My main business focus has been CopperDog Studio. I've been using what I've learned so far in my Marketing course to apply it to getting this business started right. Unfortunately, I am only 5 lessons deep in a 12 lesson course, but I'm learning..... I got the website up and running. For those of you who have been following, we decided to go with Big Cartel as our host, and we have already made more sales than I've ever made from my CopperTide site through Other People's Pixels. (I think I will switch that one over when review time comes up in a few months.) So, that's going. We made samples of each style of tag we offer, and came up with a clever display... on a dog collar!
We sent a similar display with order forms, etc. to Brother Wolf Animal Rescue in Asheville, NC. My friend Nicole works there, and is advocating for us. We hope to have a good relationship set up with them soon, with 10% of the proceeds from sales made through BWAR donated back to them. We also hope to set up similar sitiuations with other rescue groups. This display set is going with us to the dog park this weekend to try our hand at person to person sales. A little marketing tip on placement there. The people are there, thinking about their dogs, so just place this right in front of them and start a conversation.
So there's all that for CopperDog, plus filling orders, etc.
CopperTide has fallen a little behind while getting CopperDog up and running, but I've made a few items, and I'm applying for holiday shows. Check.
Job #3 is with NC Black Co. I have been down to NC a couple times in the last month or so to work with them. The first trip was supposed to be just a quick one to take photos of their new hammers for their website and for a catalog.
Well, that turned into a weekend trip with my teaching partner, Chuck, to Gatlinburg, TN to deliver tools to the store at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. And we got to see some of the glory that is Gatlinburg. Wow. That place would make me want to vomit if it wasn't for Arrowmont. But since this amazing craft school is there, it just makes the rest of the insanely weird tourist trap tolerable, and even hilarious. It was a great time. I love my job.
So anyway, I took some photos when we got back to NC. Edited them, and sent a CD of images to Grobet for their catalog. Congrats to NC Black on the Grobet parnetship, by the way! It's so inspiring to see a small company of talented people finding success! I'm so fortunate to work with them and call them my friends! I took another trip down to see them mid-month to take more photos for ther new website - this time, photos of the people behind NC Black.
And we spent some time working on plans and samples for a new workshop offered by NC Black, Etched Anticlastic Neckpieces.
Which brings me to Job #4 : Teaching. Last weekend I taught an enameling workshop at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. That was a great time with great students. The workshop will get its own post tomorrow. But I just wanted to mention it as another thing I have going on these days. This was the first time I had taught this particular workshop, so planning was involved. And that includes writing a handout and making samples, among other thing. But I really enjoyed it, and look forward to teaching more at VisArts. In fact, I have an evening class in Galvanic Etching and Champleve Enameling coming up, starting November 15, so I guess I better get on the preparations for that! Plus, I've been writing class proposals and sending them in for Winter/Spring classes at VisArts and Sawtooth School for Visual Art. Whew!
Sometimes it's hard to get my mind all organized around everything. Especially when you throw in life stuff. Mark and the pets and I have a lot of fun (somewhere in there), but there's still shopping, chores, and cooking to be done. And there's that looming portfolio situation, and a big decision to be made with that. But I won't get into that right now. So hopefully it's understandable why I've been such a blogging slacker lately. I do plan to get back on that. And start one for just CopperDog Studio. So I'm off to check things off my lists, add more things to them, and make Halloween cookies. Nope, I'm not sorry. There's always time for Halloween. Cheers!
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