Sahar Masarati is a cake artist from the Los Angeles area. Not only does she make great tasting cakes, but she also creates beautiful masterpieces of sugar flowers cascading down the cakes. Because she works with brides and others who are hosting celebrations, every cake artwork that she creates is a commission, as she works with them to determine their vision for their special day. We talk about how she got started making cakes and what she’s doing today, which includes offering new online classes. Listen here or use a podcast app, such as Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Spotify, or Stitcher. Sahar Masarati Sahar's website is called Sugar Alkymi (sugaralkymi.com) You can find her Workshops here. You can also find her on Instagram @sugaralkymi. Here are some great takeaways from our conversation: If there’s an art form you’d like to learn, seek out classes, whether in person or online, to learn more skills. To achieve your goals, you don’t need to have every single step mapped out ahead of time. You can still move forward with a rough plan. The most important thing is to have a very specific goal. If you are working your business in your own home, make sure you are abiding by the laws of your town, your county, and your state. If you’d doing a food-based business, there is a separate set of rules for food safety and sanitation, so make sure you adhere to those as well. If you are accepting a commission that will be delivered to a venue at a certain time, like Sahar does when she delivers her cakes, you should visit the venue beforehand to make sure you know where you are going and how you are getting in. She will do her meeting to finalize the details of the commission at the venue so that she can see what the layout of the space is. You can look at other artists to get inspiration and learn from their compositions. For example, Sahar looks at the designs of florists to give her ideas for her cake creations. I’ve said this before, but if you’ve had in person workshops cancelled because of covid-19, then try your hand at creating an online course with that content. To cultivate your creativity, you need to have a daily ritual where you work with both your mind and your hands to create something new.

Aartist Carrie Schmitt lives near Seattle, Washington. I first spoke with Carrie way back in August, 2018 in Episode #21. Two years later, and I’m talking to Carrie again. She’s accomplished so much with her art business, and I was happy to hear what she’s working on next. Carrie paints beautiful flowers on canvas, and she has put those designs on many items including home goods and clothing. For almost a year, she’s been working on her second book, called The Story of Every Flower, which will be coming out in September of this year. When we all went into lockdown, she created an e-course called 30 Days of Creative Blessings, and she just launched a second one about painting called Floral Bouquet and Pattern Play. Listen here or use a podcast app, such as Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Spotify, or Stitcher. Carrie Schmitt in Rosie the Art Bus Wonder in Our Presence Light with the Darkness Carrie's book The Story of Every Flower can be pre-ordered now from her website. Here are some of the things we discussed on this episode (click on the names to follow the links): Carrie's website: carrieschmittdesign.com Her Instagram Carries's new book, The Story of Every Flower, is being self-published and will come out in September, 2020. If you would like to pre-order a copy, you can do that on her website here. Carrie mentioned a Toolkit that she purchased to help her with self-publishing her book. You can find that here. Her online classes can be found here. Here are some great takeaways from our conversation. Some artists have seen a stop in sales at the beginning of the lockdown, but then sales have gone up. Don’t be afraid to try to sell right now. Lower price point items are selling very well. People really want to support artists. I’ve said this so often in my takeaways lately, and I will repeat it here: Now is the time to start online courses. People are in their homes and looking for fun things to do, whether it’s an art class, or a class about well-being, or a class to learn a new skill. Self-publishing is a great option if you’re writing a book because you’ll have complete control over your book’s content, title, and format. Carrie found a toolkit online that told her all the steps involved with self-publishing. I’ll include a link to that toolkit on the Show Notes for this episode. Carrie created an online class called 30 Days of Creative Blessings. It didn’t include art projects, but it turned out to be a perfect class for this time. Not all of your courses need to be straight art project classes. If you have a large group of followers, they will like it just because it comes from you. Carrie dealt with some technical issues when she was creating her first online class. Keep in mind that during this time we’re all trying new things, and we’re having to use different technologies to…

I’m talking with Deborah Engelmajer from Australia. Deb has a vibrant online community called Tizzit where she helps creatives develop a successful handmade shop. Since we’ve all been staying closer to home, Deb has encouraged makers to keep marketing their handmade items, even if you have to pivot and offer different items or different versions. We still need beautiful things in our lives and people are wanting to buy from small businesses. Deb also offers lots of free resources on her blog and through her Youtube videos. You can also go to her website to get The Maker’s Roadmap, which she created to break down the steps needed to dream, start, grow, and scale your handmade business. Listen here or use a podcast app, such as Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Spotify, or Stitcher. Deborah Engelmajer's business is called Tizzit and her website is tizzit.co. Click here to go to the Tizzit HQ membership community. To get your own copy of The Maker's Roadmap, click here. You can find her Youtube Channel here. This is her Tizzit Facebook page and her Instagram. Here are some great takeaways from our conversation: Deb said that one thing that has helped her get through this crazy time is that she helps other people, and that makes her feel good. Her clients are coming to her with their worries for their handmade shops and she’s able to help them. She has followed the attitude of when you feel helpless, then be helpful. Deb helps shop owners tackle their business tasks in the proper order. For example, you don’t want to get on Pinterest and start promoting your products before you’ve taken good photographs of your products. It’s a good idea to provide some videos and resources for free on your website so that people can try you out and get to know you before they decide to buy your service. That would apply if you are providing coaching services and also if you’re providing classes. Deb offers a membership with lots of content and monthly coaching calls. During the downturn of the economy, she has allowed her members to pause their membership for a month or two until they can afford to join again. That’s a great option if you’re able to offer that. Just make sure you have all your business policies clearly defined on your website or the material that you give your members or students. After the first month or so when Deb lost members, she found she then gained new members because people had more time on their hands to create handmade shops. Some may have lost other jobs and they wanted to supplement their income with a handmade shop. Realize that even in a slow economy, coaching services will still be in demand. Deb emphasized that even during this crisis, it’s OK to sell. You’ll probably adjust your marketing a little, but go ahead and keep selling. You’re not a bad person for being in business right now. Your marketing should…

