Posted by Terri Drake on October 13, 2009 at 11:00am
Just wanted to quickly introduce myself, know how busy you all are so won't take long . My name is Terri Drake and I have a newly formed company called The Drake's Nest Studio. I operate my business out of my home (temporarily until the 16 ft x 26 ft garage renovations into my studio are complete). I have an Associates Degree in Fine Arts (hope to go on for a Bachelor's, but that is on hold for a while). Not only do I do photography (put a few pictures on my page), but I also replicate children's artwork in fabric, right down to their tiny little signatures. As we all know glues disintegrate, maccaroni shells break, papers fall apart or become nesting material for unexpected and/or unwanted visitors. I help to preserve a memory by making a new one. I replicate the artwork, without any damage to the original. A few photo's of samples of the art work is on my page, there will be more as I complete projects and it will show a picture of the child's artwork and the completed fiber replication. I will travel to either photograph the artwork or to pick it up and any and all work that I do is secured by a written agreement.Being a fiber artist I work in many mediums, painting on fabrics, weaving, embroidery, quilting, crocheting and the like. Oh, I also make fully jointed teddy bears 1 inch and larger. The 1 incher's I don't make that often due to their being so time consuming.I look forward to any helpful advice, suggestions or constructive critique you, my peers, may have to offer. Just starting out and stretching my wings, as it were, I look forward to learning what pit falls to avoid, what seems to work in way of displays, tents, or shows.I hope to meet many of you in my travels or, if you're ever in Northern Michigan, send me an email, I'd love to meet you or even have you over for dinner! I have a beautiful 3 1/2 acre spread with a 1 1/2 acre pond. When the weather is nice, we can paddle boat around the pond and watch the sun set, makes for some nice photo ops as well.Guess my intro wasn't as quick as I had intended. Thanks for any and all help/advice. Looking forward to learning from the "experts."Namaste - Terri at the Drake's Nest in very fallish Ossineke, MI where geese are floating on the pond and a Giant River Otter is playing on the far banks.
Thanks Amy for the welcome. You are welcomed to come see our little pond whenever you wish, I can't always promise that the otter will be in, but there are critters aplenty here. Thanks for the idea of dexonline.com as that may be my best bet. Here in the Alpena/Ossineke area, there aren't a whole lot of things like that. When a store goes out of business, it sell everything, including the fixtures. I have already taken care of the legal business - company name is "The Drake's Nest Studio, LLC," and since I'm the only employee, I do no have WC insurance on me, was told I do not need it since "fiber artist" doesn't seem to fit into any of their niches. Do have bank account, FED and State tax ID numbers as well. What is SCORE?? We have a small business office on campus of the local community college, but the gentleman that occupies it is out more than in as he is the representative for the whole state. I'm thinking of using PayPal for online payments when I finally get enough samples done to open a website. All of my products, at least the majority of them will be, are one of a kind items as they are based on children's art work. The rest is quilts, fabric painting, 1 inch, and larger, fully jointed teddy bears, minature quilts for those who collect those tiny babies, photography and such for the rest of my products.
I'll post some pictures of my fabric replications when I get a few "good" pictures. Trying out a new camera as the last one wasn't cooperating as far as picture quality was concerned.
Thanks again for the welcome.
Namaste - Terri at the Drake's Nest where fall is definitely in the air
Welcome. There are a lot of great posts in the forum to help you get started. Your artwork is probably going to be a combination of 2d and 3d? Mine is and I use a combination of shelving units and gridwall to display everything. One place to start out for buying display items is your local used store fixture wharehouse. Try dexonline.com to find it. Know that you will change your display many times over the years. Your products will change or your emphasis will as well. You will need to find the right type of shows to sell at that suit you and your art. You need to find your niche, essentially. Make sure you get all your legal stuff done- business naming, insurance, credit card merchant account, bank account, tax ID numbers. Start off going to your local SCORE office for free advice as well. They are for small business people.
Best of luck to you! Let us know when you have a specific question.
Hi Paula, very nice to meet you too. Looking forward to getting aquainted, learning some new tricks, tweaking old ones and just enjoying new friendships.
Thank you very much for your welcome. I see by your attire that you must do Ren Faires. Hoping to learn from everyone here the best way to find a good crafters tent, how to do walls and ever so much more. I feel like a kid in the candy store ... I want it ALL and I want it NOW
Comments
I'll post some pictures of my fabric replications when I get a few "good" pictures. Trying out a new camera as the last one wasn't cooperating as far as picture quality was concerned.
Thanks again for the welcome.
Namaste - Terri at the Drake's Nest where fall is definitely in the air
Welcome. There are a lot of great posts in the forum to help you get started. Your artwork is probably going to be a combination of 2d and 3d? Mine is and I use a combination of shelving units and gridwall to display everything. One place to start out for buying display items is your local used store fixture wharehouse. Try dexonline.com to find it. Know that you will change your display many times over the years. Your products will change or your emphasis will as well. You will need to find the right type of shows to sell at that suit you and your art. You need to find your niche, essentially. Make sure you get all your legal stuff done- business naming, insurance, credit card merchant account, bank account, tax ID numbers. Start off going to your local SCORE office for free advice as well. They are for small business people.
Best of luck to you! Let us know when you have a specific question.