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My Troubled Relationship with Discount Sales
It is so hard to not get sucked in. I can have my resolve in place, but then people keep asking “When is this going to go on sale?” My answer is that it isn’t. This is really hard as a person who sells things to not have sales. The pressure comes from all sides. It comes from customers, from fellow craftspeople, from society. With things out there like Groupon and Living Social. From all of the peer pressure to participate in Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. It reenforces the idea that it is not okay to make your living selling things. That may sound hyperbolic, but that is…
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Putting Yourself in the Right Place At the Right Time
photo: etsy labs I am such an occasional writer these days, but I have had many ideas to share with little time to share them aside from twitter. These end in long form rants that are in fragments that get my point across, but may sound a bit insane. As you may or may not know I have been a part of a group called I Heart Art PDX that has been putting on low or no cost programming around building your small creative business, professionalism and valuing your time. Okay, maybe that isn’t the official tag-line, but that has been what it has turned out to be. We are…
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Buy Handmade for the Holidays
here’s where i can get preachy, and you probably realize my bias, but i have to say it: BUY HANDMADE FOR THE HOLIDAYS. we can all try and debate whether art has value in society, so let’s just assume that it does. myself, and most of the people i know make their livings by our hearts and hands. we are kind of old fashioned that way. if you have been following my career, you know that i try to make as much as i can on my own, and what i can’t make, i try to get from another local artisan or small business. times have been difficult for many…
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NOT MADE IN CHINA
here i have to take issue with a subject that has been eating at me for quite some time now, and i know i am not the only one. here i am amidst the official year ten of my fashion design company. for those of you who know me, or have at least seen my work, you know how much of my life’s blood has been poured into my work; in creativity, attention to details, and time. lots and lots of time. now is a bit of a transition period for piper ewan, and there is a new project/company thrown in for good measure. in this i have been researching…