Seth Apter is an artist who teaches mixed media classes all over the U.S. and overseas. Kristin Williams is an artist who owns a retail shop and workshop space where Seth and others teach called Ephemera Paducah in Kentucky. After Seth and Kristin realized they had to cancel a lot of their in person classes for the year, they wanted to know, Where does the art community go from here? When can they offer in person classes again, and how do they do it? We talk about their survey results and what they both have been doing while they shelter in place. It’s all about community and connecting with your artist friends, and it’s still possible even from home. Listen here or download from iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, CastBox, or Stitcher. Seth Apter and Kristin Williams Possibility by Seth Apter Light the Way by Seth Apter Dreamer of Dreams by Seth Apter These are Seth's Mini Books. He recently offered a Facebook Group class showing how he made these. You can go back and listen to my interview with Kristin Williams in Episode #160 of the podcast.  Kristin's website is ephemerapaducah.com. Be sure and sign up for her newsletter so you can be the first to know about her workshops and offerings. She has two Facebook pages: Ephemera Paducah Ephemera Paducah Workshop Peeps (where you can find out about her upcoming workshops) You can also find her on Instagram @ephemerapaducah. Seth Apter's website is sethapter.com and you can find him on Facebook as well under Seth Apter. Seth does many Facebook Lives. Some are demos, some he talks about what's going on in the art community. Search for his May 14 Facebook Live to hear he and Kristin talk about the results of their survey. He also answers questions on his May 15 Facebook Live. You can find the PDF with the results of their survey here. Seth mentioned that he has had success selling his art through a Facebook Event. I talked about one way you can do that in Episode #62 of this Podcast. Here are some great takeaways from our conversation: I’m going to repeat a takeaway I mentioned from last week’s interview with Kristin. If you want to know what your customers want, a survey is a great way to find that out. It doesn’t have to be long, it can just be one or two questions. Sometimes we think we know what our customers want, but sometimes we just think we do, and they may want something completely different. An overwhelming majority of the respondents to their survey felt that this time during our lockdown has strengthened the art community. Many artists are doing Facebook Lives where they just talk about what they’re feeling, or they do demos of their art. Others are flocking to this virtual community since they have lost their live community. Artists have had the time to come together, since they have lost their live community. While they also need to…

Kristin Williams is the owner of Ephemera Paducah in Kentucky. She hosts artist instructors for weekend art classes at her shop. Her students come from all over to learn painting and mixed media techniques from art experts. The artist instructors rely on her location to bring them many students for their classes every year. In March, these classes had to abruptly stop when we all sheltered in place for the coronavirus. Kristin is still offering goods from the retail side of her business, and she’s evaluating how she can restart the live classes in the future. She tells me how she started this business and what she’s doing now. Listen here or download from iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, CastBox, or Stitcher. Kristin's mixed media stitching Kristin's website is ephemerapaducah.com. Be sure and sign up for her newsletter so you can be the first to know about her workshops and offerings. Also, why not treat yourself to a Sussie? You can order one by calling the store. She has two Facebook pages: Ephemera Paducah Ephemera Paducah Workshop Peeps (where you can find out about her upcoming workshops) You can also find her on Instagram @ephemerapaducah. Kristin offered a survey with one of her artist instructors, Seth Apter. His website is sethapter.com and you can find him on Facebook as well. You can listen to my conversation with Seth and Kristin about their survey and its results in Episode #161 of the podcast. Here are some great takeaways from our conversation: When Kristin first thought about opening a class and retail venue, she would pop into other shops and ask the owners how they did things. You’ve got to have the attitude of, it doesn’t hurt to ask, and you’ll find that many people enjoy talking about what they do and sharing what has worked for them. She also interviewed teaching artists to find out how they get their teaching gigs. When Kristin schedules instructors to come in for the year, she plans the classes for weekends when people can fly in to take the classes. She also shuts down for the two most wintry months since travel can be a little iffy then. Think about the region you’re in and take these things into consideration when planning your schedule for the year. Kristin has a patio area on site where her students can do lunch in the middle of a day-long class. She’s found that this is better and quicker than letting her students go out to lunch in the middle of a class. We talked about the supplies that you bring with you when you go to attend a class. Often, students will bring way too much with them. Kristin said that she’s found she’s much more creative when she limits her supply choices. I’ve also found that you can get the task done quicker if you’re not spending a lot of time sorting through all your supplies. Kristin told a story on a Facebook Live one day about how…