,
without whom this book never, ever would have happened.
Thank you, Eric, for everything.

Thank you to everyone at Storey Publishing: Deborah Balmuth, who helped me refine my idea and gave me this chance; Amy Greeman, who makes me laugh and treats me to sushi when I need it; Alethea Morrison, who has to be the most talented art director in all the land and she always makes time to answer my many questions; and Dale Evva Gelfand, for being amazing at what she does.

Thank you Emily Martin and Jen Skelley for your enchanting illustrations.

To my family: Ron and Robyn Chapin and Janis McWayne, the best parents a girl could ever hope for; Euretta Chapin, my wonderfully talented and creative sister; and Sharon Jandrow, who is the exact opposite of what I thought a mother-in-law would be like. Thank you for always believing in me and for your unending encouragement. Im a lucky girl to have all of you.

To my urban family, the girls who made me who I am: Karolyn Tregembo, Sheila Weisenborn Borderick, and Kyme Vincent.

Thank you from the bottom of my crafty heart to the very best friends a girl could ever have: Karie Sutherland, Amanda Struse, Lisa Holman, and Minna Wallace.

I would also like to extend a special thank you to my creative life coach, Cynthia Gunsinger ( www.gunsinger.com ). Her expert guidance and incredible ability to help me sort out my thoughts have been invaluable to me, not only while writing this book, but in defining my goals in general. Cynthia, you are a superhero to me.

This book exists in part because of NPR, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Project Runway, Neko Case, and Squam Art Workshops.

My heart swells when I think of my online craft community, including you, my readers. The inspiration I get from the members of my Creative Collective, online marketplaces, craft fairs, blogs, and podcasts makes me fantastically happy and fills my whole world with possibility and light. I am forever grateful for the connections and friendships that have formed out of our shared love for all things handmade.

Lastly, I am so thankful for my husband, Eric Nixon, and our little family: Baxter, Charlie Parker, and Zoe.

Why do you craft? Are you compelled to create something with your hands? Are you looking for ways to save money or reuse what would normally be wasted? Maybe you grew up in a home that valued creating things together, and you just never stopped making stuff. Maybe its like therapy for you, or you enjoy designing, or maybe you just dig the process more than the end result.

When I began writing this book, I asked my mother what her earliest memories of me crafting were. She told me how when I was around four years old, someone gave her nail polish she was discarding, and Mom and I used it like paint on salt-dough ornaments for our holiday tree. (I still have a small salt-dough heart ornament inscribed with my name; it is one of my greatest treasures.) As I grew up, I remember lots of crafting around the house: making playhouses out of washing machine boxes with my father, watching my stepmother sew quilts for me and my sister, and creating numerous collages and paper chains with my mom. When I was in the fourth grade, I learned to crochet. Since then Ive been, well, hooked on crafting.

Crafting relaxes me and helps me de-stress. When Im working on a project, I feel peaceful and calm; my hands seem to have a mind of their own, and my brain relaxes. Some people do their best thinking in the shower or while driving; for me, my best thinking happens when Im up to my elbows in vintage buttons or cutting out inspiring images from magazines or winding yarn.

I also find crafting a release. It makes me feel useful and whole. An activity as simple as sewing a button back onto my husbands winter coat brings me much more personal satisfaction than a lot of the things I have to do during a normal day. How about you?

A few years ago I discovered the concept of fulling (a.k.a. felting) wool sweaters and crafting things out of the transformed wool especially mittens. Actually, I became kind of obsessed with making mittens. It wasnt really the end result selling them or even having warm hands that drove me to keep making them, especially in the heat of a southern summer since I was living in the Deep South at the time. I simply couldnt stop. It was as if my hands were compelled to cut the wool and sew on embellishments or embroider them. I was officially smitten with mittens.

I made so many mittens that I ran out of people to give them to, and seeing as how I was living in Alabama at the time, you might guess that there werent too many stores jumping at the chance to carry them. Soon I had no idea what to do with the dozens of mittens I was cranking out, so I began to leave them in public places with notes attached to them, hoping they would find good homes.

I would leave my mittens in the freezer section of grocery stores, near the mailboxes in my apartment complex, in the locker room at my gym, and at my local library. Back then there were no online marketplaces for me to build a store, and though I had a blog, I had no idea what a powerful marketing tool it could have been for me.

If only Id had the wonderful resources that are available to us crafters today. Though this was just a few years ago, the craft community wasnt at all what it is nowadays. I didnt know of any craft bloggers, and the books at the library werent the fresh, modern ones obtainable today. Few resources existed for someone like me to help me to grow and develop or even just connect with other like-minded people.