Saturday, May 30, 2015

Diving Back in!

I Seriously Just Quit My Job!!!

Why!?!? Because life is short, and I have a dream. For years now, I have wanted to be able to make a living as an artist. ( In art school they never told us that this may be an issue...) Since 2006 I have been committed to the pursuit of this dream. I have had some wonderful experiences and successes during that time.  I have owned an amazing art gallery...
( The economic downturn, however, was too much to keep it going.)




Sold my work at artist shanties...




And last summer made enough money to survive by selling hand painted souvenir-type things to tourists on Cape Cod...




I called my little venture "CAPE NATIVE"
( I am a Native Cape Codder.)




I painted Nautical Signal Flags on small canvasses. People could spell their kids names, their last names, their monograms... Or whatever. I had one Irish gentleman that decided to decorate his house in swear words, and loved these because he thought no one would know. ( Don't tell him that I told you...)

I made more money doing the latter than I did at my real job! Unfortunately, I was still  just barely surviving. If I had had more time to create, I would have been able to sell more. I was pretty much SOLD OUT of product by noon each day that I was able to go out and sell. If I had been able to create and or sell more on the days that I had been "working" I could have prospered. This past winter I took my spare time and created more product. The whole act of creating actually leads to more  Ideas. Apparently, creativity creates creativity.
( Kind of like rabbits...)

I came up with an idea for a product that I can create very quickly, and has a very high profit margin. The only drawback is that in doing this there is also this scary, awful thing called overhead. I would need capital to acquire the proper tools to be able to make this a profitable business. If I can get thus business up and running in time for summer. I will have a product that will both make me a decent yearly income, and allow me time to paint  ARTWORK through out the off-season rather than crafts.( Below is one of my paintings. you could get a hand-signed and numbered print if you choose to help!)




Why $5000.00 ?

I need to purchase a stock of canvas bags in several size and color choices. I need to purchase the embroidered signal flag patches in large enough quantity to be ready for any order at all times so that I can produce them on demand  right there in front of the customer. ( I may get 15 people or more with the same letters in there monograms in  any given day.) I also need some basic equipment to produce and sell the bags; the obligatory 10' x 10' white tent (many sales require this, and it gives my the ability to sell in any weather), a butane powered iron ( to be able to work from locations without a power supply), two heavy duty sowing awls   (strong enough to sew through canvas and patches ) One other expense are the fees that  the shows charge to be a part of them. These fees are due before the selling season starts.

If you have taken the time to read this far, I really appreciate it! Here is a photo of the product. Its is a beach bag or pocket book, depending on size, with a signal flag monogram.



This one says "ACL" that's my Mom!




You can read about my progress at:

                             
MakingaLivingasanArtist.blogger.com


This is actually my campaign on 
At least check it out...
Maybe, if you'd like, you could
share it with your friends.
That'd be cool!

Or you could just go buy something from:
CapeNative.com

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