Crafts Council call for Hothouse, business support programme for emerging makers, deadline: 31 July

The Crafts Council is calling for applications for its scheme for emerging makers, Hothouse. The scheme, now in its 4th year, has nurtured the talent of 85 makers to date, and a further 40 will be selected for Hothouse 4. This will run from January – July 2014, and will be delivered with partners in [...] Read more »

Book review: ‘The Essential Guide to Business for Artists & Designers’ by Alison Branagan

    The Essential Guide to Business for Artists and Designers (Essential Guides) is one of the most thorough business books for artists, designer makers and craftspeople around. It is aimed especially at artists and makers creating art or products, and should be on the book shelf of both recent graduates and more established creative [...] Read more »

9 top tips to photograph crafts and jewellery

    An image can say more than a 1,000 words, so it is essential that your photographs give out the right message.  The 9 tips below show you step-by-step show what to look out for when photographing your crafts, design work or jewellery. 1. Work with a professional photographer Using a professional photographer might [...] Read more »

The Design Doctor: I launched … and nothing happened! How do I start selling my crafts?

Dear Design Doctor After 17 years as a freelance artist, I decided to start up my own small business designing and producing silk scarves.  With only £1000 to my name I set to producing the first 3 scarves in what I would like to be a larger collection. It’s taken 7 months and I have [...] Read more »

The Design Doctor: How to get started with marketing my crafts on a limited budget?

Hello The Design Doctor I am just starting out with my own eBay shop. I make all my own jewellery and buy only the highest quality of home decor and gifts. I have just started Facebook and twitter and all this is new to me too. How can I get myself noticed more? I don’t [...] Read more »

Top tips to become a more green freelancer

Claire Buckley is a freelance environmental consultant, with 16 years experience helping organisations develop and implement projects, plans and actions to make a positive environmental difference. All recommendations are her own.  You can reach here on claire.buckley@gmail.com  or follow her on twitter: @eire_claire After 15 years working as an employee I set myself up as [...] Read more »