The Business Of Being An Artist

Small Business Saturday

“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”

Carl Jung

As a working artist who has generations of knowledge about dyeing cloth, stitching and quilting, I’m also in the active hands-on learning discovery to acquire skills that help me be a successful small business owner.  Earlier this year, I completed the ELI Mindset program sponsored by my local Small Business Center at Wilson Community College.  “Who Owns the Ice House? Eight Life Lessons From an Unlikely Entrepreneur” tells the story of Uncle Cleve, a successful African American entrepreneur, during Jim Crow in the Mississippi Delta where cotton was king.  The book is written by Gary Schoeniger and Uncle Cleve’s nephew, Clifton Taulbert. I highly recommend creatives reading this book, which is available on Amazon.

During the soul searching study of Uncle Cleve’s life lessons, I made the decision to demonstrate persevering steadfast faith and unshakable hope into establishing Fiber Art by Carola as a sustainable business.  By the end of the course, Covid happened and in the following months, I’ve had to redesign my business plan.  A friend, teacher and mentor, Sage Paul Cardinal, stated on my birthday that “difficulties breed innovation.”  Sage is the design concept and inspiration behind Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto.  Witnessing how she is redesigning the presentation of indigenous fashion is inspiring me to do the same with Fiber Art by Carola.

2021 WCC Classes Adobe Spark Presentation Page

So, every Friday I will blog my behind the scenes discoveries and insights about the business of being an artist entrepreneur.  I begin this week with sharing my exploration of creating an educational linking document akin to a newsletter that doesn’t bore my audience with lots of typed words to read.  The successful newsletters that I receive give talking points, pictures and videos that tell a story that holds my attention and peaks my interest.

Next year I’ll be teaching short format creative fiber arts classes at Wilson Community College.  They will be community service classes in the Continuing Education Department.  I will also be developing direct pay online indigo dye classes taught in both on-demand and live formats.  I created the linking document using an Adobe Spark visual presentation page template.  I combined important text information with images and video.  The drawback for including video turned out to be an asset because I’m also trying to build up my new YouTube Channel.  A video in Adobe Spark needs to be an embedded link from YouTube, Vimeo or Spark Video.  

My raw footage videos from my iPad and iPhone were enhanced using iMovie and Adobe Spark Video and uploaded to YouTube.  The first movie consisted of a short video clip and lots of still photos.  I used an iMove trailer template.  The drawback that I view with the trailers is all the “movie-like” credits that are attached to the template.  You can’t delete or opt out of using them.  The second YouTube Movie was created using Adobe Spark Video.  The drag and drop visual storytelling template was easy to use and produced a clean contemporary design.  I’ll be using Adobe Spark Video exclusively in the future.