That New-Art Smell is here!

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Regardless of what is going on around me in the world or our lives, we try to keep the doors open to new artists with intriguing ideas and creations.  These past few months we’ve brought in these terrific new folks; we hope you can come see their work soon.

(Also we have new work by our OTHER 85 local artists!  Yesterday we received a neat bunch of adjustable rings and man-worthy pendant necklaces by Lynda Sparks.)

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Amy Marks – Funky Finials:  Upcycling those one-off vintage salt and pepper shakers and giving them a new lease on life as funky lamp finials!  Also soon to come, Treasure Handbags!

Zunlan Designs – Carlos Zunlan and partner create handbags, satchels and totes from scratch.  Some with leather accents and others with fashion-mag worthy handpaintings by Carlos.  Also colorful patterned coasters.

heart bag Zunlan    coasters

Shauna Young – Reticulated (heavily textured) silver jewelry paired with her own hand-lapidaried stones….. all coordinated into beautiful pendants and cuffs.

Vera Guillan – Embroidered jackets.  The blessed Virgin of Guadalupe comes to life when Vera and her sister come in contact with vintage jeans jackets.

more photos to come!

 

Shiny, Fun Stuff to Do and See!

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Mother’s Day is officially behind us – and we had so much fun feteing our vendors and the many customers who have become fans and collectors of their work and of our shop.  As someone in politics once said, ‘it takes a village!’ but I wish to add, ‘momentum = time + perserverence + mass of awesome sauce!’  Which is to say-  we’re hitting our stride.  And we’re always trying to stay one step ahead with new surprises in everything from classes and events as well as artisans – so do please add yourself to our mailing list if you haven’t yet, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram (chris_makers_connect)

Here’s a taste of something we’re getting excited about coming up – hope you can make it out!

A Lifetime of Jewelry Making Sale(1)

 

 

Social Media for Artists…what does it Mean?

Crafting is usually fun, relaxing, and stimulating for many people, including me.  So the classes we like to offer here are pretty fun but also mentally on the light side – not meant to make you have to scratch  your head too hard.  However we do have one class that I’ve been sitting in on that is quite challenging, called Social Media for Small Business.  I don’t think any of us were prepared for the bredth of knowledge Tina Winslow has brought to our humble table, but all of us class participants agree that we are pretty luck to have her.

Tina selfie

In discussing our individual online presences, we’re all realizing we’ve been like babes in the woods;  she has us thinking about so many things we’d either undervalued or just plain overlooked.   For some of us, the online ‘places’ we are spending the majority of our time is quite simply upside down.  Instead of ‘facebooking it up’ all the time, for instance, I should be spending more time on my blog.  The blog ‘feeds’ the rest of the system.  Having said that, it’s important to be present in as many online locales as is humanely possible; with a large chunk of attention being paid first to the blog and then to Google +.  (when you take the class, she’ll explain why… I will probably botch any explanation I attempt).

Tonight our goal is to take a closer look at our target market.  This is a much more slippery task than first anticipated; in fact I am constantly surprised by who is following my posts or who makes the great leap across the six lane highway to come and check out our store based often on little more than curiousity about our pretty, colorful signage!  So as I write this, I am avoiding doing my homework for tonight.  I’m a baaaaaad student.  Wait, not that bad… at least I’m contributing to the blog!

I hope if you’ve read this far you are thinking “wow, I’m an artist with a great product but really wish I knew more about how to reach my target audience.  I wish I could talk to someone who really knows what to do and lead me in a solid direction.”   Good news;  Tina has agreed to run this course again in the near future.  So if you send a quick message to Chris at makersconnect@gmail.com, I would be glad to add you to a list and let you know as soon as these dates are figured out.

Honestly, the way I see it….If she can help me… she can help anyone!   And by the way, this is me.  I have to wear blouses featuring Korean Good Luck Kittens just to get through the day….

Chris in Judy shirt in store

This is me after trying to understand the inner workings of the internet without help from Tina:

ozzy the man

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