Artists Invented ....Marketing in the Neighborhood!

                                    

I see all these new articles
 for shopping regionally to support your 

local neighborhood businesses! 

 ...artists have been applying these theories to their marketing strategies for hundreds of years!

it's so simple!!

    when you live at the beach... you make fish!   

I am a mermaid at heart... and I dreamed of living at the beach.

So... one day the wind blew in the right direction and off I went!

What was I thinking!!

The beach has an intense three month season...

then everything closes down and everyone leaves!! 

... for the rest of the year!

I had to get creative and quick! 
My body demands food & shelter for 12 months out of a year!



I needed to support myself fast...
I looked around town and saw there was a gallery on every
corner and artisan shops everywhere
... so fish it was!!

As usual... I design between my usual attraction for opposites...  

the first fish I did were wonderfully rustic decoys
made  from drift wood with rusted metal fins and tails.

...so the polar opposite had to be boldly painted mod fish decoys that hang on doors saying gone fishing... to thoroughly outrageous fish bar stools and clocks!

my fish had marbles in their mouths...
 and rubber tubes for hair!

...I sold and shipped them from Maine to the Bahamas! 

I packed & shipped a full line of small accessory furniture pieces right in my living room .. that went straight out my front door with UPS!

These were some of my best days! If you read the "about me" sketch on my blog... you would know my roots are firmly planted in my Grampa's woodshop!

This lifestyle was one of my dreams come true!  

  artists marketing today 

have every avenue open to them...

          
              ~ market neighborhood business that you would enjoy doing business with

              ~ sell to high end retailers in the next largest market areas and large cities

              ~ find rep groups to sell to the major wholesale markets around the country

              ~ place a core line in permanent showrooms in your best major markets

             ~ submit pieces to gift catalogues(takes awhile... but it works!)

             ~ open an artisan store on etsy.com  and work up to designing your own website 

             ~ donate to high profile charity auctions to get your products seen and promoted

             ~ donate to regional public radio station auctions and give aways for free press

             ~ write artisan articles for publication in regional and national newspapers

             ~ submit your work to national artisan magazines for publication

             ~ submit artwork and articles to industry publications
             ~ publish on the Internet and get featured on all your friend's blogs!
             ~ and develop a full marketing program for the Internet...

              
                articles~ face book ~ twitter ~ etsy.com ~ blogs ~ networking - flikr   

...and you know what?
... you can still do it all from your living room!
so think globally and act locally still works!

  
   now...if I was going to do it all over again....
I would still go out to my woodshop in my garage...
and start by making fish!

  fish swing love... who could resist?

the artist in residence

                                  the hand made life style blog .blogspot.com

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